The Woodshop Shed

First Time Side Table

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


My first piece of furniture. Was a “village” project as I asked several questions on LJ and got lots of great feedback. Walnut table top and ambrosia maple legs. Also my first time experimenting with half-lap and rabbet joints. The original plan I found online called for pine and pocket hole screws, so if it looks a little weird it's because I decided to get creative and abandoned the script pretty early on :)Definitely a first time project but the wife loves it, I learned a lot, and I think it looks pretty good.

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Chain hoist operated Hilbilly freight elevator.

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


My shop is 1300 sq feet with a finished out office and bathroom taking up about 350 sq feet of that space. I've got a ceiling that is 17' at the peak and so i have a loft area over the finished office/bathroom that i use for storage. To make better use of the space i needed a way to get things up there safely. I framed in a couple of sections of the wall right in front of my bathroom as it is indented/shallower then the office there is a little cove area that is essentially wasted space (wasted space meaning i cant put tools there of course) The walls have 4×4 supports that carry the load all the way to the concrete floor. I had a 5/8” thick T beam in my junk pile that i created a saddle for out of some 2×12's that span the wall and are lag bolted in place. Then i installed some 2×6's on the wall where i was planning on putting a track system/ ladder for the elevator. Initially my plan was to fabricate the ladder/track but when i got to the scrap yard i found a 3/8” thick angle iron utility ladder that actually suited my purpose really well and i only paid 30 bucks for it. I cut it down and welded some 5/8” thick L iron brackets to the ladder then drilled holes in them and bolted them to my previously installed 2×6 stock using 6” structural rated GRK bolts. after that it was time to make the trolly/elevator platform that would ride up/down the ladder/track. I got some casters and welded up a T brace for the left/right the casters were then welded to the brace i created an I shaped piece with hole patterns at the top/bottom of the I then drilled/tapped holes into the platform frame. I was just barely able to flex the elevator platform onto the ladder/track then i bolted the I in place. I installed a connection point of the hoist right on that I section and installed the hoist above. Eventually ill be changing the 2 ton chain hoist out for an electric one but its just what i had laying around and it actually works great + you can't beat the reliability/ safety factor of something designed to hold %4000 of the load i actually intend. In all i have lifted about 400lbs of freight on this elevator with zero flex the platform is probably 120 lbs and the chain hoist is about 120 as well. I have the hoist chained to the top of the ladder as a safety precaution. I was thinking of adding a ratcheting catch made of plywood that will grab the ladder rungs in the event of a failure but haven't quite gotten around to designing that part of the project.

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Wormy chestnut side table

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


My wife saw a table like this in an antique store and wanted it so I did the typical I could build that. Well she bought it anyway and I built one anyway. This is made from 5/8 thick wormy chestnut from my grandparents house. The house was built around 1920 so i would guess this was cut almost 100 years ago. I used all i had but 4' of 5/8 x 4 piece so it worked out well. The top is 23 diameter and stands about 22 tall.All joints except the top to base are mortise and tenon with dowel pins. The top is attached with figure eights. The challenge with this project was repeating the wavy edges between the legs and the support legs and making the waves within the legs parallel. Those of you who are masters probably have a better solution, but what I did was made a pattern and template of one edge and used that template to make a template that allowed me use my router. After about three tries I finally got something i could use. The legs hinge on screws. I finished with shellac to replicate the finish in my grandparents house.

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