WoodWorking Projects

Clicking on the thumbnail pictures will download a larger, easier to see, picture of the project. I've listed the size of the larger image in case you're on a slow link and being picky about what you download.

   I made this curio cabinet for my wife the Christmas before we were married. It was my first attempt at any sort of cabinetry. It's made out of red oak. I got the plans from a copy of Wood Magazine. The style and rail panels are all doweled together. I learned from this that twin doweling 1.5 to 2 inch wide pieces of wood is a real pain. The glass is held into place with quarter round trim pieces. While this is pretty time consuming I like the way it looks, compared to a routed edge.

   I started out to make a swing set for my daughter. Then I got carried away. I ended up with two towers. One is 8 ft x 8 ft and 11 ft high (not counting railings). You enter it from the ladder on the underside. It is connected by an arial 'tunnel' to the smaller tower. This one is only 5 ft x 5 ft. It has a sunshade top, and a curvey slide. The center of the main tower has some intermediate levels and dividers so, to get to the top of the main tower requires climbing up 3 ladder segments, navigating 6 turns, and opening the trap door at the top.
   I still need to add the last two swings (trapeze bar and glider), the sand box under the smaller tower, and a nice 6 inch layer of pea gravel around the whole area.
   My 4 year old daughter picked out the colors, pastels blue, purple, pink, and yellow. It kind of looks like a big easter egg.

   I made this pantry cabinet in 1995. It sits in the garage, right next to the door to the house. It is 4 ft wide, 2 ft deep, and 7 ft high. It is made mostly out of plywood. I saw a picture of a similar cabinet in a book once. But I just kind of winged this.
   The two front doors have shelves on the inside of them.
   Inside, the left side has large deep shelves. The right side has an interior door that has shelves on both sides. The second picture shows this shelf open. Behind this door is another set of shelves.

   I made this flatware chest for my wife for her birthday one year. It's made out of red oak, with an antique oak tung oil finish.
   The first picture shows the semi-intarsia lid, which is a combination of a plan (the owl in tree) from Wood Magazine, and a scroll saw cut out picture I saw in a book. It's made out of red oak, honduras mahogany, purpleheart, and walnut. This was probably the most ambitious part of this project for me. I had never tired anything like this before. If I had to do it over, I think I would have tried to make it a full intarsia picture.
   The second picture shows the inside of the cabinet.
   The third picture shows a close up of the heart shaped dovetails that I used to hold the case together. I got the idea for them from a cradle plan in Fine Woodworking Magazine. These dovetails are the part of this project I'm the most proud of. Like the lid, this was new territory for me. I had never tried cutting any kind of dovetails before these. I think I spent almost as much time on those dovetails as I did on the intarsia lid.

I have some more... but they will have to wait until I can get the rest of the photos developed. So check back in a few weeks.

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I made this curio cabinet for my wife the Christmas before we were married. It was my first attempt at any sort of cabinetry. It's made out of red oak. I got the plans from a copy of Wood Magazine. The style and rail panels are all doweled together. I learned from this that twin doweling 1.5 to 2 inch wide pieces of wood is a real pain. The glass is held into place with quarter round trim pieces. While this is pretty time consuming I like the way it looks, compared to a routed edge.
I started out to make a swing set for my daughter. Then I got carried away. I ended up with two towers. One is 8 ft x 8 ft and 11 ft high (not counting railings). You enter it from the ladder on the underside. It is connected by an arial 'tunnel' to the smaller tower. This one is only 5 ft x 5 ft. It has a sunshade top, and a curvey slide. The center of the main tower has some intermediate levels and dividers so, to get to the top of the main tower requires climbing up 3 ladder segments, navigating 6 turns, and opening the trap door at the top. I still need to add the last two swings (trapeze bar and glider), the sand box under the smaller tower, and a nice 6 inch layer of pea gravel around the whole area. My 4 year old daughter picked out the colors, pastels blue, purple, pink, and yellow. It kind of looks like a big easter egg.
	I made this pantry cabinet in 1995. It sits in the garage, right next to the door to the house. It is 4 ft wide, 2 ft deep, and 7 ft high. It is made mostly out of plywood. I saw a picture of a similar cabinet in a book once. But I just kind of winged this. The two front doors have shelves on the inside of them. Inside, the left side has large deep shelves. The right side has an interior door that has shelves on both sides. The second picture shows this shelf open. Behind this door is another set of shelves.
		I made this flatware chest for my wife for her birthday one year. It's made out of red oak, with an antique oak tung oil finish. The first picture shows the semi-intarsia lid, which is a combination of a plan (the owl in tree) from Wood Magazine, and a scroll saw cut out picture I saw in a book. It's made out of red oak, honduras mahogany, purpleheart, and walnut. This was probably the most ambitious part of this project for me. I had never tired anything like this before. If I had to do it over, I think I would have tried to make it a full intarsia picture. The second picture shows the inside of the cabinet. The third picture shows a close up of the heart shaped dovetails that I used to hold the case together. I got the idea for them from a cradle plan in Fine Woodworking Magazine. These dovetails are the part of this project I'm the most proud of. Like the lid, this was new territory for me. I had never tried cutting any kind of dovetails before these. I think I spent almost as much time on those dovetails as I did on the intarsia lid.