Outdoor Bench

Cleaning up a pile of old fencing turned into some kind of ink blot test..

What do you see?

A comfy bench!

Patio Tables

Well, having a nice outdoor patio is great, but practically worthless with out the right furniture! So, I set out to build a table and bench set. It had to be easy to maintain, and big enough to fill the space.

My direction was clear -- to use pressure treated lumber or cedar for the structure, and some kind of synthetic decking (the kind made from recycled materials) for the bench and table tops.

The house is an older-style brick bungalow, with a cedar pergola. So, cedar framing and dark brown decking to match. Definitely worth the effort, and MUCH more affordable than buying furniture of this capacity.

This is my second set. My first set isn't pictured here.. it is pressure treated lumber (the green tinted kind) and grey Trex decking. The color combo was a little funky -- and perfect for the patio at my California Contemporary or Mid-Century Modern style house. It fit so well, that we just left it there when we bought our new house.

Introduction To Woodworking

So, everything up to this point was accomplished with whatever stale knowledge I had gained during middle school wood shop class and whatever info and techniques I could find online and in books. After hearing a little bit about the nearby fine woodworking school at RRCC, I gave them a serious look and got pretty motivated to jump into the Lutherie program -- starting with Introduction to Woodworking.

There were a handful of discussions on selecting wood and materials, dimensioning techniques, joinery, and even some finishing. We learned how to use most of the tools available in the shop safely and effectively. The first "project" was to hand-cut a ton of dovetail joints. This was difficult.. actually, I feel like heading out to my shop right now to try my hand at it again!

The second project was a "little bench". Every student started with similar amounts of lumber and we all went through a reliable process to build a very sturdy 1'x1'x18" bench. One foot tall.. ok, more like a little stool. We had to sketch it out isometrically, by hand, leaving no detail to the imagination. Then we learned and were encouraged to utilize Google SketchUp for future prototyping and modeling. I love Google and SketchUp is just one reason why. I learned AutoCAD at Mines and was pleasantly surprised that computer drafting could be so easy! Anyway, here's my little bench.

The final project was to build a "tool box" (actually, any kind of box). It had to have a pre-conceived purpose and it had to be designed to function for that purpose. Many students built small cabinets, or  literal tool boxes. I couldn't think of a tool box I needed (I didn't have much storage at my house at the time, so I didn't try too hard, either). I decided I needed a guitar case for a telecaster. I didn't succeed, entirely, but I do believe that I came up with an acheivable design -- just not acheivable by me in the few weeks we had to complete the project.

I ended up with an interesting equilateral triangle after testing my joinery while designing the guitar case. Finger joints cut on an angle were the feature that allowed my guitar case design to be plausible. This triangular box, made up of three practice joints, turned out to be my final project.

Twin Telecasters

I had been playing a Squier Strat for a while, and started wondering what difference a higher quality instrument would make. Looking closer at all the guitars got me thinking about how they work and how they are built. I couldn't believe the cost of some electric guitars! I just wasn't willing to spend that kind of money just to find out that I liked my cheap Squier just the same. So, I poked around online to learn about building guitars.
One forum in particular had an overwhelming quality of information to get me really excited about the idea of building my own electric guitar. TDPRI had plenty of detailed build threads to show me lots of ways to make it happen.

Rough cut mahogany

The only problem was that I didn't have tools or experience or space to work the way these telecaster guys could work from their garages and basements. I had to get creative and use the skills and tools I had available. I remembered the CNC router that Club Workshop had just installed -- lucky for me, I'm good with CAD! I downloaded some free CAD software and got to work designing my guitar. I struggled trying to figure out a shape for the body, and eventually ended up deciding to copy the classic Telecaster body shape. As I was learning so much about different guitars, the Tele became my favorite standard design because of it's simplicity and tone. It didn't hurt that some of my favorite recording artists play Teles, too.
I ordered some curly maple for necks online and somewhere along the way, I found a huge chunk of 14" wide 8/4 mahogany at a local hardwood store. All of a sudden, I had enough wood to make three or four guitars, but I decided to start with two.

