In August of 2008, just before I started my new job, I took a weekend veneer class with Bill Hull at the Marc Adams School of woodworking. The course focused on veneering techniques by applying them to this little jewelry box. We used veneer bags so while I learned that veneering is tricky the bags make it a lot easier. The class was great and Bill is a great instructor and super nice person. Even in the hectic weekend class he still had time to field each question.

I finally got around to putting a finish on it and attaching the lid this past weekend. I was going to shellac it and try a french polish but I found this really nice wax that has a lavender scent and just couldn’t resist. I have also never used wax and since this was a little box I thought it would be easier. It took about an hour and a half to apply the finish and buff it out. I used a heat gun to melt the wax into the wood. That worked really well for getting it in the corners too. I am pretty pleased with how the finish worked out so now I will see how well it stands up to use.

The only noticeable flaw is in the top. I had the piece of veneer sitting under one of the veneer covers that we were using and one of the helpers grabbed and ripped the piece of veneer. I could have gotten a new piece but since it was learning situation I tried to use veneer tape and pull up the rip. Well that worked initially but as the glue dried the crack opened up and that is how it stayed. I tried to fill it with some sawdust and epoxy but that did not work either. I know what to do next time though.

For the photos I decided to try Blake’s technique of using a piece of dark velvet for the photo background. Thanks, Blake. I look all professional now.

I was finally able to get some time in the shop so I cranked out some Christmas gifts which I finished on the Tuesday before Christmas. Normally I’m guilty of last minute buying and this time I was guilty of last minute making. Anyway, I hit the scrap bin for these items and tried something new. The cutting boards are made from cherry, birch, and walnut. The spatula is made from ash, the spoon from pine, the whistles are from cherry, and the toaster tongs are from walnut and ash. Of all of the items the hardest to make was the spatula. The whistles were probably the easiest. The kids loved their whistles and the adults loved there woodenware items so it was very merry Christmas. I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy new year’s eve. Here is to more time in the shop in 2009.

I have finally completed my toolbox with the addition of the tool tills. The two tills that are simply boxes were really straight forward even though I did manage to layout and cut the tails on the first one I made on the ends instead of the sides.
The saw till on the other hand took a little more working through. I managed to layout and cut the dovetails relatively quickly but then came the challenge of trying to figure out the most efficient method for fitting the ends to the ledger. I ended up using my table saw with my cross-cut sled and getting really close to the fit then bringing it home with my rabbet block plane. This is the first time I had worked with thin material and after resawing some of the wood bowed. This made hand planeing and putting the pieces together a little more challenging. Also the saw box does not rest flat against the sides of the case because the top of it bows out slightly. A minor detail since it is my tool box and it holds tools really well but if someone was paying me for it I would have gotten another board. Another thing that I did was under cut the dovetails on the saw box. I didn’t think about the fact that I would be removing material from the ends and how that might cause a gap to appear. Well that is exactly what happened and in a couple of spots there are gaps between the tail and the seat of the pin. If you look close at the second picture you can see what I am talking about in the second tail from the top on the right. Woodworking is a constant learning experience isn’t it.
For a finish I decided to try my hand at spraying shellac. My shop is not really a good place to spray a finish as the furnace is in there and the fumes end up all throughout the house. For my first time at spraying shellac it went ok, but I can see that I have a lot of practicing to do at spraying a finish. The spray gun I use is the Wagner Fine Spray that sells for about $100. I am pleased with how well it works, I just need to use it more often.
Well that’s it for now. Enjoy.

Ok so here’s one from the archives. This is my first and so far my only tool cabinet. It is still in use today and until I decide that I have enough time to warrant building another one this will probably be my last tool cabinet. I also now keep most of my hand tools on the wall behind my bench so that I don’t have to keep opening and closing the doors every time I want something. With this system I can see when something is missing and put it back right away. Anyway, I built the cabinet after getting a copy of the Toolbox book by Jim Tolpin from our local library. Since I was a beginner I chose to use pine and birch plywood as the bulk of the cabinet and use a little of the air-dried cherry and air-dried walnut that I had received from a buddy. He was not into woodworking but had a farm with some stickered wood located under an old shed at the edge of his woods. He estimated it at being about 20 years old.
Since this was my first big piece I decided to make it in a shaker style with the simple frame and panel doors and the graduated drawers. The doors are cherry frames with 1/4” birch ply panels, and the drawers are walnut with pine backs and 1/4” birch ply bottoms. I used a half-lap joing that I cut on the table saw to join the door frames and the drawers are hand cut dovetails. The pulls are generic hardware store pulls that were stained to somewhat resemble the walnut. The plane shelf is fixed and angled about 15 degrees. The three other shelves are adjustable. It is ultimately more utilitarian than stylish but I had a blast building it because I love woodworking. This picture was taken in 2001 but I built the cabinet in 1998/99. I just didn’t have a digital camera until after I got married (wedding gift).

