# Balancing distractions



## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

With my daughter's wedding coming up soon my time playing in the shop has turned from slings and bows to other things. Here are a couple of the balancing bottle holders I made as swag for the guests. I made a ton of the plain oak and about two dozen of the patterned ones. Made for wine bottles they also work for anything that has a neck that will fill in the hole and a similar center of gravity- several large bottled water and other bottles also work. 

The walnut one with the neat grain going through a knot I am keeping for us. Family and the wedding party will get their pick after that. From there, the remaining ones will go out on tables with empty bottles stuffed with fairy lights for guests to take home.

In addition to these, I am also building the arch she will get married under. Going for a rustic / Amish look with rough cedar and all pegs / no screws or nails.

Fun doing these but looking forward to having time to play with making bows and frames again.

Thanks for taking a peak at my temporary distraction from bows and slings.










.


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## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

Your wood working is amazing thanks for sharing


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## KawKan (May 11, 2013)

Wow, the big day is almost here!
Congratulations!
Those are going to be popular gifts. 
Of course, I was immediately thinking I could get of couple of nice slingshots out of the plain oak versions. LOL!


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

KawKan said:


> Wow, the big day is almost here!
> Congratulations!
> Those are going to be popular gifts.
> Of course, I was immediately thinking I could get of couple of nice slingshots out of the plain oak versions. LOL!


Learning how to weave and and pattern the wood has been a fun distraction. In the end the patterned ones are neat "parlor tricks" but I end up liking the solid wood ones that have some character like the grain around the walnut knot. Also have a few of the oak ones with some knots and spalding in them that turned out cool. 

I have been thinking that might be fun to use this experience for some handle scales and bow handles. 

I also have a lot of trimmed ends and sides left and may turn them into the "everything bagel" of the cutting board world- will either be really cool or a total disaster. Worst comes to worst it will only be a bit of glue and some time if it goes in the fireplace.


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## brucered (Dec 30, 2015)

Super cool.

Those are awesome and I hope the recipients realize how lucky they are.

Thanks for sharing. Very unique.


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## SLING-N-SHOT (Jun 5, 2018)

Very nice Steve, look great.

How do you find the perfect balancing spot, cut the boards long and trim it shorter, try again till you get the length just right maybe ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Darrell Allen

** SlingLyfe Band Up **


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## ukj (Jan 10, 2021)

Beautiful work.
Your skill will be conversation
starter.
Bravo!
I am not one to get the "gimmies" 
often but a ss frame that was made
like this.....
If was rich would place command, if would be accepted.
ukj


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## Karloshi (Apr 6, 2021)

Nice work. That got me thinking if something similar to the balancing bottle holder could be made to balance a slingshot instead.


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

Hey those came out looking really great! Right on.


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## Slide-Easy (Aug 16, 2020)

Modern wedding are insane....


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## andypandy1 (Apr 8, 2016)

Wow that’s really nice


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## Peter Recuas (Mar 6, 2014)

I knew they were beautiful since I saw them but I had to search the net to find out what they were, now I know they are beautiful, functional and a great topic of conversation, thanks for sharing


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## Flatband (Dec 18, 2009)

Hey Flip, you got some skills there Bud! Nice work!


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

SLING-N-SHOT said:


> Very nice Steve, look great.
> 
> How do you find the perfect balancing spot, cut the boards long and trim it shorter, try again till you get the length just right maybe ?
> 
> ...



Thank you. 

The balancing spot for standard wine bottles was pretty easy to find- compliments of YouTube. After that I played around a bit tweaking them- I liked a little longer and thinner design. 

A bit to my surprise they worked with bottles full or empty- I learned it is center of gravity and not weight. They also work for many but not all bottles- the wine ones work for many 750 ml liquor bottles and some of the fancy bottled waters of similar size. It was also pretty easy to play with length to get them to work for most other bottles.


