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Latest Project(s)
Anything new gets posted here before finding a permanent home on the
appropriate page.
Feel free to send a note with question/comments.
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Phone home
No, that's not an instruction, it's a description. This…. is the first project
built outside of my old shop since the move. I chose it not because we needed
a phone station but because to build it would require the use of most of my
assortment of tools.
The design is from
Woodsmith magazine
(Vol 25 / No 148) and I chose to use raised panels on the sides/back rather
than the beadboard the original design called for. This would allow me to
give my router table a good workout.
The pine came from a load I brought with me in the move and originally was
purchased rough in a barn in Buckley WA. It's actually lightly spalted and is
considered to be "denim pine" due to the bluish hue the spalting gives off.
The hardware came from Lee Valley Tools
and the finish on it is a hybrid polyurethane/stain that I'd never tried before
(and probably won't use again!). I did do a sealer coat of shellac prior to
staining and the result is a nice even finish, but boy was it a disproportionate amount of work getting it that way.
It took a while for the "eye" and "feel" of woodworking to come back but
eventually it did and while the project took longer than it should have the
results are worthy of living in our front hall.
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Fire plug
The house we were renting has two fireplaces; one upstairs and one down.
The one upstairs draws the smoke out really well….right down the other chimney
where it fills the basement. Not cool.
The chimney dude said, "Yup, I can fix that". For $350.00, I said, "So can I,
for a whole lot cheaper!". He was going to put a damper in the chimney;
I chose to cover the whole thing up.
A piece of fitted MDO ½ plywood painted flat black with a few shallow sides
added for good luck and topped with a piece of ¼" hardware cloth (mesh)
painted gloss black began the illusion. The landlord has some leftover red oak
flooring and that, after some planing cutting and routing, finished the
illusion. Some open celled weather stripping, a spring connected to the inside
of the firebox and a corresponding hook on the fireplace cover was all it took
to hold it in place and to provide a reasonable seal.
We had our first test drive last night. The good news is the fireplace plug
worked great. The bad news is now the smoke fills the living room.
The fun never ends!
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Chess anyone?
A couple of years ago, my brother and his wife decided to pack their two kids
into the old SUV and move from BC to Montreal. Three weeks later with their
house leased they were on the road.
While there, they enrolled the kids in school and one of them took up an
interest in chess. Six months later, when they moved back to BC after obtaining
more cultural awareness, Leo was chess champion for his age group...for Quebec.
While grand in title, it was a hard position to uphold from the west coast!.
Regardless, that created the idea for me to build the family a chessboard...
and then we moved.
Finally, some two years later, I managed to build it and shown are the results
(I made four, two are shown).
The boards are from a design published in Popular Woodworking magazine
(December 2003). Made of maple and walnut they also involved the creation of
several jigs and fixtures in order to assure a square glue-up and cuts. The
cases themselves are of coved sides, having carved the coves on the table saw.
The miters are splined and the board itself is fully floating on more splines
let into the box sides as well as into dado's in the board edges. The brass
hinges are solid and were purchased "raw" in a marine hardware store for
pennies on the "cabinet shop" dollar. I "had to" invest in a polishing wheel
and some rouge in order to obtain a shine but the reuslt is all the hardware
is hand polished and I ended up with a few left over tools!
The finish is four coats of a wiping varnish, knocked down to a satin finish
with 0000 steel wool and waxed.The bottom of the box portion is lined with a
thick dark green felt glued in a carefully fitted.
All in all, a tough project that was far more involved that I thought, but
one that was well worth the effort.
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For the birds....
My Sister in law has been waiting for this for too many years. It's always
the simple projects that get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and this one
was no different. I finally cut up some left over pine (left over from the phone
stand shown up above), created a template, cut the ends and set to laying on
the planking (look closely "through" the bird's hole and you'll see how the
house was constructed).
The railing is from a couple of pine blocks and some birch doweling let into
them.
The paint is a simple white oil based and the design of the house allows the
bottom to be easily removed for cleaning. I sized the hole for a house finch
and while it'll probably take a year for the paint smell to dissipate, I hope
the house becomes a home as it was meant to be.
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Caesar's Box
German Shepherds. You either love them, or you don't. I fell into the "don't"
category until I met a little she-dog named Neka. Neka owned some good friends
of ours and to keep Neka company, Caesar soon joined the ranks. Neka was fine,
charismatic, graceful. Caesar.....was the anti-Neka, BUT...the two of them were
responsible for changing my heart about the breed and both my boys are now
growing up with Tessa...a small female from the same breeder as the other two.
Caesar's life ended too soon and I was asked if I would build a resting place
for his remains; one that would do him proud, but perhaps not take over the
living room as he had done!
The result is "Caesar's Box". The design follows the "golden rectangle" theory,
allowing for a length/width ratio that's natural and pleasing. The woods are
simple maple (mineral stained) and walnut with 1/8" diam. glued walnut pegs
holding the whole thing together. The finish is an oil/wax combination and the
lid is permanently held closed. Most of the shaping of this project including
the hard-to-notice curve across the top was completed with hand tools.
For some reason the whine of a belt sander just didn't seem right on this
project and it was left in the drawer.
Sleep well Caesar. Graceful you were not, endearment will follow you forever.
UPDATE: This project was chosen and subsequently published in a Magazine, Vol. 7, No 2 April/May 2004 as a "how to" article titled
"Pet Urn". You can see
page 1 and
page 2 here,
but the files are a bit large and are black and white
(I'm workin' on that part)
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Carrie's Mantle
Cousin Carrie bought a house. Cousin Carrie wanted the house to be bigger so
Cousin Carrie made it so (with a little help from hubby Todd...and a
carpenter....or two). When all was said and done, the new family room was a
sight to behold...except the fireplace was bare. Several conversations over
several warm meals lead to the concept and rough measurements for this simple
fireplace mantle.
Made of cherry and finished with polymerized tung oil and paste wax this
simple piece mimics the trim detail found in the new kitchen and adds a
graceful curve taken from some complementary furniture. Left to nature, the
color will show rich and add even more warmth to an home already brimming
with it.
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