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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Half Timber and Mutant Hummingbirds.....

OK. I know that you are dieing to find out about the mutant hummingbird first.

Meet Woody. He is a slightly confused woodpecker. We have quite a few that hang out around here, but this one is special...The others go for the suet and squirrel food....Not Woody. He is a hummingbird in training. Yes, He does drink the sugar water. In fact, I think that he gets more that the hummers do. He hangs on there for about five minutes at a time and sticks his beak in the little slots. I am afraid that I am an enabler. I keep filling the jar and he just keeps coming back for more.

Now. On to more serious matters. I am working on the half timber on the trailer. I thought that you might like to see how I am dealing with the curved corners. I am cutting them out of 1/16" bass, to match the size of the straight pieces.

I am simply holding the wood to the side of the trailer and tracing around the outer edge of the curved portion. Then when I have the correct curve, I am using a piece of the straight wood to get the right width. I line the edge of it up with the curve and draw another line the correct width. First cut the interior of the curve and then the outside. Less breakage that way. I cut the first two out with an Exacto that I had handy. It is almost as fast as walking into the workroom and setting up the saw. After they are cut, I will stain them to match the other pieces.

This is what I finished last night, before I ran out of strip wood. I went over to the hardware store this morning and they were out of quarter and three eighths wide strips of one sixteenth wood. I bought what they had left earlier in the week. So I solved the problem by buying some half inch and just ripped them down with my saw.

I am now ready to start on the front. No more fooling around. Zar said so! I am absolutely not going to be done by tomorrow and he only wants to pay for another week of my time.

It seems that the price is going higher by the minute. Tessie now wants ten bucks and two cookies a day. On top of that, she wants an assortment! Poor Zar is going to be broke before the trailer is finished. I had better go back to work, double time.

Gotta run. See you tomorrow.

5 comments:

Drora's minimundo said...

Woody is so cute hanging there. He probably got addicted to sugar.

Kathi said...

Woody is so resourceful! I've never seen any bird do that. Great you could snap a photo to share!

What kind of saw do you have? I'm thinking that will be my next investment. Not any time soon though. For now it's me and the razor knife and scissors...

Love what you're doing with the trailer. :D

Caseymini said...

Kathi, my saw is a little Microlux scroll saw from Micro Mark. I really like it. It has a guide to set up on the table to cut straight lines, as well as the curved ones that I do by hand. That's what I used to rip the boards down to 3/8" this morning.

Drora, I am sure that you are right. Woody does like his sugar!

Rietje said...

I'm a bit worried that he will be the first woodpecker with diabetes in Tucson. :)

Merri said...

Yup, looks like Woody might be an example of Evolution in action! Who knows, if his mates take notice, Woodpeckers may someday crave more sugarwater than grubs!

Poor Zar, he'll need to get a job somewhere. Anyone need a 6 inch high handyman?