Hi everyone- I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, been extremely busy and working on a very detailed and lengthy project I hope to show in another month or two, maybe 3 or …..... you know how it goes!!!
“Rhondas legs” is a table I made for my honey, who also is named Rhonda, who probably loves shoes more than me, I wanted to make her something that was uniquely her, and would show her how much I loved her. God always comes through for me, and gave me this wonderful idea that is actually quite out of my “normal” designing and thinking ways. It really is her though, and she loves it. The top is fiddle back maple with a magenta analine dye that I have and it really pops!!!! I hope the pictures do it justice, cause in person it’s really awesome color. I hand painted the shoes on the apron, the black paint is automotive black urethane over primer, over sealer, with a top coat of about 8 automotive urethane clear coats and sanded to 2000 grit and then buffed with a final polish. The shoes on the apron were done with red enamel, and a metallic pearl blue, and the blue was used on the bottom of the back legs. I made a small stencil and laid out the pattern on painters tape and used a scalpel to cut it out. Using a saber saw and a grinder with a 16 grit disc on it, I hand carved and shaped the legs and feet, the feet are out of maple, and I made them the way I did, to fit the shoes, it was a bit tricky as I’d never done anything like this before.This can be used as a wall table by removing the back legs and attaching to the wall by the back of the apron with screws. I have about 80 + hours into this, maybe a 100, and did half of that while working 14 hour, 6 days a week job, so I’m beat!!!!!!!!!!! I shot the last picture on a dock at the lake near by at sunset trying to get a unique shot. Any pointers on better pictures would be greatly appreciated. It’s great to post something again and I’m hoping you all have been well, and life is good for you.

Well howdy all, this is a pantry unit for a kitchen remodel job I’m doing. I haven’t built kitchen cabinets in almost 15 years, I know my projects show a kitchen job from about 6 months ago, but the cabinets were made in China and I just put them together, installed them and did the stone work, and built the dining table. But this job I’m doing it all, cabinets and granite tops. This is the first cabinet to go in, I built a 4 X 8 vacuum table for doing large panels and had a helluva time getting it to seal properly, I ended up making teflon guides to fit on the end of a silicone caulking tube that laid out a 3/8 wide square bead of silicone to form a double gasket on the top frame that sits on the 3” wide neoprene gasket that is attached to the table top. It took 6 tries and 10 tubes of silicone to eventually get it right. I was going to write an article on how to do all this, but I just don’t have time. I built the vacuum system too. The cabinets for this are made of plywood, veneered with curly maple and smoked eucalyptus stripes. Finished with Dupont catalyzed urethane, as you might be able to see, the gloss finish is amazing, doing only 4 coats. I wish you could all see it in person, so smooth and the deepest look, it really brings out the beauty of the wood, and is very durable. Nothing beats the catalyzed urethane for durability and looks, and is much quicker than other products that would take many more coats to achieve this. It is dry to the touch in 10 minutes or less, especially in this heat were having down here right now in Florida. I’ll throw in a few pics of the vacuum table and system, I have the top on a pulley system so that it lifts up out of the way. I’ll show the whole kitchen later when complete. The pantry will get stainless wire handles about 8 inches in length when they come in. Thanks for looking. – Dan

Hi buddies – A while ago I was talking with Bill ( buffalo689 ) about storing clamps, and I told him to look at mine that I posted awhile back. I told him I should show how I store saw blades in little space along with other more sensitive tools, ( micrometers, chisels, things to protect, etc. ) This is a 4 door system with with 2 doors stacked on top of each other. The hinges, have to be very strong, so I used leaf hinges for interior house doors, then catches hold the 2 doors together, and a spring loaded catch to hold the doubled door sets to the cabinet. So I just reach between the 3 in. gap between the doors and just push the lever, and they pop open. The greatest thing is the ability to hold such a variety of tools and saw blades in safety and organized. Right now my dado blades are on the table saw, or they’d be up there to. I used 1/4” masonite for outer door face, and the panel in the inside doors. 3/4” birch ply make up the door frames and the cabinet. Made custom easy tool holders out of scrap wood, and for the blades, I split 5/8” nuts with a hacksaw to keep a low profile, and with a split nut, on each side of hole, I tightened a 2/12” piece of 5/8” all thread. Now you can place saw blades nice and safe with a full 5/8” nut securing it to panel. For pegboard hook usage, I just drilled for the peghook where needed to hang that particular tool. The panel in the inner doors is dadoed in place. Doors are 3” deep each, X 30” Tall X21”wide. Cabinet is 30”High X 45” wide X 12” deep. Make whatever size you want, just leave at leas 3” between doors to get your hand in there easily to release back latch. This is the 3rd one I’ve made and gave 2 away, one to my dad, and a good friend. Hope this helps someone. Have a great day y’all. – Dan

