Projects

Making a Walking Stick

June 28, 2021 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

This video is dedicated to my dad on his 70th birthday and I have a guide below explaining the whole process of how I made this walking stick for him.

I’m making him a walking stick as he enjoys walking but due to an old injury struggles a little so I thought this might help.

And since I mentioned his age and frailties, he can also use it to beat me with!

For this project you will need:

A stick – hazel, ash or any strong wood works well
Some buffalo horn pre-shaped – I’m using a pistol grip style
A bone disc – not vital but will make the handle look much nicer
Threaded bar – I’m using 8mm
Brass ferrule for the end of the stick
Epoxy
Sandpaper – multiple grits
Abrasive paste

I started by sanding the end of the pre-shaped buffalo horn flat. I wasn’t too worried about a fine finish here as this is where the glue would go so I just used 180 grit sandpaper.

I then marked a centre point with my centre finder, set the drill depth about 30mm and drilled a small hole for the 8mm threaded rod that will connect this to the stick.

I then took the (presumably human?) bone and sanded it flat and the two ends parallel to each other and again marked the centre but this time drilled the hole straight through it.

I then marked with a pencil where the bone and horn meet and slowly shaped the bone down to size with my bench sander.

The hazel stick I had to grow so I used some hazelnut chocolate, dirt and water and a few magic words…

Once grown I tested the ideal height using me as reference since I’m about the same height as my dad.

I then cut the stick to the size accounting for the rough size of the handle and then marked the centre of the end of the stick.

I then drilled a pilot hole to make sure the hole lined up correctly (I’ve been burnt by this before!) and finally a larger hole for the threaded rod.

*Drilling a pilot hole for the threaded rod*

I then double-checked the handle would match up with the stick, sanding and shaping the bone and horn further until it was a perfect fit.

The other end of the stick needed a ferrule to protect it so I did a test fit and whittled down so it fitted snuggly.

Once happy I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and glued the ferrule onto the end of the stick ensuring any excess was wiped off quickly. Its better to do this now than later ones its dried!

*Glueing up the end of the stick to fit the ferrule*

While the glue was out I turned to the parts of the handle and glued them together. To ensure everything was a really tight fit I put clamping force on the threaded rod with my vice and a separate wing nut onto the bone spacer.

Once properly dried I did some final shaping of the head piece to ensure it matched the stick then sanded up the grips with 120, 240 and finally 400 grit sandpaper. In hindsight I should have used more grit sizes in between to hide the toolmarks as this made the final sand extremely long.

I then put on some Yorkshire grit, an abrasive paste that I normally use for woodturning. Its amazing stuff though and worked into the piece it gives you a wet sand that doesn’t get dust everywhere plus the particles in it break down to give you finer and finer sand as you go on. I wipe it off when done leaving something fairly polished without doing actual polishing.

*Polishing the horn with Yorkshire Grit*

I last check to see it fits and then I add epoxy to the thread rod and glue the head onto the stick.

The bark I wanted to leave on as this helps protect the stick, just as it once did while the tree was growing. Plus it looks fantastic.

A special mix of 1 part linseed 1 part tung 1 part mineral spirits was mixed up and I put on 3-4 coats with 24 hours between coats lightly with lint-free cloth.

Teak oil works too instead of Tung and I can say since its nearly 2 years since he’s had the stick, its held up extremely well.

The stick (sorry to ruin the magic), ferrule, bone and handle were purchased from the awesome Keith Pickering and not actually grown. If you want to make one please check out his stuff at:
http://www.thestickman.co.uk

This is my first walking stick but I’ve developed a taste for it so please let me know if you’re interested in seeing more! Maybe next time I’ll hand carve something interesting for the handle.

Please subscribe and hit notify to be updated when I release new videos and constructive advice/feedback/ideas are all welcome in the comments below or on the video.

Also find me in these internety places:
https://twitter.com/thewoodgineer
https://www.facebook.com/TheWoodgineer
https://instagram.com/woodgineer
https://www.patreon.com/thewoodgineer
thewoodgineer@gmail.com

Thanks all!

Can I Convert a 3D Printer into a CNC?

June 8, 2020 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

Well yes, I did and this is the video. I turn an old Prusa i3 into a budget CNC with a spindle kindly donated by Banggood. Its not a bad little machine for the cost and will cut wood, plastics, arcylric and even just about handle aluminium (with issues) Check out the video here and see how I did!

