8 Sided Roof Tutorial

This is a long posting today, I am showing how to use a table saw with a miter gauge to cut a multi sided roof for a miniature structure. The roof you will see me cutting has 8 sides and a 55 degree pitch. It will have a cupola coming up through the center, therefore you will not see a point on the roof panels. This same cutting method will produce roofs with 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 any number as long as it is more than 2.

Please note that I have the safety blade cover removed from the saw, always follow the safety recommendations from you saw's manufacturer.

I figured out what the angles on the roof panels would be from my design in a CAD program. There are charts for determining these angles on the internet with the most common multi sided numbers and angles of slope given as well as online calculators and formulas to use with scientific calculators.  Click here to see  my favorite online calculator for finding the settings for saw blade bevel angle and the associated miter gauge angles that go with a particular roof pitch.

The first cutting task will be to cut a long plywood strip(s). the width of that strip is equal to the distance from the bottom edge of the roof to the top edge perpendicular to the bottom edge. You can bevel the top and bottom edges at this time but those bevels must be parallel to each other as you will be doing a flip cut technique. The length of the strip is figured out by sketching a layout of the panels. Along your layout sketch strip one roof triangle will face point up, the next point down. There is a small waste triangle at the start of the cuts and also saw blade thickness between the cuts. I usually allow for a few extra panels just in case I goof. OK your basic material strip is cut now lets get to the trickier stuff.


With the blade upright at 90 degrees as high up as it will go I set the miter fence to my needed angle. I made an angle template using acrylic on the laser cutter specifically for this job but you can also use an adjustable bevel gauge instead of an angle template. If you want to use the bevel then use a graphics program or CAD program to draw out the specific angle and print it onto paper. Use a light coat of spray adhesive to  stick that pattern onto a flat piece of wood. Next tack wood strips to each side of the angle being very accurate about getting it right against the lines of the angle. Do leave as shown in the photo below a small gap at the apex of the angle to facilitate the use of the bevel gauge.  Now the bevel gauge  between, open it against the wood strips and then lock it to that angle.  You must have a template or bevel gauge short enough or else thin enough to fit between gaps on the saw blade teeth so that  it does not touch any of the teeth on the blade. It should rest only on the solid body of the saw blade, never on top of a tooth. (This angle setting method will not work on a hollow ground saw blade as it does not have a flat surface.)



The next step is to tilt the saw blade over to the angle you need. You must have a bevel gauge or angle template thin enough that to slip fit into the space between the saw teeth so it can rest against the body of the saw blade. I shine a small flashlight from behind my gauge and if any light comes through I adjust the blade tilt until the angle is a snug fit.


Place your long plywood strip against the miter fence and make a cut that takes off that square end and leaves you a lovely angled, beveled edge. In the photo above you can see that waste piece, the skinny triangular cutoff piece to the far right side. Note before you cut anything that if you have beveled  the top and bottom edges you will first need to figure out how the first panel needs to be positioned so those edges are oriented on the roof panel as you want them to be. Now rotate the board 180 towards yourself so the side that was against the table now faces up towards you. From this time it will be rotate cut, rotate cut until you have enough sections for the roof.


At this time you need to set a couple of stop blocks to control the width of your panel. You will see in the photo above that I have used as stops two magnetic blocks made just for table saw setups. Regular magnets would not be strong enough however you can firmly double back tape wood strips to you table saw top to act as stops. You won't be putting a lot of pressure against them, just gently moving your plywood strip over to them. A stop block of some type is absolutely essential so your panels are always the same width. You will need the blocks to be positioned far forward enough on the table so the plywood panel is clear of the blade when you begin the cut. The block along the side should be fairly short in length, an inch or two is enough.


Postition the panel against the blocks, turn on the saw, hold the panel in position against the miter fence while pushing the miter handle forward, cutting through the panel and moving it on past the blade. Then I turn off the saw, let it come to a stop and remove the newly cut roof panel section out of the way of the next cut. Move the miter back to the position forward of the saw blade, flip the plywood, set the material against the stop blocks and the miter fence, turn on the saw and cut again. Only 8 times and you are done! It does not take long to cut the panels, most of the time is in the setup.

