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I spent the past several Saturdays building this simple cherry bed with a friend of mine, Vernon, for his 4 year-old son. It’s a solid cherry frame with veneer panels. It was my first attempt using tenons, and my first bed. He took it home to finish it in his...

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I bought a Powermatic 66 at an online auction web site. I paid $350 plus $135 processing. After rental of a truck I drove 158 miles to York PA to pick up the saw. Upon my arrival back, I set up the mobile base, slid the saw onto the lift...

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Quick toy chest out of some scrap 3/4” birch ply, with some decorative elements courtesy of Big Blue. I wish I had the ability or patience to turn out something a little more complicated, but this works. About 13” high, 18” long, a foot deep? Just the right height for...

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I bought a Powermatic 66 at an online auction web site. I paid $350 plus $135 processing. After rental of a truck I drove 158 miles to York PA to pick up the saw. Upon my arrival back, I set up the mobile base, slid the saw onto the lift...

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Thanks again for all the Comments in Part One of this Project. I was doing something on the Drill Press today when I realized that the Fence might interfear with a Full Down Stroke, or Depth Of Drilling. Not sure if, or how many times this MIGHT happen but best...

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http://www.wimp.com/chainsawsculpture/ This guy is really good! ...

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Guys(and gals!) here is the project I am currently woking on;Seems like forever ago when I built these case sides, I selected these cherry boards from different logs. That in itself took some time, the ribbon curly cherry is not so abundant as some other figured species. Anyway I kept...

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After a few years of drooling over teak (or similar) deck furniture (and knowing I’d never be able to afford it or care to work with the stuff) I finally built a simple picnic table for my back deck. I started with the plans from This Old House ( http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20291200,00.html...

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I just finished this table for my son. It’s heavily borrowed from a photo he saw in a furniture catalog. The things I learned from this project are the wedged tenons, the fretwork, the small cutouts in the legs, and using methods of coloring other that fuming.The color needed to...

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Heres another project I finished, made this for my girlfriend this last Christmas. Started Christmas eve, and finished the build that night, she was surprised to say the least. The finish took a few days to complete. Used the Maloof oil/wax three coats, then briwax two coats. Actually a lot...

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This is my first blog entry I am hoping I do this right:) Today I figured out that I really need to get my business underway after another week on my job I come to realize employers know no limit of abuse.!! I was given the vision of my business...

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I built this over a year ago, and was the project that got me so into woodworking. When I built this the only tools I had were a 3/8” drill and a skill saw! Now My shop is full of benchtop tools and all. I didn’t even have a shop...

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I ran across a beautiful piece of curly cherry and picked it up. I don’t have quite enough to make it into a table top, so I am considering veneering it onto a piece of Baltic birch plywood. How thick can I make the cherry before I start having to...

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I almost always take my orders of from my web site, then print them out and blue tape them to the project. Some one from my past that had given me a couple boxes of teak, emailed and I gave him a hell of a discount on two of my...

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Today was a fun day with several new lessons learned. I finally got through the crunch of midterms at school and craziness at work to have a day where I could make some sawdust. The next step on the blanket chest was to clean up some of the joints a...

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I overheard a guy in the bar say that the temperature had hit 61 degrees. It was truly beautiful out today in Iowa and after I watched the Big Ten championship game, I took a walk. Mt. Vernon Iowa is a beautiful town and I strolled down to the Ace...

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In recent years there’s been an influx of imported lower priced value hand planes hitting the market. Some are decent, some are marginal, some are a waste of money. In the lower price ranges, most newer planes use lower quality metal on all components, thinner blades, thinner castings, and poorer...

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Well here’s what I am working at at the moment, it’s a stand for a 90 gallon salt water tank. I’ve actually been “working” on this for over a year now. I was involved in a few other higher priority projects since I started this one and the weather here...

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On a recent project (red oak) I noticed that then I tried to brush on a coat of polyurethane a decent amount of stain lifted out of the wood. The color of the piece changed quite a bit because of this. Is this because of bad stain? Or is it...

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Hi everyone, This is a rookie question so please bear with me. Well actually, this is an electricity / power question regarding bandsaws. I am thinking about buying a bandsaw sold at my local woodworking store, but it seems to me that there may be a power issue that has...

