Woodworking Gallery

Workbench Build

My crappy old workbench on its best day ever - practicing dovetails in 2010
Napkin plan - Basic dimensions
Basic proportions of the intended roubo workbench
XRay render of Sketchup workbench design
My idea in sketchup for how I would build a Roubo out of the available silver maple lumber
Lee Valley Leg Vise hardware for front vise, catalog picture
I chose the Benchcrafted wagon vise hardware even though the price is high. I WANTED this one, and I saved until I could buy it.
Silver maple lumber stacked in the shop
About half the pile of lumber left after cutting about 12 slats for the benchtop
A typical example of the plotchy, streaky, grayed silver maple lumber.
Using a carpenter's square to mark the 7' section I wanted to cut out
Trimming to roughly 7' length with a jig saw. (My FIL had borrowed my circular saw)
Table saw set up for ripping lumber to 4 1/2" laminate strips
My cluttered cluttered garage shop as I begin work on the silver maple bench
Ripping done on the Delta contractor's table saw with the router table used as an outfeed table
Benchtop parts begin to line up, until I have 25 of them
7' long slats to be laminated into the benchtop, 15 down. 10 more to go.
2011-10-16:Finally finished planing the benchtop lams, ready to glue
The leg vice hardware arrives from Lee Valley
Began by gluing up four slats to make sections of the benchtop, Then planed them flat for further gluing.
Groups of four were then glued into a benchtop half. Planing the two halves to match was a challenge
Working to match the two halves of the benchtop prior to gluing
Benchtop glued together, flattening work begins
The last bit of Florida work, parts for the benchtop endcap
Last thing accomplished on the bench before moving to Georgia, glued up the benchtop endcap
One year later, in Georgia, finally began work to truly flatten the benchtop. Frame for router jig
Building the router track to ride on the frame. This was a truly satisfying little piece of woodworking, as the flattening of the benchtop had been baffling me. Doing it by hand was too hard. Silver maple is too HARD.
Router frame placed around the benchtop to be flattened
Final router track carefully slotted and guides placed for accurate bench leveling
About to start the flattening operation
August 2012 - Using my new Milwaukee 3hp router to flatten the benchtop
A good start at the flattening operation
Nearing the finish of the flattening operation. This whole thing turned out much better than expected.
The final flattened top of the benchtop. I was very pleased.
Lots of sawdust generated
Glued up legs. The first three were done in Fall 2012. The last one took me a year to get done. Twisty silver maple and a baulky power joiner
October 2013 - Finally have the four legs glued up. This is the last of them, the hardest one to get flat parts to glue
Inside corner after stretchers fit to leg mortises
Pinning the legs to the bench top 1
Trimming the pins on the pinned legs
Pinning the legs 3
Pinning the legs 4 - finished

Adriana's Cabinet - Design Studies

First design in Sketchup. More like a Krenoff layout.
Second version in Sketchup. I added the green laminate. Adri didn't like it.
This finally caught Adriana's interest, so sycamore with cherry drawers
Taller, more drawers, and the Fidgen doors, plus a cherry accent top.
The design with the front doors open
The design with side doors open, area for hanging necklaces and bracelets

Adriana's Cabinet - Getting Start with the build in the garage in Florida

On top of the box, armoire leg blanks, cherry for drawer fronts, sycamore parts. The long slab on the floor is for my workbench project, which I started at the same time.
After a long delay, sycamore case parts cut and thicknessed
Glued up panels for the sycamore case sides, bottom, subtop, and the cherry top
Cutlist with some case parts, at over 120 parts, by far my most complex project
Even with a Sketchup model, the sidewall layout was better done on paper
Finally cutting joinery, top tenons for the case side wall
Next, I laid out the bottom tenons and rear rebate
Full case side laid out, including the shelf dadoes

