I’ve done several of these and they’re always a big hit. The difference with this one is that it’s pine. I found this piece of pine at a local lumber yard – one side was just as you’d expect. The other side had these wonderful colors/stripes through the grain. I just made sure to keep all of the pretty stuff to the outside. Boy, howdy – pine is so easy to cut and sand…like butter! Of course, I used about twice the normal amount of natural stain and and extra coat of poly. This was one thirsty box! Thanks for taking a look.

This is the first time I’ve used hickory to make anything. My suggestion for anyone in the same situation would be to start with a new blade…and prepare to sand a LOT. This box weighs a ton. I like the simplicity and I love the grain of the hickory. I’m glad I still have some left – it can be a bit of a bear to work with, but in the end – it has a very nice feel to it. Thanks for taking a look.

The first two pictures are a Chanukah menorah made from tulip poplar. This is a style that I’ve been doing for a few years now. I like that the branches can swivel to any position – or stay straight and still look nice. The 3rd and 4th are a different style that I designed at lunch one day. I like the lines and simplicity. The lighter one is the poplar and the darker one is chechen, which is a really hard wood but turns out so pretty. Thanks for taking a look.

After seeing Filinvested’s post about beads, I thought I’d give it a try. My wife is into beading – so this works out well for both of us. On that post, he says he used a drill and sanded for a couple of hours. Well, I’m pretty sure my drill would burn up long before a couple of hours – so I did a very similar setup with a fan motor. I went to Goodwill and bought a cheap fan. After removing the fan blades, I took a tin can and mounted it over the fan. I used a round piece of wood – stuck a 6” sanding disk to it and mouted it to the shaft of the motor. I lined the tin can with 220 grit sand paper and I was ready to go. I put various “chunks” of wood into the contraption and cranked it up. I let it go for about 90 minutes total. 30 minutes and then 1 hour. Filinvested was right…it’s very noisy! But in the end – I have a bunch of very unique beads – these are cedar and chechen and some other stuff that was hanging around the place. I dipped them in polyurethane and let them hang to dry. Took about 3 coats to get a bit of a shine on ‘em. Thanks for taking a look…and thanks to Filinvested for the idea!

The idea for this one is from a project I saw here – sorry LJs -I’ve forgotten who posted it. The drawer has no pull and is held in by a couple of magnets in the back. You open the drawer by pushing on the ‘button’ above the drawer. That moves a lever which pops the drawer out.
The wood is tulip poplar – very nice color, fairly easy to work with. I turned the small dowel that I used for the button. The bottom part is just a bandsaw drawer. I cut the drawer so that it will not pull all the way out from the front (I’d love to say I did that on purpose). But that keeps the mystery of the box. You can’t pull the drawer out to see how it works. If I come across the project where I got the idea, I’ll post the link. Natural stain, three coats of poly/thinner, sanding in between. I just love this piece…it might not make it to the next craft fair! Thanks for taking a look.

Another heart box. The person who commissioned the first one…asked for a 2nd one for her daughter! This one is Paduak and Maple. This is the box that provided the wood for the 2 little hearts that I posted. I really like this design and this wood combination is terrific. Natural stain, 50/50 poly/lacquer thinner – 3 coats sanding in between. This one really invites you to touch it. Thanks for taking a look.

Playing with the lathe some more. The first is from an Aspen tree that used to be in my back yard. Next is from an exotic blank that I picked up – not sure what it is, but it’s very dense. Last is a bowl from some spalted maple. Thanks for taking a look.

I was looking at the piece of wood that I had cut out of a larger box (also in the shape of a heart) and I thought – heck, I’m a Lumberjock. There’s no such thing as scrap wood, right? These two boxes are paduak and maple – cut ‘em into the shape of a heart (obviously) – put a pin in the top for a hinge, used a forstner bit to make a hole and flocked it. Then I added a couple of rare earth magnets so they stay closed. The toughest part was making the little teeny hearts for the top of the hinge pin. The fingers got scary close to the blade for those. Thanks for taking a look.

Okay – if you knew my wife, you’d understand why this is a big deal. She loves bowls. Yeah, I know…but what are ya’ gonna do? I got some spalted maple blanks and this is the first turning that came out pretty much as I had planned. I’m still new at this and I’m making tools and using tools and experimenting. I haven’t destroyed too much wood…yet. But this little bowl brough a squeak of delight from my wife and earned me some serious spouse points! Finished it with natural stain and polyurethane. If you have any tips on how to use the lathe – I’m listening! I love being a woodworking student. Thanks for taking a look.

I was in the shop, looking around and saw a piece of aspen that was on the woodpile. You know the story – I cut a block out of the middle of it – and mounted it on the lathe. I was going for something completely different – more like a parfait glass shape. I describe using a lathe as ‘coaxing the wood’. Sometimes it does what you want…sometimes what you expect…and sometimes…not. I just decided to go with the flow and got here. Still learning about the lathe – but having a heck of a good time with it! Thanks for taking a look.

So – I finally started playing with my lathe. Mounted a block of wood (not sure what kind) and turned it round. And then this kind of appeared. I was mostly tryng to figure out what the different tools do. I have one that I bought and several that I inherited. Thanks for taking a look.

