When I retired and we moved to our new village home, we purchased an oak desk for the lounge. This was before I got serious about woodworking, and looking at it now I realise that it is rather crude in construction – but it did the job.

 

I had previously made some other items for the same room – also in oak – but my wife wanted more storage space for her sewing items. So I decided to make another ‘half’ desk, to match the original, but with six shallower drawers for her small items instead of three like the desk.

 

 

 

The original oak desk

 

 

Six-Drawer Chest

 

 

Unique Advent Calendar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my version of Steve Ramsay’s latest Countdown Calendar - or Advent Calendar as we say in the UK

 

He did modify the design so that a present could be concealed behind the door, but my version was already completed before he published the change - so no 'goodies', just block swapping each day of Advent.

 

Raised Panel Doors

 

Our friends Richard and Sue’s grandson has just reached the ‘into everything’ stage, so they were concerned that he might investigate the cupboard in the bedroom where he stays during visits, as it only had curtains closing off an area full of all sorts of stuff.  I made them a pair of  MDF doors,  routed to look like raised panels

 

Church Cross from reclaimed oak

 

Having previously made some items for our local church, it was no surprise to be asked by the vicar if I could make a cross on which to hang the poppy wreath on Remembrance Sunday.  He   said that he had some oak that had been removed when the church organ housing recently had been remodeled, and that was what I used.

 

Our village notice board had been in place for a number of years, but finally gave up the ghost a couple of months ago, when the softwood frame had rotted enough to start to fall to pieces.   Luckily, the window panes could be re-used – which was handy because they were made of Pilkington’s safety glass – so my design was pretty much the same size as the original. Luckily, one of our villagers runs a woodturning business and he said he had some Sapele off-cuts from one of his larger jobs which I was able to use.

 

Shoe Storage Box

 

My wife, Avril, spotted a Shoe Storage Box in a sales magazine and asked if I could make one for her. Although the cost of materials exceeded the price of the commercial version, I could make it from white melamine coated chipboard so that it would sort of match other furniture in our bedroom.

 

 

Dungeon & Dragons Box

 

My Grandson, Will, admired a box I

made and asked if I could make him

something similar to keep the dice and

other items he uses in the Dungeons

& Dragons games he designs.I

decided to create a finger joint version

using a jig I completed recently

 

ACME Bomb Clock

 

This is my version of WIL E

COYOTE'S surprise present for Road

Runner

 

Cotton Reel Organiser

 

Avril is a keen patchworker, and although she has in the past concentrated on hand-stitched items like quilts, with problems due to arthritis nowadays she is having to use her sewing machine more.

 

I had already made a pine top for the unit upon which her machines stand, with an ‘upstand’ at the rear to stop items falling off the back. So, when she asked for a unit to organise her sewing threads so that she could easily see what colours she has – rather than searching through boxes – it seemed a good idea to modify a design I saw somewhere on the Internet to go on the pine top.

 

Bird Feeder

 

As the Cherry Tree in the front garden decided to succumb to honey-dew virus and died, we needed somewhere to hang bird feeders.

 

New Fence

 

We’ve had an ongoing problem with a patch of our front garden which contained a lilac bush which kept sending shoots up and making the area impossible to keep weed free. Finally, my wife, Avril, decided that this old bush needed to go, and the area should be covered with a weed-stopping membrane to reduce the maintenance work needed. Our gardener-helper put in a framework, with a section left for a camelia, and covered the membrane with stones.

 

‘Whilst you are doing that’, said Avril, ‘could you hide that nasty chain-link fence?’ – Well when SWMBO asks, I obey, so I put in some posts and rails, and found some wood to cut into pickets at our local ‘Woodpile’. I cut the picket tops in a curve to match those on the front and side gates

 

Raffle Ticket Tumbler

 

Each year, at our village Christmas Market that my wife Avril organises, we have a raffle – with lot of prizes donated by the stallholders, and usually, a hand-made quilt at the major attraction. As the winning visitors may not be present when the draw is made at the end of the day, we get them to put their name and ‘phone number on a numbered sheet, but we still use raffle tickets to make the actual random selection. Whilst doing this with the tickets in a shoe box this year, I thought that it would be more sophisticated to use a proper drum, so made this version I found on YouTube.

 

 

Another Pony Rocker

 

In natural finish this time, as a present

for a child in the village

 

 

 

 

A Jumbo Rocker

 

When a neighbour saw the Pony Rocker above being displayed by the child who received it, he asked me to make a smaller version for his granddaughter.  I found this design for  an elephant, and left it unfinished as he wanted to paint it himself

 

 

Tambour Top Box

 

Having been given some offcuts of Ash, I looked on the Internet for something to make from them, and came across this box.As the drawer is pulled, the tambour opens automatically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bread Bin

 

 

 

Using some of the strips left over from

the Tambour Box, I made a Bread Bin

for the kitchen.

