A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago if I would be interested in taking on a project for his vehicle. He wanted some storage cupboards and drawers in the rear of his SUV and also wanted a fold-up bed. I told him that in order for me to build this for him, that I would need the vehicle left at my shop for one week, which he obliged me in doing. So, this past week I built a unit with cabinets and drawers. All the storage cupboards and drawers are fitted with barrel bolts which will prevent the doors and drawers from opening when the vehicle is in motion. The unit fits exactly in between the rear wheel wells inside the vehicle. The storage unit was built with 3/4” melamine. The bed is 3/4” sanded plywood and folds in three sections and stores solely on top of this cabinet unit when the bed is not in use. The bed (plywood) sections are joined with piano hinges. The bed is 40” wide by 7’ long when opened out. My friend is now off to a foam shop to get a custom mattress made to fit the size of the bed. Thanks for looking.

After purchasing a lathe on Craigslist a couple of months ago, I decided to try my hand at woodturning, which I haven’t done since high school about 50 years ago. Having some scrap pieces of mahogony and oak available, I glued them together in checkerboard fashion, alternating the squares as I glued the layers together. What I ended up with is this candy bowl, which is 6” in diameter by 3” deep. The finish is lemon oil, followed by 3 coats of rub-on-poly.

A couple of weeks ago, a local horse owner asked me if I could make her a feed storage box for her horse. She told me the approximate dimensions that she wanted and she also said that it had to have locking wheels and a vent screen on the end of the box. She said she wanted some kind of a handle on the end for easy mobility, so I installed a rope handle. I told her that I would price out the materials required and give her a quote for my labour to build the box. She accepted the quote I gave her and for the past several days have been building the box, which I just completed. The sides and bottom of the box are 3/4” red oak plywood. The lid is 1/2” birch plywood in a rabbited pine frame. Mahogony trim along the ends to conceal the open grain on the plywood. The bottom of the box is screwed to a sturdy framework of 2×4’s. She is coming over with her truck this week to pick up the box. She doesn’t know this yet, but I also put the name of her horse in wooden letters ‘Amigo’. The exterior has benn finished with tung oil, but no finish on the inside for food safety reasons. I hope she like the box.

Following the wooden menu sign that I made for Harbour Air in Vancouver, I received an email from their Marketing Director in Victoria, BC. asking me if I would be interested in making an outdoor wooden sign for their terminal, which will be placed on the side of their dock crew shack which is located right on their float dock, facing the harbour. Harbour Air willingly flew me over to Victoria so that I could take the measurements for the size of the sign for the space they had on the side of the building, and also to discuss with them what they wanted on the sign. I flew back home (again on their dime), and worked on a quote for the cost of the sign, emailed it to them, and got approval to make the sign. Here is a photo of the completed sign, except for a couple of coats of HELMSMAN urethane which will be applied in another day or two. The sign measures 5 ft. wide by 3 ft. high. The raised lettering is 6 inches in height by 1/2” thick. The Canadian flags are also 1/2” thick baltic birch, hand painted by myself. Harbour Air has recently partnered with Kenmore Air out of Seattle, and Kenmore is now doing flights from Seattle to Victoria, sharing the dock at Harbour Air’s Victoria terminal, so they wanted a sign to welcome their American passengers upon their arrival in Victoria.

Harbour Air Seaplanes, after seeing the wooden plaque that I made last year for my son, asked me a few weeks ago if I could make a menu board for their coffee shop & lounge at their Vancouver Harbour terminal. They wanted a board with one of their single ‘Otter’ seaplanes on it, similar to what I made for my son’s project. So I went down there one day a couple of weeks ago and measured the available wall area where they want the board. After acquiring the needed materials I made this menu board, which I just completed this morning. The board is 1/2” Baltic Birch with walnut stain, as they wanted the board to resemble coffee colour. The board measures 48” wide by 32” high. The seaplane was engraved into the board using my Dremel router, and the plane is 16” in length. The blue background is core-plast, a common material for sign making. The lettering was done at a local sign shop near my home. The blue sign board was then glued to the birch back board, and then I hot-glued a white braided rope 1/4” in diameter around the perimeter of the blue board to give a finishing touch and also to conceal the edge of the blue plastic. I will be delivering the board to them on Tuesday and hanging it for them.

I built this birdhouse with a bit of a twist to it. As you can see, the rear side of this house has a glass window so that we can watch the bird activity inside the house. The bottom (floor) of the house is removable for cleaning of debris at season’s end and also to remove the glass for cleaning when necessary. I put some bird seed on the interior floor of the house, and in the second photo I waited patiently until a little chickadee entered the house to help himself to lunch. These photos were taken with a snoot over the lens of my point & shoot camera, taken from inside my home through the venetian blinds and the glass patio door, thus the photos are not totally sharp, but illustrates the project. Thanks for looking.

