• Wood

    Saw-toothed skull

    I had to download a template for this project and resize it to my needs. First I transferred the middle part to the board and only using a jigsaw I cut out the shape. Even the nose was entirely cut with a jigsaw. The only thing worth highlighting is that the selected blade had the teeth pointing down, so they cut on the downstroke producing a cleaner edge on the top. Once the middle parts were cut I spaced them apart a little and transferred the right-hand side part from the template to the board. Flipped over and traced to…

  • Wood

    Plant stand

    A simple outdoor project, scrap timber, leftover wood oil and basic joinery. For me, it’s very satisfying that I turned something with no value into something pretty and functional. Learning new skills and having fun at the same time, that’s what I like. It is also a nice feeling to do outdoor projects in summer, proper projects at the proper time. I selected the timber for the project and cut off one side (rip cut) that was rough and had a lot of saw marks (from an industrial band saw I believe). I left one side rounded, just as it…

  • Wood

    Wooden bath mat

    The top is made of construction timber (white deal aka spruce) and for the runners, I used some scrap, but better quality material. It’s generally an experiment, built to have some fan, practice skills and try new finishes. Of course, it serves another purpose – exiting a shower/bath with class. First I needed to plane the timber slats from all 4 sides. Due to moisture content (~12%) it needed some further sanding as the planed surface wasn’t perfectly smooth and it got some tear-out. But before that, I cut everything to length on my table saw. With my router and…

  • Wood

    Night light

    It’s built with scrap and pallet wood, exactly the way I like to build. That hardwood timber was bought to make frame splines and the mild steel was rejected from another project, which was a mitre gauge bar replacement. The pallet wood came from a pallet I brought years ago. Nonetheless, all 3 pieces seemed to be perfect for this project. I had to use a 3-core cable because that was all I had on hand at the time. That worked OK and most importantly it was safe. The steel bar was clamped in 4 places and bent. Using a…

  • Wood

    Ash mobile tray

    Less than 2 years ago I cut a couple of trees in my backyard and this piece comes from them. It’s thereby very special to me as I know its past and what it’s gone through. It’s also different from my last projects as this is hardwood. I started by flattening the piece with my router and the jig I built in the past. I fixed the wood to the bench with double-sided tape and slowly but surely removed the excess material. The double-sided tape worked fine with curved and uneven surfaces, shims and wedges were used to help stabilise…

  • Upcycling,  Wood

    Map of Europe

    I’ve always been charmed by the simplicity of halftone images and loved the optical illusion they make. There are many free online tools that you can use to convert any image to a halftone one. I got the best results by converting a low-resolution political map which gave me an inconsistent and irregular sequence of dots. The project was very challenging and drilling holes took 3 days! But I was happy that I finally upcycled that old piece of plastic and had an excuse to make a picture frame featuring very special reinforcements. First I squared the plastic sheet off…

  • Wood

    Floating shelf

    It had to be done, sooner or later. I stared at the empty and unused space just above the radiator and realised I had some scrap material that would be perfect for a shelf. So I checked if there were any pipes or cables using my wall detector and moved to the shed to cut the timber. Using a 12 mm bit I drilled 2 holes for the bracket pins. I installed a fence to my router and cut grooves, perfectly parallel to each other and of course to the board edges. With the fence removed I routed out the…

  • Wood

    Decorative garden post

    It’s made of 3 parts joined together with glue and nails. There were a couple of reasons I built it that way, without using mouldings cut at 45º and without chamfering the biggest, main element at its top. If I used the most obvious approach the post would be shorter by a couple of inches (~70 mm). My build was fast and easy. It was also safe – the biggest part was too big and heavy to be cut over my table saw, the mitre gauge fence was too weak to hold it square at all times. That’s why I…

  • Wood

    Pedestal table top

    This is part 2 of the build, making the leg is shown in this post. This part will show the process of making the capital plate, the top, 4 transition blocks and the final assembly. For the capital plate, I cut the timber to length, flattened it with my router flattening jig and then cut the rabbets on both ends using my table saw. For non-through cuts like rabbets, it is OK to use the fence as a stop block. Next, I rip-cut the parts to width and sanded them by hand. I cut the half-lap joints and glued everything…

  • Wood

    Three-D tree decoration

    This project is entirely built with scrap material, 3.3 mm (1/8″) MDF board and the idea was to stay at home and build at home, without going to a shop. So I used what I had on hand. I cut all 3 pieces using my jigsaw and filed down the edges with my mini files. I put the assembly together with a bit of contact adhesive, and just in case I used clamps to hold them tight for a minute or two. The decoration is exactly the same size as the frame and stays in place by itself, but I…