The work left on this piece was not big, but very finicky and detailed, which is likely why I kept finding it hard to get traction.
I made the three drawers for the bottom section before moving onto the more intricate boxes that sit on the cabinet.

I made the two small boxes (about 3.5” by 4” by 2” inches) from resawn and then thicknessed 1/4” bubinga, with spalted maple lids and face. The joinery for the box is 1/8” and was made using an 1/8” router bit.
Lots of little pieces were carefully lowered onto the router bit and carefully lifted off at the end of the cut.

This is shot of the pieces for one box, you can see most of the joinery here as well as the dovetail recess for the matching “handle” extending from the lift lid (maple).
The lift lid has 1/8” brass rods epoxied into it that will serve as hinges.

This show is of one of the boxes being dry fit. The bottom section is for a small drawer (the opening is 1 and 1/4 inches).

Leaving the back of the box open as it will be tight against the larger panels on the main section.

A shot of the lid lifted, to show the small ledge the lid rests on when closed.

Partially assembled (dry), you can really see the joinery here.

The drawers are very simple and small. Handles of bubinga matching the handles from the 3 larger drawers.

Gluing up the little drawers was actually a bit of a pain, my clamps all being too large for boxes this small.

The last addition to the cabinet before finishing was the small earring holder sections added just above the boxes. There is a slotted bar for hook style earrings and a ring bar for studs.

Here it is, finally finished, with a simple oil/varnish blend, wet sanded at 600.

For more pictures of the completed piece, here’s the project page.

Thanks for reading…

At least the main piece is now finished, just need to attach the the boxes and add the drawers.
The glue up had to be done in stages, there are something like 20 different pieces (28 if you count the hooks) that make up this assembly. Two clamps popped off and knocked two more clamps off, bottom line was some damage to the piece, thankfully they were all dents that could be steamed out and then sanded.

Some people have been surprised by its actual size, so here’s a picture of it with some jewelry.

You can see the curved rails and top, the hooks are bubinga, roughed out with power tools then carved and sanded to final shape.

Hooks and mirror frame.

Hooks up close. They are mortised into the 1/4” back panel.

The back of the piece, still needs cleaning up. You can see the ends of the “necklace hook” through tenons as well as the mirror frame. I’ve used a piece of 1/8 hardboard lined with some foam to hold the mirror in place. This is all held in place with a couple simple strips that have been screwed to the frame. The back panels are glued on the outside edge and the first inch or so of the top and bottom, the interior edges are floating in the 1/4” groove of the two vertical mirror frame pieces, this should be enough to allow for wood movement.

I’ve added a very gentle curve to the outside of the top piece as well as the two side pieces.

For the bottom, I shortened the feet to 3/4” and shortened the lower drawer section 2 1/2” tall

I’ve used sliding dovetails for all of the joinery for the main section. They will provide me peace of mind if the piece is hung on the wall. First time with sliding dovetails for me, wow, are they ever touchy…the seem to go from too tight to sloppy if you just breathe on them to hard. In the end, I’m mostly happy with the joints. Honestly, if they were any tighter, I’d be worried about getting them together once the glue was applied and everything started to swell a bit.

The dry fit.

I really like this small piece of maple, the drawer fronts and the lids and drawers of the two boxes will be made using maple with this amount and type of spalting.

All the pieces for the main body laid out.

Some close ups of the pieces, there was a lot of table saw, router and hand tool work to get all the joinery cut for these.

The joinery is a bit sloppy…but I can live with it.

Next up, cut the curves into the top and sides, chamfer all edges and glue it up.

I’ve still got the 3 drawers and the 2 box and earing holders to go, but at least it’s far enough along that I was able to show it to my wife…and only 6 days after her birthday…of course it will likely be another 4 weeks before it’s actually ready. ;).

Thanks for looking!

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input.

This is for my wife’s birthday, so to any of you that know her, no talking about this. ;).

