Posts in "woodworking"

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).

A handmade door covering up a narrow closet

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

Making mortises for butt hinges with hand tools on a workbench

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.

A long narrow door with rounded top

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).

a medicine cabinet cubby made of cherry wood to replace an old wall heater

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.

midcentury cherry TV cabinet

One of the sliding doors are fit in the mid-century cabinet project, one more to go and then on to the feet.

Sliding door fit on a partially assembled TV stand cabinet

Years ago, a friend gave me an old wooden filing cabinet that was missing one of its side panels. Yesterday, I finally got around to converting it into a mobile tool caddy I can easily move around the shop.

old wooden storage cabinet converted to hold chisels and other tools

I finished resawing the boards for one of the doors for the cabinet - I’m guessing this would take less than an hour or so with a bandsaw? It took me most of the day. I used a ryoba saw and had excellent results. My arm is spent.

A woodworking bench holds various hand tools, a large wooden board, and several wood panels in a workshop setting.

Finished all the dovetail work for the mid-century cabinet and leaving it dry fit until I take apart to cut the grooves for the front sliding doors.

A wooden cabinet is placed on a blue rubber mat in a workshop.

Finally back to work in the shop. I decided to start with a warm-up project: a cherry tea tray with walnut dowels and wax cord wraps for the handles.

A wooden tray with dark blue handles sits on a workbench surrounded by tools.