I try to help the kids with projects during the week, but often we do more on Saturdays. Today we did 3 projects. The first one isn’t a restoration, so it’s at another site. FIRST AID SUPPLY BOX

The other are a piano bench that Clara is working on; and a Kenmore dryer that Colleen is working on. I wish I had taken a picture of the dark Walnut stain going on the freshly sanded wood bench top. In the first picture, Clara is applying varnish over the stain with a brush. I wanted to her to get experience with different methods. In the second picture, the varnish has dried, we have wet sanded it with 400 grit paper, and wiped the dust off with a tack cloth. Then I showed her how to spray a coat on. The results are rather nice, but the picture doesn’t show it so well.The dryer that Colleen worked on is extra, my wife bought a new one, this one still works, but we’re free to use it as a teaching project. That we will, it will have flames and maybe pinstripes when we’re finished. In the first picture, she’s sanding it with a power sander and 320 grit paper. Then she blew it off, and wiped it with solvent and a tack cloth. In the second picture, she is spray painting with an HVLP sprayer. This was a good learning project, as there is some technique involved. The third picture shows the result, a very nice finish, clean, white, shiny, and no runs, She did a great job.

In the last post, I tried a new way to use my splitting mauls, by polishing and waxing them. It’s part of a continual mindset (when I can) to try things a different way. It has helped me very much over the years. Now this bit here with the left handed dental floss is pretty much just a joke; but it illustrates the continual mindset of exploring new methods. I don’t remember if I dropped the container, but I noticed that the assembly came out as a whole. You can access it by squeezing the container, pulling it out, and reversing it. Ta-da! Left handed dental floss. You saw it here first.

The mindset is usually a lot more practical. Like when using a pizza box to start a fire. I realized that I could make long cuts that didn’t go all the way to the edge, then twist the cardboard. This allows air to get in between the pieces. Works great. The grease on the box helps. Did you know that corn chips and potato chips are very flammable?

Wood splitting mauls, that is. The days just before Christmas, I was repairing an old splitting maul. I decided to try a fiberglass handle, instead of the usual wood one. You can see it in the first picture below. It was as rusty as the other one beside it. I’m trying something different with my mauls; I’m polishing the sides, and rubbing them with candle wax, before I use them. So they’re painted on the top, bottom, and back end, but not the sides. I used the parts in the first picture to start a shorter one for kindling wood. In the next picture, I’ve used a 4 inch angle grinder with a flap disk to clean the rust, a with a wire wheel to get down into stamped lettering and rust pits, then a small wire brush on a drill to clean the inside of the hole. I used my homemade card scarper to remove the old finish and dark wood from the handle.I’m also experimenting with winding copper wire around the handle at the top and maybe the bottom, to prevent splitting the handle. here’s the finished short maul, and the kindling I tested it on. It works like greased lightening. It’s funny how a simple tool that’s usually disregarded can perform a lot better with a little thought. Next, I had a surprise Christmas gift, a new splitting maul! This one is better though. It’s bigger, 8 lbs, it has a fiberglass handle, and the handle is bigger, like a mattocks. When I got it, the sides were rough, but painted. I tore off the paper sticker, ground off the paint and sand cast roughness, then coated it with candle wax. It too works very well.

I’m starting this new tool report, to show what I’m learning about tools, and how beneficial they are. In the book of Proverbs, it says: Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox. (Proverbs 14:4)