I made this from a plan in the woodworker magazine from a couple of years ago by Alan Holtham. He made his out of left overs. I brought everything new which cost a boom. But I loved making it. Must admit did not turn out quite as good as his one, but I am getting there, slowly.
I made it for an Acquaintance of the family for the price of materials until I told them how much it cost now they dont want it because they could buy one off of the internet for £60.00. So I might have to go buy me a dog.
I brought the timber from a timber merchant in Waterlooville called "Covers". When you start doing these jobs for a first time you have to buy pretty much everything. ie. nails, Clot nails. Mastic. I brought quite over the top sizes of timber for the frame ect.
Thanks Baz. I'm fairly pleased,maybe a slight bit out of proporsion but not to bad.
I would have thought that any canine aquaintance woud love to have a stately home of this stature, so his, or hers, owners want a bit of seeing to, what they bought will be a load of rubbish as most of these so called bargains are.
Thank you Derek, Its nice to get feed back from you pro's. I have only started woodworking as an hobby since January and realise with the price of wood most things can be brought cheaper so our hobby is good if you just want to make something and take pride in it and hopefully in my case get better at it. I am only working in soft wood now until I stop making the mistakes. I am hoping to start making draws with dovetails ect but have a long way to go yet.
It's always a disappointment when one makes something for somebody and they change their mind at the end,
With regards to materials do what we all do when on your travels look out for anybody working on their house or look in any skips you see, old pallets, headboards,funiturer any thing that's wood, that's if you have some where to store it for later,then when you think of something to make sort through it, most of enjoyment i think you get is making something out of what some one has thrown away the inventiveness of it, i myself and i think most of the posts i read on here are inventers in a loose term with what they come up with regards to attachments to aid their work load "Finer addjustments i call it" and that carries on into the woodwork side,
We all make mistakes of one sort or another as long as we learn from them don't give up the more you do the better you will get,
Keep it up,
Ivor,
I hope you will bear with me as i find it hard to put my thoughts on paper.
Secondly You'll find that the price of your project will escalate, I know mine does. I say to the wife "It'll only cost £..." and by the end well you know. That's one of the reasons i do it as a hobby and not full time, the other is when i rush a project i can mess it up. More hast less speed! Another thing my wife did was buy it before I made it, now it is slowly falling apart and I'm waiting. This gives you a chance to get more practice in before you do attack it.
I try recycling materials as much as possible. In your profile it said warehouse man do you get packing cases, pallets are hard to pull apart but can yield some good wood.
Lastly nothing wrong with working with soft wood amateur or pro, main thing enjoy!
With regards to materials do what we all do when on your travels look out for anybody working on their house or look in any skips you see, old pallets, headboards,funiturer any thing that's wood, that's if you have some where to store it for later,then when you think of something to make sort through it, most of enjoyment i think you get is making something out of what some one has thrown away the inventiveness of it,
i'd second that. I one found a pile of victorian floorboards that some developer had ripped out. lucky i was in the transit van so i asked him and io got the lot. made a fair few garden planters.
As I have said on many occasions, I don't buy any timber, unless someone else is paying, yet I make a lot, ask around, I have three builders who drop off timber to me, I stipulate only hardwood, I have had a lot of oak,a fair bit of iroko, mahogany etc, and a very nice consignment of walnut, If I can't plank it myself i take it to a local joinery shop where I get it done mostly for nix, but if I pay it's only a little.
It certainly comes as a shock when you have to buy timber, I used to have a supply of pallets from a company that dealt in windscreens , these where mainly made out of hemlock 4inx1in and 6in x1/12in some of the pallets where 6-8ft long, they would be burnt if nobody collected them, they where sods to get to bits, if they had taken away the nail guns and given hammers to the blokes who made them life would have been easier, but what useful timber that was, all good thing come to an end sadly.
Sounds like you could use a de-nailer tool like i have for those pallets it has 2 claws with a bar that swivels looks like a claw hammer head and a long handle that slides over the shaft, you put the claws one each side of the nail head and slid the handle up and down like a hammer then pull the tool towards you the jaws close around the nail head it grips the head of nail and pulls it out i would send a pic if i could,
Got mine from my Dad years ago don't know if they are still made or what they are called mine has on the handle BPT.HDWE.MFO.Co No 20 Made in USA i think i have seen them somewhere for sale on one of the tool sites away back,
A very handy tool to have for that job only if it gets the head of the nail out you can get a large claw hammer to do the rest,
Eddie that is a cracking job! Just remember all the new things you learnt making it.
When buying timber from a local merchant shop around and get quotes, use the old sharp intake of breath and "your having a laugh, pal". Most merchants lower the price by the amount you buy so it can help if you buy for several projects at one time or discuss your needs with the manager/owner of the outlet. When I started out I arranged an account with a merchant on the proviso that I got good terms and they would get all my business, but I still kept an eye on their competitors prices
Try and sell it for at least double what it cost you so you can reduce the price to sell and still cover your expenses. This way you have only lost the time it took but with the enjoyment of making it and what you have learned you will still be ahead, IMHO.
I must admit whilst looking around a charity shop the other day I to thought about recyclable wood, they were almost giving away wardrobes and other furniture to make room for more stock coming in. But dident get the wood due to very limited space I have in my workshop/garage.
PJ
I work for a company that sell tools, I cry myself to sleep most nights to see what they chuck in the bins. We sell drills, well all sort of tools. Customers buy them online. Use them over the weekend and return them saying they are not up to their required standard or are faulty. There are loads of the returns that are not checked if under a certain value so are binned. We are not allowed to take them or even buy them, just like our pallet and packing wood all untouchable to the staff and scrapped
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