Back to woodworking.....

Things are rolling pretty good with the lectern. Even with all the distractions it is coming right along. Maybe I'll be able to deliver it before Thanksgiving.

Tonight I was able to dry assemble the sides and front to the top of the base. I chose pocket screws for ease of use. I wanted to use biscuits, but that was gonna require a lot of figuring.

Anyway, here are the pics of the mock up. I will glue and assemble after some much needed sanding.

This is my rifle

Nothing particularly special. My first M-4 build. LMT stripped lower, Armalite lower parts kit,

BCM Upper Receiver Assembly and Bolt Carrier Group. Iron sights. I got
the buffer tube and butt stock from a friend. Can't wait to sling some
steel.

This is my rifle.

There are many like it, but this one is MINE.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life.

I must master it as I must master my life.

My rifle without me is useless.

Without my rifle, I am useless.

I must fire my rifle true.

I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me.

I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...

My rifle and myself know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire,

the noise of our bursts, nor the smoke we make.

We know it is the hits that count. We will hit...

My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life.

Thus, I will learn it as a brother.

I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories,
its sights, and its barrel.

I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage.

I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready.

We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed.

My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country.

We are the masters of our enemy.

We are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until there is no enemy, but PEACE.

Lectern for my church

This is something I have wanted to build for a few years now, and I figure now is the time to get started. The pics are pretty self explanatory. The first two are 2D exports from Google Sketchup. If you aren't familiar with Sketchup, check out the link and they can explain it better than I could.

I am building this out of cherry, mostly solid. The sides and top will be cherry ply. I plan on finishing with a wipe on poly since I have had amazing results with the stuff on some other small projects and really want to get more familiar with it. It's also a lot easier to apply than a brush-on finish.

These are the base pieces after mitering and just stacked to get a sense of scale.

Here you can see the pieces glued up and waiting for the next step.

I built spacers that would fit in the recesses of each level and put it 1/4" above the one below in order to lighten the appearance of the base a bit.

I think it looks lighter... Now I need to bullnose all of those.

But first let me mock up the front panel and place it there to get a perspective on the size and scale of the whole thing. I think the proportions seem correct/good to me.

Here is the glue-up of the front panel. Notice no clamps, only tape.

Bullnose complete! Looks good if I do say so myself.

Another view.

And now with the newly glued-up front panel in place.

And from the side.

Over all this is going pretty much according to plan. I drew up a full sized template before I started and that has been my guide for the odd angles, especially on the pieces for the front panel. This week I hope to get the sides cut and fit and put together with the front. Then I have to make the same thing (only smaller) to fit inside of the main stantion. I am designing this lectern to be adjustable for different speaker's preferences. That is not on the sketchup drawings and pretty much only resides in my head how it's going to work. I need to try to get it put on paper somewhere....

In other news

I'm building a new rifle. I will be getting the rest of the parts over the next week or so and I will post pics when it's done.

It's been a while....

I really need to be more vigilant on updating this thing. This will be a very short post with some pics, so here goes.

I recently finished a couple of loft beds for a friend's daughters. Upon delivery and setup, I learned a valuable lesson on not believing everything you read on the internet. I got the twin mattress dimensions there and the mattresses had to really be stuffed into the frames. I have another project to work right now and then I will be building a couple of desks for each girl, and then I will take the beds back and fix them so the mattresses fit better. Anyway, here are a few pics of the beds as they sit right now.







I really need to be more vigilant on updating this thing. This will be a very short post with some pics, so here goes.

I recently finished a couple of loft beds for a friend's daughters. Upon delivery and setup, I learned a valuable lesson on not believing everything you read on the internet. I got the twin mattress dimensions there and the mattresses had to really be stuffed into the frames. I have another project to work right now and then I will be building a couple of desks for each girl, and then I will take the beds back and fix them so the mattresses fit better. Anyway, here are a few pics of the beds as they sit right now.

Paddle Making

So, the guy who bought my canoe bought "custom" wooden paddles from some dude on the internet. A guy who makes at least a good part of his living making canoe paddles. My buddy paid $160 ea. for two paddles. I was looking at one the other day and was somewhat less than impressed.

I told my friend that I really couldn't talk since I had not made a canoe paddle but the quality and craftsmanship were somewhat lacking. My buddy agreed that he wasn't happy with the craftsmanship considering what he paid. This was exactly the motivation I needed to get busy making a paddle though and the fruits of my labor are in the pics below. This is my first paddle, and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

I used left over strips from the canoe for the blade and a strip of scrap white oak for the spine. Then I laminated some mahogany that I have for the remainder of the shaft. Finally, having decided on a "T" style grip instead of a palm grip, I used some more white oak to mortise and tenon (with a through tenon) to attach that. I also wedged the through tenon. The grip looks a little clunky for a "T" grip, but it feels like a palm grip.

I glassed the blade with some extra glass cloth that I had lying around. It is 6 oz. but I think if I started to make paddles, I would get my hands on some 4 oz instead.

I finished it today and I will be taking it on a canoe trip next weekend with the boyscouts. I will pass it around to all the adults to get their feedback on what they like and, more importantly, what they don't like, and I will incorporate the changes into #2.

Gluing the mahogany spine/shaft.

Epoxy is messy!

Just signed with a sharpie before glassing. This paddle will be worth a fortune some day!

The finished product!

Bathroom Cabinet Done!

I finished the bathroom cabinet pretty quickly. Once again, I deviated from the plans and didn't put the door on. This is mainly because the cabinet is only 6" deep, take away nearly 3/4" for the back and another 5/8" for the door, and you wind up with a pretty shallow cavity for anything useful, so it made more sense to make it an open shelf instead.Corner detail. The bathroom is too narrow to allow a shot of the dovetails.

The whole thing.