DIY

Not having come up with lids for the new bread tins (see, for example, reference 1), I decided that I needed a proving bin, suitable for holding the two tins during the second rise.

As is my custom, this was to be built from the various bits and pieces accumulated over the years in the garage, some of it the remnants of a garden shed, some of it salvage from brown wood furniture. The new bin is now nearing completion, as shown left, with just lid, shelf and front flap to be added - all more or less loose for easy removal, so not much more work involved.

But I have been reminded of various things along the way.

First, recycling old wood results in lots of waste, as the old wood rarely fits in with the new plans. The three brown panels, for example, are each made of two or three pieces, with the grain running around the bin, horizontally. All cut from the same sheet of some kind of soft brown wood, possibly part of the back of a cupboard, but not wide enough for what I wanted to do.

Second, making this sort of thing oneself costs a lot of time. In this case, say four two hour sessions so far. Which is a lot compared to what one might pay for a wooden box in a shop - with the only catch there being that you might have trouble finding one which suited this particular application.

Third, not having a workshop costs a lot of time. With getting stuff out, putting it away and clearing up for each session maybe accounting for a quarter of the total time.

Fourth, not having a proper bench is not good for the back. That said, the improper bench shown here does have a proper vice and a proper plane stop and has now served for more than forty years. In our bedsit days it used to double as a table, with the tabletop held on by the vice.

Fifth, one gets out of the way of this sort of thing. Lots more time spent working out how to do things than would have been the case had I kept up the habit. To the point of pondering about them during the advertisement breaks on ITV3 or as I fell asleep at night.

On the upside, I used my bull nosed plane, not very successfully, for the first time for years. And I nearly used a sash cramp, for the first time for years. But having got it out, I worked out that there was a much easier way of holding things together while I screwed up.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/tins-from-hong-kong.html.

Reference 2: https://www.osbornewood.com/woodtypes.aspx. I have been wondering what the soft brown wood was. First thought was rauli, of the basis of a sample I once used to have, but on the basis of the pictures on this website, I now go for Spanish Cedar.