Remember those days in high school shop, the workbenches that the kids would do anything to, except work on?
Well I ended up buying 6 of them about 2 years ago, and re-finished the cabinets, taking out all kinds of wonderful dents, or at least the big ones, sand blasting inside and out, and painting with enamel. Clamps came with them and given a complete overhaul. Maple tops were originally 2-1/4 in. thick, wide belt sanded down to 2-1/8th in. thick, this was after much swearing over the holes drilled in that I plugged with maple dowel, and numerous nails of varying sizes were extracted. Finished in teak oil, so I can re-oil when needed. Then with my trusty Millermatic mig welder, I built a lowboy rolling frame, covered in gray enamel. If I ever catch a little ass…e driving a nail in it, I will use his teeth to get it out!!!!!! Sold 2 of these, another given to a friend, so I’ve got 2 left and no room to put them in, at a friends house in storage for right now. If someone needs one, let me know, I want to keep another to use in my future, bigger shop. Have a great day folks, thanks for looking, at my newest baby.

Hello everyone – Here are some pictures of a kitchen that I and a friend of mine (Jimmy Santero ) just finished. This is Michelles kitchen, and the cabinets are from China and had to be assembled and installed by Jimmy and I. I did the granite work, and built the table that you see in the center. Thanks to Jimmy for his help, as I would have been pulling my hair out, because cabinets from China are not the best in the world. He really helped me a lot and it all looks great. Michelle let me pick out the stone for this job, and she really loves how it all turned out. We had to do some creative altering to a couple of the cabinets, fortuneatly they were plywood cabinets, and made an open spot for her artsy things above the sink as a filler. This is some of the “bread & butter” work I’ve been doing lately. Will be working on a very cool kitchen soon, where I actually get to build cabinets again, I haven’t built cabinets in a few years, should be fun. Have been very busy working on other things that I hope to post in the near future. Hope you like the pics. – Dan

Manta rays sculpted from Black Galaxy granite with Golden Ambrosia granite base. This granite is a little more stable than my other “ray” sculpture I just posted, but still I sweated doing the thin tail and the wing tips, especially baby, I was holding him in my hand grinding and polishing him at times. Kept expecting him to take flight on me via the grinder express. I bored holes in the bottom of these with a diamond bit, and put in threaded inserts to mount them to rods I placed in the base. Then coral trimmed to fit underneath to help hide the rods. I mounted the coral by boring 16th in holes in the bottoms with a diamond bit, and then used trimmed to length finish nails with epoxy and of course same procedure in making holes in base. I really liked the sweeping motion of the wings on these, especially the front adult, with both tips in the upward position, the trailing adult is in a turn, so one tip is down and the other up, much like a plane would fly through the air, just as nature does it’s thing, with how the rays “fly” through the water. This like the other piece I posted took about 40 hours to complete, and is also for sale. I may be sending these to Key West for an art gallery.

Okay, I know it’s not wood, but those that know me, know I’ve posted my stone work before since I work in a lot of stone. The base is Golden Ambrosia granite, ( I think I remember the name right, there’s so many kinds) I chose it because it looks so much like the ocean sand. I carved the edges to resemble the sand on the beach and how waves will form ripples into it, something I do a lot of. The rays are Volga Blue granite from Russia, and you can see the incredible blue that shines in spots (depending on your angle and the light from where you stand) This is a mommy, daddy, and baby scene as they swim just above the bottom and I used coral underneath them to help hide the rods I mounted them on. About 40 hours in making this piece. This piece is for sale, first time I tried my hand at this kind of sculpting, I made 2 of these units at the same time, the other I’m about to also post, done as manta rays. These are a kindof ray of my own design.

