What is made most in the shed …

Today, I made some inroads into tidying up my shed/workshop.

The main task that I had to complete so that I could actually put my tools and materials in some kind of an order, was the creation of some shelving.

A couple of weeks ago the house next door was sold and the new owners told us that they intended to demolish and build a new house. BING! went my brain … material! I asked our new neighbours if I could salvage some floorboards before they carted it all to the tip. Our neighbours gave me a week to tear out whatever I wanted from the house before they demolished. Lucky, lucky me!

I didn’t get greedy, I went in with a purpose in mind. Floorboards = shelves.

Yesterday, I bought some batten pine and made up the frames for my shelves and it all went swimmingly. To make my shelves all even and level, I made one frame with 5 shelves and then clamped crosspieces to it and the legs so that every one of the four supporting pieces were the same. It also helped that I had two drills. One for drilling pilot holes, and another with a Phillips head drive in it to drive the screws into the holes.

Today I put it all together and I am pleased to say that my shelves are now firmly attached to the shed walls and sturdy. The shelves are only 2 floorboards wide, but that’s plenty wide enough for my tools. The shelves are about 3.5m long and 2.4m high with loads of space underneath the bottom shelf for my big metal toolboxes to fit (with the lid open … a design feature suggested by my darling wife).

Tonight, I started sorting out my stuff. I also put up a peg-board on one of the walls of the shed so that I can hang my hammers, saws and various often used tools.

Joy.

I reckon that the most commonly made thing in a shed/workshop is the humble shelf.

Electrolytic Etching Steel

Some time ago, I wrote a puff piece about a reproduction 15th century crossbow that I made. One of the things that I mentioned in passing in that  article, was that I electro-etched the metal on the piece to add design and “age” to the finished product.

It’s probably worth exploring the process, since it certainly isn’t hard, but it is a worthwhile technique to know.

Basically, electrolytic etching is a process where you immerse a positively charged piece into a negatively charged solution. The positively charged ions in the metal (anode) are attracted to the negatively charged point (cathode) through a process of oxidisation. Or … put simply, the solution makes the metal rust, the electricity takes the rust away from the metal.

The art in electrolytic etching is in the design and execution of the resist.

To make the crossbow parts, I painted the steel pieces with a black acrylic paint and allowed it to completely dry. Then I drew the design onto the painted piece and scratched the design using an awl. You could just as easily use a nail, pin, fingernail … whatever will remove the paint, exposing the bare metal underneath. I also attached a copper wire to the back of the steel piece to connect to the anode (connected to the positive source).

I made up a saturated saline solution mixing the salt in until the water is saturated (that is, no more salt will mix into the solution).

The piece was then immersed into the solution connected to the positive rail of my power source (a 12V battery charger). The cathode was then immersed into the solution (via another copper wire) and the charger was turned on.

You should see bubbles rising from the exposed metal on the piece … this is from the oxidisation process. Tiny flakes of steel will be coming away from the piece also and going into the solution.

I gave the pieces about 15 minutes in the solution before taking them out.

Next, I used some steel wool and running water to scrub the paint away from the pieces and gave them a good polish.

These “freehand” etchings are quite nice and are satisfactorily “distressed”. There is some pitting that has occurred in the design, but these are entirely suitable for the end result that I was looking for.

An alternative method for producing the design, that I have used successfully with printed circuit boards and which works just as well with electrolytic engraving, is to print the design on a laser printer (onto a gloss or semi-gloss paper) and transfer the design onto the metal using the iron-on transfer method (remember to reverse the design).

To iron the design onto the metal, turn your household iron up to it’s hottest setting, place the paper onto the metal piece (ink side down) and iron it on. This will take up to 4 minutes of pressing and moving your iron around onto the piece. Drop the metal piece into hot water and let it soak for about 15 minutes. Carefully peel the paper off until you are left with just the metal and the toner.

Use acrylic paint to coat the back of the piece and to touch up any bits that are not in the design. Attach your anode and proceed as described earlier.

Marshmallow Forks

Tonight we will be having our Bonfire. This is a thing that we do on our property every now and then. The occasion is simply Spring, plus my smallest daughter has decided that we are going to have a bonfire.

Every year we get loads of branches from fallen trees, branches that were fed to the goats and are now stripped of bark as well as various other bits of woody detritus. So this will be the fuel for our bonfire.

Last time we had a bonfire, I made some long forks for roasting marshmallows and cocktail frankfurts. This year, I need more because my daughter has invited a few of her little friends over.

The marshmallow fork is a simple affair. Two strands of fencing wire woven together and then spread out at the end to form the tines. The other end is shoved into a wooden handle so that it doesn’t conduct heat down to delicate little hands.

So I start with some fencing wire. This stuff is about 3mm thick. I take out two strands and then fix them into the bench vice.

There is about 6” of wire in the jaws of the vice, this will be the tines of the fork. At the other end of the wire, I even the ends up and fit it into the chuck of an electric drill.

The drill is then turned on slowly to twist the wire. When the twist is even along it’s length, the job is done.

Next, the handles are done by cutting a 5” lengths from a broomstick. A hole is drilled in one end to take the twisted wire.

I’ve wedged the twisted wire into the handle with a couple of extra bits of wire offcut. Later, I’ll pull the wire out and epoxy the wire into the handle properly.

At the other end of the wire the tines are simply bent into shape.

The whole fork is about 1.25m in length, this gives enough distance from the fire to allow the child to roast a marshmallow or cocktail frank without incinerating.