A friend of my requested a wine rack for his 30th birthday so this is what I came up with. I did a little research before building – I mean very little research – by measuring a couple of different wine bottles but I did not lay it all out very well. So while it does work there are some minor issues of how the wine bottles lay in the comparments along the bottom. I have not built one since then, and if I do, it will only be to improve on the design and give it to him anyway as he wanted a one of a kind piece.
I used oak that I acquired from a restaurant remodel that I did where we took out a few tables that were about 30” by 40” by 1 3/4”. The wood pieces are joined together using mortise and tenon with the top rails being joined using through mortise and tenons.To keep the two frames together I epoxied 1/2” copper pipes between them and then for the wine bottle supports I used 3/8”o.d. soft copper pipe with copper caps epoxied to the ends.
I can’t remember the dimensions but it holds 9 bottles of wine. I’m not real proud of how it turned out but it was a fun project to design and figure out how to make the connections.

This is the slicing guage by Steve Latta from an article in Fine Woodworking. I can’t remember which issue but if I find it I will update this post with that information. If it looks like the negative got flipped over in printing, it did not. I am “wrong”-handed and therefore I built mine in reverse. I had some scrap cherry laying around from the toolbox project so I thought I would try my hand at building a tool. The trickiest part about this is getting the brass flush with the wood while keeping everything square. Since this was my first one there were some after-thoughts and I saw a need for some kind of insert along the length of the bar to keep the thumbscrew from digging into the wood. I placed a brass inlay in the bar after the fact so the bar is a little loose after having to sand the brass flush. I have been meaning to build another one but my list is getting longer but I’m not getting any more time. Thanks for looking.

This was my first project for someone. It is a singer stand for the Serbian Orthodox church in Indianapolis and was built in 2001. It is oak veneered plywood and oak solid wood for the drawers and doors. It was built with pretty straight forward construction. Glue, nails and screws. I added some moldings from Rockler to make it a little more interesting. The two frames on the front were supposed to receive carvings of the Serbian cross but I did not make them at the time and I think that it is now no longer an issue. Enjoy.

This is the Heirloom Tool Chest that Chris Gochnour wrote about in Fine Woodworking #169. I took the course on using hand tools at MASW with Chris and this is the project that we built. I was exposed to so much during this course that I can hardly wait until I can attend another week long course. I hope I can attend another one of Chris’s courses because he is an excellent instructor and also a really great guy to be around.
The wood is cherry and it is what I had on hand so that is why the panels have an obvious joint in the center of them. All of the work was done using hand tools except for the milling process. The dovetails were all cut using a carcass saw that I borrowed from Chris for the class and later purchased from him. I use it a lot and it is in need of a good sharpening. The finish on the cabinet is just two coats of Minwax Antique Oil. I love the finish because it is so simple to use and it makes the wood grain really come to life. I should have put on about four coats but I wanted to get it finished so that I could move on to another project. Hope you like it.

Here are four boxes that I made as gifts for Christmas 2007. They are the Gary Rogowski boxes from Fine Woodworking issue #139. I cut the joinery for the two cherry boxes with my Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw and I cut the joinery for the two ash boxes on the tablesaw and band saw. Both methods worked equally well and both were pretty quick. The only time saver using the power tools was that I did not have to clean up any saw marks with my chisel. The cherry boxes are 4.5” x 10.5” and the ash boxes are 4” x 10”. The finish is shellac. It was my first time using shellac and you can tell from the finish. I was a little pressed for time so I was not able to remove the poorly applied finish and redo it. I was not aware that it is not a good idea to brush on a 3 pound cut until after I had done so. I did try to hit it with some 400 grit sandpaper but that only partially helped.
The handles on the ash boxes are made from walnut, and on the cherry boxes are brazillian cherry handles but you can’t tell the difference with that small of an amount of wood. The interior bottoms are lined with two sheets of rice paper that my wife found at an art supply store. The bottom sheet is plain brown rice paper and the top sheet is more transparent rice paper with the silver design printed on it. I was going to use leather but when my wife showed up with the patterned piece I decided on that instead. I will most likely use leather on the next set that I make.
I had a great time making these boxes and I will definitely make them again. The next time though, I will give myself more than two days to get the finish on before giving them away. Hope you all enjoy.