This is a simple mirror frame I made to go with my daughter’s bed http://lumberjocks.com/projects/20634 and dresser http://lumberjocks.com/projects/27445.

Nothing too fancy. The only addition will be some hooks screwed into the sides so she can hang her medals or some jewelery from the sides.

Red oak finished with shellac. I put biscuits in the corners.

Sorry about the crappy iphone pictures. I’ll try to add a picture after the hooks are installed.

Finally completed my first set of cutting boards. Just in time for Christmas too. They are TWW style. All comments welcome.

I made 4 of them, kept one for myself and gave the others as gifts. I had to show everyone the picture of the purple sawdust before they would believe that was the natural color of the wood. None of my friends are into woodworking or have ever heard of purple heart.

Not fine woodworking but I am not sure anything I do is. LOL

I have always kept about 2 cords of wood near the house but loosly packed against the wall. I was scared I would eventually break some bricks on the house and my kids are at the age they want to climb the wood pile so I figured I should make a rack to protect the kids and the house at the same time. I purchased the wood and the first nice weekend this is what I built. Of course my 2 children helped. I did not ask for their help but I don’t think I had a choice because I was doing seemed to be more interesting than all of their toys. In the end it was a good day with the family and a home improvement project all wrapped up into one.

The tops open for storage for leftover construction wood and snow shovels, axes, etc. I will probably shingle the top next year and put a rail on for the garbage can as they always blow away on windy days. The right side are for the splits I have not cut yet.

Thanks for looking

Close friends received a painting of their maple sugar cabin as a gift. They told me they wanted to bring it somewhere to get it framed, so I said give it to me. I bought the wood before christmas and wanted to get it done before March (our friends wife’s b-day and maple sugar season) but my mom passed in March and I put everything aside for a while. Anyway it got finished and delivered this weekend. It was a gift to their family and their daughter is our god daughter and it happened to be her b-day this weekend so it was given during a party anyway. They seemed very happy with it. The girl who did the painting is 16 years old. I think I am going to get her to do one for me before she knows how much she is worth. LOL

The frame is solid walnut with maple diamonds. The interior is birds eye maple veneer glued to ply, and the trim closest to the painting also walnut. It is the sap wood I cut from the large piece I had for the main part of the frame. Everything is finished with 3 coats of Tung oil. The veneer I had was too short to do one complete side so I tried to bookmatch it from the center to the miters. It is a little hard to tell as I did not take enough time to make the grain pop on the maple. That what you get when you rush stuff.

Thanks for looking.

My wife is a teacher and they are doing a module on electricity. Now the students have a project to make an electric car and of course the teacher has to make an example. So I get home Monday night after work and my wife tells me that she needs and electric car with either 2 speeds or forward and reverse. Right away I knew she wanted me to do it so instead of asking that I asked, “when do you need it for?” “Tmoorrow, was her answer.”

Ah Crap, so off to the garage I went to rummage through the scrap bin. My wife already had a little motor and some pully’s which I used for the wheels. I gave her a hard time about the short notice but it was fun doing a quick project and not having to worry about tight joints and a perfect finish. Plus it was for eduction so that a plus. If the kids at school don’t destroy it I’ll pass it to my kids.

I made the forward/reverse model.

Laugh at it all you want, I won’t be insulted.

I wonder if I can get a gouvernment grant for make an enviromentaly friendly electric vehicle. LOL

This is my first kitchen project. It was done for my brother in law. It took about 5 Sundays to do but it was spread over almost 4 months because of a death in the family in the middle of construction. They are not finished or installed yet. My brother in law is going to do that himself. There are 2 doors which will have glass in them and the rest has 1/4 ply centers. Rails, stiles, and moldings are all made from maple from a local saw mill.

Thanks for looking.

PS You might notice a funny door with a corner missing. No we did not have a wood shortage. Duct work passing in the kitchen. I will post more pictures when they are installed.

This is a project which I started 8 months ago. It is to go with her bed I made last year. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/20634 Should have been finished a long time ago but I made a huge mistake. I put it in my daughters bedroom befiore I did the dwawers and doors. It was nearly impossible to find the time to fit the drawers. My daughter is 3 years old and I usually work on this stuff when she is sleeping and sometimes weekends. Anyway I finally finished it and I am happy it’s done. Mom and daughter are happy also.

First time doing raised panels and I did them on the TS. Glad I tried it lots of clean up tp do after. Next time I have to do them I will upgrade mt router and buy a set of raised panel bits. Also first time doind inset drawers. Were much harder than I expected to get a good fit.

