Author Archives: joel

Another project I've forgotten to post - I made these shelves in the spring, to hold the growing collection of toys that keep showing up in the Loot Crates. My favorites are the larger Firefly figures on the middle shelf of the largest unit. The box all the way to the left is my new solution for organizing my wire spools - so far it's been working out great.

Borrowed an idea I saw in a YouTube video - basically, when the hook-and-loop pad on my random orbit sander wore out, I replaced it and screwed the old one to a nice piece of cherry to made a hand sander. The hook-and-loop still has enough grab to hold the sheets when hand sanding - plus it is nice and comfortable to hold. Although I probably need to add a strap across the back to make it easier to hang on to.

Made a few tools for myself this weekend. On the left is a carver's mallet that I turned on the lathe from a piece of red oak firewood I had laying around. I forgot how much I love using the lathe! I'm going to have to make some more projects on that soon. Later that morning Carter came out to the shop and asked me to teach her how to turn a pen. I forgot to take a photo of it though - hopefully I'll take one soon and post it here. The second photo shows a pair of hand planes I made this weekend. The bigger one is a standard block plane made from cherry with a bubinga sole and a walnut wedge. The smaller one is a chamfer plane made from hard maple (center) and morado (cheeks). For that one, I even made the blade myself from some O1 tool steel. I still need to cut the wedge down a little shorter on that one - it's pretty tall right now. I've also got a long jack plane that I'm working on, but it's not finished quite yet.

I built this keepsake box recently as a proof-of-concept for an idea I saw online. The top is some burl veneer (I don't remember the species), the main body of the box is black walnut, and the skirt and legs are curly maple. Inside, if you look carefully you'll find a tiny hole. Poke something into that hole (like a paperclip) and one end of the skirt will pop out - revealing a secret drawer below the false bottom.