I’m not sure if you can tell but I forgot to take a before picture. And I don’t own Photoshop. But I can sure use MS Paint.

So my dad got a new TV that wouldn’t fit in his entertainment center. We were going to build him a new stand then I got to looking at the old one. It used to have a frosted glass door on the side with a hole for the TV on the right.

We just cut off the top section with a circular saw and then reattached the top. Initially there was plans to also cut down the door and the glass and reattach it but that didn’t happen.

Only took about an hour of work and saved a entertainment center from the roadside.

I was reminded of this by PetVet's funny post today. I suppose there are all kinds of options.

I made this quick gauge to determine what side hole I might need to drill for a particular bolt. As you can see you place the bolt into the device and then you can read on the side the appropriate size bit.
Just a quick and dirty shop helper.

Ok. Got me. It’s not made of wood.

But I thought you might be interested to know where the material for gingerbread houses comes from. This is a water-powered mill that supplies the lumber for others to make gingerbread houses from.

I make a gingerbread something each year and this year it ended up being a mill.

I did resist the temptation to design it on SketchUp first. Just used a posterboard template.

I know the logs maybe look like something the dog would leave in the backyard but I promise you they are gingerbread logs. And the cut lumber is stickered with toothpicks so it can dry properly.

The wheel actually turns also. I just hope that no one eats the nail it is suspended on.

I was going through some old pictures and found this project. For one of my college classes we had to manufacture a product and then improve the manufacturing process.

I made this simple birdhouse and brought it in to get the project approved.

My professor said I needed to do something more complicated to fit the scope of the project. I asked him if he wanted the birdhouse since I didn’t really have a use for it now. He said his wife would not let him have it because he put up a bird house before and she made him take it down. It seems as though the bird house only served to attract birds to “do their business” on the patio.

I took the bird house back home with me but I still didn’t have a use for it.

I decided that I would modify it to make it useful to him. I added another dowel to the side and cut down a roll of toilet paper. I took it in the next day and presented it to him again. He accepted it as a gift but I’m not sure how he was going to train those birds…

This is a project I spent about four months designing. It’s not that it really took that long but I’m currently in Iraq so I don’t have a lot of time to be on the computer or building things. I had never made a chair before so I figured I would try to figure out how I could make one over here. We really only have access to plywood, dimensional lumber, and very limited tools so I had to keep that in mind during the design. It is made out of 1” plywood, 2×4’s, and some scrap cargo straps.

The third picture is the design I did in SketchUp. The only difference between that and the finished product is the weaving on the seat. I wasn’t sure if I would need to do it for support or not. I was also very unsure on how to model the weaving in SketchUp so I just left it off. Any suggestions of an easy way to model the woven seat would be appreciated.

I printed a full-size template out (thanks supply) and used it to transfer the design to the plywood. I cut out the profile with a Sawzall and an old jigsaw that was pretty upset about cutting 1” plywood. The fifth picture is right before I cut out the inside profile. The last picture is the wood frame finished up. It was a pretty simple project in that I only needed was to identical plywood sides, and six 2×4’s of the same length.

The first two pictures are of course of the finished chair. I call it the Iraq’n chair because it’s not really a rocking chair and obviously my location. I put an angle on the back so I can lean back comfortably and it will be steady. Same thing for the angle on the front of the chair for when you really need to lean into your work.

I’ve already got some requests for more chairs from the other guys but I’m a little short on time and materials. Strangely my platoon sergeant wants me to go on patrols and only build things in my free time.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

I described this project in a blog that starts here.

The synopsis is I wanted to make something for my niece but I didn’t just want to do a rocking horse. I looked at a lot of designs for rocking horses, push-cars, toys, etc. and ended up designing this.

There is a push-horse part with rolling wheels that turn on a lazy susan bearing. There is also a rocking base you can set the first part into to make it a rocking horse.

Note: These pictures are with one coat of Waterlox on the body and only stain on the head due to time constraints.

As always, comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome.

This is a bench that I made for our dog. It gives him a place to sleep and also allows him to look out the window. My wife is making a proper pad for the top of it.

