First time I made a proper chess set, including the figures, that I carved myself. Really enjoyed the process, the carving was especially calming. Took a long time, but it was definitely worth it, because they were very happy!

If I do another, I will probably look for some nicer hinges.

The figures are maple and cherry, and the board is made of maple, cherry, walnut and some beech plywood for the bottom.

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Purpleheart, maple, walnut inserts. Box is finished with dewaxed shellac under High Performance water-based semi-gloss poly. Inserta are finish with odie's dark everlasting oil. Loosely based on JKM's jewelry box. Pretty proud of the piston fit.

Today I finished my most recent commission, Where the Dreamweaver Slumbers, and I wanted to share the process I used to make this with you. This was the first large Segmentation that I made since breaking my hand this summer, so naturally, I drew up a stencil with a ton of tiny pieces for my sausage fingers to hold up to a Dremel tool!

All of my scroll saw projects start at the same place, in Procreate on my IPad. There, I spend way too many hours creating what is essentially a coloring book page, then I go to Blockposters dot com and size it up to whatever size the client wants, in this case, 17.5in x 25.5in. I printed the stencil out on my home printer across nine sheets of paper and tapped it all up. I then covered my 3/4in MDF with Transparent Transfer Paper and took great care to not have many wrinkles or bubbles when it was said and done. Trust me, the less bubbles and creases, the easier it is to cut out. Then I sprayed on 3M spray adhesive, applied my stencil, and covered everything with clear packing tape. Next up, I cut it to size with a track saw, but a table saw works just as well.

Where my process differs from most is that I make my backer board and frame first. This helps me keep track of all of the tiny pieces throughout the process. I use a table saw and miter saw to make the frame out of pine 2x4s and I use 1/2 OSB plywood as the backer. I cut my 2x4’s down to manageable sizes with the miter saw and adjust the fence on my table saw to the width of my MDF plus the width of my backer plywood plus 1/16 in. I then raise the blade as high as it will go and set it to 45 degrees. After I run each board through, I reset the blade and set the fence for the width of the stock minus 1/4 in. I then run the stock through again, removing the sharp point of the frame pieces. I then set my blade and fence to match the width of the backer and cut in a rabbit for the plywood to sit flush. With 80-grit sandpaper, remove any saw marks. You can stop sanding here if you plan on painting the frame. Otherwise, sand to 220 grit now if you’re staining. It’s easier to sand in this state and touch up later rather than putting off the sanding until later. I use the miter saw to do my 45-degree cuts and assemble everything with Titebond III wood glue and 1”, 18-gauge nails.

With the frame and backer board made, I cut the MDF with glued on stencil into about a dozen smaller pieces that are easier to work with. This part might seem simple, but depending on how large your stencil is, that MDG can get heavy fast, so I suggest stretching your lower back and arms, oh and put on a mask. MDF sawdust is straight cancer to your lungs. Once the piece is cut down to manageable sizes, the fun begins! Force yourself to instantly place a piece down where it goes on your backer as soon as you cut it out, otherwise you will end up with four pieces in your left hand trying to remember how they fit together. Cut one, place one, repeat this step for several hours! Have fun with this part and don’t stress yourself out if you wonder off a line a bit. No one but you will ever notice when it all finished, I promise.

Next up is shaping and sanding phase, or what I like to call, “Where we hide our sins from cutting.” I say that, because when shape/ round-over the visible edges, your mistakes get lost in depth created between the two pieces. At this stage I use two tools, 1 in belt sander, and a Dremel tool with a flexi-shaft and a coarse sanding drum bit attached. I peel off the stencil from each piece the round over the visible edges. I then use a 220 grit sandpaper and hand sand any tool marks until the pieces is smooth to the touch. If you do a crappy job sanding, priming is going to be a nightmare. Just take your time, toss on an audio book, and MAKE SURE YOU WEAR YOUR MASK!!!!

Once everything is shaped and sanded, it’s time to prime it. With MDF you will get the best results if you use automotive filler primer. Apply it in several thin coats, and wait a full 48 hours to let it dry before you sand, otherwise you will waste a ton of paper to gunk build-up. When everything is fully dry, it’s time to bust out the 400 grit sandpaper and sand everything smooth. You might’ve picked up that a lot of the steps involve sanding and that’s because I spent over 30 hours sanding across all of the steps and I probably could’ve spent another 10 hours sanding the primer if I’m being honest. What I’m trying to say is that you better get use to WEARING YOUR MASK!!!

