Woodworking with Tim

2012-01-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

Playing around today making key chains. The two with names are using a program written by Steve Good (my hero). After cutting out the names and gluing the back piece, you fill the name with a polymer clay and bake it. Then sand and sand... still need to coat all of these with a polyurethane to protect them. The third one tells you what I have been doing with a lot of my time. It is the symbol from the game Skyrim.

Family

2012-01-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is not woodworking, but wanted to share a couple of family pictures from New Years weekend. We ate lunch at Bill Lee's Bamboo Chopsticks in Bakersfield. Great Food!

Also I am posting most pictures to my Pinterest account. http://pinterest.com/tim_munsey/

Bulldog Bowling

2012-01-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Fresno State Bulldogs won the National Championship in Bowling. I was commissioned to make something for the coaches - so here are a couple of pictures of one of the boxes I made.

Payroll People

2012-01-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

Payroll People, Inc. – California’s largest privately own payroll processor. As part of the 30 year celebration I made these two items for Bettye Smith, the founder and owner of Payroll People. For more information on the Payroll People’s services go to www.payrollpeople.com

Thank You to the folks that made the pattern for the portrait of Bettye!

Puppy Love

2011-12-19T21:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some dog signs I made. Instead of putting the breed names I used the dogs names.

Back In the Shop

2011-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

After an extended break I am back in the shop. I have had a lot of request for crosses of late. Most of them are variations of a pattern by Arpop.

I have also had someone order some coasters. I believe this is based on a pattern by Steve Good. Here I use ¼” wood, I put a couple of coats of polyurethane, and the last step is to glue a thin piece of cork on the bottom.

Working on a couple of other items I will post when they are done. Pictures coming soon.

Law Enforcement Cross

2010-01-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

Here is the first Sue Mey patter I cut. If you have not seen Sue's work it is worth taking the time to look at the patterns she has for sell (along with her new book). http://www.scrollsawartist.com/index.htm

Crafter’s Cove

2010-01-11T08:15:00.000-08:00

Today is Opening Day at Crafter’s Cove. I wish everyone there great success! Here are a couple of pictures of my display at the store.

Crafter's Cove

2010-01-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Monday January 11, 2010

Mark this date! Crafter’s Cove will be opening their doors this coming Monday. Crafter’s Cove is a store that will have crafts from several folks in the area. Classes on various types of crafts will be offered in the future. These are just a couple of the services that will be offered. I am looking forward to watching this business bloom and grow!

Part of my excitement is that very kind reception I received when I inquired about a space for my items. Yes my stuff will be there too! I will be creating a slide show of various pictures I will be taking when setting up my space!

If you are in the central California area take time to go see the folks at Crafter’s Cove.

Crafter’s Cove
37221 Ave 12
Suite 1C
Madera Ranchos, CA 93636
(559) 645-6000

Craft Fair…

2009-10-13T14:59:00.001-07:00

When I first started woodworking awhile back I never thought of doing a Craft Show/Fair. Well the company I work for decided that we should have a 4 hour craft fair at the end of the month. I have had several people at work ask if I was going to bring anything. So I have been spending more and more time in the shop trying to get stuff made.

Thanks in advance to: Steve Good - http://www.scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/, Arpop - http://fssp-arpop.blogspot.com/, Steve (Scrolling Companion) - http://hoviousscrollsawworks.blogspot.com for all of the wonderful patterns! And to Terri (my loving wife) for putting up with all the sawdust.

I will be creating an online photo album of the items I get completed.

Wish me luck!

Babies…

2009-09-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Where I work we have one employee who had a baby in May and another who is due in Nov. So I took a couple of patterns from Steve Good and modified them a bit and came up with the two items. On the chair I had to increase the size to be able to get the lettering on it.

Congratulations to the new moms and dads!

Past Projects

2009-09-24T01:28:00.001-07:00

I found some pictures of past projects that I never posted… The Christmas Box was for my Stad (step dad). The name on the one side Nanoosh is a nickname the grandkids came up with years ago.

The Fairy was for a friend of a friend who is a cancer survivor.

The pirate shelf I built for the son of a co-worker. You can not see it that well in the pictures but the shelf supports are in the shape of swords.

