The Things I Build for My Wife

My wife is in the spirit of Easter and she found these little figurines at a craft store. I am knee deep in Ash shavings one Saturday afternoon working on my Roubo when she comes into the shop and asks me to build a small printer’s box style house to create a display for these bunnies. Oh and by the way, can you get it done today?

Actually this was a nice diversion being a small project and one that would be painted I was able to practice some hand work. First off, I made a full size drawing on some plywood to ensure I had the dimensions right. I have never done this before and I think it will be added to my process from now on. It was really helpful to be able to work with the proportions and then be able to use the drawing to determine the angle of the roof.

After I milled all the scrap stock (Ash, Poplar, and some Pine) to final thickness, everything else was done by hand using chisels and hand planes. I could have used a piece of scrap ply for the back, but was having fun so I made ship lap panels instead. Even though it was to be painted, I ran the smoothing plane over everything because I had just tuned it and the wispy shavings are fun to make.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours!

-- Check out my blog and podcast "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog