Need ideas for Christmas Presents

[Al Launier]

Last year I started a bit late in making Christmas presents & that resulted in too much stress making the deadline. This year I want to make the Christmas presents early to avoid the stress. Yet, I'm not coming up with any good ideas. I'm currently finishing up a wooden battery dispenser & thought that might make a good present, but my wife doesn't agree as she feels that "functional" gifts aren't as well liked as more personal, "seasonal" gifts. Personally I prefer useful gifts, but ??? So, I'm having trouble coming up with ideas & thought I would go to those on this forum who might have some good ideas for Christmas gifts. I have reasonable skills in woodworking so I would like to make gifts that reflect these skills, yet keep the gifts on the small size as that is my preffered project size, plus I will have to ship these to SC, or carry them onboard the flight taking up luggage space.

Your suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you.

[Greg Cuetara]

Al, Picture frames are always good and can be made with scraps if need be. I made a small picture frame which had two doors in the front and opened to show 4 pictures a few years back. Went over very well and easy to pack and ship if necessary. If you know of someone with a laser engraver or cnc you can always engrave them with the people's names.

Good luck. I know I need to start thinking of ideas soon also.

Greg

[Jamie Buxton]

Salad tongs.
Wooden spatula for stove-top use.
Little puzzles -- brain teasers.

[Jim Barstow]

Pizza peels.

I've made tons. They are easy to make from scrap and I have a planer sled for tapering them. They're really nice looking since I generally use a mix of cherry and birds eye maple. Some people use them a lot and others hang them on the kitchen wall as decoration.

[Michael Stein]

I made up a bunch of the magnetic bottle openers you see all over Etsy last year. They aren't the cheapest thing due to the magnets and bottle opener, but they are great so long as the recipient is a beer drinker. Simple to batch out a bunch of them at once.

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[Glenn de Souza]

Tissue box holders. Everyone can use them, and they use a modest amount of wood, so splurge on exotics, or you can match the recipient's home cabinetry and/or trim. This past Christmas I made about 25 of them in a production run.334220334221334222334223

[Don Jarvie]

If you have a lathe you can make ornaments. I made a bunch of snowmen and Angels. Everyone liked them.

[Prashun Patel]

Extra thick, extra wide cutting boards or charcuterie boards are a winner for me. Save all the fancy things like geometric patterns or inlays. I appreciate them, but if I have to make a bunch, I don't sacrifice much appreciation by leaving those details out. As long as they have good heft, handles, and feet they're winners.

[Al Launier]

WOW! Great ideas so soon!

I should mention that that I do not have a lathe, so any kind of turning is out. I do have a good scroll saw (DeWalt 788), but I don't have the patience to scroll intricate details. I have made cutting boards & trivets as gifts in the past, and they do make nice gifts, but something different is what I'm hoping for.

Thanks for your suggestions & please keep the ideas coming Guys, they're great! I don't have to limit each person to only one gift if they are small.

[Rick Johnston]

For the cutting boards, a supplemental small jar of bees wax and mineral oil is a nice touch.

[Rick Potter]

Band saw boxes?

[Al Launier]

Band saw boxes are a good idea. I made these before, and they were well accepted. However, my imagination is depriving me of new ideas - tough to get old!

[Jim German]

I like doing things that are pretty and practical. Last couple of years I've done trivets and cutting boards. Easy to do and you can make them as fancy or as plain as your time, skill and budget allow.

[Ole Anderson]

Something a bit bigger that I made four of several years ago: a towel rack/display shelf for above the commode. (also makes a handy leaning post for the guys:rolleyes:)
http://www.woodstore.net/plans/furniture/bookcases/791-Wall-Shelf-and-Towel-Rack.html

https://s3.amazonaws.com/woodstore/images/products/zoom/GR-00727a.jpg

[Doug Garson]

Wow, talk about getting an early start. Post a few photos along the way to remind the rest of us to get started. Any small children on the list? If so make a few wooden toys and while your at it make a few extra to donate to a local charity. How about making a few board games, look up Quarto, Shut the Box or Quoridor. Check out Steve Ramsey's site woodworkingformeremortals for some plans for both wooden toys and board games.