The 3D printer I’ve a few years now just sitting in the shed
as I have my nice Lulzbot Taz 3 so its about time I gave it a new lease of life.

It was a good printer for its time and as I built it myself I’m very familiar with the design so it’ll lend itself perfectly to this project.

My first thought as I’m sure many have considered before, there isn’t much difference between a 3D printer and a small CNC machine.

They typically both have small stepper motors that drive a tool end of some kind along several axis to reproduce a digital file.

3D printers do additive manufacturing using a plastic extruder usually and CNC machines a rotary cutting tool to do subtractive manufacturing by carving away the unwanted material.

Surely it’s as simple as swapping out the extruder with the spindle right?

*bad idea*

On both a CNC or 3D printer something needs to tell the motors exactly what to do.

In this case an old RAMPS board with an Arduino mega controls the various motor directions as well as telling the extruder motor how much plastic to squirt out and when.

This would probably work just fine with a bit of reconfiguration.

Unboxing and Testing the Spindle

Lets look at the spindle first. It comes well packaged and 2 has 2 short wires with bare ends as well as a nice aluminium mounting block.

If you want to check it out you can buy it here:

https://www.banggood.com/custlink/DDDDwICBHj

This code will also get you 15% off: BGMotor003

You also get a power supply and variable speed controller allowing the spindle to be ran at anywhere between 1-3000 RPM.

I knew immediately the cables would not be long enough so I soldered on some additional length and then set about testing the spindle to make sure it worked well.

And it did. Amazingly well in fact.

I did have some trouble with the connections, partly because the PSU labels were in Chinese but this was nothing a quick google couldn’t fix. The pic below shows what wires go where.

Testing the Old Printer

I needed to know the old 3D printer still worked after all it had been in a damp shed for a few years now.

It sorta worked and the print is recognisable it’s the logo from old makerspace So Make It.

Probably needs recalibrating but I didn’t bother with all that as I was about to completely reconfigure this machine.

Plus I must admit I was a little intimidated by the tidy wiring that I would need to deal with.

(it was a state)

For now I’m going to run the spindle in isolation at a set speed using the provided power supply and speed controller rather than doing anything clever like letting the electronics handle the speed.

It’s just one less thing to go wrong!

Reconfiguring

The glass print bed is great for holding down your 3D prints but the idea of a rotating carbide endmill crashing down on it scared me a little so I knew this had to go.

Look at that image from before, an Ikea mirror tile, this thing is pretty sophisticated!

I got rid of it and replaced it with a piece of plywood so its cheap enough to cope with a few holes and be replaced if necessary as well as being fairly dimensionally stable.

The extruder also had to be removed as well as all the associated wiring like the heater cables and temperate probes which made things a bit easier to deal with.

The banggood spindle comes with a nice mounting bracket that means I just need to drill a few holes in the existing mounting plate.

But I’m impatient and a bodger so I used some of this awesome Gorilla tape to make a temporary mounting.

My sophisticated Spindle Mounting System

There. Looks proper good that as you can see! 😉

The current firmware on this board was on old version of Marlin since as awesome as Marlin is, it was designed for 3D printers not CNC mills.

Ordinarily you would expect something on this machine called GRBL.

I used some firmware that already been written called GrblforRAMPS by Per Ivar Nerseth but had limited sucess and messed around with the latest Marlin build with some tweaks.

This was easy enough to download from Github and install onto the board using the Arduino IDE.

As there is no longer an extruder or hot bed as well as all the temperature probes that come with that, I removed any references to them in the code.

Initial Testing

I used Repetier to drive the machine as that what I used on this printer before and I know it works. Its free and fairly easy to use.

And for the first cut I inserted a 3mm end mill piece also from banggood.

https://www.banggood.com/custlink/DGvyjLR317

I’ve not used any of their tool bits before but have found them to be great value if you don’t mind waiting a little longer for them to arrive.

Some scrap pine was stuck down to the bed with carpet tape.

I love this stuff, double sided, cheap and grips really well but not so well that you cant remove stuff afterwards.

OK what could go wrong I thought…..

Well a lot it turns out. My steps per inch was off and I had a major crash of the spindle into the bed causing lots of smoke 🙁

This was a quick fix in the code using the Arduino IDE

Seems to work OK.

