First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring and while it's not quite spring weather here in St. Louis, we're out of the woods on the super cold winds that had us indoors for far too long. Being indoors is ok as long as you can find something to do, and lucky for us, we have the woodshop to keep us going. Here's some of the projects we've worked on since the year began.

Scrap Lamp
As always, the shop is teeming with scraps from various projects just waiting to be useful so we designed this lamp. Made from cutoffs of oak, walnut, cedar, spruce and a few others—and lots of glue—we turned this down on the lathe and finished it off with shellac. The hardest part was coming up with a lampshade we like dot pair with it, but finally hit pay dirt and we're pretty pleased with it.

And here's my shopmate demonstrating how one shade was too big.

Vertical Hat Rack
We were lucky enough to come into some reclaimed oak from a family member who's renovating their kitchen. The request that came with it was that we make a vertical hat rack with the wood. The fun part was that the board and all of the pegs came from the same piece of oak that had been in that kitchen for the last bit of forever. Not many pics for this one, maybe the owner will send some pics my way (hint hint)

Treasure Chest
My shopmate's birthday was late last month and he's really been into pirates as of late, which suits me just fine. He had drawn up a plan for this chest earlier in the year so I thought I'd surprise him by building it one weekend. Completely constructed from old pine 2x4s that I planed down and ripped into smaller planks, it's finished off with a layered paint job. Black paint went down first and then was sanded down to expose the grain and knots. Over that a walnut stain darkened and richened the wood and finally shellac brought out the shine and richness. We've got some good build pics, but the final pic is a bit 'meh', so maybe we'll circle back with a better one after a bit.

Return from Yesterday

First off, let us apologize. It's been a bit too long since our last post here at the Woodshop blog. We'd like to post more often, but we also don't like to post unless we have something worth sharing, so that leaves us in a bit of a spot. Today, we'll meet ourselves halfway and post some items that are.. almost worthy. We promise to do better next time.

The holidays are interesting at the shop because we tend to do less work in general as we out shopping and decorating and cleaning and on and on. The work that does get done is for a gift, or an order for a gift, so there's not much we can show until now.

First up is a six-pack carrier. Nothing amazing (see first paragraph), but still a fun little project. Made from reclaimed cedar and elbow grease this sixer will get you rounded in style. Rounded? Oh that's a little Maugerism meaning ‘take the edge off’. Not sober, not tipsy, just ‘rounded’.

As we were building this it was discussed how we might embellish a piece like this in the future. A fellow wood worker was dabbling with a wood burner and his enthusiasm rubbed off a bit so we picked one up. A great tool for making art—if you have got the chops—but for us, a great tool to add to the arsenal of finishing options. Here’s the shop sign in progress (which is also the new blog header image). There's a lot of great wood-burner artists out there (many on youtube) we encourage you to check them out.

Last up is a small project that most woodshops do from time to time, the trophy. The Mrs won her fantasy football league (I still imagine wizards playing take football when I hear that), and who more deserving of a trophy than the woman who puts up with all of this wood dust? At the time writing this the trophy is off at a local trophy shop being fitted with plaques, but until then here it is in all of it'a naked glory.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year—we'll write more soon.

Fun & Games

At the wood shop we like to play games as much as we like woodworking and it pleases us to no end when we can combine the two. 

One of the games that has been in our repertoire for a long while is Mexican Train. The game is domino based, which means—just like playing cards and all of the games you can play with them—if you've got dominoes you can play. And just like cards, you can play with just the dominoes and get along just fine, or add some specialty pieces that enhance the game. 

In Mexican Train all dominoes played radiate out from a center starter piece. You can buy any number of hubs that making this gameplay mechanic easy, and in some cases attractive. Earlier this summer I set out to design a wooden hub that would get the job done and look good doing it. 

There are several designs that went into the fire but here is the final prototype in pine, and the resulting production piece in solid walnut with oak player pegs.

  

  

Kids Stuff

Welcome back to the woodshop! This week we were able to deliver some new pieces to a new mom. No, the woodshop isn't adding another apprentice, (sorry, grandma). What we are doing, though, is having fun making gifts that will last. Check these out:

  

  

Bent wood and a sinking ship

Here's this past week's effort: a canoe bookshelf. Better versions are rounded—like real canoes—but this is my first, maybe I'll get there one day. Also my first time bending wood. Didn't steam it, just slowly torqued it over a few hours. And the first time using chalk paint, which was real easy to work with. Here it is mid-build and in place.

 

 

Summer Catch-Up

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog, and for one very good reason: it's summer! We've been very busy having a good time, enjoying the unseasonably good weather, and working our tails off. In fact I'm writing this from an airport—downtime during a business trip—waiting for the flight back home. But I'm already sketching out the next project for the woodshop, hopefully something involving steaming and bending wood. Been wanting to do that for a while. Since I last posted there's been a few projects worth mentioning...

The Ping Pong Table

We've been talking about getting a Ping Pong table for a while and this 4th of July we finally decided to pull the trigger. The boy had drawn up plans to make one but I was leaning towards buying one. The size of the project alone was enough to ward me off, but once I had seen what was out there—and for how much—I shrugged and said "Lets make it". 

Regulation competition size, 9' x 5', made from 3/4" oak plywood, stained with mahogany, and coated in several layers of shellac and furniture polish, here it is:

  

 

Shinel No 2

There's no shortage of childish humor in our home and when we became aware of Poo Pourri and their hilarious advertising campaign, it didn't take long before the Mrs had engineered her own version of the indispensable concoction, Shinel No 2 (Chanel No 5 for your bum) for use around the house. It's so effective and easy to make, she elected to give a few out as gifts. Good products need good packaging and that's where I come in. 

Label inspired by the original Chanel design, outer packaging constructed of pine and cedar with a Woodshop branded decal wrap. Take a look...

Hm... MINTY

About the same time I had been working on the cookie jar (previous post), I was working on a segmented bowl design using contrasting woods. Here's the completed prototype, serving as a mint dish in my downtown office. 

 

Walnut and Cedar Jars

For my birthday my brother-in-law gave me a very generous gift—several feet of walnut and cedar planks. While a lot of that wood is tied up in a personal project that I one day hope to show you, there's still a wealth of wood to use in other ways. Once of those ways became gifts to the same brother-in-law (hint hint: if you give me wood, I will make something of it and give it back), and also my father—small cookie jars. Measuring about 6 inches wide and about 8 inches tall, these jars are made of walnut, with once using cedar as an accent around the rim, and are finished with hand-made and hand-rubbed French polish. The grain in these pieces came out beautifully and I love that I was able to give back to those who're so important to me.

   

 

Finally... 

One of my favorite things to do lately to sit on the back patio in the porch swing and relax. I love listening to music as I chill and listening to the tiny iPhone speaker or not so small, but not that great either boom-box, just doesn't cut it. So I gathered some very disparate materials—an old Altec Lansing speaker set (with subwoofer), scrap white birch plywood, pine dowels, an old pair of black tights and some Bronze tacks—and made what I call the SpeakerBox. Just plug it into the wall and your phone and you're in business. BTW, it sounds awesome.

   

  

Cookies anyone?

Latest from the woodshop—a pine and cedar cookie jar. Technically a prototype for different jar—which is why the lid handle is a bit off. But the finish came out quite well and I learned from it, so a success piece.