Finished cupboard door

Finished the door. It's being polyed as I write this ...I'm not sure if I'm going to paint it. have to help Cheryl make some October chocolate chip cookies. I'm a little bummed tonight because we went to Lowes and they have downgraded to the veneered seats as well! This could prove disastrous to our current business. There are only three suppliers of solid wood seats and all of them have their downsides. Cheryl and I have looked online before for suppliers and they all use the tag"solid wood" even though it is wood pulp center with veneer. I have been wracking my brain to come up with a solution for this all day and (after several panic attacks) still have no ideas. Even if I could make one, I still would need the hardware, hinge and machinery to make them at an economical production rate. As of now, pre Christmas, our plan is to travel all over the state clearing out the remaining seats we can find. after that, we might have to make some tough choices. I probably should have been asking more for my seats since online a solid wood seat starts around $40- $50! And those are without any carving. I'll have to come up with another type of carving that I can do and people will buy. Any Ideas?

Refurbishing Dremel bits

I wanted to do this for a couple of weeks, but lately The used bits have been piling up. It's a simple process. Basically, The bits get dull after a while and either burn the wood or fuzz up the cuts. Not to mention fresh sharp bits are such a dream to work with. Anyway, it gets expensive having to buy new bits all the time ($5-6.00 for some dremel bits, but there are cheaper. more on that later) So what do ya do? Well, I was shown a tip from a carving book on how to recapture some of the edge and thus extend the life of your used bits. It's fairly simple. Basically, give the dull bits an acid bath. Here's what I do. First, I gather up some of the dull bits I have been saving up over the last year and I clean them up. I have found the easiest way to clean the tar and burnt wood off the bits without damaging them is to place them on a burner. After a minute or two you will see the tar and resins turn white and flake off. Then drop them in water to cool off and go to the next step. (If there is still some resin that is still being stubborn, Just put it back on for a second go around. Next, I place the bits in a small container with the collet side up, to keep it out of the acid. I use clips to help hold them in place. Then I fill the small cup just up to the shank of the bit. The acid sharpens up the small cutting edge of the bit removing any burr that might be there. After a couple hours, you're done! Couple of tips. use the acid outside! Not really for safety, but the smell is horrible! and the vapors will rust and dull up any sharp shop tool you have lying around. After a couple of baths your bits will pretty much become useless as all the cutting surface is eaten away. I have not really gone over three baths with any one bit yet. the good news is, I feel better throwing them away after they are in this condition, Having used every last bit of life out of it. Oh! Be sure to wash them off and oil them up or the bits will rust.

Sunday night carving.

5 seats carved up tonight. It was fairly easy and even though I was ahead of the curve, I was still unable to get the poly on before 2 am. Maybe because I take as much time as I can when I actually have the time to spend. Well, they are done now so I just have to wait another 4-5 hours till they get their second coat. The kitten seems to be adjusting fine. He's quite the talker! He was playing with Red on the cat pole this evening.
Cheryl's sales have been picking up! She is beginning to slack off on her "toilet seat" job for her sewing one. lol! ( not that she has too much to do for the seats, she finished listing them all last week.) I'm very happy that she is starting to get the sales I thought she should have got all summer long. On a different note. We just came back from the store tonight and found out they have gotten a resupply of toilet seats. The bad news is....they are not solid oak! They are instead wood pulp covered with veneer. They are thin and look like they would break in a heartbeat! I'm very bummed because I have made a commitment to get the finest constructed oak seats we have found that are still affordable. I now am faced with the problem of going back to a previous distributor that has proven rather unreliable. ( this is what had driven us to the higher quality seat before.) anyway, Lowes has gotten in a new shipment of seats and I'm thinking we should investigate them to see how they will match up. I'm not fond of Lowes, since they always seem to run out of seats when Christmas comes. And their stain is lighter and the seats are Birch or popular instead of oak. Ah well, There are other stores in the area that may not have sold out of the preferred seats yet. So Cheryl thinks we should stock up on what we can. The problem is we don't have a lot of investment capitol to put to buying 100 seats or more for the holidays. We'll have to see how it goes from here.

