Weekend Update – 1/7/13

My son was here for a week+ for the holidays and we did cool stuff as he is the Igor to my Dr. Frankinstein. He left on Friday morning and to keep myself occupied so I wouldn’t mope around all weekend thinking about how much I missed him, I busied myself with a few on-going projects:

Underbed dresser – 95% done
Letterpress drawers made into occasional tables – 50%
The never ending kitchen remodel – 85%
Sofa table rebuild – 20%
Bathroom drawer for wife – 50%
Candle box – 100%
Glass cabinet handle installation – 45%
Hall mirror – 22%
Helping a friend move – 50%
Etc…

While fitting the final pieces of the under bed dresser (built from an 1980s $4.00 garage sale upright five drawer) for our room and I transposed  two numbers and cut something a touch too long. Grumble… Grumble…  I went out to the shop, measured for screw clearance and put it on the table saw to rip down just a touch. I missed one screw, but my $56 carbide tipped cabinet blade didn’t. Sparks and bits of carbide flew. I said dirty words and came into the house to drown my sorrows in a Mexican coke, Jack with honey and an old Clint Eastwood western while propped up in bed with my grumpy face on.

Film Friday – 1st Double Feature

Dirftwood. Boards washed up on the beach in a storm. Below is a film in which two guys take a section of lumber found on the Oregon coast and turn it all into functional one-of-a-kind surfboard. Building something both useful and beautiful from reclaimed wood is a thing to aspire to.

Experiment No. 3 – Scrap Surf from Shwood Eyewear on Vimeo.

Jack Daniel’s is the only distillery in the US that still makes its own wooden barrels. Although the process is automated, the production of the coopered tubs that make the aging and mellowing of this fine Tennessee Bourbon possible is mesmerizing to watch.

The Birth of a Barrel from Travis Robertson on Vimeo.