An intersecting box shelf is a simple but elegant way to display items in your home or business. As many other projects the ability to customize it makes it very appealing. I worked with the client who commissioned the project on the design, joinery, and wood selection. We decided to use Sapele as the primary wood with Walnut splines in the miter joints. It's important to keep in mind the location that the project is going. In this case the client had a specific wall that it would be hung on so available space and other features like matching the angle of the cathedral ceilings were important. As with most of my projects the first thing I did was to draw in up in SketchUp to get the dimensions and proportions down.
The lumber was purchased from Steve Wall Lumber in Mayodan, NC. It is about a two and a half hour drive for me but I haven't found anywhere closer that has the quality and prices that they have. I only charge customers for the lumber used in a project but always estimate on the high side when purchasing. This way I won't have to make another long trip if I mess up a part. Once I got the lumber back to my shop I let it acclimate for about a week before starting to mill it up.... MORE
Most of the time I seem to be organizing or improving my shop in some way. So much so that I think I probably spend a good amount of available shop time doing that. Now I have found that when I am working on an actually project that isn't related to that I find I am more efficient because of a neat and organized shop. As some of you might now I have started making videos when I can of projects I am making. At first it was just to share with the rest of the woodworking community what I had going on in my shop. It has since since morphed into not just showing what I was doing but how I was doing it and turned into Woodshop Confessions. I love the fact that there is an increasing amount of free woodworking content out there for everyone. If fact if you ask my wife, I'm either cleaning or organizing my shop, watching woodworking videos on YouTube, or a combination of them both.
In order to try and improve the quality of Woodshop Confessions I decided that I should do some upgrades. I found three areas that I believe that I can make some improvements on the production side of my YouTube Channel and those are video, audio, and editing. Well four if you count me getting more comfortable with being in front of a camera.
The first of these categories was video. I started off using my Iphone to record the video and although the quality was not bad at all, I quickly discovered that available memory was an issue. This couple be partly because I had the 16GB Iphone and with all the cool apps that I have I didn't leave much memory. I would have to do a little recording and then go inside to dump the video on the computer and then run back into the shop for some more. To fix this I purchased the GoPro Hero3 since it was on sale because of the release of the Hero4. This really help make things a lot easier since with the current SD card I have in there I can film in HD for over two hours.
The next two improvements I'm asking for your help in making. I have started a Kickstarter Campaign to raise some money to upgrade my audio and editing equipment. I would really appreciate your support either by way of pledging your support or just by sharing this post or the link to my Kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/706728814/new-editing-and-audio-equipment-for-woodshop-confe). I have added a few rewards for pledges of donations. If we successfully reach our goal of $1500 by the allotted time I will use those funds to purchase the equipment needed to increase the audio and editing capabilities. I'm sure this won't fix my looks or the stumbling and mumbling I do on camera... but we can hope!
Thank you very much for taking the time to join me. If you have not seen Woodshop Confessions before than I encourage you to swing by and check out some of the videos I have posted. There are links to all my social media sites on www.merzkecustomwoodworking.com.
Somehow it all came together has found a new home. For all the past and future projects and much much more head over to http://merzkecustomwoodworking.com . I look forward to hearing from you!
A perfect gift for the wine lover in your life. Give this custom made wine box as a birthday present or as a gift for the host of dinner or holiday party. Here I will show you how I make them out of planks from a pallet. You can substituted pallet wood with any other board and all the measurements should be adjusted to fit the wine bottle you intend to put in it. To cushion the bottle while it is in the box, I use wood shavings but there are also many materials that you could use. The tools I use for this project is a table saw, router table, miter saw, thickness planer, random orbital sander, and brad nail gun. As there is many different way to accomplish the same task in woodworking I am just showing you one way to do it.
The basic construction of the box is simple. The sides are glued and brad nailed together. The bottom panel of the box is glued in to a dado that has been routed in the all four sides. The top slides into another set of dados routed into the top of the sides. The Sketch up file for this project can be found and downloaded for free at www.merzkecustomwoodworking.com.
The boards I have are 5 1/2 inches by 39 inches. Since these boards came from a pallet there are nail holes at the ends and middle of the boards so I plan the layout to avoid these nail holes.
At first I just cut the boards down to rough length. I will cut them down to final size later to make sure they fit perfectly. Basically I am cutting off the ends and the center section where nail holes were. Once I have all the boards cut down I take them over to my thickness planer where I plane them to 1/4 inch.
Now take all four side pieces and the top and bottom to the table saw and first cut the the rough edge off the board and then rip them all to an width. For my wine boxes I rip the sides to 5 1/2 inches and the top and bottom to 5 inches.