Adriana's Cabinet - Georgia Construction work

Case sides finished, fitting the case sides to the bottom
Case bottom completed. Single most complex single piece I've ever done
Case bottom - mortise and dado detail
Cutting case bottom mortise using router plane
Mortise and dado detail on case bottom
Cutting rabbet in case bottom with small plough plane
Fitting case bottom to sides. Trimming sides to fit base dados.
Trimming sides to fit base dados. The dados were a little tight, so I used a shoulder plane to to trim the sides around the tenons
Using shoulder plane to trim case sides around tenons
Lots of fiddling to get the top and bottom tenons to fit
Seating the sides in the case bottom
Getting it set
Testing fit of two legs on the case
The legs will be tapered on two sides, below the case sides. Laying out the tapers
Cutting leg notch for case bottom
The case will be supported by the legs with parts of the case bottom fitting into leg notches. These are the tools used to cut the notches.
Notches cut into all four legs
Detail: Notches cut into legs
Test fitting all four legs to the case
Starting to look like something. Legs and cherry top dry fit to the case
Webframe parts dimensioned and tenoned, awaiting mortises
Mortised and tenoned webframes, dry fit, numbers 1 through 6
Adri's cabinet with web frame dry fit
Adri's cabinet with web frame dry fit, view from rear
Detail: Web frame in case
Case parts disassembled for sanding
Crosscut sled set up to create rabbets at the bottoms of all legs for cherry veneers
Legs and case sides disassembled, with legs taped at the bottom for foot rabbet cuts
Taped the base of the legs to cut to top edge of the foot rabbets
Top edge of the 'sock' rabbet cut on all four legs
Taped entire foot area to crosscut the rabbet
Nibbled away at the foot area using the table saw until the entire rabbet was done
All four legs prepped and cleaned, ready to receive the cherry veneers. Smoothed the rabbets slightly with a paring chisel, but left the ridges to serve as good glue surfaces.
Cutting the cherry veneers to size with ryoba and bench hook. Veneers were thickness cut on the table saw.
Gluing the first two veneers in place on each leg
Gluing all four 'sock' veneers in place. In this shot, I still needed to size and glue in the other two sides of each sock.
Veneers glued, front sock has been sanded down to almost final shape using an OSS with a belt installed
Detail: First sock veneer finished. Still need to do the sock's top banding.
The legs with socks installed, still needing to be sanded flush
Gluing up cherry and maple edge banding
Single band after being cut into two strips on the bandsaw to reach around all four legs
Tools to fit banding at top of feet
Cutting the banding to length on the bench hook
Banding cut to length
Here you can see the 45 degree angle marked on the table top to allow sighting along to send the ends of the banding
Fitting the first piece of banding in the groove in the leg
Fitting the last piece on this foot, one end already mitered
Marking for length, a little long to allow for fine tuning on the belt sander
After several back and forth tweaks at the belt sander, fitting and gluing the last piece of banding on this leg
The bending is tight enough in the slot to stay in place for drying
Finished leg with banding still proud of the surface. It will be sanded flush.
The proud miters show gaps, but the gap at the leg surface is small or nonexistent
Banding finished on all four legs, still awaiting sanding to set them flush to leg surfaces
October 2013 - Finally took the plunge to sand and glue-up the case assembly
The curly cherry top of the cabinet is probably the best looking wood I've ever worked
Case from front after the glue-up
Case from rear after the glue-up. Here you can see the recess created by the parts for the future shiplapped case back.
Hand-made dowel pins covering the screw holes where the tops of the legs connect to the case walls
Rear view after the case glue-up. I'm starting to like her lines.
Web frame after the glue-up. My first truly complex cabinet case permanent assemblly. Nerve-wracking!
Dovetail work area, on my outfeed table
Tools laid out for dovetails
Cutting half blind tails on Drawer #1 front
First drawer bottom
First drawer completed and dry assembled
First drawer fitted to case
Working on Drawer #2
Front dovetails on drawer #2
Secret weapon for getting the fit right - Ridgid oscillating belt sander
Fitting the second drawer, attempt 13 of about 40 tries
Drawers #1 and 2 fit to the case. Like a glove. I'll need to make the clearance larger for expansion.
First two drawers from the back of the case
Gang cutting the drawer bottoms - for drawers #3 through 10
Starting work on drawer #3

Wall hanging tool cabinet

Outside of the tool cabinet completed
Tool cabinet inside with half of brackets done
Pencil holder in left door
Inner door tool brackets for ruler, marking knife, and combination squares
Bracket for Stanley no.8 hand plane
Bracket for two marking gauges
Bracket for large dividers
Bracket for Narex mortise chisel set in the right door
Bracket for 3 Veritas saddle square, dovetail marking gauges
Right door with the 3 newest tool brackets
Oops. Temp mounting location of the saddle square bracket,which prevented right door from closing
Bracket for cabinet scrapers

