Obviously, quitting when I confidently know every aspect of residential construction is something to digest over time. I can’t shake the craftsman that is my inherited ability. I will always be a woodworker. …just not for you.

With the table stronger than ever and returned, I started on a quick bed post repair which I truly enjoyed. It didn’t take long to turn this project around. I used a lathe to create a new pin in an old mahogany finial.

The gallery of photos shows how I step by step fixed a broken dowel which was part of the original turned finial.

• I cut off the broken peg flush with the finial base and also removed the end broken off in the bed post.

• Using a block of walnut stock – (Sorry, I know it’s a mahogany bed but walnut was on hand) I turned a blank peg larger than the 3/4″ peg diameter.

• Into the new peg blank, about 1″ thick, I cut down a length to the 3/4″ thickness and chopped off my replacement dowel.

• I inserted the 3/4″ end with glue into the finial.

• Centering the old finial, whose chuck marks easily aligned on the lathe, I spun the whole assembly.

• Cutting the peg to 3/4″ while spinning, allowed for a precisely centered peg.

“We need new tiles in our bathroom. When we shower, water leaks through the floor.”

This past winter I arrived at two separate homes to find very similar situations. Both are old homes with very nice original tiles installed on thick mortar backing. Though anything is possible, the repair budget for these middle class homes likely wouldn’t afford same-quality replacement work.

Since my forté is restoration, and in both situations there was no structural damage to the wood behind, I opted to restore the original work instead of replace it. In both bathrooms, layer upon layer of caulking, upon layer of disgusting old caulk combined with crumbling grout made these showers look gross but seeing beyond the layers of silicon and stained grout lines to tiles that were still in great condition I chose restoration of the original. I love the old basket-weave tile floor and appreciate the style of the old work. (Sometimes not so much a fan of the colors…)

It’s fairly labor intensive to remove all the grout and decades of caulk but in the end the bathrooms do look freshly restored and the homeowners are shocked at the transformation.

I currently use HostGator to power my sites big and small. I have years of experience creating sites with Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and WPMU… and all that goes with that; hosting, designing, building, supporting and updating. I still hold more than 50 domain names and host at least a dozen websites.

I prefer the CPanel backend on Hostgator’s Shared Hosting plans and … well, their customer service has been very patient when I missed a payment and has provided non-stop, no hassle service. The initial reason I switched back to Hostgator.com was for the wildcard DNS thingy needed to create subdomains through WPMU so each site when added would get it’s own subdomain not sub-folder. Hahah, here’s the ad. In case you want to use them too. _WKP

With the doors assembled they needed a place to hang and I found just the piece to build in my copy of Antique Country Furniture of North America and Details of Its Construction, The Pennsylvania German Hanging Cupboard.

In addition to sharing some of my work on WoodDance.com and hosting an archive of tools on ToolboxBlog.com, last year I created a website dedicated to projects from reclaimed and recycled materials, ReclaimedRecycled.com.

I start a recycled wood project with rough boards that I’ve stacked on shelves over the decades. In the photograph is 5/4 mahogany from a Frank Lloyd Wright original home. I begin by extracting nails and other embedded metal, then thickness plane the old finish off. These mahogany pieces are 50 years old and have several layers of varying finish. Some chestnut I recycled from a 1600′s home was covered in urea-formaldehyde foam insulation.

With my parts list roughed out from the reclaimed wood, I begin to build a place to hang these raised-panel doors I started 10 years ago. There is no more appealing a project than one involving such beautiful and easy to work materials as this recycled FLW mahogany. Reclaimed wood has a bounty of marks telling it’s age and imparting it’s history.

The Pennsylvania German Hanging Cupboard required doors almost the exact dimension as the ones I built and styled the same; beveled panels with flat rails and stiles, my personal favorite. I finished the mahogany with Amber Shellac. Still missing replica hinges, turned knobs and the latches on order, I hung the cabinet in my kitchen.

From the same Reclaimed and Recycled wood, I cut a matching shelf with some custom corbels of similar design. The glowing brilliance of this recycled-mahogany cupboard accents a board that my great-grandmother painted with sunflowers over 100 years ago.

Giving new purpose to such significant reclaimed wood in creating this replica of early American antique has been deeply satisfying. The piece is exquisite albeit simple and un-Wright.

Check out a few other recycled wood projects at ReclaimedRecycled.com.

After a scheduled visit to the home, we agreed to the following:

• Build large shelf for Television, add 1/4″ backing to create TV compartment.
• Divide lower section equally and build two raised-panel doors to fit new openings.
• Build two A/V component shelf units, (1) per side: approx 24″ wide x 20″ deep. (Adjustable)
• Add an open shelf above TV to create ‘built-in’ look and utility.

The brunt of the work for me was prepping the poplar boards and 4′x8′ sheets of birch plywood with oil-based primer and coats of finish paint. The oil-based painting took far more time than estimated and the increased drying time was lengthy.

