Holiday woodbutchery

The other week we went on holiday to The Manor House Hotel in Devon.

It’s in a beautiful setting (although effectively being a large collection of barn like structures, it does little to enhance this!)

As well as the myriad activities for the children and the Spa for my wife, a few caught my eye:

• Computer assisted routers
• Scroll saws
• Picture framing

For some reason I was convinced there was a woodturning class, but there wasn’t (and never has been).

Computer assisted routers

This was the first class I did and I was a little disappointed at how “hands off” it was – having chosen what you wanted on your wood, it was fitted to the CNC router by the teacher and given back to you for a quick sanding and paint/varnish as appropriate once cut.

I had wanted a picture of a tree on my house number, but there was a problem getting the computer to understand the clip art in question, so I gave up on that idea.

After sanding down the marks left by the two router cutters, I painted the numbers black.

The slight overpainting round the edges was sanded off again when dry:

I’ve not oiled or varnished the sign yet, as I may round over the edges a bit more once I finish my router table …

Scroll saws

Although I’ve not used a scroll saw since I was about 16, I’ve been considering buying one for a while.

The workshop was outfitted with several Sheppach Deco 402 scrollsaws:

I wasn’t hugely impressed with these saws – they didn’t seem very accurate or well built, but they’re cheap and have probably had a hard life …

I chose to make an elephant shaped jigsaw puzzle from ash and I’m fairly pleased with the results:

Picture framing

I think this was my favourite activity – I really enjoyed myself and the instructor provided a wealth of hints and tips.

I didn’t take any photos at the time as there was so much to take in and do!

I’m fairly pleased with how the double mounting turned out.

It’s actually about 1mm out at one end where the guide the mount cutter was running against slipped, but it’s hard to spot with the naked eye 🙂

The frame has a couple of fairly neat corners and a couple that are a bit rough.

Unfortunately I mixed up my back board with someone else’s and ended up making my frame too big for my mounted picture!

I’ll probably break it up and use the wood to build a smaller, correctly sized frame.

I really enjoyed both the mounting and the framing components and resolved to start amassing the relevant tools – I’ve made a start by picking up a Nobex Proman mitre saw at a car boot sale!

Now all I need is a mount cutter, some corner clamps and some way of inserting the V-nails and flexi-tabs … 🙂