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Woodworking

Apr 02
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The Benefit of Doing Little Projects

By Woodworking
Shaker Candle Box 01

A recent small project, a Shaker candle box

It’s nice to have a small project in the works once in a while. Building a house, on the extreme end of the spectrum, is a dizzying task of organization, lining up materials and labor, and of course the construction itself. It’s a truly heroic effort to bring a house to completion. Over the past couple of years, I’ve found woodworking to be a nice side pursuit, because I get some of the same satisfaction and skill building that I do from building homes, but the scale is obviously so much smaller and so much more manageable.

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Mar 16
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large-dutch-tool-chest

A Simple Dutch Tool Chest for Hand Tool Storage

By Woodworking, Hand Tools
Large Dutch Tool Chest Plans

The finished Dutch tool chest. No Netherlanders were harmed in this process.

I’m not gonna lie. I don’t think I’ve ever had proper hand tool storage. At Dancing Rabbit we had a nice tool shed for a while, which was great, actually. But things never had a proper place in there… and then we moved. And before that shed… well, don’t even ask.

In our current transitional living space, we finally have a makeshift workshop space. (That’s where our new workbench lives.) Which means we can do more woodworking projects. Which means some solid tool storage is even more important than before. Finally, some of my tools have some proper storage. I built a so-called Dutch tool chest recently, and it’s doing a fine job of enabling some order amongst my slowly growing hand tool kit. Check it out…

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Mar 03
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Check This: The Completed Roubo Workbench

By Woodworking
Split Top Roubo Workbench

The newly finished Roubo workbench, made of ash

Our attempt at building a split-top Roubo workbench is, more or less, complete. We put the finishing touches on it over the weekend, and suffice to say, things are feeling pretty good right now. This workbench is going to enable us to do some serious woodworking not just immediately, but likely for a long, long time…

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Feb 14
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Mini Workbench Photo Update

By Woodworking
Jointing Split Top Roubo Workbench Top

Sending one half of the (heavy) workbench top over the jointer

During my five day Roubo workbench building marathon with Jacob, I didn’t take much time to pick up the camera. But I did snap a few photos when I could. The days were rather long. Now that we’re home and the workbench is painfully close to completion, I thought I would share a few from our recent expedition.

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Feb 09
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DIY Woodworking Workbench Plans

By Woodworking
split top roubo workbench plans

Roubo-style Ash Workbench

The time has finally arrived. After almost two years of dreaming about building a workbench for woodworking, and sitting on a cache of wood for the project for nearly a year, we’re building a Roubo workbench. This style of bench is named after André Jacob Roubo, a French woodworker who lived during the 18th century and wrote a massive three volume series on the subject of working wood called L’Art du Menuisier (The Art of the Joiner).

One of his particular drawings of a workbench design has become newly popularized by the likes of Christopher Schwarz and other current day woodworkers. Lost Art Press, a small publishing outfit is actually translating Roubo’s writings into English. Schwarz’s book on workbenches and blog probably helped catapult the Roubo design to the point where you can find many, many images and videos of different people’s own Roubo workbench designs.

Having only been recently exposed to this type of workbench a couple of years ago, it’s hard to imagine wanting to build anything else. The beauty of the Roubo workbench lies in the sheer simplicity, versatility, functionality, and heft of the design.

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Jan 18
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Winter is for Making New Windsor Chairs

By Woodworking
Sack Back Windsor Chair 01

Up close look at one of the new sack back Windsor chairs

During our recent annual winter pilgrimage to Greg’s shop, I made two new Windsor chairs for our growing collection. The first year, I started with a simple hoop back, and last year I made a continuous arm Windsor. This winter, however, I decided to make two chairs simultaneously — both sack backs. This proved to be a really valuable learning lesson for me. Doing two at the same time really cemented in some of those many detailed steps more firmly. It was twice the practice in one go.

Here are the results.

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Jan 06
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2014 in Review: A Chockablock Year

By Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven, Photos, Timber Framing, Strawtron, Woodworking, Wood Carving

outdoor-pizza-ovenI can hardly recall such a dynamic, diverse year as 2014. 2014 marked a transition year for April and I, and I’m happy to say that it was a smooth one. It was our first year living in the Berea, Kentucky area, having left Dancing Rabbit in the fall of 2013. This move was not an insignificant event, as I spent seven full and formative years in the northeast Missouri ecovillage.

I like to think back on the year past and try to remember all that has happened — maintaining this blog is actually an important way for me to be able to do that. It’s as much about documenting what we’re up to as it is a way for me to preserve some of life’s countless details. Here I’ll share some of the notable events and experiences of 2014, the year of our transition into a new life outside of Berea, Kentucky.

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Jan 02
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Building a Cherry Shaker Blanket Chest

By Woodworking

Cherry Shaker Blanket Chest PlansWhen April mentioned the idea of building a little chest this winter, I thought, “Sure… that would be fun. Maybe we can use it like a coffee table, too. You know, throw books and our feet up on it.” Needless to say, I didn’t quite have the expectation of building a bomb-proof, beautiful piece of furniture.

Once we got the bug in our heads, and once Greg started showing off his amazing cherry wood supply, things started looking a bit different. We ended up finding a set of Shaker blanket chest plans we really liked, and all of a sudden the outlook was looking a lot more refined than I would have originally imagined.
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Dec 29
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Way Too Much Woodworking Fun

By Woodworking
Oiling the Cherry Shaker Blanket Chest

Ziggy oils the newly finished Shaker-style blanket chest

We’ve been having way too much fun for the past two weeks. April, Jacob, and I just spent the latter half of December with our great friend Greg Pennington of Hendersonville, TN. Greg is a world class Windsor chairmaker with a killer timber frame workshop to boot. When we met two winters ago, Greg graciously invited April and I to make chairs with him and so began on winter woodworking tradition. Since then we’ve learned a lot of new woodworking skills under his most expert guidance (though he would never claim any of his amazing skills as such himself.) This trip, we embarked on a pretty ambitious series of projects, which I’ll preview here!

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May 02
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Build Yourself Some Decent Sawhorses

By Design, Carpentry, Woodworking
Simple Sawhorse Plans

Build yourself a decent pair of sawhorses this year!

Everyone needs a pair (or two, or three) of sawhorses. It certainly helps if they are not wobbly and can stand on their own, and are beefy enough to support more than a box of matches. There are way too many subpar (or worse) sawhorses out there, and if yours look like they’ve been run over a few times… you deserve better, really.

On DIY and owner-builder construction sites, they are often the primary work surface for all sorts of carpentry work, and they are likely to be used as a ladder, table, a place to sit, a tool table… you get the point. They’re pretty essential, and if they actually work well — heck, you will likely be a more efficient builder.

I am happy to follow an existing design when I can, and these simple sawhorse plans fit the bill for our myriad building projects this summer. It’s nice to follow instructions sometimes, you know?
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