I wanted to make my father something for his 90th birthday, and trust me, at 90 he has one of everything. I came up with this idea to make a desk top valet. I used bubinga wood, routed out the tray using an MDF template I made, routed some mortises to receive tenons I left on the side panels of the box, and then banded it with some ebony and ivory banding. I had planed to use some Brusso hidden hinges, but they called for 3/4 inch mortices in both the lid and the sides, and I didn’t have that depth available in the lid, so went with more traditional hinges that I already had. Another option, and a better one, would have been some barrel hinges. Finish is amber shellac, BLO, and wax.
I would appreciate any comments, critiques or advise, especially on hidden hinge selection, as I am not a big fan of exposed hinges. I need to learn to make the wooden hinges that Shipwright makes.

My veterinary tech lost her dog recently and I wanted to make an urn for her ashes. It is made out of spalted maple salvaged after a hurricane we had this past summer, along with bubinga for the base and lid. Finished with shellac, BLO, and wax.
Comments, critiques, and criticisms are always appreciated.

This is my first attempt at an inside out turning. It is made from marble-wood. The third picture shows the first step in this process, with the four blanks temporarily glued together, and the center turned and finished. The fourth picture shows the four pieces after they have been flipped 180 degrees, glued permanently together and the final turning process started. It shows the drilling of a hole to receive a glass vase insert in this photo. Finish is shellac, BLO, and wax.
All comments and critiques are welcome.

I cleaned the grease out of the grease boxes, added salt, and gave them as gifts this year. These are just bandsaw boxes made out of lacewood and maple. Finished with shellac. Nice way to keep the dog hair out of the salt.

I made several of these trivets to give as gifts at Christmas. The technique was to use the bandsaw to cut almost through the piece of wood, advance it 1/4” and flip it to make the next cut. You end up with a piece of wood that will open like an accordion.
I took this piece and moistened it and put it in the microwave for a minute, this heated it enough to allow me to spread it and insert dowels to hold the strips apart. The third picture shows this process as it is drying, the clamp keeps it flat. I then mitered the sides. I found that doing the solid ends first worked best as you had a little wiggle room when doing the other two sides by sliding the dowels slightly to get your corners to line up. I then added a spline to give the corners a little more strength. To sand in between the cuts I put psa sandpaper on both sides of a scraping blade attached to my multitool.
Woods are ambrosia maple body and hard maple frame, with a bubinga spline. Finished with salad bowl oil.
I think I will give gift cards this year…

First off, I would like to thank Tony for the inspiration for this project (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2176). Tony, I unashamedly copied you :)
I wanted to make a step stool that my wife could use to get to our upper kitchen cabinet shelves, and I felt this design fit the bill. I also wanted to do this without using any mechanical fasteners, so it is all mortise and tenon joints, except for the steps that I used biscuits on. The frame is poplar, and the seat and steps are maple. The challenge for me was cutting the mortises and tenons on the 7 degree slant for the two back legs. I cut a 7 degree wedge that I used on my tenoning jig to get the angle right for the top seat tenon, and then used the same wedge under the leg while I mortised for the side braces. Worked pretty well. (Any tips on how to do this differently would be appreciated)
I fashioned a paint “tent” out of a simple frame and plastic that set on my router table. I hooked up my dust collector to a large collection attachment that I taped some furnace filter material on to capture the paint. This seemed to work very well, and allowed me to spray both the latex on the frame, and the water based poly on the seat and steps. I purchased a low volume, low pressure sprayer from HF specifically for this project, and have to say it worked very well. It is made for handling latex paint, and operates at 30 psi, which kept the over spray to a minimum. I used my HPLV sprayer for the poly.
Comments and suggestions always appreciated. Thanks for looking.

These are the kind of projects that aren’t glamorous, but do get you brownie points with your significant other.
We had a closet pantry with shelves that made it impossible to find things towards the back. You know, like that can of condensed milk that has made 3 moves with you and outdated 6 years ago…
At any rate, I made some drawers out of poplar with full extension slides, replaced the sagging shelves with 3/4 ply, and installed them in the pantry. And yes, I did throw out that condensed milk.

Turned out of madrone burl. Finish is a friction lacquer. Pewter lid from Penn State Industries.

Two sets of salt and pepper shakers from fiddle-back maple I made for Christmas gifts. Fun project.

