clair064

It's been awhile since I've made dovetails, but I've studied a bunch recently so I felt confident in going for it. This is for a little till that will slide on runners just under the bench lid. Orient the boards as they'll be joined and mark them so you don't get mixed up. I forgot to take photos of measuring and marking out and cutting the tails.  I'll go into detail in a future post

Everything was going so well with the breadboard ends.  The mortises were wider than the tenons, I tuned the fit perfectly, I squared up the shoulder so there were no visible gaps.  So far so good. I clamped on the breadboard ends before taking a 1/4" drill bit to mark the current location of the center of the holes.  I used my double square to measure 1/32" or so toward the shoulder to mark

Each panel is supposed to have two butterfly / bow tie inlays positioned along the glue line, creating the impression that they're holding the panel together. I was pretty nervous about this detail.  To get to this stage of the project after so many hours working on and screwing up and fixing those panels, only to pick up a router and with one slip destroy them.  I said as much to my wife and

I needed to order more wood for the bench lid, and since I was going to have to pay for shipping anyway I figured I might as well order wood for the next project, too.  This way it will have plenty of time to acclimate to my shop. Another order from Zach at Dunham Hardwoods in Dunlap, Iowa.  Not a single check in any board.  Awesome! I spent the first half of the day cutting stickers so

I mentioned earlier that I screwed up resawing the wood for the lid and had to order more lumber.  While waiting for the new wood to arrive I got started on the floor boards using my new scratch beader and then shiplapped them.  Scratch beading works way better on hardwood than softwood.  You really need a delicate hand with softwoods so that you don't dive into the board. Scratch Beader at

Back in January, my eldest brother Matt asked me to help him make a couple things for his wife's birthday.  She wanted a spice rack and a frame for a mirror her parents gave her.  I asked him if he wanted the end result as soon as possible or the experience of making it.  If the former, we'd just use power tools and get them both done in a couple weekends.  He chose the latter and started coming