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General

Featured Entries

Project Introduction

    My name is John Morris, and I am the founder of The Patriot Woodworker. Our community was founded on the principles of sharing, mentoring, and learning from fellow woodworkers, and above all, we have one thing in common, we all support the men and women who serve our nation. And we pretty much take on any task or challenge for our veterans that is asked of us, with the help of our sponsors. &
John Morris

Pulling the trigger

Thought hard about this segment and came up with all sorts of reasons and justifications for even wanting a laser engraver. The honest truth is, I've just always liked gadgets. Never mind I intend to use it for embellishing some of my turnings if and when I figure out how to use it. There are some youtube videos with turners using small machines to make “signature disks” they let into the bottoms of their bowls or vessels. The machines cost about $90.00 and do a surprisingly good job. The d
Steve Krumanaker

Part 5:

Part 5:   As “Norm” used to say- “We’re gaining on it now.”   Time for the first dry fit to make sure all the mortice and tenons fit together.     Had to futz with a few of the tenons but overall everything went together nicely. You can see why I’m limited to the size of my projects. This is the only assembly space available- add clamps around a piece and things really get tight.   There were still a few more things left to do with the apron and
lew
  • lew
Shop Equipment

Workbench completion

I really thought I had finished this post and discovered today that was not the case . So here goes. Now the lumber was finally here and cutting parts to size and glue up for thicker parts begins.                       These wider pieces were real fun doing the glue up on. Kinda like holding a snake who wants to run. The next photo is the legs. Note I used a waxed spacer to keep the slots open and spaced properly for end cross sup
Gerald

Six methods

Drying Turned Wood by Gerald Lawrence   I will cover the method I use as well as some other methods which have been up and down in popularity in the woodturning world to dry a blank in a method of turning called Twice Turned. First what is Twice Turned (TT) . TT is when you rough turn a bowl (usually only green wood) down to a wall thickness equaling one-tenth of the diameter of the bowl, the turn again when it reaches moisture equalization (MEQ) to final finish.   1. Ba
Gerald

Part 3:

Part 3: The work space in my shop is so small that I needed to build this project in stages. With the top finished, it was time to move on to the legs of the base. The entire base frame is made from poplar and the minister is going to paint it white. His specs were for full 4” x 4” legs. I suppose I could have gotten 16/4 poplar boards but those pieces would have been so large and heavy that I don’t think I could have manhandled them through the milling processes. I started with 5/4 boards
lew
  • lew

Part 2:

Part 2: This build was not going to be particularly difficult. My biggest concern was the maple top. I’ve built smaller edge grain tops before so the process was not unfamiliar; however, the staggered shorter length field pieces had me scratching my head about clamping and gluing. Also, I needed to consider the size of the top versus the capabilities of my shop equipment. My Dewalt 735 planer maxes out at around 13” wide and my little shop made drum sander can only handle very small work.
lew
  • lew

Part 1- the concept

The Pastor’s Table or I Think My Sister Is Trying To Buy My Way Into Heaven -  (borrowing a title concept from Rocky and Bullwinkle) Part 1: I think my sister believes my past transgression’s slate can be, at least in part, wiped clean by building furniture for the church she attends. The latest installment is a kitchen island/work table for the church’s kitchen. The pastor emailed me a picture of a table he thought would work but wanted something larger and with slightly di
lew
  • lew

Completed Veterans Awards

Well we left off with our veterans appreciation plaques sanded to 150 in the last blog, and here we are with some images that will bring us to the completion of the project. After I sanded all the awards to 150 I continued on through the grits up to 600, I was happy with the burnished sheen the plaques were developing. And I decided enough was enough, time for some finish! I would typically mix my own wipe on oil, but I had a can of Watco Danish Oil sitting around and decided to use it, and not
John Morris

Project Introduction

    My name is John Morris, and I am the founder of The Patriot Woodworker. Our community was founded on the principles of sharing, mentoring, and learning from fellow woodworkers, and above all, we have one thing in common, we all support the men and women who serve our nation. And we pretty much take on any task or challenge for our veterans that is asked of us, with the help of our sponsors. &
John Morris

Military Challenge Coin Display Build

Thank you for joining us. Below is the Military Challenge Coin Display as described by The Patriot Woodworker network. This is a design that we drew up with the help of designs seen all over the web, it is easy to build, most folks have the tools that are necessary to build it, and the finishing process is quite simple. If you don't have the tools that I am using, your sure to find a way around that, as this is as I said, very simple to build. This basic display is 12" long, 4 1/2" deep, 1 1/8"
Courtland

The Gun Case Final

The final installment of this project is just a little follow-up on the last details. My friend supplied the hardware and liner for me to install. The latches snap securely and installed easily, as did the hinges. The only caveat was that the sides of the case were 1/2" thick and the screws were a little longer. The difference isn't noticeable due to the type of liner he chose. The short protruding nibs actually help keep the foam in place.   I had never worked w
lew
  • lew

Part #5 Gluing, Drilling and Splitting

Once everything was properly fitted, the case was disassembled and prepped for gluing. I had previously sanded all of the pieces to 150 grit- except the top and bottom. Those two were sanded to 220 grit due to the difficulty of sanding them in place. I taped the locations where the dovetails intersected- on the inside of the box- to help eliminate a lot of glue squeeze out cleanup. Assembled one end and two sides. Dropped in the top and bottom. Then glued in the last end piece. Some clamps, chec
lew
  • lew

Part #4 The Top and Bottom

Having solved the problem of the non-supported dovetails in the lid, I made a dry fit of the sides and ends Most often, I like to make actual measurements rather than rely on what I calculated the size of the pieces I'll need. The good old Stanley Folder is my go-to tool for this type of measurement. Once the dimensions are taken, I can size and create the top and bottom. Both pieces were made from glue-ups. The top is 1/2" stock. The bottom is created from
lew
  • lew

Part #3 Oh No! I can't Believe I Did That

The sides and ends needed to have dados to accept the top and bottom. So as not to have the dados extend through the pins, stopped dados would do the trick. These were made on the router table. 1/4" wide and 5/16" deep. It was time for a little finessing of the joints to assure everything fit. Yes, there it was staring me right in the face! How could I not see what I did. Worse yet, how am I going to fix it now?!?!?!? I picked up the test piece and it finally hit me! I
lew
  • lew

Part #2 The Dovetails

After milling and sizing the sides and ends, it was time to layout the dovetails. I use a shop made angle layout jig for the tails. I'm a tails first dovetail person. I know there are folks who do the pins first and there are valid arguments to each procedure. This is how I learned to do them and it works for me. I use a marking knife for laying out the dovetails and a marking gauge to locate the dept of cuts. As for cutting the the dovetails, I really like the Japane
lew
  • lew

Part #1 The Starting Concept

While I was building the humidor, a friend mentioned he had acquired a shotgun. He wanted a protective case but not the typical soft sided type.  We measured his gun and calculated what size the case it would take. Not too large but enough room for a couple of accessories. Using Sketchup, we eventually came up with an appropriate design. While he hadn't decided on the hardware, I now had enough information to begin working. The box is solid walnut with inside dimension
lew
  • lew

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