Projects update

I currently have two projects going. Both are moving along very quickly right now. The big project is a three drawer chest for the office. This chest is made from oak plywood with a red oak face frame. The drawers are made of Poplar and will have a red oak face, not yet done on the picture. The blue tape is so that I can sand the face frame flush to the plywood without damaging the plywood. This project has been in the works for about 4-5 months in large part due to the lack of a biscuit joiner. I had to find other ways to join the plywood and the face frame. I learned to do it with dowels but it took some practice and this thing has been together and apart more times than I would like to admit. I am very happy to say that I do not envision any more stumbling blocks due to equipment that I need and do not have. The full extension slides and drawers was a new thing for me but they worked out very well.



The second project in the works is a jewelry box that is more of a learning project for me than anything else. I had a number of things I wanted to learn and doing them on a small project like this gives me the opportunity to do that without crying about wasting $50.00 in lumber because I messed up. The base is made with 45 degree joints that have a spline under the box. A very strong joint that was much easier than expected. The box was made with box joints in the corners. Not sure you can see that in the picture but it will be very evident when the finish goes on. The last part that I am working on now is the top. The plan is to put the marquetry in the top, which as you can see is done and was not as difficult as I thought it would be once I built a router jig. I will be routing a round over on the edge and putting a chamfer in the top above the round over. Should be interesting (remember I said its small if it doesn't work we start over without much waste).



These projects have kept me busy in the shed since November about three months but since I am a full time Hospital Pharmacist and an almost full time Grandfather, there is precise little time for woodworking but some of the other activities are not that hard to put up with.