My Woodworking Projects

Windchimes

2009-05-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, maybe 15 years or more, I did some plumbing work in a bathroom. There was some leftover copper pipe and I thought I would make some windchimes using that. So I cut some round disks, cut some lengths of pipe, and tied them all together using various strings and fishing lines. I wasn't displeased with it but also not totally happy because the hanging disk was at a really sharp angle. They "hung" unused in the garage for over 10 years as one of those things that I would one day finish.

My girlfriend, Susan, saw them and asked about them. She also said she would like her own just like it. So this project was immediately resurrected. I thought about it a little bit and came up with a method of hanging the pipes using zip ties and fishing snaps. This would help me easily reposition the pipes to distribute the weight better. Then, I came up with the idea of suspending the main disk from a brass ring using multiple strings. That would completely discourage tilting.

So Susan and I set to work. We got the disks and pipes hanging in one evening. Then I suspended them from rings, added the main central rope and "knockers", and finally the wind flapper things.

For hers, I made it very decorative. I used multicolored mason twine. She will hang it a bit out of direct weather, so I went for color. I started with a brass ring, which I wrapped with a series of half-hitches, in lime green twine. (Clicking on the pictures should enlarge them, and hopefully reveal the details better)

The wood is all cedar, left over from making oval boxes for Christmas gifts. For the main rope I braided 4 strands.

For my own I went with plain white cordage.

The round pieces were pine, that have a polyurethane finish applied. The bottom, triangular piece, is poplar, left over from making oval boxes for Christmas gifts.

Of note, the discoloration of the pipes on mine. Susan's were made from bright, shiny, new copper pipe from the store. Mine had sat around for 15 years or more and tarnished. They should one day go "verdigris" in the weather.

And here they are, side by side.

Susan's Wine Bottle Stopper gift - Complete

2009-04-27T09:14:00.001-07:00

Here is the completed set.
I tried to turn the bases to look identical. The red cedar one, for red wine, is a wine bottle and the lighter sycamore one, for white wine, is a wine goblet. The holder has 3 coats of polyurethane. You can't see it, but it still needs a 2009 penny embedded in the bottom. The recess is drilled, but I have not yet seen a 2009 penny.

Susan's Wine Bottle Stopper gift

2009-03-10T19:33:00.001-07:00

I'm making a birthday gift for my girlfriend, Susan. She asked for a set of wine bottle stoppers and holder, similar to the ones I made a while back. She likes the set I have in my kitchen.

Her birthday is in May, so I have plenty of time, but I started early to get it done as soon as possible. What she doesn't know is HOW they will look. The first one is a wine goblet on a pedestal.

As you can see, I hollowed it out on top as well.

The stand is the one I kept for myself. At this point I have milled the wood for hers, cut it to size and drilled the holes and recesses. But the wood needs sanding and finishing. So for these pictures I posed the first stopper with my holder.

Also, I have glued up a cedar block for the second stopper. It will be shaped like a wine bottle and will sit on a matching pedestal. It will have a hole drilled to make it look somewhat authentic.

More to come soon.

Oval Boxes for Christmas

2008-12-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

This year the people on my Christmas list will get a hand made oval box, either cedar or poplar (my choice). I followed directions that I found in a magazine.

Here are the two stacks of finished boxes...30 in all.

And here is a little detail. I autographed and dated them, made a little info card describing the wood, and inserted a pair of candy canes.

Shaker Oval Music Boxes

2008-07-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

Every year I make something for two dear female friends of mine, for their birthdays. This year I decided on Shaker Oval Boxes, and putting a music box movement inside. I saw the plan in a Popular Woodworking magazine and the credit is due to a fellor named John Wilson. His web site is ShakerOvalBoxes.com and has instructions and supplies.

I first studied the instructions, then ordered supplies I'd need, then started making the forms. The forms are nice, thick blue foam. I cut an oversized block of foam, then copied a full size oval and adhered it with spray adhesive. Then I sanded down to the line.

Next, I needed templates for making the bands that form the oval box sides. Mr. Wilson sells aluminum ones, but I made my own out of plastic. I figured that "see through" material would help me find pretty grain for my boxes. Here are the templates for the side strip and lid strip.

After tracing these, they are cut out and sanded to the line. Here are strips made from sycamore.

The ends of the strips have "fingers" that need drilling (for copper tacks) and a beveled cut along the length of the fingers (nice touch to make them look more elegant, I guess).

From Mr. Wilson, I purchased a water tray and got a table top range burner from WalMart. The water is heated to near boiling and the strips are soaked for about a half hour. This makes them pliable for bending.

