I recently installed bamboo flooring in the basement and really liked the look of the bamboo. So, why not make something with scraps?

I was at a garden store the same day and saw an asparagus fern which looked really neat. Instantly I saw a design for a nice bamboo plant pot in my head and decided to proceed. The plant was about $4, and the bamboo was free. Well, my quick one day project took much longer than anticipated…..

I started with ripping off the tongue and groove from the bamboo. This made the width insufficient for the height of my pot. So I used a biscuit jointer and joined together two peices for each side. I proceeded to draw out and calculate my compound angles. I made a boo-boo on double checking my 45 degrees on the saw and so the corners are off a little bit. These were my first compound mitre cuts on a table saw. I have a compound mitre saw, but hey – why not try a table saw? (I think actually my mitre saw only cuts 5.5 inches and wouldn’t cut the whole way through these – don’t remember though why I went the table saw route).

The two lines ripped into the side were an impulse cut. I first thought of keying the mitred corners, then I thought of inlaying some darker wood, but all I had around was cedar. So I just ran it through the table saw and added the detail.

The toughest part was glueing it. I was determined to keep this a ‘quick’ project. I dry fit it sitting upside down on the work bench (the pot not me) and it sat there just fine. So I mixed up some epoxy and let it drip into the not so perfect joint. Once dry it was stable, but not strong.

I need a bottom because I planned put put a pot inside this. But because nothing was really precise with this, I couldn’t just cut a perfect bottom. I made it a little oversize so it didn’t quite fit. I then would trim very small amounts off until it fit just right. It was great because I could slide it down from the inside and the taper meant it would have a nice snug fit. Once it fit I mixed up some more epoxy because I wanted to waterproof the inside of this pot. You can see in the second picture the brown material in the joints. This is epoxy with wood dust to make it thicker ( I didn’t have any proper thickening agents). Lastly I poured in some epoxy to coat the bottom and sides so the water wont soak into the wood.

I also decided to make a custom insert so that it would have drainage. Using my pot as a mould (with a spacer at the botom), I made it from fibreglass. Drilled a few holes in the bottom of it, and it drains into the bottom of the pot.

And now I have a nice asparagus fern in a bamboo pot. I had planned to make it in a single day, but you know how it goes….

On a side note, in the third picture the front corner looks rounded. Turns out bamboo isn’t THAT strong. The thing fell about 4 feet and landed directly on the corner. Glad my epoxy joints held up though!

Here’s another from the junior high era. This one was made almost entirely from cherry. I was tired of working with plywood and other low grade lumber that we had in shop, so I was allowed to dig in some back corner of the basement where my dad kept a few nice pieces of lumber….

Other than cherry there is just some run of the mill softwood dowel for the wheels and some other accents. I tried turning my own wheels on the lathe but ran out of time. I think I used two different colour stains for the cherry and that was all the finish it has. I don’t think I was much into sanding then as I can see and feel some of the lines from the planer on the trailer :)

And the cherry is not as red as it looks in that first picture, my mistake of shooting on a red background!

I think I made this box back in Grade 9. The corners are simply mitered and the top was attached with a rabbet joint. I glued the whole thing together top and all, and then cut the top off with a table saw to create the ‘top’ That might work on a perfectly aligned table saw, but not a high school shop saw. Needless to say, the saw cut didn’t line up, so a lot of sanding was required and I ended up rounding some of my edges in all the sanding that was required. It still looks good. The bottom was a 1/8” piece of something (can’t remember) that I installed by cutting dado’s into the sides of the box. It just sits floating in there but doesn’t move. I then put a piece of felt on it.

My plan had been to fit a sleeve into the lid so that it would fit inside the box and keep the lid secured. (Is there a technical name for this style?) You can see the pieces inside the box that never quite got installed. I made the mistake of only measuring once and had a hard enough time tracking down that piece of wood – just never got around to finding a second piece and trying again. But soon I will… Or I may just put some hinges on it.

I made it from basswood because a few months before the class I had wanted to try wood carving so my mom signed us up for a carving class in town. We got to make a few things, like a christmas tree ornament and a letter opener, scoop etc. I decided to combine two projects, so made this box in shop class and then carved in my own time at home. I’m pretty happy with it.

I built this little guy back in Grade 8 in Woodworking class. That was the best class I ever got to take at school. I did it for three years from Grade 7-9, and then the school I was at from 10-12 didn’t have a shop unfortunately.

I believe it’s all just spruce from some 2×4s. We were provided cheap lumber for our projects and had to buy our own if we wanted better. This project came from a book and was originally designed to have a chassis with a dovetail rail on top. You would then build various components to sit on top. They would have a matching dovetail bottom and would slide on. The plans called for magnets in each side of the parts to hold them together on the chassis. So you might make 2 or 3 different seat areas, back ends, engines, front grills etc. Then it would become a mix and match. My shop teacher talked me down to picking my favourite set and making it fixed due to time constraints. He was dead right :)

I didn’t realize how dusty it was until I took these closeup pictures. I guess I need to clean it! The whole thing is 8 inches long and about 3 inches wide. I had no ambition or skill to make wheels, so those were purchased from Lee Valley. The gold rail is just a piece of metal rod from home depot that I bent in a vice and painted, adds a nice touch. There is one mistake on it – I glued the back support of the seating area on too high. I didn’t notice it wasn’t all the way pushed down. It bugs me so much, but not worth fixing….