Three Mini Stylus Pens

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Bill
Three Stylus Pens

Three Stylus Pens

Sam and I turned three mini stylus pens as gifts for his guitar teacher, voice teacher, and band coach.  They all have iPads that they use for teaching, so it seemed like a good gift to give them.

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Cutting Bowl Blanks – Wood-Mizer Style

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Bill
Log on the Wood-Mizer

Log on the Wood-Mizer

I recently watched a video of someone making bowl blanks from a log using a chainsaw.  Now, this is my normal method as well, but I thought I’d try something a little different.  I used my Wood-Mizer.

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Cherry Rolling Pin and Benjamin’s Best Roughing Gouge Review

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Bill
Cherry Rolling Pin

Cherry Rolling Pin

A few years ago, I turned a 34″ long French rolling pin for my wife.  Every year at Christmas time, she makes a traditional Slovenian pastry called potica.  She got the recipe from my aunt.  Making potica involves stretching dough out paper thin over the entire 5′ by 3′ kitchen table.  She tried using her normal marble rolling pin, but this didn’t work very well.  She thought that a French tapered pin may work better, and a really long one may work even better.  So I got a 3′ long piece of 2″ x 2″ purpleheart, and turned it for her.

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Oak Candle Holder

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Bill
Finished Candle Holder

Oak Candle Holder

We were decorating for a dinner at church, and my wife wanted some candle holders for some pillar candles.  We found this one at a local store.  After looking at it, I realized I could turn a pair of them pretty easily.

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The Shop Construction Picture Gallery

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Bill

Picture gallery of the shop construction.

Shop Site

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Sam’s Watermelon

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Bill

This spring, Sam planted a single watermelon seed in the flower garden by the front walk.  It grew.  We watched the little melon grow all summer, and grow it did!

The Melon

The Melon

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Shop Update

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Bill

Here’s an update on the progress of the shop.  We got the floor going.  It took 5 tri-axle dump trucks of limestone, 100 tons in total, to fill the shop and bring it to level so the concrete could be poured.

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New Shop

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Bill

The barn burned down last November.  We finally got it all cleaned up and are building a new shop.  It’s going to be 56′ x 32′.  I’m going to include a 22′ x 12′ metal and welding shop, a 12′ x 10′ finishing room, an office, a dust collector & air compressor closet, and a bathroom.  I haven’t figured out exactly how big the office will be yet.  I don’t want to lose too much main floor space.

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More Jumbo Jaws

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Bill
corian jaws

Angelo’s Corian Jaws

I’d like to thank Angelo, who, in response to my Homemade Jumbo Jaws article, sent me a picture of some jaws he made out of corian. These look awesome!

These seem to be much more stable than plywood jaws.  Thanks for sharing, Angelo!

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Tree Castle

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Bill
Tree Castle

Tree Castle

My wife and I have wanted to build a tree house for our son since we moved in to our current house.  Living in 9 acres of woods, what boy wouldn’t want one.  He sure does.  We’ve looked at different trees, looked at how to build them, and never found the perfect trees.

When we moved here, at the east end of a little clearing by the barn, there was a large oak tree, about 36 inches in diameter, that had recently broken off about 20 feet up.  I had often thought about building something on top of that.  We talked about it last fall, and decided to build it as our first project of the spring.

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