Time For A Big Update On Our First build

Evening all

Time for an update as it's been a while.

So for the last couple of months I have been rather ill. A migraine for 6 weeks kept me from pretty much life I am afraid. No posting on my own account for a while, and what I did manage was rather poor.
Let alone using power tools, that would have crippled me for sure.
Then a tooth infection and a chest infection which has also kept me out of the workshop.

Alas it's been a while out, but I have good news.

We had a workshop day making wooden sign pumpkins! Time for a photo dump folks!

Please excuse the mess but here is one of our users. She has been coming for a bit now and loving it. The flowery gloves are her choice of attire for hand protection😅
Also the murderer outfit is to keep their clothes clean. So far it's protected them from the wood dust and paint/stains we have been using so far.

This is a repurposed foot stool I made in the summer. It is actually the perfect height. Which was quite handy really.

I had a few reclaimed boards that I salvaged from the fire pile a bit back. After cutting them to size and after using the trusty Random Orbital Sander to sand down to a lovely smooth finish, they actually came out really nice. I did a 40 Grit run then went to 120 grit for a nice smooth finish.

With a nice and happy smooth finish we moved onto drawing the shape of the pumpkins.

Off came the glove for this masterpiece!

A slight wobbly pumpkin but it was a great first start

Next out came the bandsaw to cut it all up!

It was going really well. The cuts were tidy and coming out really well. One minute I'm happily cutting next minute a huge whack, the blade came off the wheel and nearly took my hand with the fecker!!!!

Some mild profanity was hear but I kept my hand somehow and am glad I did.

With the bandsaw now out of commission I had to resort to the ol Jigsaw that has been battered and bruised badly in the last 2 years. Plugged it in, started it up and it still cuts beautifully.
The bandsaw will be something I will look over in coming weeks, but damn it was a scary near miss.

I don't let the kids use the saws due to things like this.

The pumpkin sadly lost a bit of chunk due to the saw ripping a huge chunk out of the wood. But onwards we went.

With the new Metabo driver in hand, off she went attaching the back brace to the rear of the pumpkin.

She wasn't strong enough to drive the screws in at first, so I pre drilled them and set them up so that she could just use the driver comfortably. Really worked a treat for her.

With the screws driven in well. Next we had to attach the stand so that it could stand up proudly in the ground.

Now onto the painting!

Because this was our first time doing this, I had some leftover orange emulsion paint from a previous job I did last year. We slapped it on and it actually came out pretty good after several coats.

Due to the cold weather in the UK lately the paint did take a long while to dry. But we finally got there.

Tomorrow we will be painting the front of the pumpkin, varnishing and then displaying it outside in the garden for all to see.
I'll do a follow up post once this is done for you all to admire!

New updated buy list so far is as follows:
A new Bandsaw if this one can't be fixed.

Newest additions to the workshop
Cordless Angle Grinder
Cordless Multi Tool
4 x 4ah batteries and a charger.
These were a steal for the price I paid, so I'm hoping that they work out rather well.

A new Metabo drill/driver, fits the kids hands really well. cordless and light too.

Other bits

If anyone has any funding ideas please let me know, we are really lacking equipment and materials now so any help you can provide I appreciate. Onwards and upwards to the full reopening and recommencement of the woodworking program.

A big thanks to @bitcoinman who's been a great help and also @stickupcurator , @brosonleo ,@deraaa and @raymondspeaks for being awesome and helping support me through this project so far.

If you are reading this post and wondering who the Hive-Woodpeckers are, click the link and check out our introduction post.

I want to say a massive thankyou to everyone who has supported us so far, from words of encouragement to upvotes. You are helping change kids lives and it is an amazing thing to be a part of.

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