Mass production (small scale)

Gustav has often talked about that he would like to earn some money. He gets a small weekly allowance, for doing various chores in the house. Once in a while there is a possibility of earning a little extra by e.g. moving fire wood to the shed or sweeping the machinery shed.

He would like to make something that he can sell, so I started thinking and rationalised that the majority of people in our area has a need for apple storage boxes.
The beauty of apple storage boxes are, that they don't need to be super smooth or 100% square. In other words: A great children's project.

I made some ½" boards that could be used for the production, and we talked about a design. Gustav wanted to be able to make the boxes all by himself, so we also made a jig that could be used for the assembly of the ends for the boxes.
We then assembled one box where I helped and gave some hints. After that he set to work.
The master plan is to make enough of those boxes so he can sell them at the local grocery for the yearly trunk sale to be held at the parking lot.

Today he asked the manager of the local grocery store, if she was interested in buying some, and she actually thought they looked very good, so she immediately ordered 2 boxes. Gustav went home and made two boxes at once, I then drove him down to the grocer again, and he delivered the boxes and received his "hard earned cash". He felt really proud of himself and is still determined to build as many as possible. So I guess that I need to make some more boards for him at the sawmill.

For my part, I have finished the tables and benches for my friend and the model air plane club. Another friend of mine are moving to a new house, and she would like a new table, so she came to our house and saw the tables that I had made. She really liked those, and was about to sign up for one. But I wanted her to know that there were other possibilities as well. So I showed her some other alternatives, and she immediately fell in love with a Barnsley hay rake table.

I have wanted to build this table ever since I saw it in Popular Woodworking in 2009, but I have never had the need for building it. But now there is a legitimate reason for making one.
The challenge is that the desired size is approximately 4' x 10' and the top should be 2" thick. So it will be a rather large and heavy table.
The table will be built out of larch (as usual), and I have started milling the stock at the sawmill. The logs have been sitting for quite some time, so they are not that wet any more. I still expect some wood movement, but I have explained that it is unavoidable with a massive tabletop of this size.

The plan was to glue up the legs to avoid the pith. But once I had cross cut one of the planks, it was revealed that the pith had moved a bit to the side during growth.. I still think it will be less prone to develop cheeks than if I had sawed a 5x5" with the pith in the middle.

Some of the apple boxes.

The jig with a completed end.

Glue up of the legs for the table.