At the request of my wife and as thanks for letting us live with them while we searched for a new home, I built these for my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law. It took a year working partially in their one car garage and partially at our new home. A variety of things made it take that long, but in the end I’m happy with it. The doors and face frames are solid poplar and the carcases are birch ply. The trim and crown is from Lowes. I hate doing crown molding.

I finally have a home for my router bits. They were living in their original packaging in a tupperware container on my router table shelf. This whole setup is the the ultimate in cheap. The case is based on a plan from Woodworking magazine a couple years ago and is made from scrap from another project I’m working on. I plan on adding two drawers in the lower shelf, but there’s no rush. Both bit holders are attached with french cleats so I can easily remove them to add or adjust holes. The case is attached to the wall with french cleats.

The router table is made from 2×4’s and plywood and is mortise and tenon construction. I don’t know if I spent more than $30 on the wood. The switch is off an old Wolfcraft router table that died in a basement flood. MDF and moist basements are not friends. The router plate is from Rousseau and I got the fence used for a song on the internet. It’s a Rockler fence. The only thing I really spent money on was the router. It’s a Porter Cable 892 that allows for above the table adjustment. No need for a lift. For as good as it works, I can’t ever see ponying up the cash for a lift. The downdraft extraction works great. I got that for $20 off craigslist. Granted, this whole deal was 20 months in the making, but I was in no rush. My 20 month old is teaching me to slow down.

It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works pretty well. I think I’m going to paint the top with this white tinted conversion varnish I’ve been using on “the other” project. It has a nice, slick finish that would be perfect for a router table top and I don’t have to mess with laminating it.

Well, it’s finally finished. I built this cradle for our son that is due on 2/4. It’s 1/2” thick curly maple from Wall Lumber finished with Transtint dark vintage maple dye dissolved in water, BLO and amber shellac. I’m not 100% happy with the shellac finish, but perhaps years from now when I figure out french polishing, I’ll get back to it. Enjoy!

A friend of ours makes quilts. She’s absolutely amazing. Recently, she made one for our little bundle of joy who will be with us shortly. So, here’s another project from my marathon baby project list. This little quilt rack/shelf will soon display pictures of our baby instead of stock photos and show off this killer quilt. It’s constructed of pine and finished with General Finishes Espresso water based dye stain and Arm-R-Seal.

I refuse to spend $300 on this:

I had some leftover maple from the cradle I made for my son who will be here any day now, so I made my own. It’s not as fancy, but it’ll do the job. I used biscuits for joinery and General Finishes Espresso water based dye stain and General Finishes Arm-R-Seal for the finish. It matched the furniture we bought pretty well. There’s a 1” lip in the back where I will drive screws into the furniture to keep the thing from moving around when we change the little guy. Now we wait.

This is a little hollow form I did recently for a gift exchange. This is my first attempt at surface manipulation where I tried to carve a flowery detail around the top rim. I really like the little ghost/moon that revealed itself on the one side. The finish is semi-gloss Minwax poly buffed with tripoli and white diamond. Enjoy!

This is a bowl that I entitled Yin Yang due to how much the sap wood and heartwood look like a Yin Yang symbol. Actually, my wife noticed it first and dubbed it Yin Yang. It currently graces our bookshelf along with most of my other turnings as we currently have no other place to put them.

The wood is maple and the finish is three coats of General Finishes Salad Bowl Oil.

Here are a couple vessels turned from some local box elder. I learned to do these a couple weeks ago, so I have a lot to learn. Wall thickness consistency and thin-ness are my biggest issues, but with a little more practice…

I’m using the Don Pencil Stinger hollowing tool to do these on a PSI Turncrafter.

Enjoy!

Here’s a padauk platter I turned for my wife recently. It’s finished with 3 coats of General Finished Salad Bowl oil. It was inspired by another platter here on lumberjocks.

