Our Little Herb Shoppe

Well we have been busy around here trying to get our latest business started. Mary and I are opening an herb shop in her present office in town. My part in this has been to carve the sign and finish the massage table and get a couple of mirrors made to sell. Well I just got the sign carved last night and now Mary needs to paint it and I need to get to work on the massage table today.
Here's the first stage when I had glued on the lettering and started routing out the sign.

This is the sign before we start painting it tomorrow.

We're taking the night off tonight to dress the Christmas tree and hope to have the painting done tomorrow.

First real day in the shop

Yesterday was the first day I actually spent doing something in the new shop besides fixing it up. Starting to make a couple of shelving units for the herb shoppe Mary and I are opening soon. Have a sign to make for it as well so I'll be posting some photos of that as well, that is as soon as I find where I put my carving tools. Oh yes there is also the issue of where my new Vertias shoulder plane got to. Used it once on a flooring job I did in August and now I can't find it anywhere. I'm bummed...

I made this for a tool box over 30 years ago when I was on Maui. This is all that's left of it and I've used it on several shops over the years.


The inside now that's it's cleaned up and somewhat organized. Notice the sunset out the window.


Here's the side with the joiner, planer, and table saw.


Last of all here's me at the bench planning some wood... At least that's what it looks like..... It was actually staged, that's a 1x4 I'm going to make the picket fence shelves out of.


Stayed tuned for word of classes I'll be offering here at the ranch in November.

Next stage... Shed roof for storage

So now that I have taken over the shed for my shop I need to build a covered space to put all the stuff I had to move out. We have lots of ranch tools and the ATV, lawn mowers, weed wackers etc.


Just to let you know the inside is coming along as well and as soon as I get the shed completed I can move those shelves out and put the portable table saw in it's place.


Here's the other side where I'll put the saw.
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Wired and moved in!

Finished the dry wall, got the electric hooked up and moved in the benches and tools.

This is Chris helping me do the drywall.


Most of the stuff in but not sorted out and it's still not quite sorted out yet.


More to come soon......

Wiring and insulation

So far I've wired the shed except for running the wire to the shed from the panel (about 80 feet) which I just realized I have closed off the wall where I need to run the wire into the shed. Good thing I didn't finish nailing it off tonight.

First day of wiring, you can see where I cut out the gussets so I can put the wall board up. On the back wall the full gussets are still there.


$10 window is in....


Getting the insulation in and supports for the tool wall.


This is where I made the bo bo. The 4 inch box on the lower right is where the power comes in and it's not hooked up yet so I need to take that piece off tomorrow.

Moving my new shop

Well since I've been too busy with ranch work to start the new shop (and a little low on funds) Mary suggested I used the 16 x 10 ft shed for a temporary shop for the winter. Well since my old shop in Joseph was only 12 ft. wide I didn't figure 2 less feet would be that much of a problem so I told her that was a great idea and I'd look into it.

So the first thing we needed to do was move the shed about 100 yards to the west side of the house. We wanted to use the old space for a Japanese garden someday and we thought about putting a green house where the shed was so I enlisted the help of my neighbor Dale who had all the equipment I didn't have to help me. He brought the load of gravel we needed to level out the site and had the trailer we needed to move the shed as well as a tractor we used to shove the shed around. Oh yes he also had the high lift jack we used to lift the shed to get it off the old foundation and move the shed over after getting it on the new site.

Using the laser level to see how much fill we needed to get the site level, 18 inches over 20 feet.


Here's the shed in it's old home on the east side of the house.


I backed the trailer under the shed and tilted it so we could get it on the trailer and get a strap over it to hold it on the trailer until we could drag it out where Dale could get the tractor bucket and shove the shed the rest of the way onto the trailer.




After getting it over to the new site I backed the trailer into place as well as I could and we prepared to lower her into place.


After getting the shed in position we just needed to get the pressure of the trailer so we could tip it down. Dale used the tractor bucket to take the pressure off so I could release the chain holding the trailer bed down and we slid her down onto the ground.


