The unofficial follow-up to the Hangar 18 picture I burned earlier. This one was to add a finishing touch to a recently-constructed conference center. I added a few pens, techniques and a butane torch over the last one to get me the detail I was looking for.
The source picture was taken shortly after 9/11, hence the flag hanging from the tower.

My second attempt at a Cryptex. This one was put together for a family friend when he enlisted in the Air Force. Construction was similar to the first, except I needed a few extra wheels for the word.

Mantle clock I built for a charity auction. The edges are joined with variably-spaced dovetails. I used a mortiser to attach some blackwood pegs to the front to add extra interest.

Another walnut shadow box. The recipient requested a coin holder to be integrated into the base. I hadn’t even considered this twist on the design but I really like the way it came out.

Cherry shadow table built for an Air Force retiree. The top is made from tempered glass and captured in a frame held together with half lap joints on the corners. The legs have an outward reversed taper to modify the look. Most parts are assembled with mortises and biscuits.

A project from my high school days incorporating multiple techniques. The design was suggested by my German teacher but I replaced the traditional Christmas ornamentation with my personal interests.
Elements were scrollsawn, carved, and turned. The edge banding was handmade and there are intarsia scenes on the propellers.

This is the larger precursor to my matching end table. The coffee table used pocket holes instead of mortises to speed assembly but was otherwise built nearly identical. Each end panel has been scrollsawn and the top is 3/4” plywood covered with 12” slate floor tiles. I painted some wood buttons black and used them to dress up the edges and hide the screw holes.
The project is built from oak and finished with semi-gloss lacquer over General’s Candlelight stain.

An older project, built as a going-away gift on behalf of a coworker. The office had gotten him a replica broadsword and I volunteered to build the mount for it. They wanted the heraldic shields on either side and the badge inscribed somehow in the center.
This presented me with the unique problem of turning a functional badge into a scrollsaw pattern without it falling apart on me. I was able to cut about 95% of the way along every line but still allow the piece to stay together, then epoxy it to a solid back which I stained a contrasting color.
After the project was made, we decided to make the entire thing longer so I had to redo the entire base. With some careful miter saw work I chopped the quote out from the original board and attached it to the top of the new one, and make the edge match the rest of the piece by painting it black.

This is an adjustable music stand I built to try out my bench top moritiser. The base is a cherry box that has the legs attached with stopped dovetails. A removable blackwood pin sets the height and a profiled slot in the back adjusts the pitch of the stand itself.
The cap on the base was made with custom molding from my table mounted router along with a top that has a scrolled hole to accept the upper part of the stand and conceal all of the joints beneath.
It was finished with a water based gel stain. I had some concerns about the stain going on evenly between the staves on top but they came out fairly well.

Another shadowbox built for a retiring major in my office. The back is removable and the lower section has room for two unit coins and a metal plaque.
It’s made from walnut with the case reinforced with biscuits. I finished it with a layer of Rockler’s Mission Oak gel stain which gave it the exact shade I was looking for.

One of my more ambitious projects. The initial design came from a plan in the magazine Scrollsaw Woodworking & Crafts. The winner of their annual design contest had created a similar dragon box. Not satisfied with the level of detail, I set out to make it better.
I increased every dimension about 30% and made each fretwork piece far more intricate. The patterns for the dragons on the end and inside came from The Wooden Teddy Bear. The others I made myself.
The box consists of poplar frames holding bloodwood panels. The frames have a scrollsawn layer that sits over the solid piece which creates the effect of carved scales around the edges. All the poplar was colored with black stain, but black spray paint would have been far easier.

My first real pyrography experiment.
During a previous assignment, the Air Force had me stationed in Dayton, OH. While I was there, our building stood up a heritage room and had a ‘name the room’ contest. The winner: Hangar 18, which according to legend was the location where we kept the aliens some 50 years ago. Pretty appropriate name; depending on who you ask, we kept a few in our basement too. ;)
I offered to make a sign to hang on the wall and sort of went overboard. The “Hangar 18” portion is 12 feet wide and routed into 3/4” plywood panels.
The picture is a composite of several pictures I found online. To copy the design I used an LCD projector and traced the outlines on the board. It took quite a while to complete a 2×4’ picture using a 3mm Razertip burner.
In retrospect I probably should have gone with something smaller but it was well received and I feel the result made it worth the effort.

A covered bridge picture that I made a while back. It’s made from three stacked panels of 1/4” plywood stained different colors.
The panels were 16×20” which was pretty interesting on a 16” scrollsaw.

It’s a Cryptex. Yes, like the Da Vinci Code. It’s not quite as secure as the real one but still looks pretty cool.

A set of two matching pens and boxes incorporating Celtic knots. The boxes are built from a single piece of rosewood and include an eight-way knot cut from an octagon blank instead of a normal square.
The pens were made from cocobolo, maple, and blackwood.

My first project at the new house once I got my garage set up. The old townhouse had a set of built in shelves which I lost and needed a way to get my boxes of books off the floor.
The sides and back are made with raised panels and all of the molding was cut on a router table. Tracks for the adjustable shelves are recessed into dados along the sides.
It’s built from oak for the frames and oak veneered plywood for the panels and shelves. I’ve filled entire shelves with textbooks and they hardly flex.

A few of the pens I’ve turned. These include some of my better attempts as making inlays and herringbones.

This is a mission style end table of my own design to match a similar coffee table that I built previously. The legs are assembled with through tenons and reinforced with blackwood pegs. Each end panel has a scrollsawn scene to add some extra detail.
The top is made from slate tiles that are mounted, grouted and sealed like a real slate floor. My hometown was a huge slate mining community back in the day and I liked adding a part of it in the table. The textured stone also gives the the piece a bit more of a rustic feel.

Some of my older projects. I designed and built the first for a coworker who was a fan of board games. After I put his together I found it too much fun to play with and had to build one for myself.
Each tower has an identical set of four baffles in the middle to randomize the rolls of dice which are dropped in the top. They’re covered in felt and attached with dados and tacked in place with a brad on each side.
The first was built from oak and the second from salvaged black walnut with scrollsawn oak fretwork on the sides.
The third was for another coworker after the first was well received. The dovetails came out well but I had to cut the semicircular hole in the front on my drill press after failing to plan and gluing it together too soon.

Custom shadowbox for a retiring USAF master sergeant. Dimensioned to mirror real MSgt rank. Front is on hinges with a hexagon box in the back assembled with walnut splines. Front is assembled using routed mortises.
Made mostly from cherry with turned burmese blackwood for the center of the star. Stained using black cherry gel with black paint on routed surfaces for accents.