Backlight office sign – week 3
At first glance, installing these LED lights seemed rather straight-forward. But, like everything else I do, the harder you look at it, the more complicated it gets. Hind-sight is a … Continue reading
Backlight office sign – week 2
Last week, I got all the wood cut out and assembled. This week I am working on stain, urethane and paint. The first step was to remove all of the … Continue reading
Backlight office sign – week 1
My friend Marques is moving his office to a new location. He needs to put his logo up on the wall and was not having much luck finding what he … Continue reading
Lathe duplicator experiment
My wife has been learning to turn projects on the lathe and doing very well. She recently tried to copy a candle stick that she made and got very close, … Continue reading
Rose engagement ring box
My oldest son recently came to my wife and I to tell us that he was going to propose to his girlfriend. Tracie and I are very happy for him, … Continue reading
Tracie’s cherry bowl
My wife, Tracie, wants to start doing bigger things on the lathe, so I prepped some cherry for her to turn a bowl with. I started with some rough 3″x3″ … Continue reading
Making a Bishop’s crosier
This project was an interesting challenge. My friend Dave was making a crosier for a bishop friend of his and he was running into some problems. He has a CNC of his … Continue reading
Turning bottle stoppers from firewood
I have had my wood stove for about nine years. Every year I go out and cut up downed trees for wood to help heat my house. Last year, we took down … Continue reading
Arch-top cabinet – day 5 Complete
In the last post, I applied the first coat of finish. Since then, I have applied four coats. I did not bother to photograph each coat, because they all look … Continue reading
Arch-top cabinet – day 4
Last night I quit for the day when I realized the screws for the door pulls were too long. My fix for that is to use a cut-off wheel, on … Continue reading
Arch-top cabinet – day 3
I bought the LED strip, knowing I would need some form of backlighting. The problem is where to attach it. I remembered that I had a left-over strip of thin … Continue reading
Arch-top cabinet – day 2
I think I have worked out my joinery issues, so before I tackled that, I started a carve of the sunburst for the back of the cabinet. It will take … Continue reading
Arch-top cabinet – day 1
I have had this project on the back burner for a couple of months now. The design has been the big hold-up. Normally, I can easily discern a design that … Continue reading
Setting up the Pro-grind sharpening system
I know I haven’t been posting much lately. I have been working on the shop a bit, trying to make some room for a few upgrades. I do have a … Continue reading
Supermax 19-38 drum sander
I like tools. The problem with collecting them is that you eventually run out of space. I wanted to add a drum sander to my shop tool collection, but I … Continue reading
Adding a digital readout to my Jet 15″ planer
For Christmas, my lovely wife gave me a remote digital planer readout for my new planer, to make it easier for me to see what board thickness I am planing … Continue reading
Shop upgrade – New planer
Planing down a bunch of hard maple on the last project really got me thinking about an upgrade to my planer. My Rigid 13″ planer has served me well for … Continue reading
Illuminated display columns
I have another interesting challenge to work on for my church. The Ambry is the alcove where the holy oils are displayed. Not a lot of thought went into the … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 6
I made up some blocks to use as French cleats, to hang the picture. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to hang so I took off the day … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 5
Day five of this six-day woodworking class, and we are starting on our third project, a marshmallow catapult. When I was looking for projects to build in this class, I … Continue reading
Quick and dirty Moxon vise
I am going to need something to clamp wood into, for this class I am teaching. I need to hold wood in a vertical position so the teens can cut … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 4
Fourth day of class today. Even though it was a little damp and chilly, the kids got right to work. Unfortunately I was down two adult volunteers, and I forgot my … Continue reading
Reclaimed pub tables
My friend Todd owns the Brick Ridge restaurant, just down the road from me. He asked if I would be interested in making a couple of pub table tops for him, to … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 3
Picking up where we left off last week, we need to finish the top and bottom of our box. We finished cutting and sanding one of the curved pieces, but … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 2
Yesterday was day two of our woodworking class. We started work on the large picture frame. Here is a link to the plans if anyone wants to see what we … Continue reading