After CNC processing

The CNC plan worked out great for the most part.. The first body sustained an error in my plot where the bit dipped into the neck pocket about a 1/4 inch. I made sure to fix the problem before the second body was cut. The second neck bland that I put down wasn't aligned correctly, and ended up with about 1/8" missing from the very end of the headstock shape.

Tung Oil Finish

The mahogany turned out much prettier than I was expecting and I decided to use a simple finish and show off the wood grain. Minwax Tung Oil Finish was used on both guitars, but I decided to stain the second one ebony before the Tung Oil.
I only got around to building one neck.. and ended up purchasing a second neck to hold me over until I know how to make better necks (new neck coming soon!).
I wanted to something a little different with the second Tele.. I had black stain left over from the table project, so I tested on some scrap and decided to go for it. Black stain and then the same tung oil finish after that.

Twin Teles

I started out using cheap parts (as cheap as I could find) and ended up having to upgrade certain components because they were too cheap to function properly. Here's the rundown on parts:

• Dragon Fire brand Texas Blues Telecaster Pickups - What an amazing deal, I am SO happy with these pickups, and they have received compliments from everyone, so far!
• Fender 3-barrel Telecaster Bridge - I think this bridge is what makes a Tele a Tele.
• Tuners from Guitar Fetish - Very happy with Guitar Fetish's tuners!
• Medium frets from Stewart MacDonald

Tapered Leg Pub Table

More pictures on Facebook

In trying to downsize our office furniture, my wife and I decided that it would be nice to have a second table like one we got from a furniture store. I took the opportunity to try my hand at building custom furniture.
I developed plans by copying the dimensions of our existing table, and styled the design to match the style of furniture in our office space.
I finished this project almost exactly 2 years ago! This table took weeks for me to complete. I only had weekends and evenings to work on it, and a lot of the work had to be done at Club Workshop. It was great fun and I learned SO MUCH, thanks to the guys at Club Workshop for giving me tips along the way! After all, I walking away scratching my head about certain aspects of the process and results -- I knew I had much more to learn. 
There are more pictures on Facebook, here. (When I find time, I will try to move the pictures in line with this post.)

Standing Coat Rack

This coat rack is made of cedar from Home Depot. I had to take my time to select a straight 4x4 for the long part. The rest was made from scrap left over from my outdoor patio table and benches.

The business end of the coat rack was fun. I got to use all my power tools to work it out. I cut the pyramid shape on the top using the power miter saw, the arms were cut to shape with the bandsaw then routed flush to a template with the router table. I used mortise and tenon joinery to attach the arms to the post. This involved the router table, hand held router, and chisel to complete.

The legs were cut with the power miter and simply glued onto the post. This part was pretty easy, but I completely smashed my left index with my mallet while I was trying to align the legs! Yeah, that really hurt – and no guitar for a few weeks. :-P

We haven't chosen a finish for this piece, yet. I'm thinking a nice walnut stain/finish would blend nicely with the exposed wood in the house. :)

Getting Started

I am not sure where the idea to start woodworking really came from because I've always been interested in building things.. Perhaps my LEGO obsession finally just decided to grow up? A few years ago, I borrowed a woodworking book from my father in law. The Complete Woodworker (1980) showed me examples of hand tools, joinery, and how to build practical things out of wood (without the help of power tools!) from fences to tables. I developed an understanding that it doesn't take a shop full of expensive, commercial power tools to build a simple project.
So, I set out to acquire the essential tools to get started. I went to my local hardware store and picked up a simple hand saw/miter box combo and an oak board. I attempted my first dovetail joint -- and it was terrible. I did a little research on YouTube and the second attempt was better, and I started understanding how it was all supposed to work. I got even more excited!
A few more books later, and I eventually worked up the courage to visit a local lumber yard. After seeing rough-cut lumber in real life, I realized I was silly to think I could do it all with hand tools -- I just didn't have the time. Or the tools. After sulking about it for a while, I discovered a temporary solution: Club Workshop. I got excited and went to check it out. The owner gave me an enthusiastic tour which included work spaces for automotive repair, metal fabrication, sewing, and of course, woodworking (including a CNC router -- but we'll get to that later). All I needed was a project.