I saw one of these at an antique store and since my wife and I needed a stemware storage location, I thought it would do good to fill the need. Also, it was an excuse to use my new Delta 12 1/2 inch planer.

The shelf is made of scrap pallet wood that I had. After several runs through the planer, it turned out to be some very usable wood of about 1/2” thickness. I didn’t do any fancy joinery for it, though after I finished I almost wish I had just to get the extra practice.

The strip it is hanging off of is some 1×6 that I had laying around and just doctored up and hung up with some anchor bolts. We had plenty of room to add a hook on each end to hang some cast iron skillets that were otherwise in the way. I liked the look of Shaker designs, so I incorporated this into the shelf project simply because I wanted to make it easy to hang and relatively sturdy on the wall (I break enough stemware myself and don’t need help).

I finished both pieces with Minwax gel stain. The shelf got a under coat of a light stain (Early American, I think) and both the shelf and the wall strip got a coat of walnut. I like the contrast between the lighter shelf and the darker strip. To make sure it kept well, I also gave the shelf a coat of tung oil (spelling?). The wife loves it.

This was my first attempt at building something without a written plan or a jaunt through Sketchup. It was kind of fun not have the picture to put the pieces together by. However, the few mistakes that I did make along the way would not have happened if I had put some sort of written plan on paper before I started working. But, if it’s scrap wood anyway, who cares if you make a mistake or two?

~DB

I’m thinking up “upgrading” to a better router table setup. Currently, I have a Craftsman router table that I got as a gift. It does an alright job for smaller projects. However, I really want to go up a notch on my abilities with the table.

I looked at several options including a rolling fold away table. That idea spawned a thought of adding the fold down top to my workbench. After pondering that for a while, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort of constructing legs that would fold under it. I just figured it would be more in the way than not.

Then, I thought that I may try and do it as a part of the table itself. There are tons of advantages to this for me, space and storage being the biggest. So, I dusted off the ol’ Sketch-Up and drafted this basic design.

The bench I have and is made of white wood from HD. Mostly laminated 2×4s and 2×6s. Don’t be fooled, it is heavy as hell. To make sure that the top of the router table is absolutely flat and smooth, I would cut down that part of the table and put in either hardboard or splurge for some oak ply. Then, cut the whole out in the center and rabbit out an edge for the insert (to which I could either put the router or a blank for a smooth surface).

For fences and hold downs, I’d run two pieces of T-Track about 6 inches beyond the insert. Then build a dust box underneath with a whole cut int he bottom to put some piping to connect to my dust collection system (a bagged shop-vac with a clogged filter).

I’m curious if anyone else has this or a similar set up for their shop.

You may have seen one of these on the internet before, and yes that was my inspiration. A couple of my friends got married last month and I thought this was perfect for them because they love games and nostalgic stuff like this.

For those who don’t know (don’t be shy), the character is one of the invaders from the Space Invaders arcade game. It works perfect for a cutting board because of the large pixel graphics that they used back in the day.

Now, for how it was done…

The woods I used were maple (scraps from the shop, but I’m pretty sure it was rock maple) and purple heart. I considered two options: First: Cut each individual block (or pixel), arrange each column and glue, then gang-glue them. Second: (this is harder to describe, but made more sense to make) Found common patterns and made wider sections of them, cut them in halves or thirds, then glued them up.

All in all it went well. I had already made a few before, so other than a modified process for the graphic, the board went together quite easily. The only problem I had was a hot and dulling table saw blade which you can see the arches it made on the second shot (back side). Luckily, those tended to only appear on one side of each cut column so I was able to put them all on one side of the finished board.

Finishing was a breeze compared to the previous ones I did. I finally bought a random orbit sander and it made it much easier. Plus, the finished piece was much smoother because I went through the extra effort to raise the grain between sanding jobs. Basically, I would sand from low to high grit until smooth. Then, I’d wipe down the board with a wet cloth. Water absorbed into the end grain and would rough up the finish. So, I’d go through the grits again. By them time I had done this about four times, I could wipe it down with a wet cloth and it would stay smooth.

Lastly, I coated it with two coats of food safe mineral oil. It really deepens the color of the woods and makes it look great.

I always get a kick out of making things like this as gifts. My friends didn’t know I made it until I asked them to take a few pictures for my projects list (yeah, I forgot to take them myself). They replied back saying they were almost afraid to use it. Ha!

~Danny Boy

I’m still in process of designing this one. My wife and I are dividing up the back yard between a garden for her and a habitat place for the dog. We already have up some fencing which may or may not be temporary. The main gate between the two yards is something that we wanted to be relatively easy to pass through but also a focal point for the middle of the yard that can stay (and look like it belongs) even if the rest of the fence is taken down (which is likely when we sell the house).