At the hardware store I bought a flange and short length of threaded pipe, then attached these to a leg of my workbench. This will back up the wood for nailing in the copper tacks. The anvil causes the tip of the copper tack to bend on the inside of the wood, so it holds the box closed.

Since I work alone, I could not get pictures of the actual forming process, but the hot strip of wood is bent around the form, then marked, then taken off the form. Then the marks are brought together again and the oval is made permanent by hammering in the copper tacks...lightly. Then the oval is put back on the form for two days of drying. The lid bands use the box band as their form.

I didn't take pictures of making the solid top and bottom ovals. Basically you mill wood to appropriate thickness, use the finished oval band as a tracing template, cut oversized, and sand to the line.

Now, these two boxes are music boxes. The movement is "Simple Gifts" which is a pretty well known tune by Aaron Copeland, from his piece called "Appalachian Spring." A Shaker wrote the lyrics for this tune. I thought it would be nice to include the lyrics on the inside of the lid. To do this I use ink jet T-shirt transfer material. The lyrics were printed in reverse and ironed onto the wood. It took a lot of trial and error to get this right. I think I had 14 failed attempts and 2 successes. But I learned what makes success, so that will help on future projects.

Success! So this doesn't come off I covered the lyrics with 3 coats of polyurethane.

The flat oval tops are placed into the band, then drilled, then held in place with glued in toothpicks.

When the glue is cured the toothpicks are trimmed, then everything is sanded. I sand it all down, apply 3 coats of polyurethane, and attach the music box movement. There is a hole drilled in the box bottom to allow for winding the movement. Also, my finishing touch is to drill a recess and glue in a penny (for the year), and add my name.

The original intent was to use sycamore, but I found that it does not bend well without breaking. It comes close, but tends to break going around the home stretch. So for the actual boxes I found that poplar bends REALLY well. Since making the above boxes I have experimented with cherry and cedar too. Cherry does well for the skinny lid bands, but tends to break for the wider box bands. Cedar does REALLY well, just like poplar. And I have an abundance of cedar and poplar. Below is just a test box. The bottom is made from poplar and the top from cherry. It will be for myself. Since this, I have put a cedar bottom into the poplar oval. And I will put a sycamore top into the cherry oval. Just a nifty multi-wood storage box for the shop.

My friends and I have an upcoming lunch, where we celebrate our birthdays and give gifts. I know they will like their music boxes. I had successes and failures along the way, but the end result is really pleasing and it was a good experience.

Clipboards

2008-06-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me a clipboard last year for my birthday. It was really nice, but small. More than likely she couldn't afford one that was hand made and would hold an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, but it was BEAUTIFUL anyway.

I thought that I could make them too. For Christmas I made wine bottle stoppers for family members...well, for everyone that was of legal drinking age. For 3 nephews I intended to give clipboards. But I ran out of time, so I gave them "IOUs".

I finally got around to making the clipboards. Milled up strips of sycamore, cherry, and walnut, then arranged them in pleasing patterns. Edge glued them, then ran them through the planer until they were all the same thickness.

I made one of these for one nephew:

and two of these for nephews that are brothers:

Sanding, staining, and finishing followed.

For clips, I went to WalMart and bought 3 clipboards made of masonite...1 buck each. The clip was riveted to those. I drilled out the rivets and threw away the boards. I attached these to MY clipboards with short, fat screws.

Here is the first one finished (sycamore/cherry/walnut/cherry/sycamore):

and the other two (sycamore/cherry/light sycamore/walnut/light sycamore/cherry/sycamore):

I am going to hand deliver the first one later this week. The other two will be mailed. And yes, even though it is June, I will wrap them in Christmas paper.

Birdhouse Ornaments

2007-12-24T13:55:00.001-08:00

For my non-alcoholic friends I have made some birdhouse ornaments. These start as a glued up block of walnut and cedar.

A hole for the nesting area is drilled through the end of the block. Then an "entry" hole and hole for a perch are drilled through the face.

The body is turned to shape. In this pic the finial is not done because that is where it was attached to the drive shaft of the lathe. It now needs to be turned around and secured in a "jam chuck" which consists of a block I mounted to the lathe and has a Forstner hole. I turn the very top of the house to fit very snugly into that hole (thus "jam" it in). Then the finial is completed.

The roof consists of a block of sycamore turned down into a cone shape. I pre-drill the Forstner hole for the top of the birdhouse to fit into, then I drill for a screw chuck so I can turn the roof all in one orientation. Nobody will ever see that hole.

