Posts by «swirt»
- Harbor Freight Gun Cart
I used to shoot trap when I was in high school and college, and then it slipped out of my life for ~35 years. Recently a good friend got me out shooting “sporting clays” (not even sure that existed 40 years ago) and has rekindled my passion for ridding the world of clay UFOs. I […]
- Live edge standing desk
Back in 2014 I built my manually operated sit/stand desk. It served me well for a decade, but because it was inside an armoire style cabinet, it had limited desktop space. As I put more hardware on the desk, it became harder to lift and lower. So I eventually grew lazy about any standing. I […]
- Review: TayTools Jack Plane
TayTools #5 jack plane more than lived up to my expectations of what a jack plane should do.
- Low profile bench dogs
I don’t often work with thin stock, but when I do, I have issues with being able to plane it because my dogs are too tall. I need some dogs that are along the line of 1/4″ thick. My wood dogs are too thick, as are my plastic ones. So turned to the internet to […]
- It’s a feature, from a bug
I had some oak from a neighborhood tree. While it sat in my porch or in my workshop, developed a bit of a bug problem. I could see exist holes and little piles of sawdust coming from it, so I knew it had to go. I decided to run a piece of it through the […]
- Sunset Heart Candle Holder
Back in February 2020 I was looking for a small fast project to make with my son. Some of my projects are kind of big and he loses interest, so I was looking for something small. I came up with the idea for a candle holder made from three pieces of wood laminated together. I […]
- Outdoor Cedar Bench – sawbench
I have a nice tiny patio outside the front door of my workshop. When I have been planing or sawing and worked up a sweat, I’d like to be able sit and rest while my heart settles down. I tried putting chairs there, but they are too comfortable and I settle too long. I need […]
- Multi-set drill index with guide
I have a bunch of drill bits. Anything over 1/4″ I don’t go through that rapidly, but anything under 1/4″ they are prone to breakage or other tip damage. As a result I have a bunch of these small packs of bits that are incomplete sets. It is a pain to rifle through them for […]
- Best woodworking pencil
I know a lot of people disrespect the mechanical pencil for the wood-shop because the lead is too thin and breaks too easily. I used to have similar complaints. I work with a lot of irregular wood with rough saw marks and things that would spell the end for the fragile lead on a mechanical […]
- Propane Forge Cart
We’ve been doing a bit more blacksmithing and the arrangement of the forge on my sawbenches has always been a bit troublesome. They are wood, so they have a tendency to burn. They are also low, so I have to stoop to see in the forge. I’m getting older and don’t stoop so good anymore. […]
- Convert Ball Peen to Straight Peen Hammer
We were on vacation in Murphy NC. Beautiful place. On one of my early walks with the dog, I saw a wood handle in sticking out from brush at the base of a utility pole. I pulled it out and found an old 24oz ball peen hammer. It was in pretty bad shape with rust […]
- Sun and Tung Oil
This is a simple project of making a live edge shelf for my son. I had nicely prepped a piece of Cypress with a plane. When I asked what color he wanted it, he said “Black, let’s torch it.” So we burned it with a weedburner, brushed it off with a blue nyalox drill brush, […]
- Bottlebrush Unicorn
My son had a project he wanted to make as a gift, so I turn this blog post over to him at this time. I went online to find a good picture of a unicorn. I found this one that was not too complicated to cut on the band saw. I cut a 14 inch […]
- Bottlebrush Tree
In October 2021 my neighbor wanted a Bottlebrush tree cut down and I was interested in the wood. So I offered to cut it down. As you can see, it had quite a lean to it. I was not concerned about hitting the house because it was fully leaning away from the house. I was […]
- Charcuterie Board – Planche?
Back in May 2020, my son made a serving tray as a gift for his teacher and wrote about it here. Fast forward to December 2022 and we get a call from his past teacher offering him his first commission for another one. Only now we can’t call it a serving tray, we have to […]
- What most Tung Oil articles get wrong
I have been using Tung oil as my go-to finish for a dozen years or so. As far as I am concerned it is a great finish for more things than it usually gets credit for. Thankfully its virtues are getting shared more often now in recent years. In my experience it is far […]
- A great woodworking weekend with Roy Underhill
I received and email a couple days ago informing me that this was going to be the last year of the the Woodwright School. This made me pretty sad as I had always meant to get back to it for another class. They fill up so fast it is hard to get the class you […]
- My favorite screwdriver
I am redoing my kitchen with new cabinets and as a result, was putting in a lot of screws. Some I could access with my drill driver, others were not easily accessed or were too small to work safely with the drill. My hands were getting a bit achy and so I was looking for […]
- Rustic corner shelf
My mother is a bird fan and several years ago she started collecting some very nicely carved birds. She is moving into a new place and could use somewhere to display her birds. I selected a section of a large limb that came from my neighbor’s gigantic ficus tree. I used an old chisel […]
- Pelican Salt Lamp
Christmas time brings a hunt for project ideas for something for my son to make for his mom. We started tossing around ideas including things she likes. She really likes Pelicans. We’ve been in Florida for over a decade now and they still make her smile. So we came up with the idea for a […]