Robyn

December 29, 2018

Art Cart

I wanted storage for my art supplies. I had looked around for storage and thought why buy pieces that sorta worked. Then I thought why not just build a piece suited to my needs and I did.

The first thing I made were the drawers. I first cut all the pieces for all fourteen drawers. I then assembled the drawers stained them and attached the hardware.

I then assembled the shell of the cart. I decided instead of using plywood for the panels on the sides and back I used bead board. The studio has bead board and I thought it would be kind of cool to have it on the furniture as well. I also figured that since it was going to have wheels on it and the back would most likely be seen I wanted it to have a more interesting finish on it.

This is where I got stuck last year. Here I had placed the frames the drawers would sit on. In this picture I have wires helping hold them up so I could get spacers between them. I put the spacers in and got it all together but when I went to put the drawers in and they didn’t fit. I had to take it back apart as a result I ended up breaking a couple of the frames. I was frustrated at this point and had to regroup.

After nearly a year I finally had repaired the frames and properly spaced them. The drawers were fine tuned to slide easily in and out. I also glued in drawer guides to keep the drawers from going in crooked.

For the top I had a piece of 3/4″ plywood. I routed a groove around the edges and then took 1″x2″ board and routed a tongue and mitered the ends. I glued the board in the groove so the raw edges to the plywood wouldn’t show. I then decided to laminate the top in case I spilled something or got paint on it would be easy to clean.

I made the drawers large because when I go to use my medium I wanted it easy to find what I was looking for. The first thing I did was figure out how wide the spaces need to be. I used 1/4″ thick boards and staple them to the inside fronts and backs of the drawers. I thought that way if I no longer wanted the drawers to be laid out that way it would be easy to take out and change. I then took the boards that run from the front to the back of the drawers back out and notched them every 2″ to make them adjustable. I cut a bunch of 1/4″ thick spacers to slide into the notches.

This was the best part for me. I was extremely happy to get my supplies out of the boxes and to where I could easily find them. I even have room left in the drawers to expand. Right now my art cart is living in my house. The next thing I may do is get rid of the kitchen tabel and replace it with the easel.

November 30, 2018December 2, 2018

The Woodshop

There has not been anything new done on the studio. Dan and I had a busy summer raising the roof and fixing a building to use as a woodshop. I debated on wether or not to put the woodshop on my blog. I thought that if I were building furniture for the studio and doing other woodworking projects that the woodshop was actually fairly important.

The first thing I had to do was clean the building out. We had pens built to house our orpahaned lambs. It had to be shoveled out by hand because there wasn’t a door large enough for a loader. Luckily it has a cement floor.

The next thing we did was took the tin, plywood and rafters off so we could raise the height of the back wall. The back was only three feet tall and being a fairly tall person I wanted to raise it high enough that I wasn’t hitting my head on stuff.

Here is the building with no roof and everything cleared out of the inside. We even removed some of the plywood on the west side and removed the east window. Three of the windows were replaced.

While we were working on it we noticed that the southwest corner of the building had sunk a little. So we jacked the corner of the building up. This was were the door was eventually going to go. We cut and knocked out the old footing, built forms and poured some concrete.Here you can see the southwest corner. I have the hole and a slab of cement outside where the new door went. On the west side you can see where the old door was.

Now we have the wall extension, we added four feet in height to the back wall. Then the rafters went up. We decided instead of putting the plywood back on the roof we would put boards on to make it a little stronger.

In this picture we have the walls, windows, and door all framed up ready and waiting for the next step.

This was interesting working with the plywood. We removed the rotten or broken plywood and replaced it. We used the plywood that was on the roof and filled in all of the places that needed plywood. We actually ended up having enough to cover the whole building. We weren’t too worried how it looked with the patcwork of plywood since it will eventually get covered with tin. This was where I felt we were actually acomplishing something. It’s amazing what a difference a fresh coat of paint makes.Dan and I put a vapor barrier on and then the tin.

Windows trim and roof are on and the door is installed. At this point I had most of my tools moved in I was extremely excited to have this for my woodshop.I’ll admit it’s not completely finished but it is definately functional. I have been in the woodshop almost everyday since it’s been completed working on stuff including my art cart. Hopefully soon I will be done with the art cart and ready to post pics of it. Until then thanks for stopping by.

