creativity test

[rainbowgardener]

I rescued these blocks of wood:

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/100_0635.jpg[/img]

just because they seemed too nice to be thrown out. So now I have them. They are about 8" cubes of solid wood. But I have no idea what to do with them...

Anyone have any thoughts? wild ideas?

[Kisal]

Hollow them out and shape them on a wood lathe and make medium plant containers. Not likely I'd do this myself, as I no longer have any kind of lathe available for my use. You invited wild ideas though!

What kind of wood is it? Can you tell from the grain or other clues?

[tomf]

Drill a hole in two ends of each, put a dowel in the hole and glue them together at angles to each other. Stain them and use them for garden art.

[lorax]

At least one of them is obviously a 6-sided mini game board - if I were you, the six faces would be:
1. Chess/Checkers
2. Chinese Checkers
3. Go
4. Backgammon
5. Sennet
6. Mancala or similar.

Then a second block, with a lid taken, and then lathed out as Kisal suggests, holds the game pieces (heck, you could do this with the actual game block if you wanted, provided you used a rubber washer or something similar to make sure the lid fits tightly.)

[!potatoes!]

I like lorax's idea (though I'd want halatafl, the viking fox and geese game on there).

continuing the game theme, they could be made into super-sized dice, probably more for lawn ornamentation than gaming, but you could come up with something. looks like they'd need to be rolled one at a time...

my wife says she'd paint them.

[luvthesnapper]

Cut one in half, and hollow out two bowls? You could do that by hand.

[GardenRN]

Cut them all in half, gorilla glue them together side by side to make a square (or rectangle). Sand the surfaces smooth and finish with an epoxy or laquer finish and you'd have a very nice, and very large cutting board. Those nice thick ones like that are over $50 a piece. I made my own because I just could come to grips with spending $75 on a stinkin' slab of wood.

[rainbowgardener]

You folks are doing great! I knew you would come through for me!

I like the bowl / flower pot ideas, but don't have the tools for that (but I did invite any and all suggestions).

I may do both the cutting board AND the mini-game boards. Two of them cut in half would be four pieces, that would be plenty big enough cutting board.

But I'm still listening if anyone else wants to try the creativity test!

[jal_ut]

Firewood!

[Charlie MV]

I have a $750 Delta lathe duplicator that was given as a gift. I never used it because the directions were really complicated and I can duplicate without it. A lathe was responsible for my 30 year career as a cabinet maker. I'll pack it and ship it for a couple of hundred bucks.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Firewood!

Set a bug on one and smash it with another.

Eric

[DoubleDogFarm]

Strap them to Applestar's feet so she can reach the gas and brake pedals.


Eric

[Charlie MV]

Strap them to Applestar's feet so she can reach the gas and brake pedals.


Eric

You deserve a raise.

[lorax]

Another idea is to cut one of them into 4" cubes (you'd get 8 of them), and woodburn the faces for regular dice into them - then you've got a fun game to play in the lawn. (Lawn Yahtzee!)

[GardenRN]

I have a $750 Delta lathe duplicator that was given as a gift. I never used it because the directions were really complicated and I can duplicate without it. A lathe was responsible for my 30 year career as a cabinet maker. I'll pack it and ship it for a couple of hundred bucks.

Exactly how many hundred bucks?!? I always wanted a lathe...

[Dillbert]

waell, I'd put spots on them

....rung up the Jolly Green Giant

headed for the Vegas junk tables.

demonstration included except don't have any good software to cut and paste the pips onto the die/dice.

[tomf]

I was given a simi-truck load of glue-lam beams and I have been making things out of them; mostly benches and tables. I have made art out of some of the end pieces. This is a carving I did, you could carve the blocks into heads.
[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/yard%202012/DSCN0667.jpg[/img]

One of the benches I made.


[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/yard%202012/DSCN0664.jpg[/img]

A picknick table.

[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/yard%202012/DSCN0661.jpg[/img]

[applestar]

Strap them to Applestar's feet so she can reach the gas and brake pedals.


Eric

They made me think of Mr. Magoriums's Wonder Emporium.

Can't think of any ideas right now... I'm still laughing too hard....

[Charlie MV]

I have a $750 Delta lathe duplicator that was given as a gift. I never used it because the directions were really complicated and I can duplicate without it. A lathe was responsible for my 30 year career as a cabinet maker. I'll pack it and ship it for a couple of hundred bucks.

Exactly how many hundred bucks?!? I always wanted a lathe...