I’ve made this style before with a different granite type but the same type of design. Koa wood finished in sprayed polyurethane, currently at 10 coats, about 5 more to go, then buffed out. Volga blue as some of you have seen me post before, has beautiful irridescent blue flakes in it at the right angle of light. They don’t show up that well, but look at my next posting of stingray that is made of same stone, and you will be able to see it in one of the pictures. Measures 24 tall by 18 diameter.

This is a table I made from Brazilian cherry also known as jotoba wood, ( think I spelled that right) with a vineyard green granite top from India. Finished in ongoing coats of polyurethane I spray on, up to 10 right now, will do another 5 at least. Took bending and forming 7 legs to get 4 that matched, three came out of the mold and wouldn’t stay the shape I wanted them to. This is a cold bent lamination process using weldwood plastic resin glue. The wood has a rosewood look to it, I really love the look, but is a very dense and can be a difficult wood to work with, as everyone tells me it eats up blades. The stone is vineyard green granite from India, incredibly expensive, at $80.00 a sq. ft. when buying it in slab form which averages 70”X120” at an average of 60 sq. ft. a slab, so do the math and each slab is almost $5,000. This top alone at just over16X30 cost me $200 for the stone alone and then I had to do the edgework, this granite is one of the most difficult I’ve ever worked with, hard with some soft spots in it, makes grinding and polishing very hard to do. While grinding with a stone, it wants to fall into the soft spots and create ripples, took all the talent I had to keep it straight. It is all worth it though, the stone is beautiful, and incredibly irridescent, like womans shimmery eyeshadow is the best way I can describe it. I cut my own veneer to wrap the apron under the top edgework of the wood, and glued all end grain to the side top ogee piece to keep the grain running correctly in relation to the front edge. A challenge to make but I love the look. This piece is for sale if anyone is interested.

Hello all – A couple of times I have seen people post bar clamp holders on LJ’s, and they’re made from wood. I would like to show you mine that I made from 1 1/2 in. angle iron. It holds all my bar clamps, some that are 6ft. long. Total weight in clamps is probably around 200 lbs. The piece measures as follows – the back frame that mounts to wall is 12 in. tall X 18 in. wide. There are 6 pieces that measure 12 in. long that form the rows for the clamps to slide into, which makes 5 rows for clamps. You can place 6 to 7 1 in. bar clamps per row, the length of bar clamp determined by how high you mount this holder. I made this about 15 years ago, and it has never failed me, never worry about it breaking or not being strong enough to handle all the bar clamps I can stack into it. This is not hard to make but does require some welding of course. If you cut the iron yourself, it should not cost too much to weld it all together, if you have to pay someone to do the welding. It is well worth it, and takes up very little space for all that it holds. If you need more information, such as how the iron is layed out, and notched, or any other questions, please ask, will be glad to help any way I can.

I had some ebony veneer with a lot of light brown with the black, and decided to experiment a bit with some red dye on it. The tests came out better than I thought and so I thought I would try this piece using it. I came up with the idea after seeing the jewelry box a few months ago done by “Bibb” titled “red pagoda”.
So I want to thank him for the inspiration. As with most projects that all of us post, the pictures don’t do it justice, the black galaxy granite has beautiful copperish gold colored specks or flakes that really stand out against the black. I put an oil lamp in front to show the reflection I obtained, using 12 coats of deft laquer, and buffed with polishing compounds to a high gloss. I use a buffmaster, with 2 different automotive compounds by 3m on a wool pad, and then a foam pad for final polish. The compounds are – 3m superduty, and then the final is 3m finesse-it ll. I sand to 220 and then switch to the compounds and buff out. I always spray with guns, and never out of cans, more control that way and better application of the material. I placed a layer of cork on the bottom to protect any floor it may be put on. Next time I would shoot with automotive urethane for better build up, which should only take about 3 coats to get the same results. I biscuit jointed the granite to the veneered plywood, using a biscuit joiner on the ply, and then cutting the slots in the granite with a diamond blade on a grinder by hand. This got a little tricky, and had to re-cut a couple of times on some of the slots when dry fitting to get that good flush fit, then used epoxy to glue it all together. Hope you all enjoy this, and I hope it encourages more of you to combine stone with your wood if you can.

