Dinner Tray

Another quick and small but satisfying project ... 

 A simple Pine Dinner Tray which I have made for my girlfriends mum as a thankyou for the tools she gave me a while ago.

I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable simply knocking together these small projects on request. 

The simple joinery for the side pieces was cut mostly by eye with very minimal measuring and mark up. I need to be careful that I dont get too lazy!

Another first for me was the Edge to Edge joint I used to make the base board from two pieces of 15mm thick by 145mm wide Pine.

The longest and most tiring part of this project was reducing the thickness of the base board to minimise the overall weight of the tray, while retaining flatness.

Lastly, a quick coat of Boiled Linseed oil to highlight the grain a little and I called it done.

I hope she likes it ...

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Im changing

Im changing... 

Yesterday we took an old heavy solid front door that we have been saving in our hallchoice around to my girlfriends mums house. I removed the rotten remains of another old door from her alley choice and using only  hand tools.

Measured, marked and cut the new door to accurately fit by hand using my panel saws. Adjusted the door frame door stops to allow the new thicker door to sit flush in the frame. Cut the frame to accept the hinges with chisels. Drilled all the pilot holes for the hinge screws and door knob with my gimlets. Finally trimmed the door edge and frame with a no#4 hand plane.Job done ... !!!
Even though most people would view this as a simple job ... A few months ago this would have been a Lets get a Carpenter in to do this properly scenario.

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