I used Estlcam to generate the toolpaths as it can generate Marlin compatible gcode and again, its free and easy to use.

I still wasn’t happy however and things were just not working as well as I had hoped.

Changing the RAMPs Electronics

I really wanted to make this work with the printers existing electronics and it kinda’ does. It’s not easy to reconfigure however and the software I’ve got loaded is nearly five years out of date.

I could probably muddle through but there’s an easier way.

I ditched the RAMPs board and the Arduino and switched to a dedicated CNC board that runs the latest builds of GRBL, runs 3 axis and is of course available from Banggood (sorry if this reads like a giant ad, I just buy a lot of my stuff from them!)

Adding a Proper Spindle Mount

The flex in my tape mounted spindle was pretty bad during that though so I should probably make a more serious mounting bracket.

I measured up a bit of walnut, cut to size and drilled holes to fit the existing x carriage and holes for the aluminium mounting block.

Fantastic, that looks a little more professional, I could almost call this thing a fancy name and launch a kickstarter.

Final Tests

It made sense to use a shape I’m familiar with so I used the makerspace logo again, but scaled it up a bit so you can see the detail with a 3mm bit. I didn’t have anything smaller at this time.

I thought some limewood would be ideal for the first cuts since its fairly soft and I made sure it was extra secure on the bed this time.

A Recognisable Cut of the Southampton Makerspace Logo

You can see from the image I have a recognisable cut! The Southampton makerspace logo (the shape of a spanner)

I switched from Estlcam to Inventables Easel as its free and extremely easy to use, much simpler than anything else I’ve used so far.

You can just I just pick what material you’re, using, tell it how big it is, add a pattern or something that you want to cut, tell it the depth and can generate the tool paths.

I also switched to something that’s designed to run a CNC, the openbuilds control software. Again this is free and easy to use.

Oh and you can control your machine with your phone too which is pretty cool.

I just move my spindle to a reference point, say the bottom left corner on top of what I want to cut, set this as my home position and then start.

I then tried to something a bit deeper this time, a smiley face 😊 You can see from the images it turned out OK!

I then tried a stamp. I used rubber material at first designed for laser cutting but this was too soft and didn’t work well so I switched to something a little harder; linoleum.

That worked great and made a functional stamp.

I tried acrylic with a little cut of Olaf from Frozen. It was a bit too melty as I was using cheap dremel bits but still was a good recognisable cut.

The final test was aluminium.

I found it cut but bit of a weird step feature which I knew was not missing steps or a sliped belt as the artifact was not repeated. After some comments from my subscribers I think this was down to the flex of the bed.

But it cuts! – so success! (sorta)

Summary

So I learned loads making this thing, for light cuts and engraving its actually a useful machine but you can see from the wobble its not really suitable as a serious CNC.

I can say the spindle does not need to be changed, this things pretty good for a small machine. Banggood do more powerful ones as well if you need it.

I bet I could modify some stuff to improve things though.

I’ve considered adding some powerful motors, changing the plastic parts out for something more rigid, change the belts to lead screws and maybe redesign the structure to add to its rigidity.

No I’m not even that crazy when you can just buy a fairly well designed little machine for around £150-200

So thanks very much all for reading and please check out the video if you want to see some of the disasters and fun I had. If you have any questions please shoot!

Making a 3D Printed Animated GIF

January 28, 2020 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

Hey people – I’ve been playing with 3D printed lithophanes and making these awesome photos come to life. This short tutorial post will go over the steps I made to create the Picard animated GIF in the video using 3D printed frames – a 3D printed animated GIF if you will!

You will need: Nothing!
If you don’t have a 3D printer you could always make these and get a 3D printing service such as 3D Hub or shapeways 🙂
You need a light source to shine behind the lithophanes but of course you could just use the sun 😉

So the concept of lithophanes has been around for hundreds of years. They were originally made of thin porcelain and would involve etching or molding artwork onto the substrate and shining a light source behind to reveal the artwork. Thinner areas let more light through and thicker areas less so with some skill some quite detailed images could be represented.

Only in recent years we’ve seen them 3D printed and people have figured out lots of ways of making them.

You can now make them directly in Cura or use your favourite 3D modelling package but I’ve been using this online tool by Mark Durbin. It’s available at:

3Dp.rocks/lithophane/

The tool lets you upload an image and it will directly process this into a STL file which you can download and print.