To see these and many other wonderful patterns go to the Scrollsaw Workshop (http://www.scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/)

Warped Wood

2009-08-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

On Monday (August 24, 2009) Steve Good at Scrollsaw Workshop posted a great flower pot pattern and wrote about buying wood at Home Depot. Still being new to the scroll sawing world, this is how I get most my project wood.

I have one big problem I run into from time to time. Warped wood… Primarily with the ¼ poplar boards I get. Well I have found a solution that has worked well for me and thought I would share.

The first things you need:
Bath Towel
Iron (I have to sneak it past my wife)
2 pieces of flat (non-warped) wood (these should be a bit bigger than the warped piece)
Clamps

Now I soak the towel in water. I will also dip the wood in water.
Wrap the wood in the wet bath towel
Iron the towel/wood (here I use the steam option)
Flip the wood and do the same
Put the freshly ironed (no starch) wood between the flat pieces and clamp
Once clamped I will let the wood dry for a few days (depending on weather)

After drying the piece should be good to use or finished.

July 2009

2009-07-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

It has been a bit since my last post. There are multiple reasons for this. The main reasons are my DeWalt scroll saw was in the shop for 5 weeks (parts got back ordered) and we are moving. The move is exciting as we are going from an apartment to a house. And seeing as the house has a garage, I get to make it into my shop! Will be nice to have room to work in!

On another positive note, I ordered some scroll saw books, thanks to the Amazon gift card I got for Father’s Day! Thanks Andy! So I have a list of projects I want to get started on after we get settled. Keep checking back and I will get some more stuff posted soon.

Everyone have a Happy & Safe 4th of July!

Hearts & Keychains

2009-05-31T21:04:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of some recent items I cut out. The pattern for the hearts with the initials was done by Arpop (http://fssp-arpop.blogspot.com/).

And the keychain patterns were created with a program by Steve Good at the Scrollsaw Workshop (http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/).

Andrew's 20th

2009-05-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

There are times when someone’s birthday comes along and you can not think of a single thing to get them. It makes matters worst when the person won’t be of any help. So I put the search aside.

I found a web site that shows you a large number of words written in Chinese. Included are a large range of names. The site can be found at http://www.chinese-symbols.com/

After going to this site I got an idea! (Note the energy saving light bulb above my head) So I came up with the pattern for this name sign.
So I want to wish my oldest son, Andrew, a Happy 20th Birthday!

Cat Lady

2009-04-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am sure most of know one or know of one. The cat lady. Well my family is blessed by being friends with our neighborhood cat lady. She is a good friend who happens to love cats. So I made her this candle box, pattern by Steve Good.

While on the subject of cats, one of ours had kittens recently. While my wife would like to take over the title of Cat Lady... we had to get rid of the babies. Lucky for us (and them) there is a place near by called The Cat House on the Kings. This place is incredible! It is a no-cage, no-kill cat sanctuary and adoption center. According to their web site they are currently caring for 700+ cats, kittens and do not forget the dogs too. Please take a moment and check out their site at http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/ also take a look at this video titled Cat House on the Kings

After writing this post, I decided to make the kitten sign for the folks at The Cat House on the Kings.

Elephants

2009-04-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

As I have noted in the past, my wife loves elephants. With that said, I was surfing the internet one day and came across a picture of an elephant. It was drawn in a way that you could print in and the color it in. As I was looking at it my first thought was, I could cut that out on the scroll saw. So I printed it then I ran it through a copier at 75% & 50% reduction.

The hardest part of cutting this was the fact that I used ¾” oak and a #5 blade. But it was a gift for my wife and worth it.

What is it?

2009-04-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

A friend and I were talking about various scroll saw patterns and such. The conversation led me to this idea. The original thought was to make this as a candle holder. The main problem I ran into is it does not put out much light. When my sister saw it she thought it would make a good planter.

One thing I did that can not be seen from the photos is I used a wood burner to write the meaning of each word. These are on the inside.

If I was to make this again as a candle holder I would want to cut the words larger. If I were to make this as a planter I would make the whole thing larger. I think it would be nice for a small bamboo plant.

Any other ideas?

Woodworking Weekend (part 2)

2009-04-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

After coming home from my first San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association meeting I was talking with my youngest son (Josh) who had gone to the meeting with me. Josh had never really been interested in my woodworking. Now he was talking about it. In case you don’t know, I primarily work with a scroll saw. And now that I have two, I asked Josh if he would like to give it a try. And to my shock, he said yes. After picking my jaw up off the ground I had to think of a good starter pattern. Then I remembered a post on Steve Good’s site about this pattern http://www.stevedgood.com/feather.pdf so I showed it to Josh and he said he liked it.

