clair064

The recent influx of blog posts is because I've finally finished a long and restful break from woodworking.  Any projects I've done since August 2014 were tiny ones, compared to my usual fare.  Over the next few months I'll begin working on a pair of end tables for my home, and a flip-top dining table for my brother, Jason. The end tables are designed and mapped out.   The dining

I've been in need of a panel gauge for awhile, but I didn't want to spend $85-225 for one by Lie-Nielsen or Hamilton Tools, even though both are excellent and well-made tools. So I bought $45 worth of brass from McMaster-Carr and figured it out on my own.  Most of the credit for this design goes to Galoototron, but his site has been down for a few weeks.   I ground an old plow plane

So I started trying to learn how to carve spoons from green wood with a hatchet, carving knife and hook knife.  You can blame Peter Follansbee and Jögge Sundqvist and Barn the Spoon and Robin Wood and Jojo Wood and Ben Orford and probably a few others.  It's all their fault. Now if I can only get my hands on some decent carving wood.  This butternut is too splintery. My second spoon ever.

Dad called asking if I knew where he could buy a bluebird house so he could buy one for my mother for her birthday.  I looked online real quick and discovered, to my amazement, that they sell these things for $60!  What the crap?  It's one board! // Don't buy one.  Just go to Home Depot and grab a 1"x6"x6' of pine and leave it on my front stoop. // Each birdhouse was done entirely with

A super simple and quick one.  My son is learning his ABC's, and my wife saw a plastic version of this where the child assembles the letter-shapes.  So I figured out the minimum number of sticks necessary to build the entire alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, and cranked this out in 20 minutes. It fits in a ziplock bag so we can take it with us and get it out while waiting for food or whatever.

A gift to my son on his 2nd Christmas.  When he hears me sawing a board downstairs he grabs his toolbox and runs down to work with me.  Maybe when he's old enough I can delegate my sharpening duties to him as part of his apprenticeship, along with mowing the lawn and doing the dishes, and...

You have to mess with people.  2 out of 4 managed to solve the puzzle on Christmas day.  The other two still haven't gotten to their drink. This was a fun little build.  It wasn't obvious from the photos what the dimensions were, so it was a bit of a puzzle just to build it.  Couple days worth of work + a bottle they prefer makes for a nice gift and conversation piece.

Who knows what evil lurks below the benchtop?  They don't call it a Sliding Dead Man for nothing!

A step stool for the Wee One so he can wee with ease.  A refreshing change of pace after that lingerie dresser.