The following photos show how to assemble the panels. I use a quality duct tape from 3M that leaves no residue behind when you remove it. I normally buy it at Lowes or my local hardware store but here is an online source for it.  http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Tough-Residue-1-88-Inch-20-Yard/dp/B0014LQK58 That duct tape is my only clamp.  I use the body of the bird or doll house to conform the perimeter angles of the roof while the glue dries.




First I lay the panels side by side with the angled bevel facing down then I tape the joints.


Next I pull it up into the shape and tape the last joint. I always do a check fit before I glue them together. Would you look at those joints in the photo above, NO GAPS, PERFECT miter joints! That is the beauty of my cutting method, it really does work.


Now take the tape off one joint and put the taped side against the table. Fill the joints with glue but don't get too heavy handed or you will have a big mess to clean up. The adhesive I am using is from Locktite and it is called Polyseam Seal, it is labeled clear, extra adhesive and it has a lifetime warranty. This is an acrylic caulking product I purchase at a hardware stores or at Home Depot or Lowes. This is my primary glue for birdhouse and dollhouse shell building, it has never let me down. When building a birdhouse I make sure every cut edge of the plywood on the birdhouse is completely covered with glue, this prevents any water getting up into the plys and possibly causing dry rot. I am using water resistant plywood, the flat surfaces are very good but those cut edges are the most vulnerable area for water infiltration soaking into the material.


Now pull the last two edges back together, tape that joint and place the roof on the house structure to dry. Put some waxed paper under those corner so you don't glue it to the house just yet as you will want to do more work on the roof such as painting the underside, installing edge trim or even gutters. Because this is a birdhouse I will put an exterior rated gray primer on the plywood before I shingle it. The shingles will weather to gray and any cracks that may develop won't show with the matching primer under there. I have never lost a shingle on a birdhouse, even ones that have been outside for over 15 years. For birdhouses I make thick shingles, thin dollhouse shingles won't hold up for long.

OK now you know how I make my roofs so go forth and build octagon houses, gazebos and towers.

Leveling throat plates on a saw

When making scale models, engineering models, birdhouses or dollhouses I want precision cuts to a particular size that have accurate angles on the sides of the cuts. It can take a lot of fussing and a lot of patience to make that happen. Many of the cuts I make are done on a 10 inch table saw, I want that saw and my small table saws fine tuned so that what I get is accurate to the dimensions I am trying to achieve. It all starts with a good table saw tune-up but that is not the subject of this blog.

To get an accurate cut it is essential that the throat plate be dead level to the top of the table saw. If your throat plate is too high then the edge of the wood sitting on it will slope down towards the fence and your intended 90 degree cut will end up being made at an angle. If the throat plate is too low you might get sloped cuts on short pieces or the wood might hang up on the back edge of the plate opening and mess up your nice cut. If you are trying to accurately cut a groove of a particular depth it too might turn into a mess.

Every saw is a little different, the one I am working on today has small tabs extending into the opening for the throat plate. There are hex head screws in the throat plate that rest on those tabs. I fiddle and fuss and fuss some more back and forth between the screws until I get it just right. To check if it is level I use a steel rule or some other object that has a long straight edge and sharp corners. If the corner hits onto the edge of the plate or the table top I know the plate is not perfectly level so I tweak the height a little more until I feel nothing hitting. Every time I change the throat plate I have to be sure there is no sawdust on the adjusting screws or on the support tabs. Just that little bit of debris will mess up the level. I always grab a straight edge and check when I change plates or if I have been cutting for a long time as vibration from the table saw can move those screws.

Some table saws including miniature saws don't have adjusting screws. If there are no ajusting screws you will need to resort to using shims of metal, paper, plastic, cellophane tape, whatever you can find that works is OK to use. If your throat plate is too high to begin with you will have to make new ones or reduce the thickness where it rest on the edges of the opening. Making your own throat plates is a good thing to learn. I will cover that in another post sometime later.

