The second and final part of the series focuses on the calendar frame details. We start by creating the front loading slots, then move on to creating the curve in the top rail, and finally we create the small pencil groove in the bottom rail. The frame is then glued up, the back panel is cut and installed and the roundover profile is routed on the perimeter.

The finish for the maple frame is Sherwin Williams CAB Acrylic Lacquer (we’ll discuss the role of flatteners) and the finish for the white oak frame is Watco Teak Oil.

The calendar frame is made to fit calendars that are roughly 13 1/2″ x 24″ when opened.

Want To Build Along?

Download the SketchUp file
Download the PDF

Materials Used

Lumber supplied by Muterspaw Lumber
Rubber Sanding Pads
Lee Valley Drawing Bows
Up-Cut Spiral Bit
Round Nose Bit
Extra Thin Wall Mount

The calendar frame is a project that highlights the joys of simple joinery. The frame pieces are held together with half-lap joints which are as strong as they are basic. The frame is designed to allow calendar loading from the front unlike traditional frames that need to be removed from the wall every month.

The first part of this series covers the wood selection, milling, cutting half-laps, layout and cutting various rabbets. For the sake of simplicity, all of the joinery is made at the router table with a single router bit.

The calendar frame is made to fit calendars that are roughly 13 1/2″ x 24″ when opened.

Want To Build Along?

Download the SketchUp file
Download the PDF

Materials Used

Lumber supplied by Muterspaw Lumber
Rubber Sanding Pads
Lee Valley Drawing Bows
Up-Cut Spiral Bit
Round Nose Bit

With Halloween fast approaching, I decided to re-post this quick and easy router project. If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so on the original posting of this video.

When most of us think of a wooden bowl, we think of the lathe. But you can also make bowls using the router! All you need is a template for the desired shape and a pattern bit to remove the stock. And fortunately Eagle America has holiday-themed kits for making some incredibly cool bowls. These make great gifts and they are super easy to make.

The video shows you not only how to make a router bowl, but also how to deal with really wide stock. You’ve heard me discuss my “hybrid” approach to woodworking (using both and and power tools)? Well this is an excellent example. Frequently, when I have stock that is too wide for my jointer, I use a hand plane to mostly-flatten one side. Once the piece sits stable on a flat surface, I can let my power planer do the rest of the work. Its a great technique and doesn’t require excessive time and effort with the hand tools.

Topics Covered:

• Milling wide boards using the “hybrid” method.
• The templates available from EagleAmerica.com.
• Using a forstner bit to hog out the bulk of the material.
• Using a special pattern bit to finalize the inside shape of the bowl.
• Bandsawing to the outside shape of the bowl.
• Techniques for sanding the bowl and easing the edges.
• Finishing the bowl with a water-based varnish.

Purchasing the following products will help support the show:

Contoured Profile Sanding Grips Sand curves, corners, uneven surfaces and hard-to-reach spots. Now you can reach into concave curves that once would have eluded you. Contoured Profile Sanding Grips

Halloween Bowl & Tray Templates The candy, chips and cheeses won’t look any better than this. Impress family and friends at your upcoming gatherings with hand made serving bowls and trays that you made with your router. Halloween Bowl & Tray Templates

Glue Roller Spread glue the fast and easy way using this inexpensive roller. 4″ Glue Roller

Years ago, I borrowed some inspiration from Norm and built a simple plywood work table and used it as my tablesaw outfeed table. That original table is long gone but I recently built another one. I did include some changes and that’s what this video is about. I think this design is a little better, but it was all based on the original concept. You can watch the original video here.

All you need to make a table like this is a couple sheets of plywood and some hardwood (or in my case MDF) for trim.

Products Mentioned:

Heavy-Duty Flip Top Roller Stand

HTC Roller Table

Q&A Topics:

Finish for the outfeed table
Split-Top Roubo
New Fangled Workbench
Boutique tools

The OLD Outfeed Table

I have had a few requests for more details on my old folding outfeed table. While I don’t have exact measurements for you, these pictures should help you figure it out.

The rocking horse is a great project for new and experienced woodworkers alike so its perfect for our charity build. If you would like to build along, I suggest downloading the plan today while it is still free. You can also download full-size patterns here.

The second and final video in this series covers finishing and assembly. As with any project, you should always ask yourself if it might be better to pre-finish the parts. Since the rocking horse would be incredibly difficult to finish after assembly and all of our parts are screwed together, pre-finishing was a no-brainer.

I’ll show you some cool tricks for coloring the horses mane as well as how to effectively plug the counter-sink holes (after finishing). Here are some of the tools I used:

Tapered Plug Cutter
General Finishes Gel Stain
BullsEye Shellac

How the Charity Works

For each person who completes a rocking horse (one per person), I am donating $1 to Livestrong. We also have numerous corporate and individual sponsors who are matching my donation. With their help and yours, we are trying to reach our goal of $10,000! If you don’t want to build along you can always donate directly. And if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact me. 100% of proceeds benefit Livestrong.

When you finish your rocking horse, simply send me a picture and your build will count toward our final tally. All pictures must be submitted by November 14th.

Our Sponsors

Special thanks to our individual sponsors: Erik Gilling, Joseph Buscemi, and Jason Small.

