What are your plans for the winter, woodworking-wise?

[Matt Meiser]

I posted this on my club's forum last year and this and it makes for a fun topic. Now that we are getting back into fall and winter, a lot of us will have more shop time. So what are your plans?

Here's my list:


Finish my parents' kitchen. Pretty much down to finishing at this point then mounting all the hardware and installing.
Some shop remodeling. Some rearranging, I need to change around some dust collection and I want to build some cabinets to hand on the wall over one bench.
Finish restoring my Parks planer. Really it just needs the base sandblasted, fabricated, and painted then I can reassemble.
Get my scroll saw up and running. Just need to get the base sandblasted and painted and then I can set it up (seems to be a theme...)
Build my daughter a jewelery box.
Build my daughter a desk.
New drawers, doors, and drawer fronts for my own kitchen, plus reconfigure one base cabinet to be all drawers.
New counters for our kitchen
Build a Pickin' Stick


We'll see how far I get down the list. I'm a dead man if the first isn't done on 11/15.

[Matt Benton]

I'm in the process of going neander, so I will be finishing my workbench and tool cabinet, as well as working on building all of the necessary accessories (shooting boards, etc.), and a few planes.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Winter is here! The fist thing on the list is a sharpening station for the Tormek and jigs, then some picture frames for the wife (I hate building picture frames), Christmas boxes for business associates, some sort of built in organization for the girl's playroom, then maybe a Federal period secretary. Really hoping to get that last one going, so might move it up the list...

That being said, if things progress as they have through the past parts of 2009, I will get no shop time, and will have to work instead. What a crappy year so far!

[Rod Sheridan]

Well, the list looks like this;

- help daughter complete her desk
- new couch for living room ( Arts & Crafts)
- complete shop base cabinets
- move table saw to purchasers house
-move shaper to purchasers house
-move new saw/shaper downstairs to the shop

Of course, the completion list might look different:D


Regards, Rod.

[Vic Castello]

I'm strictly a woodcarver. I'm working on a series of 8 related floral relief carvings, which I hope to enter into a competiton late next year.

Also, people always say to me....make me something! They think we can turn this stuff out in a day or so! But, I found a few small relatively easy "lap" projects which I can work on while watching fooball. Those will be for them.

Don't worry! I'll be wearing my safety gloves just in case I get too emotional about the game!

Vic

[Bill Arnold]

Winter doesn't change things down here all that much with the exception of not having to mow the lawn as often. The one day a week I spend doing yard work can be spent in the shop now! :)

So, here's my list:

+ Finish the chest of drawers for our bedroom suite - final sanding and topcoat on the top panel - final dimensioning, edgebanding and finish schedule for the drawer fronts.

+ On-going additions to my shop - air compressor lines and cooler - more storage drawers, etc. - finalize dust collection for lathe.

+ Start on a series of boxes I've had planned for a couple of years - will use a variety of exotic and domestic woods - maybe some with seashells also.

+ Some small items for gifts - trivets, candleholders, etc.

+ Learn more about using my lathe correctly!

[Bill Arnold]

... I found a few small relatively easy "lap" projects which I can work on while watching fooball. ...

Don't worry! I'll be wearing my safety gloves just in case I get too emotional about the game! ...

... and a lap pad, I hope! :eek:

[Mike Cruz]

Ski racing!!!!!!

Oh, and a bunch of woodword stuff, too...

Man, I can't figure out what I'm doing next week, let alone throughout the winter. Maybe I should make it a winter project to insulate the ceiling of my shop so I CAN work in it in the winter. Trying to heat it (metal roof) now would be a daunting task. Of course it is also blazing hot in there in the summer. So, yeah, I guess insulating the ceiling ought to be my #1 goal this winter...when I'm not racing!

[Doug Shepard]

Winter is my down time due to no heat except for a space heater so things tend to get moved inside for a while. Got another month or 2 before I'm totally froze out but:
- Sharpen every tool in sight
- Get casters installed on my Hammer J/P, get it wired up and ready to go (due in about a month)
- Find some small projects I can do comfortably indoors. Good chance to spend some quality time with the BCTW JMP. Also been thinking of getting a couple of Mr Hendersons tuturials out and practicing some carving

[Darius Ferlas]

- finishing up a 60 amp sub-panel installation
- fixing up the one car garage to have more reasons to call it a workshop
- setting up individual machines for more efficient dust collection
- working around low temps and preparing some wood members for assembly at a later time
- plans: a queen size walnut bed, a walnut dining table, a few bookshelves

[Cody Colston]

Like Bill said, winter doesn't change my woodworking habits since we don't have much of one and my shop is heated.

