A bookcase for Peggy Sue

Reuben received a letter from his friend Peggy Sue.

Dear Reuben, Please would you be able to help me build a bookcase?  Or maybe you are cleverer enough to build one yourself.  My biggest book is 8.5 cm tall by 7 cm and my smallest book is 5.5 cm tall by 4.5 cm.  I was thinking about three shelves, perhaps with a smaller shelf for the littler books on top and a larger shelf for the taller ones at the bottom... about 25cm tall and about 20cm wide. Many thanks Peggy Sue

Reuben went out to the workshop to see what timber was available for a bookcase

He started drawing up some plans

He used his steel rule and a pencil to draw the lines straight

He had a spare pencil behind his ear, just in case he lost the big pencil

In the workshop he marked out the timber to get the grooves in the right place for the shelves

Reuben very carefully used the table saw to cut the timber to the right width, he kept his hands away from the spinning saw blade

Soon Reuben had all the pieces cut to size.  He checked that everything fitted by clamping it all together, then stacked the pieces, sandpaper, some glue and the big clamps ready to take to Peggy Sue.

Laura, Timothy, Edmund and Isabel decided to come with Reuben as they wanted to see Peggy Sue too.

"Hello Henry and Peggy Sue, I've brought the bookcase parts" said Reuben

"Wow, such a lot of pieces" said Peggy Sue
"Did you cut these all yourself?" asked Henry?
"Yes, and we need to do a bit more sanding before we glue it all together" said Reuben

Soon they were sanding the pieces with some garnet paper

Isabel insisted on helping with the sanding too, so they could start gluing the pieces as soon as possible

"It fits together like this, we need to make sure it is all securely clamped so the shelves fit into the grooves properly" said Reuben as Edmund, Henry and Peggy Sue helped assemble all the pieces into a bookcase.

"please tighten those clamps gently and firmly so the joins meet up but the wood doesn't get distorted" said Reuben

Later, the boys helped Reuben glue the back panel onto the bookcase when the glue had dried.  They also helped clean off some of the excess glue which had squeezed out of the corners.  Then they put it upright and called Peggy Sue.

"Hi Peggy Sue, here is your bookcase" said Reuben as Timothy, Edmund, Henry and Rory watched Peggy Sue's reaction.

"Oh my word, it just what I hoped it would look like" cried Peggy Sue with a gasp as Everlee, Laura and Isabel looked on.

"It is perfect and my books fit, I can't wait to fill it up with more of my books" exclaimed Peggy Sue in delight.

"Thank you so much Reuben" said Peggy Sue as she hugged him

"Aw, no problem Peggy Sue" said Reuben, feeling a bit embarrassed.

When Peggy Sue was tidying her bedroom before Christmas and wishing for a bookcase for her collection, I knew Reuben the family carpenter would want to help realise her wish.  He is a practical boy and it was fun to take him out to the workshop for bookcase building. It was made from a piece of laminate floorboard, 3mm ply for shelves and 10mm ply for the base.  It could be varnished or painted, though the laminate floorboard top surface may not take paint or vanish unless sanded down a bit to give the surface a 'key'.

My younger daughter and I enjoyed visiting Lorraine and her lovely collection of dolls on a dull Sunday afternoon.

Update: Lorraine has blogged about Peggy Sue admiring her bookcase.

Planes and boats for Chat n Snap

I have been very busy with my day job and with a big voluntary project this year, so time for making things has been severely restricted.  However when Dee of Sasha Village sent out invitations for her Chat 'n Snap I booked a sales table.  I like a deadline and this gave me a target date to produce a few toys for Sasha/Gregor.  Dee had put enticing colour wheels of items that others would be selling on the day on her blog this week in the run up to the event and I was finally ready to send her a couple of (poor quality) photos the night before the CnS which she has added to her blog in a post called Planes and Boats.

Miniature sailing boats (photo taken in poor light on an ipad) 

Miniature Spitfire aeroplanes (photo taken in poor light on an ipad)

I have designed and made some miniature toy sailing boats and Spitfire aeroplanes.  I made them from wood offcuts in our workshop, so got to use my favourite machine tool (the pillar drill - for mast holes) again, as well as a razer saw, chisel, rotating sanding machine, table top vibrating jigsaw, sanding block and hammer.  10 boats and 5 planes are the result.

The boats were made first, the planes I only started with a week to go (eek) and were much more fiddly, with more processes than the boats.  They were also more complex to paint and 2 nights before the event my elder daughter, who is very artistic, helpfully painted one of the planes its camouflage colours while I painted the others (she asked to paint one) and did a great job.  The propellers on the planes rotate (carved matchsticks fitted with pins). My husband is an aeroplane enthusiast and he was impressed with the planes, so I am really pleased as his praise for creative work is hard won (his motto is "it's got to be right").

We also made some felt glove puppets for Sasha/Gregor (both daughters helped a bit), however I'll write about them in another post.  I will also take better photos of the planes and boats as these are really grainy.