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There must be a very special satisfaction in working wood with tools that you've crafted yourself.

It's nice with two caveats -I made tools at first while I was learning to woodwork. The woodwork wasn't that great, and the tools weren't that great compared to what you could just buy and I faffed with that for a while. If:
1) you really like to make the tools (i do)
2) you're resigned to the fact that it will take a few attempts to understand what makes them good and then that's worth the effort, and it may take a few further attempts to learn to physically manifest what you know to be nice attributes....


....well, #2 is kind of like anything in woodworking, or I guess in making anything.

I threw away most of my early tools eventually, and some were made with nice stock. That was kind of painful.

To be fair, one welcome thing once you're making your own tools is you don't feel like you need to be precious with them. If you break one, you can just make another. I almost despise really pretty boutique tools for that reason- avoiding damaging them is distracting.
 
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The last thing I made was a Mocotaugan knife handle out of hard maple for a Ben Orford external bevel blade, inspired by the scrolls found on violins.

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Today I (nearly) finished making a new stand for my two monitors for my home desk. It looks like I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future (and possibly part time for ever), so I thought I'd upgrade the stainless steel and aluminium ones I made a few years ago. The old ones can go into work for when I'm in the office.

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Made out of offcuts of four different woods with a stainless steel frame and some self-adhesive felt under the feet. About 150 mm high, 800 mm wide and 240 mm deep.

Close-up:

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The top view gives a better idea of the shape:

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This is what the frame looks like: 20 mm round bar with the ends cut off at 75° and plasma cut 1.5 mm stainless sheet.

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The stainless sheet sits in a routed cut-out, which you can see in this (pre-sanding & oiling) underside shot:

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Making it produced some very attractive plane shavings!

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For contrast, here's what the new stand will be replacing:

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and a gratuitous extra photo as I haven't reached the limit yet:

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The top has only had one coat of oil so far, so it'll be a few more days before it's actually finished and pressed into service.
 
This weekend i didn't end up actually making anything (more chisels), but friday night, my mrs. sprung on me that my daughter needed to have another better desk option for school by Wednesday. Which I would normally fight, but used as an opportunity to go out and find an old junk desk locally and paint it instead.

This desk is probably about 60 years old, but every single joint on it is still tight. The top and sides are some kind of formica or something and all of the trim is solid and the drawers are dovetailed ply.

A chisel that I made (this is just a beginning experiment making chisels, though, but it looks promising as a hobby) sits on top of the desk.

One of the nice things about the internet now is the ability to find a primer that will stick to anything without much running around. The stuff I used on this desk is a specialty hard paint that is all of about $2 more than the "premium" paint at home depot here (which is behr brand - everything I've used of theirs is junk and seems cheap) and adhesion seems to be surprisingly good. On the already painted parts, I sanded and vacuumed off the surface - no question there.

Total time involved only about 3 hours, and total cost was about 1/3rd of what I'd have spent on materials - and it didn't really get in the way of making things that I want to make.

Much more excited about forging chisels than making desks!!
 

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Not made anything but I'd just like to say that all your items are beautiful, very impressive. @Dr Al that must have taken some thought and time, what a fabulous idea!
 
Just finished this unit for the lounge/dining room. Mostly 18mm mdf with oak centre wine rack/drawer unit and oak top and shelves. I am planning a oak leaf and acorns carving for the centre back upstand.
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As we recently moved, it was decided for some of the bedroom stuff to just go with cheap ikea pieces until i get round to doing some built-ins. this is the result of adding an oak mirror type thing to an ikea "oak veneered, (read plastic)" malm unit
 

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Not done much worth posting lately but was back working on the Dovecote today which is a nice job.

A bit of a different window today, more Dovecote like then the previous louvered ones

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Also had a bit of a change of plan, some of the windows have louvers in the bottom, these were made and fitted with the intention of the louvers being closed and had an insulated panel fitted behind them. The customer later changed their minds, the louvers are now half open and I fitted some opening glazed sashes behind them instead of the solid panels. It is an improvement but would have been much easier to do it when they were on my bench instead of in situ!

View from inside with sash fitted, as the windows are low down the louvers don't really block the view too much.

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One of a pair of bedside tables in oak, finished in hard wax oil and wax.


Excellent job!

I can't think of a better project than a bedside/occasional tables with a dovetailed drawer. Apart from hanging a cabinet door it covers most basic cabinet making skills. Successfully make one of these to this sort of standard and you can, with justification, call yourself a furniture maker!

👏
 
One of a pair of bedside tables in oak, finished in hard wax oil and wax. I'm still waiting on the drawer pulls which are a leather loop with brass stud.

Appologies for the cluttered workshop in the background.
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Very nice indeed, but why did you have to use my workshop? :sneaky:

I really enjoyed making one very similar, so imagine that you must have enjoyed yours twice as much. If you have any more photos, a fresh thread in the Projects section would be nice.
 
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