Here are 4 wine boxes I made for Christmas gifts. Wood is elm, finish is danish oil followed by wax. Grape clusters were routed with my palm router, and painted with acrylic paint. The first one I made has a hinged door, the rest have sliding tops. I have 9 more to go.

I framed this map of Lewis & Clark’s journey in knotty Alder. I tried to make the frame look as old as the date of the map (1806). Finish is Transtint dye, gel stain, shellac, and wax. I added some Rustic nails to the corners. Inspired by the works of Dan http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8022

I wanted to practice some box joints, so I downloaded a router table box-joint jig plan from Fine Woodworking.com. I built the jig, planed down some old maple baseboard trim, and and cut the box joints for the pencil holder. I glued it up and used a round over bit on the sides and top. Finished with wipe-on poly and wax. The joints arent perfect – I tried to sand a mixture of sawdust/glue in the joints, but the joints turned out darker than the wood. Anyway, it was good practice before I started on a box.

I built this TV stand for my mother in law. Its cherry with 6 coats of Minwax wipe-on poly satin followed by Minwax paste wax applied with 0000 steel wool. I probably should have put a back on it to help hide the cords, but she can put something on the bottom shelf to hide them.

When I got back into woodworking, the first tool I needed was a bench. I downloaded some plans. Here it is before I added edging and a vise.