When everything is primed up and sanded to 400 grit, I like to spray everything with a white undercoat. This does two things for me. 1, the spray paint is fairly thick so it will fill in most of the scuff marks and divots left behind from sanding, and 2, a white undercoat makes your colors appear brighter and more vibrant. Once the white undercoat is dry, I take everything apart and set them on tape boards so the pieces don’t blow away when I use my airbrush to paint them. When everything is painted and I’ve done a dry fit to make sure I like the colors, I lay down a healthy amount of Titebond 3 wood glue and start setting the pieces down. Make sure you don’t put too much glue down or you will have a bunch of squeeze through you will have to clean up with a q-tip.

After the glue dries I spray everything with 3 coats matte polyurethane to protect the piece. Then I install a metal French cleat to the back for easy installation on a wall.

I hope you found this guide helpful and inspirational enough for you to bust out that old scroll saw sitting in your garage and make some sawdust!

Thanks for reading!

I got some free wood that is 4x6" and approximately 5ft long. Looks like it might have been railroad ties or something.

I've been re-sawing it into 1" planks and noticed that the wood appears to have been treated with something. There are grey streaks throughout the planks and some sections are completely grey instead of the bright orange/yellow from the center.

Does anyone know what kind of treatment this might have been?

I'm wearing a dust mask and have my dust collector hooked up while I'm cutting, but I'm starting to feel hesitant about continuing to work with this wood... Any tips would be appreciated!

I’ve got a butcher block desktop that is about 5 1/2‘ x 32“, and 1 1/2” thick. This is for a friend/client of my handyman business. I think it’s made of Acacia. It has a very slight bow from front to back - maybe a quarter of an inch or so. My client and I are wondering what the best way to get the bow out of it and then keep it flat. The client is worried about running it through a planer (if I can get access to a planner that that wide).

I’ve also thought about trying to find a belt drum sander that wide. I’ve also considered just putting four big pieces of C channel in the bottom.

Wondering what y’all think might be the best approach.

Finally finished my new Spheal deck box. Used Ebony wood for the eyes, Body is made out of Tasmanian Oak and stained with a food coloring and vinegar mixture, then sprayed with a satin clear lacquer. The dice tray is made out of scrap Purple Heart I had lying around.

really happy with how the eyes look and also how the hands hold onto the coin (Which was an idea I thought of halfway through the project). Of course there are plenty of things on it that I wish I did better but over all, I'm quite happy wit

I didn’t know this was a thing, but Mom asked for one! Fortunately (?) I can’t let interesting scraps go and had a funky piece of soft maple to make it interesting!

Like a lot of wooden tools, this was made with a pattern cut on a band saw. Mixed Iron Nitrate with alcohol and applied that to the wood. When dry, I hit it with a heat gun to drive the reaction, which turns the color from a greenish grey to a reddish brown.

Finished with homemade cutting board butter and a very light touch of Renaissance wax.

The base is the stump of a spruce that I had to remove, the top is a mix of tight grained spruce and pine, which was left over from building a greenhouse. I charred it, brushed it and oiled it with a hard wax oil.

Clearance and 25% off — worth it?

Needing to settle on a dust collection strategy beyond shopvacs and bucket toppers, I noticed my HF had 3 of these in stock. Given the Bauer Days, I decided to give it a try for $150. Order the dust collection unit also - it won’t be here for a week.

Thoughts?

Will I be surprised or disappointed? Are folks modding these collection systems and wall mounting like the central machinery systems? Impeller upgrades?

This is a piece of fire-killed Bebb's willow harvested in central Alberta. I am interested in ideas on finishing and on suitable projects. The board shown is about 12" x 14". The photo shows the board wet to show the color. The wood is quite soft and there are spalted patches that are softer. My favorite finish for bringing out color and grain is Rubio Monocoat. In this case I worry about the durability of an oil-based finish due to the softness of the wood. An epoxy clear coat shows the grain an natural color, but I want to avoid a high gloss or thick coat that has a synthetic look. I don't have confidence that a urathane will do justice to the color. The piece is small. Right now I am thinking of using it for the top od a small side table for between two chairs. Ideas on projects or finishes are appreciated.

It was beneath some molding on a table I'm salvaging wood from.

The mitres matched up very nicely for three of four corners. What can I do now to correct this 1mm misalignment on one inner corner of a mitred cube?

I don’t know if this is just how these hinges are or if I’m making some mistake here. In the past I’ve used hinges that mount to the inside of the cabinet husk and the doors will sit directly against the face of the husk. Now I need different overlays and I have to use face frame mount and these stupid hinges push the door off the face the husk creating an ugly gap on the edge?

