So I have these blocks (about 50) here that have been sitting around for 3 years now. They are 3″ long, 3/4″ thick, and 1″ wide. My original plan to make a game table and these were going to make “jenga” style legs. I never got around to making the table, but have all these blocks. I’m looking to do something with them now. Does anyone have any ideas? You can drop comments here or chime in on the conversation at my facebook page. It’s almost the weekend, hope everyone is doing great!
I went to see the 3rd annual Echo Chainsaw Invitational in Thomasville, NC. Check out some of the work.
It’s been a couple days since I have wrote so I just wanted to give you all a quick update. I’m delayed on the HPFD kitchen table. I’m waiting on a decal before I go any further. When I get the decal it should be no longer than 2 days before finishing. I also did my first hand raised panel the other day. Didn’t look so bad, but could use some work. 
Tomorrow will be a fun day. The city of Thomasville, North Carolina is having a 3 day festival. Today they had a chainsaw carving competition. It continues tomorrow as well. Nicole and I will be heading out in the morning to catch some of that action. I’m hoping she will take some pictures for the blog and also her facebook page, Nicole Charles Photography. She has some great work and I’d like to have some great pictures here instead of the phone camera pictures. On saturday (the 3rd day) it is the Spring Daze. Lots of arts and crafts will be sold.
I have also started making a spoon. I’ve got the rough cut out and have to carve out the spoon portion. I will post some pics this weekend of it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Well today was really busy and little was done with the table, but still there was progress made and that is always a key thing. My daughter had surgery this morning to place tubes in her ears and have her adenoids taken out. Everything went great. I got the oldest daughter from school (so the wife could nap) and enjoyed some play time/work on table time.
I started today off by drilling the pocket holes for attaching the top on. I did this now so that I could get the whole table frame sanded and stained before attaching the top. Halfway through drilling the pocket holes my battery died in my drill, go figure. I hooked up the extension cord to my other drill and carried on with drilling.
After I had all the pocket holes drilled I decided to go ahead and get the plugs cut and inserted so they could dry over night. I had always used my power miter saw, but the pieces would break or go flying around the shop. Using my stanley miter box made this a breeze, and no lost pieces.
Kids were getting hot so we all came inside for a while. I realized the sun was going down and I wanted to get some of the stain put on where I wouldn’t be able to get to later with the top on. All in all it was a productive day. Hopefully tomorrow I get the top placed in position. Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Today I decided to do something a bit different using facebook. As I was going along I was snapping pictures and describing what I was doing as I built a kitchen table for High Point Fire Department. I didn’t leave anyone out so I will do a short blog about the build so far. If you would like to follow along please go to My Facebook Page. Tomorrow I will be trying to get the top attached and get the table stained.
Obviously the first step was to gather materials. For the table this includes the following: 1-4′x8′ sheet oak plywood, 2-8′ treated 4×4′s, 4- 8′ 2×4′s. Also handy would be some 2″ and 1 1/2″ screws or even lag bolts. For the bench you can get 2- 2″x10″x12′ yellow pine’s.
For this project I attempted to use ONLY hand tools, but I don’t have a hand drill, so I hand to use a power drill. I also do not use a measuring tape. In another article I will explain how to create/use a story stick. Here we go!!!!
I found a comfortable height, grabbed a 4×4 and marked it. Laid it on the bench and got to sawing away. After that I would just use the first leg I cut to mark the other 3 legs. The last 3 legs were cut on the line instead of just to the side (this keeps them uniform in length).
(Forgot to take picture) Legs were set aside and I grabbed a 2×4. I then laid it up against the plywood until I found a length I would cut it at. I grabbed a second 2×4 and matched the first ones length. I repeated this step for the two short ends.
I then took the legs, aprons, and table top and laid them out on my saw horses (actually it’s my picnic table. I now realize I need some saw horses.) I made sure everything was square and fit to my liking around the table tops edge.
I then drilled two different holes. The first (smaller one) was drilled for the actual screw to go into. The second (umm, bigger one) was drilled so I could cover the screw with a plug. After all the holes are drilled you can attach the legs and aprons together.
I then went around with a square and a story stick making sure the the frame was squared up with the table top and it was evenly spaced around the edge.
After everything was square on the outside I eyeballed the center of the frame to place a center member for more support. I attached one side then used the square and marked for the placement of the opposite side. Drilled some holes and placed some screws in.
To keep everything square I cut out 4 corner braces. Here I’m using my vintage miter box (j/k bought it last year).
It’s nice to have 4 duplicate corner braces all roughly a forearms length long.
This is your take away shot. Dinner was needing to be made and this was a good stopping point. I was able to get all the braces attached. Hope you have enjoyed this.
