Author Archives: Patrick
Legs shaped, sides assembled and Ouch!
Construction Begins… In between trips to the zoo, the Children’s Museum and backyard “play dates” with the kids, I’ve logged some decent shop time on this project the past couple weekends. Last weekend I dimensioned the lumber and assembled the two cherry and walnut frame-and-panel sides. Due to a misaligned rip fence, I wound up … Continue reading
My New Big Honkin’ Machine
I love craigslist. Around the same time I begain the planning for my new shop, I started using “igoogle” for my browser homepage. I also discovered a couple cool “craigslist” widgets for igoogle that display search results for preconfigured searches on your homepage. So, for example, if I’m considering the purchase of, say, a new … Continue reading
Designing A New Dresser for Our New Son
A few months back, we learned that we were expecting our third child. My wife, the youngest of five kids, is adamant that this child have their very own crib and dresser. Who am I to argue? A couple weeks ago we learned it was a boy – so, I set off to design and … Continue reading
Rose Inlaid Toddler Step
Just after our second child, Sean, was born, my parents came out for a visit. While they were here, my mother mentioned that she was planning to purchase a toddler step for my niece, Samantha. Apparently this has become something of a tradition for her. I promptly nixed that idea, insisting that I build one … Continue reading
Simply Done
I had higher hopes for the finished room — some custom cabinetry and perhaps some painted details — but in the end, I settled for “neat, organized and finished.” On a friend’s suggestion I hacked off the lower two cabinets from an old built-in desk unit that was in the basement (and before that in … Continue reading
A Fresh Coat of Many Colors (of Paint)
This past weekend, Mother’s Day weekend, I gave my wife what every mother wants: a silver “mother and family” necklace and a freshly-painted garage! Mixology Originally I was planning on heading out to HD and buying a gallon or so of “oops” paint (ya know, the stuff that they mix by mistake and sell dirt … Continue reading
Garage Remodel
Now that the shop is pretty much complete and the weather’s turned a bit more spring-like, I’ve decided to tackle the garage. Since I no longer need it for woodworking, save the odd large-piece assembly, we’re going to revert the space back to a more traditional use: car, bike and outdoor-kid-toy-storage. In addition, we’ll be … Continue reading
Shop Air, and Sheet Goods Get A Home
My original design for the shop included multiple compressed air outlets scattered about the shop. At the heart of this system would be a 60gal Ingersol-Rand 2-stage compressor providing at least 15 SCFM@tenonandspline.com90psi. Now months later, I’ve significantly revised and downgraded my plans. Part of it was financial, but most of it was a realization … Continue reading
An Hour Here, a Half-Hour There and a Few Saturday Mornings
Over the past month I found very little contiguous time to make progress on the shop setup. Consequently I never felt like I had made significant enough progress in any given week to warrant a new post. While I’m still quite some distance from the finish line, I finally feel like I can actually say, … Continue reading
Hacking the Delta 50-875
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.) After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw — about 2/3rd’s of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front … Continue reading