To all my friends:
I thought it might be a fun discussion to talk about what we are planning on making for ourselves for the holiday season. For the first time in quite a while, I’ve decided to make something for myself. Actually it’s for the shop, and it’s a wall mounted tool box. It’s been in the design stages of my mind for quite a while, and I’ve finally begun building it.
I’m also building a bunch of cutting boards for all the ladies in my family. You know, the wife, sister’s, mom’s, etc….
I hope this is a fun discussion for everyone.
A safe and happy holiday season to all!
Jeff
Replies
I am finishing up a walnut blanket chest for my daughter. For me, I have been building a stout lumber storage rack. I guess I can give that to myself for Christmas! I surely have needed it. Lumber, in my experience, strickly follows Sir Issac Newton's Modified 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, "All things tend toward disorder, especially stacks of lumber in a workshop".
I'm in the final stages of a remodeling project -- I turned an old furnace room into a new laundry and pantry combination. My wife gets the new room, and new laundry machines for her present.
And I'm making a sort of cabinet for the laundry machines to sit on. Perhaps you've seen in the stores how the front loading washers/dryers are available with a taller-height base?
Well, my cabinet will take the place of those bases. It will raise the machines off the floor, making access easier for us oldies. It has a drawer on each side (as do the metal ones in the stores.
Mine also has a pull-out tray immediately beneath each machine. I thought that it would be better to put a basket of laundry there rather than on the floor. After all, the initial concept is to get the machines up where we don't need to do any bending.
Maybe if the weather clears up, and I have a chance to do the finishing, I'll post some pictures.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
For me it will be a wall hung tool cabinet similar to the beaut featured in the last issue of FW. I'll get organized by New Year's! Glenn
I'd like to see the pictures of what you came up with. I recently bought my wife the front loading washer/dryer setup, and I purchased the pedestals that go with them to lift them up. Bending over isn't much fun as we get older.
Jeff
I recently bought my wife the front loading washer/dryer setup
You guys are so romantic. Does she get a vacuum for Valentine's day? For some of us, giving cleaning applicances as presents means we sleep in the shop for a while.
LOL. It wasn't a gift. It was a neccessity! My kids are all athletes, and so are my wife and I. To say that we wash alot of clothes would be the understatement of the year. The last washing machine lasted 7 years, and it was absolutely toast!
I almost gagged when I wrote the $2500 check for a washer/dryer setup. However, the wife pointed to my Lie Nielsen shelf (20 +) and just smirked. What's a guy to do?Jeff
Edited 12/7/2006 9:01 am ET by JeffHeath
Jeff,
For others, I'm thinking of finishing up the three Shaker Wall Clocks (two in cherry, one in hard maple) that were going to be Christmas Presents last year and didn't get done in time. I figure I got a good running shot at getting them done for this Christmas. Thanks for reminding me.
For myself - well another tool box, of course. On this one I'm going to use my fledgling letter-carving skills to carve "I do not want,..." on one side, and "What I have not,..." on the other side. That way, you can read the motto starting from either side. Do you see the perfect symmetry of it? It's to remind me to not constantly be lusting after buying new hand tools. Being a tool box, it makes perfect sense.
Happy holidays to you and your family, Ed
That's good; I like it! I also forgot to mention that I'm building a jewelry box for my daughter. The one I promised her last year! Oh well.
Jeff
It'll be after Christmas, but I'm hoping to build a good router fence - the Pat Warner plans featured in a previous FWW.
Right now I'm finishing a raised panel wainscot in the dining room using MDF and poplar. Hope it's finished by Friday as needed.
Whoa! I thought I understood perfectly until I got to the "It's to remind me...." I was thinking "Way to go Ed! Every time the boss walks through the shop she sees the tool box with a list on each side. That way, she knows exactly what to buy you (and what to avoid) for Christmas, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Summer Solstice, Fourth of July, and all other major 'Give your man a gift' days."
I'm hoping to finish my garage cabinets so I can regain floor space. Doors need final coat, then boxes need assembly, finishing, and hanging. Of course, LOML wants her crafts room outfitted with cabinets as soon as the garage cabinets are finished, so I may never get back to what I want to make, which is--oh, wait--she hasn't told me yet.
Wishing all of you and your families, the best of life's offerings.