My 5th project, maybe I’ll finally show up on Roll the Dice. LOL

Earlier this year my mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer. At first they told her she only had days to live and to call her family immediately. My sister lives close but I am a 14 hour drive away so she called me at work and I left work to prepare. That night I was told to wait because she was to see another doctor. Without going into too much detail I finally did not go to see her until August, about 3 months later, as I had originally planned before I knew she had cancer as the feedback was constantly improving and Kimo seems to be working. Originally she had a 4%-5% chance of a cure and now the cancer has shrunk by 50%. She has a very good attitude and is doing very well. A few days after the initial shock was over and we had a better idea of what we were dealing with I was in a wood shop and found a piece of Brazilian Rosewood. Normally I would never buy wood that cost $38 bdf but as soon as I saw it I said I wanted to make something for my mother. I had a few months to pull it off and what you see is the end result. The last picture one I made for my wife at the same time. The only difference is the handle and there is nothing carved in the lid. In the end I was applying finish 2 days before I was scheduled to leave for the trip. I gave it to her in person when we arrived. It was very well received and now every time someone comes inside the first thing she does says is “Hey look what Rex made me.” This is the first piece that I had the intention of giving away from the time the idea popped in my head to final product. Makes you work/feel a little different; in a good way.

This is my first box, splines, handles, and carving (I carved the outline of the cancer symbol and colored it bleu as that is the color for stomach cancer.) All of the coves in the lid and base are cut on the table saw as I do not have a router that could drive a bit that big. Except for the bleu water based stain everything is done with shellac. The base is attached to the main body with rare earth magnets so as to create somewhat of a secret compartment. The lid just sits on the middle portion. All the light wood is maple and the dark is rosewood.

This is a bed I made for my daughter. One of the problems with my house is I do not have a guest room so I wanted to make a double bed for my daughter with a single bed under. I first thought about bunk beds but decided I did not like the idea. Now when family comes over they can sleep in the double bed and put their kids in the single below and my daughter get to camp out in mommy’s and daddy’s room in her portable Dora bed. The bed is air dried red oak I got from a saw mill. Between this project and my last project is when I discovered this site and others like TheWoodWhisperer. Seeing all this stuff really made me want to up my game. I did the design myself but subconciously I am sure I was inspired by someone else’s work. I am very happy with the outcome. There are some mistakes as I was trying to rush to get it done for christams 08 but when I realized it was not going to happen I slowed down and finally it was done in February 09. I know where the mistakes are and I think I will be able to avoid them in future projects so I leave room for new mistakes. Always have to leave room for improvement. ;-)

Purchased; Delta 6” jointer, Dewalt 13” planer, Ridgid belt/spindle sander, craftman 10” bandsaw, bunch of clamps. Space is a big issue for me so almost everything has to be benchtop. I first bought a craftman 6” benchtop jointer. Looked like a good machine but I stripped the thread in a scew hole in the fence, then I broke one of the cheap plastic handles for adjustments. No big deal, retap the threads and get a new handle. Did dome test cuts and saw the blades were off so I was about to adjust and I snapped off the first bolt trying to remove it. That was the last straw. I returned it and bought a delta floor model. The extra bed length makes a huge difference and the assebly and adjustments were easy.

Lots of firsts in this project; Milling raw wood, working with hardwood, 96 mortise and tenons (done with drill press and squared with chisel), finger joints, first major glueup… Almost everything was new.

Finish; 3 coats of shellac.

This is a computer desk I made out of pine from Home Depot in 2007. With my last project being almost 2 years before, I got married and bought a house, I was anxious to do something other than house renovation. At this point I had a cheap table saw and had just gotten a router and router table. Hence the overkill with every edge being routed. I was looking for a desk to fit this corner and nothing fit. The wife said make one and my eyes lit up. Why didn’t I think of that. Anyway this is what I came up with. There was supposed to be a divider between the computer and the chair but it was just too tight. You can see it in one of the pictures. That’s why the drawer has both rails on one side and the computer base is not attached to the desk. This was the my first time glueing panels and using a router. Did not know anthing about wood movement so the top is not attahced correctly but luckly it has not caused a problem so far.

Finish is minwax red oak with minwax fast dry polyurathane.

This is my first ever project done in 2005. The only tools I had at the time was was a set if 14.4v recharable tools that came with 2 batteries. Everynight I would work until the skill saw killed the batteries then recharge them and restart the next night. It is just chip wood with a pine veneer. It is assembled with dowels. There was supposed to be a pair but the last picture shows the peices of the second which never came to life. The basement got 6 inches of water in the spring and this wood soaked it up like a sponge. The original is still at the inlaws. They love it but I know it’s crap. LOL

Hey we all gotta start somewhere.