To the house, I delivered two new lower cabinets with adjustable shelving. The units and shelves, like all other parts, arrived with 3 coats of enamel. I also brought the one large shelf, one smaller shelf with 2″ edging, some 1/4″ backing, pre-painted nailers and a single mullion to complete the cabinet modifications, which took about 4 hours in-house.

I had to order a large cove profile raised-panel router bit from Amazon (overnight) to match the atypical 1 3/4″ raised-panels. With the new doors completed about a week later, pre-drilling for cup hinges made for a 5-minute install.

“Hey Kim..WE LOVE IT!!! It looks wonderful and Chuck thought so, too.”

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Inspiration for multiple handmade gifts came after turning two garden tool handles. Using salvaged cherry and maple flooring I glued up some blocks for turning on the lathe. Surprisingly, with one exception, these are the first handles I’ve ever turned.

I liked the idea of giving a gift made with love for a specific person and to keep the theme I picked up a few more kits. The ice cream scoop uses the same Cherry and Padauk combo I used on the garden fork handle. The coffee scoop and knife handle are made from Cocobolo.

My daughter seems to luck out with the neatest projects and this year I was excited to present her with something very close to what she asked for. My instructions were to make a wood plaque of the Abbey Road album cover with The Beatles above and that’s pretty much what I did, after finding a metal reproduction of the very album.

Using two pieces of reclaimed wood from a Frank Lloyd Wright house I roughed out the entire cut list. I downloaded the right font, printed “The Beatles” and transferred the letters to a slice of the mahogany. (later downloaded the Apple Corps logo to ensure it’s true shape.)

I cut out the letters first then made the picture frame and drawers. For this project I only had to purchase flocking and an 1/8″ band saw blade. I looked for little round rock buttons at music stores to use for drawer pulls but ended up using two large square Beatles pins.

This Beatles Abbey Road shelf is made from 1950 mahogany coated with Waterlox and Bartley gel varnish. The drawer interiors are coated with wine color Suede-Tex flocking fibers which really compliment my little wood projects nicely.

I was going to make the drawers big enough to hold The Beatles Mono Box Set that I got her but it is what it is. I hope you enjoy my sharing it online.

I’ve got an idea! I went online and grabbed an image of a crab that I liked the style of then printed it out the right size for this project and taped it to a piece of the 1950′s siding I had prepped. I cut away the design and marked the edges, transferring the image to the wood. When it was marked, I cut out the crab on the band saw.

With crab cut, I ripped a length of 1/2″ x 1/2″, hand planed it smooth then cut it into two 12″ pieces. After sanding, I made marks 1.5″ apart and drilled 1/4″ holes for the dowel I made. A spot of dark wood glue in each hole, a mallet to knock in the 1.75″ pegs and a quick handmade peg from some denser hardwood to join the two sides.

Here are some images of the project coming together.

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Sometimes my work is so much a part of my life I literally live with it. Here is a picture of a chunk of floor I removed from a Frank Lloyd Wright house that I kept due to it’s ill nature. Too bad a piece of the original subfloor didn’t come up with it. Tomato, accounting and subfloor??

I am starting a new project that I hope to share online soon. I’ll be making a dozen windows that match this awning window leaning against my kitchen cabinets. Say Hello to Lana our beautiful yellow Lab.

I was going to title this “The Liberty Cabinets” because my client ripped a page out of a magazine and said: “I want something like this, I trust your sense of style so get to work and make me something nice.” but then I noticed there is a cabinet shop with that title …so welcome to my generic: “Bookshelves around a Fireplace” job.

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Freedom of design, materials, schedule… methods… wow! Sometimes being a carpenter is a dream job for those of us that enjoy the work.
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I started with some measurements of the space and a meeting with the client to go over exactly what she hoped to accomplish and some details of construction. > Built-in cabinets consisting of Adjustable Bookshelves with Deeper cabinets below and a new mantle, everything to be painted white.

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While I was building the cabinets at my shop, I scheduled a plumber to cut the existing baseboard heater shy of the new cabinet location. It took a day to collect the various trim for my idea and another two days to machine and assemble things before I could start the installation.

One of my options was how to make the shelves for a 40″ and 45″ cabinet. Experience shows that 3/4″ shelves just won’t hold up when spanning 42″ without middle support. The client didn’t want a divider in the middle of the bookshelves, Thicker shelves or a built-up edge?

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I chose to rip some poplar to 1 5/16″ for a shelf edge and then applied a nose-and-cove molding. Since the shelves are only 10″ we’ll see if this holds up to the weight of books over time. If not I can laminate 1/2″ to the bottoms in the future since I have the thick shelf edge to hide it.

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Today, a week later, the job is painted, the paint is dry and I’m guessing the shelves are being filled. In lieu of making the custom size raised-panel doors, I ordered them and they should arrive next week.

Since building these cabinets, I have heard nothing but praise for providing something this client has dreamt about having for years. “It completes the room and makes it feel much bigger and brighter. I love the cabinets!”

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