The basic requirements: 1) 4ft wide gate for passage of yard equipment (no current equipment over 30”) 2) Be weather resistant (no PT lumber allowed) 3) Have an arbor or pergola style top 4) Trellis on each side 5) Room on beams for hanging plants 6) Gate must be at least 5’ tall to keep dog in

So far I am still planning using a trusty note book and Google Sketchup. The images I have so far are the arbor with trellis without the gate installed. I’m working on the gate design now and will add it later. I’m hoping for all lumber to be cedar and to avoid using PT for environmental and safety reasons.

I do have a couple of questions for some you more experienced builders out their. The plan reflects using four 4×4x8’ cedar posts for the main supports. Those will be sunk 1’ into the ground with cement footers. The top is all 2×6 cedar. So here are my questions: 1) Will the 4×4 posts be strong enough to support the arbor/pergola top and withstand most winds (properly bolted of course)? 2) Should I bury a spacer between the posts on all sides about 6” down? (I read this helps with stability but I’m not convinced it is necessary.) 3) Is 1ft deep cement footers deep enough or do I need to adjust my plan?

Thanks for any feedback, guys!

~Danny Boy

There has been a lot said here about the space we use to work. As per a recent forum on the subject of benches, I just recently finished my bench.

I went with yellow pine as my main building material here. Despite what most people say, it actually makes a very hard and forgiving top for the space. There are 10 2×4s laminated top to bottom to make the top and I used two more plus a 2×6 to make the tray. That was part one. It sat on a couple of plastic saw horses for about three months before I moved onto the base. I flattened it out best I could with a 8in plane (bought for me from Westlake [got to love family gifts]) and eventually my Ryobi power hand planer. Made a nice surface. Also, before I made the base, I had two cheap vise grips, one on the end and one on the opposite front, for holding lumber. Those got taken off in hopes of replacing them with a stouter one later.

The base is 2x wood as well. Most of it I got at 7ft lengths for $1.50 at HD. It wasn’t grade A but fished through an entire batch of it to get the best dozen I could find. Parts are held together with the regular nuts and bolts in the joints. Nothing fancy there. The nicest part is the piece of birch plywood I had laying around that became the bottom shelf.

The height is taller than most people have recommended to me. I have worked on the just-below-the-hip height and found that I kept having back pains. So, this one is just barely higher than a kitchen cabinet. So far, my back has thanked me. To each his own, I guess…

Going Forward:

I hope to eventually build some drawers for underneath on one side to store hand tools and other fun nick-knacks. When I do that, I may try to seal up the wood with poly or something else just to keep it nice. I probably should do that soon since my basement is prone to leaking during the wet seasons.

She ain’t pretty, but she sure holds up to some pounding!

I was originally intending to post this as my entry for the January-February contest, but the submissions closed at 3:00 cst as opposed to midnight when I expected. Oh, well. I’ll just have to win the next one.

Basically, I came up with the design by thinking way too long on how to do both the 2×4 and box projects. My original intent was to have it store a wine bottle and two glasses but I thought the JD was funnier. Not to mention, I can now title the project “Jack in the Box”.

Obviously, the material is all pine. I cut the strips for the sides at 3/16” and framed them with more 3/16” pieces. It was tricky cutting those thin strips with the table saw, but it did it well. Lucky it wasn’t a harder wood. The strips are all secured with Titebond II.

I finished in with Min Wax stain (Early American I think) and used brass corners, hinges, and latches. It’s hard to see but I had to hide the nails for the top part of the latches under the corners in order for it all to fit. Bad design on that one part.

All in all it was a fun project. Cost about $20 to make not including fabric for the inside (oh, that’s just loose in there right now but will be filled in with packing foam to make it more travelable). I’ve never built a box before and it was interesting to see how far I could stretch the 2×4.

I built this clock from a pattern I got through an online pattern company. The box and frame is all pine. I don’t have a chime clockwork on it just a regular pendulum one. Very quick build. I spent a total of about three hours on it not counting drying time for glue and finish.

The finish is minwax early american with two coats of tung oil over that. It’s light weight enough to be hung with the same hardware I use to hang pictures.

This was a fun build. First clock I’ve ever made.

I just completed this cutting board based off of Marc’s (the Wood Whisperer) design from his podcast. Basic run down is maple and purple heart. I wasn’t able to find purple heart of anything better than 3/4 so I turned that on its side and used two pieces per strip to get the right thickness. I’ll be making at least two more of these for more presents. Hopefully the design will be slightly different. I’ll post them when I’m done.