After retiring a I decided to turn the mancave garage into a usable space as a woodworking shop. Yup, an old fart trying to learn how to make things without losing any body parts in the process.
Remembering Roger Cook "This Old House"
1954 ~ 2024
Our little wooden Min Pin guard dog gate ornament with 8 coats of paint to last many years!
Just a simple pallet style coaster made with Popsicle sticks
Linda brought home an old horse shoe for me to make a pattern
then cut it out and trim it to size on the router table.
Adding the nail holes could have been done better
but it was a first try at routing using a home made pattern.
A piece of 2x4, a tea light candle and some book matches.
Oak serving tray My first attempt at routing a slot in the sides for the bottom to slide into.
Had to make something to hold all of the manuals that I keep going back to read!
The girls would have been more impressed if the bowls had food in them!
Shadow box frame with removable, changeable magnetic picture holder.
Taking a piece of pine board and distressing it to mimic old
barn wood.
Saw marks, wire brush, nail holes and whatever I could fine to beat it up with.
Wipe on poly over gray paint and oak stain.
Here's some practice making patterned plywood.
A few bird houses
All of the birdhouses have housed multiple fledglings
including
Chickadees, Blue birds and Wrens.
Simple paper towel holders using oak dowels and
plywood circles
cut out with a router circle cutter jig.
My first attempts at making bandsaw boxes using laminated pine and poplar lumber
Bandsaw boxes using simple 2x4 studs
These can be in the shop to stash valuables OR whatever, as long as they're not tossed by mistake!
Practicing using a pattern router bit to copy a sample....
Made a box to store a variety of router bit profile examples
Had to make a box to hold some of my pencils and markers also!
Made a Lazy Suzan out of birch plywood and did a
roundover
on the edges so Linda & I can both reach the remotes!
I won't say how long it took me to make this little red stool
to hold a plant on the front porch.
Three pieces of 2x4 glued together, 10 degree cut on the legs and routed a chamfer on all
edges.
First attempt cutting pine strips making wind spinners..
Made another one but decided to take (forever)
and paint the individual pieces ~ never again!
These next two were from a $4 Lowe's cedar fence picket.
Had to search through a whole pallet load to find a few decent ones...
Applied some clear stain to help protect them and slow the gray out progress.
Another Cedar fence picket project. The face cut out
with a jig saw
with 20 LED lights inside with different effects.
I figured I would try my luck on the bandsaw cutting out
patterns I found on-line.
Need to invest in some narrower blades so the turns won't look so choppy.
Still not bad for a first time since none ended up in the fire pit!
So instead of looking for thinner blades for the band
saw
I decides to buy a tool that has really tiny blades
that can cut super close curves.
My New DeWalt scroll saw...
Made this little guy "Walt"
to hold the arm up on my scroll saw to insert the blade
into pilot holes drilled in a work piece for interior cuts.
I Call This One ~ Linda ~ The Early Years!
Made some light switch plate cover toppers from Steve
Good patterns
These are a challenge for a new scroller but that's how to learn.
Again, I haven't ruined anything yet!
Another pattern I scrolled of a Steve Good design .
Cutting 3/4" pine was a challenge to cut through but I'm learning to slow
down and not push too hard. It's a neat door frame topper..
Took a Maple leaf from the backyard and traced it to
make a paper pattern for scroll sawing.
Cut it out, cut some veins and tried to paint it to match some of the other fall colors...
My first try making a scroll saw box using a Maple
leaf from the yard as a pattern.
1/4" Baltic birch sandwiching a piece of Cedar given to me from my Mother in law,
Sandy.
LED flameless candle holders made from 1/4" Baltic birch plywood & 1/4" walnut
Cell phone charger stand made from 1/4" walnut & holder made from 1/4" Wedge
Some people made from 3/4" Basswood
A couple of star fish shapes made from 1/4" Canarywood
My first scroll saw portrait attempt of my long time
action hero
Clint Eastwood ( Dirty Harry)
Do You Feel Lucky ~ Well Do Ya Punk?
Another Clint Eastwood project "The Outlaw Josey Wales"
These next three projects were made for my good friends
& next door neighbors
who retired and moved to Florida.
A fellow woodworker was kind enough to create patterns from
pictures
of our seven dogs past and present for me to make scroll saw
portraits from on 1/4" Baltic birch plywood...
Scrolled some mini images of our seven dogs, past & present
Haven't made anything exotic but it takes time for
an old fart to learn new skills..
I do believe the journey is what counts!