I made this cribbage board for my sister after she passed her EMT certification earlier this year. The style was inspired by the work that Trifern does with Maple and aniline dyes. I also leaned heavily on the finish testing that Ed documented in this thread . Thanks for all of your hard work, gentlemen.

The board is curly maple with an inlayed border of aspen. The detail in the center of the board is chip-carved and filed with natural wood filler to accent the dye. I got the custom pegs from a shop on Ebay.

I began with the maple board, removed material to make room for the inlay and completed the chip carving before sanding and applying the dyes. I used Indigo and Bright Blue shades of water based aniline dye. Next I roughed up the channels and glued the inlay. I used a block plane to get everything flush again. There were a few areas where the plane dug into the dye, but I was able to blend these back in by lightly sanding and hitting them with another coat of Bright Blue. Next came a few seal coats of wipe-on poly and, applying the wood filler to the chip carved area. The final finish is three coats of wipe-on poly, each buffed with fine steel wool. It’s hard to show in still photos, but the grain really pops and dances with the finish.

This was another project full of ‘firsts’. This was my first time working with maple and aniline dye. After my initial anxiety, I found it to be a rather forgiving method of finishing, if somewhat more time intensive. I hadn’t done much with inlay before this. The original project concept was for the center detail to be inlay as well, but after my experience with the borders, I opted to fill the chip carving (another first) to save time and prevent any more damage to the surface.

All in all, another good learning project with just enough flaws to make me try harder next time. I had hoped the center detail would have turned out better. The filler was water based. The multiple seal coasts were to stop it from reactivating the dye, but there were a few spots that weren’t completely sealed that bled into the filler. Maybe I’ll try tinted epoxy next time, or go back to the inlay idea.

Thanks for looking.

I made this case to hold a set of custom poker chips for a game that my wife and I play. If any of you have played “Power Grid”, you’ll probably agree that working with the paper money included with the game can be a bit of a hassle.

I made the poker chips using cheap blanks and some mailing labels. The case itself is made from two lengths of 1X6 walnut with maple spacers. I bored the holes using a 40mm forstner bit. The whole assembly was then wrapped with some scrap walnut strips with the ends bored to show the chips inside. Sanded and finished with 3 coats of amber shellac.

The interior sanding is quite rough, but generally speaking I’m happy with how it turned out. I chose the dimensions of the case so that it would fit inside the game box. Instead, I think this looks just fine sitting on the shelf.

My wife and I were looking for a new entertainment center, but none of the ones we found in our area seemed to fit the bill. After searching for a few months, I spent some time on sketch-up to try and articulate what we were really looking for. As I got more familiar with the program, I spent some time to fine tune the the sketch to include actual dimensions and some simple joinery. At the end of the day, I had what I considered a fairly workable set of plans, so I decided to tackle the project myself instead of spending more time searching.

I kept the design simple so I could complete the work with the few tools I had available. I borrowed my Dad’s miter saw to cut the framing pieces to length. Mortise and tenon joints were rough cut with a Dremel router and cleaned up with a hand chisel. I used a friend’s band saw to shape the corbels and cut the side slats to the right width. The table surface and the cabinet base and sides were cut from a single piece of 3/4 oak ply with enough material remaining for the internal shelf. I purchased the doors as unfinished blanks. Everything was sanded and finished with Minwax Red Oak stain and 3 coats of satin wipe-on poly. The tabletop got a few extra coats.

This was my first woodworking project since 7th grade shop class, so needless to say, there was quite a bit of learning involved. There are several places where I know I could have done better work, but all things considered, I think it came out pretty well.