Cupboard door part 3

So I worked on the cupboard door this evening and finished up the berries. As I look it over, I see there are still some spots that need a little work. and I should sand down the entire background to remove the tool marks that nicked certain areas. After than I'll stain it up and I have not decided if It will need to be painted.
I'll carve up the seats tomorrow. Hopefully we will sell some more and I can do one entire batch. We sold another one tonight and someone ended a couple but has not paid for them. This will, of coarse, make Sunday my busy day. I'm not fond of pushing everything till Sunday, But it frees up a Saturday from time to time.
This week, even though I did not blog about it, I was able to put up my last three bat houses. I'm thrilled! And with a Little luck, they will be full this coming spring with little flying bug eaters. You see, we have a rather annoying mosquito problem here in the swampy spring time. They are unbearable! And a bat will eat 1000 of these little bloodsuckers an hour. That sounds good to me. so with no harsh one time chemicals, we can kill the bad bugs and have a fat and happy population of bats. It's too bad they get a bad rep. They are actually quite cute. And I have had the great fortune of actually having one as a pet for a few months in Minnesota. He ate all the ice fishing buddies bait and flew around my dorm room till the spring was in full thaw. I have already had a small population check out my first house. It had been there almost 4 years. I'm hoping the new ones are build to better specs and will attract them sooner, or better yet....permanent residents!

Day 2 with New Kitten.

Well, Red and Rasha have not killed the new kitten so we seem to be ok. Red seems indifferent while Rasha is rather annoyed that we have a squeaker running around. I have to admit that I have been a little nervous since he got home. He's soo small! And Cheryl has this wonderful "Throw them in the deep end" approach to social introductions. Namely " Surprise! Say hello to your new brother!" This might work with kids. But I a little skeptical with cats. Anyway, the kitten is adjusting and so are the adults for the most part. I worked on the Door tonight for only 5 hours. I basically did everything but the berries. I think it is turning out pretty good so far and perhaps we'll get a little more in this weekend. As of this hour we have sold three seats, so I'll be working on those tomorrow. Tonight we saw two skunks on our nightly walk. I like skunks for the most part. They are rather pretty, and cute. We have known for some time that they are in the neighborhood ( their smell is the obvious sign) But each time we have seen them, there has been no smell. even though we have been very close at times! ( they only spray when they are startles or scared) Cheryl often compares me to the Crocodile hunter, Since I usually catch or pick up wild animals. But Even I'm not going to mess with a skunk! In my old Taxidermy days, I had this wonderful Skunk scent eliminator. It is Amazing! Totally neutralizes the scent. But I have never needed it for a live skunk. For now, I'll be quite happy observing them from a distance. Oh! In other news, Cheryl got her "Allenbright" labels and has been sewing them into her Christmas pillows all day. She is almost done for the night as I'm writing this. They make the pillows look so professional now! See her entire line here.. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6153100

New Kitten!

I had the entire day planned when out of the blue we see a kitten that Cheryl just had to have. Now this is not a spur of the moment

thing. We have been planning on getting a new kitten for Christmas. So I guess it got moved up a couple of months. So We have to put off the new camera we have been thinking of. This one is still ok for the time being. But, As with all kittens, this one is cute and cuddly. He is suppose to be Cheryl's since I somehow manage to steal them from her. Red and Rashi love me! And I can't help it, I'm just so lovable. Anyway, He is cute and Cheryl is thrilled with him as you can see. I have to tell her to play with him so he will "bond" with her and not me. ( and I'm trying to ignore him and comfort the other cats so he doesn't love me more....this is very difficult.) The other cats don't seem to be too offended by his presents. I was hoping Red would end up playing with him since he loves to play as much as any kitten. We'll see.

I Carved up the Bear cub seat tonight despite having been derailed a bit. The seat was easy and I actually had a little time to mess with the cupboard. Not much though, I'll save the lions share of it for a day I can give it more time. Cheryl painted the bear cub since she now has taken the that seat as her specific paint job. I don't mind since it is a popular seat and she can save me some time. So that is that. Surprise! New kitten....I think I'm still in shock. But he isn't going back. When we decide to adopt something. it's ours forever. Oh, by the way, Red and Rasha are the two cats on the chair and the sheepskin, Bear ( neighborhood cat) is the one in the middle. Technically, he is not ours....but he thinks he is as you can see.

