Jewelry Boxes X3 - Some late christmas presents

Don't remember when I started this project, I want to say it was supposed to be for Christmas last year.  3 identical jewelry boxes out of a resawn musical grade walnut board.  Legs were made out of African blackwood, rejects from the clarinet business.  Not very many pictures from working with that wood because it was extremely difficult.  Splintery and extremely hard

Dovetailing of drawers

Finishing some grooves with hand tools

Hand thicknessed drawer runners

Hand shaping some dovetail keys.  You'll have to look and find out what they are for.

Finished exterior

Sarah and I did the fabric on the interior

 3 boxes next to each other, hopefully they'll ship out this weekend.


Next up?  Picture frames, fireplace cover and a kitchen workbench.

First orchid pictures of 2014

The first orchid pictures of 2014.  Missed some Cattleyas over Christmas (way too cold to go into the greenhouse!)

Dendrobium Tetragonum - a regular bloomer

Some bulbophylum - marked medusae but looks completely different

Some pictures of Maggie

Some pics from our trip to Las Vegas then driving back

Death valley

 Sequoia National Park

Neat hardware

Sarah and I.  Loved the smell of the forest, to me, smelled like Port Orford Cedar, but better.  Not a great picture, why don't people know how to use a camera?  Half way down to focus, all the way down to snap, not hard!

First projects on the new roubo

Lots of dovetailing and hand planing - so new bench was perfect.  Much better than the old bench.  Still around, still use it for all sorts of stuff, but the new bench sits in my main bench area.

Lingerie chest on stand for Sarah.  Had on the base a long time ago from Sapele from the door.

Alaskan yellow cedar drawer sides - setting up for dovetailing

Thin, lightweight drawers mean glued on drawers slips.

Ready for some undies.  Turned all the drawer pulls from Cocobolo.  Used nearly all the tiger maple stock that I had including a really really nice board that I picked up.  (drawer fronts, and case top).  Used a general finishes gel varnish which worked out great, but interior ended up having too much Alaskan yellow cedar smell so had to shellac the interior.  Still haven't found a good way to apply shellac without it looking like crap.

  

Neat little jig for marking pins from tails that I got from David Barron on you tube.  Worked great on this project.  Used the absolute last bit of sapele that I had.  Even did a really nice job on the dovetails on this jig, so I'm definately proficient now.  I like the look of lots of tails...

2nd workbench - this time a roubo with benchcrafted gear

Was always a little frustrated with my Holtzapfel bench.  I was frustrated with:

1. End vise didn't really work - not enough room
2. Split top - was always losing stuff through it
3. The doug fir slab for the bench couldn't be planed flat really - just tore out like crazy
4. Dog holes were drilled at a slant that made things difficult to clamp for planing
5. Metal dogs - hated even having to think of them

Built a soft maple roubo that took nearly all 200bdft of the soft maple that I bought.  Used all benchcrafted gear and the heck out of my Festool OF2200.  Gotta love the heft out of the machine, really upset that I dropped it off my work table...

Live edge slabs circular sawed down and picking the best material for the top and the show faces.

No knock down hardware - mortise and tenon, glued and pinned.

Tenon for the wagon vise chop.  Laminating this and jointing on the AD-741 was *easy*.  Must easier than when I had the ridgid 6" jointer for the Holtzapfel.  The slab would literally tip the jointer.

No split top meant different tenons then the benchcrafted design

Squaring up the end wasn't as easy as you would think.  Had to bust out the chisels after using the tracksaw.

Mostly finished bench including leftover sapele from the front door project as the leg vise chop.  Laminated cutoffs for bottom tray.  Flatting it was *easy*, the soft maple planes beautifully.

Condor tails really difficult to saw by hand especially when it came to marking the pins.

Custom round hickory dowel dogs.  Really nice.  Used Wood Owl bit to drill the holes using a jig.  Holes came out *really* clean with absolutely no tear out.  What a great tool.  Dowels a little big, had to chuck them up in the lathe and sand the day lights of them to get them to fit.

Left over cutoffs of maple went into making a sawbench

Finished sawbench.  Litterly just a little bit of BDFT leftover and turned into stickers and firewood

September shop project

Decided on a shop project to match the "work" project as a reward.  Lots of "reward" as a result of running around the attic to do electrical and can lights + the closet and attic finishing.

New 16" Felder jointer/planer combo AD-741.  What a beast.

A small Easy Wood Tools Cabinet out of reclaimed doug fir paneling.  Really quick to make out of dominos.

While the jointer/planer combo was broken

Decided to start building the rock climbing training wall room.  This used to mostly all be covered in insulation.  This was the project I worked on while the jointer/planer was broken and I couldn't work on the closet.  Did this in the middle of july, was hot, but bearable surprisingly.

Crash pads onward was all insulation.  Plywood down and ready for a systems wall.  Carpet reclaimed from master closet.

Shelving for random stuff.  Wood reclaimed from master closet.