Hello and hope everyone is having a great Sunday and you had a good Saturday. The weather here on Saturday was nice. Started off cool but warmed up quick….had the shop door open all day but really hadn’t noticed how nice it was until I got ready to leave.

My day started off by meeting my Daughter at Metro Hardwoods to figure out which woods we’d like to use for the Memorial Box for her Aunt. It will be a two story box…the lower box will be a memorial section for notes and memorabilia from everyone and this will be sealed after all is collected. Then the upper box will be for Terri’s urn. The main boxes will be made out of Shedua (the dark wood I’ve been using alot lately), The main overlays will be made from 1/8″ Hard Maple, and a variety of other woods for the top overlays. Terri really liked Roses and Horses so on the upper box there will be a Horse cutout in the front made out of 1/4″ Willow (Kishna I found a really cool scrap of it at the shop…..since you said she loved Willow Trees) and the Roses will be on the sides and back….made from 1/4″ Purple heart, Paduk & Yellow heart. Then we will finish it out by a name and date piece on the top lid. The brackets on both boxes will be made from Paduk and I may trim out the base and lids with Paduk. Yesterday we picked out a beautiful piece of very figured Poplar which has greens and tans mixed throughout it. I knew it was the piece as soon as I saw her eyes light up. Sure glad I waited this extra week. I sure enjoyed showing her the different wood types and talking about them. She was surprised at how many types and colors there are and ask how I could come there most Saturdays and not spend alot…… 🙂 (Who said I don’t?) Very enjoyable day at the wood store….

So after we checked out and said our goodbyes, I headed to the shop and immediately got started….hit the floor running today. We had also picked out a really nice piece of Canary wood which I cut a couple pieces out of for the bases for the Quilt Rack end pieces. It was a really nice looking board and both of us decided it should come home with me. I have plans for some more out of it soon…more to come on that once I figure it out completely.

Next came the Web Clock. I assembled the head section and sanded everything flush. Something I do when assembling something like this, is to make the support board a tic short so that the edges of the front and back actually extend slight past the sides. This makes sanding mismatch flush, much easier. This of course won’t work if you apply your finish before assembly. After the head section was assembled and sanded I clamped it to the clock assembly. Look for the new page in the next day or so! Remember that we are having a contest with this one. Send in photos of your completed project and your peers will vote the best one. The winner will receive a pattern from us.

The main thing I worked on today was the Anniversary Floor Clock. Today I worked on the upper uprights and the upper floor. I started out by trimming out the floor with the floor trim I cut out weeks ago when I did the boxes. This floor trim is the free pattern on the website. Like with the front and back on the web clock, I cut the sides to exact size and leave the front and back alittle oversize to sand in flush. I also shoot a couple of straight staples in once the glue starts to set up. Floor trim isn’t just for plywood floors…it looks great on hardwood floors as well. Once I got the floor assembled, I started on the uprights. Like last week with the lower one, I filed out the + shaped slots in mid box so that I had a really good fit with the uprights. There was alot of dry fitting (no glue) and clamping to get a good game plan. First I set up small tool makers squares to locate the pieces that allows me to drop them right into place after the glue is put on. If you don’t have squares you can use boards that you clamp into place. I also clamped an adjustable square to the upright to assure that it is exactly vertical. It is VERY important that all these are square and straight up and down. Then I assembled one of the half uprights, put the mid box on the assembly and clamped it. The second half upright I followed the same steps. Once I had it all clamped together I checked it with the level. Checked the bench, floor and top of the mid box…front to back and side to side. It was really good so the extra time you take…..pays off big in the end. For me, I won’t glue the mid box to the lower and upper uprights since these will be traveling. I then just set the head section on the upper floor to show you….it’s not glued on yet. The floor clock will be a really big clock….note the bench in the background. So over the next couple of weeks I will be working on the head section of the floor clock and the wall clock version.

I finished out the day by prepping my homework for the week. Last weeks homework was the two Religious Medallions and the face to the web clock. I figured out how to stack cut the medallions! They have backing boards of a contrasting color so I would cut them out one at a time then glue the back on before cutting the outside. On these I added backer boards while cutting. After I cut the inside cuts I took the backers off and glued on the backs and cut the outside. I laid the waste portion on the backer boards and using a mechanical pencil (thin sharp lead) I traced the cut out onto the the backer. I assembled them to purple heart also and now I have 4 medallions. Bonus! I have a couple of buddies that will get these. So as homework I have these 2 medallions (already cut out), the roof panels (new page) for the web clock and the overlays that go on the top and bottom of the mid box and under the top floor for the floor clock. Homework is so much more fun than it used to be… 🙂

My shop day was short because of a charity gala last night for the Philippine Nursing Assoc. of America. Tammy works for a dentist and they see several as patients and Dr. Swee supports this yearly….but this year he had a conflict. It was very interesting and alot of fun. First off I have to say they are very proud to be American….some of us can take example. The night started with our military supplying the nations colors and the national anthem musically. Then they sang their anthem and then ours again! I was very impressed. Then it was dinner and the silent auction….afterwards followed by their traditional dances and then open dancing…..no I didn’t dance….I have 2 left legs….didn’t want to add to the evenings entertainment. I have to admit that I knew very little about the country and their culture. They had two large screens displaying history and I learned some by evenings end. They were discovered by the Portuguese (Ferdinand Magellan) and then later became under the rule of the Spanish. Their language is Spanish and their religion is Christianity. It also talked about their holidays and traditions. And their primary wood is….Philippine Mahogany…..HA bet you wondered how I was going to tie this all together! It was a very fun evening….Thank You Dr. Swee! (A great dentist if you need one).

On a final note….the mini clock book is coming along great. The intro is done and the table of contents just needs page numbers. We have 2 cover concepts and still need to take the pictures for those. I will be getting a preliminary copy this week to look over. Really excited about this. Also I started the newest design this week and I’m extremely cranked up over this one. MOVE OVER Orleans clock….that’s all I have to say for now. We are designing this one for a friend of the family who is a long time scroller and is dealing with cancer…..We pray that you kick it’s BUTT! I do apologize for this being late this week….just couldn’t get it out last night. Looking forward to a good week and a good shop day next week. If anyone has anything they’d like me to ramble on about….just let me know. Also visit our approved vendors on the website and check us out on facebook.

Hope everyone has a great week and gets some good shop time and as always….until next time, keep the saw dust flyin’….