Red Oak Book Case

Book case made from solid red oak and red oak plywood. Made for a good friend's daughter as a Christmas gift.

Size is 72" tall x 30" wide x 12" deep. The middle shelf is fixed and the other 4 shelves are adjustable. Finished with 2 coats of Golden Pecan stain, 1 coat of Mission Oak stain/poly, 1 glaze coat of Jacobean stain, and finally 3 coats of wipe on satin poly. After everything was dry I finished it off with a light coat of beeswax and orange oil. Below are some more pictures of before and after the stain was applied.

Reclaimed White Oak and Walnut Box

White oak and walnut – all reclaimed. Finished with BLO and beeswax/orange oil combo. All the parts came from a single piece of oak and a single piece of walnut. Many, many thanks to Doug Stowe for the books on box making and the inspiration.
The spline crosscut sled is directly from one of Doug’s books that I bought recently. The thin piece of walnut on the jig is a story stick used to gauge where the stop block is placed.

Almost forgot, the lid strap is made from scrap leather and the inside of the box is deerskin. I found a couple of deerskins at a yard sale recently for really cheap and thought they would be good for box interiors. I used spray glue to attach it to a thin piece of cardboard and then fit it to the box.

Be sure to click the link below to keep reading and to see more photos...

Pine Blanket Chest

Blanket chest made from pine bought at a local home store. They were selling as “value wood” and pricing it as such. I was able to get quite a bit of usable stock out of what I had purchased and ended up with what you see. The overall shape is very, very loosely based on a design from a recent issue of FWW. Finished with amber shellac and with a coat of paste wax. A gift for my sister-in-law.

Chair / Stool For Small Child

A chair made for one of the kids my wife babysits. She asked me to build this after noticing he (a 1 year old) was trying to sit on the first step of a step stool we have in the house. On Saturday morning she mentioned she would like a seat for him to sit/climb on – by Saturday evening this is what I had completed. Meant to sit on the floor not to be used as a booster seat. I think some people have mistaken it as such when asking about straps to hold the child in.

Franklin Chair

Something I’ve wanted to make for quite a while now. Found the plans in “The Essential Pine Book”. Rumored to have been invented by Benjamin Franklin hence the name. As you can see it transforms easily from a chair in to a step ladder withing second. Pretty cool idea.

Made from pine I picked up at a local home center. The wood was priced as “value” wood so I might have 5 – 8 bucks worth of wood in it. A few goofs here and there and some mental notes for next time (if there is a next time).

                          

Joiners Mallet

The complete set of plans for this mallet was found in Shop Notes Issue 2, March 1992.

Made from leftover Walnut and White Oak. I had a blast building this one and I’m planning to make more just because it was so much fun. I finished it with a couple of coats of Danish Oil. The weights for the head are split-shot sinkers (small ones) that I just happened to have in my tackle box. And the leather for the face of the mallet was found at a local craft store – a bag of remnants for 5 bucks.

Harvest Table

All the wood for the table is 100% reclaimed barnwood – yellow pine I think. The legs were milled out of a 3×12 beam which I’m assuming was fairly old considering I pulled a dozen or so square/cut nails out of it. The table top is made from 1 inch thick planks of barn siding.  The table is 42×80 and will seat eight people. We found the chairs at a local discount chain and we’re still waiting on the final three to come in. I tried matching the stain on the table to that of the chairs which I think came out pretty close.

Follow the link below to see more photos and read more details.

Red Oak and Walnut Box - Box Joint Construction

Father and son project. Red Oak and Walnut box. Quarter inch box joint construction on a table saw with a dado blade. Danish Oil and wipe-on poly for finished followed by a light coat of paste wax. The felt for the bottom interior is glued to a piece of cardboard and then fit snuggly in the box. Easier to clean or replace if needed instead of glueing it directly to the wood. The overall dimesions are 8"w x 5" d x 4" h.

Keepsake Shelf

A small keepsake shelf built for kids. It's about 20" l x 6" d x 7" h and made from solid Poplar. I use Poplar because I eventually stain and poly it and the wood is fairly economical to use. Doesn't easily get beat up like a soft wood normally does. I usually inscribe the recipient's name in the middle of the shelf with a 1/4 inch router bit and name template. I've removed the name from this one for privacy. These have turned out to be pretty popular items.

Foot Rest - Prototype

This is a prototype of a foot rest I made last night – took about an hour.

Something I had been thinking about for a while and it finally hit me yesterday to give it rockers instead of flat feet since I’m constantly shifting my feet around under my desk. I built something similar for my wife years ago when our second child was born to use as a nursing stool ( something she could prop her feet up on when feeding the baby ) but I can’t say for sure whatever happened to it – yard sale perhaps.

By the way the second child mentioned above is ten now and he helped me with this. I let him use the router table for the first time to round over the edges of the top. Of course I had my hands on it the whole time guiding it and we always wear the proper safety gear. He hangs out a lot with me in the shop and I always use the opportunity to explain what I’m doing and lecture on safety. I’ll make a woodworker out of him yet.

I used an old rocking horse rocker as the template on the rockers. Leftover birch plywood from my toy box project and pocket screws (God Bless you Kreg Jig!!) to assemble. The grooves on top were made with a round-nose router bit. I may eventually put a finish on it but for now it’s under my feet being put to good use.

Toybox

My wife asked me to build a toybox for our youngest son because she was tired of seeing his toys all over the house. I drew up the design and printed the cutlist from Sketchup and was able to put the thing together in a couple of hours on a Saturday. She wanted to leave it unfinished for now and then paint it to match his room in the near future. I used 3/4 cabinet grade Birch plywood and assembled the entire thing with pocket screws. Very simple to make. In fact my wife has suggested making a few to sell which is fine with me as it doesn't take much to motivate be to build something.

The images below are of the finished and unpainted box. I've also included the design and cut list images.
 

Sideboard - Finished

Finally finished. Overall the project turned out pretty much as I had imagined it and I'm pleased with the results. There were a few lessons learned and some mental notes taken about what not to do next time. I made a few mid-build design changes but it came out close to what I had originally designed with in Sketchup.

Sideboard - Design

As soon as my pew box project was done I was asked to build a sideboard - or at least that is what my mother-in-law was wanting to buy. She could not find what she wanted and asked if I could design and build one. Technically this may not be a sideboard so please forgive my furniture ignorance but that is what I will call it unless someone gives me a better name. It's designed to be more functional than ornamental.


As of now I'm working on getting the final coats of poly on it before putting the top and doors on for the final assembly.

In the meantime I'm posting pictures of some of the design images I created in Google Sketchup. I also found a plug-in that will generate a cutlist from the dimensions in the design. Very nice tool to have - and it's free!!!

Pew Box Project - Part 6 - Finished

Finished!!!!!

Once all of the boxes were assembled things kind of slowed down more or less due to the weather. Not having a heated workshop right now I didn't feel like standing out there putting the finish on during days when the temps were in the single digits. I took advantage of a few warm days here and there and was able to get 5 or 6 coats of poly on them.

Below are the pics I took today after I finished installing the boxes. I think they turned out pretty well over all and they are a fairly close match to the original pew color.