Shop Made Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I made a few end-grain cutting boards for gifts. One went to my brother and sister-in-law, and the other went to Ruths parents. Here are a few pictures of the process, and a video at the end.

I obviously waited to post these pictures until after christmas, because my brother looks at this every day...Hi Eric!

Here is the raw stock right from the supplier...beautiful purpleheart and hard maple. 8/4 thickness is so fun to work with.

Here is the lumber all planed down to final thickness.

Our fist set of cuts, and the pieces layed out in the first pattern.

The first glue-up. Let to dry overnight.

After the glue dried, we crosscut the pieces into what we have here, after rotating them we have our final pattern, glued and turned end-grain up. Back in the clamps it goes.

This is what it looked like before we put the glue on in the picture above.

Here it is all dried up and ready to head to the high school to send it thru the huge belt sander...as I cannot afford one yet. That made it perfectly smooth on both sides.

After the edges were routed with a 45 degree chamfer bit, and the finger holds were cut using a rabbeting router bit, it got about 5 generous coats of mineral oil. Basically we kept wiping on oil until it would no longer soak in.

Here is the final product...I was very pleased by the results, as these were the first ones I have made.

This is a video of me face jointing a slab of purpleheart to get it ready for the planer.



I also made a bar/liquor shelf for my brother and sister-in-law, but I forgot to take pictures. Once they have it hanging up, I will post some pictures.

I am Still Alive

Hello, for those of you that are wondering...I am still alive. I have been working a little bit in the shop, but not much is going on right now. Catching up on the paperwork stuff, and working on some pricing of other projects. Stay tuned for more, I hope to have more shop time next week, after this weekend in Marshfield for Christmas on Ruth's side of the family.

Da Packers in Da Shop

Today was a full day in the shop...actually we were working for about 12 hours today. We finished a total of five projects that will be delivered tomorrow, four shadow boxes, and one diamond case. We watched the packer game for a few hours while we were working....no need to mention how the game ended.

What shop does not have cable T.V.??

What is football without some food?? Here is a view of the shop kitchen.

Ruth in her "retro" Spencer Rockets track jacket, wiping the excess stain off of a shadow box.

This is a diamond case. We are trying out a special adhesive that is cured by U.V. light. This is a highly advanced light placement device used to cure the case, at least we say so. This way when we headed out this evening we have light focused on the case all night, to ensure a good and tight bond.

This is a new variation to our normal shadow box. Once the box is all glued up, we set it on the table saw, and cut part of it off to make it two pieces. These two pieces are then stained, then hinges, corner braces, and a latch are added to make it a box you can open up and add, or remove items. I like how it turned out.

End of Hunting...back in the shop.

Well deer hunting wrapped up on Sunday, and our group ended up with a total of seven deer out of 10 people. My brother did end up getting a pretty nice 7 point buck. As always we all had a great time, and most importantly, we all stayed safe.

Now that hunting is over, that means I finally have gotten back in the shop. I actually missed being in the shop quite a bit.

Here is the perfect sunrise on Thanksgiving morning...I love being out there as the sun comes up...its so quiet. It is even nicer the day after Thanksgiving knowing you are enjoying the complete silence as all of the psychos are out trampling over each other at Wal*mart. There is no way possible to make me give up that solitude to go shopping.

Here is Eric's buck...nicely done! This one was a team effort, as this deer absolutely fought until the bitter end. With one bad back leg, one bad front leg, you would be amazed at the will power these creatures have..this thing just kept running, and we have no idea how! It required a few people in the marsh tracking the blood to finally catch up to this thing...well worth the effort.

Here is one of two sets of bi-fold closet doors my buddy dropped off tonight. We will be sanding and finishing these doors for him.

Here was the rest of what we did tonight. We have two wood boxes glued up, and another glass diamond case drying as well.

Deer Hunting and an Evil Snowman!!

This weekend as many of you know, was the opening of the 9 Day gun deer season. Our hunting party of 10 people had mixed luck. We got three deer tagged, but we only shot two of them. My brother and I noticed a deer in the darkness limping into our marsh Saturday evening on our way in. Sunday morning we did manage to find the blood trail from where it entered the marsh. Shortly after that we found the four point buck laying dead. It was a bittersweet find as it is never good to know a person never even tried to find the deer they injured. It was nice though that we noticed it, and the deer did not go to waste. We have had this happen before and we call these "freebies". As always it was a great weekend and I look forward to going back out Thursday through Sunday.

Here are the three deer, the small one in the foreground is the one I shot Sunday morning. The buck was the freebie, and the other doe my dad shot on Saturday.

Ruth and my Dad have the whole week off, here is the scenery ruth was looking at this morning...must have been nice!!

Here is Ruth's evil snowman she made on her stand...the face and arms were made from licorice pieces. Obviously she was bored and not seeing any deer...oh well, it's always nice to be out.

More updates to come later this week.

Worky Work...Busy Bee!!

Another couple of days have passed, I have finished a few projects, but even more have arrived.

Each Piece of paper is an order..as you can see I have a few. The three on the bottom left were finished tonight...sweet.

The three projects finished were the three diamond cases I was working on. I think they turned out pretty good. Here is a view of us attaching the top..which is on the bottom in this picture.

Here is a view from the inside looking down.

Here are the cases all loaded up in the truck....ready to be delivered tomorrow when I am done with work.

Back to the wood projects tomorrow.

Always Busy

As always, I have been busy in the shop. Not only with business stuff, but getting ready for deer hunting next weekend.

Here we have one of the glass diamond cases being assembled. Very easy when the edges are taped, and aquarium silicone is used. So Far they are going together very well.

