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Woodworking started harmlessly around 1983 with my first project (Project 1) -- A baby cradle made using a borrowed circular saw and a Dremel rotary tool -- That is literally all I had. Then over the years I built a number of smaller projects until the mid '90s when I started building bigger and better quality items. Some of the pictures below are just that -- a picture (sometimes a really poor scan of an old 35mm film shot), while others may have a link to the build technique.
The Cradle
The Cradle
My son (w/his sister inside) next to project 1 -- made with only a Dremel rotary tool, a hand saw and sandpaper.
Bench
Bench
No mechanical fasteners. Uses a wedged mortise and tenon. Red oak construction.
Bookends
Bookends
Made from a MN Black Walnut tree I cut down, milled and dried.
Cedar Chest
Cedar Chest
Birch with sprayed on alcohol stain
Toy Box
Toy Box
Made for my Goddaughter
Remember CDs?
Remember CDs?
Maple with black walnut dovetails
Bird House
Bird House
32 segment (round) structure with copper roof and pole.
Wall (Half) Shelf
Wall (Half) Shelf
All MDF construction since it was to be painted
Drill Cabinet
Drill Cabinet
Oak and Black Walnut construction. Each section/tray is removable.
C Clamp Apron Rack
C Clamp Apron Rack
All American Cherry. Probably shouldn't be holding up those two hacksaws, as it really was meant to hold my shop aprons.
Outdoor Games
Outdoor Games
Yankees & Indians (now Guardians) corn hole game. I painted the graphics using a projector. See Fun 'N Games section for details
Kitchen Banquet
Kitchen Banquet
Birch construction for the kitchen dining area. The bench covers the main kitchen radiators so it was designed to pass the heat through decorative stamped metal sheeting.
The Shed
The Shed
A larger build for our home backyard. It's amazing how a small (10'x10') shed can help declutter a garage. I had some supervisory help from my brother-in-law. Ya, he was a real big help. The materials used were treated floor joists and floor plywood, Hardie Board siding and cedar trim.
Above is the entertainment center. We built this out of solid cherry and cherry veneer ply. There was space for a TV (a big one for the time), audio gear, VHS tapes, and a set of Bose 501 speakers in the lower corners. There were a set of hiding wooden doors that would close off the TV (middle section) and smoked glass doors over the audio gear (left section) and the VHS tape library (on the right). Since the TV section was not wide enough to support the wide screen format TVs used today, we regrettably removed and recycled the top section (above the drawers and speakers) and placed a new TV on top.
Mud Room Cabinets
Mud Room Cabinets
Painted Plywood tops, cedar bench top with painted storage area below. Crown molding went up after this shot was taken.
Cyclone Duster
Cyclone Duster
A small cyclone dust collector to grab the vast majority of dust and wood chips to keep the shop air much cleaner. Main dust collector is a 1250 CFM Rockler "Dust Right" unit.
Cabinet Saw Mods
Cabinet Saw Mods
I enclosed all the open areas of the cabinet saw with removable panels so the dust collector could pull a reasonable vacuum.
Bookcase
Bookcase
This is a maple and plywood two-piece bookcase I made for Cita's law business.
I couldn't find a bookcase plan for what I wanted to do so I made my own design based off of the general look of the bookcases in the "The Shop Around the Corner" from the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail". The main difference between this unit and a standard bookcase is the angled presentation of the lower shelves. This allows you to easily read the titles on those lower books and pull out what you want. Getting the angle dado cuts in the big plywood panels with a small home shop was not easy. The wood used was hard maple for the tops and trim, birch veneer plywood for the sides and shelves (painted bits) and maple ply for the back. The plywood sides and shelves were painted white (Sprayed) and the maple was clear coated. The shelves are birch plywood with hard maple edge banding. The standard looking 4 shelf upper unit sits on the lower and was then trimmed with a custom maple corner molding.
Laundry Cabinet
Laundry Cabinet
Made from solid 5/4 red oak, this cabinet was initially in the bathroom with a clear coat finish. When we remodeled the room, I painted it white and moved it over the laundry area to provide needed storage and keep the clutter minimized.
Dining room table refinishing -- turned into rebuilding!
Dining room table refinishing -- turned into rebuilding!
I refinished and repaired this dining room table made in quarter sawn oak. The design is a bit flawed, in terms of pulling out the table to add leaf boards, which resulted in sooner than expected failures. I ended up fixing a lot of warped boards, replaced the main table to pedestal mounting plate, made a new leaf, and used some threaded inserts to mount the table top to the pedestal instead of woodscrews directly into the edge grain of the pedestal wood. Some new antique looking casters, stain and polyurethane completed the project.
Old Skool Interior Door
Old Skool Interior Door
This is a solid oak interior door I built to mimic the 1900s-1940s office doors that were popular as a birthday gift for my wife (and her law firm business).
The door used 6 quarter x 5.5" rails and stiles. I didn't want to invest in the expensive router bits to make this, and the early designs were less ornate anyway. Our house was built in 1904, so I wanted to get closer to that period of time with the door & knob style anyway. The second rail from the top (the vertical bits are the stiles) is positioned where the door knob mechanism resides. That will help reduce twisting.
I doubled up on 3/16 oak veneer ply for the panels.
I purchased the glass at a local glass shop and my daughter-in-law did the lettering on her cricut device.
I gave the door a nice dark, period correct, stain and inserted the antique mortise lock and white ceramic knobs.
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