 

 

Paint Tube Rack

 

 

When I saw my wife, Avril’s, watercolour paint tubes scattered in a tray on the table she uses for painting I was triggered to pop into the workshop to knock up this rack from ‘might come in useful’ scraps.

 

Doll's Cradle

 

 

My friends asked me if I could make a doll’s cradle for their granddaughter as they could find nothing suitable in the shops or online. I had a search and found free plans for a cradle at https://rogueengineer.com/diy-american-girl-doll-cradle-plans/, and they approved the design.

 

When I had it finished, I added some wood carved flower applique shapes that I found on Ebay, and painted the cot in a sort of champagne colour – used on the re-fresh of our kitchen cabinets.

 

My wife, Avril, was so taken with the prettiness of the cot that she decided to use her patchwork skills to make a quilt and other items for it.

 

.303 Rifles

 

 

‘I’ve a challenge for you’, said my son on the ‘phone, ‘can you use your retirement woodworking skills to make some rifles?’

 

Apparently, his Am-Dram group would be producing a version of Black Adder Goes Forth as part of the WW1 centenary in November, and they needed some Lee Enfield rifles for the last scene where the characters go ‘over the top’.

 

I said I would think about it, and started looking on the ‘net for help

 

.Luckily, a good friend and neighbour owns a WW1 bayonet, which he said was of the smaller size that was also used then. I copied this fairly closely, but must admit I did not attempt the ‘hollow grind’ shaping on the blade. Two screws will attach them, so the characters will have to have them already in place rather than ‘clicking’ them on.

 

I must admit that by the time I got to the third gun I was getting a bit bored with the project, but I soldiered on to complete them.

 

 

Wipe Clean Memo Boards

 

A friend asked me to make her a kitchen memo board, and I recalled that when our village hall was extended, the builders used a plastic material to line the walls of the kitchen, as it was washable and thus very hygienic. There had been some off-cuts left over and they worked very well with wipe-off markers.  The bottom frame section has a groove for the marker.

 

 

 

 

Planter from offcuts

 

I ended up with lots of strips of cut-out pieces – from 1/2 inch square to 3/4 by 1 inch in section - after making picture frames. I made a couple of frames to support roses and shrubs in our garden, but still had a lot left.When we saw that our sweet pea plant was overgrowing its pot on our patio, I thought of using the cut-out strips to make something similar.

 

A plastic inner container would protect the wood, and I found a square flip-top waste paper bin that looked as though it would do that job – and discarded the lid.

 

 

A Contemporary Clock

 

 

As my son suggested that my Acme Bomb Clock  would be a suitable Christmas present for my grandson, William, my wife suggested that I make something else in wood for his twin brother, Elliott.

 

I cast around in my favourites on Lumberjocks and YouTube, and finally came up with The Wood Whisperer’s Contemporary Clock – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcYO9Ftkros&t=2s – as a suitable candidate.

 

Backgammon Cutlery Canteen

Conversion

 

Box before conversion

 

 

Avril, and I got tired of lifting the heavy canteen of cutlery up for formal dinner parties and decided to put the contents into the cutlery drawer of the chest of drawers adjacent to our dining table.   This left us with the redundant container. Casting around for ideas of what to do with the well-made and attractive wooden case, I hit on the idea of converting it to use it for Backgammon

 

 

Telephone Box Conversion

 

The traditional red telephone boxes in the UK are tending to fall into disuse as practically everyone now has their own mobile ‘phone. In villages, rather than removing them, British Telecom are asking Parish Councils if they wish to Adopt a Box, at a nominal fee of £1. As reclaimed ones can sell for thousands of pounds, this is a bargain!

 

Our village of Chedzoy, in Somerset, took advantage of this scheme, and invited ideas for its continued use in our village newsletter. The suggestion that received greatest support was to turn our box into a free lending library which villagers could use to donate and borrow books, and I was asked if I could make some shelves for the box.

 

Besides the shelves, a cover was needed for the electrical connections for the lamp in the roof, and the picture shows what I made – using pine for the shelves, and ash veneered MDF for the back and cover

 

Interior view

 

 

Magic Lantern Slide Holder

 

 

I finally have got round to cleaning up and re-illuminating the magic lantern that I rescued from being sent to a skip some 40 years ago). I got a new Edison Screw bulb base adaptor to take a quartz iodine projector lamp to fit in the socket inside the lantern.

 

My daughter Caroline mentioned that she would like to have the lantern left to her, so I thought that I’d better get a proper slide holder rather than the cardboard version I made, or the metal one for 35 mm slides.  All the holders advertised on ebay were from the USA, with carriage charges around three times the actual price of the holder itself. As I’m too mean to pay those sorts of charges I decided to make one myself – how hard could it be ?

