Mistakes happen on every project. They can be disheartening on occasion where you can’t recover, but I look at them as opportunities for better design. Here’s an example. I discovered an unforeseen problem while working on a prototype portable altar. The top portion tilts up allowing you to open the wings on the altar below,…
Here’s a photo of some leather work I did on the portable altar. The leather is a Lattigo leather, very thick, so I had to compress the leather for the post to have enough clearance to set the snaps. The bottom is fixed, I used Loktite to prevent the screw from coming loose during use….
When your stain is blotchy, for whatever reason, in most cases you can blend it in by hand sanding with 600 grit sandpaper before you apply the next coat. I use Abranet brand 600 grit. Does not clog easily and works great.
I bought some 4/4 10′ long rough sawn Mahogany the other day. Because I wanted to keep as much of the boards thickness as possible, and knowing how that is difficult to do on a 10′ board using the jointer, I skip planed to get a sense of where the grain was so I could cut…
I have to admit that I went a bit overboard on this one. My original intention was to simply fix a loose door on my mailbox, and this is the result. All cedar with handcut and fitted shingles, and front porch with “glass” windows. I wanted to see how the finish would hold up so…
What an amazing difference! I’ve read that if you only have one spiral cutterhead in the shop, that you should put it in your planer. After all, don’t you plane to final thickness? Well, I finally installed the Shelix head after buying it over 6 months ago. It took about 4 hours, including several interruptions…
One very important tool in my shop is my LED flashlight. It’s most important use is for finishing. It has two light levels and a focusing ring that allows me to focus the beam from wide too very narrow. I wished photos could be shown here, but the only way to really see what a…
Just picked this up at my local Woodcraft. For about the same price as a Norton 4000/8000, it has a dual personality in that it is more aggressive than a 4000 stone, yet gives an equivalent edge to the 8000 Norton. I must say that it does not give the polish that an 8000 Norton…
I was using an unnamed HVLP sprayer to finish up a bookcase, and noticed a lot of debris was in the finish. There was one place where I had good light and, looking closely, could actually see debris being deposited WITH the finish! It turns out the air filter under the HVL P was not…
Here is a small stepping stool for use in the chapel. I was shown some samples and given some dimensions. I got to work, did a quick hand sketch, and drew it up in Sketchup. Here’s what I ended up with after seeing a photo up on Fine Woodworking. I finished with General…
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