Woodworking

Not that big, but it would still be interesting. I pulled some honey locust from our firewood pile a few years back and incorporated it into a desk. It has a fairly boring grain pattern, but I like the color a lot.

Not sure how many hand tool users there are here but I’m going to buy a new plane and am debating between a plow plane or a combination plane (both Veritas). Plow plane gets me what I need today which is cutting grooves, dadoes, etc but the combination obviously gets a bit more in functionality and available blade shapes plus it has nickers on both sides so reversible direction. I already have a router plane with a fence which is almost as good as a plow but not quite. Trying to figure out if combination plane has any down sides to it at all that I’m not thinking about before I pull the trigger on it.

My first time building any sort of furniture. I'm a journeyman redseal carpenter in Canada and spent my career building houses for 15 years and recently started a new job where I have access to a shop and some better tools.

I made a low Roman bench out of a piece of bowling alley that was being trashed and some old fence posts. I fitted the legs with slanted mortise and tenon joints and realized that was a lot of work, so I did the other side with bored out round mortise and tenons, which was somewhat easier. There is a notch in place of a full vice, and I mad e a “crochet hook” attachment for wedging up large boards for edge planing, but it split so I’ll need to figure out a different grain direction.

More pics:

• square mortise
• round mortise
• wooden bench dog
• notch vise
• round mortise needed a peg
• crochet hook

I also made a new joiners mallet. My other one’s handle broke because it was pretty soft. The head is a chunk of 3” thick red maple that I’ll use to make my full-sized bench top, and the handle is something dense (oak?). I had to slim down the end of the handle so it would fit through the head. I cut the curve of the handle by cross-cutting lines and then chunking them off with a hatchet and smoothing it off with a spokeshave.

I didnt have an actual mortise chisel, so I essentially had to chisel out the whole mortise. I plan to go back and clean up the fit a little better and smooth out the edges later. I’ll use both of these to make a larger bench to work with, and use the Roman bench as a sawhorse.

Pics:

• joiners mallet
• head
• handle
• starting handle
• smoothing handle
• starting head
• making handle smaller to fit
• cleaning out head

Bought this black walnut cookie off of Facebook marketplace for a good price. The only catch is it is warped, cracked, cupped, and twisted. It's about 4 in thick and that's plenty of material to make a coffee table, but I need some advice and guidance on making a router planing jig please.

I have a workpiece that I want to give an oil finish, but a certain area needs to stay oil-free, because I need to attach a part later on using hide glue. What masking method is safe for oil?

The potting bench has a hole so that soil can be brushed into the bucket below. I was able to salvage some of the older boards from the old pile of junk that stood there before, which are in the roof. Speaking of the roof, see how some of it is clear? I’m going to build a cold frame into that part of the roof for hardening off plants! I’m having a hard time deciding how to do that but though.

The wife wants gravel on the ground but I’m not so sure. I think that the gravel will just end up filling with dirt and debris and weeds. I think I might prefer to just leave it bare earth. What do you think?

With their 'Tale of the Cedar Planter Box.' This beautiful planter is now the new icon for our community and they are credited on our sidebar! Question for the winner: what would you choose for our next theme if we do another contest in the fall or winter?

I need to drill holes at exact positions to affix large workpieces to my cnc for two-sided machining. My drill press is not large enough to reach all drilling positions, and drilling by hand often results in a non-90° angle. I know for metalworking there are magnet drill presses to drill holes in steel beams. But is there something similar for wood?

Thin pieces of white limba and purple heart laminated to a piece of walnut and then hand routed with a v groove bit. Put a chamfer on all the edges to give it a purple heart border and then I think I finished this one with Polycrylic. Pounded a v tooth wall hanger into the back and called it good.

I had to show off my newest acquisition. Picked up an old Rockwell 22-650 planer from a guy on Craigslist. I replaced the knives, greased it, and dialed it in. It works great! If I ever have to move it again, I'll get someone with a tractor to help. Still not sure how I managed to muscle all 400+ lbs of it into the basement by myself. I was dumb enough to try that once but not enough to do it twice.

Situation: using a screw gun to drive in the self-driving screws (the star shaped ones) horizontally, and sometimes at a difficult angle above my head. Hard to get good leverage like that. The driver starts spinning the screw but it doesn’t catch right away and then the screw jumps out and falls on the ground.

Has this happened to you? Is there a trick for that?

A pain hook (self-use massage device for the neck and back) made from a pine branch. Snoopy-like dog appeared from the branch while whittling, hence the name.

Lightly stained with walnut colour stain and a light beeswax layer on top of that so it feels smooth on the skin. Handle made from old repurposed leather belt strips.

These pain hooks are an old Finnish and Karelian thing for massaging one's neck and back, and I was wondering if these sort of self-care "devices" are known and in use in other cultures?