Cats! Soaps, headache, and two sales.

Well, I had the most excitement today when I woke up thinking I would finish the Cupboard door carving tonight. Even when Cheryl informed me that we had sold another seat, I thought I would still have time to do it all. but then.... I got a bummer of a headache that basically wiped me out for a couple of hours. I was afraid I would lose my Mojo after it was gone, but , with a little help from the cat, I did manage to finish the two seats that had to be done. The cupboard will have to be saved for another rainy day. Not to hard to figure that out, Cheryl thinks they are a waste of my times since that rarely sell. ( I understand some, Original art is pricey and they odd stains and designs of the doors make it almost impossible for anyone to buy them for a kitchen.) Anyway, we sold yet another seat late this evening after I had already carved up the two. So I will have something to do tomorrow as well. Tonight Cheryl decided that we had to get good doughnuts from the store this time to go with our cider.( in the event we watch a movie) Well, the chocolate cake doughnuts are deadly sinful and they go with the cider soo well. We were going to make them last two days...it's not looking very good right now. Also, Cheryl decided that we need to move some things around to reorganize our areas again. ( a hold over feeling from the bedroom weekend) So she drafted me to put the soaps in the closet and make room for her stockings and pillows. I have to admit the soaps actually don't look too bad now that we got them out of the dark garage. Now we get a wonderful aroma of Fruit and vanilla whenever we open the pantry door.
Speaking of movie, save your time and don't watch "maid of honor" its horrible cookie cutter "romantic comedy" I saw it last time when it was called "my best friends wedding" Even Cheryl was bored. There was neither much romance nor comedy in it. And at least BFW ended better with the immature single getting stiffed by the person willing to make a commitment. Worst romantic comedy that did not star Kate Hutson. (That is saying a lot because I usually like them) ah well just my opinion I guess. Perhaps you will like it.

Carved cupboard door part 3 Oh and one sale! YEAH!

Ok, Last post for the night. We still have a movie to watch! Not to mention the cats have "escaped" and are roaming around in the rain! One is still AWOL. Regardless, I roughed out the carving with the router. It's fairly easy, just drop in a square bit and push it around, avoiding the lines you drew. The hard part is dealing with the dust and chips that it kicks out. Not too bad with a dust mask and ear/ eye protection, but somehow I always seem to manage getting a bunch of dust in my eyes. So after the first go around with a 1/4 inch bit, I drop in an 1/8 inch bit for the really detailed stuff. I still leave a Little waste around the berries and leaves, I'll clean those up later with the Dremel. I posted a few close ups even though my camera hates them. For now, It's shower time! then grab some October comfort food and curl up with Cheryl on the sofa. I think the movie is " Made of Honor" or "son of Rambo" I have to be honest, Son of Rambo is sounding better to me... Ah, and just before midnight, someone paid up for their Grapevine seat....So I'll probably be carving that tomorrow ( hopefully more! )

Carving a cupboard door part 2

Ok. The glue is dry and I just drew on the design. I had to take a few liberties since the picture was too small for the panel. Basically I copied the bird as best I could and hand drew on the leaves, vines, and berries.
I think I may break out the router for this one. at least it will set the depth of the background to a uniform depth. Cheryl hates it when I router carvings because she thinks they don't look as good as the shallow carvings. We'll see...

Carving a Cupboard door.

Ok! So no sales today. So I find myself with new found time. I have several projects that I have had on a back burner. We have this wonderful place in Holland, Mi. that goes into old houses and salvages various items that may be dated but still have value. I have found this a wonderful place to get solid oak cupboard doors for CHEAP ( $1! each!) I then take them and carve various scenes in them. You may have seen the Ship project I did in August. Well there are trade offs with each door. Namely, some are damaged, ( as shown here) have old stain or scratches, and some still have their old hardware rusted into the wood. Well, a little glue and a clamp and I have fixed the joint, and eventually I will remove the finish and try to match it after the carving. Here is the inspiration piece. After the join sets up. I'll transfer it to the wood and start carving.