I made this shoe tree for my daughter for her walk-in closet this Christmas past. I searched LJ and Goggled, but didn’t find much along the line I was looking for; so, I made my own design loosely based on the store bought plastic thingy that was falling apart.

It is made of 1×3 oak and 5/8” oak dowels. It is 66” tall, 28” wide and 10” deep. There are 11 rows 5 1/2 inches center to center. The dowels are 5” apart front to back and there is 2 1/2” rise, front to back. I think if I had it to do over, I would make that 2” so the shallow heeled shoes would have a better chance to stay put over the long term.

I made it to set on the floor and attach to the shelf support above. I know the screws aren’t driven all the way in. Her driver battery needed charging when she put it up. Darn battery tools are always empty when you need them ;-)

Another project made of scraps of pine and hem/fir. Notice the correction in the drawings and spes; tanks can’t fly or swim, so Robby had to go back to the drawing board. Rather than issue a whole new set of drawings, he modified the old one. I have had this happen many times in my career, so I took it in stride. ;-)

The Bumble Bee Squadron can out fly the Blue Angles! They are made of Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar sticks epoxied to the 3/8” dowel fuselage. Robby says he needs at least 10 more planes to fill the carrier deck. But how will they have room to take off and land?

BTW, I took a few builder’s liberties and added the control tower. There were no complaints about this deviation from the strict instructions I was given.

Another toy made of scraps of pine and /or hem/fir. Notice the “plans and specs” call for the top to be hinged so as to facilitate loading and unloading the crew and other “treasures”. Just like the ambulance , I was concerned about how to make the hinge and attachment durable to stand normal 6-8 year old wear and tear. I thought a hinge with screw attachment would be broken off is short order. I started to make it a dowel hinge, but concluded it would split the top. I made the top removable after hinging up.

The shape was roughed out on my table saw then shaped on the belt sander.

The periscopes were deleted as being too hazardous!

No, it will not float right side up. Too top heavy. But it wasn’t meant to be a “in the water” toy.

Drake look happy, eh? ;-)

This is made of scrap lumber I had around. Pine and or Hem/Fir. I got a box of hardwood wheels off eBay for next to nothing.

Notice the plan has a detail showing the doors opening. I felt small hinges and short screws would not last long under the normal use applied by 6 and 8 year olds.;-) I took an old pair of Levis and salvaged the denim from a low wear spot on the end of the leg. It is glued, stapled, folded over on itself, glued and stapled again. The doors still worked when Robby took it home!

We have towering firs! They are at least 100-110 feet tall. With firs come fir needles. I can clean the deck at 9 AM and it will be covered with fir needles by noon;-(( If a noticeable wind is blowing, they will be 1/2” deep by noon!!;-(( They even get to the front yard and driveway. They seem to find their way into the house no matter how much foot wiping we do. Rugs and door mats seem to clog up in nothing flat. I decided use a pallet to make an experimental door mat. It will be bigger than a mat or rug; therefore, more steps for the offending needles to fall off. It has ample room for them to fall through and not clog up.

If this seems to work, I will built a better looking one for the door. I am going to build one for the entry from the garage too. In addition to fir needles, it may catch a little sawdust to boot ;-))

Steveinmarin builds a lot of practical projects. Maybe he’ll see this and blog an awesome design or method ;-))

This stitching pony is for holding leather item while you sew them together. I have never seen one like this. I made it to hold items that might be a bit bulkier than what are normally stitched using a pony.

It is made of pine, a 1/4-bolt and wing nut to operate it. The spring is to open and hold it out of the way, but probably not really necessary. Note the electrician’s joint that holds it together; ie, sq drive #10 sheet metal screws ;-)) I used a board that had been a practice piece for carvings I put on some rifle stocks.

There you go Mads, my Water World version ;-))

The title pretty much says it all ;-))

Edit & hint: I made it to do a little maintenance project at the house

Edit 2: it hinges at all the joints.

Edit 3: It was a “drain chain drag line” to clean out the waste water system that has filled with some sediments. I changed it to a “shovel” which works a little better.

The second picture is the swively part I made so the drag line could be pushed in, rolled over and it would open to pull the dirt out. I the first metal piece I used was a fairly stiff can lid, but it bent off to the side. I had only used one screw to hold it, but it was obvious I need to use two on the next part I made. Now, a new issue, splitting the swively part with two screws in it and pressure on it as it pulled the dirt out and caught in the corrugations of the plastic drain pipe. I wrapped it with #14 copper wire to solve that and soldered it to hold it in place. Not a very good job of soldering. I didn’t want to have any more heat on the oak any longer than absolutely necessary.

