This is the Jatoba table I started last summer and let lay around until recently… Finally finished it a week or so ago. Mortise and tenon construction all around. Surfaces were hand scraped to remove machining marks. Top was sanded to 180 or so (it’s an outdoor table) to “level it all out.” It’s finished in a BLO/Teak Oil/mineral spirit mix. Wooden buttons and brass screws hold the top on.

I blogged the build and other boring details here.

In context:

11-12” diameter – Maple Bowl. I didn’t take too many pictures, so this is it!

Finished through 400g wet/dry and mineral oil burnished in with shavings.

Here’s the completed Tansu style case I started a couple months ago, and blogged here ...this was supposed to be a quick, fun, little project – and although it took the couple months from start to finish, it turned out to be just the right “spend-some-time-on-it-here-and-there-project.”

This is an all scrap wood piece, made of cedar, pine, poplar, fir, and walnut

The case is mitered with walnut keys. The drawers are joined with drawer lock joints (a router joint). The vg fir back is simply rabbeted into the case and tacked with little nails…

Finish is 3 coats of a boiled linseed based mix, with a coat of paste wax.

I finished up this Cherry (queen) platform bed yesterday…Poplar is the secondary wood. There is no headboard, I might eventually build one, but right now we wanted the platform. So, the two leg assemblies are pretty much the same. Legs are 2 1/2” square from solid 12/4 stock. Rails and stretchers are 1 1/4 thick, 6” wide and 8” wide, respectively. The stretchers join with the legs via mortise and tenon joints drawbored with walnut pins. Each tenon was notched in the middle, and cut into two separate tenons to allow room for expansion and contraction, versus, one 6” wide tenon.

This all took more time than I thought it would from the get go (story of our lives, eh?), but came together fairly well. I used this type of fastener to connect the rails to the legs:

Here are the mortises for the fasteners in the legs and ends of the rails:

Although, you don’t have to use a center rail and leg on a queen, I decided to do it because I used 3/4” stock for the slats.

I used this type of center rail hardware to make assembly dissassembly easy:

Here’s what that looks like installed on my bed:

And, the center leg; I used a 1” dowel to give the screw from above some long grain to hold onto. I used this same technique at the ends of the rails (though that took three at each end):

I turned this little bowl a while back out of Cherry. It was green when I turned it. It came off the (mini) lathe at just under 8”. It dried a bit warped, just as green bowl should. I think I like the form it’s taken…time will tell. May end up in the woodstove! I didn’t have all the sanding accessories when I turned it, so this is right from the lathe. Also – no finish.

What’s it for? Still don’t know.

Should’ve just waited til this point to post, but..I’m learning…I just read:

“Showcase your finished project, add a title, pictures and provide information about the wood, tools, process in your Story. Is your project still a work in progress? Write about it in your Blog and when you are finished—showcase it here.”

Well, I wasn’t that advanced at the time – now, a week or two later…I’m catching on! I originally posted this project half way through, so the back story is there. For fitting in to an opening that was 3/4” out of square at the header, it came together okay. The doors are finished in an oil blend of mineral spirits, boiled linseed oil, and Teak oil (heavy on the Teak oil because these are outside – though under cover).

Saw this in the living room and figured I could post it. This was one of my first projects (probably made it 3-4 years ago) when I was excited to get my shop-made box joint jigs in order! This project also allowed me to do small time re-sawing (other than firewood at the time) and book-matching.

I picked the maple chunks up from the scrap bin at the neighborhood cabinet shop and put this simple box together. The top has some blotchy-wavy figure in it – but not a ton. I still don’t really know if it’s “pretty” or not. I like figured woods, but don’t really have any experience working them.

I hear Don likes small wooden boxes…

The bottom’s finished with 2-3 coats of oil varnish, the upper’s not finished yet, but will look the same…I got picky with the plywood, selecting the darkest birch ply I could find to look “cherryish” (cherry ply would have done the trick too, but I was trying to save!).

I actually purchased some beautiful 8/4 cherry, over 9” wide that I was going to resaw for these cases (there are actually four all together – matching set on the other side of a closet in the “office”), but I just wanted this project to be completed so took an easier way out. Solid birch edgings and base. Very very simple – we just needed the utility of these cases so badly! The big open case (“base case”) on the bottom was built deep for computer and file bags (work gear), the upper, simply a book case.

Just a quick and dirty project to replace a door that swings into our teeny utility room (laundry, sink, furnace, water heater). These will fold out. I made this bi-fold door set for the utility room and as prototypes for two closet door sets that’ll take 4 doors each. They are fir frames with haunched mortise and tenons pegged with walnut, and have birch ply panels. For the closets, I’ll probably use VG fir ply panels, and tighter grained VG fir stock for the frames.

Had to get the tools out from under and off the bench! To tell you the truth, it’s a pretty stupid design. Although I maximized as much room as I could by insetting it into the wall, and making the doors as wide as possible, the doors are too low. Now, I’m going to leave the left side open all the time, so I’m cool there, but the right side only opens 90degrees and I’d have to take anything over 6” or so off the bench to swing it open if I need to get anything! I may end up just taking the right door off and using the three open cases. We’ll see how it goes. Plan to store saws and striking tools over on the right. It’s a work in progress…as you can see!