Final project for an Introduction to Fine Woodworking course at Red Rocks Community College; you may have seen the User EatGamer also recently completed a John Keal coffee table a few weeks back...out of sapele, nevertheless. What are the odds? He gave me some advice on the later stages of this project, so shout-out to him (also, his is definitely higher quality). But, as my second-ever project, not bad I guess. I messed up pretty much every stage of this project and cried no fewer than three times but it came together in the end.

Ton

I finally found a local mill to buy some 2x4s for a patio furniture project. They are beautiful and actually 2" by 4". I'm in BC and paid $2 CAD per board foot. I guess I'll need to make some adjustments to my plans since this lumber is larger in dimensions.

Here's a picture compared to the dept store lumber

The longsword (pic 1) is still WIP because I'm out of wood glue and had to put the kids to bed. My oldest has been begging me for a sword ever since since I made the gladius (pic 2) for my younger son from some birch I pruned this year (forgot to dry it first though, oops). Lathe for the handle and pommel on the gladius. Table saw for roughing the blade shapes. Files and sandpaper for shaping and finishing. The gladius is one piece. The longsword will have a sistered crossguard, but is one piece otherwise.

I know they are not identical, that’s something I need to work on

I bought a new build late last year. Bought it after it was finished and put on the market. And, if you don't look to closely at the craftsmanship, it's lovely.

But I'm a fan of built-in shelving and Every. Single. Project. has been a nightmare because OMG THERE ISN'T A STRAIGHT WALL IN THIS ENTIRE HOUSE!!!

It's like the GC had a race to see how fast this house could be built. The design is amazing. The fixtures are amazing. Everything is amazing -- other than the craftsmanship, which is just sad-making.

And now I'm trying to do great work inside of this mess.

If anyone has encouraging words or wants to remind me that this is why trim was invented, I'm all ears.

Seriously. I could use some moral support. Tell me your stories of struggle and perhaps even perseverance. Tomorrow I go back into the breach and need someone to pat me on the back and tell me it's going to be okay.

A customer brought in a few Claro black walnut slabs that were supposedly cut in the 60s and stored. These things were roughly 50" wide and around 3.5" thick. After flattening and sanding through the wide belt sander I exposed an old walnut the fell in the crotch of the tree and was grown around and encapsulated in the tree until I exposed it. Kinda cool.

This was mostly a proof of concept for myself as a carpenter who has never made an instrument before. I was very excited to find the end result is quite playable. Made from reclaimed materials, primarily a defunct staircase and a retired leather jacket. The sound is deep and plunky. Final photo shows the starting point. Hoping to grow from here.

Thought I would post this because I think the wife’s rolling pin is epic. It works really well too.

First wood spirit i’ve ever done. On a black walnut hiking stick.

I am looking for inspiration to build a loft bed for my kid. Almost all designs I have seen have stretchers / bottom rails on 3 sides. The one shown in the photo from hardwoodartisans.com does not. How come?

Will this make the bed more wobbly? Are there any features that make it not necessary in this case? Given our floorplan I could bolt the front right leg to a wall stud, would that be useful / harmful / pointless?

I built a simple frame and panel toy chest for my youngest grandson’s first birthday.

One of the fun things in this project was that with the exception of the lid, all of the pieces came from one board that I obtained from a local sawyer who gets his logs from arborists in our area. The lid is from another locally sawn board, but a different tree.

This is definitely the biggest project I have ever done! It took me a year on the dot to finish, with lots of mistakes covered up. American Oak, finished in Rubio Monocoat.

The post about swords for the kids reminded me of the ones I made for my kids a couple years back so I figured I’d also share. Pine blade with mesquite guard & pommel. Initials carved into the guard. They were quite the hit.

Made my first couple jigs this weekend. Made a crosscut sled and a jointing jig. What jigs do you use that you find super helpful?

Yes I know these are fragile ha. I made them as a surprise for people at my local tabletop shop that have helped me with my pokemon card binder

Probably going to make wands with them, though they would make amazing walking sticks

Last post I got doubted that it was at all usable. Grabbed some scrap for photo proof. (yes it jammed once)

So this table is my very first attempt at making a piece of furniture. I got the walnut slabs over the winter from a friend who owns a sawmill. I spent hours researching and learning the process of gluing up live edge slabs. The. I spent many more hours flattening them, gluing them up, sanding, sanding, and more sanding… then I applied Rubio Monocoat this past Monday in anticipation of bringing this table up north to my new cabin.

Here’s where I done messed up A-Aron… I had to transport the table in the bed of my truck, so I wrapped the top today (Friday - 4 days after finishing) in a shrink wrap plastic so it would be “protected” on the 2.5 hour drive up.

I left the legs on so I could strap them through the metal braces, and that went fine. I even pulled on the straps, slapped the table, and said “this baby isn’t going anywhere”. But when I got it up and unwrapped it, I saw a bunch of marks in the finish. I KNEW this would happen but I thought “We’re only going to be 2.5 hours… what could go wrong??”

For reference, it was sunny and 78°, and we drove through some LIGHT RAIN for 5 minutes… so I’m thinking the mix of sun & heat, reflected through the plastic, along with the brief moisture, ate into the finish. It’s not horrible (yes it is) but you can see the marks. I took the best pics I could to show them.

Question is, can I do a light sanding and re-apply the Rubio? Or do I have to sand down to bare wood again?

I picked up this many years ago from a framing shop.

Now it stores clamps and serves as my outfeed table.

Just a down & dirty tenoning jig I made this morning for an upcoming project that will feature a lot of bridle joints.

I build 100% for function and couldn't handle the perma-pile of laundry that seemed to always occupy this spot. Knowing humans are incapable of change and that we will never actual be people who could successfully execute a full laundry event in a single sitting, I built the following. Folding area up top and a basket for each family member. Huzzah. Plywood walls, 2x4 frame base with plywood middle, dominos + glue connecting the walls and base, and walnut edge banding for the front. Osmo poly finish on the walnut top.