How to make a DIY rustic decorative boat

I made this fishing boat out of pallet wood. It is a pretty easy DIY project you can make in a few hours with limited tools. 

This is my last video before vacations. 

First of all I lightly sanded my pallet wood with the angle grinder. I used a really cool sanding attachment that uses velcro to attach the sandpaper.

I then marked the basic template design on one board. I used my miter box to make the cross cuts with a handsaw. To make the curved cuts, I first removed much material with the saw and then sanded the rest of the shape with the grinder.

I used the first piece as a template and then made two more. I glued the pieces together. Because I did not want to wait for the glue to dry, I clamped the pieces together, pre drilled pilot holes, counter sunked them and screwed them together. 

Using similar techniques I cut the front part of my boat. I glued and nailed it in place.

I then sanded everything flush with the grinder.

To shape the front, I created a guide line and sanded the area off. I then blended the sides with the center line. 

To make the cockpit I glued and nailed three pieces together. I then used the grinder to shape and sand the piece. I glued and screwed the cockpit in place. 

I then thinned some white latex paint with water to make a stain. I applied one coat on the boat. Then I used my heat gun, to speed up the drying process. I then sanded with 100grit to remove the paint from the high spots and create the rustic effect.

I applied a second color to some areas of the boat. I then dried with the heat gun and sanded again. 

I named my boat. 

I finished my boat with two coats of water based, clear, satin varnish.

My boat was ready, it came out great. It was a really easy limited tools project.

I hope you all enjoyed this build, see you soon with new woodworking projects.

Until then, have all a nice summer!

Greece mourns, people lost lives and homes, help if you can

A few days ago, a devastating wildfire created a chaos in Attika Greece. Many lives lost. Homes, cars and natural environment destroyed. I found those official contact information, if somebody wants to help: 1. Offer food and basic stuff ( clothing, medicine e.t.c.) please contact those phone numbers 22940-91455, 22940-99645, 22940-92244 pantopoleio@socialmarathon.gr farmakeio@socialmarathon.gr kentrokoinotitas@socialmarathon.gr 2. Offer hospitality to those who lost their homes contact : 22943-20514 and 22943-20517 3. Offer volunteer work call 2943-20552 There is also a national bank account for the victims of Marathon Piraeus bank: Customer: Municipality of Marathon Bank account: 5120092305477 Currency: EUR IBAN: GR49 0172 1200 0051 2009 2305 477 I found all those info from: https://marathon.gr/

How to make a wooden sphere with random pattern on the lathe

This project is actually my entry for the sphere making challenge 2018. To make my sphere I used different spieces of wood I had in the shop. I used oak, maple, niangon, birch plywood, bamboo plywood and beech plywood. To make the sphere I used a technique I’ve seen in many you tube wood turners. But the first one I saw was in a video from Frank Howarth.

First of all, I roughly marked a 7cm radius circle on a piece of oak. I then cut the circle on the bandsaw. This first circle acted as template for the other pieces of wood.

I then jointed a piece of maple and a piece of niangon on the jointer. With one side flat, I passed the pieces through the thickness planer to get two flat parallel sides on my stock.

I then cut the rest of the circles on my bandsaw. 

To prevent the circles from moving around while glue up, I used a simple clamping technique. I tilted my table saw’s blade at 45 degrees and cut a V shaped groove on a piece of scrap wood. The idea is to clamp those blocks against each other while glue up. I then applied glue to all the touching surfaces and clamped them together. I let the glue set over night.

Using my center finder I marked the center of my blank and mounted it on the lathe between centers.

Using the roughing gouge, I turned the piece true at an average lathe speed. 

I then marked the center of my sphere, the ends and the middles of the hemispheres. With the bowl gouge I shaped the ends at first. Then I blended the ends with the hemispheres, until I had a rough spherical shape. 

Then I added an adapter on my lathe’s tailstock. And also added an adapter on my face plate. This way I could mount my sphere on the lathe.

Using a scraper, I lightly removed material. I just followed the ghost image of the stock and tried to remove the high spots. Then I added a marking line and remounted the sphere perpendicular to that line. I continued shaping with the scraper. After repeating that process several times, you get a sphere in the end. It’s actually pretty amazing. 

I then started power sanding with my angle grinder at 40grit. It is important to apply this rotating technique during sanding as well. I then moved to 120grit, then 220, 320, 500, 800 and 1000. I also added a cloth on my tailstock’s adapter to prevent it from leaving press marks on my sphere. 

I finished my sphere with Yorkshire grit abrasive paste. This is a wax based paste with tiny stone pieces in it. I set my lathe at it’s lowest speed, applied the paste on the ball and started the lathe. Using a piece of paper towel I polished my sphere.

I think my sphere came out really interesting. I made a few spheres in the past. This technique is so satisfying and the outcome is really impressive!

I hope you liked this project, I really enjoyed it!

How to make a food safe wood finish out of beeswax and mineral oil

I made this DIY wood finish out of natural wax and mineral oil. Those are both food safe materials. As a result you can use this finish on wooden bowls, spoons, cutting boards e.t.c.