A lot of the throat plates for miniatures saws are warped to begin with. You might have to back them up with another layer of material to stiffen them. Of course you don't want that layer to touch onto the recessed ledge the plate rest on and it can't be so thick that the saw arbor hits on it and bends the plate upwards.

Want a dead flat plate on a 4 inch table saw that needs no fussing? Then buy a 4 inch table saw from Byrnes Model Machines, he has taken the time to match the recess in the table top to the thickness of the throat plate. There is a link to Jim Byrnes in my file of links on this blog.

Razor Saws

About 5 years ago I saw my first mini sized Japanese razor pull saw and fell head over heels in love. OK I admit I fall in love all too easily when it comes to tools, just like finding a cute puppy I encourage them to follow me home. Fortunately these little guys don't take up a lot of room and they are not too expensive, around $12.00 or so.

Pull saw means that the teeth of the saw cuts as you pull the saw towards you. That is better control than cutting with a saw that cuts as you push it away from you. These little saws cut very quickly as they are razor sharp which is good for an impatient person like myself.

The saw at the top of the photo is not a Japanese pull saw it is a jewelers saw and if you work with wood or metal one of these is a must have.

Working from left to right the first Japanese pull saw is a keyhole saw. This is terrific for kit bashing a dollhouse. You can use it to cut out a new door or window opening. The length of the blade on this saw is 100mm, just over 4 inches.

The second Japanese pull saw is a flush cutting saw. Oh my this is a wonderful little saw. It has no set to the teeth which means you can saw right up against an adjacent piece of wood without sawing into that piece. I use this saw for squaring up the inside corners of door or window cutouts I have made with a router. Or for cutting off the ends of dowels or toothpicks sticking out of holes. You can also follow along a guide strip such as a straight edge without damaging the guide. The blade of this saw is also 100mm long.

The third Japanese saw is a veneer saw. It will start a cut right in the middle of a panel. Another great saw for modifying already built dollhouses.

I purchase these little saws at my favorite hardware (iron mongers) store in the whole world, Hardwicks Hardware in Seattle. If there was an iron mongers store in Diagon Alley then Hardwicks would be there because it is a magical warren of dark, jumbled, aisles full of tools, nuts, bolts, paints and objects of antiquity and mystery. The sign over the doorway to my favorite room reads Yellow Brick Road. Hardwicks caters to a very diverse crowd of boat builders, architecture students, jewelry makers, machinist, engineering students and neighborhood home owners. As you might guess with all the students in that list it is located very close to the main campus of the University of Washington.

You might find something similar in a local hardware store, woodworker's store or in a gardening store that carry tools for Bonsai.

The Tail of a Salty Dog

It was yet another fine morning for real life adventures. My good friend Boatswain (Don's dog) and I headed to the marina to visit the Lady Washington a tall ship in port for a visit. Those of you who have seen the "Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl" will have seen lots of on deck action on this ship aka the HMS Intruder; she was the fastest ship in port that Captain Jack Sparrow stole to chase down the Black Pearl.

Here is Boatswain, aka Bosun', persuading the Bosun's mate of The Lady Washington to let him sign on as a crew member. The dog being an alpha male really wants the job of the captain of the ship but he was given another important assignment, one he is equally skilled at.


Bosun was assigned to guard the ship while it was in Seattle. Here he is on the gangplank making sure no unauthorized intruders get on board. Just minutes after this photo was taken the ship and crew were attacked by a very long Sea Monster who resembles somewhat the famed Loch Ness Monster. Bosun, single pawed, drove off the monster with his ferocious barking no doubt saving the ship and the lives of the crew. Good job Bosun!


As I was leaving to head to my workshop just a few blocks away I turned around to snap one last photo and to my surprise caught the image of the monster heading back out to sea. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you can get a good look at the Shilshole Sea Monster. A tall image of a classic tall ship and a whopper of a tall tail(tale)to go with it.

If you would like to sail on the Lady Washington she will be around Puget Sound most of the summer and for a fee you can have an experience of a lifetime to remember and help to keep her sailing for many years.

