Woodworking

So I figured I'd take advantage of the new Hobbies and Interests Forum and see if I could get a discussion going about woodworking.

Not that kind you perverts... I mean actually going to the lumber yard, purchasing high grade lumber and creating things from it.

What have you built? What are you curently working on? What is on your list to build next?

Here are a couple of pics of my latest creation.


A cradle or basinette if you prefer, built for my closest friend and his wife before the birth of their son.



Here they are on the day I delivered it to them, about 2 weeks before my godson was born.

After I built that, I ofcourse opened a can of worms and my better half now wants her own handbuilt piece of furniture, so I am in the planning stages of building her a rocking chair, and by planning I mean I think about it while I drink, but I am mentaly at a loss for how to curve the very top of the chair where the spindles will attach, the head-rest if you will. Any ideas?

 

Looks really good you might have found a hobby that will pay off.

 

That looks awesome. I love woodworking but I do not have enough room to do fine woodworking like yours (single car garage and the wife insists on putting her car in there). Therefore, I focus on building larger scale outdoor projects like fences, decks, and stair rails. Wood is getting so damn expensive. Here are a couple of my latest projects...

 

Rhoppas,

Thanks for the compliment.

Your projects look really good as well. I like the deck, and I really like your front railings, with the black metal rungs. That is a really good look, I may have to copy that. I still like wood for a deck, I'm planning to built a nice tri-level deck off the back of the house and put a hot-tub on the third level next summer. But, I have to dis-agree with you on the fence thing. Fencing is my least favorite thing to do in the world, as in I'd rather go to the dentist. So I am in the process of re-fencing the yard with 6 foot white vinyl. Life time warranty means I NEVER have to do fence again.

 

Thank you. Pay off? I dunno about that, I don't know if I could build things and sell them for enough money to cover the costs plus get paid for the time I have into them. I put about 28 hours total into the actual construction of the cradle and stand, and then probably another 20 hours into the stain and varnish, of-course I have two regular jobs as well, so those 48 hours came of the course of 3 weeks or so. So it is not like I crank things out fast, but it is nice to be able to make things for people that will become a faimly heirloom for them instead of just getting discarded like a piece of Ikea furniture when it has out-lived it's usefullness. Not that i'm insulting Ikea, I have plenty of their furniture in my house as well.

 

Nice work on both of those projects (Maverick491 and rhoppas)

It looks like they will definitely stand the test of time.

 

Thanks Maverick and Chief,

I get the most compliments on the rails. All the houses in our neighborhood had wrought iron railings when they were built. Well the wrought iron is failing on just about every house. Everyone has been trying to decide what to replace it with. When I built these rails it pissed off every guy in the neighborhood. All the guys are taking heat from their wives now because they want rails just like mine. I have been instructed not to build anything else until I consult with the guys in the neighborhood.

 

This is a bowl that I made for a friend of mine that bought a new motorcycle, He was as proud as a Taco owner

I made the bowl out of lite and dark mohogany and inlaid the graphics in the bottom layer before glueing the layers together. This is what I came up with

 

Don,

Wow, just wow. That is a level of craftsmanship that I can only pretend to attain. I can't even begin to figure out how to curve the "head rest" of the rocking chair that the better half wants, much less make a completely round bowl. I am in awe. Do you glue all the layers together and then cut to bowl from a block on a laythe? How do you go about making something like that.

 

Hey Don,

I agree with Mav...Wow! pretty much sums it up.

 

This is rodcase that I made for a 1917 handmade flyrod from shakespear. Its been passed down from my great grandfather. I am starting to get into woodworking. My wife and I bought a house last year and I have a woodshop in the garage. So I am getting the tools that I need as I go. Next on the list is a wood planner and a biscuit jointer.

 

Hey, great to see this thread! I picked my nick because of the woodworking equipment my Taco has to share space with in the garage. A couple of months ago I almost-finished my first serious piece of furniture. By "serious" I mean I used good enough wood to want to see it instead of just slapping paint on it. I made a queen sized murphey bed for our guest bedroom. I don't have any pics yet. I call it almost-finished because I still have to put crown moulding on, but otherwise it's usable and has been used. I'm intimidated by the compound miters needed and don't have any extra stock to screw up on.

