Just kidding. We all know I’m just going to fill the new empty space with more scraps. I’ll be shuffling around piles of scraps forever.

I’ve been tripping over this OSB for more than a year and I was tired of moving it around but couldn’t justify throwing away two full sheets of it. Figured I’d chop it up and make something out of it to get it out of my way. I didn’t anticipate these turning out so well. I regret using OSB because it was a massive pain in the ass to paint the details on. (Yeah, I know I could have skimmed the surface but that’s too much work for “trash decorations”.)

If I could do it over again I would have used the good plywood to make these. Oh well. What’s done is done. They turned out pretty cool and I spent nothing on supplies (besides the can of poly to clear coat them with). They should last at least a few years.

I ransacked my mountain of hoarded little offcuts to make the brackets to hang them on the fence.

I used a projector to trace the outlines on the sheets of wood. Highly recommend getting one off marketplace or something if you want to make similar decorations but aren’t great at drawing.

It’s kinda wonky, but I’m proud of it. And my kid loved helping me stain it.

ETA: thanks for the heads up on the L brackets, everyone! I plan on going back and adding more. But I had run out and had too many beverages to go back to the hardware store last night

First time doing dremel carving and scorching. Also lined the inside with some sticky back velvet. What do we think?

The angle brackets were installed as support for the overhang, but when I went to slap it and say “yep that’ll hold” it really wanted to tip so I repurposed as feet instead. Now I have somewhere to put my kitchen aid and bread maker. Need to figure out how I’m going to finish the body of it, probably just paint.

Looking to remake this table i made a few years ago to a better quality..what would be a good way to join 3 top pieces to frame

Any other adjustments/improvements would be useful

I'm trying to replace a couple rotting treads on our front porch the wood is 1½ shouldn't this 3/4 roundover ran on both sides create a full bullnose?

From paper, to real life. Edition #1 in the collection. Just completed this! Feel free to rip me apart

Cheapo kit from Woodcraft on sale for $5 this summer.
And I got a box of black walnut strips on Facebook. 16 pieces for like $40 shipped!
Finish is Odie’s Oil which I had on hand.
So this costs about $10 total.

But I mean… that black walnut is insane. I don’t like the cut walnut smell but the finished piece is a beauty. My first time with it.

It’s about 95" x 59", built from pine. The play area is a 4' x 7' recess, 2.5" deep, with a 1/2" maple ply bottom sitting on flat slats, and a black play mat on top. Outer frame is 2x4s.

All photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/t6DLseVpHz5dZxgj7

65 hours total, $610 in wood, hardware, and consumables:

- Design, wood sourcing, experiments and buying lumber: 7h

- Frame, legs, brackets, rails, aprons and joinery: 34h 45m

- Play area, slats, cup holders, plugs and details: 8h 25m

- Sanding: 8h 35m

- Finishing coats: 5h 35m

Thanks to this thread for all the ideas and answers.

Jumped into it and made some happy mistakes. Looking forward to getting everything organized and starting a project. First image is of the workstation I used to make this one.

Hey,

I got a fresh branch of black locust. It’s 15 cm in diameter and 2 Meters long.

Online resources say that it warps a lot while drying and that it becomes extremely hard when dry. What should I do?

I started working with wood this year and mostly little artsy projects like whittling a bird so this is new for me. I‘m up for the challenge though.

Project ideas I have are a new grip for my folding knife (I guess it should be dry for that?), searching for someone who can show me how to turn wood and making a spinning top, or making a clothing rack. I don’t know how to cut such a long piece lengthwise for the last idea. I can’t move it because it’s large and heavy and I don’t have a car.

I highly recommend signing up for in-person woodworking classes.

I took a hand-tool class earlier this year at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Western WA, and we built a three shelf bookcase out to black cherry. The general dimensions were fixed and set by the instructors, but part of the class was talking about furniture design and they let us have free rein over the curves and profiles.

Aside from the dimensioning and rough cutouts for the curves on the bandsaw, everything was done by hand.

Dados were cut with a backsaw, chisel, and router plane. Curves were refined with spokeshaves. Shiplap was cut with a skew rabbet plane, beads were cut with an antique molding plane. And all the finishing was done with a smoothing plane/card scraper.

