As soon as I saw KnotCurser's bird house I wanted to make one. 1” pine on a recycled coffee can.

My Wife saw a photo somewhere on pinterest of a Lightning McQueen cut-out of plywood that the kids could change the tires…and well…here is our plywood McQueen complete with changeable tires used for a birthday party.

Kids loved it! More photos on my blog http://woodified.blogspot.ca/2013/03/cars-birthday-party-theme.html

I came across a photo of a bird house (see link) that looked pretty cool so I decided to make my own version. This is the result. I used some left over hardwood flooring (Maple). I ripped the pre-finished flooring into strips and cut tenons on either end. The tenons on one piece are on the face of the maple strips and on the next piece the tenons are on the back of the so when stacked in the groove they’re staggered in and out. The exterior is pine stained dark and the screws are stainless steel.

Read more, see more on my blog: http://woodified.blogspot.ca/2013/03/bird-house.html

I’ve been picking away at this for a few months. Felt good to put the last sealer coat on today. I wasn’t sure if I needed to balance the blades or the pivot point or not so I took him outside for a test chop. He start chopping with a gust of wind so I left him as is.

Needed something to keep the fishing rods out of reach from the “little anglers” (Read: little tanglers). Inspired by Carter’s project here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/65279

I only needed space for 5 rods so I shorten the design. The plan was to put the kids rods in the holder as well but their rods are so short that at a 16 inch spacing the other rods were at too steep an angle. I ended up spacing the racks 32 inches to hit the next stud. The kids fishing poles will fit up there in a few seasons when they get upgrades. The big holes are 2 1/4 as I didn’t have a 2” hole saw. The big holes were slow going on my 8” drill press. Small holes are 1”.

Update: I added a PDF template on my blog Woodified

Made these two swiveling screwdriver shelves to help keep my bench free of tools. The idea was from a CD that came with a sample Woodsmith magazine. Made from leftover maple hardwood flooring. The factory finish is holding up well :)

I crafted 14 hammers (Pat) and screwdrivers (Turner) for a Handy Manny themed birthday party to go with tools belts my Wife made. The kids will be painting their tools so I left them unfinished.

The hammer heads are 3” cut from a 2×2 with a 3/4”dowel for a handle. I clamped a stop block on the drill press, drilled 3/4” deep, added some glue and hammered in the dowel.

The screwdriver handles are 1” dowel 3” long with 5/8” dowel drilled and glued in place. I cut the flat heads on the band saw. The 5/8” dowels are 3 1/4” long set in the handle 3/4”. I made a jig out of 1/2 plywood to mark the dowel centres and to hold the dowel on the drill press.

I sanded down the edges and corners.

I’m calling this my first woodworking project. Everything up until this project has been a renovation related project. Although I started this project first I did finish some other projects along the way such as a cross cut sled so I could cut the 12” wide pine boards for the front and the back. I made a mistake and cut the back the same size as the front oops! (my little helper was busy colouring on the parts list so I was just cutting away.) I was told the potatoes would be left in the bag anyway so now it’s just a big “vent hole” in the back (saved me front drilling smaller holes or using peg board like the plan called for.)

Based on this plan: http://www.woodworkingcorner.com/potatobin.php

Inspired by the work of Lumberjock “DustyNewt” this is my first attempt at a key chain. When I cut the “S”s I realized that my bandsaw blade was too thick (1/4) to make a tighter curve. This was a scrape piece of maple flooring that was leftover from making the rails of my cross-cut sled.