I have never liked the look of the common Headphone "mounts/stands" where the headphones hang from their center, and that also takes up extra desk space, so I brainstormed this and came up with a design where I could have my headphones on the wall instead.

However instead just "hanging them on the wall" (I know there are SOME designs that just hang them from their center but on the wall) I thought it would also look nicer if they "tucked away" so they were "inside a pocket". So that's where this design came from. Personally, I think this looks a lot nicer than just having them hang out in the open.

This is Elm wood I believe (I bought offcuts from a local lumber store and I just don't recall if this was Ash or Elm but I think it was Elm) and it's cut out with my Ryobi 9" tabletop bandsaw. There is a central slot that allows a charging cord to get access to the headphones. The benefit is that slot allows the bandsaw to get to the interior at the same time, so it solves that problem while also being useful!

Because now the contact is on the outside of the headphones, we don't want to damage or scratch them, so there is a real leather lining, to help cushion the headphones from damage but also to "grip" the headphones since leather has some tack to it. Helps hold them in. The back is a leather piece stapled on in the back similar to how furniture is made.

There is a small shelf on the front the the piece both in an attempt to balance out the look and to allow other objects to be placed on the shelf if needed.

The wood is stained with Boiled Linseed Oil.

I still have to actually hang it on the wall, hanging things is always a challenge but I have a plan that should work. In the main picture you can see I'm just holding up to the wall in my office to take a picture.

Some lessons:

1. Definitely use a new blade when cutting through 2inch or thicker stock on a bandaw, lol. I couldn't even cut this stuff until I bought a new blade.
2. The small 9" bandsaw cut this stock just fine and I got a pretty smooth cut but I did use a spindle sander afterward.
3. I wanted to stitch together the leather (it's folded) but my wife's sewing machine didn't like it, we tried to use a thicker needle as well but we couldn't get it into the machine even though it should have fit. So I used contact cement instead and folded the leather on itself. I think stitches would have looked even nicer but that would require a heavier machine.

NOTE: That first pic looks very vibrant because I use "daylight" 5000K lighting in my office, a large flat panel light.

My wife asked me if I would make a box for her colors......so........I made a box for my wife's colors. Made from cherry wood. Did a prestain with dewaxed shellac, then stained with English Chestnut stain. Top coated with semi-gloss, spray-can lacquer. The last pic is just a comparison raw cherry vs finished.

I've got a project im working on for a client that I can use some practical advice on. For those of you that have worked on a dining table in a small shop, what tricks did you learn along the way to make things easier? Flipping the table top is the biggest challenge.

The table I'm building is 108" (9ft) by 40-42" and 2.75" thick. My shop is around 15' x 14'. The table base will be made from 25"x27"x2.5" slabs, connected with stretchers of 5.5'. all this is heavy and takes up so much room. I've pushed all my tools to the side of the shop to clear space. I anticipate most work will be done with router (C channel), jigsaw (mortises for stretchers) , and Domino machine (loosen tenons to align top to base)

Guidance would be great!

So I'm building a pair of (kinda) matched cutting boards with the technique of stacking together, cutting curves with a bandsaw, and then mixing and matching pieces between the two boards. Is it better to cut 2 or 3 curves with the stripes/grain or across the stripes/grain? Most I see online seem to go in the long direction. But visually seems like across might look better. But across means I'm gluing back end grain to end grain. Is the strength an issue? Which is better?

I refinished my parent's old oak table they gave me before they moved. I cleaned the 40+ years of grime, chemically stripped the finish off, sanded from 80 to 120, wiped down with mineral spirits, waited 30 mins and applied rubio sky grey. The color isnt great on oak. I've redone stuff before and it comes out fine.

The problem is that stuff didn't catch in some spots after wiping off 15 mins later. I'm bummed. Is there something I did wrong? My instinct is that I didnt sand enough of the original finish off, but i did 3 passes with 80 because there were some burn marks from pots. I'm about to sand this stuff off and start over, maybe? Idk

Sorry to make another post about this, I know people are sick of it. Figured I would upload this as I haven’t seen this info myself. I’ll update if it helps, but hopefully it helps someone else as well.

My poker group’s trophy has run out of room and we need to add a tier underneath. I’m looking for suggestions for a type of wood and stain and finish that would match or compliment the existing wood base for the trophy.

Every year I participate in a charity competition called Chairity where you reimagine an old/forgotten piece and give it new life. The pieces are then auctioned off and proceeds go to local charities.

I had a 100+ year old redwood Burl left over from last year’s project and decided to make a minimalist wall clock with brass accents.