Woodworking Projects at LumberJocks.com

Pizza Peels

TedM — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:33:28 GMT

Had a hankering for some pizza a few months back so decided it was time to make a pizza peel. Then I thought, “Why make one when I can make six?” :)

Each peel is made from Maple with a contrasting handle made of either Walnut, Jatoba or Paudul (I made two of each).

The paddle part measures approx. 13×14 inches with a 6 inch handle.

This was a great project, makes an excellent kitchen addition and, as you can see from the last photo, they work well! :)

I have more info here on my website http://www.woodworkersguide.com/2012/03/27/pure-pizza-peel-pizzazz/ if you want to build one (or six) for yourself.

portable router-jigsaw table

Greedo — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:23:42 GMT

Last week i finished my multifunction toolbox project, i intended to use one of the larger boxes as a portable router and jigsaw table.
And here it is!
This box fits and locks onto systainers, and has the same size as a sys4, clamping the router or jigsaw underneath literally takes seconds. It can either serve as a portable job site router table, or as a second little shop table for when you have the big table already set up for something else, or the band saw has the wrong blade on it.

watch the video here
and a more detailed article here

Rocking horse for niece

Rob Vicelli — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:58:18 GMT

I made this rocking horse for my niece’s 1st Bday. It is based on the plans from Lowes web site. Made from 3/4 and 1/4 baltic birch. A couple of modifications I made was to add the mane and tail. I used some fringe fabric from the craft store and held it in place on the mane by making an extra wood bracket and pinching the fabric between along with a little hot glue. It was big hit!

My workshop furniture

munja — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:39:49 GMT

First picture is my router table, after this it got a white paint on top, and a switch for the router along with the extension cord for other tools. Fence is removed on this picture.
Second picture is temporary workbench, but it’s main purpose is tool storage :)
Third is made from my late grandmother’s drawers.

everything is made from scrap and salvaged wood, except the tops on the router table and “workbench” :)
all three pieces are covered with an old salvaged panel wood, and construction is made from scrap construction grade wood

hope you like it :)

Octagonal Keepsake Box

TestDepth — Mon, 28 May 2012 07:20:50 GMT

Box is ~ 8” o.d. and ~5” tall. Stained red oak. I made this in the summer of 2009 for then girlfriend/now wife. At the time I wasn’t overly pleased with the results, but revisiting it after a couple years has increased my appreciation for the piece. 3/4 red oak throughout seemed a bit bulky at the time, but it does give it a nice heft. While it is rather simplistic in design and execution, this is one of the first pieces I did in my own shop from nothing but my own ideas after several years where I hadn’t made anything. My tool selection at the time was pretty bare bones (I don’t think I used anything other than a tape measure, table saw, and a sander, which was about all I had) and this project definitely suffered from some growing pains (i.e. I found my miters were just a hair off on the sides because the installed tilt gauge isn’t accurate) and getting the octagon shape for the top and bottom required an immodest pile of “oops” pieces before I managed to find the right jig online. Overall, not my prettiest work, but a solid jump back into the shop.

log cabin style soap block

Jeffery Mullen — Mon, 28 May 2012 05:04:24 GMT

My wife needed something solid to put her soap on in the bathroom so I took a 2×4 and cut 3inches of the end of it and then ran it through my router table to put a round edge on all 4 corners top and bottom, then I ran it threw my table saw to get this result. I came up with this design on my own. I made it to have 4 legs to stand on and the soap block is one solid piece with no screws or glue. It is kinda neat when one wants to get creative and carve out a block of wood with a table saw and end up with something nice to use in the house. This soap block has been used by us for over a month and no splits from the soap or water run off. this block is made of a pine board.

thanks for looking .

I dub thee "painful XI" - cherry shadowbox with walnut accents

lawrence — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:39:00 GMT

I think I’m going to start signing and naming my pieces after how many times they made me bleed…. my poor fingers are full of cherry splinters, a hole from a pin nailer, and several scrapes and bashes. It all started when I dropped a large cherry slab on my fingers at the lumberyard and it hasn’t gotten any better…

So the customer, a referral from a person on another forum, asked for some very specific things for this shadow box for his Father for Father’s day… he wanted

1. the “old” MSgt stripes in the background… in cherry
2. A curved top and bottom… no curved facade over a square box like I normally make
3. Lights… battery powered lights…

This created several challenges, but I got ‘er done (just in time for vacation)

The “stripes” are in a 1/4 piece of cherry ply- on a 1/2 piece of MDF – to attach the pieces in the shadowbox, 1/2 inch rare earth magnets are attached to the back of the ply through holes in the mdf. The top and bottom are attached to the MDF and were created by cutting cherry veneer and cold forming a sandwich into the desired shape with a form made from 3/4 MDF. The sides come on and off to reveal the battery pack on each side. They are held in place with rare earth magnets. The front glass and frame are held on with pocket screws attached to the sides which are covered up by the panels. The switch is on the bottom and I’ve included a plug in case he ever wants to run off mains power instead of batteries. The plexiglass (broke 3 pieces of real glass trying to cut the convex on top of the stripes) is cut, but has been removed for pictures/finish. The whole thing hangs on a french cleat that has been hard mounted through the MDF for a secure hold. The finish is a very light 1/2 # shellac washcoat buffed out with a 3m pad – then 5 coats of oil/poly mix wet sanded in followed by one final coat. All the carvings were done with my Carvewright CNC.

