Several years ago…. I had the idea of creating a family project for my sister. I sketched out building that would capture something about each member of her family.
My eldest niece, was a natural for the ‘feedstore’ barn since she’s into animals and critters.

My nephew was a construction site.

My younger niece was a flower shop.

My brother-in-law was the highrise tower financial institution,and my sister was a book shop.

I got started on the project with plank of pine and used the dremel primarily to shape the pieces. I also used the bandsaw and scrollsaw. I finished the pieces with craft paint. Even though I started this project ‘years ago’, I just finished it this last thanksgiving and was finally able to give it to them. It had become the running joke of the gift that never was.

What an great lumberjocks challenge to get the creative juices flowing! I had been mulling over what I could pull out of a 2×4 and the rocking chair idea gave me a sleepless night playing with dimensions in my head. The next day I started cutting…..

It almost looks like a rocking chair even in its rough format. Some curves were needed so with the rocker bottoms and the head rest I cut the curves and then reglued them to the oposite surface. This turned out better than I could have planned!

The seat started out with two pieces 13 7/8 with one cut in half and the other cut with a partial angel then rabbited and glued. The angle jig below allowed me to drill into the seat with 5 degrees to the side and ten degrees towards the back to get the seat back tilt. The same jig in a different formation allowed me to get 15 degree angles for the rocker leg supports.

It seemed no tool in my arsenol went unused!

Things are now taking shape and more detail is being added like roughing out scrolling on the rocker bottoms and shaping the armrests.

This illustrates the transformation of the seat. I have always admired the dip in a chair seat and the definition it brings to the chair. I outlined the pattern with scotch tape and used a 60 grit hand sander to tear up the wood.

It’s fun to compare the progress from one stage to the next. The final product has two coats of minwax rosewood stain with the edges ‘worn’ away and a semi gloss on top. The seat has one layer of ipswitch pine and three layer of gloss. I used screws to secure the seat to the front legs then wood glue and my air nailer for the rest.

I have never made a chair before let alone a rocking chair! This was a great challenge and the finished product is very rewarding. It seemed that for every hour of actual work there were at least two hours of trying to problem solve on the next step.

For this project…
Favorite big tools: Belt Sander (birthday gift!), Band Saw.
Favorite small tools: Masking Tape and Protractor.
Favorite jigs: 10 degree, 5 degree angled blocks.
Casuality: multispeed dremel finally bit the dust.
Thanks Yous: mi esposa for her patience during all my ‘garage time’.

I completed this woodcarving several years ago. Haven’t painted it yet…. not sure I ever will.

It’s been awhile since I’ve busted out the carving knife. I had some grandiose ideas of woodcarving on the beach. So I cut out the blank and packed the dremel and a couple of blades and took the carving ‘kit’ to Florida on our family vacation! I was quickly sanctioned to using the dremel only on the patio of the condo and carving on the beach surcombed to carving in airconditioning! It was a beautiful vacation and I was able to pretty much complete this carving of one of Enlows expression carving characters. Oh, to be on vacation again! Can’t Wait!

My wife bought me the book “Children’s Furniture Projects” by Jeff Miller, months before our daughter was born with hints that it would be nice to build a cradle or something for the baby. Surprizingly enough, I was able to complete the project around April of 2006 and we got six great months of use out of it. I used cherry wood for most of the project except the pine bottom slats. There were a lot more curves and bevels than I anticipated from first glancing at the project, but that just goes to make it more satisifying now that it’s done.