Making a 9 Panel Mirror
- Read Time: 6 mins
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For many woodworkers one of the fascinations is creating things from parts and pieces, such is the case with this mirror project. I had picked up package of small mirrors at some sort of a swap meet for a couple of dollars. They were in good shape and didn't even look like they had ever been used. I remember at the time, wondering what I might do with these, but for what was about the cost of a cup of coffee ... I should purchase this pack of mirrors ... and I did.
Roll forward 2 or 3 years and it seems every time am looking around for something in my shop, this package of mirrors shows up. I have been ignoring them for years, so time to get them out of my shop, make something and get them out of my way. I decided to ask for suggestions on what to do with them, to which my wife promptly announced we needed an entrance way mirror, why not make that ... and so, and entrance way mirror it is!!
The mirrors were a bit of an odd size, all 5.5 x 7.25 inches. The only other thing I knew was that I wanted the mirror to look like an old window frame so the outside rails and stiles would need to be at least 1" thick and would need to be about 3" wide. This would give the mirror a nice 3 dimensional look as it would stand out from the wall a bit.
Shop Tour of Fast Guitars
- Read Time: 3 mins
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I have always loved the technology of music. All the different musical instruments. It is so diverse yet always resulting in the same medium ... music, the common thread. I do have some experience in playing an instrument and some experience in making stringed instruments so I do understand what goes into making guitars.
Never having been to a commercial electric guitar factory, I was intrigued to see what technologies they used and how much had work is still done.
Fast Guitars is commercial, electric guitar manufacturer ... BUT they recently began offering an amazing line-up of guitar components to everyone through their website. They do NOT currently have a showroom. If you are interested in putting together your own custom guitar, check out their website to see what they offer.
My goal was to make a video of the end to end process of guitar making for everyone to watch, enjoy and learn from. Kevin, was more than obliging and took me first to where the blanks are stored and "seasoned". What that means is all the blanks that will become guitar bodies, necks and fingerboards are weighed and labeled and allowed to acclimatize so there will be a little wood movement as possible. Basically a process of stabilizing the wood as much as possible. Even kiln dried wood needs to sit and acclimatize for a time to become stable.
Making A Table Saw Jig for Tapered Legs and More
- Read Time: 5 mins
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Anyone who has done any woodworking during their lifetime will know that a lot of woodworking is all about the jigs that can be made. I have seen jigs made for one purpose and one use only and other jigs for multi uses that have been used over and over again for years and years.
The jig we are making today fits in the latter category. A jig with more than one use that will provide years and years of excellent, time saving and accurate usage.
The purpose of the jig is to (1) make tapered legs, as is often seen in a variety of tables and (2) to trim boards that have curved or rough edges so they can be easily jointed or sawn on the table saw ... and who knows what other uses may crop up over time.
Then jig is a simple one and you can make it any sizes you want. I made mine 4' long and 16" wide. The reason for the 16" is that I seldom get boards wider than about 10" and these would easily be accommodated on the jig and it would still allow for a nice balance on my table saw. The material I selected for base was ...
Building a Portable Target Stand
- Read Time: 5 mins
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There are many people, both men and women who enjoy target shoot for accuracy and these take many forms and use a variety of shoot pieces from pellet guns, to high power rifles, bow and arrow, crossbows, hand guns and even air soft guns. Our challenge was to try to make a portable target stand that could be used by any of these mediums, perhaps with a slight bit of modification. The other challenge was to make it from common lumber and to build it in such a way that if any of the frame took too many hits, it could easily be replaced, and this is what we came up with.
For those who are lucky enough to be a member of an organized shooting range, most ranges have their own target stands and backing, but there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of unofficial target shooting ranges where each shooter must provide their own target backing. This portable stand helps solve many of the conditions that endure at non-official shooting ranges.
The materials for our stand are pretty easy, a couple of 1x4s, 2- 2x4s, a couple of short 2x6 scraps about 2"+ long, a 1/4 sheet of Coroplast or Plaskolite plastic sheeting in your choice of color, all of which are available at any hardware or building supply store, and for the storage try, a couple of sheets of thin plywood, even doorskin material would probably work well, or you could even use more Corpoplast - that will be used for a storage tray for unused target sheets.
How to Make A Galaxy 6 Smart Phone Case
- Read Time: 5 mins
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I am always intrigued by what kinds of things can be made from wood ... such as a wooden case for a smart phone. Some of you may recall I made a case for another smart phone a few years ago. It was really a prototype to see if it could be done and what it would look like. The case was a bit on the thick side, but other than that, it worked well and looked great, but most of all, you get to learn things when you actually go about making things, I learned lots when making that first case.
With the knowledge that my next case needed to be thinner, I decided that the best way to do this would be to make my own very thin plywood back, by gluing together veneers. Before I started this whole process I decided that the workshop and workbench was not the safest place for my phone. In all the handling that would be needed to be done, I thought it would be just like me to drop it on the floor or drop a tool on it and break the glass ... so I made wooden blank of the phone, exactly the same size and thickness. This way I wouldn't have to worry that some calamity would happen to in the process.
To be honest, I tried a few different kinds of veneers that I had on hand, but that one that worked best for this application was some Phenolic Backed veneer that came from Oakwood Veneer Company. I sandwiched the Oakwood veneer between some plain, tight grain veneer I had on hand. The process is shown in the video. Once the back was made, the next process ...
Cutting Your Own Spalted Lumber From Logs
- Read Time: 5 mins
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Woodworking on it's own is a joy, but when you can work with different kinds of woods, it makes the woodworking even more pleasurable. There are all sorts of different kinds of "figured woods" available like burl, tiger and curly woods, swirls from knots and branches, fiddle back and quilting, birds-eye and much more. Typically these woods are much more expensive than plain wood because they are much more rare so they are used on smaller pieces like special boxes for keepsakes and jewelry, musical instruments like guitars and banjos as well as for around picture frames and other smaller type wooden objects.
Another kind of ornamental wood is something called spalted wood which occurs when the wood is allowed to become wet for a somewhat long period of time and fungus invades the wood and begins a rotting process. In this rotting process the the wood and the fungus combine to often make different colorations inside the wood that is called spalting. In it's early stages the spalting can produce an amazing color with the wood, in it's later stages the fungus can affect the wood so much it that it can become too far rotted and unusable.
In this video we have left the logs to dry slowly for several months and now that they are down to 14% moisture content it's time to cut them into usable planks and let them finish their drying process ...
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