The rocking horse is a great project for new and experienced woodworkers alike so its perfect for our charity build. The construction is fairly straightforward and requires minimal tools & materials. If you would like to build along, I suggest downloading the plan today while it is still free. You can also download full-size patterns here.

There is a lot of detail in this video! I wanted to make it as approachable as possible for all skill levels so I spend a good deal of time going over proper layout. The “real-time” perspective gives you a much more realistic idea of how a project like this goes together.

What You’ll Need:

- A pre-laminated pine board approximately 3/4″T x 20″W x 72″L, or order a kit from Bell Forest Products.
- Short length of 3/4″ dowel rod
- 3/4″ forstner bit
- Counter-sink bit
- Jigsaw with a fine tooth blade (18-20 TPI)
- Router outfitted with a 1/8″ round-over bit
- Sander
- Screws
- Hand Saw
- Square
- Rasp
- Compass
- French curve
- Construction Adhesive
- Spray Adhesive

How the Charity Works

For each person who completes a rocking horse (one per person), I am donating $1 to Livestrong. We also have numerous corporate and individual sponsors who are matching my donation. With their help and yours, we are trying to reach our goal of $10,000! If you don’t want to build along you can always donate directly. And if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact me. 100% of proceeds benefit Livestrong.

When you finish your rocking horse, simply send me a picture and your build will count toward our final tally. All pictures must be submitted by November 14th.

Our Sponsors

Special thanks to our individual sponsors: Erik Gilling, Joseph Buscemi, and Jason Small.

This video was recording like on 9/14/11. My goal was to discuss my new torsion box assembly table and what makes it different from the original Torsion Box Assembly Table. To be perfectly frank, the differences weren’t great enough to justify making this project into a new video series. But I thought you would enjoy getting a look at some of the minor changes. You can read a little more about the assembly table in this article: How I Spent My Summer Vacation.

As with all live sessions, we had a little Q&A as well. Questions include:
What wood is appropriate for a workbench?
Can you use a hollow core door for an assembly table?
Fixing a chair that was chewed by a dog?
Can you combine a torsion box and a workbench? Check out the torsion box workbench!

Last week I wrote an article about having patience in the shop. The inspiration for that article came from the two Adirondack Chairs that were nearing completion in my own shop. If you’ve ever built a Greene & Greene project, you know that the real magic occurs at the end when the soft subtle curves become punctuated by the pillowed ebony plugs. Since I had two chairs on the bench, I had to make 68 of these little buggers! Talk about testing your patience! After tapping a few plugs into place, I knew that all the hard work was well worth it!

So here’s the final product. One chair made with Honduran Mahogany from a local source (left) and the other made from plantation-grown Fiji Mahogany from Bell Forest Products (right). As always in the Guild, I try to show numerous options in materials, techniques, and finishes. Since I had two chairs, this was the perfect opportunity for a comparative experiment. One chair received two coats of Watco Teak Oil and the other received two coats of Sikkens Cetol Marine. The Sikkens actually contains some pigment which is partly responsible for the cleaner more consistent look of the chair on the right.

Personally, I think the chair on the left has more personality, so here are a few more photos for you to check out:

Join the Guild! Save 10%

If you’re not already a Guild member, you can sign up today and get immediate access to all 16 videos from the Adirondack Chair Build. In addition, you’ll have access to all of our other archived projects including the Shaker Table, the Chest of Drawers, and the Wall-Hanging Cabinet.
Sign Up Now and Receive 10% OFF your membership!
Use coupon code CHAIR at checkout.

This one is all about assembly! I receive a lot of requests to include more details on my assembly process. This is a detail that many articles, videos, and DVDs tend to leave out, so hopefully this helps to fill some gaps. Keep in mind that every project will require a different glueup and clamping strategy, and this is just one way to get the job done. Hopefully it will give you some tips and tricks that you can put in your virtual “tool cabinet” for future use. I also cover the layout of my tools and how to secure them inside the case.

Download the free Sketchup Plan today!

Remember, this video is being pulled from the Wood Whisperer Guild archive for your viewing pleasure. For more information about the Guild, check out WoodWhispererGuild.com
Here is a closup of the ply endgrain for those that requested it.

Other Episodes in this Series:
Wall-Hanging Tool Chest Pt. 1
Wall-Hanging Tool Chest Pt. 2

As is always the case, my designs tend to change on the fly. And since this was a Guild project, a lot of Guild member input went into the design modifications. So this video begins with a quick screencast showing you some of the changes I made to the tool cabinet since our last presentation. Viva la Sketchup!

With the design mostly complete, we can start the construction phase. My goal is to build the project entirely out of Baltic Birch plywood. Its cheap, stable, and doesn’t look half bad even without edge treatments! It really is the perfect material for shop furniture and jigs.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that my ultimate goal here is to teach you how to build your own cabinet. This is completely different than giving you a plan and saying, “Copy this!”. I am providing you with my working Sketchup file and my cut list, but due to the nature of plywood and its variations in thickness, you will absolutely need to put your thinking cap on and do some design work on your own. But with the Sketchup File, the video, and your noggin, you have everything you need to build this project or some variation of it.

Download the free Sketchup Plan today!

Remember, this video is being pulled from the Wood Whisperer Guild archive for your viewing pleasure. For more information about the Guild, check out WoodWhispererGuild.com

Other Episodes in this Series:
Wall-Hanging Tool Chest Pt. 1
Wall-Hanging Tool Chest Pt. 3