Boatswain the dog is normally the Bosun's mate of the fine ship Antelope. He will return to his duties there shortly when he is not busy being the guardian of all I own. At the moment he is in his bunk under my workshop sink getting a little shut-eye before the nightwatch.

Feather Boards

No I am not talking about controlling people, I am talking about getting good quality cuts on a table saw. It does not matter if you are working on a big 10 inch table saw (shown in the photo) or on a miniature tablesaw because a tablesaw is a tablesaw and no matter the size they cut the same way.

There are three aides shown in this photo for achieving better control. One is a push stick that does not really look like a stick, it looks like a shoe. You don't have to go out and purchase fancy pushers, you can make them out of scrap wood. This one is about 9" long by 4" tall. You don't have to match those exact dimensions, it just needs to be tall enough to keep your fingers out of the blade and long enough to put some pressure over a greater distance than one tiny spot. There is a notch cut along the bottom edge leaving just a little tab at the tail end. The notch has to be less in height than the wood you are going to push. Easy to adjust by cutting the tab a little shorter if needed.

You will notice how the plywood on the pusher is chewed up along lower edge. That is because I often cut very thin strips on my full size table saw and the shoe shaped push stick lets me do that safely. It is OK if my table saw blade takes a little nip out of the pusher, in fact it covers up the sharp blade and protects my fingers. I have this same kind of pusher for my miniature sized table saws.

The second aid shown is a feather board. The end of the board with all the feathers cut in it is angled. You lock the feather board into position just in front of the saw blade putting just a little bit of pressure against the board you are going to run through the saw. What happens is the feathers will flex one direction and keep the board against the fence while resisting the board you are cutting being pushed back towards you. The angle cut on the end of the feather board creates that special one way control. Hey you don't have to work so hard with your hands trying to keep the board against the fence while you push and that is a good thing. Now you can concentrate on smooth and steady feeding of your piece of wood to get a nice smooth cut.

The third aid is a zero clearance throat plate. That is the red piece you see surrounding the saw blade. The one in the photo is only used for making 90 degree cuts, I have another for making 45 degree cuts and a couple more for other small ranges of angles. The idea is you always have good support of smaller sizes of materials right next to the saw blade. Only draw back is all the saw dust does not get sucked down into the saw and gets tossed around in you face. Oh well maybe someday I will get a bigger dust collector and have suction up on top too.

The 1:12 structure I am building is a birdhouse. I decided I wanted to make it a little taller so it is more visually pleasing to me so I am adding on a band of half timber detailing. There are going to be brackets built into this band that support the roof overhang. The bracket detail will give the piece additional visual interest as you look upwards to the birdhouse. It does not look so great at the moment but I can see it in my mind even if you can't.

Texturing timbers

The items you see in the photo above are involved in some of the stages of creating textured timbers that are going to be used on a 1:12 scale structure I am building.

One of the popular teachers of storybook cottages has the students texturing timbers by scraping the wood with a piece of saw blade. The tales of days of pain in hands and arms from this method can heard round the world!

My hands would never hold up to long days of that kind of abuse. Besides I like power tools and they save vast amounts of time to say nothing of pain. Downside is of course the cost of the tools and the need to control the sawdust. There will always be sawdust no matter the method. It does help to have a good dust collection system. I have dust collection but it is far from perfect. The black shape you see in the photo is a dust collection hood I use with various tools around the shop. It helps keep the fine dust out of my face and lungs.

Stage one was sizing the timber on the 10 inch tablesaw.

Stage two was routing a decorative edge, you can't see really see that edge on the piece of wood since I took the photo at distance. Note that I am not using a Dremel Motor as a router, I use a 1/4" router for this kind of work. It can be done with a Dremel but I don't care for their router table.

My router table has a special feature that allows me to adjust the height from the top of the table, pure workshop luxury! I just got a digital readout that I will be adding to that router setup so I can tell how many thousandths of an inch I have moved the bit, major pure luxury!