There are some basic controls for modifying the STL and choosing different shapes.

There’s the standard flat, curves both concave and convex, a solid cylinder, pillow shaped, dome shaped and even heart shaped.

Printing them needs to be done vertically as the bottom layer squashing can distort and lesson the effect. So once you have your image turned into a model, you may need to rotate it.

I’ve done a range of different thicknesses and found for normal ABS and PLA 3mm thick is optimal. Any less and you lose definition and anymore and light doesn’t get through the thicker parts.

Although I’m sure somebody has done it, I’ve not seen anybody do much with stop motion lithophanes yet.

Probably because there isn’t any logical reason to but hey, sometimes you just want to do stuff because you can.

And partly to celebrate the new Star Trek spin off Picard and partially because I needed something short to test I decided to use the classic Picard face palm meme!

Preparing the 3D Prints

First I used this nifty online tool EasyGIF to break the meme into separate images.

https://ezgif.com/split

There were about 39 in total but I only needed 27 of them to convey fully what’s going on.

I then manually imported and made STLs for each image.

And of course 3D printed them.

Preparing to Take the Photos

With all the Picard’s printed I needed some kind of jig so they could all be placed in the same place relative to the camera and I could run a little stop motion magic.

I was going to 3D print something complicated but a scrap piece of wood will do fine for testing.

Camera mounted one end with an elastic band.

I’m using a c920 logitec web cam here as it’s a great little camera for being able to adjust settings.

Pop the light the other end and the frame goes in the middle.

A little bit of experimentation was needed to get the thing just right. It took a while to play with the settings to get things looking good.

Contrast needed go up a bit higher so we can make out the detail and of course I needed to adjust the focus.

I put to make a mark on the wood where the base sits so I can make sure each one is in the same place.

And to make extra sure things stayed in the same place, I glued a little bit of wood onto the board. Now the frame can quickly push up against it.

I wasn’t too worried about it being slightly too left or right as this can be fixed in the software later.

Making the Animation

Now the fun job, lets take a photo of each of these 27 frames….

With the photos done I imported them into Adobe Premier. This is remarkably easy to do, just make sure your images have some kind of sensible number order as the filename.

In Premier go to import, select the first image and tick the Image Sequence checkbox. This will import all those images as a sequence you can then use just like any other video clip.

This sequence was 27 frames long which is just over a second of footage. To complete the circle I rendered it as an animated gif and again this is really easy to do in the latest versions of Premier, just select the Animated GIF option as your export format.

And there we go, happy Picard day everybody!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial or the video and I’d love to know what meme to do next. Maybe you can make one too?

Let me know if you do!

Oh and I’ve uploaded this to Giphy here:

So if you want to use it, please feel free!

And again remember to check out the video if you haven’t!

Wooden Bandsaw Reindeer

November 23, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

In a festive mood and wanting to try out my new 6mm blade on my bandsaw I thought I’d have a go at a 3D reindeer that I’d seen on Matthias Wendals site.

Using a scrap piece of 2×4 I cut it down to roughly the size I wanted and printed out the template to stick onto my workpiece. The spray adhesive I used worked well to keep the template in place but was extremely messy so I’ll be doing that again with gloves or on some newspaper!

I first cut the front profile which wasn’t much of a problem due to the smooth curves though this was extremely noisey due to the large amount of wood being cut. This also highlight some minor alignment issues for the bed or the blade on my bandsaw as the cut did not join up perfectly at either end of the workpiece. I must remember to correct those issues later!

The piece cut off were then taped up together so I could do another pass. Matthias used nails to secure the pieces together and indeed when I did a second attempt at this later I screwed the pieces together and much better results.

I found despite the thinner blade some of the tight curves were a problem and I suspect this sort of design would do better smaller and on the scrollsaw. I may consider investing in an even smaller blade later perhaps (or improve my technique)

The final cuts saw the whole piece come apart and reval the 3D reindeer in all its glory. I gave it a light sand as best I could but didn’t bother to finish it as these were just test pieces.

A given my daughter loved it!

This took probably 30 minutes to make and even this common design could probably sell at craft fairs so I may rattle out a few next Christmas and see if I can make a few pennies for my time!