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Anyone in the Evansville, Indiana area…I need to sell my woodworking tools. I have them listed on Craigslist if anyone is interested… http://evansville.craigslist.org/tls/1643522289.html ...

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Gang, Like a few of you, I bought the FWW “Editors Pick” Triton MOFOO1 2.25 HP Router for use in my router table. That was about 18 months ago. Despite light use, the lift mechanism quickly broke. Triton (now owned by HTC) was apologetic and helpful with replacement parts. The...

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GEETEech is the Taiwanese company that makes a lot of the “name brand” saws. They market one under their own name that is – on the surface – suspiciously cheap. While I would like to get a good deal, I don’t want to buy a piece of junk. I suspect...

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i made a few things for my wife but just not sure what kind of finish to put on them should i just use poly or some kind of oil ...

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So, I took my family to the Grand Rapids Museum today. For those of you that do not know, Grand Rapids was and still is a center for the furniture industry here in the U.S.A. Our local museum has a very large area dedicated to this industry. It includes a...

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White Day is a day celebrated in Japan on March 14, one month after Valentine’s Day. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is observed by females who present chocolate gifts (either store-bought or handmade), usually to a male, as an expression of love, courtesy or social obligation.On White Day, the converse happens:...

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Made this box for my mom’s birthday. It was designed to hold a gift card from my son. The top is cherry and the sides are mahogany I think. It came from a board in my father in law’s scrap bin. It is lined with plum suede. 5 1/2” x...

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This is a cutting board made from some scrap butcher block counter tops. 1 1/2” thick, laminated birch. The design for the gravy moat was actually something I saw on the Boos website and liked so I changed it a little and tried it out. The blank was 20” x...

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I thought I show you the first one I did. All three are here so you can see the evolution of my work. A nice elderly lady bought this and I warned her that she would get a lot of attention at the campgrounds. A couple months later she had...

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If you do a google search for ‘surfboard step stool’ you’ll find a dozen places selling these for upwards of $100 – and I made mine from scraps. I actually had enough scraps after making a storage unit that I made three step stools. One I kept for my son,...

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Finally my fellow lumberjock members i can post pictures. Soon i will post pics of my workshop!!! just wanted to quick post a pic to of the latest member of the family. Our monster grizz 9×49” 3phase vertical mill. she’s going in our woodshop which is in the basement. lol!!!...

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Well, I put a slot in the router table for the miter gauge and my garage got a nice dusting of MDF. Never again – this baby is gonna have some dust control!! I read some on LJ about how people liked to finish their MDF and put some finish...

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Don’t you love having to fix something, out of the box, that you bought, new.I bought a dovetail jig from MLCS.I open it up and start to assemble it and there are problems, right off the bat. You can see in the following pictures that half of the six bolts...

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I know it’s been a while, but several things got in the way, winter, family vacation, other things in life.I spent about an hour going through a couple boxes trying to sort some what organize by grouping like things together. I did make some saw dust though:A close up of...

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these are some mini hollow forms i was messing around with, they are alder hollowed to 1/8 inch walls. first one is 1inch1/2 tall by 2 inchs, the other is 2 inchs tall and 1 inch 1/2 wide. finished with tung-oil. all comments welcome. hope you enjoy. ...

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A friend asked me if I could make a lyre for her son as a display for a school project. He is going to put the finish on, secure the tuners with screws, and string it. She gave me a picture, that is all I had to work with, and...

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In Aurora, OH…wood lathe with variable speed control…has a base to increase the height of the lathe…pictures and more info on my craiglist add for Cleveland. Will sell to an LJ for 225 with some tools. I will post some photos tomorrow. PM me for more info. Grub ...

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Saw a post last week from someone who turned Magnolia. Made me remember this piece I did a while back. This started as a Magnolia bowl about 6.5-7.0” inches in diameter. I drew a line from the center of the bowl outward with the lathe spinning slowly and it created...

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I knew nothing about dovetails until recently & bagged a PC 4216 to learn on & for an upcoming project. Tonight I finally got the chance to mess around with the jig. First try I was using some junk 1/4” plywood… Lets just say it shouldn’t make gunshot type noises...

