I made this simple photo frame out of walnut, spruce, oak, maple, plywood and olive wood scraps. All the pieces were shaped to resemble to buildings and then glued and nailed on a piece of birch plywood.
First of all I cut the plywood base frame on the bandsaw.
I then started making the buildings out of the scrap wood pieces. For the shaping I used the bandsaw and the belt sander. I then glued the pieces on the base frame. To avoid clamping I used my air powered nail gun. I used a couple of olive wood pieces which had their bark still on. To kind of stabilize the bark I used super glue. The super glue is really thin and can penetrate into tiny gaps.
I tried to kind of divide the different parts of the wood in harmony around the whole synthesis. This way you get a more balanced aesthetic result.
I then sanded the frame on the belt sander. I also hand sanded many parts.
To act as the back of the frame, I cut a piece of thin MDF on the bandsaw.
I then used a glass cutter to cut the glass. I first scored the line with the cutter. I then lightly hammered the scored line. Finally I broke the glass on the line, against a piece of plywood.
I cut and shaped the openings of the frame out a piece of oak. I predrilled and counter sinked the holes for the screws.
I applied three coats of clear, satin, water based varnish on the frame. I lightly sanded between coats. To speed up the drying process I used my heat gun.
I then made the back support piece out of a piece of birch plywood. Once again I cut the basic shape on the bandsaw and finished shaping on the belt sander. I glued and nailed the piece on the MDF back.
Finally I assembled all the pieces of my picture frame. I am really happy with the way it came out!
I made this toy xiphos out of oak and beech wood. It is inspired by the double-edged, one-handed Iron Age straight short sword used by the ancient Greeks.
First of all I planned and jointed two faces of my stock on my planer. I then used the thickness planer to plane my stock to size.
I split the oak piece in half on the table saw. Because this wood is really hard. I completed the cut with several cuts. I passed the board through the thickness planer again to clear the saw marks.
I then used the cross cut sled on my table saw to make the cross cuts for the tang of the sword. I finished the shaping of the tang on the bandsaw.
I then marked the bevels I wanted the blade to have. I shaped the bevels with a hand plane and a spokeshave.
To start carving the fuller, I first a established a line with a V varying chisel. I then carved more with a round carving gouge. I finished the fuller with a cylindrical sanding block.
I then cut a piece of beech on the table saw. This would act as my guard. I roughly shaped it on the belt sander. To make the slot for the tang I first removed as much material as I could with a forstner bit. I then finished the slot with a chisel and mallet.
I then started making the handle. This is two beech parts. I completed the groove for the tang with several rip cuts on the table saw. Each time I moved the fence slightly back. I cleaned the saw marks with a chisel. I then glued the handle parts together.
I wanted the blade to fit in the guard. So I routed the area needed and finished it with carving gouges. I then created the bevels on the guard on the disc sander.
I carved the shape of the handle. I first used the V carving chisel and then shaped the rest with gouges.
I made the pommel on the lathe out of a beech piece. I used the bowl gouge for shaping. I also used a flat chisel, a parting tool and a spindle gouge. I used a forstner bit to drill a hole on the center of the pommel. I then shaped the tip of the tang cylindrical with a chisel. The pommel fits snuggly on the tip of the tang.
I then glued all the parts of the sword together using wood glue.
After the glue dried, I blended the shape of the pommel with the handle. I did that with a flat rasp. I then moved to a file and finished with sandpaper.
I sanded the sword starting at 100grit, moved to 220 and finished to 280.
I also added a hanger on the pommel. I first predrilled a pilot hole.
I finished the sword with 8 coats of shellac.
I am really happy with the way it came it out, I hope you like it too!
In this video I show the techniques and tools needed to turn a simple wooden bowl. I used niangon wood for this project.
First of all this is a side grain bowl. It is easier to hollow this way, with minimal tear out.
I marked the diagonals of my blank and drew a circle with a compass. I roughly cut out the circle on the bandsaw.
I then mounted the stock on a face plate with four screws.
I turned the stock true using my roughing gouge. After that I switched to a bowl gouge and started shaping the exterior of the bowl.
I then used my calipers to measure the diameter of the jaws of my chuck. I then marked the area on the bottom of the bowl to make a mortise to fit my chuck. I made the mortise with the bowl gouge and a parting tool. The parting tool was used ina diagonal. This way the mortise’s walls are at an angle. As a result the chuck’s jaws can hold the bowl much better because they are at an angle also.
This piece of wood has a knot. This is a fragile area, so I reinforced it with super glue.
I sanded with 100grit moved to 220, then 320 and finished with 500grit. At 500, I wet sanded with mineral oil, which is food safe.
I then mounted the bowl on my chuck and started the hollowing process with my bowl gouge.
At some point I used my depth gauge to check how far I went.
I finished the interior with a few light passes with a round scraper.
I sanded the interior and finished it with mineral oil.
The bowl came out great. My stock had a really big knot and I was afraid it might brake. Fortunately everything went well and the knot gives a really nice character to the piece!
I made this box ( actually bowl ) out of tilia wood. It's design happened by accident. I tried to correct a mistake with simple design elements.
First of all I jointed the sides of my wood on my jointer. I then moved to the thickness planer and finished flattening the stock.
I then cut the piece to rectangles. I made those cross cuts on my table saw, using my cross cut sled.
I then glued the pieces together. I made two special blocks for the glue up. Those prevented the pieces from sliding around, during the glue up.
I then cut the piece to a rough cylindrical shape on the bandsaw.
I mounted the stock on a face plate and turned it true using a roughing gouge. I then used the bowl gouge and the parting tool to create a mortise for the chuck.
