My mom’s house is full of cabinet doors that were made in a Southwestern style and its time for a change. Replacing the cabinets is certainly an option and just replacing the doors alone would work too. But what if we could use our woodworking skills to modify the doors instead. In our situation, this turned out to be the perfect solution. So join me as I show you how to carefully modify and refinish my mom’s hickory doors.

Here’s another great small project for the holidays. Its a small Contemporary Clock. This piece should take about two days to build. And this is another project that can benefit from the batching process. So be sure to make a bunch!

And just to help you along, I did my best to create a working SketchUp file that should be perfectly to scale. Just keep in mind that I am by no means a Sketchup expert, so please give all measurements the “common sense check”. After reviewing the sketch myself, I realized that the width of the center square piece is about 1/16″ off. Rest assured, it should be 3 1/2″. Download the Sketchup File by clicking the link below. And if you haven’t used Sketcup before, you can download a free copy from Google: Sketchup

Download Sketchup File for the Contemporary Clock

To sum up, here’s a basic cut list (also stated in the video):
(1) 3/4″ thick x 3 1/2″ wide x 3 1/2″ long (for the clock)
(4) 3/4″ thick x 1 1/2″ wide x 6 1/2″ long (for the frame)
(2) 1/4″ diameter x 1 1/4″ long dowels

And here are some links to the materials used in the video:

General Finishes PolyAcrylic
Clock Parts

Circle/Grommet Templates This is the plexiglass template kit I used to create the holes for the clock works. Highly recommended!! Circle/Grommet Templates

Topics:

A Safety Week recap. Matt’s upcoming steam bending class. A reminder about Woodworking in America- Hand Tool & Technique Conference: Nov. 14th-16th in Berea, KY. A voicemail about hickory and color change from Denis, the Teenage Woodworker, and a voicemail from Craig about jointing boards with a hand plane and possible glue up issues. We then went into our main feature for the day: a basic review of bench vises. We have a few recommended articles for reference: “Making Sense of Vises” by Garrett Hack – May/June 2007 Fine Woodworking and also “The Workbench” by Graham Blackburn – Tools & Shop 2002 also by Fine Woodworking. We also reference Chris Schwarz’s Workbenches Book.

If you want to leave us a voicemail: 623-242-2450