Sep 04 2012

Cookie Cutter Rack

My wife has taken cutting the crusts off my kids peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to a whole new level: she uses cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches into shapes. This means that rather than storing the cookie cutters away in a drawer somewhere and only pulling them out every once in a while, the …

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Aug 15 2012

Free Wood!

My dad’s been promising to ship me some of his shop scraps for a while. So when I visited him in Colorado last week, he loaded my truck with some free wood. He probably could have filled my truck several times, but since I was traveling across the country with my family, I only took a …

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Jul 30 2012

Making A Giant Spiderweb

We threw my son a Spider-Man themed birthday this past weekend. As part of the decorations, we wanted to have a few large spiderwebs hanging in the yard. We already had one giant spiderweb that we put up every Halloween, but after staring at that one for years, I figured that I could make another …

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Jul 27 2012

Wooden Wallet

About a month ago Stuart over at ToolGuyd posted the Slim Timber Wood Wallet. Since the wallet sold for $45 and it looked like a simple thing to create, he wondered what the best way of making a DIY version would be. I thought about it for a while …

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Jul 26 2012

Wooden Engine Garage (Sodor Steamworks)

My son has amassed quite a few engines in the few short years he’s had his wooden train table. The problem is that there just isn’t enough track to play with all of them, so they end up all over the table and floor. He has a garage that is attached to a round house, …

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Jul 19 2012

Topping Off The Experiment

Not being one to leave well enough alone, I decided to make a top for the experimental finger bowel. Actually making a top let me try a few different skills where I need improvement: matching woods and turning to a fixed diameter. I chose to make the …

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Jul 17 2012

Turning End Grain

Most bowl turning banks I’ve seen are cut in such a way that you hollow the face grain to make the bowl. I’m not sure if they are sold like that because end grain turning is supposed to be more difficult or if maybe the mills just take the scraps from longer boards and …

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Jul 10 2012

Heart Shaped Necklace Holder

Sick of my daughter asking me to unsnarl her tangle of necklaces, I decided to build her a necklace tree. After some thought, I figured the tree would be a bad idea because it would be just one more thing to clutter up the horizontal space in her room. So I changed …

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Jun 29 2012

Ben’s Workshop Is Being Updated

I’m in the process of switching blogging platforms from Drupal to WordPress. The decision wasn’t an easy one as it will take many weeks to make the full transition. Eventually I should have all my content moved here to the new site, until then if you want to see the old site …

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Jun 19 2012

Drill Press Work Holder

I saw this idea for a work holder by +Christopher Landy over on Google+ — it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like it, but it kicked me in the butt to make one for my drill press table. Rather than a clamping the work piece to the table like …

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