Wall hung jewelry cabinet

Had a former client ask me to build a wall hung jewelry cabinet for his son to give to his girlfriend for Christmas.  He supplied the picture of what he wanted and I set about to building it.  No problem...very simple project that as a ton of fun to build!

  The inside was to hold earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets.  No problem!  Here is the inside of the cabinet in its finished condition, but before it was attached to the cabinet.

Mailbox post

Our mailbox got knocked over last Winter by snowplows...or more correctly, the snow that they pushed to the side of the road.  I was not about to attempt to install a new one in the middle of Winter, so I splinted up the broken one and limped on with it through this Summer and finally, over the past week or so...worked on a new one.  Now, I could have taken the easy route...the one that would have taken much less time to build and install.  But I am a woodworker.  I take pride in my work and love to show it off.  So, with that in mind...I decided to fabricate one that would highlight my woodworking skills and have it on display each and every day to all of the cars and drivers that zip past our home each and every day.  Came out beautifully if you ask me.

  I put together a short photo essay of the build to document the process.  If interested in taking a look...you can access that essay here:

https://imgur.com/a/6ej05xN

My Pride and Joy Project.....and More!!

My Pride and Joy Project!!!

For the longest time.....I had wanted to build a roll top desk.  When I began to dabble in woodworking...it represented a level of woodworking that seemed miles and light years away.  I would have accepted that I may never reach the level of craftsmanship that was needed to fabricate one of these popular old time pieces of furniture. 

  Well, over the years, I have acquired much knowledge and have done lots of reading and watching of woodworking videos.  It has helped me to gain knowledge and confidence in my abilities in the woodshop and within the last year or so...I began to notice that things that were once a big deal to accomplish are simply everyday or somewhat common practices.  It occurred to me that I was stepping up levels in my accomplishments.

The photo above was the style that I found that talked to me.  I love the color...the layout...everything about this roll top desk.  This is what I wanted mine to turn out to look like...or as close as possible.

  Well, my wife and I decided that we wanted to keep some of the dimensions of our old, store bought roll top...basically in the drawer inside widths.  I had mulled over the idea of making my own tambour, but the router bit set I wanted to build it with was to pricey.  Trouble was, the widest tambour that I could find was around five inches shorter in width than what I needed to match our old desk.  Well, the router bit set was never purchased, we kept the inside drawer diameters and it promoted a notable difference in the look of the new desk.  The knee well is much narrower in our new desk.  A result of the wanted drawer measurements and the tambour availability.

  The difference is noticeable, but not a problem for us.  We have never used the desk as a desk per se.  That is to mean that we have never used a chair with it.  We use it more for storage space for the things you would keep in a roll top desk....bills, property information...stamps....the usual stuff.  No chair.  So...really, this little difference is no bother to us.

  So here she is opened up and showing off the cubby assembly I fabricated for inside of the top section.  I love the way this turned out.  And you know...looking back at the project....I truly had nothing to worry about as far as making it.  It was a piece of cake.  Yes, there were methods of fabrication that I had never done before....but I knew what had to be done...so execution was simply a case of taking my time and paying attention to detail.  Like I said...piece of cake!  This project makes me realize that yes, I have obtained a nice level of craftsmanship in my work.  This project represents a milestone in my hobby of woodworking.

Pallet wood coffee table

  I had this thought that it might be a pretty cool idea to incorporate some rough textured and well aged pallet wood pieces into a piece of furniture.  I have seen various articles detailing using pallets to secure wood to make projects...however, I never saw it used to make a coffee table.   It intrigued me and I set about finding some pallets that met the criteria.  The slats needed to be flat and all relatively the same thickness.  They also had to have the right "coloring" due to exposure to the elements or just from age.  I found them only about a mile from my home at an old nursery that opens for seasonal sales, be it the summer for vegetables and fruits and in the fall for pumpkins, pies and the like.  Jointed one side of the pieces (once they were cut from the pallets) so that all of the pieces laid flat and I also jointed both side and cut them to the same width on the tablesaw.  I used some sugar maple I had laying around for the tapered legs and some other maple that came from New York state for the border of the tabletop.  The pallet wood was mounted on a 3/8th's sheet of plywood to obtain a reasonable thickness that was going to serve as a solid top in combination with the pallet wood.  Fairly simple project and it will reside in our living room across from the fireplace insert.

