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.

I made these swords for our grandsons when they were down for the weekend. There was some mention of having a say in picking my rest home by our daughter-in-law when we took them home. I think they were about 22” long, hem-fir without any finish. The hilts were half lapped and glued. It didn’t that the boys long to reinvent the way their Viking ancestors carried their broad swords on their backs. They found other uses for them too.

I didn’t do this, my son built it. He’s a chip off the old block, doesn’t work from plans, just does it. It has 2 slides, a rope ladder, numerous regular ladders, 3 swings, 1 climbing wall, 1 trapdoor, 1 fireman’s pole, 1 mail box, 1 rope climb, 1 steering wheel, 1 lookout with telescope, a covered playhouse & probably some more stuff I forgot. It has the boys flag, mom’s contribution. The flames are for Robert and the dragon for Drake. It is set in concrete, framed with treated lumber and made of kid type treated lumber on all the play surfaces.

I found this “barber chaired” stump along a logging road near our Tree Farm. Thought it might make a good post for any potential loggers looking to make their own lumber. Notice in the picture, the under cut and back cut are the same elevation. This is a relatively small tree, about a foot or 16” in diameter. This can happen even if the under cut and back cuts are properly done. It is quite dangerous if the logger is standing behind where the end of the tree kicks out and back. It can go down either direction too. It is especially common cutting alder in the Pacific Northwest. This is a maple stump.

Here is a block of maple I squared up with a broad hatchet. I’ve always been curious about making timbers with a broad axe. I decided to try it with a round of firewood that was cut about 6 months ago. It is slightly checked on the ends, but nothing too serious. I just started by making a few chops going down the log, turned it over and made a few coming back the other way. I kept it up until I had a flat side. Did the other and had parallel sides. Made a couple square sides and the whole thing is as good as I can get it by eye with a hatchet. I would have to use a square, draw knife and a plane to get it any better.

There have been a few posts about cutting rounds in the band saw and the associated problems. Here is one way out of the dilemma, flatten a side with a broad axe. I suppose you could do pretty well with a regular axe if you don’t have a broad axe, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Here is a treasure chest I made for my wife a couple years ago. She was doing a display at school and needed a pirate’s treasure chest. She didn’t want to spend much, so I used pine and a scrap piece of floor underlayment for the lid. It was kerf cut for the bend. She wanted to be able to put a flat top on it later for another purpose, so I made the slot on the back for the hinges to slide into. I thought the classic pirate’s treasure chest should have sloped sides and wanted to get away from the standard square box. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to practice dovetails. This was the first time I cut them on a mitered side, much less a compound mitered joint! They are a bit loose because of the soft pine plus a miss cut or two here and there. I used some walnut stain that was lying around. I don’t recall what was used for the semi-gloss finish. It is 14” long x 10 wide x 11.5 tall. OOops, almost forgot she wanted a false bottom so it didn’t take so much “Treasure” to fill it for the display.

I’m not sure where to post this, it really isn’t a review; so I’ll put it here. There have been quite a few topics about saw horses and how to handle sheet goods. These plastic garbage cans are great. They are wide enough for 2 of them to handle a 4×8 sheet and catch the cut off to boot. A regular sawhorse will let the cutoff fall on the ground.

If you run a saw blade into them, no harm done, they still function just fine and more importantly, the saw blade is still as good as it was when it hit the sawhorse. When sawing small cuts or holes, all the waste goes inside minimizing cleanup. If you need a work bench to place a few tools or a can of finish, just turn them up side down.

I installed a can goods shelf in our fifth wheel RV. It should work just fine in a kitchen cabinet too. My wife wanted a can organizer as space is limited in the RV. She found a wire gadget of some kind that wouldn’t hold itself together let alone contain canned goods in a mobile unit. My solution was to make a shelf with slots in the bottom so she could look through it to see the labels and where to find the cans.

I used ¼” underlayment from the big box store for the shelf and scraps for the cleats, ribs and stiffener. There are ½” high ribs between the rows to keep the cans in line during travel. I put a stiffener across the bottom to add a little stability during travel. The shelf sits lose on the cleats. It has an inch of fall from the back to the front so the cans will not get stuck at the back of the deep cabinet. If the cans bounce around too much during travel, I will put a locking mechanism to hold them against the bottom of the shelf above for stability. The slots are 2 3/4 inches wide because that is the biggest hole saw I had that wasn’t too big :-) The ribs are 5 inches apart for standard sized cans. The last row is a longer to allow for bigger cans.