You can find the template on Mathhias Wendals site here if you want more details or a downloadable template

Wood Turned Xmas Tree

November 1, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

November 1, 2017

Wood Turned Xmas Tree

Categories Christmas Decoration, Lathe, Project

Still with xmas on its way I wanted to make another practice object on the lathe and had an idea for an xmas tree decoration.

I had some holly from a work colleague which I had been seasoning in the shed for 6 months or so and had hoped this would turn better than the usual cheap timber.

The piece was cut down to size on my mitre saw and then mounted on a 4 screw chuck so it would be nice and secure and this was supported by a live centre on the tailstock. The tailstock could be removed later for painting.

I roughed down the piece of holly with my new roughing gouge and this was a joy to turn leaving pleasing light wood chips and strips.

I then used a pencil to mark where I wanted the tree to start and the pot to be and used a skew chisel to rough the main shape making sure it was smooth.

I then used my parting tool to detail the trunk a bit further and create some concentric rings down the trunk to finish the tree.

I then gave it a light sand just so it wouldn’t cause splinters rather than any attempt to finish properly.

Green, brown and black kids acrylic paint was then used to give it some colour and the piece was done as a trial.

I noticed a small crack around one of the knots but didn’t think much of it however over the space of just a day where the paint dried a large crack appeared in the side and a week later this had grown.

I believe the piece was not fully seasoned so need to start reading up on wood checking and cracking and how to best season the wood or avoid cracks. I suspect the reason it turned so well was that it was still a bit green and the way my cuts went down to the core of the wood probably weakened the piece so maybe next time I will try drying the wood first before turning.

A great piece to learn from however and even with the cracks looks good!

1st Wood Turned Snowman

October 16, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

I still hadn’t made anything on the lathe other than sawdust and round bits of wood so I needed to make my first thing. As it was xmas, a snowman seemed ideal.

I used a piece of 2×2 construction pine and set about rounding the stock with my roughing gouge. I had previously been using an old spindle gouge which came with the lathe and not very sharp so my new roughing gouge from axminster was a pleasant change and cut the wood as it were butter.

I then smoothed the wood with a skew chisel and used the skew to curve two sections for the snowmans body and head.

I then used the parting tool to create a top hat (no snowman is complete without a hat) and some 180 grit sand paper to smooth things out. If I were not just practicing I might have moved up the grits and done some proper finishing but this was satisfactory.

A coat of tung oil/methylated spirit mix was added and another light sanding before adding another coat of tung/meth mix and this was left to dry overnight.

If I were not just practicing I might have moved up the grits and done some proper finishing but this was satisfactory.

A small wooden dowel that had been tapered down to a cone was inserted and glued into a small hole in the head for a nose and this was painted orange with my daughters acrylic paint. Unintentionally it was marred a little by the pliers I used but this actually made it look even more carrot like!

Very small holes so the wood wasn’t split were created for eyes and buttons and somenails were added which looked great.

The mouth was carved with my flexcut knife but this looked a little creepy if I’m honest. Carving is something I need to practice and perhaps I might have done better if I drew on a template first.

The hat was painted black with my acrylic paint although much care was needed to do this without it bleeding onto the head. If I were making lots of these I’d consider a template to go around the collar so I could paint quicker.

Once another night had passed the snowman was dry and I presented him to my daughter who fell in love!

This was a great prototype and while I didn’t have time this year, I think next year I should be making a run of these to sell.

1st Whistle

October 16, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

In line with the “projects my daughter will love but my wife will hate” set of projects I wanted to make a simple wooden whistle that my daughter could use during playing with her trains.

I’d never stopped to wrap my head around the theory of how a whistle works nor remember ever being taught such a thing at school but from somewhere I already knew how a whistle worked. Making something in wood would be fairly easy I thought.

I took a short scrap piece of 2×2 piece of construction pine and drilled an 8mm hole about half way down.

I then cut down a small pine dowel with a knife to create a reed that would fit into the hole and cut a slot directly where the end of the reed would be once inserted.

I was able to test the tone with a simple push fit of the reed into the hole and was happy enough with the sound.

I then glued the reed into position but also cut down the 2×2 a bit further to make something a bit easier for a small child to hold, about 20x20mm in width.

The edges were all sanded with 100 grit sandpaper by hand to avoid any sharp corners or splinters and I added a few coats of tung oil as it was the only stuff I had to hand that I knew was food safe.

