Can’t just make one. These little Moon side tables constantly get the comment, “Aah, cute”. People want to adopt them. They are made from reclaimed spruce and fir, so the tone and grain of the legs and tops vary with each table, giving them individual personality. Each table creates it’s own little world with two levels for display or serving. They are very sturdy with a unique support through a low center of gravity. Around 16″ tall, they can double as extra seats.
Many of our fun ideas start with lumber ends that want to be useful.
They are called Moon Tables because they are ideal for watching the full moon in the garden. These two had a little moonlight bath before oiling. Each were made under the good ol’ willow tree that has a propensity for wishes.
The Bistro Counter is designed with a ‘live edge’ cut top, shelf, and legs, as well as two sculpted stools for intimate outdoor patio entertaining. The style could work as a breakfast nook. It’s designed in reclaimed spruce and fir with a coat of oil based polyurethane for a water seal and easy maintenance. It’s a fun, in a woodland style, and the chairs fit under the table in a compact eye-pleasing arrangement. All left over wood eventually gets used up!
The table is set at 36″ high (a traditional dining table is around 27″) with a width of 21″ and length of 42″. Design number: 50-BL-12-11, stools are 51, 52.
A kitchen cabinet we did for a rustic country cottage with some onsite pine stock. The entire assembly can be detached from the wall using six screws. Finished in butcher block and poly surrounding the sink. Sink is top mounted, siliconed, and strapped. Tile is sandstone and mixed pencil tile. The counter frame is spruce with laminated pine and spruce on the top. Doors are pine and spruce framed, finished in polyurethane. Handles are natural pieces of mountain ash. Total cost of materials including taps, $150. The stool was a fun extra because we were designing chairs for another project: spruce, a dark stain mix on the legs, finished in poly and topped with a waterproof satin finish.
This is a traditional empire stool which was designed for travel on long journeys. We’ve used reclaimed spruce planks, complete with scratches, and drill marks plugged with ash dowels. There are no nails or screws, in fact no metal is used in the design. The seat is pegged to the frame with hemlock dowels. A cubby connects the frame and adds lateral support. Hand grips are ground out on the underside of the seat. The finish is polyurethane. No stain is used.
These chairs are great accents in a hall or bedroom and can often be found with a few clothes or jackets resting on top.
The finished size is 21″x15″ and stands 18″ tall. #07-29-18 Click on images to expand.
How to send your love 300 meters in three seconds: the Prairie Bench Trebuchet. (more pics and video below)
Siege engines, such as ballistas, catapults and trebuchets are medieval devices for throwing stuff. Originally developed somewhere in France? the trebuchet became famous during the reign of King Edward Longshanks when he employed the use of one to storm the walls at Sterling Castle. Since, trebuchets have mystified and terrified audiences with their immense power and rudimentary use of physics. We’ll be using this device to send tennis balls and water balloons, maybe a small pumpkin.
ready to launch
The trebuchet is really just an unbalanced see-saw with a counter weight on one end of a long boom or mast, and a sling on the other. The counter weight can be anything heavy enough to lift the long wooden mast and whip a sling holding the ammunition. When the sling moves overhead, centrifugal force causes one looped end of the sling to slip over an open prong at the tip of the mast. The latent energy to fling the ammo is held by raising the counter weight and then releasing it. Gravity does the rest. There are many strange terms and phrases used for trebuchets available online, however this post uses our own novice phrases.
The trick to designing a trebuchet involves three main variables: the size of the ammunition, the mass of the counter-weight, and the angle of the prong to release the sling. By adjusting these variables, consistent and powerful shots can be made quite easily. It’s also important that the entire frame is free to rock back and forth, allowing for a ‘whip action’ used in traditional hand slings.
Enter the Prairie Bench Trebuchet—sort of a wild west variation:
-V8 350 flywheel counterweight
-60″ mast
-steel axle bearings with grease reservoirs
-100 kgs of latent energy (optional 400 kg spring upgrades)
– fold down portable
-adjustable chain stays
-adjustable launch center board by degrees
-wooden wheels and rocker
-easy load magnetic trigger set
-variable thrust dial including mayhem, havoc, and doom
-adjustable prong
-hand woven sling
-hand carved ‘loosing’ handle
-front and rear triggers
-safety lock
-hand crank draw winch
-barrow transport handles, optional
The trebuchet stands 7 feet tall with a three foot sling. Less than 30″ wide, our siege engine can easily fit through any castle door.
Our design uses a solid fir mast hand planed to a taper with steel flat bar reinforcing, laminated spruce pillars, fir frame, and chain stays. The trigger mechanism is used from the rear or the front using 1/4″ steel push rods and a safety lock. The sling is hand woven from sisal fiber.
In golf yell, “Fore!” With a cannon yell, “Fire!” With a trebuchet yell, “Loose!”
