Finishing an Old Project – tool chest conplete

Years ago when I lived in an 800 sqf condo I did my woodworking at a TechShop in downtown San Francisco. This meant I was carting my hand tools back and forth from home to shop so I built Mike Pecoviches portable tools chest from fine woodworking.

Once we moved to a house i stopped using Tech shop and it ended up living on a side bench for tool storage and I never added the dividers and tool storage.

This summer we will be spending two months in Wyoming which will include at least a few woodworking projects so I decided it was time to set it up with my minimum tool kit using scrap wood from the garage. The dividers were left overs from a humidor project a friend gifted me when he moved and the saw lock is from an old tool chest i found on the side of the road years ago (it is really light and strong so i suspect old growth redwood stained by the water damage that ruined the chest).

I will probably do a bit more adjusting, especially in the drawers, but overall this neatly holds the tools to do almost anything. We will see how it holds up to the drive.

Redwood Fossil Box

Its been a while since I made any progress has been made on the major projects so thought I would pst a quickie. Over the summer we were hiking on our Wyoming property looking for small fossils when my oldest found a shark tooth. While I mentally know there was a huge inland sea across the middle of the US but finding a fossilized shark tooth in a hill in the middle of a high altitude desert.

I had promised we would build a box for it and other fossils but the US2020 election was pretty crazy so it got delayed until recently. As I was packing up the shop he found a chunk of redwood 4×4 that he wanted to use for his box so I decided to make a bandsaw box (a first for me). We went with rare earth magnets epoxied in place as the catch.

• 

• 

• 

• 

All in all not bad but we glued the bottom in rotated 180 degrees and we had to use Gorilla Glue since I was out of titebond. We will line the inside with cloth eventually so the foam squeeze out is not a concern. A wet sanded coat of BLO followed by spray can shellac and finished with dark paste wax.

• 

• 

• 

Quick Project

Work has been driving me into the ground so I have been having trouble getting into the shop. I decided I needed a small project and my shop is a mess so shop storage was the name of the game and Popular Woodworkings french tool rack fit the bill.

I Can Do That: Easy Tool Rack

Dimensions were determined by on hand lumber and Im happy with the outcome. Needs sone tweaking but looks good.

Chair progress (no really)

Apparently it took a pandemic but the dining chairs have reached a milestone with the attachment of their legs. Since my company went work from home i have gained 4-5 hours a day in commute time.

Once I finish trimming the legs to length I can add some black epoxy to fill gaps and then plane/sand the seats flat.

In the background you can see a pile of redwood that was originally slated for storage in my wife’s office but is now going to become a standing desk for me.

Turning Tapered Tenons

I took advantage of a day without meetings at work and snuck over to the office workshop yesterday afternoon. I had been milling the leg blanks for weeks and it was time to do the turning. After a few trys i got it down to the minimal amount of moves and managed to get the entire batch together.

After getting roughly round i marked the two spots for the parting tool.

After getting two my two depths i removed most of the material with a roughing gouge.

Then i added a rough cove.

Then smoother it out with a chisel gouge.

At home I used a hatchet to remove the left over and then finished shaving with my Veritas Tapered Tenon cutter.

My Son has his first tool.

Over the weekend my oldest and I took a woodworking class together at a neighborhood shop where we built a kid sized mallet. The owner used to be a kindergarten teacher so it was a great experience for my son who has a tendency to not really listen.

After a 2.5 hour class we had a decent kid sized wooden mallet but my sone wanted to add some wood to the gaps around the wedge but i suggested some black tinted 24 hour epoxy which we also used to fill in a loose knot.

The next day i used a card scraper to smooth off the epoxy and my son sanded everything smooth before adding raw linseed oil thinned with true turpentine.

Why yes that is a Claro Walnut child’s mallet (the owner had received some free cutoffs from someone). Once the oil cures we might add some shellac but we will see.

First Bowl

I’m planning on turning the tenons for my long overdo staked chairs and my family is still out of town so I decided to take a bowl turning class at the office wood-shop.

Considering it was my first attempt I’m pretty happy with the results this far. Next week I’ll try to finish sanding out that tear out and try to get it finished. I might cook some raw linseed oil this weekend in preparation.

The Perks of the New Job

I’m just wrapping up my first week of training at the new job and wow this is a change from my old job. I had a bit of downtime Thursday evening so I signed up for the safety class at the on site wood shop. Overall it’s a well stocked shop with dedicated crosscut and ripping stop-saws, multiple lathes, and an oscillating horizontal drum sander. There are also laser cutters and soon to be a CNC router.

Next week I’m going to see if I can fit in the lathe checkout class so I can crank out the dining chairs what are taking up room in my shop.

A consultant no more

Yesterday I put in my notice at work and soon I will no longer be a consultant. For the last 15 years I have lived by the billable hour but now I am entering the world of Big Tech thanks to an offer I could not refuse.

It will be interesting to see how the year shakes out in a new industry (they have an employee wood-shop).

Life is full of change.

Crest rails are drilled

While I had the drill press out on the bench I went ahead and drilled the spindle holes in the crest rail. I’ve got some more shaping to do and then the best 4 will be used on the chairs.