My most recent piece that I just finished. Walnut frame with Persian onyx top and inlays. The disk inlays are 6.5 in. dia. There is a 6 in dia. round walnut tube that connects the 2 sides together. The tube consists of 7 3/4in. 6in. dia. plywood disks wrapped in 1/8th in. walnut veneer ply. that I sanded down to 1/16th in. thick. to wrap around easier. I made my own ratchet strap system, that creates a zero dead zone, so that pressure is created all the way around. Most strap clamps that I’ve seen, all have a dead zone that has no pressure against the work piece (where the ratchet is or the hooks that join the straps together. I will be featuring this soon, as I am getting a lot of interest in this new tool, and have applied for the patent on it. Rj and Dennis Zongker, and Lee Jesperberger have all seen this tool, and their words of praise for it and encouragment lead me to believe that this will be wanted in the market place. Back to the table now. The top and inlays are Persian onyx from Pakistan, the disks are 3/8 thick which I sliced on a diamond saw from the material the top came from. I stood them on edge and clamped them to a fence and cut them with a diamond saw. The saw I used is a $70,000 saw, with an 18in. dia. blade, so don’t think you can do this on a tile saw, it would be very difficult, and onyx is very difficult to work with. The walnut frame is made from scrap oldgrowth walnut I had laying around, I wish I had bigger pieces, and some seams are showing, but the wood was beautiful and I thought I’d give it a go. I really like how the base turned out, but wish now, that I had made the top about 6in. longer. I’d like to do another one of these, maybe with a different stone. Finished in 6 coats of Deft laquer. I would like to add that it was one of Rj’s tables that inspired me to come up with this design. Thanks Ron.

Well, after talking to a couple of fellow LJ’s, I decided to dig out the only 2 photos of this car that I have of some work long ago, when I was in my mid 20’s. I lived in Washington state at the time, and a fellow in Auburn, Washington was a Packard nut. He bought the former King of Egypts 1936 Packard. King Faruq was the last king that Egypt had and this was his “limo” that he drove around in. When I started on this car, it had no woodwork in it, it had all been stolen or removed from the car, all I had was a single black and white picture of what it used to look like. I steam bent mahogany and made all the curves to all windows, door trims, dash, and anything else in there that required it. I used Carpathian elm burl wood veneer, and if I remember right, I used a laquer for the finish. The rest of the upholstery is in mohair, very common back then, in high end cars of that era. I wasn’t really into pictures too much back then, and of course no one ever heard of digital camera then. This was about 1979 when I did this, the man liked it so much that I did another 2 Packards that he owned, but this is the only one I have showing the woodwork. This was the first time I worked with veneer.

Well here is something you don’t see to often or ever. I made these vent vanes from cocobola wood that I sliced 1/8th. in thick. I then made a jig that took 1/8th in. teflon rod and formed a 1/16th in. pin on the end that I inserted into the ends of the vane. This makes up the hinging point and one end has two pins (one for the hinge point and one for the lever bar that pivots them). I show in the second picture the original vane that comes stock in the vehicels of that era. I had a chevy el camino at the time that I was wanting to customize and never was able to finish, so these never made it into it. I have four bundled sets of these, matched in order of their grain. If anyone knows of someone that would want these, please let me know, I don’t want to throw them away or let the work go by the wayside. I also have the side trim that you can see on the vane holder unit in the first picture. I also made a cocobola wood dual swivel light sockets that go with this. I just don’t know what to do with them now. I also made shift lever, turn signal stem, and tilt wheel lever, with cocobola knobs and inlaid with Austrailan opal in them.

