Woodworking mallet crafted for a friend. Multiple species of wood with several laminations. Canadian Hard Maple, Red Oak, and several exotic species make up this mallet.

Simple coasters made from “scrap” cuts in the shop. Trivet-style main blocks with wood trim and 1/4” reveal/railing. Copper nail accents and spray shellac finish. Total time: 1 hour

I just finished two “biscuit tables” for the family room. Called such, due to all joinery being biscuit joinery. I know… not everyone’s favorite, but what I chose. The tables are solid poplar with bread-board tops, and ‘mission oak’ stain with several coats of lacquer.

A few weeks ago I drove to the nearest woodworking shop (25 miles away). As I pulled up, I noticed a box of wood near the road with “Free Wood” written on it! Being new to the serious-hobbyist woodworking scene, I jumped on the box of mixed hardwoods and loaded up a mix of 1×2 boards roughly 6’ long as well as two slabs (both 3+ feet in length and around 10” wide) of unknown species.

With Christmas coming up soon, I had the (unoriginal) idea to build my first end grain cutting board. The photos should be fairly self-explanatory for the process I took. Cut, glue, cut, glue, plane, sand, finish. I used Watco Butcher Block finish and the photos are of the first coat (drying now).

-Sam

Necessity, being the mother of all invention, and Christmas approaching fast, I had to get creative for a router table extension for my table saw. A few days and $20 later, I have a quick and cheap router table. Eventually I plan to build Mathias Wandel’s tilting router lift and a nice split router fence to complete the setup.

• I measured and cut the melamine top, then epoxied and screwed two runners to the bottom to attach to the table saw.
• Diagonal lines gave the the center of the table and I drilled a 2 1/4” hole for the router bit.
• I traced the outline of my fixed router base and using a straight cut bit, routed a 3/16” deep recess into the bottom of the table. This was 1/16” less than the height of the base’s thickness.
• I cut some spare pieces of wood and attached them to the table to clamp the base into place (the 1/16” difference in the base and table height made the blocks clamp the base naturally).
• I removed the handles and made some blocks that attached to the base and secured the router base laterally.

I have yet to try it out, but it’s already a major upgrade from my $40 Skil benchtop router table.

Thanks,
Sam