A tobacco box I built out of cypress and cedar.
Blog Here

My youngest daughter is very pregnant and wanted a shelf to hang the baby stuff from. My wife and daughter love the rustic looking stuff. I will make it for them when they ask. That produced this little project.
A slide show of the making of the shelf.

If you are interested some of the forging of the hardware.

Thank you for your time.
There is a bit more at my website as well.

I have wanted to do this project a long time. I finally got the wood that would do it justice. I have much more detail on the build at my blog.
I did a six part video series on this as well. There are a few tips in the series such as ebony dowel making, dovetail tips, file cleaning and sharpening and first time resin use for me.
This build took a good long time. And I am glad its finished. Main reason is I hate finish.






Thanks to all the fellow LJ’s for there help and support.
You know who you are.

Here is a crib I have built for my soon to be grandchild. I wanted all the wood to be from Mississippi. The body is Cypress, the bowties are Sweet Gum and the bottom is Red Ceder.


Thanks for your time.

My wife was in the need to put some pictures and other little trinkets up in her office. I found a old red oak board that was 5/4 all the way to 3/4 in thickness. I band sawed the edges and used a heavy rasp and attached them together. I then took some masonry nails squared the heads on some and welded the others together. The project is simple but the hardware is Dave made. There is no finish and the nails should rust within a few minutes. Thats the way she likes it. Kind of like me splintery around the edges and a mind like a steel trap, rusted shut.
Thanks for viewing.
Oh Safety Cat was in the shop the entire time. Sawing, hammering welding and all sorts of noise. He crawled up in a tool till and didn’t move.

;)

A while back Swirt did a saw rack and it was simple. It used the french cleat method with makes it easy to move around or repair. Here is his project.. I had saws all over the place.

The process is simple all you need is some scrap and a few dollar store bouncy balls.
I layed out the location for the balls and styles.

Then I set up the angled pieces for the balls. Swirts blog covers it in a lot more depth. Thanks Swirt, great project.
The best thing I like is it holds thin Japanese saws very well.
Thanks for viewing my project.

This is a simple project but a nice story on the journey here. The wife wanted to hang old sash windows in the living room. I didn’t want to pay the prices that the antique shops were wanting. By chance BoxcarMarty had been to an auction. He asked me if I wanted a few planes he had won. I jumped at it. One was a dado and the other was a stick and rabbet.

Now I had remembered that Roy Underhill had done an episode on the stick n rabbet. So I went back and watched it a few times. In the show Roy shows the corners being coped. I do not have the proper chisel and these being picture frames, weather proofing was not in the picture. I wanted to miter the corners and that was ground that I had no instruction on. So I did the first frame and learned how deep to place the miter, where to cut the miter.
I blogged on the plane and first frame. The first frame was done in sycamore. The project here were a simple 2/4. Hand cut, planed, molded and made for the wife, now she has three.
I also did two videos on the subject. If you have seen them sorry for the repeat.


Please ask questions, this was a fun build.
One last thing the first has a photo. My wife as a child

The wife wanted a coffee table so this is what I tossed together. The top is walnut bordered by birds eye maple. The dutch-men are tiger maple, with the base being sycamore. I had posted this online to get a few opinions about the table and what I was seeing fellow LJ’s pointed out as well. The top was to thin. So all I had left in the shop was some wormy walnut, that’s is what I used. I think it came out better. I made the base with mortice and tenon construction. The top was 3 pieces of maple glued together. The base was then pined with dowels t the top. I rubbed it down with teak oil then BLO. Three coats of shellac were then applied. I will let it sit for a week and may apply a final coat of lacquer.

Here is a cedar stump a coworker brought to me. He had split it with a chainsaw and wanted to make his wife a table. I agreed to help my friend. I set it in the shop for about a year and slowly would drag it out and work on it a little. It was fun to build. The finish is poly and BLO. I used sycamore for the base then wrapped it with tongue and groove ceder. She is flat and sturdy. I am told He gave it to his wife and she loves it. Thats what it is all about.
A few more pictures.

The whole shop smelled like ceder and I love that smell. I have some shavings in my closet. Thanks for reading.

The grandson (Logan) had out grown his baby bed. So I cannibalized the bed springs and mattress for a new one. The posts are cherry, the head and foot boards are sycamore and the rails are red oak. It was rubbed down with BLO and 4-0 steel wool. Thats it simple and functional.

I was in need of a toolbox to place my marking gauges, knives, and all sorts of small tools. I had a lot of scraps around the shop and that need produce this ugly creature. The frame is sapele. The panels are sycamore and cedar. The drawer carcases are pine tubafores. The base is red oak. Now the only part I bought were the drawer fronts, some maple and zebra. There is some popular and bamboo and probably a few other species.
Now the biggest issue was during the making of the drawer carcass I cut the dadoes in the wrong side of the cases. This would not have been a big problem for box joints but these were tubafores that were hand planed and joined. So I had to start over. CRAP.
I have done a video on the build. You will see the finished product then the build goes backwards. Remember ITS GOING IN MY SHOP>

OK here is my entry in Stumpys tubafore contest. I got a project out of Making Working Wooden Locks by Tim Detweiler. I needed something that had a plan and then could be given to my grandson. So here it is. Now yall know me here are a few pics.

I hand planed a section of a tubafore.

This sucker squared up in about 5 minutes.

My tri plane made some very nice shaving with little effort.

