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.

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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.

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.

Here is a gift I made for my daughter this Christmas that I thought I would share. Constructed of Philippine mahogany with 1/4″ birch-ply backing it’s mahogan-’E’. Based on multiples of 5 1/2″ the boxes will fit in any location on the shelf; 3 across the bottom, stacked several high or one here one there.

The shelf was finished with Sikkens Cetol Log Decor then a low-lustre BL Interior Clear topcoat. The boxes were colored with Master’s Solar-Lux dye then covered with 3 coats of Sikkens Interior Clear.

The lumber was all milled to 5/8″ or less and finished with two coats before assembly with a pin nailer. Because of the ultra-low profile of the 23 gauge brads, I only used glue and many pins for the assembly. I predrilled two holes in the birch ply 16″ o.c. for mounting and wrapped each box separately with another wrapped gift in each one.

I enjoyed the result of the letters I made for pulls. Before setting to the the bandsaw, I decided a hand drawn letter looked much better than a stencil or ruler drawn letter and all three of these came out matching italic capital letters.  After finishing each with a chisel, sharp knife, sand paper and dye they really look sharp!

When I arrive at work it hasn’t been light for an hour. When I leave work during these winter months it’s been dark for almost an hour.
On this jobsite there isn’t enough electricity to power Halogen work lights and tools since the entire production is running on a single 20 Amp breaker.

Working at this Modern home is inspiring me to create some galleries of previous work for this site. From The Glass House Compound to Frank Lloyd Wright I have seen simple shapes of wood, metal, plaster, stone and glass! For what it’s worth, I have grown comfortable with the aesthetic. There is something intensely intriguing about the “philosophy” behind creations such as those by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. So much thought and it looks like that? Hahah.