High school woodworking class – day 1
We home school our kids, and twice a year we get together with a group of other home school families and have a co-op. One parent will teach a subject, … Continue reading
Pass-through window shelves
To finish my friend, Margie’s kitchen, she wanted to add some shelves to the kitchen pass-through window. We adjusted the opening to make it smaller, allowing for an additional cabinet … Continue reading
Tracie’s wood coasters
My wife Tracie has been learning to use my lathe recently. One of the projects that she really wanted to make was a set of drink coasters. The first two … Continue reading
Appalachia Mission 2017
I just got back yesterday, from our annual mission trip to Preston County West Virginia. We took about 20 teenagers to work on four separate houses. My team’s job site … Continue reading
A simple kitchen counter top
My friend Margie wanted to redo her kitchen counter, and has a small budget for the project. The main goals of the project were to get rid of the stock … Continue reading
Wedding goblets
I have one last project for Diana & Ryan’s wedding. Since we have been working on the lathe a lot in my shop lately, I thought I would try to … Continue reading
Tracie’s cherry rolling pin
My wife Tracie has been learning to use the lathe in my shop. She has made several pens and magic wands, and she is starting to branch out. She wanted me … Continue reading
Garden Trellis – day 2
I had Erin work on cutting lattice strips to length while I started laying out the seat supports on a cedar panel that I glued up. I printed out … Continue reading
Garden Trellis – day 1
Erin has a new project. She is building a garden bench with a trellis over it, as a wedding present for her sister Diana. This is the basic design, that … Continue reading
Diana’s Cake stand
For the last several years, my lathe has sat in the corner, and been a the perfect place to stack and store stuff. Kind of like the weight bench and elliptical, … Continue reading
Celtic knot pen
I recently saw an article on making a turned Celtic knot and I have been experimenting with it a bit for another project. Since my wife has been coming down … Continue reading
Lithophane light box
I had a wedding shower to go to today, for Erin’s sister Diana, and I wanted to make something special to bring as a gift. When I first got my Carvewright … Continue reading
Mini church furniture – Baptismal font
I was tasked with building some mini church furniture back in August. I was recently asked to add another piece to the collection, a Baptismal font. A fairly heavy glass bowl … Continue reading
Picture frames
Erin came over, just before Christmas, to start on a present for her sister. We made this plaque by laminating a 1/8″ thick sheet of poplar to a 1/2″ thick … Continue reading
Beer flights
Here is a good project if you are into beer tasting. I am not, but I have friends who are. One of those friends recently volunteered my services at his … Continue reading
Winter recap
First off, sorry I haven’t posted anything in a couple of months. I have been busy, but not all that much in the shop. I started a project back in … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 6 – installed
After the first coat of urethane had cured, I had Erin sand down everything with 400 grit paper. Then she proceeded to apply the second coat. Over the next day … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 5
The epoxy cured over night, now it is time to start sanding. Erin started with 80 grit paper to remove the bulk of the excess epoxy, then stepped down to … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 4
Erin hasn’t been available, to work on the counter for a little while. She has been busy prepping the wall, in her house, for the installation. Her house is over … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 3
Erin came over for a few hours yesterday, so we got back to work on the corbels. I had a nice thick piece of white oak that we are going … Continue reading
Cherry sofa snack table
Hey, remember my buddy Rob? He came over and worked on a few projects, then disappeared… Well, over the last year and a half (or so) Rob got married to … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 2
I got a little prep work done before Erin came over today. I will require some thicker oak for the supports, so I cut some quarter-sawn red oak boards. After … Continue reading
Walnut counter – day 1
When we installed the fireplace bar at Erin’s house, we determined that the dining room table just completely disrupted the flow of the room, as well as blocked the view … Continue reading
Kid-Sized Guitar
I have been helping my friend, Hans, to build a guitar for his daughter. He wanted to be very involved with the work, so it took a few months, between … Continue reading
Erin’s Fireplace bar – day 11 Delivered
Over the last couple of days we applied three coats of polyurethane to the bar. Between each coat, we sanded the entire thing down with 400 grit sandpaper. When the … Continue reading