That's a shop I can relate to a lot better than the photos of shops I see in books. To make it like mine, you'd just need to add more lumber storage encroaching on the areas where you can walk. Good luck and happy holidays, Ed
I'm thinking of finishing up the three Shaker Wall Clocks
Ed: Can you recommend a source for plans/clock parts, or could you post a photo? I've been thinking of trying a clock project. Thanks
Steve
I'm copying the design from an article in the August 2004 Popular Woodworking by Christopher Schwartz titled "Using CAD to restore Isaac Youngs' wall clock," or words to that effect. They recommend a simple quartz movement as easy to maintain and install. I'm designing the clock face with CAD with a special graphic (no not the naked lady and the panther, nor the velvet elvis!)
If you go to http://www.popularwoodworking.com you can order the back issue. Or send me your address through an email and I will mail it to you.
I am doing a raised panel for the cabinet door portion of the clock which breaks some kind of austere code of ethics that the original Shakers had, I'm sure, but I just like doing raised panels with handtools (so sue me, Mother Ann Lee).
Will post photos when done, but you hard core fine furniturologists may want to hide your eyes or reinforce your computer screens with duct tape.
The article says that Lee Valley carries quartz clock movements. Thos. Moser, How to Build Shaker Furniture, Sterling Publishing Company, 1977, has a very similar design with a traditional clock movement and a source for buying the movement that may be outdated.
Good luck to you, Ed
chris becksvoort also published an article and pattern in fine woodworking a few years back. it's quite attractive and would be my choice for a shaker clock.
gmoney,
I built Chris's version of the Shaker clock with parts(face, hands, mechanism, etc.) from Woodcraft a couple of years ago...it was fun. One heads up however, Woodcraft did not have the 'face' size that Chris's plan called for and, therefore, all the measurements needed to be modified.
ah, thank you. i thought that might be the case. i've had 2 in process for a few years that i've not gone back to finish. mine were a compelation mostly from handberg's shaker furniture book and i planned on making the dial face myself to suit the pattern. now that i think about it, norm also has a clock pattern available in one of his books.
Jeff,
I am in the process of finishing a computer desk for my wife. I go on vacation Friday for the rest of the year and plan to spent some quality time in the woodshop. Next project is to get rid of the wobbley legs on my workbench. Found an article in Woodworking Magazine about an old style workbench and plan to make my workbench top fit on the new base.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL!!!
Greg
A butchers block has been underway for some time and MUST be finished. However, a few years back I built a new kitchen incorporating a butler sink, behind which some idiot mounted taps raised upon a polished slab of zinc which just came to hand. Doh!
The idiot is presently endevouring to remove the zinc, which in parts has swollen to twice the original thickness and has tilted complete with taps to bend over the sink. Naturally the metal is otherwise exceedingly hard to cut, and the idiot did not make provision for future access to nuts, water pipes and the onset of senility!
I just hope Matt will not ban me for these derogatory remarks. As Stan would say, Appy Ollieday.
I built some wenge and zebra trays for my some relatives and my wife liked them so much that she now has me making 26 of them for Christmas presents! Actually two are maple and mahog and two are paduk and two are sapele and anigre but the rest are wenge. Tired of wenge splinters!
Merry Christmas.
I just got roped into 14 cutting boards of maple and walnut for my wife's friends. She was out in the shop and saw the ones I made for her and my sister's, etc.... and "asked" me to make some for her cookie party girlfriends. What a pain glueing up all those skinny a$$ boards.
Message to ALL: Never, ever let the wife see the size of your scrap pile.
Jeff
Edited 12/6/2006 5:00 pm ET by JeffHeath
Great Question,
I see most wood workers are like me. Always last on the list to be taken care of. I have found out that besides being a furniture maker, people assume (you should assume nothing) you know, plumbing, electrical and all sorts of mechanics. And being the guy I am, I try my best to help others out. So I have been thinking, "What about me"?
I have made a commitment to myself that I will be taking wood working classes to increase my knowledge and skills. I have taken a David Marks bent lamination class and am now signed up for a inlay class at Marc Adams school of woodworking.
Plus, as I take a class my tool collection grows, YES....
Joe
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day...
I'm working on two end tables and a coffe table similar to the Greene and Greene end table by Gary Rogowski a few years ago in FWW. I've found a hardwood dealer in Abilene, TX who specializes in mesquite lumber. Mesquite grows very large around Abilene (my mom grew up there) and I'm interested in using one board for the tops of the end tables and two boards with live edges for the coffee table. I love mesquite's color and character, and it would be a nice way to memorialize my mom, who died in September. Tom
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