This picture frame was made for my father in law from scrap Major League Baseball bats! It is simply a plywood frame upholstered in baseball fabric. The bats were left looking “rustic” to add to the look of the old baseball photograph.
My Narex chisels came without a case, so I had to make one. As this is a "shop project", the case frame is pine and the panel is 3/32" plywood.
My Lee Valley HSS Brad point drill bits came without a case, so I had to make one. As this was a "shop project", the case frame is pine, and the panels are 1/4" plywood.
We bought a new scratching post/perch for our cats. The base and top was originally laminated MDF. I upgraded it by redoing the base and top with red oak, finished only with shellac. Looks much nicer, and the shellac has no toxins for the cats to ingest! [pwaplusphp album="Oakscratchingpost"] Comment on the pictures here!
My wife and I recently bought a new grill, and we thought it'd be helpful if we had a bit more surface area to place plates or food, etc. So, I added an extension wing to the end of it! [pwaplusphp album="GrillExtensionTable"] Comment on the pictures here!
I ideally need a separate finishing room, but for now there is not enough space. Instead, I built a drying rack where I could lay several pieces I am working on to dry instead of placing them all over the other surface tops in the shop. [pwaplusphp album="DryingRack02"]
As you may know, before I moved to Maryland, my workshop was in my one-car garage. Since my wife insisted on parking in the garage (how ridiculous, right?!), everything I used had to be able to be folded up against the side of the garage, including my workbench. However, in my new house, I have
This was my very first project. It turned out decent, but I learned first hand exactly how warped pine from a hardware store is! Even when I "measured twice and cut once", things didn't line up very well. After some investigation it turned out that the boards were simply not straight to start with. I
I was asked to build some small stairs so a neighbors dog with a bad knee could more easily climb onto their bed. There is a dado (aka notch) in the back two sets of legs for the previous step to sit in. Since the whole thing is pine, 2x4's, and cheap carpet, the whole
One of my cats, Bebop, is quite a little trouble maker. We bought the cats an automatic feeder because the other one, Ella, can't control her food intake properly! Unfortunately, it seems that the testing process implemented by the designers of this device did not include putting it near a clever cat. After only a
As I only have a one car garage, if I wanted to continue to park in it as well as do some woodworking, I had to build this folding workbench. It works great! [pwaplusphp album="FoldingWorkbench"] Comment on the pictures here!
This was my first contract gig as a wood worker. A guy on CraigsList had broken the glass on his coffee table and wanted to replace it with wood so the repair would be less expensive. I made a orange/gold inlay to separate the dark stain from the dark stain I would use in the
I'm still not sure about how good of an idea this was, but I decided to make a motorized bicycle. It worked pretty well, going nearly 35mph! It was a "friction drive" system - powered by rotating the tire directly. It would be pretty neat if it didn't come to a halt on slopes of
This was a "pre-engineering school" attempt at a coil gun. It was a nice practical introduction to capacitors, rectification, and inductance. [pwaplusphp album="CoilGun"] Comment on the pictures here!
I'm not much of a chess player, but I thought this would be a good exercise to become proficient in a metal shop. The board is made from an old server rack shelf. The pieces are made from scrap aluminum stock. One team is polished and the other is sandblasted. [pwaplusphp album="ChessSet"] Comment on the
My girlfriend (now wife!) collects kaleidoscopes so I decided to make her one. They are actually quite simple - three first surface mirrors configured in a triangle stuck in a tube. Easier said than done! The result was great though! I used a laser cutter to make the acrylic stand. [pwaplusphp album="Kaleidoscope"] Comment on the
