I’ve been working on a knitting box (as inspired by AJS and wwmm.com).

Everything is together except the little drawer. As the tail end will never be seen, I thought it a great op to attempt my first dovetails. I was very happy with the results. I only screwed up once, having to replace a piece. I can live with that. This part of the box is made from left over oak.

I did mine on a router table. The layout was easy, although I screwed up the centering. The tough part for moi, was figuring out how to cut the pins. The tails are easy, just buy a dovetail bit.

Hopefully, when the entire project is complete it will be worthy of posting. Cheers!

I’ve looked at a lot of jigs for box joints, and decided it can’t be that complicated. I was right. I simply clamped a scrap to my miter, pushed it through. Attached another scrap, measured over, pushed it over against (after clamping it down at the right spot). Done. And the results were as good as I hoped for!

And it works! Even created its own storage.

Here are the reindeer I built for Christmas presents. Fun build which allowed me to use almost all my tools. The third picture shows the evolution, even if there doesn’t seem to be any.

The story goes, that 25 years ago my father in law gave us one that he had built (the first one in the picture) now that I have a nice functioning woodshop I decided to build some as gifts. The second was the first one I built as a prototype. This one has become my gift to my wife. The last one shows an example of the remainder that I built en masse. The final pic shows the scarf which is new to the idea.

A few days ago I posted my version of a French clean storage storage. I don’t plan on posting all the pieces I build to use on it, but this was the first and I kind of like it.

This epitomizes the reason I did this wall in the first place: a place for everything and everything in its place.

Thanks for looking!

It started as a garage door. I built a wall to help insulate the room a bit. Then I decided the wall would best serve me with a French Cleat system.

I thought about it a lot, researched a lot, and this is the system that works for me. Calling it a French Cleat is a bit of a misnomer. A true cleat allows the hanging piece to be simply placed on the wall. Mine is trapped top and bottom. The boards are all cut with a 45 degree top and bottom, trapping the hung piece (as seen in the fourth pic).

As it is, I can use pieces no bigger than 6 inches, but could use more than one for an object. In the future, if I want to use a longer piece, I would have to remove a board to get it in.

Now to build some storage to hang from it. Any suggestions on that is always appreciated.

Thanks for looking.

Yesterday Woodcrafters hosted a turning event to create a pen for the troops. We learned how to turn pens and a soldier somewhere gets a gift to let them know someone cares. What a great program!

The pen on the left is mine, and the other is my wife’s. I actually like hers better. Now we’re looking at mini lathes for Christmas…BIG BONUS!

I bought a benchtop drill press about 6 months ago and it just sat on my shop floor until last night. I intended to do this project a lot sooner, but then summer happened. That’s a good thing really.

I admit that it took me a tad longer to complete than I would have liked. It looks simple, and really it is. Strong and sturdy, but simple. As usual, with every project I complete I get to learn a new skill. In this case I recently purchased a biscuit jointer from a pawn shop ($45 for a porter cable…I thought it was a good deal…). I had no idea how easy these things are to use, and WOW does it work well.

The good:
Learned about the biscuit jointer
Learned a new game with my dog (me cleaning, him playing)
Time spent in shop
Very effective use of scrap 3/4” oak ply
Able to finally use my drill press.

The bad:
Still burning my boards when ripping on TS
Didn’t get to use band saw to rip doors to make frame (already had the peices)
The center bows out from the interior shelf…don’t know why…dry fit was perfect…maybe the glue…

The odd:
The hinges and the door latch all came 1 screw short of the required (each hinge needed 4 screws, two hinges per package, 7 screws provided…latch needed 6 screws, 5 screws proved…)

Cheers! Peter

I vertually duplicated Angela’s dust seperator.

Trying to get the groove around the lip of the top was fun. The second picture show’s my method. I don’t know how others would have done it, but it worked very well for me! The frame around the lid is the remains of the original board. So, once clamped in, the lid had no where to go but around. Then it was simply a matter of spacing and viola!

So, last week we had a “SNOWMEGEDON!!!!” (roughly translated to about 8 inches of snow…). But, since I work for the Fed Governemt, I got a week off (way to dangerouse to drive to work!). This afforded me the opportunity to get some shop time in…Whoo-Hoo!