It is made of solid oak for the frame and oak plywood for the rest. I used the Kreg jig exclusively for joinery and loved it.

The finish is two coats of Minwax gel stain with a brush-on lacquer from Minwax. I really liked working with the gel stain. I had a hard time getting the lacquer to lay down smooth but it was also my first time using it.

Check out more about this project on my blog.

I made this bed last year as a favor for family. They didn’t want to spend a lot of money so I just used plain dimentional lumber from the BORG and painted it white.

The ends are 2×4’s with screwed butt joints. The top and bottom rails have dados to accept the 1×3’s. There is a 1×4 on the top.

I used the bed frame brackets from Rockler to attach the side beams. I was really pleased with them and they went on easy. I put hardwood dowels across where the screws went in for the side beams for extra support.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

I made this frame for a good friend of mine who let me borrow a tool and I forgot for a while to give it back. I really just like to have an excuse to make things and this was a good one.

The frame is maple with the bubinga accents. I was inspired by this frame that Andy made.

The finish is four coats of a gel satin poly that I wiped on and lightly buffed in between coats with 000 steel wool. It came out to a very smooth finish.

The picture is a print from a local artist with many buildings in my town. There was a newspaper article about him so I put plexiglass on the back of the frame so the article would be visible. I also did this in another one of my frames for the same picture.

This was also one of my first projects planned partly on SketchUp which I talked about in this thread.

As always, comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

This started as a dresser that I saw for free on Craigslist this summer. I had been looking for something to house all of my electronic equipment and keep it organized. Ever since I got married it’s no longer cool to have as many wires and blinking lights showing as possible. So I went to pick it up and he was as happy to get it out of his second floor bedroom as I was to get it. I did some research online and it appears to be a mass-produced dresser from the 30’s or 40’s.

I started with the “woodworking.” I took the three drawers on each side and converted them to shelves with a single door made of the previous drawer fronts. Finding and placing the hinges was tricky because I wanted to make sure the doors still looked like drawers. The top-middle drawer is also no longer a drawer, but instead opens down. The other two drawers are still drawers. I installed 1/4” hardboard over the dust frames for support.

Then I stripped the whole thing which took a lot longer than I thought. I stained the light parts with a stain and then finished the whole thing with tung oil.

This is when the real work started that admittedly doesn’t have much to do with this site. Here is a list of what I was trying to stuff inside and on top of this thing: Cable Amplifier, Cable Modem, Vonage Phone Adapter, Wireless Router (non-woodworking type), Computer TV Tuner, Computer, DVD Burner, Media Card Reader, Scanner, Keyboard, Mouse, Amplifier, Printer, Battery Back-up, Charging Station, Phone, Television, and DVD Storage.

Here is an in progress picture:

Clearly it was a trick to fit all that stuff but I just took my time and made sure the wires were neat. I put some picture of the insides below.

Like I said, it’s not strictly a woodworking project but I appreciate comments and suggestions.

I made this frame from some scrap flooring I had around from a house project. I was actually just trying to test the setup of my miter saw but then it looked pretty nice so I made a frame. I didn’t want to strip the finish off and redo since it was pre-finished floor. I just cut off the tonuge and groove sides and then routed a recess for the picture and a detail on the outside. I painted the cut edges with flat black paint which is kind of a neat contrast to the high gloss top.
For the back I used a clear piece of plexiglass so the newspaper article would be visible. This print is a collage of my city that was done by a local artist who was highlighted in the paper.

I made this table around a piece of glass I had sitting around for a few years. There is a chip on the edge so I knew I needed to encase the edges. The glass is sandwiched between two pieces of plywood for the top.
I would like to redo it in a nicer grade of plywood but this is what I could afford at the time. I designed it so the two parts fold flat for ease of moving and storage.

These were the first picture frames I have made and my first project working with nice wood. I have made other things before but only with pine, etc. They are maple and walnut. I expected it would just be a simple matter of gluing up the pieces, cutting the miters, and assembling it. As you know, it was slightly more complicated. The finish is a clear satin gel urethane.
The pictures are of dogs that we have fostered in the past and these were gifts for my wife for Christmas.