This is the initial design, meant to hang on the wall, the entire thing is about 20”x20”. The black area is where earrings or rings would go. The middle space is a small mirror (about 6×7). Walnut pegs along the top for necklaces.
As the sketch shows, I’m thinking of using bubinga as the primary wood, spalted maple for the secondary and walnut for small accents.

This next picture also shows the lift lid on the right and the drawer open.

From the side

This next one is with some of the “sticky out” bits removed, this one could also hang on a wall or sit on a dresser.

This next one is meant to sit on a surface, not hanging on the wall.

And lastly, this one I’ve extended the depth of all sides to full width, a bit more of a shadow box feel.

I spent a day and a few evenings insulating the ceilings and walls. I used Roxul’s Safe ‘n Sound, double layer on the ceiling and double layer on any 6” walls. Even though it’s not fiberglass, it’s still disgusting. I wore a good dust mask, eye protection, gloves and a disposable full painters suit. My ceiling joists in half the room were 12” on center so I had to cut the insulation in half. The air was thick with little bits of insulation for hours at a time and because it’s summer and because of all the gear I was wearing, it was hot, sweaty work. I didn’t like this job, can you tell? Just kept focusing on the shop. Short term annoyance, long term reward.

Ceiling and one of the walls

All the equipment and tools crammed into one half of the shop, so that I can hang the ceiling gyproc.

At some point, someone ran hot and cold water into this corner of the basement, but there’s no drain…strange

More South side walls that needed insulating, ready for drywall.

Bathroom wall needed it too, I took this opportunity to remove the disgusting carpet from the bathroom

Once the insulation was up, it was time to hang the drywall. I just used 1/2 standard stuff, ten footers. Without anyone helping me, renting the lift was a no-brainer decision. $34 from HD for 24 hours…worth every single penny.

Some of the strategically located 10 footers…I’m still giddy that my shop is big enough to load 10 foot anything into it

The back saver, even if I’d had help, hanging drywall on a ceiling is no fun…this little device let me do it solo and it cost a tiny $34 for 24 hours

I mean really, how cool is that…I just measure, cut, crank the wheel and then screw it to the joists

Half the ceiling done, had to move all the shop stuff over to this side so that I can work on the other. I think that took as much time as hanging the drywall.

The lift, ready to be loaded for the second half of the room.

All done…I hope one layer is enough of a sound barrier

That “should” be the worst of the ugly work. From here on out it’s benches, shelves, lighting, cabinets, electrical…relatively clean stuff, and certainly more enjoyable for me. I’ve been checking the used goods websites for a prehung solid core door 32”...nothing quite right in the last few weeks…I may end up making one, give me an excuse to make a solid fir frame and panel door right?

Thanks for reading…

The wood pile is getting sorted, time to get the rack set up

Much better now that it’s just wood shop tools

Even from this angle, clutter, but manageable

Wood rack’s up, now I really have space to move things around

The “Dry Fit”
I’ve already done a pretty comprehensive sketchup model (first blog in this series), but now that we’ve moved in it’s time to see how the space feels with the tools in place (roughly). So I finished assembling the machines, and wherever possible I set up the different stations. In some cases using sawhorses in place of the eventual built in benches (just to get things to the right height). In other cases, equipment just sat on the floor.

All in all, it did give me a very good sense of the feel of the space. One thing I discovered was that I was not going to be able to have my table saw and my jointer run beside each other (like Jim Tolpin’s setup). I just didn’t have enough room to do that comfortably. So the jointer will go up against South wall, and the sheet goods will move to the West wall.

This exercise also helped me realise where I need to put my air exchanger. Originally I had planned to put it above the table saw. After reading some books on setting up a shop (Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s is a very good book and full of ideas for your shop) I learned that it is probably better to have the air filter along a wall, to create a circular flow of air to carry the fine lingering dust into the filter. I didn’t think I’d have the ceiling space to do this. Turns out after the test set up, that there was a space along the North wall that was out of the way enough. So when I set up for real, that’s where the air filter will go.