I have two rocking chairs commissioned...one due by end of November...and the other in January/February.

I typically do a lot of turning over the winter, too, so that I will have pieces for entering an Art Festival in October...this year's is this weekend.

I hope to build a Cedar gazebo to replace the canvas covered metal frame we are currently using.

[Jerome Hanby]

We have pretty mild winters here so my list contains some stuff normally done in the summer (when it's too hot here).

. Build shed outback so garage can be dedicated to shop
. Build toy crane and excavator (Wood Mag) for Christmas
. Build the Workbench
. Rehab old Unisaw
. Rehab old Dewalt RAS
. Rehab old Delta/Rockwell Bandsaw
. Replace house windows on the front
. Build a murphy bed (probably Rockler version)
. Add outlets and lights in the garage
. Get dust collection online

Realistically, probably 2 or 3 of those will get done :eek:

[Vic Castello]

... and a lap pad, I hope! :eek:

LOL!

I put a heavy apron on! These are small relief carvings. I do the roughing out at the bench, or their WOULD be a calamity. But, I can do the undercutting and the detail work.....safely, on the couch! The shavings collect on the apron, and are easy to toss!

:cool:

[Josh Reet]

-Recycling cabinet for kitchen
-Sewing desk for wife for xmas
-"kitchen stand" for kid (lets them stand at counter height to help with cookies etc)
-Generic storage cabinet for bedroom
-Clamp rack for shop
-Perhaps a fliptop stand for shop
-Start learning basic welding
-Get powder-coating gear set back up
-Watch football/nascar

Aside from the football/nascar, it remains to be seen home many of those I'll be able to check off my list.

[Paul Johnstone]

Wow, some of you guys are really ambitious.

I need to build a new fireplace mantel for our home.
I also need to finish some interior trimwork (boring, not really WW).

I don't like applying finish in the winter (too cold to open windows and ventilate) , so typically I will build 1 or 2 things and then wait until spring to do the finishing. I've got a pilie of Walnut that I've been wanting to make a dresser out of, maybe I will get to that.

[Michael Schapansky]

Finish replacing the rear deck. (I'm 1/3 done and it's taken a LOOONG time to get that far).
While the deck project has languished, the back yard fence is succumbing to dry rot. So it gets replaced. This is a MUST do or the goats will eat all the landscaping.
In the shop put up some french cleats, build some cabinets, fixtures and hangers to get stuff up off of all the horizontal surfaces that they now inhabit/inhibit. Install some ducting so I can begin using the Grizzly 2hp cyclone that has been hanging on the wall since...NOVEMBER!

[Josiah Bartlett]

Finish my storm window project
Make a bunch of pepper mills and boxes for Christmas presents
Make a small table or two.
Prep my house for a foundation repair
Refinish a stairway and about 400 square feet of fir floors.

[Mark Patoka]

My winter project list looks almost like my spring/summer project list for some strange reason:

- Finish building a corner bathroom cabinet that was requested by a friend
- Build a NYW style porch swing for our front porch
- Paint the foyer and install crown molding
- Make Christmas gifts if we can decide what we are giving this year
- Turn, turn, turn - my turning stock pile is growing faster than the wood shavings pile
- Build new bedroom furniture as soon as we can decide on a style we want
- Whatever last-minute teaching aid or furniture item my wife will request for her classroom.

I suspect I will be repeating the majority of this list come springtime.

[Jacob Mac]

I want to finish a G & G inspired picture frame, and start on some bedroom furniture. I married my wife 10 years ago when we were still in college. At the time, our bedroom furniture was pathetic. Ten years later, it is probably worse. I have got to remedy that this winter.

[Jim Kountz]

Im going to do a version of a butlers table for the LR. Id also like to design and build some bookcases for the wife. I want to completely redo my shop. Move everything around and clean it out.

[Wayne Sparkman]

I do the roughing out at the bench, or their WOULD be a calamity. But, I can do the undercutting and the detail work.....safely, on the couch! The shavings collect on the apron, and are easy to toss!:cool:

Hey, there's a winter project! Build a coffee table/tv tray sized workbench for the living room! Sort of a sit-down version of a workbench. Anyone ever do anything like that? Pics??? Wives would be sure to love that! :rolleyes:

[Cary Falk]

I am about 2 weeks away from finishing up an enteratainment center for a friend. It took me all summer. I want to take a break so it will be mostly shop projects. I need to organize things. I just got my Shark Guard so I want to build some kind of integrated dust system under my table saw wing with an over arm thing for the dust collection of the shark. I am also going to attempt to make some metal replacement knobs and levers of my Go513X2. I hate the feel of plastic handles. It should be fun and if I don't succeed no big deal.

