Not a lot of back story on this. I recently made a small shelf for the kitchen and needed some organizational boxes for them. Wanting to keep then light and simple I went with a slotted design. The ends are held on with dominos, cuz I just bought a used one and the slots are nailed.

Woods are recycled white pine for the bottom and ends. The side slots used red oak scraps. I’m still working out the right size, this one is 10×16. I’ll live with it for a few weeks and see how it works out.

cheers

Joe

Not a lot of to say about the project. It’s simple construction using a recently new to me festool domino. The wood used however does have some interest. It’s 1st generation old growth yellow Heartpine I bought last year on a whim. It’s from a demolished carriage builder factory in Philadelphia. I could write a book about the put falls of buying rough cut and vintage woods but I’ll save that for another time. I will say for pine, which I’m not the biggest fan of, this old growth wood is hard not to love. It’s also impressive to think 100+ years after it was first cut and dried the sap still smells. All that was needed was to cut into it was a hand and the smell fills the room. It’s also nice to work with someone that’s not hard on the lungs like walnut and other oil woods.

Most of what I took is 4-quarter floorboards and was de-nailed by the previous owner. A job I can even imaging as the few “hand made nails” I found were a PITA to get out.

I have a galley style kitchen that by it’s nature is tight for space and been needing a small shelf to utilize space better. It’s not a highly visible area so I figured it would be a good use for the pine. I started but checking for nailed and running the boards through planer, then glued up. Although many of the boards were 6” or 7” wide they are tong and groove and chips and splintered at the edges.

As stated early the construction is domino, I’ve come to like using a simple story stick and set out where the joints will be and it also save time not having to measure repetitive similar distances. I also wanted to add a little rustic effect as most of the wood has nail holes. I used BT&C Cut Box Nails that darkened the heads with metal blackener that I use quite a bit on backsaws. I was happy with the effect but aesthetically I’m not sure I got the feel I was after. Time will tell.

Pic of one of the nails. Although dealing and using this wood has it’s troubles. The history behind this old wood is very cool. The small factory, built pre-electricity was just off 4th and south street in Philly and about 10 min walk from old city and independence hall. It’s hard not to wonder about the person who made it, and walk over the floor it was driven into.

food for thought.

Joe

So a married friend of mine said “you gota get your self a 2 legged does all” and I explained that’s funny I’ve got one on the bench right now!

I built this with some free and VERY twisted cheery. It’s good looking old growth stuff that’s was sitting in a barn for way to many years. I tend to use it for stuff around my shop and house as most of the time once the twist is out I’m left with less the 3/4 in boards.

The idea behind this is I do a fair bit of saw sharpening these days and often it’s a home. Once done I need something to test cut on. Not having a very big apt it also needs to would double time as end table. The over all size is about 24” tall by 12” wide 24” long. Most of the jointing is done by festool. It’s a friends and it worked great.

enjoy.

Joe

I finished this up most of the way a few weeks ago and finally had the chance to put everything together and make sure it fits. Well I’m happy to say it did.

The directions I used were on the web here and I will say he did a great job making it very simple to use and store. I don’t do a lot of power tool projects and borrowed a friends router. Amazing tool that thing is! ;-0

Although it’s mostly made of class B cabinet plywood the pig tail rail is made from some salvage 300+ year old yellow pine I got in Phily. The lap joints are also cut by hand. Everything is screwed together with inserts and 1/8 hex head bolts. As they say some assembly required but when all done it will store flat.

The final size was 46X46X18. They will use a piece of linoleum flooring and blankets for the floor.

cheers

Joe

The pictures were taken in my shop that I currently due to work don’t like that close to and I built to use in my apt to practice dovetail joints and other small jobs like fixing saw handles and such. The metal bolts/hardware is from tools for working wood and I used the basic layout I downloaded from there site as well as something I read in fine woodworking.

The top is made from maple and the supports from cherry, This is second grade stuff I got local rough cut and works great for this type if thing. The cherry was finished first with water dye from W. D. Lockwood. I’m looking to use some on some projects in the future and this was a great test for it. The dye is very interesting to work with and can hardly see the difference between the sap and hardwood. I with with a golden color for the test.

The top has BLO on it and the bottom is finished with dye then shellac mixed from flake.

You can read more about the making of these on my blog. There are lots of ways to make saw benches but I wanted something that would stack easy for tight spaces and double for a seat. I also love the style and look over the A frame types. Although they my not look strong but so far I haven’t had any issues.

The wood used is ambrosia maple.

Cheers

Joe

Like many, been on the list of shop made tools since reading the The Anarchist’s Tool Chest. The construction is straight forward just need to keep checking things for square. ;-) this was also my first time using a dowel plate which worked great. I’ll for sure be using if in the future.

Joe

I made these about 5 years ago before I really go into the finer sides of woodworking but paddle making came up on one of the lists so I’m adding them for those who might want to make a set.

They were made from 1/4 thick ash planed down to 1/6 after joined. I then added Dynel fabric which has a very high abrasion resistance and swells in the resin. After the tips were shaped I put the venerr caps on, signed and put a quote on them, then covered with 2-oz plain weave glassed over everything.

