The Woodshop Shed

Arts and Crafts End Table

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


I wanted to grow my woodworking skills so I picked a project for which I can learn to cut dovetails.I had some leftover wood from previous projects so I designed an end table that would use those. I looked up some Stickley designs, checked out Pinterest, and laid out some thoughts on SketchUp. Most of the techniques were familiar: mortice and tenon, curved legs, and resawing slats. Making a drawer, though, was a first. I watched Rob Cosman's 350 videos on fitting a drawer, Tom McLaughlin's series on his shaker side table, and a bunch of dovetail videos. I'm happy with my drawer except that it's a little tight in its hole. Over time, we'll also see whether I've accommodated wood movement well enough.I had to use a different finishing regime on this project that on previous ones. My old one was fine but, unfortunately, General Finishes discontinued the Early American stain on which it was based. I settled on a variant of Steve Erwin's approach. It gives me a really good color and it pops the grain and the figure in the wood but I'm unhappy with the level of blotchiness I get. I imagine it has something to do with my technique and I'll be practicing to try to improve that.Ultimately, though, I think I'm happy with my end table.

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Segmented Vase

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


My sister commissioned me to make a thank you gift for a good friend.
I had just discovered segmented turning and thought this would be a perfect time to try my first segmented project.
I could NOT get the segments the right size no matter what I did, so I bought this widget from a guy on EBay, made the jig and the pieces fit perfectly.
The results are spectacular, A LOT of work, a lot of pieces to glue up.
Piece of advice, if it's a bigger piece, glue up the bottom half, turn it and then glue up the top half, then glue it to the bottom half and turn the whole thing.
It makes doing the inside of the vase a breeze.
Oak (for the cool grain pattern) and Walnut for the solid color rings.

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Table saw sled

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


The screw and pinion gear on my job site Porta Cable table saw ($169) which I bought in 2013 and have used for all of my projects as well as for several whole house remodels, finally gave up yesterday. Mindful that I'd gotten my money's worth out of it and having had aspirations for a more accurate saw with, perhaps more features I purchased a Dewalt work site saw for which I immediately had to build a sled. Used left over oak flooring cut down for the slides 3/4 oak plywood for the base, a piece of salvaged chestnut from a home remodel and now ready to finish the remaining Christmas gifts. Nothing fancy , like most of my shop, but accurate and functional.Not a tool review, but Dewalts rack and pinion fence is pretty sweet.

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