[Anthony Whitesell]

First up is to finish finishing a coffee table for my MIL that I started last July. I presented it to her unfinished on her birthday in November. I've had some problems with the finish and more than a few interuptions. If I'm lucky it should be done by next week.

I have two non-woodworking projects to do before I start my inter woodworking. I need to get the tractor/snowblower running (I think the carb is fouled) and build a metal water tight box for my parts cleaner (the last one was plastic and cracked). So I'll get to learn how to braze. Not WWing but still fun.

Then I have the following lined up:
-Shelves for the storage area
-Top for my little girls toy box
-new workbench (made of laminated 2x8's ripped in half, the lumber is already in the shop stickered and acclimating)
-router table drawer fronts (finally)
-quick-and-dirty wooden storage box for the christmas tree (the old cardboard biox is dying slowly).
-work on my design to automate (or mechinize) my DC blast gates

Those are my top priorities.

I also have these projects in the queue (ie., bought the lumber and haven't started the project yet)
-toy crane and excavator from Wood magazine (two each, one for my little girl and one for my nephew)
-puzzle boxes for gifts, also from Wood magazine
-herringbone serving trays from Woodcraft magazine
-QSWO dovetail trivets from a free plan through WW Journal, I believe
-Raised routed trivets from Inca Template design book. I have some of single wood blocks and some of laminated woods that should come out pretty nice
-bandsaw blade storage box

I think that should keep me occupied for a while.

[Matt Armstrong]

I'm just going to fat it up and continue buying things I arguably don't need.

[Jim Rimmer]

spend some quality time with the BCTW JMP. [/QUOTE]

I can figure out most of the acronyms but this one has me stumped. :confused: Please explain.

[Rick Dennington]

Looks like I'll be pretty busy this fall and winter. Right now I'm building a hall table and a new taper jig for the legs. I'v also got a new customer that recently moved here from around Chicago somewhere, and I've already done 2 projects for them. I have a kitchen island and a free-standing cabinet to do ,also. I plan to build a new entertainment center for my big screen t.v. if I can get to it. This all revolves around getting my afternoon nap in also lol lol. No telling ahat else might pop up. Whatever-- I'm ready for it. I'm like a squiral-- got my nuts stored !!!!!

[Michael Prisbylla]

Well I have a ton of non-WWing projects that need doing:

- fix the rust on my truck (probably get started on that tomorrow)
- fix rust on LOML's van (probably after that)
- fix my Eames easy chair that fell apart on me a few months ago (I guess this is somewhat WWing related)

The WWing list:
- finish the double-hung windows I built for a client. They just need to be stained/poly'd, and the stained glass installed. Then put them in the frames and set up the balance weights.
- set up my new (to me) DeWalt GWI saw. It needs a little TLC and the benches it'll be built into need to be totally redesigned.
- sell my other 2 RASs
- build some Christmas gifts. I have no idea what these will be, I'm open to brilliant suggestions.
- build a bed for LOML and I if we can ever agree on a design we both like. The one I built in an evening out of 2x8s was fine for a while, but it's getting old fast.
- Rehab my largeish inventory of planes
- Build a rubou bench. This one probably won't happen for a while.
- Build a quick and dirty cart for my new mig welder.

Realistically, this ain't all going to happen this winter. If it does, that means that I'm not working enough for money and that's bad.

[Neal Clayton]

another window builder ;). i do the same mike. i've got 9 left for the second story of my house. still critiquing my choice of finishes and paints and putties, it's pretty fun stuff to learn everything that's been forgotten about windows in the past ~100 years due to the vinyl pirates. it's one of the few things i've built that i can still learn about year after year. there's always a better way, and always a common practice that the old timers took for granted to rediscover.

and some trim. we have wild variations in moisture and temperature here in arkansas, so you have to get while the getting is good for hanging trim, while it's dry for that couple-three months here.

[david kramer]

I'm in S. Cal, so winter starts sometime in January and by mid February it's done. But my wife has been all over me to build a work table/cabinet for the kitchen. I'll probably have to do that or I'll be sleeping out in the cold. And it can get down to like 55 out there!

Yeah I know I'm being obnoxious here, but I have to hear it all year from you guys who get hard maple for like $2/bf.

David