I then take them back to the miter saw where I cut them to their final length. The long side boards get cut to 16 inches and the short sides get cut to 4 1/2 inches.
To make the dados for the top and bottom panel to fit I set up a 1/4 inch straight cutting bit in my router table at a depth of a 1/4 inch. Both short end sides get a 1/4 inch dado that is 1/4 inch from the edge. The longer side pieces will get a stopped dado on the bottom edge and a dado that is stopped on one end and through on the other end to allow for the top to slide on and off.
Take one of the short end pieces and cut off the 1/4 strip above the dado and save. This small piece will be glued on the top to act as a handle and to maintain the original lines of the box.
It's finally time to build a box. Make sure to apply enough wood glue to each of the joints. I use brad nails to help hold it while the glue dries. Even with butt joints the box is plenty strong enough because of the long grain glue joints between the bottom panel and the sides.
Slide the top panel into the dado in the box and then mark where you need to cut it to length. I then take the top panel to the miter saw and cut it. Then I take the small piece that I cut off the short side panel and glue that on as a pull.
And now to everyone's favorite part of a projects... SANDING!!!! Here I just do a light sanding. I don't want to take the wood down all the way since I want a rustic look. I also slightly sand the edges just to brake the sharp edge. It is also a good idea to slide the top panel on and sand the end flush while it is in the closed position.
At this point you can decorate the box like I did with a ink jet printer photo transfer and then apply some spray lacquer or come up with your own method of decorating and finishing the box. If you really want to get crazy you can just leave it unfinished. Either way your finished at this point!
I hope this tutorial has helped and I would love to see what you come up with for yours!
My daughter recently moved in with me and we realized that her room needed some upgrades. The first being getting her a full sized mattress. Then Sterling Davis over at Sterling's Woodcrafts posted a video to announce the Pallet Up Cycle Challenge 2014. Since I've never made anything with pallet wood I thought this would be a great opportunity. A few short minutes on Pinterest and we had found a couple ideas for headboards made from pallets. I just on my trusty PC and started drawing up a SketchUp model to fit her bed size.
The construction of this headboard is fairly simple. The wider boards that act as joists on a pallet would be used for both the main frame and also as an external decorative frame to finish it off. The frame for this bed would be 48 inches tall and 54 inches wide. Again, this is for a full sized mattress but you could easily adjust the dimensions to fit any size of mattress.
Before we get ahead of ourselves we have to break apart some pallets. I found some really nice pallets that had longer joists and slats that were in pretty good shape. Now keep in mind this was my first attempt at a pallet project so there was a little learning curve to take them apart without making a complete mess and destroying the wood.
My wife had suggested I cut off the ends of the slats to ease taking the pallets apart since most of the ends were already so tore up I wouldn't be able to use them. This worked out perfectly and really sped things up.When I got them all done I had a good amount of usable wood (and a little firewood).
Now it was time to start building. I used the long wide pieces to build the frame. The vertical styles were cut to 45 inches. Once both were cut I measured them laying together so I could subtract that measurement from 54 inches so I would have the exact width I needed without having to rip the boards down. I did this for a couple reasons but the main one was so that I didn't have to run a board that might still have nails in it through my table saw and risk damaging the blade.
The joinery I used was simple butt joints secured by pocket screws using Kregs K5 Pocket Hole Jig. These pocket holes won't be visible once the headboard is all together. I drill two pocket holes at either ends of the three horizontal rails.
Then it I just attached the frame pieces together making sure to check for square and I attached each joint. Having a flat work surface that you can clamp your work pieces really helps for projects like this.
The next step was to cut a 27 x 54 inch piece of half inch plywood to act as a backing so I could glue and nail the slats to. My table saw only has a 26 inch rip capacity so I had to rip it into a 25 inch and then a 2 inch piece. This isn't an issue since the slats will be hiding these pieces here shortly.
Once the plywood was cut to dimension I just glued and then nailed it to the frame. I used 18 gauge brad nails but you could using nails or screw since this will be covered by the slats.
Now its time to start ripping the slats. The chevron pattern I made will need five inch and 3 inch slats. I rip one clean side to the slat and then flip it and rip it to its final width to have both edges clean and parallel.
With all the slats cut to width I took them over to the miter saw to cut them to length. I tried to cut them all to 24 inches since this was going to be the longest part used to make the chevron. Because some of the ends were a little tore up and others had other messed up sections I had to cut them shorter. This isn't an issue since some of the pieces will end up getting cut down later.
To begin laying out the pattern I find and then mark the center of the headboard and also mark a 90 degree V. This will be the starting point to starting laying out the pieces. The slats get glued and then nailed to the plywood.