My latest project which I just finished this morning is this dovetail splined box. This is my first time ever of creating anything with dovetails, but I was inspired by Peter Dunsmore’s YouTube video on how to make the jig for cutting the dovetail slots, so I made the jig and went to work on this box.

The box sides are reclaimed mahogany which a friend gave me a few weeks ago. The top insert is 1/2” solid (not veneered) birds-eye maple, which I sliced off a burl that I bought a few weeks ago. The dovetail splines are birch and the lifting knob is a small piece of poplar which is recessed into the top of the box. This box features quadrant hinges, which I have never worked with before (again inspired by Peter Dunsmore). The quadrant hinges keep the lid open at 100 degrees. During the construction process, I made the box in a completely closed fashion, then cut the box open on the table saw, which kept the grain pattern matching with the top and bottom portions of the box. The bottom is lined with red stiffened felt which was applied to the bottom piece of 1/4” baltic birch ply which was rabbitted into the bottom before the box was cut open. Finished with tung oil only. The box measures 9”x9”x4”. Thanks for looking.

I made a mistake of showing Steve’s (Mere Mortals) banana holder to the wife, and she said that she would like one for the kitchen counter. So, off to the workshop.. and grabbed a piece of Aromatic Red Cedar that was left over from a previous project. I then took a piece of paper, a pencil and my french curves and drew an outline of a shape that I thought would be suitable, glued the pattern to the wood and cut out the two pieces on my scroll saw (I don’t have a bandsaw). Then I rounded over the edges on the router table and sanded them. To finish the project, I applied orange oil to the wood, followed later by two applications of wood wax. Keep the wife happy and you can spend more time in the shop.

I made this polygon-shaped (8-sided) bucket for the wife’s kitchen utensils after becoming frustrated with the ceramic pot that she was using for them which had a narrower neck opening at the top. This bucket is made of 3/4” oak. The eight pieces measure 8 1/2” tall by 4” wide, both edges of each piece were cut at 22 1/2 degrees to form the polygon shape when assembled. The bottom is 1/4” ply rabbitted into the bottom. The bucket was given two coats of poly as a finish. The pieces were glued together using a banding clamp, and the corner edges were sanded with my palm sander which makes for smooth corners on all edges. I also hammered V-nails into the top end joints for added securement to the bucket. The oak wood blends very nicely with our oak cupboards. The wife is happy and I’m happy.l

I just finished this box this morning. This was my first attempt at trying to make a ‘sculptured’ or ‘scalloped’ box, but it certainly doesn’t come close to the ones that Greg and Andy have been making. However, the wife really likes it, so that makes me feel a little better. The box measures 8” x 8” x 3 1/2”. The sides are Cherry, the top is Oak, the splines are Black Walnut. The bottom is 1/8” baltic birch with black felt on the interior bottom. The front clasp with accept a small padlock. The finish is two coats of wipe-on poly and two coats of Watco clear spray lacquer.

I realize that this type of dust filter does not eliminate a commercial dust filter system for collecting sawdust at the source of power tools (which I hope to acquire soon), but never the less I wanted to make a box fan dust filter to collect fine airborne dust in my small shop. I bought this box fan on Craigslist a couple of days ago, and purchased a 20”x20” furnace filter at Home Depot and finished the project this morning. I installed the eye bolts to the metal box on the complete opposite side of where the speed control knob is, so that the unit would actually hang upside down. This enables me to easily reach up to turn the fan on or off. The bottom of the box fan when hanging is high enough to clear my head when walking about, but low enough to reach the control switch. The eye screws in the ceiling are screwed into ceiling joists so that there is no danger of it to come crashing down. Total cost of this project was about $22. Time will tell if it works, but even if it is not effective in collecting fine dust, I will have a cooling fan for the shop during the hot summer days. Thanks for looking.

Today I built this table saw sled for my new Ryobi table saw. As you can see in photo #3, the mitre slots on this saw have an upper holding ledge on the top of the mitre slots, thus I had to make small rabbit cuts on my wooden rails for the sled. I got them (rails) perfected and fitting nicely. The sled was made with available materials on hand. The bottom is 3/4” MDF. The front and rear verticals were glued and screwed to the bed, and a couple of cross slats attached for added securement to the sled. I dowelled and glued a safety stop block to the outer rear vertical board (Photo #2). The bottom of the wooden rails have been waxed with candle wax and the sled slides nicely without any side wobble or slack, and the front board rail is truley square to the blade. I had full intentions of routing a T-slot to add a stop block for materials, but my dementia set in during the construction, and I already had the vertical board glued to the bed before I realized that I forgot to rout the T-slot, however, clamping a stop block for cutting any identical length pieces of stock will suffice. Hopefully I will be giving the sled a workout tomorrow.