The drag line didn’t work out very well. I could feel dirt being pushed further back and I wasn’t getting much out. I decided to make a shovel. It worked better. It went all the away into the T about 4 feet in.

Today, the rains came and I still have a clog around the corner in the T. I went to the next down spout, poked a hose in it and it did not back up to the catch basin. The hose fill the depression in the driveway in a couple minutes, so I guess I’ll have to dig up the T and use it to go in around the corner ;-(

“Grandpa, Drake needs a pizza truck and 10 pizzas.” How big? “About this long and this high and it needs a door on the back that opens and closes and …” Hold on, have him draw me a plan while I’m building the garbage truck.

Just scrap lumber whipped up quick as the boys were just here over the weekend.

Edit: About half of this is recycled pallet wood.

“Grandpa, I need a garbage truck and 10 garbage cans.” How big, Robby? “About this long and this high and it needs to dump and it needs a door on the back that opens and…” Hold on, why don’t you draw me a plan so I don’t get it wrong?

Just scrap lumber whipped up quick as Robby was constantly asking is it done yet every time I glued on another part ;-))

Edit: about half of this material is recycled pallet wood

I made this stock for a 7×57 Mauser to use to shoot hi-power silhouettes. That is why I carved a ram target on it. The stock is very similar to The Pig Gun .22 rim-fire stock. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/31591 It is walnut. The barreled action is long gone. It didn’t work out very well. I put it back in the original stock and sold it.

The other figure is from Kentucky rifles of the Revolutionary War period. At first it was thought to be an Indian figure. It is a signature marking for the Sons of Liberty. A few simple chisel strokes and it is done.

A dozer like this was one of my favorite toys when I was a kid. An older cousin made it. It is nothing more than a scrap of 2×4 and a little bit of scrap 1x plus a few nails. A kid can make miles of dirt road or piles of dirt a mile high with one of these in a day ;-)

The blade pivots to raise it up. See pic #3.

A while back there was some discussion about making a drill longer than currently available. I made this one 40 years ago. I had never seen a wood tip on a drill in any store I had ever been in. Not sure if there were any WW specialty stores or not. Never thought about it. Lumber yards and hardware stores were my world.

It is a 3/8 inch x 12 drill bit. I held it in a vise on a drill press to drill a ¼” hole in the end. I used a 5” piece of ¼” drill rod for the extension. Soft solder was used for the joint.

To get the wood boring tip that would run true in curly maple, I hand ground it on the corner of a grinding wheel.

I made this stock about 20 years ago. It is Walnut with Birchwood Casey’s Tru-oil finish, about 5 coats, hand rubbed and steel wooled in between coats. It is a Winchester 52 in .22 Long Rifle caliber. I stocked it for rim fire silhouette shooting. They are shot offhand, no support from 40 meters to 100 meters. It is not an easy game. I carved the pig because it is the easiest to hit and my favorite target on the course. Plus, my favorite style of rifle, Kentucky long rifle, usually has carvings that adorn the stock.

The reason for the odd shape is to cut weight to meet the limit and to fit the shooter perfectly for offhand shooting. While inletting this action and barrel into the wood takes some patience and care; it is a lot easier than the pistol in this blog: http://lumberjocks.com/TopamaxSurvivor/blog/15470 . The white card taped in the hollow is for sight settings. You have to change them for each of the 4 sets of targets form 40 to 100 meters. There is plenty of room on the card to note changes and make notes about the wind.

I have another silhouette stock I made for another rifle that is very simillar, but I can’t seem to locate it right now ;-((

A while back I decided to build a shelf to help sort out a pile of material in the garage/shop. There isn’t a lot of extra room in a 2 car garage tripling as an electrical warehouse, personal garage and wood shop ;-) I almost put up a couple of 2×12’s to span the 7-6”.

Remembering all the torsion boxes posted here on LJ, why not build a torsion shelf? I could leave one side open to provide a bunch of cubby hole spaces for small items. Here it is: made of ½” big box plywood and 1×8.

