Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts

22 June 2009

Woodworking Guide To Common Wood Defects

woodworking studioImage by 416style via Flickr

By Ryan Henders

All woodworkers should know that natural wood is unpredictable in quality and type. The key to good craftsmanship is working with what you have. This means taking that imperfect piece of work and doing something with it.

You may discover that the piece of wood you have picked out as a blue gray tinge to it. This is most often seen in pine, or sycamore and sometimes holly. It?s caused by a mold where it may have been stored that was too warm or not enough ventilation. The only solution is to use that piece of wood where it?s not likely to be seen, perhaps on the bottom of your project. If you are going to be using a dark stain then it?s not going to be a problem for you.

It seems no matter how hard you inspected your wood, that when you go it home you still notice a bow in it. This is often the result of poor storage where moisture evaporation was evident. It?s difficult to work with pieces like this. You can cut it into smaller pieces or if worse comes to worse then nail or screw into place but make sure the bulge is facing out.

Usually if you are going to detect any splits or crack in the wood you are going to see it at the end and it will run along the grains. Drying the wood too fast has created this problem. If the cracks are too bad not only will it affect the look of the finished project, it could weaken it as well. The only solution here is to work around the cracks, or if possible cut that section off and discard it.

If wood is not dried correctly and stored properly than its going to warp and be difficult to work with. You will often find that this wood was cut from the center of the tree. You can cut the high spots away with your table saw if necessary.

Another type of warping is along the face of the board edge to edge. It means that one face dried faster than the other did. It?s difficult to work with wood like this. You could try adding some pressure and letting it dry that way.

A dark knot in the wood can enhance its overall look unless it?s loose. This is as a result of a surface dead branch. Ideally, you will want to glue it in place, and then apply putty to it.

Excessive sap residue evident on the board was caused when the tree was injured in some way prior to cutting. Either cut it off or scrape it and fill the indent where it was.

Dark streaks normally caused by dull planer blades. Either sand it or cut it down. Other minor problems may be breaks, a tight knot, and twisted ends from warping. A good lesson is to learn about the various types of woods and imperfections and this will guide you in what to look for how to avoid the problem or at the very least perhaps correct it.

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16 May 2009

Are Dress up Games a Good Choice for Little Girls?

In Following the Fashion (1794), James Gillray...Image via Wikipedia

by Vlad Stivenson

No longer are little girls dreaming of having a baby doll that they can dress up in cute pink little outfits. Those kind of dolls might have been popular years ago but they are not anymore. The dolls that children are playing with these days are not plastic dolls that come with clothes and accessories. The modern form of the doll is the virtual doll that is in online dress up games. There are many different online dress up games where you can find these virtual dolls and their virtual clothes and accessories. These games give children the opportunity to dress and re-dress the dolls over and over again and there are no expensive dolls and doll clothes to buy.

What exactly do you have to have to play these games? The only things you need are a computer connected to the internet and your imagination. The clothes for these games do not need to be washed, dried and ironed or even stored in your home. All you do is drag and drop the outfits you want to put on the virtual doll. That is much easier than putting some of those complicated doll outfits on baby dolls.

You may wonder if these online dress up games are safe for your children to play or if you should be worried. You may also wonder if there is any educational value in these games or if they are just a waste of time. Your children are not going to improve their math skills, knowledge of science or history or their spelling abilities while playing these games but they can help them express their creativity and use their imagination. By creating outfits that go together children are learning about style, shapes and color and improving their artistic abilities. These online dress up games can lead to an interest in other artistic hobbies like drawing or painting. They can also help your children discover if a career in fashion design is the right path for them.

The best thing about online dress up games is they bring out your child's creativity and encourage them to use their imagination. The games may seem silly and trivial and you may wonder what your children could possibly get out of putting party outfits and swimming outfits on virtual dolls and then changing them into rocker outfits. What are the benefits?

Something to keep in mind is that these games encourage creativity and are a much better thing for your child to be doing than playing some of the extremely violent and graphic video and online games that are out there. There is little or no chance your child is going to be harmed or suffer mental issues as a result of dressing up virtual dolls but you can't say the same for bloody, violent game.

About the Author:
Vlad Stivenson, creator of multiple dress up games for kids



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