Tonight is delivery night…of the cradle that is. My sister-in-law is about to pop and bring another bundle of joy into the world sometime between now and the end of the month. I saw this cradle in Wood Magazine a year or two ago and have been waiting for the right opportunity to build it. I modified it a bit from their design. I opted for biscuit joinery instead of through-tenons. Regretfully, I made a few mistakes with the biscuit joiner that left me making patches. I repatched one area 5 times before I got it to look ok. I need some practice on doing that better. Anyway…it’s made of cherry and finished with 3 coats of amber shellac. I took the time to make mdf templates which will allow me to make more of these in the future with a bandsaw and flush-trim bit. Man that is handy, though scary on some of the more intricate parts. I’m building a router table extension now, so next time I can try flush trimming on the table. Hope you enjoy!

This box started out as step stool someone gave away on Craigslist. It was a mess when I got it. It was a broken down pile of dirty boards. I salvaged what wood I could and put it on my self. Months later, my Sister requested a box to store pictures. This is what I came up with. It’s stained with 3 coats of Transtint red mahogany dye stain and finished with 3 coats of satin Arm-R-Seal. I sealed it with shellac first and completely sanded it down again to seal the wood to prevent blotching. I tried out locking rabbit joints on this one. I didn’t have to fill too many gaps, so…not so bad! ;)

I made this last night for my father-in-law’s birthday today. The finish is beeswax. It’s a little chunkier than I would have liked, but I think he’ll like it.

Here’s a tea box I made a month or two ago. It’s mahogany and tiger/ambrosia maple. Our tea was taking over the pantry. I love being able to make stuff I need. I finished it with satin arm-r-seal. Enjoy!

This bowl will be part of my work Pirate Pollyanna. It’s made of cocobolo and finished with Renaissance Wax.

This is a chip, etc platter with a bowl that can be used for dip, candy, etc. It’s a Christmas gift for my Aunt and Uncle. It’s made of maple and finished with General Salad Bowl Finish. I almost lost this project a couple of times due to my lacking skill, but I plugged on and saved it from the firewood pile!

This is a cocobolo shaving brush that I made for my Father’s birthday. I used a silvertip badger brush knot as my Father deserves the best. I turned the handle, sanded to 1200 and finished it with Renaissance Wax. The knot is epoxied into a hole I created with a forstner bit on the lathe.

My first big bowl. Madrone…well, it cracks…even if it has been sealed. :) Still, it was fun. The madrone was supplied by another LJ’er who was just awesome in getting it to me. Cheers to you!

My first piece of furniture:

Well, I finally finished this project a couple of weeks ago. It only took about a year. It’s amazing how fast other little projects get in the way. Anyway, I found the plan for this table over five years ago on the web while looking for one to purchase. Well, I never did purchase one and put this project on my bucket list right after the entry, “take up woodworking.”

After several thousand “learning experiences,” here she is…complete with several patches to the tenons, epoxy/sawdust filler for worm holes, etc on the top and much handwork to fix the face of the legs with the mortise after a belt sander “learning experience.”

The wood for the legs, the aprons and the top are all from different sources, but I was able to choose wood that matched pretty well.

The finish is pure tung oil with a coat Minwax paste wax on the top. I wish I had waited for my renaissance wax to arrive before using that Minwax.

I hope to get a better picture, but time and lighting have not allowed me to do so.

Comment and suggestions are always welcome.

I recently got a lathe and these are my first finished projects. They’re from some cherry, padauk and yellow heart scraps. The padauk and yellow heart one is finished with minwax wax and the cherry is finished with amber shellac. These are great fun and wonderful practice. I’ll be making more just for the fun of it. Once I amass enough, I might order more stopper bottoms and head to a craft show.

I’ve been working on this off and on for about a year now. It’s progress has been slow due to a lack of time and skill. It’s sort of been like, do something, screw up, learn from mistake, fix mistake, start next part, acquire new tool or skill, do something, lather, rinse, repeat. Anyway, I finished the glue up of the base last night to my extreme pleasure. I sanded it to 220 earlier this week. Just have to cleanup the squeeze-out that eluded my blue tape, or remove the blue tape that is now stuck, finish the top and oil it up! Thanks for looking!