From there its just alternating rows between the 5 inch and 3 inch slats to make the pattern. The pattern possibilities are really just about endless. I altered the widths just to add to the visual design of the headboard.
I used my bandsaw to cut the slats down to rough size before I glued and nailed them. Once all the slats were down I used a belt sander and then a orbital sander to clean up the slats and even them off a little. I think if I was going to do this again I would have ran the slats through my thickness planer. Once it was sanded to my liking I took a flush trim bit in my router and then cleaned up the edges.
The final steps of the build is to measure two 45 inch boards for the sides to frame out the headboard. Then after gluing and nailing them to the sides I took a measurement of the overall width and then cut another board to be the top section of the frame. I used my finishing nail gun for these pieces since they were thicker than the slats.
To finish off the headboard I used two coats of a water based polyurethane and sanded it lightly between each coats. I chose the water based poly because I wanted a little protection but didn't want the yellowing that you get with normal polyurethane. I would have preferred to spray on the finish but because of the weather I chose to go with a brush on application.
Here it is with both coats of poly. I really like how it maintained some of it's rustic look without looking to "rustic".
Once the poly was dry I carried it up to my daughters room. To attach the headboard to the metal frame I used 8 small bolts with washers and nuts.
My daughter really likes how her headboard came out. She has now also requested a matching nightstand. I guess that will be an upcoming project. Here is the video I made of the build. I hope you enjoy it and if you want a free copy of the SketchUp you can find it at www.merzkecustomwoodworking.com.
I'm not sure if it's everywhere, but you hear the debate going on here in America from time to time about things being manufactured locally. Automobiles and motorcycles seem to be the big items everyone wants to chime in about. But then the other 90% of their money goes to other countries. Now, I'm not saying anything against a global trade, as long as it is equitable, but let's be even across the board. So what's this have to do with woodworking you ask...well, I think it has a lot to do with it. Why does a company outsource labor and manufacturing to another country? I would argue that taxes and cheaper labor and material prices were right up there at the top of the list. Everyone is always in an uproar about jobs moving overseas but then their spending habits support these actions. This continued behavior I think has programmed people to accept lower quality products for a lower price point. Now, in this great modern world of manufacturing, these companies are able to produce products that look like the real thing...that is, until you have to replace it a couple years later. I am mainly talking about furniture made of glued together sawdust that you have to assemble out of the box, but also about other handcrafted items.
I read a post online the other day that really got me thinking about this. A friend of mine posted on social media about people expecting basically to get something for close to nothing because it was a handmade item. When did we start to devalue an item's worth because it was made in someone's home or garage? Of course no one wants to pay more than they have to for something. I love a deal just as much as the next guy or gal; but at some point we have to put our money where our mouth is.
So I think there are two sides to this issue. The first is from the standpoint of the maker. This can be the small family operated cabinet shop, the stay at home mom who sells items she sews, or someone like me that, when time permits, takes on small commission jobs. It doesn't take a large neon sign or a fancy piece of paper in a ornate frame to make someone a professional. I have seen plenty of highly skilled artisans that fall into the above-mentioned categories. Unfortunately, I've also seen people who title themselves as professionals who provided shoddy--at best--products or services. So if you're a maker or someone who provides a service then don't undervalue what you provide. You owe it not only to yourself but the other people that provide similar products or services to price your work appropriately.
Now the other side is that of the consumer. If you are looking for an item and you want a quality handmade item then be prepared to pay the appropriate price for that item or service. If you love IKEA than please feel free to continue to purchase your wares there. But don't get upset when you inquire about a hand made item and the price is considerably higher than what is sitting in a box at Walmart.
One thing I try to do with clients is working with them to see if there are options to get them the product they are looking for, within their budget. Sometimes there is a way to still make a quality piece of furniture but use different species of woods and then stain or dye them get the look they are going for. But there will also be times when there is no way for both the producer and the consumer to meet on common ground and that is perfectly okay also. So where do you stand either as a maker or a consumer? Or as both? I try to buy local when possible, but I also believe in paying for quality work or services but not for substandard quality based purely on them being the "little guy" in this big global economy.
It's crazy how it just seemed like yesterday I was dragging out the Christmas Tree to dispose of it. Now all of a sudden I'm starting to see stores starting to put up their Christmas and Holiday wares. I even heard rumor that a few households had already put up their Christmas Tree. I'm with Charlie Brown on this one that we have completely commercialized a perfectly good Holiday. Now I'm not here to debate which if any "Holiday" you celebrate or don't celebrate... or even how you celebrate said holiday. But if you do, then this might be the time to start preparing. I think there is something we all can do to still get our Holiday fix and maybe, just maybe make it a little less about the commercialization (unless you own a foreign manufacturing plant that exploits underpaid workers). Now the entire Internet is full of ideas, but here is a couple things I've done or found that other people have done to create decorations either for your house or as gifts for the Holidays.