I've built the section of the table that flips. On the saw side, I have 1-1/2" to build up so the bed of the saw is flush with the rest of the table. How would you attach the saw so it's secure to flip upside down?

The top only has holes at the front, for inserting a side clamp.

Maybe bolt through the ends into a block underneath?

Here's the planter I built last year. It's a simple stair stepped frame w/ wooden boxes that wrap store bought plastic window boxes.

Sorry for the glare making it hard for you to play along. I’ll have to take better pics. I came up with the idea last year, but I live on a dead end street. Then my cousin said I could put it at his house. He was helping me glue in the pieces when the concept of it finally clicked for him and he got so excited about what clues you could give to search for and things to put inside. It’s so fun. I went to the Goodwill “bins” and just filled up a box with every little object I could find. The pieces are hot glued in place just in case the box rattles. Maybe in a few months we can change the sign so you have to find new things. I can also remove entire shelves or maybe just pop off the toys. Hot glue comes off easy enough.

I live in Portland and would love to make another and find someone around willing to host it in their yard. So if you’re interested let me know.

Oak top, oak faced ply shelf with walnut edge, and sides made of something from an old table

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I present to you The Tale Of The Cedar Planter Box.

Solid cedar, mortise and tenon joinery, with a nice bead detail on the slats. Garden hose sold separately, pine straw not included.

So our neighbor's cat has been visiting us for a while, so I decided to build this ramp so that she could more easily get into and out of our yard. I'm not much of a woodworker, but was happy with how this turned out.

It's made almost entirely from cedar fence posts. Nearly 18 feet long (3 fence posts end to end with the dog ear tip cut off). Ripped cedar planks into 3 for a frame/support to prevent flexing. Posts are pine 2x4, and go 18 inches into the ground, which was the majority of the effort, since our ground is like cement...

Bubinga, Plum, and Walnut (yes it’s 4 pieces; I had to get creative and it’s getting color so you’ll never notice 😄)

I have very very old power tools. I cannot afford new ones. The problem is, if I’m being totally honest, I’m largely afraid of the tools I have. I’d like to get over this. How does one do that without direct supervision?

More info: I inherited tools from my parents and grandparents. Things I could afford to replace, like drills and drivers, I did. What I have left are big bladed things (chop saw, table saw, tile saw, etc. no lathe sadly :( ) None of the users of these specific tools are still alive. They are all probably 30+ years old, and work fine, probably, but… are just super intimidating (tho my grandfather had a lot of pre-electrification manual tools and I love those - So nice to take a manual plane to a solid door and end up with something that closes properly!). Some of them have plugs that screw together so you can repair them and everything (those I probably won’t use, absolutely terrifying if you fuck up). I’m mid 30s so I remember most of these things being used but I also remember the table saw I have in my garage taking off half my step-dads thumb..

I know power tools today are built to be a lot safer, but I definitely can’t afford those (I wouldn’t even be able to afford these but they were free for me), and I don’t know anyone with power tool skills (last learning I got was in hs shop class almost 20 years back) so how do I get comfortable with them enough to actually use them for the little projects I need them for? I don’t live in a big metro area, so there aren’t clubs afaik.

Everything is Sitka. Back and sides will follow shortly. I’m what you might call a professional.

I've got my work cut out for me, there's a decent amount of flattening needed on a few strips, and the planer I have access to is abut rough around the edges, so not all the joints are perfect, but it's alright overall.

Once it's flattened and cleaned up, the remaining aesthetic flourishes are to use walnut/sapele to put an edge around it or just cap the ends, then ease the edges and router handles into the ends. I was looking at the boos block website, and they offer the option to put the finger grooves in the middle or in the bottom edge and I really like the functionality of having them on the bottom

First off, boy did I underestimate how much wood a butcher block cutting board this size (approx. 15×20×2) would end up using.

The joints also aren't perfect, but I don't have the time or energy for perfection at the moment, this one is kind of a functional proof of concept. I'm going to give it to a friend of mine, but I've been upfront that it will not be perfect.

The next one, that will be made from the same beam, but MUCH cleaner, straighter-grained wood, will be more precise, more consistent color, probably marginally stronger because of the grain, just better in every way

But this only took two days and like three hours of work to go from a massive, rough-cut hunk of maple to this, so I'm pleased with it

Hello Lathe Ladies, Mitre Mates, and Plywood Pals!

I've been tracking my kids' heights on a wall for several years but I'd like a prettier solution. Something I can screw on the wall and mark their heights on (maybe temporarily and then go back with a wood burner or something). Ideally, sometime that's two identical adjacent pieces that I can give them if I'm ever lucky enough to be a grandparent.

A straight 7' board with a cutout for the moulding and burnt or painted 6" increments is the simplest solution, but can y'all think of anything nicer? I would prefer to keep it on a semi visible wall instead of the laundry closet.

Thanks friends.