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Two sets of tables I have built over the years. The walnut tables are one of my latest projects. ...

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Bam! I was lurking in the shadows of Craigslist and what did i see? An older gentleman selling all his woodworking equipment and moving into a smaller place. I couldn’t tell from the picture in the post what the make of the DP was but I recognized that familiar Powermatic...

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I did my best, I tried to control myself…...to no avail…....this was a miserable failure. I cannot do QUICK AND DIRTY ANYMORE…... ......I claim complete rights to the country and western song title…........(-: So how was it that my attempt to do something just minimal, unfinished, no amenities, just blast...

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There is nothing like catching a cold and having sinus headaches and coughing and sneezing all week to put a speed bump in your woodworking projects. Not to mention the daylight savings took away an hour in the shop. My goal was to get all of the slats measured and...

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So I put the hunk of junk together…..warped plywood…....trying to get rid of it…..using an old not so great, but OK table top from my Vermont American Router Table, maybe 15 years old, not used much but serviceable. How did I get here, I don’t think it is my fault....

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I had some extra boards of mahogany and oak. I laminated the mahogany boards to make the legs and the top is 8/4 oak. It was fun to build because it took me half a morning to make it. The only request from my wife was that it looked modern....

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when using tung oil how many coats would you recommend and how often do you reapply ...

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Hello everybody Just wanted to show you a jewelry box my son and I just finished. The box is a commision thatwas done for a woman for herself. The veneer is curly maple, and was bought from a fellow lumberjock Ron Fritz. He has great looking veneer at good prices...

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This is a video on how to set up and use the Loose Tenon and Mortise Jig I developed over the past few weeks. It is in three pieces. Part One Part Two Part Three I made two project entries: First One - pre-tested and the Second One - post-tested ...

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Hi Everyone, I have a chance to pick up a new table saw, new to me anyway, and thought I’d get some of your input. Right now I own a Ryobi BT3100 table saw system with all of the accessories including the router mount, miter slot extension, and some other...

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So after tripping over and losing stuff in piles of dust from my various projects, AND finding an increasing amount of saw dust and wood chips in my house, I broke down and bought a dust collector system. Luckily for me the near by Harbor Freight was having a sale...

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I’m starting to gather info for a Franklin library chair.I looked around the net for a plan with a cut list bu no luck.I wanted to determine the number of board/ linear feet to be used for this project. Any help gratefully appreciated. From future projects 2010 ...

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Hello Martin, I’m using the latest Mozilla Firefox update and it says that the Lumberjock toolbar is incompatible with it…It still works with the IE6 that I was upgrading from…ThanksDusty56 ...

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My first pass at my kitchen cabinets didn’t match my doors, and since the doors were harder to build than the cabinets, I built replacements. The plan was to take the old cabinets and put them in my office, which is evolving in a fairly dark theme. Somewhere between cherry...

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On the corner cabinet I’m making I need to made a base for it. So it can sit on a un-level floor. Can tenons be made on 45 degrees? So the mortises can be made square to the the piece it is mating. ...

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Hi all, I am thinking about making a spindle sander.. It doesnt really have to oscillate. Maybe an old washing machine motor? Has anyone made one and have advice sources for arbor ,chucks and such?? What motor speed am I looking for? I know I could use the drill press...

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I am moving my “shop” from my one car garage to the basement. The total space in the basement will be about 600 sf. I have a 240 volt table saw, and the rest are all 110 (Planer, jointer, HF 1.5hp dust collector). That’s it for big tools. My main...

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This adventure left off last Thursday with the hinges glued in place....

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I thought I’d try a new (to me) product I found at my local “good” lumberyard – “lumber core plywood” – to build a few utility-grade shop projects. It’s made of solid lumber pieces laminated with thin face veneers. The core pieces are tongue-and-groove joined along their edges, which you...

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i’m looking into getting some kind of dust collection system right now i use a shop vac. i thought about makeing a home made cyclone. will this help with the filtter on the shop vac. it always getts stopped up with real fine dust or should i just get a...

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Any users out there with any pros or cons on this item ? Thank you in advance : ) http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21444 Rockler has it online for $60 and instore for $50…..4 hour roundtrip for me to get to the closest Rockler store : ( Probably not worth the $10 difference…LOL ...