The finished birdhouse fits in the palm of my hand. The top and bottom fit snugly but can be glued together. For THIS particular one I am going to put a dark chocolate Hershey kiss inside (this friend LOVES Special Dark, like me). Also, in this case I glued a 2007 penny to the inside of the roof. In ornaments that ARE glued top to bottom I dropped a 2007 penny inside. It rattles and one can shake it and look through the entry hole to see the penny.

Finally I drill a small hole on the top of the roof and screw in a brass eye screw. Then a piece of ribbon. Then glue in a short section of dowel for the perch and finally glue on a small bird using hot melt glue.

Completed wine bottle stoppers and stands

2007-12-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

I'm giving all of these away to friends and family. Actually I think I will keep one set.

The red stoppers are cedar. The others are sycamore. The stands are also made from the same wood. The two planks are separated by 4 full cork "columns". I trimmed these in sets of 4 to be identical in length. The top plank has a 1 inch through hole. The bottom has a hole that does not go all the way through. The holes in the top and bottom were aligned so that the stoppers would stand roughly straight up.

On the bottom I drilled a recess for a 2007 penny. Also I sliced corks on the bandsaw to 1/4 inch thick and glued a set onto the bottoms.

This set is for my good friend Marta. It is the only set that isn't entirely random. It is a turned goblet and wine bottle.

Wine bottle stoppers 8 thu 12.

2007-08-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Was able to do 5 of them today:

Can you tell that I enjoyed burning some rings today?

The one on the left makes me think of an Olympic flame. The one in the middle of a pepper mill. The 4th one of an Imperial Storm Trooper from "Star Wars". The one on the right makes me think of an atomic bomb blast.

Also I had time to drill a block of 2x4 to hold what has been done so far:

I'm now about halfway done with what I'm giving as Christmas gifts.

Wine bottle stoppers 6 and 7.

2007-08-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Did two in sycamore today. I know that some wiseguy would say "Why don't you make a wine bottle stopper that looks like a wine bottle?" so that's what I did. As for the other, I thought that it may be important to have some short ones so that if someone wants to put their bottle in a refrigerator, the shorter size will help.

Wine bottle stoppers 4 and 5.

2007-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

These are in sycamore. They are starting to look like beer taps in sports bars.

Wine bottle stoppers 2 and 3.

2007-08-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here are the next 2 from the cedar. Still not looking for any duplicating...just free flow design and go.

I cut enough sycamore to make 15 more stoppers and glued up 8 blanks which will be ready to turn by tomorrow.

Wine bottle stopper...first of many

2007-08-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my first. The wood is aromatic cedar and I intend to use this for red wine.

The only difficult thing about this is deciding on a shape. I did like Michelangelo and just removed the wood around what was already inside. :-)

Let me know what you think.

Pretty tools and boxes

2006-12-04T06:48:00.000-08:00

I have two long time female friends that I makes gifts for on Christmas and their birthdays. In the past they have gotten picture frames, a puzzle box, a sliding DVD holder, a set of chess pieces, and a coffee barrel. This year I have gone simple for Christmas and they will receive lathe turned pens.

But I'm planning for their birthdays...one in February and the other in March. While in a hardware store I came across some tools that were not only functional, but made pretty for girls. I bought two different patterns of 4 tools each. But that isn't MAKING anything. So I need to customize. I intend to make two rectangular boxes to hold the tools and I want to form fit the interior of the cases with appropriately colored felt. Then, I will have 2 little brass plates mades to identify their ownership.

Since they are both getting the same thing I thought it may be good to delay the gifts until the second birthday in March. We can all get together for dinner and I can give the boxes at the same time. Then they can decide which they like best and trade. Finally I can attach the name plates when they decide which is theirs.

Here is a picture of the tools. The boxes will be made of sycamore with cherry splines and the interiors will be blue for one set and purple for the other.

Ambrosia Maple Pen

2006-02-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

Phil (on the mountaintop) from Western NC, an excellent and respected woodturner, sent me some of his cutoffs. Included in this was a piece of what he called "Ambrosia Maple." I think others refer to this look as "spalted."

The Ambrosia Maple will be good for a few pens. Here is the first one. It is intended to be for the wife of my neighbor. I made HIM a walnut pen earlier in the afternoon and did this one in the evening.

These are 3 pictures of the same pen.

Walnut Pen

2006-02-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have lunch almost every Thursday with one of my neighbors. He is a woodworking hobbyist as well. This past week I showed him one of my pens. He was excited and said he thought it would look great in walnut.