Well almost there. Just needed to jack her up and slide her over a little to get the
shed centered on the site. I jacked and Dale pushed and it slid over just fine right where I wanted it.


Got done in a little over 3 hours thanks to Dale's help without which I couldn't have done any of it.

Next steps are wiring, insulation, and wallboard in the next post.

Oh and by the way I just noticed after writing this that Chris Hall has just finished his "First Light" lantern after 50 posts on how he built it. If you haven't seen Chris's blog before it is truly a great work and if you have any interest in Japanese joinery and truly inspiring work you need to look up his site "The Carpentry Way"

Also a shout out to Martin Hickman who is now in school in Boston at the North Bennett Street school of house restoration. If you remember he took a week long class from me in March to meet his requirements for admission and I am proud to say he made it and is enrolled in a two year course of study there and just called this week to let me know how things were going and how well he was sawing with his new Ryoba saw. Good luck Martin.......

I'm back

Well again it's been a while since I last posted and things here on the ranch have been busy non the less so the progress on the shop has been less than stellar.

I have gone to the building inspector and realize now I need a complete set of plans (2 sets) and and estimate of building costs (from which they determine the fees) to even get started so I have been doing both. This is where my drafting skills and my experience as a project manager have come into play. I have started my spread sheet and have the foundation, floor plan, and walls done but no elevations done yet.



So next is to see what all the materials will cost as well as what they will charge for hooking up the electric which will need to be the actual first step. Without the juice there will be no power saws or compressor and yes I will not be building this using only hand tools.

So I will try to keep everyone posted on the progress but this may be a slow time for a while so if you need to see some real hand work take a look at my friend Chris Hall's site

Moving in and moving on

Seems I haven't had much to say since the Art Show but I've been waiting to tell everyone that I'm moving to Waha, Idaho to live with my partner Mary on her horse ranch south of Lewiston. I'll be building a new shop there (my last) and I'll keep you all up to date on the going's on till the new Mastro Woodworking opens it's door.

By the way the Ranch is no longer for sale....

Sold!

Well I am pleased to tell everyone my box sold. It was purchased by the Wallowa Arts Council for their Artists of the Wallowas Collection. It's the first piece of wood work they have included in their collection.

A box for the art show

I needed to make something art show and I did a box for my granddaughter last year and I made one for my partner Mary out of some spalted elm I got from my friend Michael Davidson over at Cherry Ridge Silver. I wanted to build another box similar in some ways and and use the same wood again so I needed to go back to Michael's and see what he had.
So this is what I had to work with after my first re sawing. Next after looking for defects I would re saw it again to get 1/2" thick boards to start with.


So I glued up this for the top. I liked the slit so I left it. The slit then determined where I placed the handle in the end.



This is the bottom I'm planing with a high angle plane I made last year in a class I taught. Came in real handy for cleaning up after the glue up.



So I set up the compound miter saw and made a test run.



I had planed to dovetail the ends together like I did on Mary's box but because of time constraints I'm going to save this joint for the next box. It's sort of a hybrid mitered dovetail. Don't know that I've ever seen one before. The lines on the side go away so only the end grain of the pins show.



So I cut the miters and put a grove for the bottom finished and installed the bottom and glued her up. Oh yea I opted for a wax only finish, also because of time constraints.


So next thing is to cut the top to size and rabbet the top to fit the box and figure how to shape edges of the lid. Once I decided how I wanted it to look I rounded the under side using a block plane to form the round and then finish it with saw paper to 600.



The bottom rounded.



Next I first band saw the bevel then clean it up with my block plane and sand paper on a flat block of wood.





Only the handle left to do. I start by looking for the piece and how the grain of the wood will help shape the handle but I think I let the wood direct me here.



Remember me saying the slit determined where I would put the handle. Well it just seemed to me that the handle should relate the the top and to the overall shape of the grain so it looked to me that the handle should go right there.



I think of this box as "following the grain".



Here's a shot of the boxes together.