Quite an Honor...and a surprise

Checked my email this morning and opened the latest Fine Woodworking e-letter and saw my rather modest shop called out as the Shop Of The Week. There are some pretty kick-butt shops posted there, so it is a honor to be considered one of the best. Just had to share the news.

Shop of the week We've had a bunch of great photos and videos posted in our new shop tour gallery, some of which approach the status of dream shop. But we're kind of partial to this stand-alone shop in West Tennessee.see more shops

Sewing Center

Here is a sewing center I made for my wife for her craft room. It is constructed from solid cherry and cherry plywood. When closed, the cabinet measures 48" wide by 18" deep x 28" high. To open, the longer section of the top flips back to the left and is supported by the left door,  the shorter section flips forward and is supported by the door for the surger . The machine lift is supplied by Rockler. 

Finished Chairs - Delivered

Delivered the 6 chairs in time for Christmas, my daughter-in-law chose the fabric she wanted, and we got busy covering the fabric over the foam I cut and brought with me. The silver/grey looks real nice with the colors in the room and the chairs are very comfortable. I think the chairs turned out better than the photo but they both were pleased with the outcome and that alone was worth all the work. Happy New Year to everyone and create a bunch of shavings in 2010!!

Chair Progress - A 6 Pack

After returning from the great Thanksgiving trip, and back to my day job, I was able to hit the shop hard and finish all six chairs up to the point of upholstery. I finished the chairs with 2 coats of General Finishes Lamp Black Milk Paint. I had not used that product before and I was pleased with the coverage and performance straight from the can. Top coat is General Finishes Hi-Perfomance semi-gloss. We'll deliver the chairs next week and will apply the 2" foam and the fabric my daughter-in-law picks out.
If you don't like mortise and tenon, don't build these chairs :) The are 22 of them per chairs so I cut a total of 132, not counting the ones I screwed up. I think overall the chairs came out well and I will post some photo's of the upholstered chairs after we return from the Christmas trip.

Saw Bench

Catching up on posts after spending time in the shop, and figuring out how to D/L photos on this new iMac, I wanted to share my version of the saw bench on Dan's workshop. 48" long, 15" wide, and 19" high, I added an additional feature of the bench hold fast hole. I had to add a thicker block underneath for a better grip, works great. Thought a lot about the overall length and settled on 48" based on space in the shop and the typical sized rough boards I cut. Made from scraps found around the shop.

A Good Days Work..

Prior to leaving for a trip back home to visit family, I glued up 2 chairs and  finished getting the remaining parts cut, edged, tenoned, and mortises cut, to assemble the remaining 4 of 6 chairs for my son's eat in kitchen table. These chairs are being built using poplar and I am going to try General Finishes Milk Paint (Black) with coats of their High Performance top coat. I had the opportunity to meet a factory rep at a recent woodworking shop open house and he recommended milk paint over the GF Black stain I had been using for my son's furniture. These chairs will replace the one's that came with the set produced in some overseas country of wood that I can't figure out what it is. I have repaired two chairs for them on recent trips, I believe these will last a while. Intended to be a Christmas present, I think I will have them done in time. I will of course post the finished product.

Adirondack Chairs

A pair a chairs made following plans I saw in FWW recently by Tom Begnal. I made a few modifications, most significant was adding an additional seat slat curved to match the angle of the back to fill in the. Poplar with two coats of primer, and two coats of exterior latex. Very comfortable design and light weight because of the wood I used. Lots of space on the arms to hold the beverage of your choice!