[Randy Viellenave]

Don't let this thread die!! I too will troll looking for X-mas gifts, and here is the last one I did. Next time I will use Starbucks frappuccino bottles, as the opening is a little bigger. These fit nicely into a USPS flat rate box, something that really matters here...334245

[Jim Finn]

I make a sell many gift items every year, now for over seven years, and have found that "Practical" items out sell decorative ones twenty to one. Toys are popular. I make cedar boxes with images or lettering inlaid into the hinged lids. Mine are 6"x8"x2" boxes. You can do the inlay with your DeWalt saw, or any scroll saw that can take plain, not pinned, blades. Do a search for "double bevel inlay" and you will see how to do it. Attached is a photo of my sales display of these boxes.

[Al Launier]

Jim, those are gret looking boxes! You obviously have much more patience than I do. I find my patience is limited to perhaps a half dozen items on any one project, otherwise I burn myself out & lose my desire for woodworking. my hat's off to you & other that have the motivation & stamina to make so many at a time.

PS Are you suggesting plain blades rather than pinned blades because of the coarser pitch on the plains to cut the inlays faster? I use both on my scroll saw as well, but intricate designs are beyond my patience. So, your suggestion of
simplier designs for inlays that require less detail & would be more in line with my limitations. Good suggestion.

[Al Launier]

I just ran across this & it kinda captured my interest as well as otther suggestions noted above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecy9d8H8nU

Also this was interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAV2cjXaWFo , but perhaps too much detail for me???

[Michael Stein]

Jim, those are gret looking boxes! You obviously have much more patience than I do. I find my patience is limited to perhaps a half dozen items on any one project, otherwise I burn myself out & lose my desire for woodworking. my hat's off to you & other that have the motivation & stamina to make so many at a time.

I know exactly how you feel. Make a couple of the same thing, especially back-to-back, and I get tired of that project real quick. Ive now made about 20 of those bottle openers, and I am about done with them.

I also helped my kids make ornaments for Christmas this past year. My 9yo daughter did MOST of the work. I glued the scrap panels together, she helped plane them down to thickness, cut them out on the scroll saw, and sanding the edges on the 1" belt sander. I helped a bit, and also gave my 5yo son a bit of hands-on time, though he is still a bit young to really do much by himself. She was pretty independent once I got her going. They gave these as gifts to their teachers, grandparents, and some family friends.
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[Keith Outten]

Drink coasters are often a welcome gift.
Board game fans will appreciate a dice rolling box.
Desk accessories like pencil and gem clip holders.
These days everyone can use a cell phone holder for their desk or dresser.

[Jim Finn]

334296Plain end blades are the standard 99% of folks use. To do inlay, they are required. Inlay often requires a lot less detail and a LOT less time than fretwork . The actual cutting time at the saw when inlaying an image is less than five minutes. Lettering a bit longer and much harder to do. Be careful, doling inlay is addicting.... I make about three hundred boxes a year. More than two thousand over the years.....so far. This one is walnut inlaid into oak.

[Stan Calow]

I'm planning to make a bunch of small serving trays, about 10x16 with angled sides for next Christmas. I think they can have multiple uses as well as use up a lot of cutoffs.

[Al Launier]

After "much research" and reading all the suggestions noted above I've finally decided to make some napkin holders and boxes, and perhaps a few battery dispensers & bottle openers as suggested by Mike Stein above. I'm particluary enthused about the napkin holders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhRocsPHXgE), with different shapes, as this will allow me to try an 8-sided bird's mouth router bit for the first time, that I ordered last week & should arrive today. In the past I've made octagonal boxes using the standard 22.5° miter joint. I found those projects a bit tricky to glue, even with the use of tape, and this bird's mouth joinery looks like it will make a more solid glue joint and be less "scary" to glue.

Thanks again for all your suggestions, they were great!

