Cedar Chest – Before & After

Here are the before and after photos I promised to post.  Sorry I haven’t posted them sooner, I forgot all about the pictures on my good camera.

(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

Playroom Built-In Part 2

With a 14 hour day and only a short lunch and dinner break Saturday, and a few hours Sunday evening it is built. 

No easy task with Jonathan taking my tools after I set them down.  However, at 20 months, he is really good at handing me the tools I need when I ask him to get them.  That is if he doesn't think he needs them more than me.  He knows drill, hammer, screwdriver, level, pencil, screw, and a few others I can't think of at the moment.

The built-in is now completely framed, insulated, and covered with plywood.  The big dividing shelf for the TV is in and the two side walls that will support the shelves.

(Better photos to come.

These were taken with my phone.

Sorry for the poor resolution!) 

Playroom Built-In Part1

Started the playroom built-in today.  It will have the TV in the middle with shelves on both sides and drawers under all of that.

Play Room Door

Made a half size door for the play/bonus room instead of using a baby gate.

Cedar Chest

Last coat of poly.

I will put the projects start to finish photos up soon.

Sunset

Tonight's sunset.

Noise Maker

All wood, Hard Maple and Walnut noise makers.  All pieces held together with dowels.

Plywood Rack

Needed a place to store my unused sheets of plywood.

Wooden Toys

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on some wooden toys for my nieces and nephews.  I really enjoy making their Birthday and Christmas gifts.  They get really excited when they know that you made something specially for them.

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So far, I have made

A Strawberry Puzzle.

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A set of Three Stackable Block Characters. 

Their heads, bodies, and legs are interchangeable. 

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A set of Bookends.

Black with interchangeable white Zebra Stripes.

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And,

A 3D Puzzle.

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July - October

I have been really bad about posting my work.  It has been around four months since my last post.  However, I have been very busy working both in and out of the shop.

I have made the following:

·         A kids Table w/ four stools

·         Heavy Duty Storage Bench

·         Granite Table for a Eat-In kitchen

·         Rolling Pin

·         Three Serving Trays

·         A big wall Entertainment Center

 w/ lots of shelving

·         Play House w/Swings

·         Puzzles

·         A few different types of Rattles

·        Finally, I have almost finished making four of my

Bread Boxes w/ Cutting Trays.

Black Walnut Dinner Table

A good friend of mine asked me if I could make him and his wife a Black Walnut dining table out of a tree grown on their property.  They had a walnut tree die a few years ago and had part of the tree milled into 4x4 boards.  They wanted a smaller decorative table that could be expanded if needed.  So I designed a table top with curvy ends, and decorative, tapered legs.  The table is 60” long by 40” wide, with a 21 ½” leaf.

It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed every moment of (well, almost).  I was a little nervous when it came time to cut the table in half for the leaf.  I worked hard to get a nice, flat, beautiful solid walnut table top, but I

was going to have to cut it in

half with a skill saw!

Making the legs was my favorite part of the job.  They were the hardest and most challenging part of the build, but a lot fun.  I glued three boards together to get the 3” thickness I wanted.  I cut in a 19” taper on two sides of the legs to bring the bottom of the legs from 3” to 2”.  With a ¾” classic fluted router bit, I routed all around the legs at the top edge of the 19” taper and at the bottom edge of the 3 ½” skirt.  I then used a 45 degree chamfer bit on the four edges of each leg, stopping ¼” before each ¾” classic fluted grove.  The legs were mounted with corner braces and hanger bolts.  The skirts were mounted with screws going straight through the width of the skirt without using glue.

  

 

I would have to say that this has been my best piece yet.  I was a little sad to see it go, but someday I will make a walnut table for myself.