My wife requested a mission style mantel clock for Christmas. The design is a collaboration of what she had in mind, and what I could do. Primary wood is Bubinga, the secondary is mahogany burl veneer. Finished with amber shellac and wax. Clock face from Klockit.

These are two burls I turned, my first experience with them. The first is a Red Morrell Burl that I turned for my wife’s anniversary present. I know she holds her breath now at birthdays and Christmas, not sure what to expect, but she seemed pleased. Burl was 10” at it’s widest point (max for my Steel City lathe). I decided to turn the bottom, although it would have been interesting to leave all those little spikes on it. I finished it with spray lacquer, my first time doing that. Learned the hard way to let it dry more before rubbing out!
The second is a Red Mallee burl, smaller, about 5”. This is for an aunt who is turning 90 this month. On this one I left the bottom natural. The spikes aren’t as pointy as they are on the Morrell burl. I put a 2009 penny in the epoxy I tinted and filled the mortise with. Again, lacquer finish.
I purchased the burls from http://www.burlsource.com/#How%20To%20Order. Bob gives you personal service, and has a good selection of burls to choose from at reasonable prices.
Any critiques or suggestions are honestly asked for as I am a newbie to turning and appreciate the help you veteran turners provide.
Rich

My wife has already absconded this bowl to put potpourri in so no inside shots.
Turned out of an 8 inch square by 4 inch high ambrosia maple blank that I glued some lacewood on as a cap. Turned fairly easily and I was pleased with the pattern that developed. Is this from a worm, as there were some worm holes in the blank?
Friction finish.
Critiques? I am wondering if I shouldn’t venture out to different finishes, but the friction finish is so easy.

This is my second square edge bowl. This one is out canary wood, which was a joy to turn and has some nice grain. I added some curve to the wings, which I think improves the appearance, but was somewhat of a chalange at my skill level.

Canary wood
Alanine dyes: black, sanded
Friction finish
Size: 8 ” X 2 “

I really liked the grain on this blank, and being a newbie to turning, bought it and brought it home. Little did I know that white oak is right below tungsten carbide on the hardness scale… At any rate, I got it turned and made my first attempt at inlay with glitter and super glue. Thanks to Trifern for sharing his aniline dye technique!

Wavy White Oak
Aniline dyes: black, sanded, yellow, sanded, then mahogany on the outside.
Friction finish
Size: 4” X 10”

Constructive criticism is always greatly appreciated. I need help from those of you with more experience if I am ever going to learn. Thanks!
Rich

This was my first attempt at bowl turning. The inside is pretty rough, I have since bought a bowl gouge, so hopefully the next one will be smoother on the inside. The other thing that I have to admit is this is about 3 inches high and wide, and I start out with a 6 inch piece of cherry. The sorry sucker kept flying off my chuck, so I would end up turning off the chipped lip.
Cherry wood, aniline dye, friction finish, lots of wood chips….

This was a fun project, but kind of nerve racking to turn. Made out of cocobolo wood, with a wax/shellac friction finish. About 8 inches square and 2 inches high.

Well, it was a live edge when I started, but being new to turning, things just get smaller and smaller :)
Red oak, aniline dye, wax/shellac friction finish. About 6 inches wide and 4 inches tall.

I recently broke down and purchased the new Steel City granite midi lathe and started to learn how to turn. Shame on all you turners out there for not letting us know how wickedly fun this is!!
First picture: (l to r) two slimlines pens, one acrylic, one unknown species of wood. Center is an artist pencil out of acrylic. The last two are Wall Street two click pens, on of purpleheart, the other plasticized corn cob.
The next two pictures are of perfume atomizers, one of purpleheart and one of acrylic.
By the way, I am very impressed with the Steel City Lathe, and need to do a review of it.
Thanks for looking.
Rich

This was on the honey do request list, as our laundry room is on the main floor and the wife wanted it dressed up some. I was happy to be building something besides cutting boards!
Carcass: 3/4” birch ply
Face frame: poplar
Doors: MDF raised panels with poplar frames
Kilz primer with acrylic enamel overcoat.
Thanks for looking

My wife likes bandsaw boxes, so I surprised her with this one for Christmas. Straight off the bandsaw box how-to book’s cover. A LOT of sanding for such a little project. GENUINE faux suede flocking. Made out of walnut with a salad bowl finish followed by bee’s wax/mineral oil paste. She’s happy, which means I stand a much better chance of being happy…