One-offs #1: The Orator and the Airplane

I finally was able to make it back to the shop to finish up a couple of projects that crept up on me as life diverted me from the garage for a while.

The first is for my Dad’s birthday today, he is a big WWII buff so I thought I’d try to make something a little more complex than what I had done. It was fun and I’m pretty happy with it:

I learned a lot, as always. Like there is a reason the plans called for the cuts in a certain order. I went to fast and ruined one piece of stock. Hat tip to ToyGuy for pointing my attention to circle cutters for the wheels, works much better than a hole saw. I also am still using the blades my low price bench tools came with. Resawing some of this stock made me realize I need to invest is some better ones so I can do a bit finer work.

For the next item, my boss is retiring this week so I made her a “toy.”

She speaks at lots of conferences so I put her at a podium. She has eight different signs she can hold that have familiar and oft repeated phrases by her. She also always has a pair of sunglasses on her head.