Well here it is, finally done, for all those who followed my earlier postings during construction. With 25 coats of polyurethane, and sanded soooooooo many times, and allowing about 2-3 days of drying time between sandings after each time I applied coats, about 3 – 4 coats per session. I used 3/4 of a gallon of poly in finishing this. Today after my final sanding, I took my buffmaster and polishing compounds and spent about 5 hours carefully buffing this out to a glass like finish. There ain’t enough O’s in smooth to describe the feel of the wood, it’s like glass, and I was able to watch the football game in it’s reflection. Yahoooo!! gotta love it. I then layed cork drawer liner across the top, (the kind you can get at home depot with the self adhesive glue on the bottom) this gives a nice grip and finish for the granite to sit on. Happy New Year to you all. – Dan

Here is #2 that I promised to post, detailed explanation of the glass and how it’s made is in my projects and look at the description on the last piece (mirror) I posted. This has black leather dye used on maple wood frame. Stone plastic laminate (formica or wilson art.) Overall size is 32 1/2 in. W X 44 1/2 in. H glass mirror is 24 X 36 . I want to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

This is a piece I did long ago and recently pulled out of storage. Made with walnut on outer and inner frame, with blue stone laminate, and a mirror done in a process called glue chipping. This is a not often seen, type of glass work. The design area is taped off, and sand blasted, then an animal hide glue is applied and put in an oven at about 300 degrees. The glue does a fast cure, creating so much tension as it dries that it actually starts popping chips of glass off, it resembles a fern effect. It is a dangerous type of glass work, as the glass pops free at a fairly high velocity, and you wouldn’t want to be around it, needless to say the area and oven can have a lot of razor sharp glass shards. After this is done, the glass is silvered on the back with mirror coating. I have another one I will show soon, that is done in black maple and cobalt blue mirror, done in the same process, should be in a couple of days, maybe tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all.

Well it’s about time I cleaned up my office enough to take pictures of my furniture I built about 5 years ago.
Made of teak and imperial brown granite, it measures 80 in. X 80 in. X 26 in. deep and was made from scrap granite left over from a large kitchen job. I bought a sheet of teak, edged it with solid stock and solid stock feet, and finished it in polyurethane. Shelves on upper corner cabinet are also granite. The tops are laminated by book matching the front edge of granite with a 3 in. strip of granite and then the rest of the bottom is laminated with 3/4 in. plywood for strength. The keyboard drawer is made from solid stock teak, with slide out for the mouse and pad. When slideout is slid in, then the keyboard will slide out of site. This is a work in progress as I have a desktop that matches and teak panels, that are ready to go together, but I still have a drawer bank to build along with the drawers, and then granite drawer fronts to make for them. It should look pretty cool when all done. Thats my fiance on the computer screen, so all you horndogs can quit drooling over her, she’s spoken for. LOL I just had to say something about her, as I’m very proud of her, and she’s smart as can be, so I can’t understand why she loves me.!!! Someday I’m going to do something about those blased wires that look so messy underneath, never enough time.

Okay – This set of pictures show a close up of the curve, sanded and ready to shoot with poly, next 2 pics, are with my first coat of poly that has been reduced about 35% with mineral spirits as a sanding sealer, small whitish dot is an air bubble. I will provide better pictures later when project is done. Hope you like. – Dan

Hi to all – I’ve been absent for awhile on posting anything, but have been busy. I started a koa wood hall table recently, and thought I’d show you the stages it’s in. I started shooting polyurethane tonight, and the incredible beauty of the koa veneer is something I couldn’t wait to share. The legs are solid koa, the top which I’m not showing is already done, and is Volga Blue granite. I want to show more than 3 pictures on a posting, but don’t know how to do this, I would appreciate help from anyone on this. I will do two postings to show more pictures. I have about 12 coats of poly to go, and will sand between each. This first set of pictures show the applying of one of the pieces of veneer on a side, the attachment of the legs, and the piece finish sanded ready for shooting with poly.