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

We had the wedding last weekend and it turned out to be a perfect day for our daughter and new son in law. All went as well as it could have. The weather was perfect so they got to be outside with the mountains in the background like they were hoping for, we had a wonderful collection of friends and family to help us celebrate, and more.

I got enough balancing bottle holders made that we put two at every table for guests to take and they loved them. And the arch I made for the ceremony not only stood without falling on anyone, but even turned out looking pretty decent.

Now after a few days off from slinging for all of the fun, it is time to get back to slinging (and saving to clear the rest of the bills).


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## KawKan (May 11, 2013)

Wow! 
You get my vote for best father-of-the-bride. 
Very nice!


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## Reed Lukens (Aug 16, 2020)

You really worked hard on making her / their day, perfect in every way 👌 ❤


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## Covert5 (Feb 7, 2018)

Wow beautiful wood work! And looked like a perfect wedding day! Congratulations I second Kawkan's vote! I don't think you were distracted at all. I know while you were sipping some great wine, you strapped on a bandset on those beautiful holders and shot them as a flat top shooter!


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

I’m glad the wedding and all the hard work you put in came out a great success, Steve. Were you carrying a Wedding Slinger? 😁😉









The Wedding Slinger


I found a 3x2 piece of Black Canvas Micarta this morning and also this template I had made of my first attempt at a concealed carry slingshot for corporate events, weddings, graduations etc. As I got into the project my mind wandered to a show I watched as a kid. Wild Wild West was the show and...




www.slingshotforum.com


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## skarrd (Jul 20, 2011)

what a great Dad and Father in law too,Kudos and Congratulations


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

Sandstorm said:


> I’m glad the wedding and all the hard work you put came out a great success, Steve. Were you carrying a Wedding Slinger? 😁😉
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Haha, no wedding slinger. I was tempted when I saw @MOJAVE MO put that up but decided to stay within my wife, daughter, and families good taste limits. Although there were a couple in the car and there may have been a few moments of shooting during down time earlier in the day. 🙄


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## Whytey (Sep 26, 2021)

...... and now you have a nice big sturdy frame to hang more targets.


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

Whytey said:


> ...... and now you have a nice big sturdy frame to hang more targets.



They are living a thousand miles away. Happy the wedding was here, but we are hanging on the arch. For a good while anyways. 🤔


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

The thing I am most proud of with the arch is I told told my daughter I would get it with no metal. Not quite full on Amish with pegs only- i did use some glue. But zero screws or nails or anything. And while the five pieces it breaks down into for transport would not fit into a seat, it could pass through airline security no problemo.


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## Reed Lukens (Aug 16, 2020)

Don't make your wife mad or she'll be turning it into your own personal Gallows
😈😈😈😈😈🤪


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## Whytey (Sep 26, 2021)

High Desert Flipper said:


> The thing I am most proud of with the arch is I told told my daughter I would get it with no metal. Not quite full on Amish with pegs only- i did use some glue. But zero screws or nails or anything. And while the five pieces it breaks down into for transport would not fit into a seat, it could pass through airline security no problemo.


Sweet


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## MOJAVE MO (Apr 11, 2018)

High Desert Flipper said:


> Haha, no wedding slinger. I was tempted when I saw @MOJAVE MO put that up but decided to stay within my wife, daughter, and families good taste limits. Although there were a couple in the car and there may have been a few moments of shooting during down time earlier in the day. 🙄


Yea——but you thought about it!🙊🙈🙉


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

MOJAVE MO said:


> Yea——but you thought about it!🙊🙈🙉


Absolutely.


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## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

You did a fantastic job making it a perfect day


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## ukj (Jan 10, 2021)

Talk about a loving giving father, she is blessed.
My daughters is comming ,for sure she will not see this.
ukj


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

Love comes in many different forms and is expressed in many different ways. I'm certain your daughter will be showered and blessed by yours.

And if you trip over your tongue less than I did while addressing people at the reception, your daughter will appreciate that also.


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