Thanks for looking, this one was a genuine challenge on several levels and I hope the customer will be pleased with both the overall piece and way I met his design challenges.

Lawrence

TV Stand

ErikF — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:13:42 GMT

A TV stand that I just finished…one of those projects I started a while back without a drawing and over time this is what I ended up with. I used maple and hickory for the shelves and top and used birch for the legs. The shelf pieces are joined with tongue & groove and capped with maple ends. Found a really nice board in my stack that planed out beautifully for the top section.

Wood cowboy hats.

Arthouse — Mon, 28 May 2012 03:56:46 GMT

I was helping out this weekend with the Texas Hill country wood turner club and wanted to share with you a master turner I know and love whose been turning wood for over fifty years. His name is James Johnson and been written up in Fine Woodworking and featured in National turning symposiums and have written articles himself . Here is James demonstrating how to make a wood hat out of sycamore on his hand made lathe he made himself. James takes green sycamore turns the wood so thin he installe a light behind the hat to see the translucent light to show him how thin he has gotten. Once turned he reverses the turning and turns the top hat with a button on top to hold the rubber bands to bend the wood brim into the shape he wants. Her are some hat owners and pic’s to show James handiwork. Amazingly even though the hat is turned in a round circle he squeezes the green round head portion with rubber bands to shape the round to fit a head. It takes about twenty four hours for the hat to dry totally for a finished product but many paid to take them home anyway. All this and Heaven too.

Frame-saw in Mahogany and Curly Maple

PurpLev — Mon, 28 May 2012 02:53:11 GMT

Custom made Frame saw from curly maple and mahogany which matches my workbench.

Custom Blade length = 19”

Frame is 1-1/2” wide and 1-1/4” thick, slightly narrowed down and rounded off for hand grips which also gives it a smaller look than it really is.

Blade is mounted on custom made stainless steel clips that are embedded in the mahogany handles.

Tension is applied via stainless steel wire between 2 threaded clips that thread into 2 studs and create tension.

Finish = BLO (my favorite tools/shop finish – easy to apply, gives nice depth, and doesn’t leave a shiny film)

This project was blogged here:
http://lumberjocks.com/PurpLev/blog/series/4433

Thanks for stopping by,
Peace!

More Wormy Panga-Panga... Mirror & Candle Sconces

TedW — Mon, 28 May 2012 02:09:25 GMT

When I was making my Small Wormy Panga-Panga Tray I tried to find these, which is what I used the bulk of the Panga-Panga for, but to no avail. Well, I was doing more cleaning in my shop today (a never ending project in itself) and blew about an inch of sawdust off some stuff piled in a corner, and low and behold… look what I found. They’ve been sitting in that corner for at least 2 years. Anywayz, I gave them a quick dusting and took a few photos to share with you folks.

The mirror is finished with orange shellac and the sconces with white shellac (both Zinnser), and all of it waxed and buffed. I always did like these, don’t know why I never got around to putting them up on the wall but I think I’ll do that tomorrow.

Thanks for looking and Happy Memorial Day Everybody. To all who served, Thank You!!!

Table Saw Workstation

Ben Miller — Mon, 28 May 2012 01:07:41 GMT

Breathing new life into my BT3000. This work station is made from 3/4 ply and maple. I used 2 pieces of 3/4” MDF laminated for the router table top and work bench. I wanted something that was replaceable. The router table was a cheapo Ryobi bench top kit that I had and just reused the top. I recessed that into the MDF slab on the left. The color scheme wasn’t intentional, it was what I had available. Plans came from Wood magazine. The last pic is the before shot, including the stock stand that I’ve had for awhile and and the sliding miter table that I wasn’t at all happy with.

Cross

Raymond — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:48:01 GMT

We needed a Cross for our house church. I made this from a piece of Oak, stained with a dark Walnut stain, it stands about 5 ft tall.. The Crown of Throns, is really a crown of thorns from our flower garden we removed a Rose bush and I recycled the branches and made the Crown of Thorns. I was stuck by the thorns many times while I was building the crown, and then I thought about Jesus who had to wear the Crown of Thorns and was nailed to the cross and died for us. I didn’t complain about being poked with the thorns anymore.

Addicted

jaykaypur — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:47:44 GMT

Made out of sycamore scrap.

These things are becoming addictive but they are fun to make and will make great gifts.

Thanks for the looks/comments.

