They say when it rains, it pours. For the past six months, I’ve inundated myself with cutting boards at every turn, in every one of my woodworking shops. At home, I made cutting boards as Christmas presents. At work, cutting … Continue reading This Week In the Shop: The Simple Cutting Board
Earlier in the year, the great folks at Canyon Mesquite donated a number of spalted red oak boards to make furniture out of. It took a while, but we finally made some great use of them. Finished with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax. … Continue reading This Week in The Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table in Spalted Red Oak
Some people say that hand-made gifts are the best gifts to receive. Others, like myself, say hand-made gifts are the best to give. Still others, namely fishermen and women, claim teaching a skill may be the best gift of all. … Continue reading Community Watch: Build a Box on Nov. 2 & 3
It has been a while since I’ve shared a completed project from my bench. I haven’t been particularly inactive, just an inactive blogger. Recently, I completed a queen-sized platform bed for my wife and I. I completed the footboard over last winter break, and this summer I took on the headboard.
The headboard and rails are put together with pocket hole joinery. The headboard, made out of solid birch and poplar, is way too heavy for the light rails. Instead of raising the height of the bed and creating thicker rails, I used a french cleat in my wall to hang the headboard. The bed is rock solid now. Finished with amber shellac and wax. Check out the Sketch-Up drawing for more info. Continue reading “This Week In the Shop: Queen-Sized Bed”
This project was for my mother. In order to do it though, I had to build a woodworking shop for my father. Interesting how that works out. All told, this project cost under $50. My father’s garage stuff collection netted … Continue reading This Week in the Shop: A Quiet Place
This is the second in my “Making a Makerspace” series. Catch part 1, Planning the STEAMworks, here.
With my planning done, I turned my attention to “building out” the makerspace. My original plan called for a long woodworking bench against a pair of bay windows with two tool cabinets and four mobile workstations with integrated tool storage. I thought the makerspace would look something like this:
As the new school came closer and closer to completion, I realized my room would begin to more like this:
Keep with me after the jump, as I show of my workspace and even provide plans on how to build a Long Bench and Mobile Workstation for your own makerspace.
Continue reading “Making a Makerspace: Building Out the Steamworks”
This fall, I move into a brand-spanking new classroom. As part of this move, I’ve been heavily involved in the planning, organizing and logistics of moving my school’s Math & Science program into our new digs. In the words of a close colleague of mine, what a great problem to have! Long term readers of this blog have probably noticed a distinct drop off in posts over the past year – well, this massive move has been the main focus of my long-term planning and energy, leaving little left over for blogging or new projects.
That’s about to change. This is the first of a series of posts on how I’m transforming an empty 20′ x 20′ room into a Makerspace. I will be posting progress reports throughout the Fall 2013 semester, so keep checking back. This post will focus on planning out the Makerspace, which I’ve named the STEAMworks. Continue reading “Making a Makerspace: Planning the Steamworks”
Congrats to Pam for winning the Facebook “Race to Thirty” contest. She wins a Simple Tea Box (or maybe some new designs I’m working on). She can claim her prize by messaging the Facebook page or sending an email to woodshopcowboy at gmail.com. Hey, even if you didn’t win, drop me a line! Thank you to all of those who have supported this page and my work over the past year or two. Onward and upward – at 50 likes, I will give away another prize. Not yet sure what of, but I guarantee it should be interesting…. Keep supporting … Continue reading We Have A Winner!
To end the year, my students have been making simple marking gauges. My students learned to create a mortise and use hand planes to fit a tenon in this particular project. Here’s how we did it. 1. Cut a 1″ or 3/4″ square oak strip into 8″ lengths. 2. Cut a 2″ length from a maple strip about 2″ wide, giving you a 2″ x 2″ square. 3. Use the oak strip to mark your mortise in the center of the maple square. We did this by marking two diagonals across the maple square and then eye-balling the center. Mark the square … Continue reading This Week in the Shop: A Simple Pin Marking Gauge
In the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s, a number of furniture makers, craftsman and artisans reacted against the massive mechanization and industrialization of (their) modern world to create a type of furniture called Arts & Crafts, Craftsman or Mission style furniture. Gustav Stickley in New York, the Roycroft community and others created furniture, which to my eyes, can’t be beat by anything that’s ready-to-assemble.
While I find my heart and soul called by Mr. Morris’s chair, other artisans were getting in on the action. With so much intellectual rebellion running about, some energy had to flow into pottery, right? I’m not a big pot fan (yep, that reads differently than it did in my head) but I do appreciate the art tiles. I just had to find a way to make one without using actual clay. I don’t have the sculpting skills, tools, a kiln or materials for such work.
So how did I do it? I used some of the latest and most innovative prototyping methods known to man.
Continue reading “This Week in the Shop: Ceramic 3-D Printing via Shapeways.com”
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