There was a cajon posted a while ago on here and ever since I saw it I have had the itch to build one. So, I researched it quite a bit cause I didn’t want to build one and it sound like junk. So I thought alot about how I wanted to do the strings and how I wanted to be able to tighten them and this is what I came up with.

The box is 3/4” ply, the back is 1/2” ply with a sound hole and the front (tapa) is 1/8” ply. I bought a cheap snare wire at a local music shop. I anchored one side of the wire from the top with two screws and the other side with just one screw and a bolt threading from the side into a t-nut to tighten or loosen the mechanism. It seemed to work well. The knob is a simple piece of oak cut with angled sides to get a nice hold on. I finished it with a couple of coats of wipe on poly.

I ended up giving it away to a friend who is a drummer in a band. My wife thought it was pretty nifty and she wanted me to build one for one of her friends, so I did. I didn’t spend a lot of time caring too much about the edge of the ply showing or making these too pretty. If I make any more I will pay more attention to small details and dress it up a little more. Except for the front ply, all the wood I used was sitting around in my garage so it didn’t put me out too much money. Thx for looking

It would probably keep a nice beat with the cigar box guitar in the video section..

This was my first attempts at any boxes like this. I must say they are much harder than you would think. They can give you fits if they aren’t fitting correctly. Anyways, they are both made from Pecan with walnut trim. The handle on the first box is curved in 3 directions. You can’t really tell it that much in the pics, but I kind of tried to make the lid “float”. The second box is really nothing special. I really liked the grain and made it continous around the box. Thanks for looking. Any comments are welcome.

This is a flag box I did for a friend. Made from oak and walnut. I tried something new by tilting my blade a little to make the angled splines. I was pleased. I finished this piece differently than I have in the past. I worked my way up to 180 grit paper. Then I used wet/dry 220 grit with tung oil to act as a pore filler. This is probably not as good as actual pore filler but it worked great for me. I then used 500 grit with a lttle dish soap and water. As an experiment I tried 1000 grit and 1200 grit but I couldn’t really tell it was any better than the 500. After that, I used 3 coats of Minwax wipe on poly. Thanks for looking.

This was made because my desk was getting cluttered with a bunch of wires for all my toys. It turned out a bit smaller than I had it pictured in my head. I used 1/2” plywood for the box part and used Poplar for the trim. I also used Poplar for the drawer. This was the first time I have used wood for the drawer slides. It was fun trying to figure out the placement for all the dadoes and rabbets. I used two channels in the back of the drawer to hold the wires, I thought quite a bit on this but this was simple and effective. Painted black with spray laquer on top. The drawer has a couple of coats of poly. I found some black foam material for the bottom of the drawer for padding.

I’ve got a project going where I have to laminate 2 pieces of pecan together to make a 13 inch step. The only problem is, I have 70 feet of step to make. I don’t even come close to having enough clamps for this job. So I remembered this video on youtube that I believed could help me out. The base is MDF 4” wide by 18”. Theres a small piece of fixed piece of oak at the bottom which is 90 degrees to the base. The angle peices are oak as well and they’re nearly the same width as the base and about 2 1/2 inches (or so). The angle is around 7 degrees. I saw this video and I made it to fit my application so these measurements are kind of out of the clouds. So you screw one of the wedges down to the base and put your workpiece on the fixed piece at the bottom. You then just slide the other wedge in and tap until is clamps your workpiece together. These pics are an experiment and they work pretty good. They are actually pretty solid. Instead of making one and seeing if it works, I made about 20 and hoped it worked, and it did.. If anyone makes these, I recommend that you take the extra time to cut the angle where it leaves all your wedges identical. That way you don’t have to keep the tops and bottoms seperate, they can be used either way. I also need help on how to add more pics than just the 3 initial ones at the top. any help is appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2trWWHH9dg

This was a flag box for a friend whose dad passed away. This is actually my 2nd flag box. But I’m posting this one first. It is made of Oak with curly maple trim. One thing I paid attention to on this box was the continuing grain across the top of the box. The finish is 2 coats of Dark Walnut stain followed by 4 coats of wipe-on poly and then 2 coats of wax. Any comments?? Fire away….

Thanks

nothing too crazy here. this goes over the sink in our kitchen to provide a little extra counter space when we have friends over. its made of oak and walnut with mineral oil as the finish. i had some scraps of the walnut left over so I just decided to throw them in randomly. i didn’t know if my wife would really go for the randomness, but , she did. she really liked it and I got several compliments on it already. i really like doing just a little bit extra to really personalize a piece, so thats why I burned the R into the corner.

This was my first attempt at a chessboard and first attempt at veneer. This was a project for my father-in-law. This is walnut and maple veneer with solid walnut edges. I chose to use a good grade of pine for the substrate. I know people usually use MDF but I didn’t know if it would do good in edge gluing. My veneer was 6” wide by 36” long. I used contact cement and just sandwiched the veneer on my pine and used clamps and heavy objects for pressure. I then cut strips 1 1/2 ” wide by 14” long. I then alternated the strips of contrasting wood and glued them using biscuits. After that dried I turned it sideways, squared up one end on the table saw and and then crosscut them 1 1/2 inches again. Then you just take every other piece and turn it end-for-end and theres your chess board. I was really happy how he trim turned out. I combined 3 different effects on the trim. I used 2 different arches and then a 45 degree champfer. The finish is 4 or 5 coats of spray shellac, and then 2 coats of paste wax. It turned out alot smoother than I had anticipated. These pictures will have to do for now. I’ll have to get some better ones on a later date. Thanks for the looks. any comments are more than welcome.

it was a great day to hit the cutoff bin at the lumber store. The only bad thing is, it’s all oak. It is mostly red or white oak but there is decent amt. of quarter sawn white oak. I was like a kid in a candy store as I was sorting through this on the trailer. I have several small projects coming up that I was wanting to use walnut but now I think I’ll use some of this oak and use a walnut stain. So any tips or warnings about staining oak are always welcome.

the wife/boss wanted a simple piece to go beside the couch for decorations. used belt sander for uneven and random edges then scuffed edges for antiquey look. the paint job lacked a little but all in all it turned out nice but most of all, the wife was happy.

couldn’t stand the current pots and pans cabinet. had to get on hands and knees to reach in the back, not gonna do it.. added some frames on the inside for the drawer slides and made the drawers and used the old cabinet door as front. top drawer is for the lids. really pretty simple.

a little fun project I did when I first got my router table. made for my daughters to help me haul heavy loads around the yard. made of scraps with some lawn mower wheels and a dowel for the hitch for easy on and off. removable gate on the back for those large cumbersome items.

this is an exam bed for a dr’s office. made of solid laminated oak legs and oak aprons. i certainly would’ve tried veneering the legs if I would’ve known better. the top is done with 3/4 plywood and wrapped with vinyl or something and stapled on the bottom.

bread box made of pine. woodburning iron to do letters on front.

key holder made of oak and walnut trim. mitered at corners. 3 or 4 coats of spray laquer.

same concept as #1. although made with book shelf on bottom for, well you know, reading material. frame and panel doors were a little more difficult to do a two door cabinet than just 1. but turned out just fine.

made because I needed more space. made of MDF and poplar trim pieces. 5 piece panel door. towel rack for the little ones to dry their little hands.

nice long table for grilling. made of treated lumber and glued and screwed.