The first project was really an upgrade from my first project I posted here. Actually, I used the top from that, to create the first attempt at this. It didn’t work out too well. I’m afraid to admit that frequently don’t really have “plans” for my projects…I just do them. So, I took the top off that, cut it down to size and removed the excess material from underneath to make it flush. All was going swimingly (where does that term come from, anyway?...never mind) until I reallized I had no way of attaching it to the table saw. Specifically since I was working with 1/2’ ply. OOPS!
So, I started fresh with some leftover 3/4” oak ply I had from my platform bed. Nice. Looks better too. Still, attaching it was something of an issue. Finally I decided to eliminate the idea of attaching the sides, and simply attach a peice of scrap to the back, and then attach that to the top. That worked perfectly. The only detractant from this whole end product was that there is a slight gap between the ts and the router table. I assume that is because the peice I chose wasn’t exactly true. I can (and probably will) correct that without too much difficulty. That took 3 days (about 4 hours each)

Next was the simple laundry room table. My wife threw that idea at me around noon, and by 2 it was done. I’m not real proud of this, other that it proves to her the usefullness of a shop. 2 hours, and zero dolars (all ply from previous work). And she likes it…that’s the point I guess.

Lastly was my zero clearance insert. I’ve been kicking around this needed improvement for some time, but when I was having terrible tearout during the build for the table, I realized it was time. This took me about 6 hours. I used some techniques that I hadn’t before, so there was a steep learning curve. Very happy with that product. I was even reasonably safe in raising the blade through it.
The only problem I had with it, was that I still can’t figure out my auger bits. It doesn’t seem to matter if I use low rpm’s or high, the bit always grips so hard that it tears right through the material. I thought I had it figured out: I bought a brace. This should do it (or so I though). Nope. In fact it was worse. I ended up tearing the top layer of lamanate, not just the underneath. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for reading such a long winded post. Cheers!

So, this is my first project that I would classify as woodworking. I have done several other projects, mostly shop improvements and jigs. I have also done a simple platform bed based on PurpLev’s project. That came out nice, but the way I did it, I couldn’t really call it woodworking. More like wood cutting.

This project was inspired by Dan’s project. I really liked his, but had to make it my own. The feet and the supporting arms splay to reflect each other (see picture 2). The feet splay is provides sufficient stability, however if I were to do it again, I would exaggerate the angle even more. I used poplar, which was ok. I was concerned about its strength, but I have found it to be sufficient.

The best part about this was that I got to learn some new skills. This was the first time I ever chamfered an edge (as shown in picture 3) and discovered that the corners don’t have to match exactly, but can be fine-tuned with sanding. I also worked with tenons, both stub (picture 4) and through (picture 5). As well as angled joints (picture 6). These skills I need work on. That’s ok. I have a life time to do that.

I finished the project with Watco Danish Oil. I expected to paint the project, going against my preferences, but fortunately my son wanted a natural look. Knowing that poplar doesn’t take stain very well I went with oil. This really made the grain pop. Very pleased with that.

Thanks for looking

I saw this concept in a magazine, except they used a full box fan. Having limited head clearance in my shop (garage) I decided to go with the window fan and smaller filters.

I work with MDF a bit, and really wanted to get that out of the air, so I wouldn’t have to wear the mask quite so long. Seems to do the trick.

Ok, I wasn’t going to post this, but since I haven’t posted anything in so long I decided to. This was a fun project that will see a fair share of use, so it’s a win-win. My wife has wanted one of these for a LONG time and I finally got around to doing it.

The 3 bars are used to add tension to the top, batting, and the backing while you quilt the three together.

I blogged it here but I suppose I should add it as a project, as I put in some good amount of time and effort (and even a little blood).

Thanks for looking. Cheers!

This was a quick project that simply satisfied a need. It was simply a matter of ripping a 4×2, notching them, adding some paint, and then screwing the shelves on. But, she likes it. That’s what counts, eh?

I posted my router table HERE, and had left out some of the finer details.

The top is attached via a piano hinge. That was what drew me to this plan. Also, it came from a single sheet of 1/2” birch plywood. The plans have a base, which I will add soon, but really needed this table so I started with just it.

The two modifications I made to the plans were: 1) added a block with a whole on the base of the top to secure the support arm when open. I felt that when the top is up, if I pushed on it the arm could drop and then I’d be in trouble. 2) I added a small lip to the back two corner blocks. One will be used to hold the pin used to secure the arm in the up position. The other was simply because I did the first.

These can be seen in the photo.

I enjoyed this project, and learned a lot. I wasn’t as crisp on the joints as I would have liked, and had to do a lot of sanding to get my drawer to fit. In the future, I woun’t try to cut to the finished size, but reduce down to fit.

I also learned that no mater how good the plans, they aren’t perfect. For instance, I cut the slots for the fence dead on accurate. However, when I went to attach, they didn’t line up, so I had to enlarge one side. In the end it didn’t make any difference, the fence works wonderfully.

Done. Finally. The project was a “weekender”, which took me 3 weeks. But, as we all know, it’s the journey not the destination.

During construction I was able to use all my tools, which is part of the reason for doing this. It enabled me to get familiar with them while creating a project of function, vice display. So here it is.