Hey all, been away for a while. Lifes been insanely busy and the computer’s been busted. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to log on in a couple of months.

Here’s the latest out of the workshop. The pictures are lousy and I’ve still got to wrap up the finish on two of them so it’s not quite a completed project yet but I’d say it’s close enough to post.

They’re spanish cedar with oak inlays on the front of the seat.

This finish goes like this, 2 coats Zinser dewaxed shellac – sand with 220, system 3 spar varnish – sand with 320, system 3 spar varnish – sand with 400, system 3 spar varnish – sand with 400, system 3 spar varnish – sand with 600, system 3 spar varnish – rub out with 0000 steel wool.

That sounds like a lot of spar varnish but I thin it 50/50 with mineral spirits. I’ve found that it goes on much easier this way. It takes longer to complete the finish but I think it comes out look much nicer than using it straight.

This one started out as an entry in the 2×4 contest then realized that it could be entered here as well. So here goes.

You can find some of the details in my blog

This project was a challenge for a couple of reasons. First, it took me forever to decide what to build. Second, because I’ve never attempted to build a small wooden box before. I have to say my hat is off to those of you who build those incredible boxes that you find all over this site. I’m much more accustomed to building things on a larger scale where if your cut is off by say 1/8” it’s realy not an issue. Being off by 1/8” on a small box can be a pretty big deal.

So here it is, it’s an 8 foot construction grade 2×4, the colors are minwax Sedona Red and Golden Pecan with 4 coats of shellac and 3-4 coats of paste wax over that. My wife loves its, she’s got a spot for it in the living room all picked out already, go figure? I keep telling her “honey, it’s just a 2×4”.

I blogged some of the construction here.

I had to sand it down and spray the top again, left a fan running with the last coat of urathane drying, DOH!

Details are in my Patio Table blog.

This is my first time posting a project here so be paitent with me. My wife and I were renovating a condo, it’s built on a slab so there’s no basement and all the utilties (water meter, hot water heater, etc) are tucked away out of sight throughout the ground level. All except the circuit breaker panel. It’s the first thing you see when you walk in the door, it almost jumps off the wall and smacks you in the face.

We looked high and low for an off the shelf solution to this eyesore and the best we could come up with was “hang a picture over it”. Since that wasn’t a good enough answer for me, I decided to build this shallow cabinet and mount it over the breaker panel. I got the idea from a hide away ironing board type thing I saw at one of the big box stores.

The whole thing is soid oak (ecept for the back panel) and I held it all together using my Kreg pocket hole jig (I love that thing). I probably could have cut the cost a bit by throwing some plywood in there but the cabinet is shallow enough that using solid wood didn’t break the bank. The door on the cabinet is wide enough so that when it’s open, the door on the breaker panel swings past 90 degrees to the wall and you have clear access to the breakers should you ever need to flip one.The back is cut out so that it fits nicely over the existing breaker panel and it’s mounted to the sheet rock wth anchors so it comes off the wall easily should anyone ever need to get inside the breaker panel. You really can’t tell from the pictures but I ran an ogee over the edges to sweeten the look.