What were your woodworking highlights in 2006

Frank Pellow

Member
Messages
2,332
Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
There are many possible different types of highlights and I suggest letting others know about (at least):
-a project

-a skill you learned or improved

-a new or restored tool or jig​
For me, there were many highlights, so I will divide “top” into five categories:

Top Indoor Project: Early in the year, my friend Terry West and I completed this cabinet for his home in Ottawa:

Terry's cabinet finished -top view with TV and cats -small.JPG

It is definitely the best furniture that I have ever made.

Top Outdoor Project: The design and construction of a flexible dock.
Because of the ice in the winter, floating docks work best at Pellow’s Island north of Hearst Ontario. Because, I most often have to get the dock into position by myself, a very important objective was that the dock should be built in interlocking parts and that I should be able to lift/drag any single part. Another objective was that it should be possible to anchor the docks over the winter so that the ice does not push them away up onto the land. Two sections are to be used at one place on the island as a swimming dock and four are to be used at another place for boats. All parts are interchangeable. Here are two photos:

Dock building 15 -A single segment is very tippy -small.JPG Dock building 20 -Two segments side-by-side are quite steady -small.JPG

The first shows that a single segment is very tippy, the second shows that two segments side by side are quite stable.

Top new Tool or Jig:

A JessEm Mite R Excel miter gauge. Here mine is in use:

K1's drawer unit -03 -Cutting small corners off the drawer fronts and backs -small.JPG

Top New/Improved Skill: I am happy with the progress I made this year in improving my skill with a scroll saw. But, it turns out that I don’t have a photo of any of my work.

New Friends: I have met many this year both on the internet and in person that are enhancing this hobby for me. There are too many people to mention by name, so I will just say thanks to all.

I thank ‘Gord in Newmarket’ for the idea for this thread. He recently launched a similar thread on the Canadian Woodworking forum (see: http://www.canadianwoodworking.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14761)
 
Without question it was the building of my daughters cradle. I worked for the railroad for the last 10 years and wanted to build a cradle that was shaped like a locomotive. I had the design in my head for years so it was an amazing accomplishment to actually build. It was also the first real project where I used hand-cut dovetails and hand-cut mortise and tennons. To say I am proud of it is a true understatement.

Here is the link to the story and pictures of this unique cradle.

Train Cradle
 
Thanks Frank. It is one thing to be complimented by others, but to be complimented by fellow woodworkers is another altogether. The truth of it is however, the project came out great because my heart was into it. That's a good thing because someone stole my heart after she was born!!

Merry Christmas Frank and everyone else.
 
Living in the northeast and having an unheated shop, my shop year is on the short side to begin with, and it was hampered further by a shoulder injury and surgery and recovery time. Nonetheless, I'd have to say I had a memorable year. I didn't crank out alot of projects but one was easily the highlight of my "career" so far, and the others were fun and challenging for the most part...plus there were just a whole lotta things going on around wwing!

Projects:
- guitar :guitar:
- tube amp :headbang:
- nightstands
- updated my router table and slid the TS fence to the right for nuther 10"

New tools:
- FT1700 router
- MW5625 router
- new JDS cannister
- got a Grr-Ripper for BD
- new Craftsman 12" BS

Misc:
- won 100 BF of wine vat white oak out of the old Widmer winery in a contest sponsored by Pioneer Millworks :congrats:
- won an 80T Leitz saw blade from Mike Jackson in a drawing
- gotta shop tip published in Wood
- got to a show in Buffalo with my good friend Tom Pritchard
- got to try a ship load of new saw blades :thumb:
 
Last edited:
I'll have to add pics later when I get to my home computer, but here's my list...

Projects:

Quilt-patterned cutting boards
Pool cue case (I need to check the date...I'm pretty sure it happened this year)
Wedding arbor (secondary in gloatworthiness to the other wedding participant)
Viking Bed
Bowls
Pens

Tools:

Grizzly 6" jointer
Shop Fox mortiser
Wilton mini-lathe
Craftsman 15" lathe (and all the tools a lathe causes you to acquire)

Skills:

Mortise and tenon construction
Learning turning
Applying a CA finish
 
Building my sons kitchen cabinets for the home we built for him would be a definate great feeling.

Being asked to do a demonstration on a lathe at the local wood expo was also cool.

Outdoor woodworking activity is always building someones dream house.

But the best highlight for me was going to Wisconsin to meet fellow woodworkers John Miliunas, Karl Laustrup and Frank Chaffee while travelling with my friend Larry Merlau and our wives.

Having a hand in a pony express delivery was cool, along with meeting a bunch of people at our local woodworking clubs in Lansing and Ann Arbor.
 
Interesting question, had to think about it for a while. Here's my two cents:

Skills:
I took intro to fine woodworking at the local community college. Cleaned up a lot of bad habits I had acquired as a self-taught woodworker - finally learned how to do mortise and tenon right. Got lots of inspiration. Next semester I'm taking hand tools.

Tools:
I discovered Festool. Plunge saw and sanders. Never gonna lug a sheet of plywood to the table saw again:thumb: :thumb: Never gonna sand in a cloud of dust again:D :D

Projects:
Lots of odds and ends for the new house this year. I guess I'm happiest with the pieces that have nice curves: the tv stand and the night stand
 

Attachments

  • TV stand.jpg
    TV stand.jpg
    65.9 KB · Views: 17
  • table.jpg
    table.jpg
    52.7 KB · Views: 18
Projects. Finished the rest of the kicthen cabinets.
Completed the Dining room table. Not too much "shop time" this year Very busy year work wise.