To create the texturing I used my reversible direction Foredom motor with a structured tooth carbide bit to rough up the surface of the wood. The last stage is removing any little fuzzy bits sticking out on the piece of wood. That is quickly achieved with a few swipes of a 3M Scotchbrite pad. That aluminum wool material cuts the fuzzies right off without removing the texture.

My workshop smells great from all the cedar sawdust I have been making.

Cutting edge miniatures

You would think that a new out of the box knife blade would be sharp. Unfortunately that is often not the case, the one you see in the photo was very dull indeed.

An essential item in your tool box should be a small sharpening stone. I purchased the "stone" in the photo from my local hardware store, it is coated with very fine bits of industrial diamonds. Regular sharpening stones are fine too, just as long as you have something on hand to touch up your cutting edges. A small size stone is handy for taking along in a toolbox or stashing in a drawer with your knife.

Working with dull blades is really frustrating, a time waster and you are more likely to get cut. It only takes a few licks across the stone to make working a pleasure and improve accuracy too. The trick is to hold the blade at the same angle as the cutting surface was ground and then push it along the stone as if you were cutting something. One direction only rather than back and forth works best.

Finding Inspiration

Old Fireback

I am a book lover, always have been, always will be. Over the years I have collected quite a few books on old buildings from used book stores. A few of these books in my collection were printed before 1900. That means they are not protected by copyright. Google along with the Gutenberg project has taken to scanning these books and making them available as free downloads. I will give you a sneak peak here of one of the old books in my collection "Art in England" by Aymer Vallance. This book in my collection happens to be available for free as a download from Google. It contains many photos of old half timber buildings and a very good discussion on the design styles and details used on those old buildings. There are also illustrations of furniture, hardware and even needlepoint chair covers.

Here is a link to the free downloadable book from Google. Copy and paste it into your browser.
http://tinyurl.com/mju6jm

When I was browsing through the book at bedtime yesterday I was reading about the subject of firebacks. Firebacks are cast metal plates used at the back of the fireplace to protect the brick work so it last longer. This also helps prevent chimney fires from spreading through cracked mortar on the back wall of the fireplace. What I found interesting was that one method of making the mold for the fireback was pressing objects into a bed of clay then pouring the molten metal over the clay. The impressions in the clay become raised areas. Well how simple is that for making a miniature fireback? Of course we can use resin instead of melting metal. Get some clay, press some design by using metal stampings or other small objects, create a surrounding dam and pour in the epoxy resin. Trim off any flash after the resin is cured and spray paint it flat black. One of the items they pressed into the clay was rope. You can see the rope impressed fireback in the illustration above. Go to page 76 of the book for the discussion on the history of old firebacks.

I love being able to share a good book with all of you.

Santa's workshop under construction

I thought you might enjoy a little excursion into the past back to the time I was building the Santa's workshop. I don't have a lot of photos of that time but I do have a few.

This photo shows the balcony area over the main work room. The balcony rest on the hammer beam truss structure that supports the roof over the workshop.

Have you ever heard of a dollhouse built with two scales? You are looking at one. The the balcony, the box beds and the adjoining room over the kitchen are all sized for the elves. Mr. and Mrs. Claus could never fit into any of those spaces. As I recall the beds are only 3 inches long even though the photo makes them seem larger.

The major style intent was to capture the feel of Victorian era, German Christmas card featuring a snow covered building in a forest. The owner of the dollhouse has many such cards displayed at Christmas time in her Victorian home. The detailing on the dollhouse beams is meant to resemble the hand carved ornamental style of wooden toys or cuckoo clocks from that era rather than a hand adzed beam more typically found in real buildings. There is also a very strong Scandanavian influence in the carvings on the structure and on those built in elf beds. This building has a lot of carving on it and I will show more of that in future postings.


The underlying structure of the dollhouse is a metric plywood, just under 3/8" thick. You can see all the layers of materials in the construction photo. This is a specialty plywood, waterproof glues and almost no voids. I purchase it from a lumber company that supplies to the wooden boat industry in the Pacific Northwest. It is the same plywood I use for my birdhouse building. I feel it is a museum quality way to build a dollhouse although it does make for a heavy house.

