Naughty Fun Making a rubber band gun is a bit of a dilemma. Is it an encouragement for naughty behaviour? Is it a precursor for violent solutions to problems? As a child, the rubber band guns I made were delicious! Mum didn’t like them; that made them more fun! I didn’t shoot dogs or people;…
A woodwork project with children led me to revisit Sam’s basket as an Easter project. Here it is with a bit of upholstery and a few eggs in side. Modifications Making this with dexterous children allowed a few modifications to the original method.The skewers that we laboriously drilled for and hammered in could be simple…
Another rescued lathe stand. This steel construction makes a rigid scaffold on which to mount a work top. The surface is an oregon timber beam removed from a house during renovation. There are splits and twists, but to remove them would have lost 20mm in thickness and 70mm in width. After judicious machining, the bench…
Three Variations of the Same Theme There is a tradition in Melbourne secondary schools that has twelve year olds in their first woodwork lessons making a pencil case. Regardless of how ordinary the results may be, these things end up with magnificent decoration. During boring lessons they are canvas for expression of everything from undying…
Recycled Glass Table The major inspiration behind this table is ownership of a circle of glass that is too good to throw away. In the 1980’s it was part of a fashionable little iron framed thingy. A clever wood turner made three legs with large balls on top and slots cut to enable glass to…
Footstools It is a permanent source of inspiration to me that problems posed to woodworkers have no single correct response. If asked to make a footstool, what would a valid response look like? If a footstool is a small flat platform supported 100 to 300mm above the floor, how many ways could I make it?…