I’d been wanting to make one of these since I saw my first here on LJ by rwyoung . I finally found the time and occasion: for my budding artist and daughter this past Christmas.

The sliding “tops” (do they have a proper name?) are new to me, and as such presented all the challenges of anything new. I also took some advice from Boxguy and tried to make the interior as interesting as the outside – at least as interesting as possible in a small box. My brasswork’s not up to MaFe standards, but it’s always fun to practice.

A more difficult project than I expected. Getting small pieces to fit was a challenge, as there was less margin for error. The wood is from the same lot as my project last August, and equally as stubborn. Some old problems resurfaced, like my tendency to cut the scribes too deep. Fortunately my audience is not as critical as I am.

Mahonie Jawa. By Hand.

My favorite posts are always those with moving parts; that, and with a purpose which is tenuous at best; or better still with no purpose at all. Candy machines, particularly in this day ruled by the health police, fall into both categories. I have “favorited” a couple, and remarked on a few more, and thoroughly enjoyed every one I’ve come across. It was just a matter of time before I tried my own hand at one.

One thing I noted of the machines I came across was that none offered a choice in candy. Not that there aren’t such machines out there, just that I hadn’t come across any. So as I sketched ideas, I decided I would make the “first” multi-source candy machine I’d ever seen on LJs.

That resolve produced a problem in that my education in design comes chiefly from old Rube Goldberg illustrations. Thus, my early sketches revealed a “solution” well beyond my capabilities, and in some cases the laws of Newtonian Dynamics. Hand weaving is still practiced throughout Indonesia, and it may be because of this that I settled on a shuttle device. Simple enough for a novice like me to construct, but with a clakity-moving part I find satisfying. It’s also possible that hand weaving had nothing to do with it, but who knows.

As soon as I settled on my design for a “first”, Vipond66 released his model – offering a selection of sweets. Gene’s work is always elegant, and the subject met well with his wonderful sense of whimsy, but I was enough chagrined to send him a pm reference to Tom Lehrer’s “Lobachevsky ”.

The piece is a Christmas gift for my son, now far away in the US attending school. It is receiving good use, in spite of the “leaks”, and I suspect it will continue to do so until the supply of M&Ms it came with runs out. Probably yesterday.

Peanut M&Ms make a very satisfying “plunking” noise when they hit the pachinko dowels.

Made from beberapa jenis kayu

Photography by someone else. Or at least it should have been.

By hand.

For me, one of the most important aspects of Lumberjocks is the feedback I get from other LJs. My family has always been politely supportive, as well as appreciative of the various projects for which they were the beneficiaries, but a “nice job!” from a fellow woodworker will keep me going for months. So it was with surprise and joy that I received from my daughter a 13th birthday request: a small chest of drawers to fit under her desk. I was especially pleased in light of our pre-Christmas discussion last year, as described in my “feathers project.

The chest is easily the most involved project I’ve attempted to date. Both she and I originally planned a fairly simple and entirely functional affair, but like most of my projects: “the tale grew in telling”.

First, the legs of the table are splayed, and I wanted the chest to fit, so working with clean, right angles was out. Not normally a serious problem, I know, but I did wish I had not spent high-school geometry class drawing little flip-movies in the margins of my text books.

When a friend found a piece of Suar that exactly fit the fronts-pieces I was confronted with a second challenge in that I needed the grain to match up, but my measuring skills are still wanting. (I recall the time my son and I reacted with delight to my measuring him at two meters, until moments later it occurred to both of us that he was a head shorter than me, and I’m only 5’11”.)

Whenever I complete a project the errors and the flaws jump out at me like the animatronics on a fun-house ride. This one is no exception; but even so I’m quite pleased with the result, and she’s delighted.

Which leaves me with one, nagging uncertainty: As I mentioned above, she has just hit her teens, and although politely appreciative of past projects, she was very enthusiastic about this one …. Am I being set up?

Made by hand

We just returned from a long journey of short duration to and from the US where we dropped off my eldest at school. This box was a simple “good luck” present; something to hold pencils, pens, thumb drives, and the other detritus of modern life. Hopefully also something to remind him that his old man is proud of him and misses him, and wishes him well on his latest adventure.

Simple box joints, made easier with the new moxon (see hedgehog), and some basic rockwell hardware. The upper half holds its loot in place with the help of a small magnet – which reminds me, I have to tell him to skip the thumb drive part.

The mahogany looks nice, I think. The contrary grain was difficult to work with but left an iridescent sheen that reverses colour in different light. Made by hand.

