Spring Home Projects

[PetersCreek]

Can't wait to see the finished product

It's pretty much done now. After the finish cures, all I have to do is attach the top and install felt pads on the legs.




Overall, I'm very satisfied with how it turned out. If I could have done it differently, I would have bookmatched the tabletop glue-up from an 8/4 board. Unfortunately, with the selection available from the hardwood supplier at the time, that would have meant buying another $200 board. Still, the top has some very nice figure that varies with the viewing angle.

 

[Npeters7]

Very nice work... Looks great. I'm sure it even looks better in person... Pictures can't pull everything out like you would want it to... Great job man

 

[The Munt]

Well its not Spring but I did manage to knock over 70m of fencing in 2 weekends with a mate helping... each day followed by some great smokes and libations.. this has doubled the usable land on my block. Made a big difference to the family home.

 

[PetersCreek]

Just two pictures and now I feel really tired.

 

[madmark]

That fence looks great.

 

[PetersCreek]

I've been busy and remiss. I started a new project a while back for The Wife®, something that I'm calling Project Basket Case. I guess an occupational hazard of being a hairdresser is that one can become a hair care product junkie...and she is. She has quite the collection of shampoos, conditioners, styling sprays/foams, and what-have-you in the shower, in the vanity hutch, and in a 3-drawer plastic storage cart. Since I finished the master suite remodel, that little cart has stood out as the oddball in the room and it has vexed me to the point where I offered to make something more in line with the furniture we have. She has always liked furniture that use baskets instead of drawers, so I thought I'd make this her first such piece:


Click to see in gallery

Clicking the image will take to the project gallery but here are a few in-progress thumbnails:



Which brings us to this, glued up and ready for finish:



Now all I need is some warm weather for a cigar.

 

[PetersCreek]

An overdue update: I finished the case with boiled linseed oil and tinted shellac:

It's a bit darker than I intended but the wife likes it.

 

[Kantucky]

Finished up the shower in the master bathroom last night. I'll take more pics later, but it has turned out pretty well. I've never seen a built-in shelf turn a corner like that so I decided to find out if it would work.

 

[PetersCreek]

Shortly before finishing that last project, I received my first real commission. After seeing my woodworking posts on Facebook, a coworker asked if I could come up with a stand of some sort for a taxidermy display. Her husband had gone on an duck hunting trip to an St. Paul island and had four specimens mounted in a museum style setting. The mount itself is nice but the base left a lot to be desired:



The joinery is bad enough to make refinishing a poor option, so I decided to completely enclose it in the stand...and since they are wine enthusiasts, I came up with a design to make the stand multifuntional:



...and here's a short 'walk-around' video to put it in perspective. (Yes, I know those are wood ducks in my model but the 3D library didn't have any others that would work.) Nothing is assembled yet...just a few dry fits here and there...but here are a few more in-progress photos from the last few weeks. Click 'em to embiggify 'em:
[URL="http://www.brettluna.com/img/s10/v105/p1993367474-5.jpg"] [URL="http://www.brettluna.com/img/s11/v30/p2079453310-5.jpg"] [/URL][/URL]

 

[PetersCreek]

Finished up the shower in the master bathroom last night. I'll take more pics later, but it has turned out pretty well. I've never seen a built-in shelf turn a corner like that so I decided to find out if it would work.

Pretty well? That looks damned nice, man. Damned nice. I like the recessed shelf a lot. I considered one during our bath remodel but the wife didn't want the upkeep. We have a lot of iron in our well water and it wouldn't be long before the corners looked bad.

 

[Kantucky]

Pretty well? That looks damned nice, man. Damned nice. I like the recessed shelf a lot. I considered one during our bath remodel but the wife didn't want the upkeep. We have a lot of iron in our well water and it wouldn't be long before the corners looked bad.

Yeah I'm happy with it. Still have to seal grout tonight and install the rainwater head but overall I think we took several good ideas and made them work. So I'm pleased. I'll take some more pics tonight or tomorrow- another thing or two about that shower is different from normal but easier to describe with photos

 

[PetersCreek]

I have to say that this project hasn't gone off without a hitch so far. I had a doozy the other night. During a dry fit, some pieces fell to the floor...dammitalltohell. The damage was mostly minor dings that can be sanded or planed out but there was one significant corner chip. But...part of woodworking is learning to fix your mistakes, so I had to chisel out the boo-boo, cut a plug that matched the grain and color reasonably well, glue it in...



...and plane it flush and smooth:



A little blending during finishing and it should be all but invisible.

 

[PetersCreek]

Today's task was to make the cabinet bottom shelf. After clamping the legs and lower rails together, I took measurements for the overall size of the shelf and made the cuts on the table saw. Since the legs and rails are not flush to each other on the cabinet interior, I also needed to cut a notch at each corner of the shelf. Rather than use a square and pencil to layout the notch, I used a marking gauge to transfer the measurements, leaving very precise lines cut into the plywood veneer. I removed most of the waste with a carcass saw, cutting about 1/16" away from the cut line.


(all images are clickable for larger versions)

The chisel pretty much falls into the cut left by the marking gauge but to keep things square and stable, I used a milled scrap block to guide the chisel during the initial cuts. Following up with a wider chisel to make a few light paring cuts (leaving the veneer alone) cleaned the substrate up.



The first test fit looks pretty good but some fine tuning will be needed before final assembly.



Now it's time for a beer and a stick on the deck.

 

[egledhill]

So me and my wife got our house 2 weeks before we got married 3 years ago. Our back porch need some minor roc back then but we never used it so it went on the back burner. Buy the end of last summer we were out there every day and I noticed how 3 years of neglect had turned a minor upkeep into a major refinish. The paint was flaking off, mold growing, it looked like hell. So last week I decided if we were gonna keep using it, might as well freshen it up. Basically the whole deck looked like this

Pressure washed it off but that didn't come close to taking all the flaking paint off. Got out the 7" orbital sander and went to work. Progress so far:

. After I get it all sanded I'm gonna hit it with the power washer again to get all the dust off, let it dry for a day and get to painting


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[PetersCreek]

A modicum of progress with my commission piece since my last post...
I milled some recesses in the legs for the wine racking and the upper rails, and added a decorative profile to the legs and rails for a little interest:

After gluing up the side panels, I routed profiles on the wine racking and sanded them...a lot:


Which brings us to this past week. With yet another dry assembly of the carcass, I fitted the floating cleats to the side panels. Yesterday, I cut the racking pieces to their final lengths. The photo shows the racking, held in place only by joinery and a snug fit. Right after snapping this photo, I pulled them out, glued them up, and flushed the joints with a hand plane.


Next, I think I'll make a dolly to hold and move the piece more easily because all together, it's a bit of a beast.

 

[Jesse]

Build me a small cover over Memorial weekend.

 

[Tim H]

Looks great guys.

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[Lomey]

Built a barbecuing table out of an old tree we had taken down. Still have to finish the patio and fire pit.

 

[Soapebubbles]

Ripping out the Terrible landscaping that was here when we bought the house. More coming soon


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[qpzmide]

Expanding the deck/cigar area!