Wooden Toys for Kids There is nothing more I enjoy building in the shop than toys. Having 4 grandchildren allows me to build for birthdays, random visits and especially for Christmas. I remember the first Christmas gift, for our first granddaughter, was a set of cedar building blocks. At the time

How to know if your wood is dry enough to use on your project I am always concerned with the amount of moisture in the wood before I begin the process of building a project.  Wood moves as it is, but if there is too much moisture, your joints won’t stay matched, the finish won’t dry correctly

Our favorite tools that make every project easier (and safer too!) With Black Friday soon to be upon us I wanted to put together a list of 11 items under $70.00 (it was supposed to be 10, but I couldn’t decide which to leave off!) that I use on a regular basis in my wood shop. Each of these

A review of the Dewalt dwp615 The Problem Using a router inside the shop makes for a dusty shop. In the past when using my hand held trim or plunge router I would roll the projects out of the shop to avoid the mess. While this is fine in good weather, when it gets cold or rains it’s not an option

Creating a classic toy: One of my favorite shop projects is to create children’s cedar building blocks from rough Tennessee red cedar. These came about after I built my first Adirondack chairs and I had a large amount of scrap wood left over. Our first granddaughter had just been born and we

The Story of the Farmhouse Table with a Race Track While working my day job one of my managers came to my desk and said “I need your help”. Come to find out she ordered a farmhouse table and bench on Etsy. However the person she ordered it from fell off the face of the earth and left her

Adirondack Chairs in Tennessee Cedar Wood Growing up in Central New York and spending years in the Adirondack Mountains, I grew up seeing all types of Adirondack chairs. But it was not until I moved to middle Tennessee that I attempted to build Adirondack chairs myself. I found plans that gave me

Taking cabinet building to the next level I wanted to take another step in my building and see if I could build a cabinet without the use of screws. My wife found the plans in an old Woodsmith Magazine and asked me to build the largest bookcase of the set. My plan was to build the entire cabinet

Family Projects I was given the opportunity to build the ring bearer box for the up coming wedding of my niece. She provided me with a picture from Pinterest for an example. I said no problem. Materials Made from white oak I milled the lumber using my @ridgidtools planer and sanded it using my

Cedar Mini Decorative Planters/Boxes Using Interlocking Dovetail Joints Having a cedar mill within an hour of my shop allows me to work with some very nice wood. While cedar can be brittle, it is wonderful to work with and makes putting these decorative boxes together a breeze. When working with

Reclaimed Wood from Corn Crib HOW TO DESIGN AND BUILD AN ENTRY WAY COAT RACK AND BENCH There was a door in granddad’s home the client wanted to preserve and wondered, if they provided the wood, could I build an entryway coat rack and bench using the door as part of the build. The wood they wanted