How to make a continuous calander

Merry Christmas to all of you.   Hope your all warm safe and with family and friends.

 The days have flown by, and it is soon to be another new year.  What do we need to do?   Oh yeah, we do need a new Calander, don't we?   Every year.   I have a solution, we can make a Calander to last forever and it's easy, and kind of cute.   Best of all, everyone has little piece of wood to make it with.  

Not sure if you can see the tiny little Calander in front of the books there, I should have made it bigger.  But it is a little whale.  I made it for a kid's room.   The concept of blocks for days and months can be used to make it into almost anything or any size.  Maybe even an adult something.  

Let's see how easy this is.    I used the following:   A piece of 1" thick cedar that was cut off of a fence rail in the making.  It is about 7" long and maybe 2 1/2"wide.  If your wood is a different thickness you need to multiply your measurements by that number.  (for instance, If your wood is 2" thick make the whale twice as big and the blocks cut out will be 2 x 2 instead of 1x1   The  cut out of his back would be 2 2/3 x 4. etc)  I used 1" wood because 1st of all it was there, secondly it makes the calculations easy.   Here is the pattern below that works for 1" wood.     

The whale is cut out as a whole from the 1" cedar.  I used the Proxxon mini bandsaw to do this. And to cut the 2 vertical parallel cuts (Those should be 1 1/3" deep)

Then I switched to the Proxxon mini scroll saw to make the corners on the squares as it was a little too tight for the bandsaw.   

 The top 1/3" is cut from this piece we just cut out.  This will be the pieces used for the months.   Now after you get that piece it needs to be cut into thirds so there are 3 pieces which are 1/3"  x 1/3" and 2" long. 

 I used the Proxxon mini bandsw,  BUT, that is a little close for the fingers.  I recommend using the Proxxon mini scroll saw.    Now cut the remaining rectangle in half.  This gives you (2)  1" x 1" pieces.  These will be the days.

Now it is time to sand this pretty cedar wood.  

I used the Proxxon OZI/E delta sander for most of it.  

  

I also used the Proxxon cordless belt sander.

 

And the Proxxon cordless rotary tool to drill some eyes

I sanded the parts really well and then I wrote the numbers on them.    You need to know which numbers to put on the cubes.   On the first cube put the numbers 0-5.  On the second cube put the numbers 0,1,2,6,7,8,9.  Now you can make any number from 01-31

On the long skinny pieces write you months.

If I did it again, I would glue (2) 1" thick whales together and make it twice as big.  Also make sure you get a pen that won't run when you apply finish.  Or better yet wood burn those numbers and months in.  Then stain it or paint it.  

This thing is All done.   

I picked a warm day on purpose! 

It's been fun, sure glad you visited, and give this one a try.  It's a super easy one and let the kids help with the math. 

 

Take care everyone and have an awesome New Year!

See ya all next year...........Carol