Monthly Archives: May 2011

A Granite Trestle Table (for Grillin’)

There’s a saying in electronic/maker/hacker circles. Sometimes, you just need enough junk before you can start doing cool stuff. You need a “critical mass” of stuff.  This trestle table came together because of a “critical mass” of junk.  The pressure treated base was scrap pieces from a variety of sources (work, my own projects, etc) and the top came from a neighbor’s remodel.  As any maker will tell you: if you don’t collect the stuff somewhere, you don’t get the idea to use it.  The process works and I got a cute little grilling table out of it.

A walk through of the build after the jump.

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Art Car 2011

In late March, I received a donation – a ’90′s era Ford Explorer.  Over the last month (April of 2011) and into May of 2011, I blogged about it’s progress.  I will be re-building this page in the Spring 2012 as I take a run at the Art Car Parade 2012.

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This Week In The Shop: Jewelry Box

One of my MasterClass students finished a jewelry box just in time for Mother’s Day.  He’s been working for close to three months on it.

We began with a design consultation, in which we researched various box designs on the web.  I want to give a big thank-you to Andy, an extremely talented and generous woodworker who provided some valuable feedback for my young student.  I greatly appreciate your help Andy. 

A walk-through & gallery after the jump.. Continue reading

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Bookshelf in Mission Style

This bookshelf recently left the workshop at school.  The bookshelf started life as an illustration in The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mission Furniture, by H. H. Windsor, otherwise known as the good fellows at Popular Mechanics.

Which the student modified to suit the schools current needs.  The CAD mock-up looked like this:

In the end, the piece had to be painted. Paint hides all flaws when it comes to salvaged wood.

Pretty excited about the finished product.  Here’s a close up of the butt joints used on the shelving, as well as a shot which showcases the inch-thick reclaimed mahogony shelves.

Salvaged wood furniture in Mission/Arts & Crafts style with a painted finish may become the  “house” style.  We’ll see how it goes.

We used some recycled/salvaged latex paint for our finish.  It’s this stuff (Sherman-Williams Duration):

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Filed under Classroom Project, Furniture, This Week In the Shop