Another angle on the operation, the wood pieces are made from a scrap octagon box that I cut up...the angles are perfect for supporting the glass while the silicone dries.

This year out at the "deer shack" we have four new hunters, which means four more guns to be kept inside. This year we are bringing this gun stand along to help out. Here is my dad lining things up. It is not a very complex design, but it is definitely functional...and that's exactly what we need.

Here it is all done, it will hold 14 guns if we need it to. To go along with it we have made a makeshift hall tree to hold all of the blaze orange jackets, bibs and backpacks. We also made a boot scrubber out of 3 heavy bristled brushes...no more mud tracked inside!

Long week.

It has been a busy week since I last posted. I have made a few boxes, and have gotten orders for more. We also finished Ruth's deer stand.

Here is one box...as hard as it is to paint beautiful wood, I really like how it looks.

Same thing with this one...the flash makes it much brighter than it actually is, this is a dark cherry colored box, it actually looks really good.

Here we have the traditional stained box, awaiting a second coat of polyurethane.

Using the biscuit jointer to assemble the red box you saw above.

Looking in at Ruth applying some paint to the black box.

Here we have Ruth's stand up in the air. This was done on Sunday while the weather was less crappy than Saturday. It went up really well, and is very sturdy...a great area for Ruth to harvest a deer.

No Shop Time Tonight

Tonight was a slow night around here. I spent some time with the parents, getting their computer working for them again. And of course we saw the results of the election. Check back tomorrow as I hope to get a few boxes done for Mary, and to work on those end tables again.

Deer Stand

Here are the pictures of the last two days of working on Ruth's deer stand. We only worked for a few hours each day, so I think it looks good, and is definitely sturdy.

Here is the ultimate portable stand building setup. As you can see we have a generator to run the air compressor for the nail gun. The miter saw is on the horses to cut all of the lumber. I had a German saw with a blade on it to cut the steel. We have every tool needed, and then some...its pretty sweet.

Here is Eric cutting off the edges of the floor boards.

The carcass is starting to go on.

Frame all ready for steel on the sides and a roof.

Just the roof, and the plywood door, then we are ready to tip it over and attach the legs.

Here I am working on the legs. They are bolted to the rest of the frame, it is super strong and super easy.

Here is the stand all done and ready to be stood up. We ran out of time today, so we will stand it up next weekend. When done with that we will sight in my dad's gun with his newly installed scope. After that, we might have time to re-attach to door to my deer stand.

Just over three weeks, then hopefully I will have some big buck pictures and a great story to go along.

Early Morning Coffee

Well, I am up early this morning. Just drinking some coffee and watching some hunting shows. Yesterday we started to build Ruth's deer hunting stand. I have pictures, but the camera is out in the truck. We are headed to Kristina's for Breakfast in a few hours, then we are going to finish the stand. I will post pictures later tonight of the completed stand, or if not, I will do it tomorrow morning, since I have Monday off.

Update on the heater project!! We completely finished the install Thursday night, I will post some pictures of that as well. Now that the heater is in, and working, I have all day Monday to get back in the shop.

My goal is to almost finish those end tables on Monday. I do have all day to work on them. I might build a few more boxes for Mary as well. A busy Monday for sure.

Table Progress

Tonight I got most of the lumber selected, planed, and just about ready to go for the end tables.

Here I am face jointing the boards to make one side dead-flat, this makes one side perfectly flat so the planer mimics that flat face to the other face, making a perfectly square board.

Here are the boards laid out in two groups of "similar" boards. This way the woodgrain will be matched up for each table.

Check back tomorrow to see how much further I have gotten.

Easy Going

Tonight I started working on my brothers end tables...no pictures, as I only really planed down some lumber and started selecting what boards would be used for certain pieces.

As for the heater project, the proper pieces of duct work have been ordered. The heater should be installed and finished early next week, that's if everything goes well.

One Project Down...Many to Go.

Today I finished the panel doors for my buddy Matt. This was the first time I have done this exact style of panel doors. I was very happy with the results. Basically it is a system that consists of 4 very precise cuts to make the door. One set makes the profile, and one set makes the groove for the panel to fit into. I will definitely do these again.

Here is a closeup of the end of the "stile"

Here is how the joint looks when it is put together...this was the dry fit to check alignment.

Here is the side view to show how the "stile" and the "rail" fit together.

Here they are in the clamps, all ready to go. Just a little sanding was done to finish them up. Matt picked them up already tonight, he is going to stain them and install the hardware.


As for the heater project, that got put on hold until I could get a little help wrestling that pig around upstairs. My dad and I will work on it a little each night this week. My next wood project is my brothers end tables, along with another shadow box for Mary.

No Deer....oh well.

After hunting all weekend, we have no deer to show for it. Oh well, its hunting, that's the way it goes sometimes.

I do know that I am super busy in the shop, now that hunting is over, it is time to get busy. I have Monday off as well, so I will be in the shop all day. My main goal is to get the heater hooked back up since we moved it upstairs this year. Check back to see how I did.

A Day In The Deerstand

I took today and tomorrow off to do some deer hunting. There is a four day doe-only season every year, this year I decided to take some time to enjoy it. Even though I did not see anything, it was a beautiful morning with the cool temperatures, and fall colors. Ruth did make it out for the afternoon, and of course had a six pointer pass within range...but its doe only, so she had to let it walk. She is off tomorrow, so we will be out every day until we are back to work on Monday.

Great fall colors with the sun just peeking over the horizon.

More colors.

I took some video this morning from my stand, nothing real interesting, I just wanted to post a video to see how it worked. Enjoy!

Hopefully we have some deer pictures for you tomorrow night.