[Roger Feeley]

Over the past few years, I've been making presents for my two brothers from 'archived' wood. I visited the house where my mother grew up and they gave me some wood left over after a remodel. They didn't want it because it was the old original wood from when the house was built. I did the same thing on a trip to Montana where I got some barn wood from the ranch where my father was raised. I made hollow Christmas ornaments from them one year. Part from my mother's wood and part from my fathers.

BTW, don't ever try turning 100 year old wood. Brittle as heck. I had a number of hollow spheres blow up on me.

That wood from my dads ranch was truly the last of the original ranch. Some rich guy bought the land and built a getaway. There is even a pump driven artificial creek running across the property now. The next year, I took some, cut it into the state of Montana, engraved the latitude and longitude on the back and put a brass pin where the ranch used to be. My point being that that ranch is nothing but a location now. Nothing to see there.

Games are always a favorite. I made Mancala one year that was a hit. I did Chinese checker boards.

I've turned Pizza Cutters. The kits from Rockler are really great pizza cutters. Add matching ice cream scoops.

This year, I won't have a shop so it looks like Harry and Davids. I'll just have to phone it in like my brothers do every year.

When I get my shop back, I have this scheme for a truly bizarre checkerboard. It will be cylindrical vessel. It will be segmented with 9 segments per layer and 10 layers. there will be one segment of cherry which will line up. there will be a ring of cherry at the top and bottom. What will remain in between, will be a field of 8x8 segments. I will build those pieces with magnets in them and alternate maple and ebony to make a magnetic checkerboard wrapped around the cylinder. Add magnetic pieces and you have a checkerboard that you have to rotate to play.

[Rod Sheridan]

Extra thick, extra wide cutting boards or charcuterie boards are a winner for me. Save all the fancy things like geometric patterns or inlays. I appreciate them, but if I have to make a bunch, I don't sacrifice much appreciation by leaving those details out. As long as they have good heft, handles, and feet they're winners.

Good point Prashun, keep them simple.335118335119335120335121

I made these last Christmas to give away, and included a tin of wax finish with each.

Except for the purple heart, they were made with wood from trees that were in my yard, or urban salvaged logs. The edge profile is a 40mm radius, I found it looked much nicer than a simple round over profile.

I used these little 5mm soft feet on the underside;http://www.leevalley.com/en/Hardware/page.aspx?p=70551&cat=3,40993,41285&ap=1

I had never made cheese boards before, they were a real hit as presents................Rod.

[Patrick McCarthy]

"The edge profile is a 40mm radius, I found it looked much nicer than a simple round over profile."



Rod, I have to agree; I really like the edge profile you did.

Best regards, Patrick

[Al Launier]

Well I just finished a couple of Napkin Holders, one for my wife, the other for my daughter. I chose to make (2) top configurations: my wife’s has the angular top to be consistent with the “angularity” of the box, and my daughter’s to be consistent with her strong affection to the ocean, whales & dolphins. I hope the “wave” / “dorsal fin” shape conveys this thought. She was a certified dolphin trainer in Hawaii & is the animal story producer for ABC’s 20/20 show.

I think these came out OK considering my first attempt. I applied (1) seal coat of clear/unwaxed shellac & (2) coats of wipe-on clear satin poly. However, I will definitely be changing the way I glue up these boxes as I gave up trying to clean the excess glue runs using a chisel, sanding, and even using a torch heated scraper (as suggested by another Creeker) that I made from sheet metal. So much effort, such poor results – downright ugly. So, I covered the entire interior with adhesive backed felt in “matching” brown with the walnut. It was quite a tedious job trying to tuck & apply the felt so that it fit properly with all the seams & the base.

Next time I'll try to remember to apply the branding iron before applying the finish.

For my next Napkin Holders (4 to go) I will apply much less glue on the short leg of the Bird’s Mouth joint & less than before on the long leg of the joint. Also, I’m going to try placing strips of the blue painter’s tape on each flat surface. Actually, now that I’m thinking of it, rather than cut strips, I’ll cover everything & then cut the tape along the edges of each piece with a razor blade. After glue-up I’ll pull the tape off. Hopefully that will work – time will tell???