Catching up on some smaller projects

It has been a while, with the exception of the most recent post, that I have added to this blog.  I have done this or that for people...some simply not worthy of posting.  Worthy in the fact that I helped out others with my shop and my skills, but not worthy of taking note of due to the fact it was mundane and just not noteworthy.  However, here are a few that I have done in the shop and mostly because it offered me the chance of showing my wife Karen some different woodworking techniques.  This first one was the suggestion of Karen.  This television was relatively new to our bedroom and we like to lay in bed to watch tv at the end of the day.  Well, Karen decided that the tv needed elevating to facilitate easier tv viewing.  I saw the possibility of storage for the remotes associated with the tv...the DirecTV remote and the remote for the DVD player.  So....I rolled the design around in my head for a few days before we began to fabricate the parts needed.  This was one of the first projects that Karen joined me in the shop for...so just about everything associated with this project was new and a learning experience for her.  I have to say...now that it is built and in service...it definitely makes laying in bed and watching tv a little more of a pleasure.

  The next project I would like to detail is this beautiful picture frame I made from walnut and yellowheart.  Some left over yellowheart from a former project that I was contracted to build, allowed me to incorporate it into this beautiful frame for some artwork from my wifes past.  Quite simple design that actually used the inner walnut piece of the frame to hold the glass, picture, and everything else involved inside of the frame.  The yellowheart face of the frame is only maybe a quarter inch thick and laminated to some simple and soft pine.  This allowed a small amount of the more expensive and exotic wood to be used and the soft pine allowed easy penetration of the push points that holds everything in place once placed inside of the frame.

 Just below that frame is an addition that my wife Karen loves.  This came about because of the remodel of our bathroom just to the left of this cabinet.  Due to new cabinetry for the bathroom, we lost a little bit of storage for bathroom related items.  This cabinet was designed to take up that need and sort of play off of a floor to ceiling storage cabinet on the other side of the bathroom door.

Made from simple pine...it was basic construction with frame and raised panel construction of the doors.  I added the fancy rail up top because it dressed it up and I had it laying around the shop for years from some other work. 







  The last thing I wanted to get up posted was this simple little childrens table.  I was first contacted by a friend to ask if I could repair some lamination defects in one or two the chairs shown with the table. 

  As I was completing those repairs...the subject of a round table came up and I was open to the project as it wouldn't take all that long to fabricate.  Again, simple pine and I was to take it to this point.  No finish as the customer was going to prime and paint it once it was delivered.  The main reason why I was open to building this table was because a number of months ago...I had fabricated a large router jig that would allow me to attach my router to it and turn out perfect circles in wood up to like six feet in diameter down to something around fifteen inches in diameter.  So, this was the perfect opportunity to give that jig a whirl and it worked beautifully.

Ships Binnacle case

My Brother Dave is big into buying and selling on Ebay.  Makes a surprising amount of money doing so.  He recently purchased this ships binnacle at a flea market and thought that it would significantly increase in value if it had a decent box to be displayed and protected in.  So, he asked me to build one for him to cradle it safely while being transported.  I agreed to make one for him and it offered me the chance to get out my Incra I Box box joint jig.  It also offered me the chance to instruct my wife in a few more things in the craft of woodworking now that she has the time to devote to it since she is now retired also alongside of me.

A shared effort!

This project represents the first combined effort of both myself and my wife Karen who has always had an interest in woodworking...but just never took the time to get up in the shop to learn the craft from me.  Red oak with some walnut trim.  I got the idea for the style of the project from a picture in a store flier and loved the look of it.