Tools: Upgrades Yorkcraft planer, Grizzly Jointer, And a Clearvue Cyclone.
And assorted handtools Chisels. Planes Mostly Stanley.


Skills: Handtools, And there use.And getting better at spraying finishes.
 

Attachments

  • assembled table 2 (600 x 450).jpg
    assembled table 2 (600 x 450).jpg
    48.6 KB · Views: 16
  • Cyclone2 (600 x 450).jpg
    Cyclone2 (600 x 450).jpg
    64.6 KB · Views: 17
  • Assembled.jpg
    Assembled.jpg
    66.7 KB · Views: 15
Well it's been a bad year for actually getting any WW projects done. All my spare time has either been shop improvement projects or working out some ideas for a couple of gnarly jigs.
- Got the GaShop floor epoxy painted (white). Took about 3-4 week(end)s doing it 1/2 at a time, moving stuff back and forth after waiting for cure times.
- Spent several week(end)s experimenting with jigs for putting spline slots in the ends of mitered profiles
- Started the ClearVue DC Installation. Think Tom Hanks MoneyPit movie except in my case it's the TimePit. The money part hasn't been all that bad.

Next thing I knew it was cold weather season again which aint real condusive to working long hours in the uninsulated GaShop even with the space heater. I'm going to plug away at the DC install in the hopes I can get everything completed before the spring WW season arrives and I can get some things accomplished next year.
 
Had to be my curved shelving unit, many firsts for me: bent Lamination, non-square, not structurally overbuilt, mixed woods.

Strayed away from my comfort zone and survived !! :thumb:
 

Attachments

  • P9230234 (565 x 755).jpg
    P9230234 (565 x 755).jpg
    77.2 KB · Views: 28
Not many memorable projects this year, mostly shop upgrades.
My hand tool skills improved light years. I had always wanted to work under or take instructions from one of the woodworking legends of "our"time. Last July I went to England for two weeks to take instructions from David Charlesworth. David is the most detailed woodworker I have ever encountered. I thought I knew how to sharpen chisels and planes very well. I was astounded to find out that I knew nothing. After five days of intense instructions, I will now put any of my blades up against anyone.
David is a wonderful instructer and quite a charecter. Dont even think of "that will do" with David. He will accept nothing but the best of the best.
My second week with David was working on every kind of hand cut dove tail known to mankind plus a few extras. For me this was an intense week. I am a fair home hobbyist. The other three people in the class were highly skilled craftsman with a huge amount of skill. Two of them were from the UK and the other young man was from Poland.
These three students (who I now consider good friends) bent over backwards to teach me many tricks they had learned over the years.
I can now say (with 5 months of practice under my belt) I can do a better than average job with hand cut dovetails.
I am going back to work with David in August. We are going to work on stringing and inlays. I am really looking forward to it

Brian
 
Where to start?? OK by being honest. I scoffed at this thread when I first read it. (My apologizes Frank) I read a couple of posts and got to thinking about all I did accomplish and it was a lot! Had it not be for this thread I wouldn't have thought about it.

Biggest project was the house. Can't list all the things I did on it. Would take to long. But my favorite project was the Dining Room. Tons of work went into it. Building all the trim, the beams and tapered columns.
100_4021.jpg

Built my Garage doors and the openers for the house.
doors.jpg

Then there was my shop. Basically built it up from a storage room/staging area for the house construction.

Restored 4 of the old machines I found. In order, the DeWalt RAS, Lazarus the Unisaw, the Powermatic Planer and then the Shaper.

after4.jpg in_place.jpg almost_done2.jpg day6_01.jpg

Dang, no wonder I am so tired!:doh:
 
My longest project this year was getting the cyclone finished..at least to where I can use it on my TS. The 4" flex is backordered through the first of Jan. now to hook up the BS.
The most exciting thing was getting the electricity turned on in the shop! It has made such a difference. Of course, without the electricity, the cyclone would still just be sitting there, naked and motionless.:D
Hopefully this time next year I can reflect and be grateful of the shop fixtures I've been able to get finished so that I can actually start doing projects again. Jim.
 
my "woodworking highlites" although not fine woodworking where helpin` marty-n-denise for a coupla days and like stu helping set this forum up. tod
 
Okay, what is going on here :) There are ten guys that came up with the idea to create this woodworking forum and not one of them mentioned FaWW as one of their accomplishments? What gives? :)

This is a great place to discuss and learn about woodworking. Heck its even an addiction for some of us (as the last few days proved to me anyway) ;-)

Perhaps this forum is not a skill or tool, but I will be darned if this place is not a project. (Just as Marty!!) Don't cut yourselves short there FaWW founders. This is a great woodworking project and its something that hundreds of us fellow woodworkers can use to promote our skills, projects and tools.

Thanks again for getting this forum up and running!!
 
Todd & Stu, Vaughn & Marty, (And all other's involved) I think I can say for most of us here. Were all thankful you did. Thanks again for all your hard work in setting this site up.:bow:
 
Top