 

 

Dummy Wireless front for stage prop

 

 

Having risen to the challenge of producing dummy rifles for one of my son’s theatre, his latest request was for the front of a pre-war wireless set to be used in a production of Goodnight Mr Tom.

 

I searched on the ‘net for pictures of old radios, and finally found one that seemed to have a suitable dial. I had to play with the copy to straighten its keystone effect, before printing it onto acetate on my laser printer. I had some opal plastic sheet to which I could attach it, which I fitted it into a recess cut in a suitably-sized sheet of MDF. I had some white LED strip from which I cut a short length, and with a suitable holder and a 12V battery, could illuminate the dial by sticking the strip to the back of the opal. Four dummy knobs were fitted, with the one at the top left being attached to a switched potentiometer so that, as in real life, when rotated it turned on the illumination.

 

In another recess I put a board covered with traditional acoustically-transparent cloth which I had left over from a gramophone renovation – https://www.lumberjocks.com/projects/49698 – and added some trim to the two recesses, plus a base to enable it stand upright.

 

I was only required to produce the front of the dummy wireless as the props department were to add a cardboard box for its use on stage.

 

Child's Kitchen Chair

 

 

I was asked if I could make a copy of a child’s chair by someone who had been referred to me as ‘he is retired and does a bit of woodwork’, so might be able to help in their quest to get a similar chair for their great-granddaughter to match those purchased years ago for their several grandchildren.

 

I have not made anything like the example before, so wondered if I could manage to make five identical back struts and four identical legs – bearing in mind that the designs on my previous wood turning efforts had changed each time a got a catch or otherwise deviated from the intended shapes. As I had just got a nice new lathe, I thought that I ought to accept the challenge, but advised the client that it was new territory for me, and I might not succeed.

 

 

 

 

 

The sample chair was made from ash and beech, but there were no suitable small small off cuts of either of those two types at my only local supplier, but there were some suitable lumps of basswood (American lime), so I purchased these. I had to cut and join a board for the seat, and laminate two pieces for the back top rail, and sawed the other parts for the legs and struts.

 

I was proud of the fact that I turned the struts and legs, direct from square section, using my large skew chisel – as the curves were pretty gentle I was able to avoid the digs and catches that I usually manage to achieve with the skew.When I came to drill the holes in the seat for the struts and legs, I began to appreciate more fully the fact that they would be angled in two planes at the same time, so using a power drill with Forstner bits made it a rather difficult task. I must admit that when I first assembled the back, I was actually amazed that it came out so well, matching the sample chair very closely.

 

The legs also dry fitted OK, but the glue-up was a nightmare as the glue in the basswood grabbed the legs immediately, and held on like a bulldog, making any attempts at adjustments to get the seat level nearly impossible.

 

The sample chair had the owner’s name carved into the top rail, but being curved, I could not use a router-based sign making system to engrave ‘VIOLET’ onto my chair, and quickly discovered my skills with a dentist’s drill system (or Dremel) were non existent. I searched for local wood carvers who might be able to help, but the only one I found was rather churlish and wanted £70 to carve six 15mm high letters, so I left it to the client to arrange that if she wished

 

When assembled, the basswood looked very pale, but three coats of Danish Oil, and some Renaissance Wax, brought it to a pleasant honey colour. Even without the carved name, the client declared that she was delighted with the chair, and I must admit to certain amount of pride that i managed to achieve what was quite a tricky task.I did eventually find someone to carve VIOLET on the chair back using the outline text I transferred to the wood.

 

 

Artists H-Frame Easel

 

My artist friend – for whom I make picture frames – asked me if I could make her a ‘proper’ easel, so I looked around on the ‘net and ended up being impressed by this design, so got the plans.

 

The design has a moving central frame within an outer frame, enabling the canvas being painted to be raised or lowered for ease of access to different areas. To enable the central frame to be moved easily, a system of pulleys and a counterweight is employed, and I was able to use the pulleys from a bicycle storage lift that I had lying around unused.

 

I decided to use the included design for the taboret for working space to mix paints, place brushes and other artist’s tools, and, with its extendable trays at each side, this looks to be particularly usefuWhen she visited to see the finished easel, which has three coats of Danish oil applied to the pine,  I was pleased to hear that she was delighted with it.

 

It took some effort to transport it and manouevre it into her small studio, but when I saw the pitiful tripod that was her old easel, I realised why she needed something more substantial, so that she can work on larger canvases without her old stand repeatedly falling over.

 

She later removed the counterweight as she preferred to work without it.

 

Postbox

 

Friends of mine recently had some oak-faced flooring laid, and there were inevitably pieces left over. Having used some for shelves, they asked if I might make them a postbox from what remained. They had an old iron letterbox obtained from a reclamation yard to go on the front, which would be in keeping with the appearance of their old cottage – which was known in the village as the ‘Old Post Office’.

