Hello all,
I've been a member here for about three years now. I joined mainly to be able to view pictures, but i've spent many hours absorbing all the useful information everyone contributes.
With your guidance I've amassed a small collection of tools: Stanleys #3 - #5, a Stanley #78, a set of Aldi chisels, a set of Marples chisels (before the Irwin buyout), a brace and set of bits, a Veritas dovetail saw, and a few other miscellaneous bits and pieces. Most of these have been purchased for $30 or less.
My most used tool is a Tage Frid style bench (made from teak!!) found at a garage sale three blocks from my house. Well, in all honesty, my dad found and bought the bench, but its on permanent loan to me.
So after a couple years of generating oddly cut, expensive firewood, I finally have a couple of projects which are not only finished, but reasonably resemble actual things!
First is a tool caddy:
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Made from poplar, and able to hold all the tools used in its construction:
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Next is a shaker-style step stool:
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Made from cypress and finished with danish oil and wax. This was built as a gift for my mother-in-law to replace a similar stool built by her father 70 years ago that had seen almost daily use.
When I presented her with the stool, I was also showing off the tool caddy, and my father-in-law expressed how much he could use one. So I gave him the tool caddy before I had a chance to paint it.
Emboldened by these successes, I have three projects in the works, a coffee table for my wife, and a pair of desks for my boys. The coffee table is based on Richard Maguire's "Side Table" series, while the desks will be shaker-esque.