Author: E.J.

The eastern sunrise climbs over the houses across the street and beams upon our the front of our house. The living things to enjoy this are the ugly bushes and giant bed of weeds under our front windows. I had always planned on redoing that garden bed and this spring seemed like the perfect time.

My wife and I found ourselves often sitting in the sun on a few yard chairs in front of the weeds. It was the perfect place to start a morning in the spring, when the sun is a welcome visitor to morning tea-time. After some discussion, we decided to put a permanent patio in the front to enjoy that sunshine a bit more.

First, I cleared all the weeds and pulled up the massive roots of the bushes.

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Then, the digging and flattening began. I set out markers for the patio itself.

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I then dug out the area slightly to accommodate the paver sand, and conveniently placed this dirt in the surrounding areas that would become the garden beds.

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Then the pavers arrived, and I started laying them out it a somewhat random pattern.

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A little finishing polymeric sand, and everything was coming together nicely.

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We added some rocking aiderondack chairs and soon we had the perfect morning hangout spot.

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I set out the garden bed and did my usual layers of newspaper to kill the weeds, then covered in mulch. A few baby perennials where put into place and it became quite the cute little spot.

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Some time ago, my wife had pulled an old record-console from the alley. It was completely wobbly and falling apart, and the finish was a bright obnoxious orange color. We tolerated it for quite some time as it some-what matched our bright-orange suite-case style record player. However, we have since acquired a new record-player and wanted to refinish the console to better match the player and the room.

So, I stripped down the pieces and sanded each one. I had to repair some of the parts as they had cracked and torn. I re-stained the pieces as well and after the stain dried, I covered them with amber shellac to give it a nice glow. The finish took better to the inner surfaces. The outer surfaces still clung to some of the old orange-ish color. I was trying not to over-sand the show-sides, and perhaps I didn’t sand enough. In the end, it still looks better, and the re-building of the console will ensure it stands straight and last another 50 years or so.

Another cold winter in Minnesota and my workshop is unfortunately in an external garage with little heating capability. So, much like the previous year, I was unable to do much woodworking over the freezing months of winter. However, I did manage to finish a couple small projects during the few days where it was tolerable to be in the workshop.

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Holdfast Clamps

The first project was finishing a set of holdfast clamps. I got the design from Paoson’s Woodworking YouTube channel and website. I highly recommend checking it out, he has some great well-designed projects. These set of holdfast clamps work perfect in my custom dog-holes on my homemade workbench. They hold boards tightly to the bench for cutting and planing.

The clamps are made with a 3/4″ solid steel rod that I painstakingly cut with a hacksaw and smoothed with sandpaper. The top is red-oak with a gently curve and the bottom fastener is also red oak. The mechanism is a bit complex and I’ll refer you to Paoson’s website to check out the details.

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Phone Holder

As a quick side project, I created a phone holder for a friend of mine. He often uses his phone for video during our gaming sessions and has been propping it up on various objects on his desk over the past year, never getting the angle quite right, or it’d fall out of place with a slight bump. I made this simple holder for him out of spare poplar scraps and special strips of black walnut for that added detail. The mechanism is simple and the finish is amber shellac, left a bit tacky to help grip his phone on the holder.

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Wall Emblem

I also threw together a beautiful emblem for my wall. It show-cases the natural beauty of three woods: walnut, poplar, and red oak. I love how the natural wavy lines in the red oak creates a hazy sun, and the straight walnut bestows a mountain’s sturdiness.

As the cold weather looms and access to my workshop becomes more limited, there were a few more projects I needed to finish. My wife and I had been working on organizing and cleaning out basement. Since we moved into our home four years ago, various amounts of junk and empty cardboard boxes had begun to accumulate in the forgotten corners of our basement. We went in and cleaned everything out and wanted to make a more intuitive storage space. Part of that solution included some simple storage racks, a pantry, and shelf.

Storage Racks

A built a new storage rack to hold plastic totes. The joinery provides strong support. The wood was mostly old 2×4 construction lumber and various other extra pieces I had lying around, like cedar planks from my fence, long strips of OSB, and long pine boards.

If you compare the construction of the new storage rack to the one I built in Nov 2018, it’s quite different.

While the old rack still holds things, its a bit wobbly and doesn’t handle shearing forces well. It was one of the first things I built before I started my woodworking journey. It was after that project I knew there was a lot more I needed to learn about woodworking, and over that winter I started watching lots of videos and reading lots of articles about woodworking, so that by Spring 2019, I was ready to start my journey.

It’s amazing to see how far I have come.

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Electronic Racks

I made two small holding caddies for our home router and fiber-optics routing box. It’s nice to have these up and out of the way, and all their cable neatly together.

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Pantry and Shelf

On the other side of our basement, in our “laundry” room / pantry. We had a large wire rack for storing our pantry overflow items. It was a poor solution, as small glass bottles had trouble staying on the rack and it was an ugly sight seeing all the items haphazardly on the shelves. To solve this, I built a large pantry with doors to hide the food items and shelves below for larger items.

Additionally, I added a mini-shelf to make cans and smaller items easier to see.

The final piece was a large basic shelf-cabinet for storing sodas, beers, and other treats.

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Lightning

I also updated the lightning in the storage room with the same LED lights I put in my workshop. Now I have a bright workspace if I ever want to take a project inside. Perfect for the winter!

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I took some time off from woodworking after building the large bookcase. I need to step away and not have a massive project lingering over my head for a few months. It was nice to spend my weekends working on music again.

However, as the weather begins to cool again, I’ve gravitated back to the shop and put together a few garden projects.

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Side-Garden Trellis

I loved the first garden trellis so much, I decided to add another, smaller one at the entrance to our side garden. What my wife refers to as the “secret garden”. The support and arches were built the same as the larger garden trellis. However, I added a more decorative crosshatch for the sides.

I also built a new door mechanism using a steel rod and chunks of spare cedar. It is far easier to open and close than the metallic ones.

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Garden Fence

I also through together a quick garden fence with spare wood. It’s mostly just to define the space and keep the dog out. If I start seeing rabbits in there, I’ll probably put back the chicken-wire and attach it to the back of the wooden fence.

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Garden Obelisk

The final easy project was a garden obelisk. It was thrown together with spare lumber. The top is a piece that intended for our kitchen redesign that we decide not to use. Its the perfect spot for a globe-shaped finial.

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