I used a few 1/8 PVC plastic jigs and the router to do a lot of he shaping.

Joe

This weekend I wrapped up a few small projects one of them a 36” straight edge. This was made from scrap. It’s Macacauba. I designed it in illustrator: read, I’m still not up to speed in google sketchup ;-). I printed out the design and taped it to the wood for guide in cutting out.

I’m working at my rasp skills so I filed it by hand then used card scrapers.

Joe

I made these from some left over wood from a try-square I’m making. The wood is Macacauba and quite straight grain. Are lots of ways to go about making them. Mine have holes so I can hang them and I will paint a target on the one if need be. I haven’t had a lot of experience using them so I’m sure design will alter a bit as time goes on.

I guess you could say this is another installment in tills for the space challenged shop. ;-)

I got the idea from a picture I found in a magazine shops, could have been fine woodworking. I had planed to put another shelf below it to hold my card scraper sharping jigs but decided to change the location to a small spot by the door and changed it up. It will hold 9 scrapers or thin things and 4 tools that will fit in the 3/8 holes. One hole is blocked in this location but figured I’d add the 4th hole anyway.

For the picture I used a marking gauge but I’ll most likely use 2 drawboard tools one the top and my burnisher on the bottom. The wood is cheery, I recently bought some old rough cut a local guy found in his bard when cleaning it out. The boards were all cupped good but I’m finding if I split them I can still get 3/4 out of most if it.

The size is a little 13” X 2.5 deep and 6.5 wide at the bottom. The two rails are inset 2.5 inches. The slots are cut at 45 but I think you could get away with 30 if you had the space.

thanks

Joe

I’m sorry for the bad images. I didn’t think to take some before I installed it.

I have a very small shop so I do my best to tuck things into places and make the most of the walls space I have. Recently I’ve learning how to properly use, repair and sharpen saws. I had a few from my grandfather and picked a few more more up locally.

I used the shape of the D-8 as inspiration for the sides and tucked a small shelf into the back for the tools, jointer, files and set. The sides are made from ambrosia maple and the cross pieces are hickory.

Joe

Well I was sick of looking at a tin can on my workbench and had some scraps of read oak with the bark left on. Cutting the miters were tricky do to the rough edge but it all came out nice in the end.

Joe

I’m happy to have thought long enough about sound and noise when converting a small garage into a shop. I built a small lean to 14’ X 9’-ish to hold my air compressor and cyclone dust collector. I got everything installed and it’s working great except I still need to build a return. Not a big deal except the area is so small I really didn’t want to give up the wall space. After lots of of reading and looking I decided on this. Its a 12” X 12” return. For more detail on it check out my blog post. Blog

I’ve been using it for a few days and it’s working good. I think a larger whole would have been nice but for now I’m going to stick with this and see.

Joe

Ok one of the next projects I’m working on is a saw rest or cabinet and during the research I found someone had called there a “saw till” and I liked the use of “till” so this is my screw till.

Nothing to fancy about it the wood is some of the less structurally sound ambrosia maple I have. You’ll see its use in a lot of the shop pieces I’ve made. I got some older rough cut from a local guy looking to clear out old stuff. Works great for this type of thing.

I’m tight for space and very happy with little I used to hold the 8 bins.

Cheers

Joe

This goes along with the first end table I made quite some time ago. due to the small size of my apt I need something small. It’s 20” and 14” round. It’s made from a few different shot cuts I had left over and also found at a local yard.

Please check out my blog or other posts.

cheers

Joe

In my small shop space is hard to come buy so I decided to build something to hold my bench planes. This design was in Finewoodworking number 209 and I like it over some of the other designs I looked at. My wall wouldn’t allow bottom shelf but it was easy enough to subtract it from the plans and I already have a wall shelf below.

This was a made to fit a small bathroom window for a friend. It’s the second time I’ve used my box joint jig and other then a few tear outs I was very happy. I used Ambrosia maple mostly because I got a good deal on 100 bf of rough cut. When I first started working with it. I wasn’t that crazy for it but as I use more it’s starting to grow on me. ;-)

I found these plans in the 2006 fine woodworking. I needed to build the finger joint jig as this was the first time I used them. I also change up the size slightly but other then that it was per the instructions. I’m very happy with the design and final product, works great for me. I used ambrosia maple as I have a good deal of it and birch plywood for the rest.

My shop is elf size so space is an issue and as such I’ve been working on maximizing wall and ceiling space best I can. These ceiling racks are taken from Fine Woodworking 2008 workshop Solutions page 30. I don’t know the issue number off hand but if interested I can find it.

The only mod I made to the plans was to dado the bottom slightly as the newer, Bessey clamps have a plastic tab at the end that would not fit though the slot made by the dado. The newer style clamps request a bit more depth. I also predrilled pocket holes on the bottom edge; thinking I may want to something to the bottom. Although I haven’t really used them much I would say for the longer claps I don’t use much this is great. I’m not sure this would be great if you needed them all the time.