I wanted my finish to be kind of liquid, so I used 1 part wax and 4 parts mineral oil. I also added three drops of lavender oil to make it smell nicer.

To melt the wax easier I used a cheese grinder to transform it in savings form.

The I placed a pan filled with water on my heat source. In the pan I added a coffee pot with the wax. This way the wax melts slowly without burning. I then mixed the wax with oil and heat them again to one mixture.

I steered the mix until it cooled down to create a uniform mixture.

At this point my finish was ready to test on some different spices of wood. It looks awesome on walnut, maple and especially olive wood.

Please note that in hot summer days the mixture will be more liquidy and in cold winter days more solid.

I hope you found this article useful! It is a pretty easy and natural finish to make!

How to make a yarn bowl out of oak

I had a piece of oak in the shop, and I decided to make a yarn bowl with it.

First of all I marked the side I wanted to flatten on the jointer. I flattened it and then flattened the other side. With two sides at 90 degrees, I passed the piece through the thickness planer and my stock was now flat and square.

I then used my cross cut sled to cut my stock in three pieces.

To save some time on the lathe I cut the pieces at rough circles, on the bandsaw.

Then I glued all the pieces together to make a cylinder. Out of this cylinder I made the cap and the bowl.

I first screwed a face plate on my stock to mount it on the lathe. To reduce the vibrations on the lathe, I set it at it's lower speed. I then I used the roughing gouge to turn the piece true. 

Firstly I wanted to separate the cap piece. I created a mortise that fitted on chuck. I did that with the bowl gouge and the skew chisel. I then used the parting tool, to part the cap off. I finished the job with a handsaw.

Then I made another mortise on the remaining piece so I could reverse chuck it. I removed the face plate and reversed chuck the piece. I begun the hollowing process with a bowl gouge.

I drilled the hole for the yarn and finished hollowing with a scraper. I also added ca glue to a few sensitive areas. I sanded the interior of the bowl with 100 and 220 grit sandpaper.

Then I rechucked the cap. I made a tenon with the parting tool and drilled a hole with a forstner bit, for the handle.

I then assembled the bowl, mounted it on the lathe and used my grinder to sand it. I begun aggressively with 40 grit, jumped at 120 and finished at 220.

To make the handle mounted a piece between centers and used the bowl gouge to true it up. I shaped it with the parting tool, a skew chisel and a spindle gouge.

I then sanded the piece on my belt sander. I glued the handle on the cap and used weights to clamp it down.

I finished the bowl with shellac. I applied 10 coats with a rag. After the first coat I lightly sanded with 200 grit. I buffed the finish with steel wool.

This was a really difficult wood for me to turn. It was really hard and dry and I got much tear out. But with intense sanding it came out nice!

I am really happy with the way it came out! That was a really beautiful wood!

How to make a wooden DIY birdhouse

I made my DIY birdhouse out of 9mm birch plywood. The inspiration for this project, came from a challenge that's taking place on youtube. I won't participate in the challenge but you can learn more about it here.

My birdhouse is made out of 9mm birch plywood. First I made a few rip cuts on the table saw.

I found the center of the front piece with my compass and created the diagonals of the roof.

Using my cross cut sled, I cut the front and the back pieces to size.

I taped the two pieces together. Then I used my miter sled to cut the angles of the roof on the table saw.

With a forstner bit I drilled the entrance.

I used a jig to create a straight hole for the peg on which the bird lands.

I cross cut the sides to size. I tilted my table saw blade to match the angles of the roof.

Then I glued and nailed the pieces together. 

I then marked the size of the bottom and cut it out on the table saw. Again I glued and nailed it in place.

I glued and nailed one piece of the rooftop in place. I decided to join the rooftop parts with a piano hinge. This way I can open the birdhouse easily when I have to. Using the angle grinder I cut the hinge to size. I temporarily secured the other part of the roof with two nails. Using a block plane I planed things flush to correct my table saw’s inaccurate cuts. I then secured the hinge in place with screws and removed the temporary nails.

With my rotary tool I trimmed the excess screws flush.

Using the angle grinder with a sanding disc, I gave everything a rough sanding. I then used wood filler to cover up the imperfections on the wood. The next day I sanded again.

To make the perch I turned a piece of beech on the lathe. I used the roughing gouge, the parting tool and the skew chisel for this job. After I did that I cut the perch of the lathe with a handsaw and finished shaping it, on the belt sander. I glued the perch in place.

The birdhouse will be hanged on the wall with a french cleat system. This is just two pieces cut at a 45 degree angle. One piece goes on the wall and the other one on the item. This way the item is kind of locked in place. I made the cleat on the table saw. 

I connected the wall piece on the concrete wall with a special stud for concrete. I also set my drill on hammer mode in order to penetrate the concrete.

I drilled and counter sinked the wood piece that goes on the wall and screwed it in place.

I finished the birdhouse with latex paint. I chose that because it dries easily and it is eco friendly. I sanded with 200grit sandpaper between each coat. I applied two coats of paint. To speed up the drying process I used my heat gun.

Then I created some wood shavings with a block plane, to act as bed for the birds.

At this point my birdhouse was ready, I hanged it on our yards wall. Now I am waiting for my little flying friends to discover it!