Projects of Ralph Fanning

These projects come from Ralph Fanning of Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada fanning@hawk.igs.net and he describes them below.

"The playhouse I built two years ago and continues to get a lot of use (Thank Heaven). It is 10 ft x 10 ft overall and includes a 4 x 8 house with two 2' x 3' tunnels under the house, one of which has the "secret" entrance through the floor of the house. There is a rope climber, swing steps, monkey bars, various height landings and the upper deck. It is all built "modular" so that when the kids outgrow it, it can be dismantled and moved. The design is my own, with lots of input from the kids. At the time I built it, I owned a circular saw, a jig saw and a drill. The workmanship is a bit crude, but hey...its a play structure."

"The deck was built in 1999. We wanted solid walls for privacy and thought the diagonal slats looked good. I found that there is very little waste because even short pieces will fit somewhere. The main part is 14 x 20, plus there is an odd shaped piece that joins the new deck to the old deck at the house. The addition of the arch and curved top door added a lot to the overall look. A friend with a good shop helped me cut out the curves. I guess this is the project that got me interested in woodworking and shortly after this I built my own small shop in the basement."

"The glider bench is built from plans in Canadian Home Workshop magazine. It is built from clear pine, stained maple and three coats of Helmsman clear satin outdoor urethane. The swing arms and anchors are made of oak for strength. That is about the biggest project I can do in my little shop, but it was fun and turned out pretty well."

"The quilt rack was made from 16 ft of 1 x 6 oak. It is about 36" tall and 42" wide. It is my own design. Using a tip from Steve Maxwell in CHW, I used brass screws to attach the top rails. The heads are left too high and then sanded off flush, which ends up looking like brass pins. If anyone wants to do this, I found that slot head screws are the only ones that will work. They are available from Lee Valley. I put a 1/8" cove on the outside of the two ends and on the three rails."

"I seem to have become the local "Shelf Shop" lately. The 10" deep single shelf seems popular in bedrooms for a bit of display space, while the 5" deep double shelf was originally to fit a Boyds Bears collection, but here it holds a friends teacups."

"My daughter has a Disney bedspread, with some wild colours on the walls and accessories, which explains the paint job on the bedside table I made for her room.  It is only 14"x 14" to fit a particular spot, and is made of pine. "

"I made the jewelry box for Christmas for my wife.  It is red oak with a 3/4" strip of lacewood inlaid. It is about 9" x 12" x 9"."

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