Cutting Up- DIY Style

Did everyone have a fantastic weekend? We had some rain and hail here in OK but luckily it didn't last long and we were able to get outside and enjoy the Fall weather. And my LSU Tigers won so it was good times all around.

I was also able to get some rare wood shop time in. If you remember I posted a few weeks ago about scoring some scrap wood from the shop. 

Carved Wood Panels

Happy Friday Everyone! And Happy Veterans Day to all those who are serving or who have served our country! (Special shout out to the Hubs!)


Do you ever have this urge to finish something? Like it bothers you and you can't stop thinking about it? Lately I've been itching to get something hung on our walls in our living room. It's pretty bare, the curtains helped but I still had nothing on our walls. We've lived here almost 5 months- it's really becoming a problem. I mean a serious problem...

Hmmm, but what to do? Nothing was really catching my eye and I'm so indecisive! Ugh.. Then I remembered some wood panels I rescued from my old job before they tossed out.

They're walnut veneer panels cut ~12" x 12". They were submittals from a design job- we were to approve which wood grain we wanted for the job, but after that they were no longer needed. They were to pretty to throw away so I took them home instead of throwing them out. (This is one of the things I miss the most about working at an Architecture firm- all the cool samples!)

Solution!! I decided it would be neat to cut a pattern out of them and hang them on the wall. I started with an image I liked (a rubber stamp I had lying around) then scanned it on the printer. Then I resized it in Photoshop and printed it out.

After printing the pattern I cut it out and traced the image onto my panels. I used just enough pressure to make an indentation that I could use to follow and cut out later.

My original plan was to use my Dremel Trio to route out the pattern. Fail! All was going well until my bit burned up and became un-useable. I think the Dremel Trio is great, I think that it wasn't meant for this purpose. :/ This was a little too heavy duty for it I think. 

Anyway- I wasn't going to give up after this set back. So I made an appointment at the Base Wood Shop. If you are not in the military here's the DL- all bases have a craft and hobby shop. There's a ton of wood working machinery. Anything you can think of! And you can use any of it. I just took a short class on each of the machines and was good to go. 

Thank you US Military! The guy who works at ours is really helpful to. He gave me suggestions on the best way to cut my panels and which order in which to make my cuts.

So I set to work on the Band Saw. I felt all Bad @ss with the big saw cutting out my panels. 

The task was actually a lot easier with the Band Saw than with the Dremel. It was like slicing through butter even though my panels were almost 1" thick.

After a little sanding around the edges I screwed some picture hangers in the back and was good to go!

Viola! Free one of a kind wall art!

Some overall shots; I'm not sure if the panels are to narrow for the space I hung them in or not. What do you think?

If you wanted to try this on your own you could use plywood or MDF cut down to size. You could stain it or paint it any color you wanted. If you don't have access to a Band Saw depending on the depth of your wood and how intricate your pattern is you could use a scroll saw or jig saw instead. 

Happy Weekend Everyone!

"New" TV Credenza Progress

I feel like I've been out of the loop, like I was missing my arm or something- the Hubs went to a conference this week and took the computer with him! Ugh! So frustrating only being able to use my IPhone for internet use. But, he's back with the computer and all is well again. And if you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed that I've been up to something this past week.


In our old house we had hung our TV above the fireplace, which worked for that room. In our new house the fireplace mantle is taller, and I didn't want to drill large holes in the wall since we're renting. So I needed something to place our TV on. 


So I stole this credenza out of Con-Man's room.

I had bought it off Craigslist when I was doing his nursery. It was a dark walnut color and has a mirror that goes with it. I had painted it white because I used it as a changing table and it held all his clothes since the Hubs had to use the closet in that room since the one in our master was to small. It worked great for that purpose, but in our new house we have plenty of closet space and there's lots of room for Con-Man's clothes in his closet plus some. So instead of taking up floor space in his new room I'm repurposing the credenza in the living room.

I wanted to give it another update though. I thought stripping off the paint and re-staining the wood would give it a rich sophisticated feel and would go well with our furniture and the wood fireplace in the living room.

So that's what I've been up to this week:

Stripping

More Stripping

Sanding and Sanding the night away

With some success!

I still have some finishing touches to work on, and I'm looking for some new knobs since the spray paint isn't coming off of the old ones very easily. Hoping to have this baby finished and ready to show off this weekend!

DIY Wine Glasses

For a long time I have lusted over those glasses that are made from old wine bottles. They are so cool. I mean really- a wine glass made from a wine bottle? Love it! I know you can buy those wine bottle cutters but I've heard its a lot of work and very time consuming. So after thinking some more about it I wondered it I could use my Dremel tool to do some of the heavy lifting.

I did some research and there is lots of info online on using a Dremel to cut glass (even though the company that makes Dremel says that is not one of the intended uses.) I thought it was worth a try though~

So I gathered my materials:

2 wine bottles (these were easy to get a hold of!)

Dremel Tool with Diamond Cutting Bit (or one the Bottle Cutters you can buy if you don't have a Dremel)

Masking Tape

Pen

Safety Goggles and Mask

Water

Sand Paper 

                                                            

First I started out by giving the bottles a nice warm bath to take the labels off.

                          

See? Nice and clean!

                          

I used a glass I already had to measure the height I wanted to cut. Then I put the masking tape around the bottle. 

                          

The purpose of the masking tape is to help keep the glass shards from flying everywhere.

                   

I again used my glass as a guide to draw the exact line I wanted to cut.

I again want to stress safety gear here. You should always wear goggle when cutting anything. The mask is important to- you don't want to breath in glass shards!

                          

After I had my bottles all measured it was time to take it outside. I brought plenty of water because in my reading it was stressed that keeping the Dremel cool by dipping it in water was important. And to spray the glass with water periodically so it wouldn't overheat and crack. (Notice the baby monitor in the background?)

                         

For the first few cuts I kept the tape on. Don't put to much pressure on the glass with the Dremel; let the tool do the work. To much pressure can cause the glass to break. I dipped the Dremel in the water every 10 - 20 seconds. And after each full pass around the bottle I sprayed it with water.

                        

After a few full passes around the bottle I took the tape off. I found that holding the bottle with the open end towards you helped keep any breakage on the part of the bottle I wasn't going to be using.

                        

And just when I thought it may not work- it did! The bottle broke cleanly in half.

                             

I read that to smooth the glass down use sand paper in a tub of water. Start with a heavy grit and work your way down to a fine. Well that was taking for ever....

                       

So I cheated and used the grinding bit on my Dremel. It worked really well!

Then I used the polishing bit to polish the edges smooth.

                           

Now all done! They are pretty cool and I'm really happy with them. I love that they are a recycled product and the materials are easy (and fun) to come by.