My wife requested a Quilt Rack for our son’s room, and this is the result. In designing this, I considered the following:
1. I wanted it to look nice with Maple shelves I had previously made for his room.
2. It needed to be large enough to accomodate a 51” wide quilt.
3. I wanted it attach firmly to the wall, just in case someone tries to hang from it.
4. I wanted to build and install it quickly.
5. I wanted to use wood I that was already hanging around the shop.

I decided to used 1/2” and 5/8” Maple. Fortunately, I have built a number of projects from Maple in the last few years, and I have a good selection of scraps and extra pieces of Maple. To attach it to the wall, I decided to use a French cleat that spans most of the width of the shelf. For quick construction, I used pocket hole screws and wood glue.

Overall, the shelf is about 54” wide, 6” deep, and 12” tall. The bar that the quilt hangs from slides out so the quilt can be easily taken down. Using a French cleat makes hanging the shelf a breeze. The cleat is screwed to 3 wall studs so the shelf is solidly attached to the wall. In all, it took me about 5 hours to complete this project. My wife was extremely happy with it because I completed it quickly and included a shelf (she only requested a place to hang the quilt). Personally, I think the aesthetic of the piece lacks something, but I am glad my wife likes it.

This simple jig works great for drilling pocket holes. It took me roughly 15 minutes to construct so it is a very economical solution for drilling pocket holes. To use the jig, simply clamp it to the workpiece and drill to the appropriate depth. In my case, I cut it such that the approprate depth is the full length of my 3/8” brad point bit. I found the idea on Fine Woodworking website: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=3302

I build these windchimes as a gift for my wife. The wood is red oak and the chimes are made from copper pipe. I used a heavy duty fishing line to suspend the chimes. They sound great!

This is one variation of the play swords that I make. I haven’t found a kid that doesn’t love these. This one is made from Catalpa with a Maple insert. I usually make these from Catalpa because it is soft and has a beautiful green irredesence. The joinery is fairly simple: two lap joints. The finish is drug store variety mineral oil. The sword is 19 inches long. Thanks for taking a look at my projects!

I finished these shelves up last weekend. These match the set that I made two years ago for my son. He had outgrown the other set and needed a place to keep his books. This set is made from Maple like the others, but these shelves are taller and narrower.

Overall, the shelves are 52” tall, 28” wide, and 10” deep. I based the dimensions on the various sizes of books he currently has, the space available in his room, and the shelf span needed to prevent sagging under the heavy load of books.

I used the Sagulator from the Fine Woodworking website to help make sure the shelves won’t sag under the heavy load of books. The Sagulator is an online calculator for calculating shelf sag. I took 12” stack of his largest books and weighed them (15 lbs.). I knew I would be using 1/2” Maple. Based on these inputs, the calculator helped me in determining the span for the center shelves. I also decided to make the bottom two shelves 1/16” thicker than the other shelves since they can hold taller books. According to the tool, this was not necessary, but it seemed safer. Also, I like the grounded look it gives the piece.

The joinery, the details, and the finish are all the same as the original set. The color and grain is a good match to the original set.

About 2 years ago, I made a set of shelves at my wife’s request. These shelves were for my son (who is now two and a half) to keep toys on. The design called for shelves large enough to hold baskets that would be used to store most of his toys. The idea is to allow for easy access for him to all of his toys and help him learn to keep things in their place. This has been very effective as he now knows where each of his toys belongs and will usually pick his toys up when prompted. I constructed the shelves from 1/2” Maple. The shelves are roughly 36” tall, 45” wide, and 14” deep.

I designed these shelves with a few things in mind:
1. I wanted them to be easy to construct.
2. I wanted to take them down and store them flat.
3. The dimensions needed to accommodate the baskets.
4. I wanted them to be durable and safe for kids.

Based on these requirements, I used a simple set of notches in the shelves and the supports that allow the pieces to fit together snugly enough that they don’t require glue but not so snugly that they can’t be disassembled. I rounded all of the exposed corners on the shelves with a 3/4” radius and the exposed corners on the supports with a 1” radius. I created a bull nose profile on the all exposed edges. This profile is strong, durable, and softens the edge. For this finish, I chose mineral oil because it brings out the beauty of the Maple and is completely non-toxic. Of course, I attached the shelves firmly to wall studs so there is no chance of them tipping over.

These shelves have been used heavily everyday for about 2 years, and they still look great. Every year or so, I add a fresh coat of mineral oil to keep the finish looking good. I recently made a second set of shelves using the same design but with different dimensions.

This project started as a desire to learn how to cut threads into wood. After practicing a bit and constructing a simple jig to hold round stock in my vise for threading, I was able to create a threaded wood rod. From there, I thought it would be fun to turn the threaded rod into a toy (or conversation piece). This project is the result. As you can see, it includes a wooden bolt, nut, and two flat washers.

The head of the bolt and the nut are walnut. The threaded portion is birch. The flat washers were cut from figured Maple. I cut and chamfered the Walnut bolt head and the nut by hand to give it a unique touch. I used drug store variety mineral oil for the finish because it brings out the natural beauty of the wood and is completely non-toxic. The bolt is approximately 4 inches long.

This is a built-in dresser that I built for the master bedroom in our home. I finished this project more than a year ago, but this project is still one of my wife’s favorite things to chide me about. The first step in the project was to cut a hole in the bedroom wall. After that, I built the dresser (off and on in my spare time) over the course of about a year. As you might suspect, my wife appreciates the dresser much more than she appreciated having a gaping hole in the wall.

The dresser is built into a knee wall and is stepped at the back to take full advantage of the space. I made the face frame and the drawer fronts from quartersawn maple with some interesting figure. For the finish, I used a water based dye and Arm R Seal topcoat.

The drawers are inset and ride on maple rails (no metal slides). The drawers at the bottom are longer than the drawers at the top. The bottom drawer is about 22 inches long while the top drawer is about 9 inches long. In addition, there 5 different drawer depths. From the top, the drawer depths are 2 1/2 inches, 3 1/2 inches, 3 1/2 inches, 5 1/2 inches, 6 1/2 inches, 6/12 inches, and 8 inches. The handles are maple and walnut. There are 5 different handle sizes (the deeper drawers have thicker handles).