The timber framing details are Western Red Cedar. I hand select for dark colored, old growth heartwood with very tight grain patterns. Most cedar is fairly soft but this wood is sometimes so hard it can be difficult get a carving chisel through it.

24 Rue St. Nicholas

Yes there really is a 24 Rue St. Nicholas, it is located in the fascinating, medieval city of Rouen, France. Located at 24 Rue St. Nicholas is perhaps the most charming dollhouse/doll/miniatures store in the whole world. Of course that is just my humble opinion based on my limited travels in the world. The owner of the store gave me permission to photograph, it was very gracious of her.

The photos speak for themselves. Wouldn't this make a great project to do in miniature including the crystal chandelier in the window?

Of course I adore the fact that it is located in a tall medieval timber frame. This type of building is called colombage or pan de bois in French.The old historic district of Rouen is filled with many buildings of that type so take your comfortable walking shoes so you can tour all the twisty, turning lanes they are located along.

Last day of school

I thought you might get a kick out of the contrast in scales I work in and the size of the machines versus the size of the parts they can make. I took the two photos shown above this afternoon, the last day of the spring quarter of the CNC machining course I am taking.

The photo showing only one machine is of a CNC lathe. The lathe is about 6 feet tall but the part I made on it the other day was less than 1/4 inch in diameter and 7/8" long.

The machines in the other photo are all CNC milling machines. We have been making parts on them as well. Obviously these big machines can make large parts but they can also make tiny parts with a high degree of accuracy.

I am really glad I am in the program but thrilled to have the summer off.

Jobs I have done

Once upon a time I was an aircraft mechanic....


A challenge is being passed along in the Blogs from Katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com to tell all about the jobs we have had over the years. Hey isn’t that resume writing? Here is my bedtime read for you today......zzzzz

One early job was right after high school, I worked for a veterinarian doing things like cleaning kennels, feeding and washing dogs and even a little bit of assistance in the exam and operating room. Then a sales job after my freshman year in college that I enjoyed where I earned enough money to run away from home in Texas and move to Seattle. In Seattle I got a boring secretarial job for few months until something fun turned up, architectural drafting. That job paid my way to move to Anchorage, Alaska doing something that helps when designing dollhouses. I was let go when the bosses son got his girlfriend pregnant and he needed his old job back. Back to retail work and college for the next few years as well as becoming a new mom.

All along during this time I was creating fiber and textile art. I made custom clothing, did embroidery and crochet, learned weaving and of course did tie-dye. I also volunteered doing sets and costuming for local theaters and I was chairperson for my local community school where I taught textile arts.

I left Alaska when I divorced my son's father and moved back to Seattle. Being a single Mom I took the best paying job I could find. I became an aircraft mechanic at Boeing. Over the 15 or so years I spent there I learned all kinds of technical things and used many different tools to make and assemble all kinds of things for the airplanes. One of my favorite jobs there was working on that full scale model airplane you see in the photo above. Yes I am the person in the foreground of the photo. One ever useful bit of extra curricular education I began to learn in the late 1980's at Boeing was designing in 3D CAD programs.

I left Boeing in the early 1990's due to  health problems. I decided to take some of my savings and set up a woodworking shop in an unfinished room in our home and then started creating miniature buildings. My husband at that time was an architectural illustrator so I spent time in our own illustration business along with some model making. He was the primary illustrator but I also did hands on work on projects including the one shown here. But truthfully I can't draw all that good mostly because I rarely do it. Being really good at drawing takes lots of  practice and putting in time at it and I just have not caught the bug where I feel I want to devote the time to it. I do stuff the picky color details. Skill I developed with this work that is still useful is how to use photoshop.



A lot of my time used to be taken up with working on real life houses until the crash of the housing market which also coincided with my back getting so bad I could no longer do very much of the bending, lifting and working off tall ladders stuff.  But boy have I learned a lot about houses over the years and could easily host one of those curb appeal and fix it up for sale shows. I am a  house wizard, I can look at a place and know what it needs to make it a hot commodity. That understanding of creating emotional appeal is very important for designing  miniatures. Plus I also know how buildings are put together and all the bits and pieces needed.