Stock ready.

spring section

spring section

all 5 sections

making the key slot

gluing the slot cross grained

dry fit and testing

top on and ready to glue

Now I made a short video on the operation and a little more on the build.
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Here is a coat rack that my wife asked for. I was reaching for a country – whimsical look. The two main boards are wormy walnut. All the rest is cherry. The finish is poly, mineral spirits and BLO. I took some concrete nails and heated the ends cherry red then whacked them with my hammer to give then a old look. The bow- ties and hangers are not even or square, on purpose. Also I wanted the cracks, knots and blemishes to stand out.
Now I already posted a video on the making of the bowties. So if you have seen it I am sorry for the double post.
My wife gave me a thumb’s up. I hope you like it and thank you for your time;)

This bench was built to get my joinery up to a level so I can see it better. It is made of 2 boards 28 by 18 glued together. The legs are doweled in the lower board. and fully morticed on the stretchers and feet. The skirt is all red oak as well as the moxin vice. Now for a little on the vice. Total cost on hardware $7.56. I got at a box store. Benchcraft’s hardware $130.00. And with the holidays coming there is no way I could buy that and the wife not snap.

The nuts for the 5/8 all thread and were fully morticed into the face of the vice.

The face and base were glued together then doweled with 5 1/2 oak dowels.

Placing vise to mark the 3/4 hole for attachment to bench.

Making the large wood nuts. I morticed the nuts between 2 – 1 inch pieces of red oak.

I made some brackets for the nuts on the rear of the face to hold them still.

Gluing the wood nuts.

Now Swirt had a cool little clamp device for his bench that i borrowed.

Just glue some 3/4 dowel into your clamps and they will grab any weird shape.

I used 4-1/4 inch dowels on the nuts to be sure they were solid. I waxed the all-thread and man the nuts will fly with a one hand spin. She will hold 14 inches between the all-thread and will open 8 inches.
The best part is not I have a light weight bench I can toss in the truck;)
Thanks to William for the wood.
Popular woodworking for the bench
Swirt for the clamp idea
Moxin for the vice
and you guys for reading my babble ;)
The vice holds tight!

My tool till is finished. Keep in mind guys this was my first attempt at double bevel dovetails. I was needing a box to haul my tools around. One big enough to get a few planes, clamps and hammers all in one trip. I gel stained it with steel wool as an applicator. Then I used teak and linseed oil on it. I made the handle low profile with a trough tenon. Then wedged it and pined the wedges. I butt joined the bottom and then pinned it also. That way if I ever need to change the bottom or handle it shouldn’t be a problem. All I wanted was a simple rustic finish for it. The box will be beat up and thrown around in a matter of no time. This was practice for this method of dovetail joinery. Lots of lessons learned. I want to thank everyone hear on this site for there great input and help over the last 6 months. I had done internet research, watched videos, bought books and I could not quite get the hang of the layout. The big chopperoo showed me a jig for layout that helped me to get it done the first time. To me its simple, rustic, and utilitarian ;) thanks for the read
I bloged a little on it
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I had seen Christopher Schwarz do this and thought I would give it a try. I had also seen one in an antique shop and liked what I saw.

I had done a test piece on some basswood. I cut the 45 degree sections backwards and when I split the board it all fell to the floor in 4 pieces. I then watched Schwartzs video again. With a new plan on the correct way to cut the hinges I grabbed a piece of 5/4 red oak and started again. I started the rip with a western rip saw. I then swapped to an eastern saw. That gave me much better control. Ripping oak by hand will test your forearm stamina. I would like to do this in some butternut and incorporate a carving in it.

I was wanting to work out my new old planes. I had a piece of figured black walnut, some spalted-wormy walnut that fellow LJ William gave me along with an extremely cupped piece of apple.
It started with me planing some wormy walnut and cutting to rough dimensions.

Then dovetailing.

I needed a base and had a very cupped apple board.

I rough cut it and let the planing begin.

this bit took some time.

winding sticks are a help.

Never enough clamps;)

And some teak oil, blo and shellac

Man did that top pop! This project helped me iron out some setup issues with my planes. I want to thank William for his donation to my wife’s Kleenex storage device;)
I have about 12 hours in it. It was all done by hand tools. Thanks for viewing;)
Oh I like the transition from the apple to the sap wood of the walnut, then the top has both with some figure.

I needed a box to house the set of Two Cherry’s chisels that I had purchased. The box has about 3 different schools of carving. The top of the box is a chip carving that I have been learning with the current chip carving class here at lj’s. The side panels are something I have seen Thomas McDonald do. And the front was something I saw on u tube with a gouge. It is all basswood. The sides are blind dovetailed. It was hand plained. The bottom is joined with square pins. And the top is a sliding dovetail. It opens from the bottom. Just a small chisel till held together by glue. I finished it with some cherry gel stain and teak oil. I was going for a rustic look.

This project has been going on since a week before Christmas. And has been very hard for me. I wanted to do something that was my design. The base is sapele and the top is black walnut and I used some ceder for the bottom. I had only taken the time to draw the leg assembly. The rest was all from the hip.
I blogged about some of the build.
new bench
more bench
joinery starts
bowties
i'm a idiot
base assembly
error repair
I have learned a lot. And now my wife has a place to sit and put her shoes on before work. I am not very happy with the finish. It is all shellac and oils.
During the build I learned about the golden rectangle. I have since built a Fibonacci gauge. I have have learned one thing. The leg design is all on 6:1 and it works out close to the 1.618. The leg assembly was in the golden zone. Cool.
Thanks for your time to view my project. ;)