Exactly $200. But this is not a lathe. It is a lathe duplicator. You use it to reproduce an original turning. It has a stylus that follows the profile of your turning and creates an exact copy of the original. You attach this to a lathe and the lathe spins the piece while the blade on the duplicator creates the match. My apprentices used duplicators to create the second third and fourth legs on a table or whatever. I always found it easier to use calipers and just turn the duplicates by eyeball.

[img][img]https://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd5/charliemv/boat%20renovation/southpark2.jpg[/img][/img]


The legs on this table were turned by eyeball but if you turn the first one, the duplicator will recreate the other 3. My company did everything you see in the picture except the granite.

[GardenRN]

Holy junk! That's an amazing kitchen!! Looks like supm straight out of better homes and gardens!

I understand what you mean now about the duplicator. And you're right, that's not what I want.

Wicked jealous of that kitchen though!!

[luvthesnapper]

Damn. My house sucks.

[rainbowgardener]

yeah, but gixx builds houses that sell for well up in the millions of dollars....

[Charlie MV]

Holy junk! That's an amazing kitchen!! Looks like supm straight out of better homes and gardens!

Actually it was in BH&G as well as the cover of south Park/ Charlotte Architecture magazines.




[img][img]https://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd5/charliemv/boat%20renovation/SouthParkCover.jpg[/img][/img]

[luvthesnapper]

So what's the best way to attach a cabinet, to a wall. I never knew how that's done exactly. I'm pretty sure you don't just drive some screws into it.

[GardenRN]

So what's the best way to attach a cabinet, to a wall. I never knew how that's done exactly. I'm pretty sure you don't just drive some screws into it.

Cabinets? You have cabinets??!!??
jk

Well, Charlie, I guess I was right then! lol.

I have lots of seeds to trade if you and Gix wanna get together and build me a new home when I'm ready to sell this one. I'll buy about a 7 acre lot and you can do what you can do for an assortment of about 200 different seeds.

[luvthesnapper]

Cabinets? You have cabinets??!!??

I'm not sure if they are considered cabinets. They're these wooden things on the wall.....far from anything that would be considered quality cabinetry.

[Charlie MV]

So what's the best way to attach a cabinet, to a wall. I never knew how that's done exactly. I'm pretty sure you don't just drive some screws into it.

We hung ledger strips on the wall screwed to studs. The ledgers were cut on a 30 degree angle. a mating ledger was fastened to the back of the cabinet with a 30 degree angle on the bottom side. You could just sit the cabinet on the strips and the weight of the cabinet would hold them in place. We added a few screws in case of earthquakes or civil unrest.

[tomf]

Charlie you do very nice work. I made oak cabinets for my last house and they turned out real nice despite the fact I am not a pro. I don't have any photos ready of it. I made some furniture as well. This is the only photo I have on line, it is of a saddle holder I made for my wife.
[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/PussyPose.jpg[/img]

[Dillbert]

>>saddle holder

well, isn't that the cat's meow . . .!
(giggle)

[Charlie MV]

Tom, it's not easy to do but that's disturbing and I'm speechless. You have a twofer.

[Charlie MV]

Okay, I am a bit recovered. The saddle holder is beautiful and I've never seen such perfect posture on such a large cat. Can she saddle a horse?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Okay, I am a bit recovered. The saddle holder is beautiful and I've never seen such perfect posture on such a large cat. Can she saddle a horse?

[Francis Barnswallow]

Anyone have any thoughts? wild ideas?

Make your own poppers (fishing lures). Saves ya a ton of money.

[tomf]

We grow big caats out here charlie. it was the only photo I had of the saddle holder on line.

[Fig3825]

This is not my own idea, I stole it from TV.

Was watching Design Star on HGTV couple nights ago and this one kid took stumps and bored some small holes in the flat top of the stump and planted succulents in the holes. Apparently, since they don't need much watering, it's a perfect home for them.

Perhaps you can finish the block somehow to make it pretty and shiny, then drill a couple or three 1" or 2" holes closer to one corner of a block and then plant some smaller succulents in it.

Then you have a nice little finished wood piece with plants growing out of the top.

I thought it was really clever what the kid did on TV because he did the same thing with 18" stumps that were about 30" tall. He drilled some holes close to an edge of the stump, planted about 5 or 6 succulents in them and the result was a rather clever end table with succulents growing right out of it.

Just after I posted this I found a link to the article with a pic [img]https://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2012/06/melissa_home/Design_Star_0703/DesignStar704_Succulentsidetable_close.jpg[/img]

[tomf]

Whenever I get time I have some big logs to chainsaw carve, I will make them into something other than bears. LOL

[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/landscaping%202012/DSCN0800.jpg[/img]