I also have a couple of trivets I made earlier from a previous to add to the gift list.

[John Sanford]

Last year I started a bit late in making Christmas presents & that resulted in too much stress making the deadline. This year I want to make the Christmas presents early to avoid the stress. Yet, I'm not coming up with any good ideas. I'm currently finishing up a wooden battery dispenser & thought that might make a good present, but my wife doesn't agree as she feels that "functional" gifts aren't as well liked as more personal, "seasonal" gifts. Personally I prefer useful gifts, but ??? So, I'm having trouble coming up with ideas & thought I would go to those on this forum who might have some good ideas for Christmas gifts. I have reasonable skills in woodworking so I would like to make gifts that reflect these skills, yet keep the gifts on the small size as that is my preffered project size, plus I will have to ship these to SC, or carry them onboard the flight taking up luggage space.

Your suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you.

There was a playing card case some time ago in, IIRC, Wood Magazine. Holds two decks of cards, opens sorta like a zippo lighter. Pretty cool, make it in contrasting woods. You could even do some marquetry, carving, or woodburning on them as well. I made two, one for myself and one for my sister. Wish I could find mine... Obviously, because it is slightly bigger than two decks of cards, many can easily be transported. You could adjust the size to work with other types of cards if you wanted, whether something like Magic or Tarot cards, or go classic and use two decks from Bicycle Playing Cards. Just get your cards first....

[Lloyd Richardson]

Can you post a picture, please? I do not know what a "Pizza Peel" is ...

[Jim Finn]

Jim,........ Are you suggesting plain blades rather than pinned blades because of the coarser pitch on the plains to cut the inlays faster? I use both on my scroll saw as well, but intricate designs are beyond my patience. So, your suggestion of
simplier designs for inlays that require less detail & would be more in line with my limitations. Good suggestion.

The reason I said plain end blades is: they are what is required to do double bevel inlay. The starter hole I use is 1/16". A pin end blade will not pass though this small hole. I use a Flying Dutchman Polar #5 blade.

Once you are proficient with a scroll saw, the time spent at the scroll saw, cutting the image, is less than five minutes. More time is spent making the box. I make them ten to fifteen at a time and it averages out to two hours each. This time includes making the box , doing the inlay, assembly and sanding. Plus glue drying time and drying time for the finish. I buy the hinges and screws by the five thousand and cedar by 450 board feet at a time. This keeps my cost of materials under $3 for each box.

I make and sell about three hundred of these boxes a year. Over the seven years I have been doing this I have made over two thousand of them.

[Al Launier]

Well, it took a long time, on & off (about 2 months), but I finished them today.
My nephew has a yellow & black labrador retriever, so guess which one he's getting? ;) They are attached with blind rare earth magnets.
This time I remembered to brand them.
I used adhesive backed felt on the inside as I couldn't control the glue squeeze-out as well as I hoped, even when using tape along the edges of each glue joint.

[al heitz]

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Sorry about being late to the game, but here are trivets or hot plates that I made as gifts for my family.

These were made from 3/4" poplar. Routed with 1/2" round nose bit to just mid-point of wood thickness. Flip and repeat from opposite side at 90 degrees to original grooves. Holes will develop as grooves cross each other at the mid-point in the wood. Finish with stain of choice and then at least three coats of GF's Arm-R-Seal. Arm-R-Seal withstands the heat without softening. These were approximately 5-1/2" wide by 5-1/2" and 9-1/2" lengths.

[Al Launier]

Al, good idea. Those are really nice & look to be easy to make. I might steal your idea & try making some with angular intersections of 45°.

[Al Launier]

I'm not one to make up a bunch of the same things as I tend to get bored with repitetion. However, I'm now caught up with projects & looking for some more ideas for Christmas gifts, or even something for the house that is attractive & functional. Any more ideas? I tend to take my time so I probably have enough left for a project or two, but would like something different, yet appealing.