This is a recent overhaul of my office, which included a new corner desk top made from hard maple and cherry. I designed it to both fit in the corner and align with the cabinets and counter tops for the remaining work space. Dimensions are 5’ from the corner and 4 1/2’ across the front. I finished it with 4 coats of BLO and a top coat of epoxy resin as I really like it for a writing surface. The desk is mounted to the wall via nailers attached to the walls as well as a number of legs underneath to support the monitors and stand. So far, I love the amount of real estate as well as the surface, which works great for writing as well as a laser mouse.

Breathing new life into my BT3000. This work station is made from 3/4 ply and maple. I used 2 pieces of 3/4” MDF laminated for the router table top and work bench. I wanted something that was replaceable. The router table was a cheapo Ryobi bench top kit that I had and just reused the top. I recessed that into the MDF slab on the left. The color scheme wasn’t intentional, it was what I had available. Plans came from Wood magazine. The last pic is the before shot, including the stock stand that I’ve had for awhile and and the sliding miter table that I wasn’t at all happy with.

This is my first shot at a smoking pipe and it was not nearly as difficult as I had imagined. Although this is a pretty low brow pipe, I did have a really good time making this. It started out as a block of briar that I ordered from PIMO and I whittled it down to rough shape with a knife and rasp, then final shape with quite a bit of sanding. Once all of that was done, I used alcohol based stain (medium walnut) applied with a pipe cleaner. The final step is buffing it with a flannel buffing disk attached to my drill press. Buffed with carnauba wax and Tripoli buffing compound.

Pretty happy with the results and am ready to take this thing on it’s maiden voyage.

Our baby sitter lives on a farm and has a bunch of beautiful walnut trees, one of which has an old beat up tree swing hanging from it. Years ago, one of those trees bit the dust and her husband cut it up and burned most of the lumber (eek!). He saved a few pieces that he attempted to mill down. She asked if I could cut her a new piece of wood for her tree swing as she is afraid the kids will get splinters. She mentioned that her husband had a bunch of old beat up wood sitting in an outdoor shed and thought I could use some of it for the swing. I’m hoping to talk them out of the rest of the lumber.

Little did I know that she would produce this really pretty piece of 2” thick walnut. It was a little worse for the wear, but finished up nicely. There are before and after pics. Finished with tung oil and poly.

This plan is from “Small Shop The Complete Guide.” I didn’t have any 1/2” plywood scraps on hand so the frame is made from 3/4” ply, hardboard tray base and trimmed out with scrap pine. There is lazy susan hardware on the bottom so it spins to make all of the slots accessible. Seems to work very well and I was able to put it together in one day.

This is a serving tray for my mother-in-law for Mother’s day. She was looking for something that she could set on her stove top to hold 9×13 pans while entertaining. So, I designed this so it would hold 2 9×13 pans side by side. Made of birds eye maple with some cherry accents on the handles. Box joints are a little rough, but will do.

This is a loft bed that I built for one of my 3 kids. Guess what? Now I have two more to build ;). That’s OK. It was a fun project. Went with stairs rather than a ladder because my kids inherited their clumsiness from their mother (he he…). For the desktop, I used an epoxy resin and am thrilled with the results. The picture of the desktop is after drying/curing but prior to assembly when it was still in my shop. Otherwise it is plain old stain and poly on pine.

This is a barn that I built for my 3 year old son for Christmas. He is an absolute animal nut and you would have thought that I just gave him a winning lotto ticket when he saw this under (or next to) the tree. Half of the roof opens up to reveal a loft inside as well as the doors and windows on the front and back being identical.

As it turns out I didn’t make this quite as durable as I should have as the half roof is already back out in my shop to be repaired. I guess that’s what I get for making it from 1/4” plywood rather than hardwood. Oh well… live and learn.

This is one of my first projects and certainly my first project with a through mortise and tenon. Since I’m a computer nerd by trade, my hobbies kind of follow along. This is a monitor stand for my two 24” monitors. The joints are incredibly sloppy compared to the work that I’ve seen around here, but I guess I have to start somewhere. This is made from red oak. I’m pretty limited to the general big box stores in my area. There are a couple of exotic wood suppliers in the area, but they are very expensive, so I’ll be turning to the web to get some better deals.

Let me know what you think and especially if you have tips/tricks for improving my work.

Thanks!