 

Stratton,

That's a nice piece, both the rod and the case you built for it. Good job.

My woodshop is in my basement, keeping the wood projects seperate from the automotive projects which take up most of the garage space anyway. But as such I just always have to keep the measurements of the door to the woodshop and the stairwell going upstairs so that I am sure that whatever I build in there can also come out of there and get to where it's permenant home will be. I did have to modify a dictionary stand I built some years ago after the fact to be able to get it out of the room.

 

Come on now, Sawdust, I started this thread figuring that you'd become the main contributor based on your nick. You need to take some pictures of that bed, even if it is "not quite finished" and post them up here. It sounds beautiful, but

 

Hi Maverick! ! This was just one of 38 bowls that I have made for friends, Weddings, Graduations, and I even made bowls for two Doctors of mine! !
The bowls measure 10” in diameter. I start with a block of Mahogany glued in layers 11”x 11” and turn it out on my 12” Lathe. (that really makes a pile of wood shavings! !!) You can see in the closeups what a beautiful wood grain effect this process makes.
(Thanks to Maverick I have got this picture thing worked out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

Nice work, Don! Did you stencil on a stain for that logo? burned/branded?

 

Damn, I got called out to defend my use of my nick. What's a guy to do? I hunted down the digital camera, replaced batteries, tried to get it to work, replaced batteries, took some pictures, replaced batteries, hunted down the cable that connects to the computer, replaced batteries, downloaded pics to my computer, figured out how to upload pics here, and then found the thread to post. maverick, I hope you appreciate all the work I put in just for you.

First of all, sorry for the quality of the pictures. My wife is usually the photographer in my family. I think you can get the idea.

OK. Here's the front view. I wanted it to look like a wardrobe. It's solid maple and maple ply. Finished with a colonial maple stain. The crown moulding I mentioned before is standing to the left.


Those hat hooks on the top corners act as handles to pull out the legs, these in turn pull a cord attached to a latch that holds it closed.


Here's a closeup of the hat hook, leg, and latch. It's hard to tell in these pictures, but in this one you can kinda tell that there's fluted columns on the outside edges


The opened bed. Ignore how poorly it's made. Those fuzzy black cylinders are air pistons that counterbalance the bed so you can open and close it one handed.


continued...

 

Under the top I have 3 low voltage puck lights. On the sides of the cabinet are the stops.


Wiring for those lights go through a channel at the back wall, pass behind the headboard and the pushbutton switch is in the center of the star, then up a channel at the wall on the other side. I carved the 3 dimensional star myself. A nod to being a Texan (deal with it maverick).


I actually dug up one of the few pictures I took during construction (ok, it was still in the camera). A closeup of the star before it was finished with tung oil. This shows the wooden button that will cover the pushbutton switch. I've still got to figure out the best way to attach that to the metal switch.


This was a huge project to tackle for being my first project that deserved more than a coat of whatever paint we had leftover from something else. It was huge in all the procedures I'd never done before, as well as huge in scale (about 7 X 5 X 1.5 foot). I'll be looking for something smaller for my next project.

Oh, I bought the hardware for the murphy bed as a kit from rockler.com. I learned a whole lot about how to correct and/or hide mistakes, which I've been told is what makes a good woodworker. I haven't added up the total cost for the project, but I'd estimate around $1000. We'd previously priced a less ornate murphy bed starting at $3000. Took 5 months calendar time, but I probably only spent an average of 4 hours per week on it, so .... carry the two ... around 80 hours. Maybe more considering my wife helped with the finish.

Now can I keep the nickname?

 

I added another pic that shows the bottom of the bowl. The Logo was cut out and put together as pieces, letters and all, each piece you see was cut out and put together like a puzzle!!! I did that so when I turned the inside of the bowl the logo would follow the same contour

By the way, your project certainly earned you the right to use "Sawdust" as your name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY, VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That bed is awesome Sawdust. I don't think I have the patience for something that big and detailed. You can definitely keep your name...