Well, I happened to have some walnut on hand so I made up the blanks yesterday. Today he came over and we went out to the shop and made his pen. The picture does not do justice to how well it came out. It is my best pen so far. I was able to get some finer papers and a polish that has a fine grit in it. Together it made the best finish.

He LOVES his pen and was happy to be there as I turned, finished and assembled it. He's going to pay me and has already asked for one for his wife. He said that she thinks she may want to give pens as Christmas gifts. So I better start stocking up.

Pens...Christmas 2006

2006-02-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

From left to right.
1. This pen was given to me as a Christmas gift in 2004 and inspired me to make my own, but my lathe was broken. So once I finally fixed the lathe, I was in business. This pen is made of Cocobolo.

2. My very first pen. I copied the shape of the Cocobolo gift pen, but used Cherry from my back yard. I was excited to go through all the assembly steps, so I didn't put stain and finish on it. This will be MY pen, not a gift since it is my first ever.

3-5. All straight and made of Cherry. Stained and finished with Shellawax.

6. Another curved set of barrels. I think these are nice for a woman, so I will make several more. A lady friend at work really likes the curved ones and said she would like me to make some more that she will buy and give as gifts to friends.

7. Just wanted to try slightly convex barrels.

8. Wanted to make barrels that look like "barrels". The dark rings are cut into the surface with a pointed chisel and then burned with a piece of wire while the pieces are spinning on the lathe. The fellow that old me the lathe demonstrated that technique to me.

Pens 6-8 need stain and finish, but they will be easily done tomorrow.

Remaining 8 done.

2006-02-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

I finished the 8 frames. Now I'm going to trade them for the original 2 and make slight modifications to the first two. That will only take a night or two because all the prep work is done and the first 2 were already stained and finished.

Pics:
I mounted one of my certificates so one can see the desired result. Behind the certificate is a burgundy paper.

The back now has "turn buttons" instead of nails. Makes for easier mounting of the certificates. I also drilled a larger recess for the pennies in the sycamore. Something tells me that will allow for more freedom of movement of the wood. The eye screws, hanging wire, and a descriptive note are all attached.

Two out of ten done.

2005-12-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

I decided to cheat a little.

I intend to give 5 frames each to two friends. But I didn't think I could finish them all in time. Yesterday I spent all day on the construction aspects. All the pennies are drilled and frames fitted together. Every frame is sanded to 220 grit and they look and feel great.

But there isn't time to stain and finish all 10 frame sets, so I focused on 2 of them. I have stained and finished these and they will be ready for final assembly and wrapping tonight. Then, tomorrow I can give a gift to 1 frame to each of my friends with the promise of 4 more to follow soon.

The first finished frame.

Back of the second finished frame.

Splined corners for strength.

Eight more to finish.

Dunno if I can finish in time

2005-12-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on the picture frames. When I started them I had hoped to have them all wrapped up by now. No such luck. It has been so cold that my shop time is minimal.

I have drilled, countersunk, and installed 90 of the 100 pennies that hold the inner frame into the outer. I hope to finish the other 10 today, plus sanding. That leaves staining and finishing. I don't think that can all be done on Saturday. I may be able to finish them on Christmas day. After that I will be going out of town for a few days.

Picture frame progress

2005-12-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

The inner frames have all been fitted into the outer. The outer frames have been splined. I am currently drilling shallow holes (using a Forstner bit) into the backs of the frames. These holes will allow me to recess pennies into them (I am also drilling holes in 100 pennies...10 pennies per frame). The pennies will be screwed to the cherry outer frame and pressure will hold the sycamore inner frame in place. I have mocked up one frame and this method works great. It will allow the frames to expand and contract without breaking apart.

So, now I need to drill 9 more frames and 90 more pennies. Then do the sanding, staining and finishing. All in just a couple of days. Boy, I HAVE to start in the summer next year. This will come down to the wire, which I didn't want to happen.

Wine cork trivets are done.

2005-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

I put the final touches on the wine cork trivets this morning. I made 5 in all, but only had plans to give 4. So the 5th one is mine, unless I have one of those unexpected last minute gift needs.

Here are the cherry splines after being sanded flush to the frames.

Using spare corks I cut 1/4 inch disks and glue them on the bottom as small feet.

All 5 finished and ready to wrap.

Progress

2005-12-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

Because it was a visitation weekend I didn't get any shop time.

But I went home at lunchtime today and made some really great progress. And tonight should be just as good.