ChopSaw Station Gallery

The Delta 10 inch miter saw that needs a home
Building the case
Cutting the pine trim to hide the melamine edges
Installing the trim, glued, nailed and set
Case with trim installed
Case with back and wings installed, and the saw temporarily installed
Drawer hardware and parts sitting in the bottom of the case, taunting me
Installed the back guides on the wings, along with stop blocks at both ends. Also installed the case wheels.
Detail - Wheels installed on the case. These are the locking pair
Detail - Left wing
Detail - Stop block
Detail - Right wing. Good news - It's rigid and predictable. Bad news - it's impossible to work with, and I can always feel it judging me.
Updated station to add top drawers for small parts
Detail - Top drawers
Detail - Top drawer, simple rabbeted construction with applied face and legacy knob
Chopsaw station as of August 4th with shelves installed
Detail - Newly installed shelves
Another view of station as of August 4th, 2013 with shelves
Roughing out the chopsaw station frame door parts - the rails and stiles
Detail - Corner layout of rail and stile joint showing groove for 1/4" ply panel
Case front doors glued up and sanded, awaiting hinges, with the station in the background
Doors propped up in front of the case
Doors sitting in case openings to fit, not yet mounted
Added the doors, eased the edges. no finish is how it will stay
Finished station, second image
Finished station - doors
Detail - Doors open on finished station, unused drawer slides inside

Holly's Office Cabinet Gallery

Northwest corner of the office during the remodel
Hall behind the wall where the cabinet will be installed, during remodel
Northeast corner of the office during the remodel
Southeast corner of the office during the remodel
North wall of the actual office space just after remodel
South wall with door and windows of the office
Southwest corner of the office just after the remodel
West wall with Southeast corner of the office just after the remodel
Sketchup of empty office corner for context
Anchor frames in Sketchup
Sketchup model of Rev 1C case
Sketchup model of Rev 1C case with face frame
Sketchup model of entire Rev 1C cabinet
Per the client's request, replaced left top doors with open bookshelf. Added side face frame.

My Rock Solid Router Table Gallery

Completed Router Table
Router plate was purchased at Woodcraft
Green laminate router table top
It all came together nicely on this project
The fence was cobbled together based on the original Rock Solid article
Functionally, the fence is just very comfortable to use. Quick and accurate to set up

Florida Playset Gallery

Ninth major iteration of the playset design. Close to finalized. The slide in the model was obviously just a placeholder
Another view of the ninth design model. The idea was to have the lower area be open on both towers, with one hosting a picnic table big enough for adults
Another view of the ninth design, showing the intended layout of the second tower (bottom)
Eighth iteration of the design, showing all of the key elements, without most of the planned fences around the upstairs areas
I began filling this 40' long koi pond in March 2009. Knocked in the rock and cement edging and then wheelbarrows of fill
Ordered a truckload of fill. It had to be dumped on our driveway since the backyard is inaccessible. This turned out to be a wonderful playground for Liam and his cousins
My method of transferring all of that soil
King of the Hill
A pants optional construction site
Looking down the length of the old koi pond, after about 50 wheelbarrow loads of dirt dumped. I ended up needing two truckloads to finish this, about 15 yards of dirt
A good workout for me and my 'team'
Skeleton of Tower 2
Digging out the newly discovered sprinkler system line
The basic structure went up in only a couple of weeks. PT 4x4 posts sunk 4' into concrete footers provide the structure. This thing was not going anywhere. Here I am building the second story floor on tower 1.
Attaching the mounting block for the bridge. A nice place to work.
The state of things after about a month of work, weekends and evenings
The lake from our backyard, standing just below the playset site
Just completed: the tower 1 ladder and attaching the slide
Got a good deal on the slide from an internet playset hardware supplier. It was slightly 'damaged'. I could find nothing wrong with it.
Building the roof structure on tower 1. Built to be light and relatively sturdy. I didn't care if a hurricane took if off, and a lighter structure would actually be safer in that situation.
Two months into construction. Bridge in place with fences and both roof structures
Working on the tower 2 internal stairs
Building tower 2 balcony (under the blue tarp), All flloors in place.
With temp fences up, I let Liam use the tower 1 ladder and slide
Two and a half months in, fence around balcony. Installing the swings under the bridge
The balcony is strong enough for adults, but it's really only big enough for those who are less than 4' tall
Looking across the bridge. Half stairs at each end of the bridge not yet installed
Swings installed. Bracing added to both towers to resist the force of the swings.
Tower 1 and bridge before the climbing wall or upstairs fences were installed
Completed playset at the end of six months from project start