Been spending the last couple months doing some shop projects that have been on the hit list for a looong time.

The fox knows many small things:

In her blog, The Village Carpenter, LJ Buddy Kari Hultman lauded her 2” square. Since I’d already had great success with her wonderfully minimalist sharpening station, I took a go at making one. Whether its the size, weight, or the fact that I made it myself, it gets a lot more use than the 6” aluminum one I had been using, and my work is looking better.

In making the “Not a blanket chest” i discovered the need for a panel guage. This one’s a little on the heavy side, but with brass marking knife and a pencil holder it does the job.

One of my first projects was a pair of these saw horses. A friend felt they looked a little unsound, so I submitted them to a stress test including several kilos of benkerai, a jack plane and two guinea pigs. Since it was a stress test, the MT joints did eventually fail, but (a) they were my first MTs ever, and (b) only after truly unreasonable treatment. The horses may be light, but they’re sturdy. (No guinea pigs were harmed in the conduct of this test.) This is the third pair I’ve made since then. One set is the legs of my sharpening station/dump table; the second is a stand for my tote. This one is already getting use as storage space, so I may need another pair soon.

The hedgehog knows one big thing.

All the above came in handy for this brute, which looks a bit like Wall-e. It seems everyone else on LJ has one, and I was feeling left out. I couldn’t get my hands on any 1.5” stock for the top, so I ripped 1.5” strips from some 1” benkerai. Benchcrafted provided the hardware.

Everything made by hand.

A while back a friend and former reclaimed wood dealer gave me a small collection of scraps and cut-offs when she sold her business. It seemed only fitting she receive the first product from that collection. It is a simple “Shaker” style lap desk; my third such effort, but my first effort with this sort of material.

The wood being, as you see, rather worn, cleaning and preparing it was a bit like playing “pass the parcel”. I had no idea what was underneath until it was there. Steel brush and plane yielded up some benkerai, from which I made the sides, and a little bit of iron wood which made up the breadboard ends. The top may be teak, weathered and worn, with bit of marine pigment that worked its way inward over the ages.

The construction then, is necessarily eclectic; but that, I think, matches the gift.

Made by hand

Working on a new project from reclaimed wood, and finished ‘thicknessing’ the parts. Thought I’d set it aside a few days to see what happens. I don’t expect much movement, but I’ve seen some wood here do things that were simply shocking.

Meanwhile I thought I’d try a few shop projects I’ve been wanting to get around to. So I got out some plywood, dipped into my cutoff pile, and …

1. Straight edge, scraper holder, adjustable beading scraper.
2. Cutoff bin. Seen a lot of these around LJs and elsewhere. My cut off pile was getting very unruly, and I like to dip into in regularly. This helps a bit. It certainly came in handy this past weekend.
3. Small straight edge from benkerai for checking flatness. We’ll see how straight it stays. In any event it’s easy to true, and in the worst case a study in curves. Suggested by Jim Tolpin’s New Traditional Woodworker
4. Scaper holder. Shamelessly stole the idea from ratchet. His is much nicer. I wasn’t up to the comfortable hand holds, and mine seems a trifle long. Still, should be an improvement from holding bare steel. Suar
5. Adjustable scratch stock. Inspired by Pookwood. I hadn’t seen a lot of adjustable ones of these (just found something similar by senomozi), but couldn’t think of a reason why not. Guess I’ll find out; I hope to put it to use two projects out. Suar and Mahonie Jawa
6. Kajoli. Next to my very first woodworking project ever and future BC Sh** Bunny entry.

Opening Credits: Special thanks to RGTools whose excellent advice and patience got me through a serious case of brain freeze. Anything you approve of in pic 5 is because of him; the mistakes are mine.

This is not a blanket chest, of course, but it was when I started planning on building it almost two years ago. I don’t have a lot of wall space for storage in my shop; because I don’t have a lot of walls. Two sides: glass doors and windows; Two sides: the roof tops of Banjar Pekandelan. The beginner ‘how to” books I started with all had a blanket chest as a good starter project, and I figured that would be a good shop storage project. Except I needed something stackable. And to get at a blanket chest I’d have to move whatever was on top of it. So I came up with this instead.

My “model” was the bottom part of a secretary I picked up in India back in the ‘80’s, minus all the fancy bits, and with completely different dimensions, and a few more bits of brass – an idea I got from some other stuff I saw in India. I figured once I worked out how to do the bottom part I could add layers, or, if not, do the bigger thing all together.