May 15, 2018December 2, 2018

Removing the old chimney

Dan and I debated on wether or not to use the old chimney for the wood stove or if we should install a new one. We finally decided to tear down the original brick chimney. I asked for Dan’s advice on how I should tear it down and as a result he ended up doing it himself.

When Dan had removed the first bricks it was evident that we had made the right choice. The chimney was packed full of straw from bird nests.

The chimney in the main room had frame-work holding the brick up and when we opened it we found the handle for lifting the burner plates on the old cookstove. I wonder how long Billy looked for that handle.

After the chimney was removed I inserted 2″x6″ boards around the inside of the hole and put a piece of plywood to fill in the hole in the attic floor. (Didn’t want mom falling through the floor when she went to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic.)

I was left with a decent sized pile of bricks to clean up when Dan came up with the idea to clean them up and reuse them for the wall behind the wood stove. I really liked the idea.

I loaded them up in the pickup hauled them to the wood shop and cleaned them using a couple of chisels, hammer, oscillating tool and, a wire brush. I then hauled them back to the studio.

It was january when I finally had gotten the to the point I could install the brick. We had to first install the chimney so I could get the studio warm enough to cure the mortar on the bricks. To give me enough room to work on the brick we had to put a crazy looking stove-pipe on it. It worked I only burned my elbow once. We had built a wooden structure to put the brick against. We left room between it and the wall and left space underneath as an air exchange. I’ve never used mortar before so the mortar turned out a little rough but with the recycled bricks it added to the rustic charm.

December 15, 2017December 2, 2018

Replacing and Painting the Siding

This isn’t the most exciting of projects I’ll admit but I will post for those of you who are interested in the process of my studio. Replacing the siding on the West side of the studio was not in my plans but when Dan and I replaced the logs under the window we ended up removing some of the siding. I tried to make it so I could reuse the old siding but with hundred year old siding on the west side of the building with nothing to break the wind and weather there was no hope. They actually laughed at me when I took an example to the local hardware store to see what they had to replace it. In the picture above the part where the siding is missing is covered with tarp to keep it dry.

In this picture I removed the trim along the edges and around the window. The trim on the top I left because it was a 24″ board that had more trim over the top of it. I thought it would not be fun to try to replace it if it had gotten broken. When I took the trim off there was old tar paper under it that had disintegrated. You can see the logs and chinking that was under the siding.

This is a picture of the moisture barrier. The only thing I would’ve done differently about this step would have been not trying to do precision work with a hammer tacker. Some fingers never learn to stay out-of-the-way.

I did manage to get siding to match the other sides of the house. Mom and dad helped me with this project because we were trying to beat the incoming storm.

Finally Dan and I finished painting it just in time before the storm had hit. Painting the outside of a building is one of my least favorite things to do.

Painting was a lot more fun when they thought it was cute that we wasted so much paint.

Dad and grandpa were way more conservative with their paint than Brad and I were.

October 1, 2017December 2, 2018

Replacing Studio Windows

The windows on the studio have had little upkeep over the years. The windows were in desperate need to be replaced. I replaced the windows on the main part because the ad-on will be removed. I started with the West window. The window frames were rotten along with the sill.

When I removed the old window and the window frame I found the 2″x6″s on the sides and the log below the window were also rotten.

I had to remove some of the siding to figure out how big of a log I needed in order to replace the rotten portion. The rot went a little pass the corner of the window and I wanted to remove part of the log pass each corner of the window anyway so if water got in then there wouldn’t be a seam right at the corner for the water to run into.

Dan and I went found a beetle killed log on the ranch that worked perfect. We drug it out and cut a log to length. What we didn’t use for the project we cut up and used for firewood. This is the point Dan took over because I’m still a novice when it comes to using a chainsaw.

We got the log home Dan attached a straight edge to the log put an attachment on the chainsaw that fit the straight edge. He cut off all of the rounded edges and made it the size we needed.

Dan cut out the rotten log out at an angle. When he got the log out we discovered the log below was also rotten.

He ended up cutting out the chunk that was rotten on the second log. Luckily he cut the new log longer that what we needed just in case.

Dan mitered the edges on the new log and put into place attached it with liquid nails and screws.

I went back to the wood shop and made new window frames for the new windows to sit in. I made the new window frames using the old ones for reference.

