I done made it

Jewelery is like furniture, just smaller

2012-01-17T19:28:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd try my hand making a crystal-shaped pendant for a Christmas present. Reclaimed wood, aniline dye, and water-based satin clear-coat.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

2011-12-06T22:36:00.002-05:00

I've created my first Most Useless Machine!!!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Needed to add the latch on because it was a little cramped inside there and the wires kept pushing up the switch side. I also unexpectedly had to re-wire the servo motor, and I haven't soldered anything for the better part of a decade, so I was a little surprised it worked. The mahogany aniline dye with satin clear coat really made the Dollar Store wooden box look nice as well. Here it is in action (if you haven't seen one before, a Most Useless Machine does nothing other than turn itself off):

Organization!

2011-08-28T18:50:00.000-04:00

New lumber storage rack completed! Goodbye massive pile on the floor.

I made it a girlfriend

2011-01-12T22:47:00.000-05:00

Finished the first corresponding joint!

This is them doing it:

Just like lego

2011-01-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

Finished the first half of the first joint of the armoire frame (front top left to be exact). This will fit into the yet-to-be-made cut out section of the front cross beam, a mortise will then go through the intersection of the two so that a tenon from the vertical corner post will lock them together.
So far so good.

It has begun!

2010-12-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

I've finally started on the armoire I've been planning for much too long. I've got a pretty good idea of how it will fit together using japanese-inspired joiney. I'm using old 2x4s salvaged from houses under renovation. My estimate is that the beams are around 80 - 100 yrs old, based on the nails that were in them and the houses they came out of. Right now I'm still in the process of planing them smooth. Turning them from:

Into:

New TV Stand

2010-12-29T20:36:00.001-05:00

I recently finished building a TV stand out of 1x4s from dismantled shipping pallets and other scrap wood. It's been left as bare wood for now. Might get around to finishing it with clearcoat or tung oil later on.
For the shelves and side panels, I used hand planes to tongue and groove the boards and glued them together. Those glued panels were then assembled using mortise and tenon and dovetail joints and no glue or nails. It's a little rough around the edges, but the joinery worked well enough that it's solid, which was the main thing I wanted to accomplish on this project.

Finally: an island!

2010-06-25T19:05:00.000-04:00

Settlers of Catan board is finished. The wood veneer cards didn't work out though, so just bought a deck of replacement cards.

Recent purchase!

2010-06-20T20:10:00.000-04:00

I just bought a new cordless drill!

Start of a board game

2010-03-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

Finished cutting and sanding the tiles for a homemade Settlers of Catan board game. Cut from 1/4" plywood.

Next up: Making the settlements and cities.

One bookcase down.

2010-01-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

I just finished a bookcase project I've been working on for a while. I used scrap wood either that I found at the curb, or salvaged from shipping pallets. The inside shelves were made from dismantled IKEA shelf wood.

To join the planks together to make the sides I used some mortises and tenons.

Then glued and clamped them (got to use my pipe clamps for the first time, they work really well).

To join the three sides I used a locked mitre joint, however, the mismatched wood of varying thickness and a makeshift router table resulted in it not being as accurate as it needed to be. With some chisel work it managed to fit together and glue up solid, but it's not the nicest.

I routered some dadoes to hold the shelves. And here's the final product:

Some Christmas Gifts

2009-12-30T21:32:00.014-05:00

First post. I'm using this blog to keep track of things I've made, track my progress as I learn, and provide some motivation to keep at it.

Here are some things I made just before Christmas for some friends and family. The first two are pictures I took of Heidelberg Street in Detroit, framed with plaster lath from a 100-year house that was being renovated nearby. No fancy joinery. Just a mitered layer laid on top a butt joint layer. I like how they turned out, but I think I'm gonna try to do a bit more on the joinery side to get it down to one layer for the next ones I make.

This next thing is a box to hold 7"s. It's made of wood from some under-the-bed drawers that weren't being used.

The box fit together nicely and even without any glue or nails it's quite solid.