The planks were hand milled from some rather twisted 1 ½ inch planks of teak. Just about when I got the milling done I found Chris Schwartz (occasionally – and not very kindly – referred to in this site as “The” Schwartz)’s blog on Campaign Style, which put a name to what I was working toward. It also changed the joinery plan. The original was a bit like the “feathers” project (op cit), but I went instead with half blind dovetails on the bottom and rabbeted full blinds on the top.

The brass work stopped me cold. I honestly had no idea how to proceed, and could not find anything on the web how to cut a mortise for a brass drawer pull. A mistake meant ruining the board, and milling a fresh one. RGTools came up with some great suggestions and advice which helped me work through the problem, and also got me thinking about advice in general (refer to A1Jim’s post on advice and my recent comment if you care or are curious). In any case, RG, I hope this meets with your approval but if not, any flaws are mine alone.

When the carcass of the chest was done, a hurricane broke out in the Indian ocean and hit Australia. It had quite an effect on our weather here. Did I mention my shop is a little shy of walls? Well for 10 years that space in our house has been as dry as anywhere on an Island just south of the equator can be, but that night the rain came in horizontally. When the box dried it was a tad out of square. Heroic efforts to correct the problem were for naught. The wood wanted to go that way.

Stuff I leaned on this build:

10. They were lying when they said getting it square is more important on bigger projects. It’s WAY more important.
9. A new joint: Rabbetted double blind dove tail.
8. Check for fit often.
7. One way to chop a mortise for a brass drawer pull
6. I like the name Echo and the Bunnymen better than I like their music.
5. The back does more than keep the wind from blowing through.
4. Check for fit often.
3. Do not glue runners whose the grain runs perpendicular to that of the side.
2. Check for fit often.
And the number one thing I learned:
1. “Oh well; it’s only a shop project” is one lame a?s excuse.

Made by hand

This is my effort at the lap desk that was featured in the 9/10 2000 issue of FWW. It is a very late Christmas present for my son, but almost on time for his birthday. The article used a plywood core, but I don’t know how to veneer, so I used Mahonie Jawa. The contrasting drawer front is Suar. Joints on the box are mitred dovetails so it might just survive leaving the tropics when the boy goes off to school next year. Made by hand.

The impossible dream

This is my attempt at the “Feathers” project from Tom Fidgen’s “Made by Hand”. My first attempt at a project from that book. A couple years ago when I first caught the wood bug a friend gave me a green, knotted and warped plank of teak from a tree he had recently harvested. It’s been sitting around, waiting for a use, and I thought part would be perfect for this door. The rest of the case is marbau (I think), the white drawers are suar.

I am very happy with how the half-blinds came out.

The cabinet is a Christmas present for my daughter. You can imagine the conversation:

“What would you like for Christmas?”

“An iPad”.

“How about a lovely bathroom cabinet with a beautiful teak door?”

“An iPad loaded with ‘The Sims’ and ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘facebook’ and …”

“terrific, I’ll start cutting the wood this afternoon.”

By the way, suar, or raintree, can have a fabulous creamy-white color when freshly planed, but yellows when oiled or waxed. I like the finish as it came out, but would love to learn to preserve that milky color, too. any suggestions?

With a small shop space, and a mental block against putting things away, i desperately needed a tote to keep track of things at least while I’m working. Looked at a dozen or more samples here at LJ and stole ideas from all of them (as far as my meagre talents would allow). Here’s the result. The chisle rack and saw till come out and are free standing.Llots of room inside for planes and other toys. Teak, Benkera (stained), Kampur. (weighs a ton). Made by hand.

All she wanted was a counter-top shelf to save space. A simple trestle would have worked fine. But Nooooo, I had to make it complicated and way beyond my neophyte abilities. Then, half-way through, the wet monsoon started, and the jump in humidity played havoc on the joints. As hand-tool projects go, here’s another one. I am more than a little proud of the hand cut half-blind dovetails, only my second attempt; And of the stile-thingies (I think that’s the technical term).

The shelf is Teak. The frames benkerai, the stile-thingies are suar. The finish is a mix of beeswax dissolved to a paste in teak oil.

A place for her to keep all her pens, pencils, brushes and crayons finished works and work in progress. In a few years she’ll probably be wanting a jewellery box. I really like the sliding bolt lock. Hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed making it for her.

Marbau and teak

A newcomer to the wood thing, I spent hours playing with design ideas for this rack for my son and none of them were any good. Then I realized I’d already made two, just on a smaller scale. The design is from a Krenov saw horse, or what Tom Fidgen called “Shop Bents”. I just blew it up a few sizes, and added a small work table. Made from Benkerai.