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Mechanix Wear Gloves When I am out in the shop I always wear gloves to protect my hands from bangs, bumps, scratches, cuts and anything else that can happen. I have tried various types of snug fitting gloves, but the ones that I reach for most often are the Mechanix...

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I’m testing this system to see if a .pdf file can be shared here on a forum. Its a workbench plan. I’m using Google docs. Please let me know if it works or not. If it doesnt, please let me know why ie…. viewer needed or something like that. I...

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After reading quite a bit about saw blades lately I find that it has been stated alot that good blades leave a edge that is ready for glue up into panels. So do you guys glue up panels right off the tablesaw or do you still run the board through...

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I picked up this hoist to lift a jointer out of my truck. It worked great in both directions, it has a built in brake. The jointer I lifted is 260 lbs. I got on also for a grand total of 520 lbs. .......... it still worked smooth and the...

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Several people on LJ gave me excellent comments on my pouch, including the suggestion to have a video on my website. Ralph Bagnall of consultingwoodworker.com has reviewed the Kerry-All plywood pouch and has created an awesome video showing how it is loaded and unloaded, and also his opinion of the...

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I’ve been needed a jointer but I work out of my garage and don’t have anymore room for bigger tools. I read good reviews about other bench top jointers and read that Geetech actually manufactured most of them. I was unable to find any of the others (Craftsman, Sunhill, etc)...

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I have had this set for quite a few years now, & I highly recommend this set. It comes with an adapter, so if you want to make your own router plate, or table, it will be 100% accurate if installed correctly. The fine threaded nut makes for easy hand...

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Got this vise with a starter kit from PSI. About a 100 pens later it has come apart twice and caused at least 4-6 students to ruin blanks due to moving while drilling. What seems to happen is the ring spring clamp (I’m not sure what it is called) keeps...

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Well, the earmuffs I used for hearing protection finally broke and it was time to replace them. I decided to go with the worktunes earmuffs because I wasn’t able to hear my radio once I turned on my equipment. Well, they work great! The earmuffs really drown out the noise...

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Unfortunately, I always run the risk of walking out of my local Woodcraft with more than I intended to. Such was the case this weekend when I went in for a plane blade and a set of cabinet scrapers and walked out with a new circular saw as well. Though...

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I got a chance to pickup the new DVD by Chuck Bender titled Dovetailing Apprenticeship at a recent woodworking show. This DVD picks up where all the others left off . Chuck walks us through everything from tools needed , sharping his way, layout and cutting them .The production and...

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I have had many nail guns over the years but I needed to share this one with you guys. This tool is from Cadex and shoots a 23 gauge brad or a 23 gauge headless pin. It has been my experience with this gun that the Brads hold much better...

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As a beginning wood worker on a budget, I have opted for purchasing Ryobi products to fit the bill as the need arises. I’ve been mostly happy with this choice as I find it to be a pretty versatile router. I’ve had it for about a month now. The good:-...

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I’ve owned this router for two or three years and I’ve been very happy with its performance. The controls are easy to use, offers ample power, and there are several accessories available should you need additional features (template guides, straight edge guide, etc.) Plunging the router is simple, and the...

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This will be short and to the point. I bought a set of four Bench Cookies from the Rockler in Arlington, Texas, this past Saturday. That evening I used them to support my new router table top clamped to my old router table top so I could use the old...

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Yo whats up everybody I wanted to do a review on Tommy Mcdonalds grand slam tools. I got the home run pack in may 2009. The home run pack includes a bench bat, 2 parring blocks, and a marking gauge. I dont use the parring blocks a lot but I...

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Several years ago at the Festool IWF booth, I told one of the reps what type of work I do and he said you got to try the “Termite Tool!” Full of woodworker’s cynicism , I thought, Yeah! Just another grinder. I didn’t try it, so I continued to shape...

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This is my first review so go easy on me.. I was at my local sears store just looking around and i saw this bosch driver tucked away on a bottom shelf. It had a big factory reconditioned sticker on it. the battery was charged so so i gave it...

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Here's the link to a short book review of blade-maker Ron Hock’s new book The Perfect Edge. If you’ve read this book I welcome comments and opinions either here or on my blog. ...

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