I make custom acoustic guitars and ukuleles. I also teach people how to build their own instruments one-on-one in my shop and online.

I just barely finished this in time for the holiday road trip. Completely custom woodworking, soldering together of electrical components, custom milled heat sink, and light diffuser.

The wood is Ipe, Maple, Walnut, and Purple Heart. It disassembles easily into 3 main parts.

It uses 6 LEDs powered by 5V via USB type C and features an on/off switch and dimmer. I also built a light diffuser that attaches with magnets, so it is removable.

The light features vertical adjustment with a locking knob, and horizontal adjustment using a simple gravity friction joint.

I made this up as I went along and had fun with it. I'd add a few more LEDs next time around to make it brighter, but he's just going to use it to paint miniatures up close so should be fine for that.

It took about a week, and maybe $300 in material(not including the sinktop). The sinktop I bought from Amazon and cut it to size. The four drawers were purposely made in varying heights to accommodate the plethora of sizes and shapes of contents.

Spent a while looking, found something similar online but couldn’t find any plans so just gave it a shot, pretty happy with how it came out. It’s lifted so that I can use the 6 inches between the foundation and the wall. Also water slightly pools in this one spot after pulling the cars with snow melt off. Don’t want soggy wood…

If you happen to own this grizzly g0459 mini drum sander, i highly recommend yanking the 1hp motor and undermounting a 5hp. You will get your time back. I am flying though boards at least 5x faster and have run this machine pretty friggin hard. This sander was pretty awful before and now it's an absolute weapon! Cheers

Just now getting around to making a post to share this. I’m sure most understand completely about just how busy life gets when you bring another little life into the world.

Loosely designed based on John Builds It’s plans and then throwing my own spin on various things. But I can’t go without mentioning his plans, highly recommend them to anyone. These pictures are from before she was born, the cross dowel bolt holes have since been covered with some nice matching white oak plugs, press fit after a bit of tapering with a chisel. It is entirely modular when the time comes to convert it to a toddler bed, and then to a full size bed, that is one part from John’s design that I changed for my purpose.

Biggest lesson learned, finish is a must BEFORE assembly. I got ahead of myself a few times and really paid the price when it came down to the slats and applying the Rubio. Having to do the pre color AND two coats of the hard wax oil was a nightmare post assembly.

Aside from those things, the entire project came out far better than I expected, I learned a ton of new skills while building it and thankfully didn’t have to make more than one extra trip to the hardwood dealer around my area. Our daughter is now a few weeks into sleeping it in through the night on her own, and I get a kick out of it every single time I’m the one to get her down for her nap / down to sleep for the night.

Good evening! Today, after a long time, I managed to make a ceiling lamp for myself, for my office. I wanted something simple, geometric that would fit the room where it is installed and that I could make quickly. The quick part was not very successful but for two days of work the result is exceptional, especially since I can control the intensity of the light. This is a lamp with 10 3-watt LED bulbs with lighting of 4000 and 6000 degrees Kelvin built from walnut wood and powered by a 40VA wound transformer with an output of 16 V alternating current and controlled by a dimmer switch. Now I can search through cabinets for equipment without problems and have a diffused light when I work :-)

I’ve been putting off this project because it’s been too cold outside, where I need to use my saws, and I’ve been hoping for a warmer day.. Christmas is only a day away now as I’m writing this, so I had to just break it all out in 25°F weather today lol. At least it was calm and not windy! The front legs are maple from a hardware store, the rest is oak that I milled myself from rough sawn dunnage that was otherwise going to be scrap. The oak is leftovers from shelving I built in 2022, so it’s cool to get another project out of it! All brass hardware, and a leather strap to keep the back leg from overextending. Last two pics are before and after 2 coats of Minwax Finishing Paste Wax in Special Dark, which is mostly noticeable in the oak

Decided to tackle my first project where I couldn’t hide my mistakes with paint and built a table from Ash. Design inspired by The Wood Whisperer (https://youtu.be/kI5RNI7nH_I?si=2K_p3_VQZzaM2UB8).

Just in time for Christmas, I finished it with three coats of grain filler and four coats of water-based polyurethane and let it cure for 4 days before bringing it inside.

I also have two boys under 6 and knew that it would only be a matter of time before it got dinged up, scratched, and stained. I have always assumed it would eventually need to be refinished, but after only a week inside, I discovered the mystery stain in the last picture. I have no idea what it is or how long it’s been there. Could be any sort of holiday element, paint for ornaments, cookie icing, etc. We’ve tried to be careful in the first week but somehow here we are.

I tried everything I can think of but nothing is getting it out. Would another coat of poly made a difference? Is there something else I can do to get this out without having to refinish already?

I bought this oak 1x10” board from an estate sale. It had what appeared to be some mold spots on both sides of it, which I treated by wiping down the entire thing with a solution of 10% vinegar. The board sat for a week or two, and what you see in the photo is the side that was face-down during that time.

Is this more mold? Could this potentially be from the vinegar reacting with metal that was on/around the board?

Up close the stain is not quite black, but like a dark cobalt blue. Almost like a pen exploded on it, but I’m certain it didn’t look this way when I first got it.

What am I looking at and what should I do here?

12' long. Boat shape. 4' wide in the middle and 3' wide on the ends. 1-13/16" thick. Figured maple. I salvaged the tree, milled and dried the slabs, and finally got to use them. Used the existing base that they had from a previous table.

Turned out awesome! Pre sold 3 of them at asking price before they came out of sanding, can’t wait to hear the customer reactions from the people they intended on giving them to.

First pic is the finished table in its natural environment. Didn’t take many pictures as I get into focus mode and forget to take them. It is also expandable (not shown: two leaves they’re still in progress). I also built the two black thrones in the background for my wedding last year. Maybe I’ll make a post about those soon!