Gadget Station - Project of the Week
This week’s project is submitted by Mike. Let’s check it out:
“Just as I finished up my gadget station, my boss told me about your website and your gadget station. Mine is a built-in that goes in a wall between the hall that goes to my garage (my main entrance into my house) and my basement stairs. The front of it (the drawer side) goes toward the garage hall and the back (the door side - kind of looks like a medicine cabinet) goes in the basement stairway. It is made of aspen and poplar and painted white. I normally don’t like to paint my woodworking projects, but all of the trim in the house is white, so I figured this would match better. The box is put together with glue and biscuits. I used delrin for the drawer slides and used the drawer fronts as a positive stop to set the drawer depth - it worked out pretty well.”
“I put an outlet in the basement wall side of it and plugged in a power strip. It is currently used to charge two cell phones and my camera battery. The drawers store our keys, my wallet, our cameras and my portable GPS. It also has a plastic bin in the top of the the inside of the door. I use that to put bills and mail that eventually need to go down the basement to my office. The door still needs a knob (I forgot about it when I bought the knobs for the drawer) and the paint around the basement side still needs to be touched up, but I am onto my next project, so that can wait.”
Cedar Mantel - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Eric in Atlanta, GA. Let’s see what he has to say:
“First off let me thank you for all that you do. Your website has been an invaluable resource for me. I got into woodworking about a year ago when I decided to build my own custom kitchen cabinets for my house remodel rather than pay someone else to make them. I found your site on a woodworkers forum, and I’ve seen all your pod casts and check your blog daily.”
“Here are some pictures of a recent cedar mantel I built for our new fireplace. I started this project looking for inspiration on the web. I wanted a big beefy mantel that would fit our family room that has 22′ ceilings. After looking at a number of pictures from various sites and taking some initial measurements, I fired up Google Sketchup and began designing the mantel. As a novice woodworker I find that Sketchup is as important as my table saw or router. Investing the time to get over the learning curve will reward you with improved project design and a significant reduction in the frustration you might experience taking on a project with only the plans in your head.”
“The mantel was made from 6X6 and 6X12 rough cedar that I planed using an electric hand planer. I used traditional post and beam construction and relied on a drill, chisel, and handsaw for the mortise and tenons. The mantel was finished with a wiping varnish made from equal parts of mineral spirits, boiled linseed oil, and varnish.”
“This was a very fun and rewarding project and instilled in me a deep respect for carpenter’s of old who had to build post and beam houses with the same precision that is now almost exclusively used for furniture construction.”
Murphy Bed - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Bob. Let’s check it out and read his comments:
Here are a couple of photos of a Murphy Bed and pair of bookcases that I made for the spare bedroom/office in my home. I got the project plans from Workbench magazine and modified it to fit my space. The Murphy Bed mechanism came from Rockler. I made the sides of the bed and bookcases from Birch plywood. White Birch hardwood was used for the face frames. I used Minwax tung oil and wipe on poly to finish the project. The center section was painted to match the walls. I don’t have a mattress yet so that’s why I’m using my air compressor as a counter weight.
This is the fifth woodworking project that I’ve undertaken and by far it’s the largest. It’s not perfect but it’s functional. I’ve learned a lot from building it and I hope to avoid my mistakes on future projects. Thanks for the web site and keep up the good work.
Joe’s Big Closet - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Joe and boy is it a doozie! Let’s here from Joe himself:
For those who have not seen my closet that I built…here you go. Yet another reason to visit Szeremet Arms Estates. This took me around 6 months to complete and is made of Maple. Lots and lots of maple (Hardwood Maple). You will also notice I built in lighting into each cell with the help from my friend Blake. There are 9 brass bars and the tops are capped and rock solid for holding huge amounts of stuff in bins. All of the plies used were under A1. Good finish work and artful layout reduce the need for premium wood. In fact if you are not totally dedicated to the finish….never buy the best grade its a waste. I always buy wood that is warped or dinged knowing how I am going to use it allows me to help out the reseller and get a better price.
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