Woodworking

I began this very satisfying hobby in the basement of our home in Lincroft, NJ making wooden eagle plaques. We sold the plaques as they were a big thing back then. I wish I had a photo of one of them but I don’t. When we moved to Norfolk in 1973 I stopped because we didn’t have a garage or anything to work in.

After we got married and moved to Chesapeake, Va we built a detatched garage and I started doing woodworking again. This was when I started getting serious but still not very knowledgeable about techniques and didn’t have the tools that I have now. I would take pine boards and nail together simple stuff like potato bins, small end tables, candle holders and stuff like that.

It wasn’t until we moved to Suffolk and I set up a shop in our attached garage. It was still a smallish shop but this is when I really got serious and started taking my time and focusing on learning the proper techniques to make quality furniture and cabinetry. In the future I will update with new projects I do.

My first REAL job was making cabinets for my wife Fran. I made all of the cabinets in the small garage. I really wanted a Saw Stop table saw and we figured if we made our own cabinets we would easily pay for the saw and save a lot of money in the process.

This was a very large learning curve for me. I had to research joinery for cabinets and in the process I ran across a guy by the name of Gary Striegler in Fayetteville, Arkansas, owner of Craftsman Builders. Gary was more than willing to be a mentor for me and I owe him a great deal of gratitude for helping me out. I messaged and spoke with him numerous times asking questions about cabinet construction. Now, after the learning process it is pretty much second nature designing and making any type of cabinet.

It took a few months to complete the project but Fran is very pleased with the finished cabinets.

I will detail some of the jobs that I am proud of here.

We purchased an Amish dining suite from Lancaster, PA for our dining room. It included a 12 place table, chairs, large china cabinet and buffet and a cabinet for soft ware. Fran wanted a second cabinet so I took the measurements of the original Amish cabinet and made her second cabinet to match. The cabinet looks identical to the Amish cabinet. Here is a photo of the cabinet I made.

Probably the nicest piece of furniture I ever made is Fran’s jewelry armoire. Fran sketched the layout of the cabinet on paper and I did the design using Moblo (a furniture design app). The armoire is made of soft maple with many coats of smooth clear finish showing the nice grain without any stain. It includes mirrors on both sides and a rotating top cabinet on a drawer set below. The rotation works flawlessly with a heavy duty lazy susan between. The drawers are 5 piece dovetail with full extension soft close slides which turned out perfectly. The top section is a rotating double sided with mirrors on both sides. The door gaps are 1/16” and are near perfect all the way around. There are ring storage on the top and includes hooks to hang necklaces, bracelets. The 4 drawers below are the perfect size for watches and anything else. High quality satin brass hardware including a vintage style lock on one of the doors rounds out the piece. You can see in one of the photos the trim that goes around the base of the drawer set. I made this trim on the router table and after measuring and cutting every piece fit perfectly. It really put the finishing touch on the drawer set.

For detailed construction click here

Detailed construction

Luke and Michelle’s bedroom furniture really worked out nicely. As you can see from the photo I am perfecting my techniques and construction methods significantly. It has taken a lot of reading, YouTubing and trial and error to get to this level. I still have a long way to go. The old Pocket Screws vs the many other joints debate. Click the details button to see my construction of this furniture.

Details

Another piece that turned out exceptional is my son-in-law Luke Clay’s record cabinet. The style is mid-century modern and it is made of walnut with a clear finish like most of the audiophile furnitureof the era. The hardware is bold bar pulls in brushed brass as was the style then. It includes 6 drawers with heavy duty full + 1 extension slides. The drawers are heavy duty to handle the weight of the albums. The cabinets sell online for areound $8,000 so he got a deal. I never charge my family a dime for the furniture I make them. I didn’t realize until recently how much furniture I have made the family and I’m not done next.

If I had it to do over again?

If I had it to do over again I would have used a miter joint between the top and the sides so the end grain is not showing on the top but it still looks great.

Also I would align the woodgrain on the drawer fronts so it is continuous across the entire piece.

Now we are attempting to get a business going selling cutting boards, RV Flag holder mounts, camping signs, home decor and other items online at https://WWW.FDWoodworking.com. It’s been a long hard road to get the business going. But we’re not giving up yet.

Mason’s Mission Night Stand