After building a single log reindeer named Rudy last year, I decided to get serious this past holiday season and crank out a bunch of other Rudy’s in the woodshop/reindeer factory. Why you ask? Well, I had time on my hands, I liked how Rudy livened up the yard, and the numerous branches and downed trees in a hedgerow behind the house provided lots of raw reindeer material. Also, I thought they would make good Christmas gifts. So, without further ado, I got busy and started building a bunch ...| WoodBin
Here is a dollhouse bookcase that I was commissioned to build for my granddaughter by her parents. It’s made from 1/2″ whitewood sanded plywood that I picked up at Lowes. It’s basically very smooth, void-free plywood with a white primer coat. The side trim and base moulding are made from 3/4″ white pine. The materials cost was about $150. The overall dimensions are 46″ high, 32″ wide, and 12″ deep.| WoodBin
I decided to make an assortment of “gravity defying” wine bottle holders as Christmas gifts last year. The basic idea is an angled piece of wood with a hole in it to hold a bottle of wine in a position that seemingly defies the known laws of physics. One would think the contraption would topple […]| WoodBin
Drilling a large diameter counterbore at an angle “freehand” is difficult because the bit will only be in partial contact with the wood when starting to drill and it will have a tendency to skip across the surface. This was the situation I found myself in when I was volunteered to add diagonal braces to […]| WoodBin
The hand cranks for raising and tilting the blade on my General cabinet table saw were getting progressively harder to turn so I decided it was time for a little maintenance. The blade tilt mechanism was particularly in dire need: not only was it difficult to turn the crank but it produced a horrible screeching […]| WoodBin
While building several sets of cornhole boards, I needed a way to create an evenly-spaced painted ring around the hole. That’s when I decided to build this “compass cutter”, which is essentially an over-sized compass with a blade in place of a pencil. It’s used like a normal compass but instead of drawing a line, […]| WoodBin
I wish I had made this plywood cutting table a long time ago. It makes quick work of breaking down a piece of plywood into more manageable sizes, especially if using a track saw. Perhaps the best feature of the table is that it is portable, allowing it to be assembled in an area with […]| WoodBin
The Dewalt Track Saw has a unique advantage over other track saws: a double-sided rail – a rubber edge strip on both sides – which allows cutting along both sides of the rail. This means there’s no need to flip the track around to cut from the opposite direction and the overall life of the […]| WoodBin
I recently purchased a Makita track saw to help cut some panels for cabinets that I was planning to build. Before buying the saw, I read a number of online reviews and concluded that this product offered the best bang for the buck, especially if one is not a full-time carpenter/woodworker. In terms of cutting […]| WoodBin
This simple router circle cutting jig was made from a piece of left-over 7/16″ PVC board that I found in the scrap bin. My impetus for building it was that I needed to cut 6″ wide holes for several corn hole game sets and I decided that the manual scroll saw approach with resultant wavy edges […]| WoodBin
The Sagulator helps you design shelves by calculating shelf sag (deflection) given type of shelf material, shelf load, load distribution, dimensions, and method of attachment. You can also specify an edging strip to further stiffen the shelf. See the notes below for usage tips.| WoodBin