Trivets:
All of the corners have been splined. The excess has been cut off and the sides all run through the edge jointer and sanded. I set up a roundover bit in the router table and touched up all the tops. The plywood bottoms are cut to size and 3 of 5 have been installed. I ran out of screws, but picked some up on the way back to the office. Tonight all that will be left is to glue in the corks.

Picture frames:
I have scraped the excess glue from the corners of 5 out of 10 inner frames, then sanded the front face of those 5. No need to mess with the backs, since they will be against a wall, nor the outer edges, since they will be inside the outer frames. Tonight all of the inner frames should be ready for stain and finish. I am going to spline the corners of the outer frames, so there will be another couple of days until they are ready for stain and finish.

A good thing is that I have off from Wednesday through the end of the year.

Custom frames...more pictures.

2005-12-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

The fantastic miter sled.

The 10 sycamore inner frames and 10 cherry outer frames, all glued up. They look small, but the inner frame is for an 11x14 picture.

One frame each, upside down. This picture shows how the inner frame is just a little larger than the space it will fit into. It will be trimmed for an exact fit.

One frame each, right side up and mocked up. The upper right corner shows that the inner frame is still a little too big.

Wine cork trivets

2005-12-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

I got the idea for making wine cork trivets from seeing some made by my uncle Bernie.

Mine have mitered and glued corners and a recessed bottom for a piece of 1/4 inch plywood. Mitered corners are weak because it is glued end grain to end grain. So I soup it up a bit by adding a triangular spline to each corner.

To do the splines I first built a jig. This device runs down the fence of the tablesaw and holds a frame corner point down. I set the height of the blade so it doesn't cut all the way through (less to fuss over later) and then the fence so the slot is cut near the center of the frame corner. Then, 4 quick passes, turning each corner down and clamping to the jig for each pass.

Next I take a contrasting type of wood and plane it until it can slide in the spline slots, but snugly. I cut this into triangles using the bandsaw. Each triangle gets glue on both faces and the long edge. The triangle is pressed into the slot and then clamped into place. Pieces of scrap wood protect the face of the frame from the metal of the C clamps. Splining like this glues face grain of the triangle to the face grain (inside of the slot) of the corner. It is incredibly strong and will probably never come apart.

Looks good too.

These wine cork trivets are made of poplar with cherry splines.
Two of the five. They measure about 9 inches on each side.

All 5 after glue up. Corks are mocked up, but not ready to install yet.

Spline slots and cherry splines have been cut. One is glued up and the others are waiting.

Custom frame pictures

2005-12-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of the special frames:

Rough sycamore board on left. Planed and sized inner frame pieces on right. Sample with finished profile on top.

Sycamore shavings from planing the parts for the inner frames.

Cherry outer frame parts before planing. Needed 8 more.

All the sycamore after shaping.

Some cherry outer frame pieces after planing and shaping.

Mockup of outer and inner frame pieces, dry fitted at a mitered corner.

All the sycamore inner frames, sorted, dry fit, and one already glued and clamped.

All the cherry outer frames, dry fit, and one glued and clamped.

Custom picture frames

2005-12-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

These picture frames are for two long time friends of mine. We have all been involved in Tae Kwon Do since January of 2000. Two of us have earned second degree black belt. The other earned first degree. They each have sons that earned first degree. For each degree earned one gets a nice certificate from Korea, but these come in a cheap frame. So, I am making 5 frames for each friend.

Each frame is really an outer frame of cherry and an inner frame of sycamore. The cherry comes from my yard. The sycamore comes from the yard of one of these friends. I cut these trees down myself and have performed all of the milling steps except cutting the tree into rough lumber.

The outer frame has a "shouldered bullnose" and the inner frame has a bevel. The bevel makes it look like a "matte." The frames look pretty because of the design and the contrasting wood colors.

To date all the pieces have been rough cut, milled to size, shaped, rabbeted, mitered to length, and assembled. That was TWENTY frames. Once a particular cut was set up, it wasn't a big deal to do that cut repeatedly, so more frames didn't mean a lot of extra time.

I built a mitering sled for the table saw. This is now an indispensible jig for my workshop. It has runners that fit in the channels of the table saw and a pre-set triangle which creates perfect 45 degree cuts while the tablesaw is set to cut at 90 degrees. One side has a sliding stop block set into a T-track. Using this device I cut all of the "left miters" on one side, one at a time. Then I set the stop block . To set the stop block I cut a piece a little long, test the length, then trim it a little at a time until perfect, moving the block for each test cut. Once it is perfect, the block is set. Finally, I cut all the right miters one at a time.

Pitcures soon.