 

 

Woozle Bird

 

A good friend of mine sent me some plans he had purchased over twenty years ago, for an automatom - in the form of what was called a 'Woozle Bird'.

 

I used a teak board to make the base, and some of the more fragile parts of the bird, plus the winder and a couple of the cams.  For the pulleys and the 'weight' I used some purpleheart I'd had lying about for years.  Despite the heaviness of the purpleheart, the weight didn't seem heavy enough for me, so I drilled some extra holes into it, which I filled with molten lead.  That did the trick nicely.

 

I cheated a bit by using 5M hex-headed grubscrews to fix some of the parts to the shafts, and also used screws to hold the top of the base and the feet and the ruff in position.  This did however enable me to repeatedly disassemble and reassemble the unit, and adjust the positions of the cams, etc., to get the best action - which would have been impossible if everything was glued.

 

There is a video showing the bird in action here .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog control Gate

 

My son needed some way to keep his dogs in the kitchen/diner area overnight - away from their new suites in the lounge.  He asked me if I could design and make something suitable.  

 

 

 

I eventually came up with the above design -  which he liked

 

Views of the finished version are shown alongside.

 

The pin is moved to the top of the other support to keep the unfolded gate closed in the above and fifth pics. 

 

Box for local egg sales

 

My neighbour keeps chickens and wanted to sell her surplus eggs in our village, so I made her a box out of an old computer desk she was throwing out and some white melamine board I had spare. Originally I was going to give it legs to raise it to a convenient height for purchasers, but then cut the extended box sides so that it could mount over the coping stones on her front garden wall (pic 2).

 

I cut some holes in the back, at the top and bottom to allow air to circulate to prevent the eggs frying in hot sun, but covered them with mesh to keep bugs out, and an odd piece of whiteboard on the inside of the door can be used to show prices. (pic 4). A concrete screw into the adjacent wall column keeps the box securely fixed.

 

In my usual rush to get things done quickly, I totally forgot to use exterior glue as well as the screws used to hold it together, although I did put mastic under the lid to seal that. I intended to coat it with some garden shed and fence paint I had left over but when I checked the tin it had dried out, so I painted the box with some indoor emulsion from another unfinished tin.

 

Again, I failed to use some melamine primer before applying the emulsion, so with the wrong paint and no primer it probably won’t be long before it all flakes off!

 

I added a window on the door for the ‘For Sale’ sign, so that it can be reversed (pic 3) to advise would-be purchasers that they didn’t need to sort through empty boxes.

 

My neighbour was delighted with the box, but will she still feel the same when it weathers?

 

 

 

 

Planter Renovation

 

Friends from the village asked me if I could repair a couple of planters that were falling to bits. As usual, I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture, so can only show the finished result. The second picture, however, includes the 5-inch pieces cut off the bottom of each leg and does show how rotten they were. The bottom rails were in a similar state, with one missing completely and the side boards hanging loose.

 

I initially thought that I could just move the rails up after shortening the legs to remove the rotten areas, but of course as the shape is tapered, the rails were then too short, so I had to make all eight new ones. Again because of the taper, I could just about prise the side boards out of the top of the frame without dismantling completely, but it was a struggle to get them free for shortening on my bandsaw.I did intend to use dominoes to fix the new rails, but the Domino tool was too large to go in the gap between the legs, so I resorted to pocket hole screws. Even then I had to shorten the star-shaped driver bit to get that in.

 

After repainting with garden paint – three coats on the new wood – I added some nail-on nylon feet to the bottoms of the legs to reduce water take-up, so perhaps it might take longer for the repaired planters to need renovation again.

 

Ribbon Rack

 

I was asked to make a rack for ribbon reels, and provided with a page from a magazine illustrating one made from a Boston Shelf sold by Dunelm.   The shelf seemed to be no longer available, so I used some cleaned-up offcuts of pine and simply glued and air-nailed them together.  

 

The only part that had me scratching my head was how to fix the knobs on the ends of the support dowel.  Initially I used a screw through the knob, but that meant the user needed a screwdriver each time reels were changed.   I then thought of cutting screw threads on the dowel and into a recess in the knob,  but the metal-working dies I have did not work on the wooden dowel.  

 

Finally, I came to the modern standby for this sort of thing, rare earth magnets - one araldited onto the end of the dowel, and another in a recess on the knob.   I included one of the plastic spacers supplied with the magnets in the recess to reduce the strain on the araldite when removing the knob.

 

I left the task of painting to the recipient, and the positioning of the holes for wall mounting - which is why it is balanced on a chair for its picture.

 

 

Weaving Frame

 

A neighbour wanted to use up some knitting wool to make squares to be crocheted  together to make blankets, and asked me to make this 22 x 22 cm frame.   I was pleased to work out a way to get all the nails at the same height.