I’m not sure what wood this is – but the piece had been hanging around the garage for a long time. I kept going back to it and sanding it and then putting it down again. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. Finally, I just decided to do something – and this is what I ended up with. It’s a piece of crotch wood, so it has the two branches – and a lot of wonderful color. I made the top swivel and decided to put a rare earth magnet to hold it closed. The larger cubby is standard band saw style. Cut off the back, cut out the inside and glue the back on. For the smaller cubby, I used a forstner bit in the drill press – and just drilled it out. It was fun to finally get something out of a favorite piece of wood. Oh – and a gratuitous picture of the cat. Thanks for taking a look.

So – I have this big maple tree that needed trimming. I ended up with a good size branch that was pretty straight. And I’m a Lumberjock, right? Very simple band saw drawer. I left some of the bark coloring on the outside to give it some character. Made a fun little knob out of the same branch. Finished with natural stain, 50/50 laquer/poly – and flocked with wine color. I think this one has already been claimed! Thanks for taking a look.

I made a few of these for my family out of purpleheart and my wife asked me, “Where’s ours?”
So – this is ours. The wood is chechen. Not the easiest to work with, but I think it’s well worth the time. It’s a very hard, heavy wood and finishes to a wonderful dark brown. The design isn’t tricky – what you see is what you get here. I have a dowel going down the middle (through the ‘shamash’) so the branches can rotate. You can have it as tidy or disjointed as you’re in the mood for. Natural stain, 50/50 laquer/poly finish. Thanks for taking a look.

My son and I are taking Tae Kwon Do together. This is new for him and I’m back from a 25+ year hiatus. We recently tested for our next belt level – him yellow, me blue. As part of my testing, I was required to break pine boards. So there I am…with 3 pine boards, broken roughly in half. Most people would toss ‘em on the fire. But most people aren’t Lumberjocks!
I laminated the 6 pieces together, and cut the stack to the size of the smallest piece. This is a very basic band saw box – I did leave a divider in the drawer – and I had fun making the handle. I flocked it in blue – since it was my blue belt testing…and I had all of the black belts in the class sign the bottom of it. Now, it belongs to my son. Thanks for taking a look.

A friend of mine saw the first heart box that I made for my wife and she loved it. She said she’d be happy to pay for one for herself. This is my first “commissioned” piece! I was a bit nervous – but when she saw it, she was absolutely overjoyed.
This is 2 pieces of paduak sandwiched between a couple of pieces of walnut. I like this design because there’s no knob to break up the wood on the front of the drawer/box. Makes for a very ‘clean’ look. The finish is 50% laquer thinner/50% gloss polyurethane – and a lot of sanding. Since the drawer is also a box – this one take a bit more time, but I like how it turns out. Thanks for taking a look.

Okay…I’ll admit it…I buy wood on eBay. I purchased a couple of white oak burls – 5 and 8 inch rounds. They included this little piece in the box with a note that it was a freebie. It sat for quite a while – I had to figure out what to do with it. Finally decided to just work around the stuff that I couldn’t sand smooth and see how it goes. Well, it went pretty well. I actually sold this piece! First one! A friend of mine bought it for her mom’s birthday. She wanted something unique. Thanks for taking a look.

I’ve had this white oak burl for some time now and decided to use it for a Valentine for my wife. Lately, I”ve been trying to incorporate the kerf into the design of the boxes I make. That’s how I came up with this design – and of course, it’s a heart for V-day. I love the coloration of the wood and couldn’t imagine covering any of it up with a knob, so I put a push-hole in the back to push the ‘drawer’ out. The drawer is a box in and of itself – I hinged the lid with a dowel and flocked the inside with maroon flocking. Natural stain and 2 coats of 50/50 polyurethane/mineral spirits to finish. I made a small err when I put the dowel in for the hinge and drilled all the way through (including about 1/8” into my workbench!). I fixed that by placing a red crystal in that spot – and since it’s for V-day…it works! Thanks for looking!

This box was made for some friends who just had a baby. I liked the idea of doing something with three, since now their family is three.
This is walnut, which I haven’t used before. Durnik recommended it and I can see why. It was easy to work with and it finished wonderfully. I used natural stain and then 50/50 poly/lacquer thinner. The drawers are flocked in a wine color.
My only disappointment is how the drawers open. They don’t stay open very well – so next time, I think I’ll make the piece a bit deeper. Perhaps one more thickness of wood so the drawers have some more depth.
Thanks for taking a look.

This is my favorite project so far. When my wife looked at the design (the first time I sat down and actually drew up a design) she said it looked like lovers. As I moved from paper to wood – I thought it looked more like dancers. I made this for my sister and brother-in-law who, as it happens – are ballroom dancers. They both have birthdays in July and I promised them a project. Fortunately, they’re very patient!
This is 9 1/2” tall and 8” at it’s widest. Laminated some maple and then used spray glue to fix a copy of my design – that works great, by the way. It took a lot of sanding with every sander I have – bench, random-orbit, palm and by hand. I used natural stain and then 50/50 polyurethane-lacquer thinner. Between coats, I used 320 grit and then 0000 steel wool. The knobs are from a piece of blood heart that I had lying around. Drawers are flocked with wine-colored flocking.
My idea for this was to make the kerf part of the flow and I’m pleased at how it turned out.