Over the last few days, I decided to build another saw bench. I have already built 2 in the Christopher Schwarz style. I’ve found these saw benches to be absolutely great…except for ripping. The flared legs get in the way when ripping, especially a narrow board. So I needed something that didn’t have flared legs [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Shop Projects’
Introducing – my Wall Hanging Tool Chest
I did some sanding and hardware installation. Getting the doors hung square and even with one another took quite a few re-do’s. I probably spent more than an hour on it to get the door hang just right. I also put on nice wood knobs and some magnetic catches. I’m super pleased with the way [...]
Panel for doors
After my last post, I had a nice fail and didn’t correctly determine the length of the rails for the doors. The old adage of measure twice and mark once only works if you have decided the length of a particular item correctly. For this project, I’m not using a plan so my determination was [...]
Tongue and Groove for Doors
School is well under way for my 2 boys (Xander -12 and Mitchell -10). The beginning of the school year plays havoc with the entire families schedules and that of course means my shop time. I have gotten minutes in my shop since it began about 2 weeks ago. Today, I was able to resume [...]
Basic Glue up
A basic glue up is a skill every woodworker needs to master. The first step is to get the rough material to the rough size. For hand tool users, this means hand crosscuts and hand ripping. For power tool users, this means table saw work. The next step is to joint the edges to be [...]
Now That’s Hung!
When using hand tools, you’ll probably find that crosscutting is pretty simple. The main reason is that when you crosscut, you are making a relatively short cut. On the other hand, ripping is a manually intensive job. Unlike the crosscut, this cut is along the length of the board. For instance, I need to make [...]
Wall Hanging Tool Chest – The Back
Yesterday, I started on the back. First step was to rough size the pieces for the back (it wasn’t that rough). I cut to length and ripped to width the 4 pieces I was going to use for the back, all with hand saws. I followed this with squaring and straightening the edges and ends [...]
Wall Hanging Tool Chest Glue Up
Today I finished the rest of the joinery on the Wall Hanging Tool Chest. I needed to finish the pins for the upper and lower back braces. I needed to create the dado’s for the back in the upper/lower back braces Then it was on to dry fit to make sure I’m satisfied with the [...]
In the beginning…
As I finished my Saw Till (see previous post), I had one other major project before I get back to working on my 3 guitar builds. I need to re-design and build anew a Wall Hanging Tool Chest. My main 2 issues with the existing plywood Tool Chest is 1) I have no room for [...]
Saw Till – Wrap Up
Today was a very busy day. First I decided to tackle the back. I rough cut the 3 pieces that make up the back and then properly sized them with hand planes. I decided to go with half lap boards and ultimately decided that a v-groove at the half lap would look the best. This [...]
Saw Till – Main Glue Up
Great progress today. First I decided to tackle the dado’s for the shelf. These would be my first hand cut dado’s so I was looking forward to them. First, I marked the edges of the dado using the shelf board. I cut these marks deep by taking many passes with my marking knife. I then [...]
Saw Till using dovetails
With my shop reorganization (see previous post), I need 2 storage solutions done. First is a saw till for holding full size saw’s for ripping and crosscutting, joinery saws including dovetail, tenon, and such, and a few japanese saws. My saw till is based on several sources but probably the most dominant source if from [...]
Recreate a Shop
A few weeks ago, I ordered Christopher Schwarz’s book, The Anarchist’s Tool Chest. Once I got it, I found it a quick read. It was clear and concise and more importantly inspirational. I found Chris’s discussion of his woodworking journey especially touching. Some of it even paralleled my own journey though mine wasn’t often reported [...]
Next Projects
I am thinking, as I work more and more at my workbench (see Updated Shop Tour for pictures), that I will have to build one myself. I am figuring out that certain vices function differently and that I may need to apply different ones to my preferred bench. This picture is close to what I [...]
Updated Shop Tour – Detailed
Since well before Christmas, I’ve been working on a background project. Making my work areas more efficient. In the couple of little projects that I’ve done since this Summer, I’ve realized that a few things needed to be moved to a better location. Here is the results: Main Workbench: Rather than building a bench from [...]