The first is a recent video released by Sterling Davis who is a fellow North Carolina resident. I was able to meet Sterling at Woodworking in America this year. He builds a replica Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer of one he built for his Mother when he was in High School (a few years ago).
The next is a Christmas Wreath idea that my wife asked me to make the frame for. I used some some pine 1x2 stock and then cut 22 1/2 degree miters to make an octagon and then glued and screwed with pocket holes.
Then Kelly stapled some of the clipping off of our Christmas Tree to make a fresh Christmas Wreath. This made a beautiful wreath that could be reused and customized each and every year (or each season for that matter).
Christmas ornaments are another decoration that can easily be made and also past down from generation to generation. We have become a society where everything is bought new and then discarded to make room for the next new hotness. Alan Stratton at As Wood Turns and Carl Jacobson at the Woodshop TV put on a Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge every year. This is not only a great way to make a family heirloom but also put a personal touch to the holidays. Here is this years Challenge video which also contains the link to this years playlist. There is still plenty of time to join in on the fun!
This is the first year that I participated in the challenge and hopefully over time I can add some of my own creations to our Christmas Tree.
Here is a video of a Christmas Tree decoration that Steve Carmichael made last year. Steve is an amazing woodworker that has a bunch of great project ideas. I was also able to meet Steve this year at WIA (Woodworking in America). This is a fun looking project that I would also like to make sometime.
I could go on for days about different online resources and ideas available. They don't all have to be woodworking related either (even if I kind of gravitate that way). I guess what I'm trying to say is that in a global world of manufacturing and commercialization (if this is even a word), go out and make something to decorate your house or to give as a gift for someone special to you this year. Even if it is just one small thing you will be surprised what a difference it makes. Hey and if your totally against the idea of making something yourself... go buy something hand made from someone in your local area. Not only does this help out small businesses but still gives you a meaningful item that wasn't formed of plastic by mindless robots or assembled in a country that still uses child labor. Most communities have holiday fairs or craft shows which is a great place to find or sell gifts and decorations. I hope this gives you some ideas or incentive to go be creative. I'd love to hear what are your plans for Christmas decorations and gifts this year?
A few months ago I made a short video from photos I had taken of my shop. I had been asked by a couple people to do a shop tour video and I thought at the time that it would fit the bill... well I was wrong. So I actually recorded a short video showing off some of the different aspects of my shop. I've posted both of them here just in case you want to watch and compare them both. I hope you enjoy!
So lately I haven't had the free time to take on any big projects. I was able to get a great deal on lathe so I had to move a couple things around to make room for that. With that I needed a storage idea for the tools. I also need to move my WorkSharp 3000 to prepare a space for my next shop upgrade. Now what I should have been doing was filming these projects because just as all this was going on a good number of other woodworkers came together to do the Scrap Bin Challenge. Steve Carmichael has put together a playlist of all the submitted videos so far.
Its really cool to see some of the projects these people have put together with nothing more than some scraps laying around the shop. Now even though I didn't make a video I still wanted to share a little about what I try to do with my scraps. I think we can all agree that it is easy to let our scrap bin collection get a little out of hand. I also have a touch of OCD... so I try and let them work together. Whenever something needs a home I go straight to my scrap bin(s) and see what I can come up with. So here is a couple pictures of some of my recent shop projects built completely with scraps.
Sharpening Station
Drill Charging Station
Lathe Chisel/Gouge Rack
Drill Press Shelf and Forstner Bit Holder
Lathe Accessory Rack
I'm sure you get the picture... get it... picture. Anyways, pretty much everything from my clamp racks to my TV wall mount was made out of scrap wood. So I hope you go and check out some of those videos and then get out there and build something. I'd love to hear about your method of dealing with this ever growing issue of scraps. Please don't let some poor piece of scrap wood go to waste.
Part of my kitchen remodel is replacing the upper cabinets. I had previously made the cabinet that was part of the fridge surround and these three upper cabinets would be attached to that. Here are the steps I took to make that cabinets and some pictures of the process. At the end of this blog I have posted the video I made detailing the construction of these cabinets.
To start off the project I drew up the three kitchen cabinets in SketchUp so I could figure out how much material I was going to need and to get a good visualization for the project. SketchUp is a great FREE resource that really helps me with my projects something small to an entire kitchen remodel. There are plenty of free online resources to help you learn the program also. I learned to use the program from watching Jay's Custom Creations videos on SketchUP.
