This isn’t anything fancy, more functional. I’m definitely in agreement that you can never have enough clamps. I glue up a lot of long thin pieces of wood to make stock for many of my projects, so I’m always running low on clamps. Out of frustration one day I made this clamping table. It’s got its pro’s and con’s, but it works pretty well in a limited range for gluing up strips. I’d like to make the backstop easily adjustable to different locations, but for the time being, it’s just screwed to the worksurface about 5” or so from the clamps. The worksurface it’s all fastened to is roughly 1.25” mdf, with a laminate top. I just rest it on whatever I’m not using at the moment, sometimes my saw, sometimes sawhorses. If I get real ambitious, maybe I’ll give it some legs of it’s own one day ;).

The clamps were from an auction at my work, so no, I didn’t go out and buy these all at retail prices. I’m sure there would be a cheaper solution if that was the case ;). I think they worked out to be around 50 cents apiece.

Any thoughts on how to make an easily adjustable, floating backstop that would still be sturdy? Right now, I just place different width stock behind what I’m gluing to make up the difference. It works, but it’s kind of clunky and time consuming.

A friend of mine from work asked me in October if I could build him a small display case for his wife for Christmas. “Sure!” I said, figuring in that time frame it would be no problem, even with other things to work on. He finally got me the materials and dimensions a week before he was to leave on Christmas vacation. Hmm…no pressure! He really wasn’t expecting me to finish it at that point, but I really wanted to get it done, since it was a surprise gift.

The story behind the box: they travel quite a bit, and everyplace they go, my friend’s wife picks up a native stone to bring home. Until the box, they had resided on their dresser. There was a dual purpose at work in this gift, if you know what I mean!

My friend had built a good portion of his house, and had some oak left over from doing some of the trim work. He wanted to use one of these boards, both to get it out of his barn and to match the existing trim. He also had gotten the stain to match, which made it a lot easier to finish in that amount of time.

It was a fun small project to work on. The trickiest part was making a frame for the glass front, and attaching the glass. I mean to ask him this year if the frame is still holding it’s shape; I was a little uneasy about the weight causing it to bow over time. I used hot melt adhesive in addition to the glazier’s points in an attempt to have the glass give the frame some extra stiffness.

The bottom is covered in a soft felt fabric, glued on with spray adhesive.

Any thoughts from all of you on better construction for the door / front or general tips would be welcome!

In an act of ignorance and overestimation of my skills, I promised my wife I would build her this table when she allowed me to purchase my planer. I also told her that I’d call it her Christmas present. That was near the end of the summer of ‘06. When I presented it to her just after the 4th of July this year, I said, “Merry-Birthday-New Year’s-Anniversary-Valentine’s-4th of July!” Good thing I didn’t tell her what year it would be her Christmas present ;).

She’s a saint, in that, other than the occasional ribbing about how long it took me to complete this project, she never complained, and has been lavish in her praise since getting it.

This was my first attempt at building furniture. I’ve done some smaller projects that I’ll post, but nothing on this scale. The plan was one I found online; I forget where now. I chose the plan because the spindles are not true mortise and tenon joinery, so I thought that would make it easier to build. In the end, figuring out how to do the half-laps on them was just as time consuming for me, since I didn’t have a dado blade at the time, and hadn’t much experience with a router. Cherry was the lumber of choice. The boards on top have some veins of pitch (is that the right term?) running through them. I liked the look. I don’t think the picture really shows it well, though. I used Minwax Olde Maple stain on it, since that comes close to matching the woodwork in our old farmhouse. I put polyurethane on as a last step.

I’ve been lurking this site for about a month now, and I’m in awe of the workmanship here. I can’t wait to get to know all of you. The cameraderie between people here is really a big draw for me.

I apologize for the photo quality; our camera’s only so-so.