Ever want one of those wooden American flags? Why not make one yourself? That's what I'm doing and I'd like to share the process with your in EXCRUCIATING detail. So, I apologize in advance for the severe detail. It's rather severe. Step 1: Do the union first (the part with the stars). See, that was a pretty easy step. Now, let's break it down. Step 1a: Start with a big block of wood. This is a piece of maple from CPJohnson Lumber in Culpeper, Va. It started off as a 12

It has been an action-packed day! We went to the farmer's market, church, out to dinner, and somehow managed to squeeze in a couple of very productive hours in the workshop. Finishing up the first aid kit was pretty quick. There was still a slight bit of tackiness from the Danish Oil that I applied last night, so did some buffing with a rag to get all of that off. You want to get any excess finish off of the surface before it completely dries. After buffing the finish, I r

Just a quick update on the first aid box. I cut the hinge mortises today. This took longer than it probably could have, as I decided to cut the mortises without using the router. I then decided to use the router for the second half which went much more quickly. Here's a photo of the first set on the box. Here's the second set on the door. After fitting everything together, I took it all apart again to get ready for finishing. While doing this, I broke off one of the hing

It's about time for an update on the first aid kit I've been working on for the past few days. Sorry if it's a long post, but I'm still learning and practicing my craft and I have a few tips I'd like to share. As a reminder, this is a wall-mounted (via French cleat) box made of 3/4-inch red oak and maple. It's about 19.25 inches tall, 11.75 inches wide and 6.25 inches deep. I built the outer frame using dovetail joints and assembled it yesterday. Here's a close-up of one

I'm working my my next little shop project: a first aid kit to keep by the door. I currently have a small store-bought first aid kit, but every wood shop with a bunch of dangerous equipment probably needs a true trauma kit with a tourniquet, some quick-klot and plenty of band-aids. Here's a description of the basic design (no visual plans on this one -- it's all in my brain). It's basically a four-sided box that's 19.25 inches tall by 11.75 inches wide and 5.5 inches deep.

I finished up the desk for my sister-in-law this evening. I had a couple of setbacks this afternoon, but it is often said in woodworking that it's not how you mess up, but how you go about covering up your mistakes. The top connection for the sliding lid support outsmarted me today. I checked the new hardware with the old hardware and they appeared to be pretty close to the same dimensions. I proceeded to use the existing hole to mount the top support of the arm. Well, it

My sister-in-law has this antique secretary desk that needs some work. Who ya gonna call? Fred. The flip-down front cover serves as a writing surface -- in theory. In its previous state, the flip-down front cover is a floppy, noodly mess. One of the main reasons is that the hinge point on one side was badly cracked. It was a DEEP crack and it appears to have happened a long time ago. When you have a crack in wood, it's best to repair it right away while the wood will st