The class was 5 days long and we used all of the time to get these built. I did the final edge profiling and finishing back at home.

Also, black cherry is photo-reactive, and over the past couple of months it is really starting to get this rich, vibrant tone to it (last pic). It’s gorgeous.

I’m just curious since I’m left-handed and my lathe does have forward and reverse. Could I turn my lathe around and run it in reverse?
Or would that be too much stress on the motor is the reverse basically just for sanding? Even now when I’m finishing the bottom of a bowl, I will run it in reverse, but I do stand in front of the lathe and reach across It just feels right.

Felt a little inspired so I made some dice boxes for me and some friends. Learned to cut and dye leather just for this project and boy am I hooked.

Tools available that I have: Circular saw, Miter saw, Cordless jig saw, multiple different hand saws and dovetail saws. Total number of notches to cut = 36.

We just moved to a new property and I was wanting to set up a small portion of our garage as a workshop. I just bought some Bora wall-mounted lumber racks that I was going to attach to the wall, but after doing some research it seems this isn't the wisest idea.

Being a pole building, the horizontal beams holding the siding (girts) are really only designed for wind loads and siding. They also might only be attached with nails, not screws. Mounting a lumber rack would create a moment arm, potentially pushing outward on some of the girts, which is the opposite of their design intent. And lumber can get heavy quickly, creating a large force on the girts.

So... what other options do I have, aside from a free-standing rack or shelf in such a situation? Anyone else working in a pole building with a good solution for organizing lumber?

tl:dr / Built a test bench before tackling a coffee table build. It will probably fail due to weight, bad weather on the balcony, or improper joinery techniques.

I plan to build the Four Eyes Furniture "Spider Coffee Table" soon, so I thought it would be a good idea to test some of the joinery and building techniques on a prototype first. I built this bench using Douglas fir, and a local community workshop helped me by jointing and planing the rough lumber to final thickness. Cutting the Swiss edge was a bit easier than on the actual coffee table design because I could process each slat individually using a miter saw and table saw. For the legs, I built a crosscut sled for my table saw, which was an absolute game changer. After half-shaping the legs, I used a router to cut the slots for a miter joint reinforced with maple splines. The individual seat slats and the legs were attached internally with Dominos, while the main frame connection was made using four large custom loose tenons that I routed and inset into both the top and bottom.

I was honestly a bit concerned about structural stability — especially since I’m not a light guy — but it turned out rock solid with zero wobble. My main concern moving forward is wood movement: I suspect the top slats might eventually split or pull apart at the joints over time. As for the legs, I’m actually quite optimistic that they will hold the weight. Overall, it was a great test piece to see how the geometry and joinery behave before starting the main build in hardwood.

Would be happy to hear your thoughts on stability and where you think it will fail :)

Aaaaaand please don't kill me! I still consider myself a beginner since I only started woodworking 10 months ago, so this subreddit felt like the right place to post this — especially since it's just a test piece

Recently tried my hand at making my first cabinet ever. Its pretty crazy and my eye for measurements is like my eyes for food. Way too grand lol! While it came out bigger than expected im pretty happy with it. Its 42" tall by 43" wide by 26" deep. Its got a pull out printer slide and plenty of storage space for our office. I cant help but feel its like a big monolith, besides decorations on the top, any ideas what I can do to polish it up? I can't help but be hard on myself. Some issues I had were plywood splintering a lot even with a brand new blade. Learned to use tape there to make them better but one big thing I split the bottom when I applied the rubber feet. Maybe I should of attached toe kick separate and made it with solid wood rather than plywood?

Hubris to think I could do a hexagon as my third attempt at a box/tray. (For avoidance of doubt the finished product is nowhere near a hexagon.)

I have all my fingers, and I will continue wearing my PPE forever.

I was cutting down a 4.5” piece of 2x4, and the wood kicked and it sounded like a gunshot. This is the aftermath.

It’s because it’s too short, I think, but I’m trying to make sure I REALLY learn how to never have this happen again. How could I have prevented this/prevent it in the future? And what do I need to check on my saw before using it again (besides the fence…)?

I’ve been making a lot more projects that require turning, and I’ve joined a small community shop that could use a lathe. Was wondering if there were any red flags with this one? I found it for dirt cheap ($250) on Marketplace. Not sure what to ask