The floor area in my garage workshop was getting to the point where I couldn’t move without constantly stepping over power tools, so I went to Rona yesterday and bought this shelving unit and assembled it. Today I made room against a wall and filled the shelves with power tools and finishing supplies, then I bolted a piece of 1/2” MDF to the side and made a place for my clamps and roller stand. I still have some clutter in another area of the shop, but I have plans of what I’m going to do with that this coming week. I’m determined to get my shop organized very soon with a place for everything. Persistence, persistence!

With wall space in my workshop being at a premium for hanging tools and equipment, I made this simple calendar holder which I fastened to a door of one of my storage cabinets. Take the calendar out once a month, flip the page and slide it back in. Made from scrap MDF with 1/4” routed channels to hold the calendar.

My wife was complaining to me that she needed something to organize her sewing spools which up till now were kept in a plastic box, which was very frustrating having to paw through the pile of loose spools looking for the one she needed. I measured an available space on the wall beside her sewing machine and made this simple sewing spool rack for her. It’s nothing special or elaborate, just a rack that will hold 42 spools of thread, plus a small shelf on the bottom where she can put some bobbins, etc. She walked into my shop this afternoon just as I was finishing some sanding on the piece. She was very happy with her new rack. Made from yellow cedar. She wants me to put a couple of coats of clear spray lacquer on it just to protect the wood, which I will do.

I made this small veneer press from available materials I had in the shop, except for the press screw which I bought from Lee Valley. The press table is 13” x 20 1/2” which is suitable for my needs of making small boxes, etc. The vertical sides and the cross piece is 2” thick yellow cedar. The table was daedoed into the vertical pieces and the cross piece containing the screw was tennoned right through the uprights. The table (bottom) is 1/2” MDF glued and brad nailed to 1” x 2” supports. The press piece is 3/4” plywood. This unit is heavy and sturdy, which creates more than enough clamping pressure for the size of this press. I’m looking forward to putting it to good use in the very near future.

This is my new woodworking workbench which I just finished this morning. This was built from some of the yellow cedar which was given to me a couple of weeks ago. All lumber in this bench is 2” thick, except for the vise jaws, which are oak. The top measures 35”x25” which is a smaller size bench, considering that my shop is a 1-car garage, but hopefully it will serve my needs. The top was made with 3 pieces of 2”x8” lumber, joined together with 28 biscuit joints. I applied oak stain to the top, and still have to put a couple coats of shellac on it, as I want to protect the top from any accidental spills (such as a knocked over coffee mug). The cross braces between the legs are fastened with 3 1/2” lag screws, as is the top, fastened to the table supports. The vise and vise handle are from Lee Valley. The vise and the lag screws were my only cost in building this bench. The vise opens to 7” between the jaws. As you can see, I recessed the inner vise jaw into the table top. The edging around the table top is 1/2” MDF. This bench is very heavy, but also very sturdy, which is a pre-requisite when wanting to hold stock for sanding, planing, routing, etc. The top has (48) 3/4” holes for placement of bench dogs for holding stock, plus (3) bench dogs holes in the outer vise jaw. My wife even complimented me on how beautiful it looked, she said it would look much better as a kitchen table (not a chance, lady!). I’m very much looking forward to putting this bench to good use.

For any chef who needs ‘just a pinch’ of salt, this salt box is always at the ready beside the stove. This, for me, was an experimental project using two (2) techniques that I have never tried before, as I am still relatively new at box making:

(1) Working with veneer.
(2) Making spline joints.

The top and bottom are Maple, the sides of the box is Black Walnut veneer glued to 3/8” Baltic birch plywood. The splines are Poplar. I recently made a spline jig for my table saw, and this is my first project with splines, but very easy to do with the jig, so I will certainly be doing more spline joint projects in the future. Tung oil and two light coats of spray lacquer were applied to the exterior, but nothing applied to the interior. This project is not perfect, but hopefully I will get better with more practise. I am wanting to make myself a veneer press now.

OK, so I had to join the LumberJocks wine bottle holder revolution and see if I could succeed at making it. This one is my ‘prototype’ and it turned out perfectly (I think). The wood is 12” in length by 3” wide. The bottom bevel is 45 degrees and the hole is 1 1/8” also drilled at 45 degrees, which balances a 750 ML bottle perfectly level. I made this one from a piece of oak that was staring me in the eyes and begging me to turn him into something useful. As you can see, I rounded the top of the board and also used a round-over router bit on the edges of both sides of the board. This one does not have any finish on it yet, but I plan to make more very soon.

This is my latest box. The exterior sides are Black Walnut, sculptured with my Dremel tool, the interior walls are Burly Maple, and the top lid is Birch with the 4-leaf clover being a Mahogany veneer inlay. The interior bottom is lined with black felt. This is my first attempt at doing inlay, and the 4-leaf clover is still very slightly proud of the surface, but I could not get it in any further.. I guess I should have routed the recess a slight bit deeper, but I had no choice to leave it as is because it was such a tight fit that I cannot take it back out without breaking it. Live and learn. It still looks OK the way it is, at least in my mind.