Now when we were looking at the design of the cabinets it was to make the most use of available space in the kitchen. Our kitchen has an open floor plan and because of that there is a shortage of storage. The cabinets that were put in the house when it was built had 12 inches of wasted space above them. That is 7 cubic feet of storage space that wasn't being taken advantage. I also made the cabinets about an inch deeper so that our microwave didn't stick out so much and looked more like it was designed for that space. The greatest thing about designing and building for your own house or finding someone to custom build them for you is that it actually can fulfill a need or a want. You don't have to settle for a box made of particle board.
There is plenty of different options to build with and if particle board is your thing that by all means go with it. I am building these cabinets in a kind of country kitchen style so we had already decided to paint them white. I am building these cabinets out of 3/4 inch pine plywood with a pine face frame. So now that I had picked out my material I needed to figure out how much to by. I use the Sketch up drawing to figure out how much lumber I need to purchase. I do use a program to help me figure out my layouts for my sheet goods. I don't mind having extra because I know I will find a good use for it but I'm always concerned about not get enough.
For the construction of the cabinets I start off by building the face frames. I find that it is easier to build the face frame to the exact measurement to fit the space and then build the box of the cabinet to fit the face frame. Now even though I am building three cabinets I will construct them separately and then attach them together when I install them on the wall.
The first thing to do was to start ripping down the stock for the face frame. The stiles and bottom rail are going to be made from 1 1/2 inch wide pieces and the top rail and center stile is going to be made from 3 inch material.
It's important to keep track of how many of each width and length you need so you don't end up short a part or two when it comes to assembly. Once all the cuts are made I take them over to my multipurpose table to start drilling pocket holes in the parts.
This is another step in the process that it is good to separate the parts that don't get pocket holes so they don't accidentally end up with some. There is multiple methods of joinery to put face frames together and very passionate supporters of each. But I personally aren't emotionally attached to any of them. If it works for that application then so be it. I will admit that I am a fan of the pocket hole.
I then go into assembling the frames. It is important to make sure that they are square since this will be the most visible part of the cabinet and the doors that will eventually get made from the door will reference from the openings made by the face frame. I have 3/4 inch dog holes in the top of my multipurpose bench that allows me to clamp things directly to the work surface.
Once all the face frames are built it is time to start cutting down the parts for the boxes of the cabinets. The sides, top, bottom, and back are all going to be 3/4 inch plywood but I am going to wait to cut the back pieces till the boxes are assembled. This is just to make sure that they have a good tight fit.
Now even though I have a table saw in my shop I set up a work surface in my driveway for cutting down full sheets of plywood. I just find that this is not only safer but in the end I get more accurate cuts. For some reason every time I would try and wrestle a full sheet of plywood onto my tablesaw I would mess up the cut. I set a couple saw horses down and put a spare sheet of 3/4 inch plywood down and then set a 2 inch piece of insulation foam on top. This way I can set the depth of my blade to barely cut through the work piece and the foam fully supports it.
Once all the sheet goods are cut down into manageable sizes it is back to the shop to cut them to final dimension on the tablesaw.
To cut the panels down to length I use a crosscut sled on my tablesaw. This is the safest and most accurate way I have found to cut wide panels.
To fit the back panels in the cabinets I am using a Dado stack in my tablesaw and cutting a 3/4 inch dade that will be a 1/2 deep.
Then it's back to the Kreg pocket hole jig to make some more pocket holes. Again there is plenty of different methods of joining panels together but since the sides, top, and bottoms won't be visible I think this is a great option of joinery for cabinets.
Again it is important to organize your work pieces by which parts get what holes. The tops and bottoms get holes along the sides to attach the box together and holes along the front to attach the face frames. The side panels only get hopes along the front.
To assemble the boxes I clamp the two pieces together using Rocklers Clamp-It Jig. This just makes aligning the parts easy and gives me another surface to clamp to and a good 90 degree reference. Once all four sides are attached I give everything a good sanding and then measure the backs so I can cut and install them.
Once all the backs are cut and installed its time to attach the face frames. Since I am using pocket holes to attache the face frames I just have to center the frame on the box allowing for a 1/4 overhang on the bottom and both sides.
With the face frames attached all I had to do was to mount them on the wall, drill some holes for the shelf pins and paint them. I also put some crown molding up along the ceiling to dress them up a little. Here is the finished product.
Hopefully I will have time in the next week or so to build the doors for the cabinets. But until then I have added the video of the build for your viewing pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I hope to hear from you soon.
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