Top of the mountain: Now with Varnish!

Its still snowing here in out little corner of Montana. The skiing has been fantastic and the more snow that falls improves the outlook for our spring boating season. 

I've been skinning up the mountain a lot lately. One of the things that i don't think i have ever done is go to the top of Grizzly Peak. This is weird since i used to work there. One recent evening  I got to the top.

The views, even late in the evening are spectacular. The way one knows he or she is at the top is two fold. One you cant go up anymore and two there is a weather station at the summit.

Always fun to see Red Lodge from above.

In the shop the console table top is getting coats of varnish. I'm not sure i have ever built anything so unique and beautiful.

I have no idea what type of legs i am going to put on this anymore... My original plan is sort of up in the air.

In other work i am putting together a small wood grate for McGregor Designs. This little grate is going to fit into a recess within a concrete sink for a bathroom.

It may be small but it ain't simple. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Meanwhile outside the snow continues.

Cheers.

Console Table

Everyone needs a shop monkey, everyone.

A while back i posted a drawing of a console table. It was a weird little idea that i had brewing involving lights, art, and some other extras. In the end i think the table top and a simple base is going to be enough. So here is the first part of the build.

I started with cedar fence post stock, imagine a shitty cedar 4x4. I bucked this up into chunks around an inch thick. You can see them stacked on the work bench in the above photo.

Next i drilled holes in the center of all the blocks and put in screws. Then started the extremely time consuming job of preparing and gluing the whole table top together.

So after about two hours of fussing plus a little bit of swearing and the above mess was the result. Looks terrible but under the heaps of fairing compound lives a beautiful table top, it just a little messy to get to it.

With my trusty bent sander a respirator and some time the table top really began to come through. Seriously beautiful, just check out the pic below...

With the dusty job of sanding done the edging came next. Bend and glue.

Here is where i left it.
Till next time...

Storm Cycle

Well here in my small corner of Montana we have been having an unusually warm and dry start to 2015. For those of us who enjoy the gravity of the winter its been a little rough. 

So what to do? Weather is a fickle thing, people involved in snow sports have all sorts of superstitions about how to get it to snow. Wandering around a ski town in the grips of a drought you will even hear the cashier at the gas stations say "pray for snow", or "Do your snow Dance". Here in town we had prayed, we danced, we skied rotten slush full of pine needles and rocks. Nothing was working.

I decided that building a snow grotto might do the trick.

I started with all the little cut ends sitting around the shop, scraps recycled from other projects.

Walnut, pine, and oak... With a can roof to shelter all the hopes and dreams of powder days yet to come. When it was all finished i loaded it up on my pack, slipped on my skis and up the skin track we went.

I skied past big rocks and downed trees.

Through long snowy hallways in the woods.

Until I found just the right spot.

A little set up work, some incense for good measure and a few quick mumblings about the need for snow and back onto the skin track i went.

After leaving the woods and returning to the ski area i couldn't help but think how the clouds looked a little more menacing. 

Mount Maurice was under overcast as the sun slipped away.

Finally summiting, the sun pushing its last light into the hills i sipped my tea an watched the Beartooths disappear into the snowy darkness.

Did it snow? Did the little grotto in the woods do anything? 

It did snow, 20"+. It was the kind of snow that chokes the unsuspecting. The two powder days following the storm were some of the best. 

Even if the little grotto did nothing but distract me from our crummy weather until the storm cycle returned i think it did its job.

So if you come across it or another like it stop and think about those powder days in your dreams, say some words and keep doing your snow dance.

Cheers,

A Mid Century Couch.

Here is a new project i've been collaborating on. Heather over at the Upholstery Shop has been pulling me in to help fix and examine furniture. When you sit around looking at naked furniture its hard not to want to give building some a go.

After some discussion (i also really need a new couch) it was decided a mid century style couch will be perfect for my house and a great project for Heather and i to collaborate on. Throughout this post you will notice that there are two identical couches being built, one is for me and one could be yours.

I started off by drawing out and cutting the stretchers there are very boaty, its almost sad to cover them up.

The seat frame came next some really simple joinery and glue.

Stretchers installed into the base.

After getting the base and stretchers in place i moved onto the back.

One thing led to another and the couch backs began to really look like something.

With the plywood on the couch the majority of the body was done.

Well here they are two mid century couches ready for upholstery and legs. I've already started on the legs for my couch, there is a pic of the dovetail joinery on my Facebook page.
Until Next time,
Cheers.