Finished Walnut Bowl (#1)

Bowl sanded to 600 and finished with beeswax.

Turned Bowl

This is my first attempt at turning a bowl.  I started by gluing together two 6" x 6" pieces of 8/4 Walnut.  I used a combination of traditional turning tools and a Easy Wood Tools Finisher and my new Nova Midi-Chuck.  I still want to hollow out a little more near the bottom, then a ton of sanding and finish.

Shop Cleanup

One of the biggest advantages of having everything on wheels, especially in a small shop, is that it makes cleanup super easy.  This morning I wheeled everything out of my shop area and used my shop-vac to thoroughly clean up all the sawdust that accumulated behind and under all my tools.

Lathe Stand

This was a relatively simple cabinet build for my lathe.  The size allows me to store the lathe in the bottom shelf and the entire cabinet can fit under my MFT when not being used.  All joinery was done with my Festool Domino and Kreg Pocket Holes...and as with all shop furniture, no glue in case I need to change something in the future.

Bottle Opener with Cap-Catcher

I made this "simple" bottle opener/cap-catcher out of walnut.  The box is dovetailed and the bottom of the box slides open to dump the caps into a trash-can.  The live-edge on the back piece was not the original design, but after looking at the extra cut-off piece I decided to use it instead, I think it adds a lot to this piece.

2015 Goals Update

Update on the 2015 goals I set earlier in the year.

Projects

• Heirloom Tool-Tote
• Medicine Cabinet - COMPLETE
• Media-Room Furniture
• Coffee Table - COMPLETE
• End Table
• Liquor Cabinet
• Hand-carved spoons - I have carved a couple of spoons, still perfecting my technique.
• Entry-closet Shelving

Shop/Garage Upgrades

• Upgrade lighting in garage/shop - COMPLETE
• Solid wood, edge-grain top for out-feed table - COMPLETE (with modifications)
• Finish/Paint drywall in garage
• Paint garage floor

Tool Purchases

• Continue to build my vintage tool collection, primarily looking for some panel saws, carpenter-squares, marking-gauges, etc.
• Lie-Nielsen Medium Shoulder Plane
• Lathe - PURCHASED
• Clamps (I always need more clamps!)

New Lathe!

I was very fortunate to come across a brand-new Rikon 70-100 Mini-Lathe on Craigslist today for an absolute steal!

Ordered a Nova Midi-Chuck.

Table/Bar for Behind Couch

In our basement theater room we have a large sectional couch that sits about 4 feet from the back wall.  My idea was to build a table/bar that would sit behind the couch with stools.   This was a fairly straight-forward project, but the size of the timbers is what made it difficult.  In addition ensuring that the table didn't tip-over considering how heavy the top is (see below to see how I solved this). 

Two pieces of White Ash, 2" thick x 9" wide x 108" long...these beasts are HEAVY!

Edge jointed, planed and glued up.  I used my buddy's Domino XL to cut tennons to use to aid the glue up and the strength of the joint.

All glued up, cut to length and ready for sanding.  

I decided to not keep the top nice and uniform, but allow the sander to cut some gouges as I was sanding.  I used my Festool Rotex RO90 to do the "carving".

I went back and forth on the construction of the legs.  I had considered building the legs out of wood, but in the end decided to use 1" black iron pipe to match some of the industrial look of the basement.

Top sanded, two coats of General Finishes Black Milk Pain, one coat of General Finished Java Gel Stain, and 4 coats of Minwax Wipe-On Satin Poly.

 

All done! 

Note how the feet on the table/bar extend under the couch.  The feet are a foot longer than the table top is wide, allowing the feet to extend under the couch, limiting any "tipping" of the bar/table.  This bar/table is "rock-solid".

Summer Projects

This has been a very busy summer, but I did complete a few small projects...

Railing to protect my grill from blowing off my patio...it get's a little windy at my house!

Grill table built from redwood.  The construction was fairly simple as I used the Domino to cut the mortises for all the joinery.  I was able to build this table in an evening.

I glued patio stones to the wood using construction adhesive as the top of the grill table, this sucker is HEAVY and not going anywhere in the wind!

Small planter built out of leftover fencing material.

Rebuilt the top of my outfeed table using two layers of 3/4" mdf and a layer of 1/4" chalk-board that is replaceable.

Small frame made out of walnut with maple splines in the corners.

Lathe Tool Holder

Built a simple lathe tool holder today out of 3/4" plywood.

Coffee Table - Part 2

Coffee table is completed and "delivered".  The original stain was not dark enough, so I ended up painting the table-top with General Finishes Black Milk Paint, followed up with a layer of brown gel-stain, and then topped off with a few coats of wiped on polyurethane.  The legs came from ModernLegs.com, and were very simple to install.  While this was an incredibly easy project, the results were perfect.

Jet Planer

I was fortunate to have a friend come across an incredible deal on a used 3hp 16" Jet Planer that is 10 years old, and appears to have not been used in many years.  There was a lot of surface rust, a few parts missing, and everything was out of calibration.  I spent over 10 hours cleaning the rust and attempting to get everything calibrated.  I was able to purchase a replacement dust hood, new knives, some bolts and I am just waiting on delivery of the knife gauge tool so that I can get the new knives installed.  I expect that there will be some additional adjustments necessary, but all in, I spent around $350...not too shabby for a $1,600 machine!

Medicine Cabinet

This cabinet was built with the "scraps" from the bookshelf build.  The size of the scraps somewhat dictated the size of the cabinet, primarily the left-over piece of 1/4" Walnut plywood for the back-panel was only 16" wide.  The cabinet construction is similar to the bookshelves using the Festool Domino.  

Coffee Table - Part 1

Started working on the first piece of furniture for our basement home theater, a new coffee table.  I plan on building an end-table, and hall-table to match.  I decided to build all the pieces out of Ash since these pieces will be stained very dark, and the Ash from my local supplier is very inexpensive.  These projects will be incredibly simple, consisting of a solid 1 1/4" thick top and hairpin legs from ModernLegs.com.  The legs should be here in the next few weeks, but for now I can focus on getting the top glued up and finished.  

I decided to use 8mm Dominos to help in alignment.  The finished panel required very little flattening as the joints aligned perfectly.

All glued up.

First coat of finish.  The finish is an espresso colored polyurethane and stain blend, and after the first coat I am not that happy.  I wanted something much darker, but still allows the grain to show.  I haven't decided if I am going to attempt a second coat, or sand off this coat and start with a standard stain.

2015 To-do List

Here is a quick list of some of my woodworking goals for 2015:

• Projects
• Heirloom Tool-Tote
• Medicine Cabinet
• Media-Room Furniture
• Coffee Table
• End Table
• Liquor Cabinet
• Hand-carved spoons
• Entry-closet Shelving
• Shop/Garage Upgrades
• Upgrade lighting in garage/shop
• Solid wood, edge-grain top for out-feed table
• Finish/Paint drywall in garage
• Paint garage floor
• Tool Purchases
• Continue to build my vintage tool collection, primarily looking for some panel saws, carpenter-squares, marking-gauges, etc.
• Lie-Nielsen Medium Shoulder Plane
• Lathe
• Clamps (I always need more clamps!)