Full Stop…surprise!
At this point I’m thinking that I’m just hours away from setting up the shop for real…add a couple built-ins, and start making some sawdust.
Then…my first surprise, there’s no insulation between the basement and the floor above.
A quick test confirms my fear, the noise in the living room above the shop is deafening. I’m going to need to pull down the current ceiling and add very good insulation.
This wasn’t planned for, nor was it in the budget. After a couple days of pondering I realise that even if it meant dipping into savings or RRSPs, my shop has to be made usable.

Then another surprise, the carpet in this space was going to have to come out. It’s almost an indoor/outdoor carpet so I was going to leave it, but it turns out to be rotting from some previous water problems and there’s mildew, as well, it has definitely been home to some pet accidents from the previous tenants.

I really wish I’d known about these things before we moved in…this space was empty for 3 weeks, that would have been the perfect time to do it…now with all my equipment in there? Well, let’s just say I’ve “moved” my shop about 6 or 7 times this last month.

First job, rip up the carpet and underlay. Next I pulled down the ceiling tiles, and the 1×2s that were serving as strapping for the tiles.
Here’s a couple shots of the space with my tools roughly laid out and the ceiling ready for insulating.

The drum sander will serve as outfeed support for the table saw.

During the ceiling tile removal I uncovered another little surprise.

I do some more reading about soundproofing (or at least lowering the amount of sound transfer), and I learn that obviously just doing the ceiling above my tools isn’t enough if I’ve got uninsulated walls that lead to rooms with uninsulated ceilings…sound will travel (quite effectively) along this path and eventually end up in the upstairs of the house.
Essentially, the solution is to create an enclosed space that is as insulated as I can make it. This means two sections of the South wall will have to be ripped down and insulated. As well I’ll have to install a solid core door in the entrance. When this is all done, if the sound transfer is still to high, I’m going to try another layer of drywall along with this material called “green glue”. That’s the best I can realistically do, I’m not going to create a series of floating interior walls, this will just have to be enough.

That’s it for now…next up, insulating and hanging drywall.
thanks for reading…

Here’s the space before we moved in.

Walking in the door

Looking to the right

All the way in, by the window, looking at the exit.

Then the move happened…by the time the movers got to moving my shop equipment and collection of wood, they had lost a lot of their finesse. They just dumped everything in the shop. **Warning, the following few pictures are disturbing (at least they were to me…seriously, I felt a little sick seeing the contents of my once sacred man-cave littering the floor like so much trash)

Workbench top, drill press stand and other assorted shop bits

Table saw body, jointer base, chop saw, etc…

Pile of lumber, lathe, the top of my jointer just lying on the ground…the horror!

That’s it for now.
Next, it’s time to make sense of this chaos.
...thanks for reading

So I’ve spent a few hours in sketchup, working on the layout. I was able to find existing models for most of my tools, as well, there is the recent workbench from pop woodworking (there’s my first project in the new shop) and a nice tool cabinet.

What do you guys think of the use of space? The tablesaw, jointer, planer(in the green swivel top cart/outfeed table), bandsaw and drill press will all be on wheels (as they are now in my crawlspace). But I want to move them as little as possible. The shopvac under the miter saw table will be hooked up for dust control to blast gates at most major machines.
Have I overlooked anything?
You think things should be laid out differently?
I really appreciate any and all feedback.
And no, I don’t actually have that many Bessey clamps…but maybe if I build it they will come :).

here’s a link to the sketchup file if you want to download it and check it out in full 3D goodness. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=64a4b69fb2055e0034e052ab3a0e8988

Oh, and if any of you sketchup gurus can tell me how to get the file size of this model to be smaller, that would be great. I’ve removed all image “materials” from the model and used components instead of groups in most cases where an item is used repeatedly, and I’ve purged all unused layers and components but I’m still stuck with a 7 MB file.

From New Shop Layout

thanks for any advice, take care.