The Woodshop Shed

1904 Seth Thomas Clock Reconstruction

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


This may not qualify as a legitimate project but I'll post it for the sake of clock lovers like me. I bought this 1904 Seth Thomas School/Store clock locally for a mere $65, with the understanding that it was a 50/50 shot at rebuilding a working clock. (You can check them out on-site to a satisfactory degree if you know what to look for) As my second attempt at bringing a clock back to both cosmetic and mechanical life, the thrill is in the chase.On this one, though, a complete deconstruction was undertaken to both repair and reconstruct the case and clean/lube the movement. To keep it period accurate, I even bought some hide glue at Woodcraft to honor this respected name brand. Thankfully, there was only a small amount of damage that could not be reconditioned, and it was located on the bottom which is not normally visible. I saved all the original nails to reuse in the buildup.As a veneered clock, no sanding is advised, so I relied on Mineral Spirits to clean off the surfaces, which turned out to be in very good shape. All the 'joints' required sanding off the old hide glue to get them to fit together well. I won't give myself high marks for craftsmanship on this since you have little chance of achieving perfection at this point. The little 'drop' door was literally in pieces and other gaps moved me to pull it all apart and do a reconstruct, fixing anything else that needed attention.The movement was cleaned in ultrasonic solution, minus the machine, and brought it back into working condition. The metal face plate had been warped from rough handling and responded to manual rebending to a flat enough shape to mount well into its bezel. The glass door was in excellent shape and needed nothing.'Finish' was nothing more than Dark Walnut Restor-A-Finish, which adds little color but fills in wherever scratches and bare wood areas are exposed. It adds enough of a varnish finish to provide a completed appearance, and when rubbed down a bit looks rather original if you don't put on too many coats. A generous application of Howards citrus/beeswax polish finished it off.I managed to finish it in two weeks with intermittent attention waiting on glue to dry, etc. Listening to it tick-tock each day is a grand reward when you succeed.

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Instant Rosewood

Furnished content.
(from Popularwoodworking.com)


I like to use purpleheart pen blanks because they're less expensive than other exotic hardwoods. Recently, I stumbled on a cool trick. I discovered that I could cause the wood to overheat and turn dark by using the back side …Source

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My Benchtop Shop

Furnished content.
(from Popularwoodworking.com)


My shop is in a single car garage bay that occupies approximately 10ft x 20ft (~3m x 6m). I designed my layout to be mover-friendly, while preventing many of the limitations that often come with working in a small space.…Source

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Cutting Board and Coaster Set

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Hello All,
I somehow missed the obligatory making of cutting boards previously in my woodworking exploits, so I decided that now was the time. I wanted to make a gift for my daughter and her husband, and had a request from my wife (gotta pay attention to those!), so off I went. This was also a good time to show some appreciation to my awesome neighbors, so I ended up building 6 boards in all. I used the 2 designs in the photos made from walnut, hard maple, alder, and sapele. I won't elaborate on these unless asked since you all have probably seen similar boards before. I will say that between the inlays, handles, and juice grooves I learned some worthwhile skills to use in the future.I wanted something more than just a cutting board for my daughter, so I made a matching set of coasters with a holder. The holder was the most elaborate part of the build, because I wanted to use a small walnut cutoff from a previous project with nice grain that was not quite big enough for the 4 coasters. Since I didn't want to reduce the size of the coasters, I added a maple accent on each corner to give me the length I needed. I ended up liking this better than a plain beveled corner because of the nice contrast. I routed grooves in each piece of maple, as well as the ends of the walnut panels, and added a spline for strength. The openings in the holder were cut roughly on the table saw, and then cleaned up using a simple MDF router guide with a flush trim bit.Thanks for viewing!

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Blanket/Cedar chest

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


My son got married in October and he and the new DIL requested a blanket/cedar chest as a wedding gift. I got the project started in December and finished in February. Wasn't rushing to get it done and was surprised it took about 85 hours to finish. Seems like a lot more work that two 40 hour weeks.The plans were found in Woodsmith magazine, Volume 25, Issue 145. It was labeled as a blanket chest and I added eastern red cedar to the walls and floors of the main compartment and the two drawers to make it a “cedar” chest.
I've built lots of different things but this was probably the one that combined more past techniques and a few new ones than any project I've done before. Spent a small fortune on good quality router bits to make the different molding profiles.
The couple wanted the finished product with a cherry stain. I picked birch ply and solid wood and stained it with ZAR cherry stain. It came out looking just like the photo of the project in Woodsmith.The back of the chest is plain so it can fit up against a wall or the foot of the bed. The bracket feet were fun and one of those new things I learned. Another thing I've never done is use a brown Sharpie pen to color the wood in the recess around the lid to create a shadow line. It worked out well and adds a very nice detail.I removed the cluttered shop background in a couple of the photos due to excess distraction from the main event. I hope you enjoy the final product.

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