Matt’s Weekly Shop Update – Oct 26, 2018

Viewer Projects

Card Box by Jacob

This is a card box that I made for the upcoming wedding of a couple of friends in Vermont. It was made from rough-sawn tapped maple sourced from New England maple trees which had been tapped for maple syrup. I milled all of the boards down and filled the tap holes with black tinted epoxy. I assembled the box using beveled miters reinforced with walnut splines and a rabbeted bottom, all of which required a ridiculous Spagnuolo-style clamping job. I pattern routed the outer edge of the heart on the front face and hand carved the relief on the inside, and also added a chamfer on the lid seam. Very fun project that had to be completed in my spare time over the course of a week.

Jewelry Box by Matt

It is a white oak and mahogany jewellery box that I made for my girlfriend as a Christmas present. I was rather late starting it so I had three weeks start to finish to complete the thing. That was particularly ambitious as this was my first jewellery box, first inlaid dovetails, first mitered and splined corners, first time doing any cove work and any type of carving remotely like it! And to top it all I had to deal with a table saw that spontaneously combusted on me which explains some of the unorthodox procedures I had to do in the build.

I’ve an overview video up on my channel (That Special Kind of Stupid)

as well as a video explaining how I cut the dovetails

Mirror Frame by Scott

Years ago we used to have a full length mirror on the wall of our bedroom, that is until my oldest daughter knocked it off the wall and broke the super robust cheap plastic frame around it.

Now that it’s years later, I can finally get around to fixing that problem and also use up some extra ash stock that’s been chilling in the shop without a project in mind.

https://www.simplecove.com/932/mirror-frame/

Coffee Table by Bear

This project was my first attempt to make something with actual joinery instead of nails and/or screws; it’s all put together with mortise and tenons. The Eastern Red Cedar was a pleasure to work with, and in my opinion, it’s stunningly beautiful wood too. I’ll definitely be making more trips into the woods at my parents for more in the future! That said, my next project is going to be a black walnut computer desk.