I left it to dry 30 minutes in between coats with a light sand (150 grit) each time however I did waste a bit of sandpaper doing it this way which could have been avoided by letting it dry longer between each coat.

My daughter loved it of course and despite the telling off by the wife!

Hanging Ikea RIBBA Frames

September 16, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

We wanted to put a large selection of photos on the wall in Ikea black Ribba frames but this was a plasterboard wall and we wanted them in specific locations. Picture hanging wire and other hanging solutions have never worked for me so I needed to come up with a new solution.

Please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases which may include any links posted below.

I used plasterboard screws straight into the wall at specific points and marked out a grid of where the photos should go. While not as secure as proper plasterboard fixings these would be strong enough for these lightweight frames.

Plasterboard Screws

The frames were then carefully drilled on the middle top back with my drill press to the exact size of the screw they would be mounted on. I found however that Ikea frames are not solid wood and instead a wood/cardboard mashup so this took a few attempts to get right without destroying them.

I also found I needed to cushion beneath the frame to prevent any marking with a tea towel on my drill press. Using a hand electric drill works just as well of course!

Drill Press Table with some cushioningI also marked the depth I needed to drill to with a bit of electrical tape on the drill bit so not to go too deep!

Never underestimate the importance of using an awl – even a cheap one like this for precision work! It will make a massive different if you do this before letting a wandering big drill bit loose on things.

A basic woodworking Awl

The finished frames look good and are positioned exactly where I require them flush against the wall with no hanging or adjustment required.

1st Carved Spoon

May 31, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

I’m not planning on becoming a full time spoon whittler any time soon but I love the idea of spoon carving and am impressed by the craft. I wanted to make a little spoon for my daughter that she could use but also keep and in years to come say “my dad made that”

I used some bass wood as this is a really nice wood for beginner carvers like myself, with relatively friendly grain pattern and not too hard.

I used a pencil to trace the outline of the little spoon I wanted to make then started whittling away around the edges.

I used my flex cut carving jacks gouges to cut out the hollow and one of the knives to do the actual whitling. I can see how this would be a nice tool out in the field but suspect a dedicated knife/gouge is the way to go when in the workshop.

So to really personalise it I then burned my daughters initials on the handle using a soldering iron.

I then soaked the entire spoon in tung oil/white spirit to bring out the grain and once dry gave it a light sand.

I then added two light coats of shellac to seal it over the following night.

Carving took about an hour and a half in total done over three nights and a further 3 nights for drying. I don’t think it would easy to do this for a living even if you’re really good!

In hindsight a small spoon was probably more difficult to do than a big spoon would have been due to trying to hold the thing comfortably.

Most importantly – the client was happy! 🙂

…

Pallet Wood Planter

April 17, 2017 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

It’s been two months since we moved so I really felt I needed to just make something rather than spend the time doing what we’d been doing for weeks, unpacking and tidying. Plans for the garden dictated some planters so it seemed a good placeto start.

With my limited funds, I love the idea of pallet wood projects especially when they are available from where I work for free! That said I did need to buy some 38×38 square CLS to make the legs. If I had a bandsaw or table saw for ripping I’d have made them myself from pallet wood so buying them feels a bit like cheating but hey-ho!

I started out by using my mitre saw to cut down the pallet wood to a manageable size and also cutting the legs to a sensible size.

The pallet wood would form side slats and so I made sure they stacked up to 4 equal heights when stacked next to each other.

These were then sanded with the orbital sander.

I then routed two 12mm slots in each leg on adjacent sides. I used a piece of wood clamped down to my makeshift mitre saw table to get a straight cut all the way down the leg and this was a bit tricky so not all cuts were as nice as I’d have liked.

In hindsight I would have done this before cutting the legs to length as I needed to set up the router each time which took time.

In the future I would hopefully just be able to use a router table once my workshop was set up.

The slats were glued with Titebond III so to make sure it was strong and waterproof and clamped overnight. I really missed having a workbench available though and with a limited amount of clamps this was really problematic. The saying “you can never have enough clamps” is very true!

I sealed the whole planet when done with cheap deck sealer and then added two coats of creosote to the outside as this was all I had available. I like the dark colour but the wife would have preferred the raw wood look.

Finally once dry, I planted the prettiest flower I have…

*Update!*

3 years later and the planters still look good in a different garden! 🙂