A decade ago I went back to college and took more courses in computer technology and engineering technology including more engineering drafting. I also learned how to build computers, write basic programs,  to network computers as well as troubleshoot hardware and software issues. My primary job at the moment is full time student studying CNC machining. I also create miniatures and do some 3D CAD work. When not in school I subcontract my time in CAD drafting, prototype model making, teach occasional classes in building miniatures and work on call as needed for long time clients. However I would like to find a great full time job with good benefits. People think artist must hate working in industry but I love the technical side of what I do, it keeps my brain alive. Update: I retired from working for other companies when I turned 62 as my progressive spine issues no longer allowed long periods of sitting and standing. I also quite taking commissions for making miniatures as my health makes it difficult to meet deadline schedules. I like taking classes but the chairs in schools are so bad for my back that I finally quit going  to courses.

I don’t know what the future will bring along but it is bound to be a new learning experience and that suits me just fine. Whatever it turns out to be I suspect like many skills I have learned I will end up using them making miniatures. My newest venture is becoming a paper architect using the laser cutter and vinyl cutters for intricate cuts on tiny buildings that are only a few inches tall at the most. Everything I have learned along the way somehow ends up being relevant to the making of miniatures.

Visitors to the workshop

My friend and his dog. This very large dog is my security force. He is on guard duty every night and takes his responsibilities very seriously. But it is also fortunate that there are people in the building 24/7. Nice situation to have in a city where one has to be concerned about things like rascals looking for opportunity.

Cats into miniatures

My two Siamese enjoy the miniatures although they can be a little rough on them. This time they opened the door of the case and snuck in there. Any forbidden place or object is just that much more exciting to them. Beans is in the back and Zak is sticking his head out the door. I found this old display case in an antique store and could not resist it. I currently use it to house a 1:12 scale fire engine model.

These two guys love to get into any kind of miniature building they can. I have not told them that the plastic cat carrier they love to sleep in is not exactly an attractive building. Maybe someday I will build them a new bedroom that looks like a fairy tale come to life.

Spring time is for the birds

Just so you are not confused this is a real life birdhouse, not a birdhouse for a dollhouse. I love creating small architectural objects and build them for a number of functions.

Every now and again I will raid the piles of accumulated materials I have gathered and build something. I made this Victorian inspired A frame, chickadee sized birdhouse a few years ago. I used Vermont Green slate roof shingles, a copper pipe for the ridge with a brass stamped cap shaped piece for the ends of the pipe. The green patina solution I put on the copper and brass looks to be a close match in color with the green of the slate. Cutting the slot in the copper pipe to fit over the shingles was the scary part. It was done on a 10 inch table saw, I had to hold the copper pipe in a custom fixture I built.

The walls are made from salvaged tongue and groove boards from a old house I used to live in. I decided to shape the ends of the boards into triangles to repeat the overall shape of the house. The rest of the wood pieces I cut from cedar except for the little dentil molding. That was a dollhouse molding I had sitting around. I gave all the wood a finish of semi-transparent white oil based stain.

It was a rather whimsical and fun project to build and sold just about as soon as it reached the gallery.

Maybe someday I will recreate it as a birdhouse for a dollhouse in 1:12 scale.

1:12 fireplace from real stone

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Here are the promised photos of a fireplace I built for a dollhouse. The stone was gathered from a leftover stone pile from a real life chimney in Carmel by the Sea, California. I am able to work this soft limestone with a hammer, chisel and tile nippers. I do cut down larger chunks on a water cooled diamond tile saw although they could be split up by hand just about as easily. There is a hollow plywood box as a form under the stones for the chimney and interior for the fireplace. I hope you enjoy seeing it. Real stone looks so grand and yes so very real. I love the crisp, sharp, broken edges. That would be very difficult to achieve with paper-mache.

