Woodworking in the home can be a solution to coping with self-isolation. Self-isolation can be a time of loneliness and a trigger for mental health issues.
Encourage the kids to make things together as a family
It is easy to allow our children to become comatose with their online devices! Maybe you could build on that family communion and bond with your kids. There is nothing better than crafts to develop creativity and learning in the home. While your kids are locked out of school because of some pandemic you can use this time to rekindle relationships.
Lets kerb that lockdown
In this blog, I am going to share with you some great ideas and designs that anyone can participate in.
Make easy projects with simple tools
The focus in this blog is to encourage you to either take up the woodworking hobby but to help you cope with the long time we have to spend without human intervention other than direct family members.
What will I need to make the projects here?
We want to keep our creative projects simple and easy to build. We understand that not everyone has a fully equipped workshop or a myriad of materials. What is important is that we involve our children or expand our imagination. Lateral creative thinking is not always easy especially if your workplace is a little formulaic.
What tools do I need for easy woodworking
I realise you may not have many tools so I will only share with you simple projects that you can make with basic tools. In some of the videos, I will be making projects and I will use hand tools but when a machine is used we will explain another way.
The kind of tools for our woodworking projects
- Pencil
- Sharp knife
- Wood saw
- Screwdrivers
- Hammer
What materials will I need?
This will depend on the project you are making but I will try to expand your thinking by choosing alternative materials. The whole point of this blog is to help you make things with stuff you might already have.
Think outside the box!
If there is a tool or material which you have no chance of obtaining right now because of the ‘Coronavirus Lockdown’ just look around and see what else you could use. Our modern lifestyle creates a mass of waste in the form of packaging and it is surprising what you can make from rubbish.
The kind of woodworking projects I want to show you how to make
This is a woodworking website so I will be making a series of wooden things but in some cases, we will look at alternative materials that you might have laying around.
- Whirligigs
- Boxes
- Aeroplanes
- Puzzles
- Insect house
- Bird boxes
Whirligigs, Whirly Jigs, Whirlybirds?
What are ‘Whirly Jigs?’
The whirly jig has been around for centuries and is a wind-powered mechanical decoration for the garden with moving parts.
A Simple whirly jig
Whirly jigs don’t need to be complicated but can have one moving parts such as the propeller on an aeroplane or the wing of a bird.
Mechanical whirligigs
More complicated whirly jigs can have l multiple moving parts that are powered by the wind. These whirlybirds can be very intricate and contain some marvellous engineering. Our whirly jigs in this article will concentrate on whirligigs that are possible to make while in confinement.
Aeroplane Whirlygig
Well, I am in lockdown in France and we need projects to do so here I go and build an Aeroplane Whirlygig from wood with moving parts that will move with the wind. Not sure if this plane will a scale model but my whirlybird design will be in the form of a prop-driven fighter plane. This whirlygig might be similar to a WW11 Spitfire but not exact!
Part 1 – Aeroplane Whirlygig – Propeller
Here is a video of our first component for our aeroplane whirlybird. In this video, I have made this propeller from Oakwood. I have used a variety of hand and power tools to hopefully show you that you don’t have to a huge array of tools. This project can be made with a small selection of tools but if you have a machine you can still use them.
Wooden Whistle by Wood by Wright
Making a wooden Whistle is easier than it looks and most people can make one with limited hand tools in an hour or less. Here is how he made out of scrap purple heart. Purpleheart is an Ironwood from Brazil and extremely hard to work but this whistle does not need to be made from ironwood.
I made a Great TIT! bird box from scraps
We are in lock down in France so I made a bird box! who knows what we should build next?