Sailboat Tiller Part 1

New tiller in progress. I may learn some lessons on why these are frequently horizontally laminated but I think it's most likely for the typical curves. This is a pretty small tiller so I am doing vertical for the nice effect with a hard maple stripe down the center. Cherry sides. We will see how it holds up

Toy Box

This is another design I was inspired to attempt after looking through some catalogs. This is a toy box for my son so we can try to reduce the slow spread of toys across the room/house (fight entropy!) so... This is what we start with:

So far we have a few legs laminated ad the mortises started:

More as we go...

Boat Repairs

I am into sailing... it's a new passion, and interestingly has offered many opportunities for woodworking, more than I would have imagined :) So the new season is approaching slowly but surely as the frozen gives way to green and sunshine. (little known fact: the movie "Frozen" was filmed in central Minnesota)

So I'm now trying to start repairs on the fiberglass of my boat.  These are the pictures of the areas that need repairs:

First is the bow.  I'm sure this is mostly from poor attempts at putting my boat back on the trailer, which proved much more difficult than launching :)

This one is on the keel... again this was produced when trailering the boat at the end of the season and trying to hit the trailer.  I have already designed some trailer improvements to help guide the keel onto the trailer without banging it around so much.  I plan on adding them when the weather improves.

Finally, the keel fiberglass appears to be in a little rough shape but I'm not sure how much of this is cosmetic vs. damaging, i.e. will the fiberglass pick up water and soften or something?  I'm seeking help on this topic now so hopefully I will post the repairs as I complete them.

Laying a stone tile floor, part 3

Finally, the stone goes down: 

Next is to seal the travertine and grout the tiles. Almost done!

Side note: we somehow crashed a drill during mixing. I suspect a faulty piece of equipment but it looks like a short along the armature of the drill motor: 

Replacement or repair cost as much as the drill, so we replaced it and gave the new one back to the neighbors who loaned it to us (Doh!)

Laying a stone tile floor, part 2

The previous threshold was pretty rotten so it had to go. 

So the new one was placed with significant silicone caulking to seal it up. 

A little damage to the casing from prying out the rotten portion but will have to be fixed up when it is a little warmer. 

Te cement board:

Laying a stone tile floor, part 1

While I know this isn't woodworking per se, I did write a post once about how those skills have helped translate into other projects, so this is a callback to that sentiment. Anyways, we decided to redo the "sunroom" floor after the dog finished off the old carpet that was in there (in fairness, he really just put it out of its misery.) and it was decided that we would be laying travertine. So we ripped the carpets out and pulled up all te carpet tacking. I checked to make sure te floor was level (it was) and flat (it mostly was) and we are now dry-fitting the cement board underlayment. Now, I read many various posts about skipping the thinset mortar under the backer boards, and ultimately the final word is "don't be lazy, fool!" which is what the manufacturer says to do, too. (Hardieboard). Additionally , I'm hoping the additional layer on thinset will help offset the extremely slight crowning at the middle of the room and allow a more flat surface when screwed down. We shall see...

Small Rack

Small rack to hold dog leashes in the laundry room. This is a piece of aspen that really fished well. The dowel posts are poplar. Stain is "gunstock". 

I chamfered the edges and used a Forstner bit on the drill press with the board propped on a similar thickness board beneath it for the angle. Top coat of de-waxed shellac.  I really had no idea aspen had such a nice grain to it.