After printing a couple of copies it was out to “my office” also known as the patio/workshop. I set up my old Ryobi saw and showed him all the different part and what they did. We glued the patterns to the wood and got started. We stopped a few hours later (9:00 PM) do to the noise we were making and the respect for our neighbors. The next afternoon we were back at it. After finishing the cuts on that one, Josh wanted to try this pattern http://www.stevedgood.com/supergeek.pdf
Please note: being the nice dad I try to be, I let him make some of his cuts on the DeWalt. And to my shock he preferred the Ryobi (kids…what can you do).

So I think I might have a partner in my little shop now. I can’t tell you how proud and excited I am at the possibility of spending time with one of my sons in the shop! I have been very blessed with wonderful children! I have added some pictures of Josh working and his first piece (still needs to be sanded and stained).

For more patterns by Steve Good, please go by his website http://www.scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/ and make a donation if you can, as Steve asks nothing for the use of his patterns. To see the complete catalog of patterns go to
http://www.stevedgood.com/web/catalog.html

Woodworking Weekend (part 1)

2009-04-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my first meeting as a member of San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association. The meeting was the officer elections and the annual project contest. All I can say is Wow! The items were great! I can tell there is a lot of talent is this group and I look forward to learning as much as I can! One of the nice things about this association is they encourage education. Besides the meetings, they are holding classes almost once a month. What made the meeting even more special was that my 12 year old son tagged along and seemed to enjoy himself.

So I suggest to anyone who lives in central California to look into this association. Watch their website as I am sure there will be pictures from this last meeting coming soon. You can also look at pictures from past meetings at http://sjfwa.com/

And there was an added benefit to this meeting I will tell you about in part 2.

Photo Album

2009-04-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

If you take a look at the bottom of the page you will notice that we have removed the map and replaced it with a photo album. These are various pictures from past post. There is also a link to the photo album in the links on the left.

Enjoy!

March 09 - Projects

2009-03-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my recent projects I have done on the scroll saw.

Fae - I saw a piece of clip art of a green fairy. After blowing it up and printing it, I cut this from a piece of poplar and got some green wood stain. She measures about 10 1/2" tall.

Cross - I am sorry to say that I can not recall where I got this pattern. So whoever drew this, I give you the credit. Another piece from poplar that is 9 7/8" long and 6 3/4" wide.

Letter Opener - Well after the first one I made broke, my wife asked me to make her another one. She found the outline of the elephant that I put together with letter opener pattern by Steve Good. This time I thought I would use oak and maybe it would last longer.

Scroll Saw Update

2009-03-10T11:08:00.001-07:00

When I first decided to purchase the DeWalt I had the choice of ordering it online or buying locally. The main difference was price. In the end I went with buying locally. When the saw died, I took it back to the store, who happens to be an authorized DeWalt dealer and service center. As I mentioned in my last post, I was told 2 to 3 days to 2 weeks. Well the fine folks at Ideal Saw Works http://www.idealsaw.com/ had my saw ready to pick up in less than one business day!

I do want to point out that this does not change my view of the DeWalt saw, I still think it is great!

So Thank You to Ideal Saw Works for your great service. Now back to making saw dust!

Good Things Come From Bad Situations

2009-03-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last month I was lucky enough to get a new scroll saw. My original saw is a Ryobi. It is not an overly bad saw but I wanted better. After a lot of reading and thinking, I decided on the DeWalt. I am very glad I did. The weekend of the 28th I built a table specifically for my DeWalt. Then one evening I am cutting on a project and my wife comes out. I turn off the saw and we talk a moment. When flipped the switch to start cutting again… nothing. After checking everything I know to check still no power. So on Saturday I load up the saw and go to where I bought it to have it serviced. 3 day to 2 weeks, depending on what is wrong with it. No I am depressed! Good thing I still have the old Ryobi. But now I am spoiled.

So I start looking around the store and a gentleman strikes up a conversation. When I mention that I am still new to woodworking he tells me about the San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association. I am very excited about joining this group and attending the classes they offer.

If my DeWalt had not died, I would not have learned about these fine folks!
Check out their web site – the link can be found on the left (in the Links section).