I removed the remaining three windows and window frames. I put the new window frames in the openings and put in the new windows. After all the new windows were in place I put spray foam insulation around the windows to help keep air from seeping around the edges.

I then made the trim and painted it green. I put caulking around the windows and put the trim up. I do have more work to do on the inside of the windows. I had to take the inside trim off because it was holding the window in. When I took the trim off the plaster around the window fell from the wall. My next project will be taking the rest of the siding down on the west side and put up new siding.

August 29, 2017December 2, 2018

Billy’s House

I will be converting an old homesteader’s house into a temporary studio. The house originally belonged to a man named Billy Johnson. He immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1909. It took Billy five years to prove up on his homestead. Billy and his brother Axel eventually built the house I am converting into a studio. Billy also dug a well and built his sheds and raised sheep. He mortgaged his farm many times and took various jobs to make ends meet. He took a few jobs doing carpentry and he hauled gravel in his truck for the gym in Judith Gap. Billy always managed to pay off the mortgage. He never married. In the spring of 1960 he sold his ranch to Henry Lode, my grandfather.

In 1978 my parents moved their trailer house from Colorado and placed it on Billy’s old homestead. The photo above shows my parents’ trailer and the original buildings that Billy built. Billy’s house is circled in the photo.

This is what the place looks like today from the same view-point again Billy’s house is circled in red. My parents worked hard through the years raising livestock adding to the homestead and raising a family.

The Current Condition of Billy’s House

Billy’s House has been used for storage from the time my grandparents had purchased it in 1960. The house has had some minor upkeep. It’s been painted and the roof on the main part has been repaired. The roof on the addition hasn’t had any repairs and now the addition is falling from the building, It will eventually be removed.

On the north side of the house the root cellar is collapsing in and there is a rotten beam. We will be replacing the beam eventually and the house will be moved from its current location. The four windows on the main part of the house will also need to be replaced.

There are two rooms in the main part. The east room is the largest. I have to remove some of the items that are being stored in it. The plaster is cracking on the walls and ceiling and there’s a place where the plaster has fallen off of the ceiling. I will be attempting to repair the plaster. I will also have to install a wood stove for heat.

August 2, 2017December 23, 2017

The Making of a Cribbage Board

The Inspiration

My cousin Chip married this spring and I wanted to give him a small token of the ranch my grandfather (Chip’s great uncle Bud) and his grandmother Gertrude grew up on. Chip came and visited us several times on the family ranch and eventually worked a couple summers with us.

Our great grandparents planted a tree in front of the old ranch house and I’m sure one of the many chores our grandparents had to do was take care of that tree. It couldn’t have been easy to take care of on the dry, windy, high Montana prairie. It grew well for a number of years until a couple of years ago when the tree died. I decided to make a cribbage board from one of the branches keeping with the idea of giving him a token of the ranch and because he learned to play cribbage while in Montana.

The Process

These are the found materials I started with the tree branch from the Siberian Elm and some copper that was found on the ranch. I only used the flat copper for this project.

To make the board I screwed a 2″x4″ to the log. I then put the 2″x4″ along the rip fence of my band saw and cut a straight edge. I rotated the log and cut off all of the rounded edges. At the time of doing this I did not know about adjusting for the drifting caused by the band saw. As a result my board had one side that was straight and the other side that was crooked. I then had to put the board through the planer so it came out to equal thickness. This was what the board looked like after I completed all the tasks. (I apologize for not having more photos I hope to get better about taking them with each step with other projects.)

I then set up my lovely homemade router table my boyfriend made me and routed out the notches for the copper inlay that will become the pegging holes. To insure that it was symmetrical I measured the distance from the edge of the board to where I wanted the copper inlay and routed out the right edge and then turned the board around to the left edge and then repeated it for the inside notches.

The copper I used for the pegging holes was found in the pasture east of the original ranch house. I’m not sure if was from an old generator, motor or battery but I know I will be using it in many more projects to come. I cut the copper extra long to make sure I had enough to wrap around the ends of the board. I then straightened the copper using the vice. I put it so the narrow side was up squeezed it and then took it out and turned it so the wide side was showing. It straightened out nicely.

