One of my daughters found this beauty sitting on a curb with the trash. She called me, described it and off I went to pick it up. Over the years many coats of glossy poly had been applied to the point one could hardly tell what it was. I had to strip it, sand the top, re-route the top profile, rebuilt the doors. Applied a golden oak stain and 2 coats satin ploy. It now sits in her den as an entertainment center.

Rebuilding Pathe’ Model VII crank phongraph, circa 1915. Can you spell “money pit”. This was left setting under someone’s carpot for 15 years. Yuck, needless to say there was vey little left to work with. I had to replace the 3 sides and the door. Had the motor rebuilt as well. Still missing one small piece which I’m in the process of having someone cut for me. The missing piece is the grill or cover for the speaker above the door. I went into the project knowing I’d spend more than it will ever be worth but then, that’s why we call this a hobby. It was a fun project and the music from the old 78s sound great. Since our home is mostly antiques, it fits right in.

Blessings to all,
SDJ

Well here’s the new project. My wife had been after me (5 years) to build a cabinet with cutting board to match our cherry cabinets in the kitchen. I ran out of excuses so off to the store I went. I purchase most of my hardwood from a local saw mill at 25% of the big box store cost. Unfortunately he was out of s2s cherry so this left me at the mercy of another hardwood distributor. Man is cherry expensive when you have to pay shelf price. I don’t deal much in cherry so this was a real shock. I can build the cabinet from mahogany cheaper. Oh well in the end it is all about the pleasure and use you get from the piece you build. My wife is happy, I’m happy it is done and now it is on to the next project. Thanks and many blessings to those who sent suggestions on finishing the top….

Cabinet description: total height including wheels 35 1/2 …width 24 1/2×24 1/2
base is 3/4 cherry plywood
face frame is solid 3/4 cherry
top is dark cherry and maple finished with mineral oil
3 inch wheels

I built this for a customer per her specs. She wanted drawer storage, thick dark top, federal blue, 38×76. She fancies herself an interior designer. Can’t argue with that but to me it more like clutter art. You know the style, find as many random items as you can in 24 hours and put them all in one room. The money was green so I took the project. Actually it was kinda’ fun. The legs and apron are maple with mortise\tenons joints, federal blue enamel paint w\a ploy finish, lightly sanded and distressed, dovetail drawers. The top is ¾ “ red oak with another ¾ inch applied to the under outside edges to give it a thick top look and reduce the weight. Believe it or not the hardest part of the project was customizing a color for the top. I made six different test runs before I hit on the color she was looking for. The top is a mix of English Chestnut and Red Mahogany. I had to put a few cuts, scratches and dings in the top for her and apply a bit of paste wax. All in all it turned out pretty good.

Blessings to all

One of my grandsons (13yrs.) wanted a new full size bed and night stand because his new bedroom was too small (ie…full set of drums and computer desk take up lots of room. Anyway, he is great kid so off to the shop I went. I decided with limited space a captain’s bed and a night stand\manly morning essentials holder would do just the trick. I added a French cleat to back to hang it so it leaves room underneath for a trash can. Even made a big mirror frame to match. He was very excited. He has a little brother (18 months) and he hides him in the small trap door area at the end of the bed just for fun. Normally he puts his hocky stick and fishing rods in there when his mom makes him clean his room. Fun project but the project got so big I had to move it to the garage to install the sliding drawer compartments on each side. I had loads of maple thinking I would go more natural but he wanted it dark (trans-tint dark brown) so that’s what I did. It hurts my natural wood grain loving sensibilities to put dark stain on maple but…..it is his bed. Awh, another satisfied customer! I keep thinking one of these days I’ll get time to build some think to sell. With 8 grandchildren that may be a while.

Blessings to all

So my wife decided she wanted to redecorate the guest bathroom. I’m thinking add a little tile, do a little painting so I said sure honey. Just decide what you want to do and I’ll get on it. You have to understand the whole story here. We built the house 13 years ago and since then I have rebuild or modified, not redecorated, every room in the house at least once. But we won’t go there. Anyway, we are big into antiques, not the fancy stuff but worn, used, aged pieces that I can work on. So she comes home with this old wooden medicine cabinet. The real story here is I had to cut 3 inches off the backside of it and move or extend the wall out 4 inches to make it fit because of the drain vent pipe inside the wall. What was I thinking……….

The toy box is for my youngest grandson, Brenden. That’s him and my son-in-law in the picture. My daughter said, “Pops, Bren needs somewhere to put all his toys, can you hook me up”. Off to the shop I went. Every little kid needs a toy box, right? I may have gotten a bit carried away, ya’ think. The box is made of oak plywood and I made the trim from some white oak I had on hand. Ordered the feet from Osborne. Finished it with Min-wax Golden Oak stain and 2 coats of poly. I added safety hinges to the lid so he can keep all his fingers and maybe have a few less knots on his head. I have tried to make it a point to make all the grandchildren something special they can carry thru life and pass on to their children. Somethings you make just for fun, others you make to last a life time.

Blessings to all,
SawDustJunky

Marie’s Chair
This is an example of what I find truly exciting about old furniture. The rocker belonged to a friend’s grandfather. She said she can remember him rocking her in it when she was very young. Over the years the rocker got moved to the basement and it stayed there for many years. A couple of years ago she was cleaning out the basement and found the rocker. She considered tossing it to the curb but simply could not give up that memory so she took it home. I took one look at the rocker and went “WOW” what a nice chair. The rest is history. Just like older people, older furniture has its own story. Once you look beneath the surface it is amazing what you will find.

Built this table for the grandchildren’s game consoles we have collect, keeps them occupied if you know what I mean. Fun project I did in a weekend. Made from pine I picked up at the local”big box” store.