Kids Picnic Table

Daris — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:42:17 GMT

I was reading a post over at the Kreg Community site recently. There was a debate about whether to use 1” thick lumber for a picnic table or 2” lumber. Years ago, I had made a picnic table for my kids, but over the years it’s aged pretty hard. When I made that picnic table I chose to use 1” lumber and I have regretted ever since. The thing about kids is they don’t actually sit at a picnic table. They prefer to jump up and down on them, or try to train the dog to chase them on it. Pretty much everything, but actually sit on them. Needless to say my 1” decision wasn’t a very good one. The bench seat and the tabletop both sag quite a bit after you sit on them.

I decided to make another picnic table, and I chose a project design from one of my all time favorite books. The project is for a kids picnic table. This plan calls for using 1” lumber as well, but I’ll be changing that to 2”. I had one other requirement on my new picnic table. The last time I did I made one I made it out of cedar and didn’t treat or protect the wood in way. This time I wanted to make one for the cheapest cost I possibly could, and this time I would paint it.

Materials
For the lumber I chose construction grade untreated pine. Since I’m going to paint this, and it’ll be used outdoors no sense going for the good stuff. I purchased all of the lumber I used for my project at Lowe’s. The total cost for this project (excluding paint) was just $24. I was able to make the entire project using:

(4) 2”x4”x8’
(4) 2”x6”x8’
1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of 4 colors (I used green, blue, yellow, red)

Milling and Assembly

Talk about a super simple project. This truly was a project where I purchased, rough cut, finish cut, and sanded all of my boards in a single afternoon. Finishing on the other hand always takes me a long time. I still look at finishes and paint as some evil magic that I have to perform to complete my project (but more on that later).

All of the cuts that I did on these boards were done with my compound miter saw. I had to create rounded boards for the legs of the table. To do this I used my trusty corner finder jig. After marking these up I made quick work out of these with my jigsaw. The milling part of this project was pretty simple. In hindsight I think I should have thickness planned these boards. There were a lot of imperfections on the boards that I had to work through during sanding. This is an outdoor picnic table, not a family heirloom so you have to balance the amount of work you want to put into a project like this.


After cutting all my lumber (I primered and painted everything before assembly); I began assembly on the legs and support. If you follow the same plan that I did I found it easier to complete one side first and then line up the other side on top of the completed one. You’ll get a consistent set doing it that way.		I attached the boards together using 2-1/2” screws. After completing the sides I joined the two together with a support beam. I plan on installing an umbrella with this table. At this point your but completed. Just flip the table over and lay your top boards, and benches in place. I used 3” screws to hold those in place.

Finishing

When it came to finishing the table, I used 1 coat of primer. I tried something new this time. Lowe’s has a product called Tintable Primer. I was only mildly happy with the results. It allows a second coat to be bright, but it just doesn’t give you that clean slate feeling. For my next project I may use what I have left in this can, but not sure I’ll do much with it after it’s gone. The primer goes on practically clear, and dries very quickly.

I then applied two coats of various colors of an exterior latex. I used exterior Valspar paint from Lowe’s. It did a pretty nice job. There actually was a method to my madness of painting different colors, although I’m probably the only one who’ll ever notice that. One other thing I did (which typically I NEVER do) was to pre-paint all of my boards before assembly. I’m not color blind by any stretch but as a guy I’m definitely color challenged. I just have a hard time seeing how all of these boards and the colors will work together. I wanted to check it out before I assembled. I did do a little touch-up after assembly, but again it was another example of something that only I would ever notice.

This was a great project, that didn’t take very long, and was pretty cheap overall. If you want to see more pics, and information check it out over on my post at: woodlogger.

home made sliding tablesaw

vonhagen — Sun, 27 May 2012 23:34:09 GMT

note the crosscut fence flips down for ripping. i dont belive in crosscut sleds

temple doors, cherry, anigre, purple heart

vonhagen — Sun, 27 May 2012 23:23:29 GMT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonhagen/5164516360/

Segmented Bottle Stoppers

tyskkvinna — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:56:50 GMT

My buyers have recently asked for some things that are a little different from what I have been offering. I am of course, happy to indulge and explore. Since rock maple is my primary medium for anything whenever possible (due to having near 6,000 BF of it) I naturally started exploring ways to use rock maple for this project, too.

I has to be laminated because my lumber is all 4/4 and 2” wide. Perfect for stripping down into single pens but not quite right for anything bigger. The first few stoppers I turned were laminated of maple only, and while they ended up looking nice enough, they were kind of plain and well… boring to me. I played around with some angles, which I ultimately decided was awesome.

I then took some pieces of thin stock and placed it in random places of the blank. These two stoppers each have maple, and one also has cedar. This is precisely what I was looking for! I like the contrast of the band, and it is simple enough to do that it does not add any significant time to the production.

This will be part of a series where I will just take whatever appealing pieces thin scrap I have laying around and will add them into the blanks as I go and see what happens. Nice to have another item in the inventory and one that is a little more creative in the creation process than I usually need to be.

Shallow Spalted Elm Bowl

Chaotic — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:48:24 GMT

Shallow bowl or deep platter, your call. Not as thick as the rim makes it appear. I wanted a wide rim to show off the grain some more.

poplar sculpture overlaid in silver

vonhagen — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:42:48 GMT

another head scratcher