I then reversed the piece and mounted it on the chuck. I begun hollowing with my bowl gouge. Using a flat chisel as a scraper I flattened the outer side and sanded the piece. Using similar methods I made the top cap of the box.
I then closed the box and mounted it between centers. I used the bowl gouge to turn the cap flush with the rest of the box.
At this point everything was going well until a piece just broke off. I reglued the pieces I found and decided to add three decorative circles to kind of trick the eye from viewing the crack.
After the glue dried I used the bowl gouge to even everything up. I then painted the interior of the box, with water based wood stain.
Using a rotary tool and a sanding drum I shaped the crack to a circular shape. I then created two more circles with forstner bits.
I sanded the pieces with 100grit and 280grit.
I then finished the piece with about 8 coats of shellac.
Looking at an old rusty fire extinguisher I had, an idea of a DIY musical instrument came to me. I also had a pine bed I found in the garbage. So I decided to combine wood and metal and a create a unique four string instrument.
First of all I cleaned and emptied the fire extinguisher. I then used the angle grinder to cut out out the section I needed. I also used the angle grinder with a sanding disc, to remove the paint and the rust.
I then cut the bed to boards with a hand saw, I jointed and planed the pieces using my planer-jointer machine.
I then cut the two blocks of the body on the bandsaw. I sanded them on my belt sander. On one block I used the bandsaw to create the female dovetail. I cleaned that up with a sharp chisel.
I then glued the blocks on the body with two part epoxy. I also added a few screws for extra strength. I then prepared and glued two small pieces on the sides. Those provide extra glueing surface for my guitar’s top. I trimmed the excess wood with my block plane. I then jointed my body’s face by sanding it over a flat board with glued sand paper on it.
The top needs to be really thin. To plane such a thin board, I glued the piece on a piece of plywood with a few drops of hot glue and passed it through the thickness planer. I saw that technique in a video made by Nick Ferry.
I glued the two braces under the top. After the glue dried out, I used a chisel to shape them at my likeness. Using a forstner bit I bored the sound hole. I glued the top on the body. To clamp that odd shape, I made a few curved blocks.
Using the bandsaw I cut as much material as I could out of the neck’s male dovetail. I finished the job with a handsaw and a chisel.
The neck is glued with the headstock at an angle. To create that angle I used a tapered block glued on the neck and made a rip cut on the table saw. I used the bandsaw to cut the back of the neck. I glued the headstock with the neck. The piece of the neck I removed on the bandsaw was planned flat and used as the fret board.
On the table saw I used a cross cut sled to create a groove under the fretboard. I did that with several passes. This helps the top to sit under the fretboard.
My instrument’s scale from nut to bridge is 59,5cm. I used an online fret calculator to measure the fret positions. I marked the positions of the frets. I cut thin slots with a miter box. I then used a V file to open up the slots. This increased my glueing surface. I then glued the fretboard on the neck. I also used two wooden pins, to prevent the fretboard from sliding around during the glue up. I used this pins as fret position guides. I trimmed them flush with a flush trim saw after the glue dried.
I shaped the neck using a block plane and a spokeshave. The difficult to reach areas I shaped with a rasp. I moved to a file and finished with sandpaper.
I used nails as frets. I cut the heads with the angle grinder. I secured the fretboard on my vise. I used a spirit level to make sure it was flat to prevent the glue from dripping. I then glued the frets with epoxy. After the epoxy dried I tried to trim the frets flush with the angle grinder. This created a lot of heat and the epoxy melted in few frets and popped them out. So I cleaned the slots again and reglued the frets. This time I had already cut them to size before glue up.
I cut a scrap metal piece with the grinder to act as string holder. I made the holes needed on the drill press while lubricating the drilling process. This helps me keep the drill bit sharper for much longer.
I then made the bridge out of maple and plexiglass. I routed the slot of the bridge using my router table. I shaped the plexiglass of the neck and bridge using a file and sand paper.
Using a large sanding block I leveled the frets. I polished them with steel wool. I buffed them using my rotary tool with a buffing disc and polishing compound.
I glued the neck on the body.
I installed the keys, the string holders and the string guides.
I added strings, tuned it up and my little DIY guitar was ready for some blues!
I made this mini router table for my trim router. It is made out of 9mm birch plywood. It has a movable fence and a place for my dust collection system.
First of all I cut a few strips of plywood on my table saw. For the cross cuts I used my cross cut sled.
I then used my router’s base to mark the positions of the holes I needed. Using a forstner bit I drilled the center hole. I then drilled the screw holes. To prevent the screw heads from not being flush, I used a forstner bit again to create some kind of counter sink.
I then cut the pieces for the body of the table. These are joined with rabbets. I made the rabbets on the table saw. I moved the fence back after every cut, until the pieces fitted snuggly in the rabbets. I then glued and nailed the pieces together, using my air powered nail gun.
Using my circular saw and a guide rail, I cut the back panel. I glued and nailed it in place also.
I sanded the back flush with the top using my random orbit sander. I glued and nailed the two side top pieces. The inner top piece is movable so I can mount the router in place. I achieved that by keeping it in place using two 8mm dowels. With the top in it’s place I drilled the hole for the router bit using a forstner bit again.
I cut the pieces for the fence of the table. I also used solid wood blocks for the fence’s support and guide rails. I rounded over the stock for the blocks with my spokeshave. I cut four blocks on my table saw using a stop block on my cross cut sled. I also made an insert for my dust collection system. I glued and nailed all the pieces of the fence together. I also used a block plane to plane the guide rails to size after the glue dried.
At this point my homemade router table was ready. I mounted on the router and secured the fence and the table itself using clamps.
I made a couple of test cuts and it worked really nicely! I hope you enjoyed the video and found it useful!