BTW, I like to work outside if it isn’t raining. All the sawdust just fertilizes the lawn and I don’t even have to sweep the shop :-))

I set these birdhouse kits up for the grandkids, but dad had time to get them up when they weren’t home so he put them together. Oh, well, maybe next time. He wanted to get them up before it got too late. There have been too many family gatherings and activities for me to get the kids to put them together in the last month. They picked them up on their way by one afternoon.

There is a red acrylic window in the back to see what is happening with the bird family. I got that idea here on LJ. Not sure exactly who started it. They have long backboards to be hung in front of a window. The top is removable for clean out. The back board has a dado to catch the top instead of a hinge. I hate hinges. There is usually a better way. The top has nails to engage the sides to secure the top.

The size is determined by the size of scrap 8” cedar fencing boards without having to make any rips ;-)

This is a prototype/ mockup. Glad I did it. Took 3 tries to get it to work. Should have been a little more careful with measurements and layout. The first was a fuzz too tight. The second almost too loose. Third time is the charm. Glad I just used pine instead of good hardwood.

It is 18” long with a 1” dowel for a handle. About 2 1/2 inches in diameter and the prongs are 1” x 1/4” dowels. Next time I will slant the prongs out about 5 degrees so it doesn’t have to be so precise.

What do you think it is for?

Edit: It is a tool to reach the vents on the RV that are 8 to 9 feet high.

I built this using 2×10 hem-fir construction lumber. Painted it a bunch of coats to match the truck. Sorry stain fans :-)) It works well for securing ladders and conduit keeping them damaging the window or paint. The small window cut out is so I can see the 5th wheel hitch when hooking up.

LOML wanted me to pick up a box at the store to keep things together in the medicine cabinet of out fifth wheel. I told her I would make one that custom fit the spot. I had never made a box joint before, so I decided to try it. I didn’t have a jig and not much time to make one, so I marked them out and kerf cut them with my table saw blade. Only got one cut on the wrong side of the lines :-)). That is good for a Topamax survivor!!

I made it with some walnut and cherry I had lying about. It is finished with a couple coats of wipe on ploy.
I should make some plugs for the ends of the bottom’s groove one of these days.

This is a “King Target.” the origin is from the schuetzen matches of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the shot closest to center wins the target. It is fired offhand, meaning no artificial support, at 200 yards for center fire or 100 yards rim fire. This one was for 100 yards rim fire. It is about 16 inches tall and 11 ½ wide.

It was made of clear vertical grain fir, mortised and tenoned the bread board ends and secured them with drawbore pins. I painted it with some craft paint my wife had in her goodies. It is finished with a few coats of wipe on poly.

Our winter match is called the “Icicle Match”; therefore, obviously the summertime match would be the “Popsicle” Match. Too much concentration on my rustic letting rather than spelling and ……….. an extra “C” in popsicle!!

The lead Washingtons by the target are medals for individual matches. There are cast of lead in a mold one the shooters made freehand on his milling machine. Pretty good free hand mill carving, eh?

I made this carry-all to fit the 3 point hitch on the tractor. It is designed to hold itself together so it wouldn’t be dependant on fasteners and hardware. The bottom is mounted to a crossbar. The front drops in front of the platform and behind the crossbar so it is captive. The 2 side braces are cut on compound dovetails so they will hold the whole thing together with out any fasteners and it is easy to disassemble to use the 3 point hitch for other equipment. The long narrow neck is required to allow the braces to enter and escape the compound dovetail lock.

It is made of fir and/or hemlock lumber and painted to protect from UV deterioration. It is 5 feet wide and bout 3.5 feet deep and high. I cut the dovetails for the braces on the table saw at a tilt of 9 degrees. Only one side can be cut on the table saw table. I free handed the other side with the saw set at 90 degrees. I suppose I could have just dovetailed one side, but both assure it will not come apart not matter how it gets abused.

I found the easiest way to cut the compound dovetail recess was with the sawzall, then clean the bottom up with a chisel. I started with a hand saw but with the 2x wood frame having both cross cut and rip cuts together, it didn’t work very well.

Edit: The compound dovetail keeps the side braces form coming out sideways as well as holding laterally along the brace.

One has to keep ones wits about themselves laying these cuts out. I was lucky to only make on upside down! Notice in the layout picture with the framing square, the layout lines are offset about a half inch to the inside. This is to allow for where the square will not allow the proper line to be drawn.

I forgot to mention I need to move the cross bar a ¼ inch to allow the front to drop down, then the dovetail on the bottom will tighten up and the carrier will be more stable. I took the picture when I first assembled it on the tractor hitch.