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X-mas lights in a bottle
Preparation: unbreakable bench, garden hose, drill bit and the drill guide – everything staying secure in place. A 6 mm hole with sharp edges has to be covered with a grommet. Bottle – washed, stickers – removed. Time to install the lights. Shrink tubing in the same colour as the cord. A cable tie will prevent the cord from sliding in. One of the Christmas lights inside the bottle will prevent the cord from sliding out. Looks really nice, even in April.
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Slender vase
A quite unusual wine bottle with a capacity of 500 ml (instead of 750 ml). It’s perfect for a small, slender flower vase. Usually, it’s easy to cut bottles because the glass cutter is perpendicular to the bottle, but in this case, I had to struggle a little harder. Boiling and cold water finished the job. 5 grits of sandpaper – W.I.P. – top and outside. Sanding drums – 3 grits, 1-inch mandrel, very good results. Polishing compound and buffing wheel to clean the surface. Visual size comparison (500 ml can) and the vase reflecting the surrounding lawn. Beautiful colours!
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Border post pedestal table
I built a fence last year and saved some offcuts. A pencil and a jigsaw helped to get the form out. A few different types of sanding had to be used for these curved lines. Some edges had to be square and the best tool to use was my table saw. My combination square resolved any doubts. Please be square! Yes, they are! Now I’m wondering to use them in a different orientation, which would involve trimming one end a little. Here are the before and after (they’re shorter by 1 inch): Wood filler + sanding, then making nice-looking edges…
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Green and golden t-light holder
Cutting the bottle was easy as always, but sanding was extremely quick and easy. I used 4 different grits of sandpaper for the outer edges and just 1 grit for the inside ones. It looks quite decent. There is no need to go crazy with sanding in this project. This edge will be always faced down. Preparing for painting – that cardboard circle on top was supposed to help to paint a transition between the top and the bottom, but it actually failed. It did no job at all. I wasn’t happy with the results when I applied the first…
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Drawer-like display case
I had some scrap wood on hand, lime I believe. The acrylic glass was ordered ages ago for another project. Quick sanding to smooth it out, followed by rip cutting etc, etc … My DIYed box joint jig was adjusted and used to cut the joints. I’m not very happy with how it worked, there was some wrapped and twisted wood, some differences in thickness and tear outs. The jig is not working with the material I use, it’s been tried and now it’s going bye-bye. Glueing together, tons of clamping force and plenty of glue. Workbench blocks (red ones)…
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Tea light glass holder
My glass-cutting station has been officially moved to the shed. The 3-inch C-clamp is now replaced by the 4-inch one. Different frame to hold to. Champagne bottle during the cutting process, hot and cold water was used to crack the glass. Quick sanding. Using low and high RPMs was kind of cheating, there was no need to change sanding discs so often – it had to be a quick project. Sanding the inner edges is something I don’t like. Matt finish, after all this thing is going to be used upside-down. Quick project it was. Bottle bottoms are not especially…
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Bottle mini block holder
It didn’t start as a project. I was just going to try my new hole saw, I had some spruce wood to try it on. Just in case I took a coping saw with me. Drilling the holes followed by some cutting. It was looking promising so I did some sanding with my “drum sander”. I also sanded the other sides of the block. Now was the time to start building the base. Cut and sanded then finished on my router table, using 2 bits. Glueing together. Applying a few coats of wipe-on poly. The colour I’m getting is yellowish.…
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Early spring tools, edition 2018
Metabo FSX 200 orbital sander, finally a proper sander in my workshop. It looks good and it’s decently built, it comes with a box. The hook-and-loop feature makes it simple to change the sandpaper. Sanding is fast and easy, the finished surface is ultra-smooth. It uses standard 125 mm discs, I bought a set of 4 grits – 40, 80, 120 and 240. The dust collection works enough for my needs. I’m very happy with this tool. Mac Allister mini hacksaw is a very helpful tool, it reaches hard-to-reach areas. The blades are not expensive, and neither is the saw.…
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Wine crate
The usual – quick planing and ripping to width. The corners were not identical and due to their size planing was the only option. It helped to remove the excess material. Cutting to length and quick assembly, using wine bottles to make sure it’s cut properly. Cutting the dividers … … and preparing the slats. Quick assembly – no nails or clamps. Now, for the very first time – wood filler is applied with an oversized filling knife … … followed by some sanding. Ready for assembly, some fine rasping for a perfect match. Assembled and filled with bottles. As…
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Porto glass
The sanding station is ready to go. The sanding starts from 40 grit sanding discs. This is how it’s changing: 3000 grit is the last one, and 1-inch sanding bands are the next. This one can only be used with round bottles. This is 1500 grit. A polishing compound is applied to the felt disc. This will give a beautiful finish to this project. Washed and cleaned. Ready to use. It was quite an easy and quick project.
