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Cold Bluing a rifle barrel is not strictly a woodworking project, but since it relates to the whole aspect of gun restoration, and because we actually did cold blue the barrel, we are covering it here. Bluing is a process to help prevent rusting of exposed steel and is sometimes used on some woodworking tools as well.
We are of the belief that hot bluing is the best, at least in my experience, but it is also somewhat complicated and needs special equipment to do, OR you need to find someone who does this and again in my experience, it is not cheap.
The other thing that needs to be noted up front, is that I have seen some pretty crappy hot blued barrels and receiver plates, not because the bluing was all that bad, but because the preparation of the metal was poor. If the metal is not polished and cleaned properly it doesn't matter what kind of bluing you put on, the finished product will not look good.
Cold Bluing a Rifle Barrel
To that end, we made sure that the barrel was extremely well sanded and prepared before we ever started the bluing process. In our case we were using Outers Gun Blue Kit, a product we had never used before, so were quite interested to see how it performed, and we were ....
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I have always maintained that farmers are the most innovative people on the planet, so maybe I have some farmer in me too. I often seem to be coming up with ideas or at least bringing a couple of different ideas together such as this one. I have no idea if someone else has ever done this, I'm sure they have, it's not that far fetched, but it does work great ... AND for someone it could even be a bit of a cottage industry. I could easily see someone making these little boxes and selling them at produce markets, swap meets and flea markets. They are cool little project and they could even save someone's life.
How to Make Solar House Number Signage
I don't actually have plans for this except what I have told everyone in the video. This was another fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants project. I only knew a one thing, the numbers need to be bold and about 5 inches or 12 cm high so with that ....
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We don't do nearly enough on boating and boat building. I have been lucky to have met a few keen boat builders and craftsman over the years who have an amazing ability and a patience for woodworking I can only admire.
If you have never built boats or worked on boats or renovated boats, I can tell you one thing that you probably don't know, and that is ... when you work on boats, no 2 pieces are alike. That is almost a guarantee. Every part of the boat is slightly different, that's just the way it is.
I seem to have re-awakened my boating desires lately and am investigating some of my options. I am looking for something that is light weight and that I can use in local rivers, lakes, and of course in the ocean. It should hold 2 people, but for those time I want to take the boar out alone, it needs to have that capability too and not be to much for me to handle, oh and did I mention it needs to be pretty rugged to withstand some of the places I want to go? All these are reasons why I wanted to see more about dreamcatcherboats.com
Make Your Own Boat - Skin On Frame Boats
One of the boats I was interested in was from someone I met at one of the wood shows in past months, who introduced me to the skin-on-frame type of boat construction, something I knew nothing about, so I thought why not take the camera, go and visit Brian and even make a video about it while I am there?
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Halloween has grown to be a pretty big non-holiday for both kids and adults. It's really a fun time where everyone can be little bit silly. One of the great things about Halloween is all the costumes and decorating that happens, and it's a perfect time to introduce non-woodworking people to the craft.
One of the safest woodworking tools and one that has LOADS of potential is the scroll saw, and when it comes to making Halloween ornaments, like window and lawn figurines, the scroll saw is the perfect tool. Finding scroll saw patterns is pretty easy, but when it comes to Halloween, there's an even easier source. For the cost of little more than a dollar, you can go to your closest dollar store and find all sorts of Halloween items that can be used as patterns. In most cases, you can't buy scroll saw patterns anywhere for that great price, and they have a pretty extensive selection, at least the ones I was into.
Halloween Woodworking - SCARY
Now that you have a source for scroll saw patterns, you will need wood. Scrollers often use thin plywood for making figurines like the Halloween ones, so if you have any scraps of thin 1/4" or even 1/8" plywood around, that is perfect for scrolling. If it turns out you need to buy a bit of plywood, many stores sell cut sheets, BUT, many of them also sell Door Skin plywood. This is very thin plywood ...