As you can tell by the interior scene this is a Christmas themed dollhouse. The elves are busy cooking in the kitchen. More photos of the project below.

Bonjour Poupée

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on the images.

A couple of summer's ago I took my first trip to Europe. I chose to spend several weeks in the Normandy region and the better part of a week in Paris. Now and again I will be posting some of the photos I took. The trip was for me a research excursion to see in person many of the types of real life structures I would like to create in miniature.

As I was touring in some of the towns and villages I began to notice that more than a few people chose to display their dolls in the windows of their homes and apartments.

I thought you would enjoy seeing them and perhaps thinking about doing something like this in your French Cottage.

Good night for a movie

Don't you just love these two architectural models by Timothy Richards? I sure do.

http://www.timothyrichards.com/

Today  I will introduce you to an extraordinaire model maker from Bath, UK., Timothy Richards. You can buy his models in the USA through several sources. His website will tell you where and it is full of great photos of his projects.

I know they are not dollhouses but that does not mean he can't teach us how to build dollhouses.

What I really went crazy for on his web site was a terrific 19 minute film. He shows some of the steps of building his models and the casting molds they are made in and he talks about how hard he tries to capture the spirit of the building, not just the dimensioned details of it. It is really good to hear the artist talking about what moves and inspires him to work at the artistic level of exceptional quality he has achieved. 

Great buildings have soul and and often character that comes only with time and weathering effects. In this film he shows making a detailed brick mold and then aging the molded wall section.

This youtube channel has uploaded a number of films taken in the Timothy Richards studio covering many of the aspects used in the making of the models.
https://www.youtube.com/user/barryjwright/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0

Where the small power tools live

These two shelving units hold many of the smaller sized power tools I use for creating miniatures. Those of you who might have read my postings in newsgroups over the years will have seen me posting about using them. Now you get to see some of it. Actually this is only 8 feet wide by 18 inches deep of a 57 foot long room that is 15 feet wide.

There are a lot of tools on those two shelving units. A microlux tilt arbor saw, a Jim Byrnes table saw, a couple of Dremel table saws. A grunch of Dremel motors and various drill press stands and also a couple of  router tables and a shaper. A Cameraon deep throat drill press, that was a real jewel I found at a local  second hand tool store. There is a small metal shear, 3 sizes of power miter saws plus a lion miter trimmer. A wire bending tool, lots of jeweler's hammers, pliers, anvils, torches, soldering irons, a resistance soldering machine. Two high speed air turbine carvers, hot knives, air brush and air eraser, foredom carver, power chisel carver, miniature belt sander plus a mini disk sander and a small lathe. I have a diamond lapidary saw with a thin blade that is water cooled for cutting up tile and stone and a scroll saw is tucked in there too. There is a hot polyurethane glue gun as well as a regular glue gun.

If you were wondering why so many miniature saws there are several reasons. One is that I would like to teach more classes on how to use power tools. Another reason is that it is very nice to create a little production line where I have a saw setup for one type of cut such as cutting to width, the next might be setup for the second width rip on the same piece of wood another cut on that part, say a groove down the middle and the third might have a sled jig or jigs for cutting to length at an angle or cutting a notch across the narrow width. This is very handy when creating limited editions of a furniture piece or a building a dollhouse. Of course to have that many saws I need to search for affordable, used miniature saws. But mostly I want the duplicates for teaching classes so 10 students don't have to get in line to use one or two saws.

I keep the miniature tools on the shelves until I am working on a task I need them for. Then I bring the tool over to one of the work tables. I am sure over the next year or two you will see most of these tools come out to play and be shown in use on this blog along with the various jigs used with these tools.

Do I need all this stuff to make birdhouses and dollhouses? Heck no, I am just  a tool junky. It must be phychological compensation for the fact I have a EE size foot and can't buy a closetful of cute shoes so I can dress like a girly girl. It is important to have a ready excuse to blame on your genetics for any over indulgence. My grandfather was a very skilled  man who could fix anything therefore I can't help myself, it is in myDNA to own  tools, a biological imperative.