I’m on a bench modding kick. Years ago, I installed a small vise on the left end of my Nicholson bench, reclaimed from a discarded Harbor Freight small workbench. I use it to hold small things.

This evening, I replaced the arm with a cast iron wheel I’ve been holding on to for years, looking for something to do with it. They just don’t make good parts like this these days. I save everything… This wheel comes from a Pfaff sewing machine I took apart about ten years ago. I think it’s a nice upgrade to the vise.

As an aside, I turned the base of the old sewing machine table to a cabinet to hold all of my network stuff (Synology, hubs, switch, etc.) about a year ago. I documented that in an earlier post.

This weekend I mounted a Moxon vise to the end of my workbench, which is a big upgrade for my work and only looks a little weird.

I had mainly been using this old vise I picked up when we lived in Europe, but one of the wooden screws started to fail.

But I also had this benchtop Moxon vise I made many years ago. I rarely used this because it wasn’t very sturdy (I made it too small). So I took it apart and re-used the face and hardware and mounted it on the bench. The back is now a sturdy piece of Ash attached to the bench with eight inch heavy-duty wood screws.

Completed the outdoor shoe rack, looks much nicer than the plastic tray we were using before — and finally thought of something interesting to do with the small piece of teak taking up room in my shop.

Taking on a smaller, fun project: using a small slab of teak I picked up at an offcut sale many years ago to make an outdoor mat for shoes and boots.

Completed the hallway linen closet door. The top and bottom are open for airflow, as it’s used for bedding. Most interesting parts to me are the repurposed chair top used for the curve, embedded magnets to keep it closed, and I cut the grooves in the frame to house the cherry plywood panels by hand with as small as a lip as possible (about 1/8th of an inch).

Cutting the mortises for the hinges to hang the closest door I’m making. I always find this process a bit frightening.

Working on a long, narrow door to cover a narrow closet in our house where we keep sheets for bedding. The closet has a curved top. I’m using parts of a chair I got at a thrift store that perfectly matches this curve and plan to veneer it. We want to allow for air flow so this seems like a good solution.

Breaking down a sheet of cherry plywood with hand tools isn’t easy, but it’s mostly figuring out how to hold the work in place.

This was a fun, quick project: I used offcuts from the midcentury cabinet I just completed to make a small first aid station in the bathroom. This replaces an old, broken wall heater that came with the house. I made it removable in case I ever need to get to the electrical wiring I hid away in the wall. The frame of the cabinet has tiny little walnut splines for strength and it’s attached to the 1/4 inch box with glue and four dowels (made from toothpicks).

I completed my midcentury cherry cabinet, made with zero power tools. Here it is in place. The top sides are half blind dovetails, the base full dovetails. The door panels are 3/8 inch thick and slide along grooves. I’m pleased with how it turned out.