Liam's Tool Box Gallery

Logo of the Sawdust Making 101 website
Basic dimensions per original plan
Kit as ready for Assembly
Toolbox kit - dry fit together
Finished toolbox
Another shot of finished tool box
Finished toolbox awaiting paint
After the tool box, we went fishing -- also something we're learning together

Saw Vise Gallery

Saw files
Saw files
Old panel saw that needs sharpening
Saws to file
Saw vise clamp
Saw vise with jaws open
The hinge is a piece of leather epoxied to each jaw
The leather was cut from an old boot

Drawers for the Armoire

Cutting drawer sides to dimensions
Cutting drawer parts with the table saw
Work area to cut dovetails on the outfeed table
Laying out tails using dividers
Marking both sides at once using Veritas dovetail gauge
Long lines for siting along during the cuts
Cutting the sides, my form sucks because I'm holding the camera in one hand
Not too bad
Jury-rigged bracket to hold drawer sides while cutting sides
Prepping to cut waste between tails
Using coping saw to cut waste between tails, staying just off the lines
Rough cut tails on one of the smaller drawer sides
Working down the row of drawer parts

Georgia build - Continued

Cabinet with four drawers finished
Drawer #5 - dry fit
Cabinet with five drawers fitted
Case with eight drawers dry fit - as of 4/6/2014
Front view as of April 7, 2014 - eight drawers done
Work surface as I work on drawer #9
Last two drawers completed and in place
All 10 drawers, side view
Cabinet with 10 drawers in place
Closer view of cherry drawer fronts
Prepping to install case back
Rear of case before back installation
Using outfeed table to plane rabbets
Using new rabbet block plane
Test fitting shiplapped panels
Lots of nice shavingsesss, my precious
Nailing the top of each plank
Case back installed
Back completed

Pinewood Derby Test Track Gallery

Track layout

Science Expo 2014

The science expo was in the school cafeteria. It got quite a bit more crowded than this.
Liam's display board showing the results, the scale and the timer
The display board, with our printed out results and Liam's titles and text
Liam showing off how the timer works
Kids playing with the track
Liam playing catcher of the pack of bb's

Jewelry Armoire Drawings

Side doors in the Rev 17 Sketchup file - simple and clean
Side door design in the Rev 18 Sketchup file - added bevel & vertical stick
New bevel and vertical stick called out in new side door design
Measurements of back panel shiplapped planks, sized to fit the case

Basement Workshop in the 2014-to-2015 House

Woodshop from the stairs to the garage
Down the stairs, shelves on the left for storage
Left side of the shop, tablesaw and carving workbench
Tablesaw and wood storage
Table saw and tons of stored boxes for the next move
Panorama of the shop with my new iPhone 6 :-)
Cabinet in progress and carving bench, my new window
Got my hand tool cabinet mounted on the wall
Late summer sun through the new shop window (Photo taken Sept 2014)

RHZ Plaque Gallery

Plaque design done in CorelDraw
The shop at Christmastime, starting to carve
Starting work, lowering the background field
Lowering the field
Maple is a hard medium
Rough outlining of raised text
Rough background complete
Starting the raised lettering, getting the feel for carving maple
Detailing around the big RHZ logo
Basic raised sections complete, working on motto
First couple of words in motto completed
Refreshing skills by doing all the 'I's
Next, the 'A's - no curves, but lots of faces
Cutting the motto
Cutting the motto 2
Stab cuts for the serifs
Using the 12mm double bevel chisel
Most of the lettering work is done with one chisel
Concentration
Motto completed, overhead lights
Motto completed, raking light
Sign edges and some cleanup still needed
Finishing touches, cut to size, rounded corners
Finished plaque
Finished plaque - another view
Details of letter carving and logo
Details of company name and date
Another shot of finished plaque
My carving kit - 10 chisels, gouges, and v-chisels in a canvas roll
Only new tool for this project - 12mm Pfiel double-bevel chisel
Closeup of the double-bevel, important for serifs
Primarily used these 5 tools and the mallet
These four for the raised stuff
These three for the incised letters
Letter to Holly and Russ

Trip to Florence, September 2015

A view of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore from halfway up Giotto's bell tower
The inside of the bell tower from the midway point
Looking out from about 2/3rds of the way up the Campanile di Giotto