I made this table for my daughter and new grandson. It is made from a cherry tree I had to cut down in the back yard a couple of years ago. Beautiful lumber, I wish the tree had been larger; I got about 60 bd ft from it. Anyhow, nothing too fancy here, I used mortise and tenon joinery on the legs and aprons, rabbet and dado joints on the drawer, and I attached the top to the top two drawer guides with screws, using over sized shank holes to allow for wood movement. The table is 24”X14’X18” and I finished it with 8 coats of wipe on poly.

I made this table for my wife, it is made from Red Oak, Poplar drawer sides, and Red Mahogany inlay. First time I have done any inlay work and I must say, I am very pleased with the way it came out and wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I thought about using walnut for the inlay, but the mahogany definitely is a better match with the red oak. I finished with 8 coats of thinned Tung Oil and still have a coat of wax to put on when the oil fully cures. The boxes in the last photo are not mine, these were made by my Uncle who is now 92 years young and had just recently gave up his wood working. The boxes he has made are cherished in our family and I am glad to have a few of them, he did exceptional work.

I made this Country Table for my brother and sister-in-law. Red Oak table top, the apron is popular (which I got at the same price as select pine, because the yard was out of pine), and the legs I turned from 4X4 Douglas Fir. First time I turned any thing of this size and I copied the legs on there kitchen chairs. Lots of practice and patience (which ran a little short at times and had to walk away), but I certainly learned a lot. Painted with a gloss enamel and the top I filled the grain with diluted poly and sanded while wet, I then applied 8 coats of wipe on poly which I made by adding 50% mineral spirits and a coat of furniture wax. This is the first time I have used wipe on poly and I really liked the way it goes on, so easy to work with and very little sanding in between coats and I am happy with the results.

I bought this Craftsman scroll saw at an auction today for $45. The table was quite rusty and the blade guard is missing, other than that this saw was in very good condition. A little elbow grease, WD40, steel wool, a wire brush, and some wax has the table looking pretty good. This saw makes a great addition to my shop and I am looking forward to using it. Get the parts for the blade guard and some blades and I’ll be ready to go.

Built this for my brother and sister-in-law. They graciously hired me to make them a solid oak book case while I am unemployed. Every project is a learning experience and I had fun with this one, although gluing up that many boards for the panels sure got tedious, but it turned out real nice. Made from rough sawn Red Oak and the drawer sides are aspen, so quite a bit of milling involved. I think I hauled out 5 bags of saw dust from the DC.

A couple of display cases for my wife. Red oak (rough sawn lumber that I found in an add and I ended up paying roughly $.50 a board foot) with tung oil finish. I used my new Porter-Cable biscuit jointer and this is the first time I have used biscuits when gluing boards together, the joints were flush and no major scraping or sanding to level things out, that was great. My skills must be improving, when I glued up and clamped the carcasses they both were dead on square and all measurements were equal top to bottom and side to side and equal between the two of them. Now, the inset doors were a different story, I used non-mortise hinges and my reveal did not come out even all the way around. The doors are square, but I had to take a little off one side to help out the reveal. I bought the hinges at Menards and the screw heads were to big and did not lay flush in the countersink. I ended up enlarging the countersink holes. In the end I managed to make everything work.

My son wanted me to build him a table for his new chess set, so after some thought, with the chess set being a bit fancy I decided on cabriole legs which I had not yet attempted and something I wanted to try. They are challenging, time consuming, taking lots of patience, and I loved every minute. Used white ash, Early American stain, and a Tung oil finish. This is the first time I have used Tung oil on a project and I really like the finish, easy to apply and gives off a nice hue to the stain.

My latest project, made for my youngest son. I put this together with White Ash and Walnut, with a polyacrylic finish. Rather than just something to hold his guitars, I wanted something that would display them. It came out better than I thought it would. Thought I would have to put some kind of support behind each section, but it turned out quite sturdy. I did glue support blocks behind the miter joints for extra support just to be sure my splined miter joints hold up.

This was my first major project and it took me about 3 months to complete as my spare time is usually on the weekends. I started with rough sawn Red Oak, so all material had to be milled. This certainly reduced the price of the lumber and the first time I used my new 13” Ridgid planer (In my book, a fantastic machine). I had ideas from pictures and tried to keep the disign simple as I had not worked on a project this extensive before. It took time and patience (boy, this can be difficult), but I got through it and I am proud of what I ended up with. I used some techniques I have never used before, learned a lot, and had alot of fun.