Descending Ashtray

I have been working on a couple of cabinets to help organize my art supplies a little better.

The painting cart was made entirely out of scrap plywood and particle board. With the casters it is very functional. It is also a good place to hide paints and thinners from children.

This cabinet is still in the early stages of construction. When it is done, it will have five or six drawers to store paper, matboard and anything else large and flat. The drawer is 35″ X 45”. The reason I want to show it at this stage is because it has some interesting drawers slides.

I dadoed out side rails just big enough to fit a 3/8″ steel ball. There is also a groove on the bottom of each side of the drawer that corresponds with the balls and the slides. That way the drawer stays in line when you pull it in and out. There are six balls on each side.

But when the drawer is pulled out past the midpoint, a stopper keeps the balls in back from rolling any farther. Then it is only supported by the balls in front. Even though it is not a perfectly friction free system, the drawer moves in and out with surprising ease!

I am looking for tips on making knives, specifically kitchen knives. I would like to incorporate a custom-handled kitchen knife into a cutting board idea I have. Something like a chef or cook’s knife, with a blade about 7 or 8 inches long with a straight back that goes all the way through the length of the tang. I’d like to rivet some wood handles to a pre-made blade blank, but have never done anything like that. Links to vendors would be awesome, or videos that show how the riveting works.

After a refreshing weekend at the coast, I got back this afternoon and went out to the shop with a mission: get my sister’s wedding present done. It’s only been since March 2006, so what’s the hurry, right?

There wasn’t much left to do – finish mortising for the lid’s brass hinges, a final sanding, and the first coat of oil. My sister and her husband Jeff live in Boston, right around the corner from the North Bennett Street Woodworking School, and in the general vicinity of one of the great woodworking traditions of America: Shaker furniture. I decided to do something more Shaker-inspired for the two of them, something that felt a little more Boston, and a little less west coast contemporary. Here it is.

It’s a little smaller than the traditional Shaker chest, but not much, a nod to the small-ness of their current apartment. In case you were wondering, apartments in Boston are really, really expensive.

The chest is all made of cherry, although the bottom trim seems to be quite a bit lighter in color than the rest of the chest. I think it will even out in time, as cherry gets darker with exposure to sunlight, but I may try some artificial means of evening it up and/or adding some age (stain) to some of the recesses for contrast. Post a comment if you have any ideas; the base coat is General Finishes Seal-A-Cell Clear.

I’m also thinking about lining the sides with aromatic cedar inside after I get the oil finish complete.

Here are a couple of cutting boards that I made for birthday’s. The one with the handle has tapered pieces in it.

Finally I can post again! I have been having technical difficulties with WordPress and my computer but luckily we solved the problem last night. Thanks Dave!

The following pictures are the progression of the stone patio that I worked on over the summer.

Our back yard last winter.

This was a trench that I dug by hand for the draining tile. There are also three footings from the old fence that I buried under the trench. That was a lot of work!

Then the puzzle began. We found all of the stones in a big pile behind the garage. With a little power washing they cleaned up pretty good. I layed the stones over a bed of sand to help stablize and level as I placed the stones. Ethan was there to help problem solve!

Here it is all done with furniture. It was like adding on an outdoor room to our house.

Brandy did this nice border with rocks.