To clean the copper in the first container I put in enough vinegar to cover up the copper strips and stirred in as much salt as the vinegar would dissolve. In the second container I put in enough water to cover up the copper strips and then stirred in enough baking soda to make the water cloudy. I put the copper in the first container and stirred them around to speed up the process. It takes a couple of minutes in the solution for the copper to become shiny. I ended up using an old terry cloth towel to clean off the really stubborn spots. Once I was pleased with how clean the copper was I put the copper in the second bath to neutralize the corrosive property of the vinegar. It only took a few seconds in the second solution.

I placed the copper in the notches and then wrapped it so the copper went around the edge of the board. I marked the copper where it over hung on the bottom and then cut the ends of the copper off with a hack saw.

I should’ve made the peg holder before cutting the copper to size. I was procrastinating for fear I would screw this part up. To make sure that I wouldn’t screw this up I put my cribbage board on my bench and created a frame work around it and screwed the frame work to the bench. I then figured out where the hole was going and put up stops on the side and end of board then screwed it to the frame. (See picture in upper left corner.) The first part of the peg hole I routed out went all the way to the end of the board so I could put the cover in. I then attached a collar and a saw blade to my dremel to put a groove in for the cover to slide into. It took a couple passes at different depths to accommodate the thickness of the cover. After the notch for the cover was complete I put the cribbage board back in the frame work I had on my bench and put a stop at the end so the bottom of the peg holder wouldn’t go all the way to the end. This completed the holder for the pegs. I was extremely pleased I did not screw this part up.

To glue in the copper inlay I decided to use 2 ton epoxy for a couple of reasons. The first reason was because it’s a really strong glue and the main reason was that it’s heat resistant. Since I was planning on sanding the copper it gets really hot and I wanted the glue to hold up. I decided that to get the copper clamped in to the grooves that I would use two boards the same length as the cribbage board. To keep the boards from getting glued together I used a layer of tin foil. However if I had to do it over again I would glue and clamp each of the pieces of copper separately. I had one of the pieces come off because it wasn’t clamped down good enough. I had to make a new piece for it. After the epoxy dried I sanded some of the epoxy off.

I wanted to make each player separate and distinct runs. For the one player I chose to use crushed turquoise for the other I used crushed lapis. (Luckily I had some left from a previous project.) I wanted the stone inlay to be centered to the copper inlay. I found the center and set the table saw to 1/8″ depth and cut a line. Then I turned the board around and made another groove for the other player. I filled the grooves with crushed stone and then put in super thin super glue.

I know at this point it is really ugly but please don’t loose faith. I marked where I wanted all the pegging holes to go. At the one end I put a run of six holes so there was a place to start and end. After marking where the holes went I used a center punch at each of the holes. I then took it to the drill press and drilled all of the holes. After I drilled the holes I filled every sixth hole with stone inlay to match the players run. I put tin foil in the peg holder to keep the stone inlay going all the way through the board. I then sanded the crap off.When I finished sanding I had a few blemishes. In the lines where I had holes in the stone I went back with finer stone and filled them in. On the back there was a blemish where there was some soft wood. I chipped the soft wood out and replaced it with crushed stone. I figured it would add character.

The cover for the peg holder was also made from copper. This was a chunk of copper I received when I purchased the contents of a small workshop as was the copper rivets. I measured the width of the slot for the cover and made it slightly smaller than the width. I used the sander to round and smooth the edges. I decided that it needed a grip to open and since I had some copper grommets I opted to use one for the grip. It worked really well.

The copper pegs were made from 1/4″ copper rod. My boyfriend shaped them for me. I then used 2 ton epoxy to glue the crushed stone to the pegs. To polish and touch up the pegs I put them in my power drill like I would a drill bit. I put the end with the rock end in the chuck first then I laid a piece of sand paper on the bench turned on the drill and rested it on the sand paper. I then took them out and turned them so the rock was sticking out and ran it across the sand paper. I repaired the rock or replaced any missing rock using the super glue I used for the inlay on the board and repeated the process of polishing the stone.After I finished the pegs I put on eight layer of poly urethane and sanded each layer with steel wool. I then went through re-drilled each hole then tested each hole with the pegs to make sure they fit well. I re-drilled the holes that didn’t fit the pegs.

The final step was to make sure the cover on peg holder fit snuggly. It was a little lose so to remedy this I bent the rounded edge up very slightly and it worked like a charm. I hope they enjoy many games of cribbage for years to come.