An old drawing from my grandparent’s house needed a little sprucing up. I had thin strips from my projects over the last 2 years so I made a sandwich of wood and threw together this frame last weekend. In order from outside in:
Andiroba (from headboard)
Padauk (from coffee table)
Curly Maple (coffee table)
Zebrawood (father-in-law’s shop scraps)
Cherry (from sideboard)

6 or 7 coats of aerosol shellac, sanded with p600 in between. Anyone could make something like this pretty easily, so my advice is “don’t throw those scraps away!”

In the constant ying and yang tug of masculine vs. feminine going on in my master bedroom, it was my turn after some window treatments tilted the scales toward girlie. I wanted to make a beefy looking headboard with oversized posts and a simple yet classy design. I also wanted to finally build a piece that ties into the dresser and bedside tables I made earlier (see my projects). This wood is Andiroba and is reallly affordable. It was presented to me at the lumber dealer as an affordable alternative to Mahogany, but after carefully choosing the best stock, I found that the figure was absolutely wild! There are pieces that have the curly look of fiddleback maple and the ribbon striping of sapele all in one board. Rather than take pics of it attached to the bedframe with pillows and everything, I thought I would show it to you in it’s full glory. Some of the pictures are without the beveled top but those were the best ones for showing what the wood looks like. FYI finish is 4 coats of Arm R Seal.

This project is a retirement present for my Dad, an avid golfer who is (was?) with the Union Pacific Railroad. The contrasting woods are curly maple (obviously) and Azobe, which is an African hardwood primarily used for structural engineering (hardness, density, insect, rot and even wildfire resistant). Why would I deliberately use such a heavy, difficult wood? The significance is that it is actually a reclaimed railroad tye from a bridge in Texas. I laminated alternating 1/4” strips for the top and bottom “moldings” and set the shelves into dadoes but protruding 3/8” out of the front. It holds 30 golf balls which, FYI, is accomplished by drilling through with a 1 1/4” forstner bit (perfect size so it sits right in the hole and doesn’t stick out from the bottom). The bit was trash after drilling the holes through this stuff. To accentuate the contrast between the woods, the back and side panels were simply finished with 2 soaks of BLO and some wax, whereas the shelves, top and bottom laminated pieces were sprayed with about 8 coats of bullseye shellac. This project, unlike some of my other furniture and case pieces, really tested my definition of “precision”. As a result I bought one of the Incra miter gauges with the flip stop. Any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

2 years old. Pretty self explanatory, except one thing people have a tough time visualizing is that it is actually a closely proportioned ying yang, but squared off. I used a mix of cabots “flame mahogany australian timber oil” and cabots “new redwood semi transparent deck stain”, applied with a garden sprayer, then back brushed.

UPDATED WITH HARDWARE INSTALLED!!!

Now that the doors and drawers are finished, I couldn’t wait to post this. It is my biggest project to date. It was basically a cabinet building tutorial to get me ready for an eventual kitchen. My original plan was to do spalted maple door panels but the curly, gum pocket cherry I used for the face frame, and rails/stiles of the doors was so psychedelic that I opted for the more economical 1/4” cherry veneer plywood. Hardware is on special order right now but looks like wrought iron bowties if you can imagine that look. I got the granite top from a kid who used to be one of my student/athletes and now fabricates and installs granite and quartz, so that is special to me as well as quite a money saver. Inside the cabinet are pullout shelves and the drawers are machined HB dovetails in hard maple drawer boxes. The back is frame and panel as well so it would look pretty from all angles. The dimensions of this are 38” H x 51” W x 19” D. It is finished with one 15 minute soak of cherry watco danish oil and 3 coats thinned satin poly.

Now I know it doesn’t have doors and drawers yet but once I got it upstairs I couldn’t wait to get it up here. This has been my winter project: a cherry sideboard/buffet with granite slab top. I got all this primo figured cherry and cherry veneer plywood at a local lumber dealer and went to work. The interior case is 3/4 birch plywood to add rigidity. The interior shelves pull out on waxed maple slides. The finish is 2 coats of cherry watco danish oil, 3 coats of thinned satin polyurethane, and a coat of liberon paste wax. Doors and drawers are going to be basic shaker style frame and panel with a center stile. The granite is from a remnant and is “Madura Gold” that I got from a hook up in the industry. My wife doesn’t know it but this was a confidence builder for me to eventually tackle the whole kitchen. I’ll be back with doors and drawers.

This is the finished project of one I posted earlier in progress: a coffee table for my rec room. I got the wildest pieces of curly maple for this table, saving up a stash for a special project. My design theory being, “Simple design, wild wood; wild design, simple wood”. The top is alternating laminated pieces of ambrosia and curly maple and the aprons have a strip of padauk which is approximately the same shade as parts of an adjacent (not shown) area rug in my basement, as well as the red/orange felt on the pool table. I wish that article about using aerosal shellac to seal in oily woods in FWW would have come sooner in the finishing process. This is my fourth overall furniture building project but I have done a lot of trim carpentery stuff in my house since finishing the basement after a flood. I bought a jointer (delta X5 6”) and planer (steel city 13”) during this project and now I am 100% hooked. You can see another nice hunk of maple in one picture: my Modulus Graphite Q5.

Sticking with what is going to be a curly maple theme in the rec. room, here is the progress so far on my maple/padauk coffee table that will sit in front of the couch. Like the mantle shelf I built, the finish will be 2 coats BLO and 3 coats gloss poly. This really pops the curl. Joinery is pocket holes (I know, cheating!) but I wanted to focus on the beauty of the wood, and the drunken buffoons who inhabit my basement don’t inspect craftsmanship in joinery. What is most significant about this project is that it will be 100% completed in my own basement shop, as opposed to having to use my father-in-law’s equipment.

Here are the nightstands I made shortly after the dresser (I was hooked on woodworking at this point). I picked some really nice MDF core birch ply, which under finish came alive with curly figure, for the sides. Ironically, they are hidden by the bed in our tiny bedroom.

This is my first real furniture project, besides trim carpentry around my house. It is a big dresser that mainly employs biscuit joinery. It is made of birch plywood and stained mahogany for a two-toned look. I also gained experience using a PC dovetail jig for the drawers. Face frame is maple and secondary woods inside (not shown) are poplar for the web frames and maple for the drawer runners. Finish is gel stain on the mahogany and satin poly.