Just a little dovetailed box, big enough for a deck of playing cards. Walnut, maple, friction lid. Finished with Danish oil and paste wax.
All hand tool, including resawing and dimensioning all stock.
Feedback welcome. Thanks!
I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together this mahogany screen door for my home. It’s almost impossible to find an arched screen door, and those that do exist cost a small fortune. So I built one. For way more than I expected to spend on this project. As is tradition.
There are many, many imperfections, and probably a few genuine mistakes, but I’m pretty happy with it. This is only the 5th woodworking project that I’ve ever done, so it was a good chance to try a lot of techniques that I’ve never done before. I got to try using dowels, using my table saw as a jointer, using a Japanese pull saw, belt sander, etc.
Stiles and rails:
The stiles and rails are doweled and glued together. Nothing very fancy there.
The arch:
The arch was 4 or 5 pieces of 1x6 doweled and glued along the edge grain. I then drove a screw into my workbench, centered it along the width of the boards, attached a wire to it and then the other end to a pencil. This allowed me to trace a decent arch shape onto the wood.
I then used a jigsaw to rough-cut the arch before using a belt sander to get closer to the line and shape the arch. It’s a little janky in a couple of spots, but sometimes you waste so much time being frustrated and trying to make it perfect that you just have to move on when it’s close enough.
Probably would’ve been much easier to use a router and a circle jig, but I didn’t have the jig or know how to make one. If there’s ever a next time that’ll probably be the way I do it.
Someone in another sub told me that my arch is going to fail because of the exposed end grain at the top, someone else told me that it’ll probably be fine, but even if it fails, it’ll be a good learning experience as to why. I chose to go that route. I can always cut the top off and rebuild the arch, and build it better, if I need to in the future.
The bottom half:
All of the angled pieces at the bottom were just trial and error. I wish I was better at finding angles or knew some kinda hack on how to get them perfect, so please chime in if you have suggestions.
Regrets:
My biggest regret with it is probably not spending more time finding matching mahogany, but since this all came from Menards, I’m lucky that I was able to even get wood this good.
What I learned:
Besides learning how to use the various tools and techniques that I’ve never used before, the most important thing I learned is just how tight dowel joints can be. I know they say to use 5/8” dowels for a 5/8” hole, but trying to get it fit, especially with glue, was a nightmare. Literally tore the skin from my hand trying to hammer it together for so long.
After that, I ended up widening the holes a little bit, but even then that wasn’t enough. In the future, I will probably use slightly smaller dowels or sand down the ones I do use rather than widening the holes. Wish I realized that was an option while I was building this.
Finishing:
Used a card scraper and chisel to clean up and glue squeeze-out that I didn’t catch. Rounded over a few areas with the chisel to account for some of the inconsistencies before sanding the entire thing.
Staining:
Stained it with General Finishes Outdoor Oil. A lot of people suggested Penofin or spar varnish, or a million other options, and quite frankly, there are almost too many options. Makes it hard to know what’s best for your project.
I didn’t want anything that would be super difficult to maintain or another new technique that I would need to learn in order to apply it, so I went with what I know.
I recently used General Finishes Gel Stain on a bookcase that I built and I really liked it, so I decided to go with them again. We shall see how it holds up to Ohio weather.
Nothing like building a screen door as fall is starting and giving yourself about 2 weeks to enjoy it before it’s finally too cold.
Also, shout out to Rex Krueger for giving me great advice and an incredibly meaningful compliment as a new woodworker. The dude is so incredibly nice. Should definitely check out his YouTube channel if you haven’t.
Seems like a crazy good deal what am I missing here this slab is huge for the price kiln dried and no discernible warping
Edit: it’s actually guanacaste which is lighter/less dense but similar in appearance. Final price was $246 which unless it literally snaps in half seems like a great deal. Contemplating on if I’m gonna do 20 or 30 bow ties/mushrooms.
I am building a sawmod speaker and unfortunately the CNC machine tore out a good bit of the edges of my plywood. What is the best way to patch this?
Stainable wood putty before staining? Color matched putty after staining? Any other ideas?
Few pics of the build. I initially tried this 5 years ago after watching a YouTube video. Did a full epoxy pour but had to scrap it turned out too opaque. Made it hollow this time, with one side pour a day. Gives the freedom to try out different types of bulbs.
I’ve done a couple live edge projects with ash and a few projects with 2x4s and basic framing techniques so I figured what could be so hard about working with an exotic wood? Plus my wife loves purple and boom here’s purple heartwood and a project that I can put together in like an hour with a few simple cuts on a mitre saw.
The purple heartwood fought me, every step of the way. Every hole I predrilled, the drill bit came out smoking. A screw snapped in half from the torsion of trying to screw it in before I figured out to wax each one first.
Ended up taking 4 hours and a ton of cursing (and probably a new drill bit), but good lord is that wood pretty. 10/10 do not regret but will probably opt for a purple stain in the future.
Finish is pure Rubio Monocoat.
I started with a handsaw and a handplane and by the time I finished I had a makita palm router in the mix. I tend to think about things for weeks before actually putting thoughts to action. I will try to work on that. Finished with Odies oil.
I took in this boy on my birthday last year and wanted to commemorate it.
I have experience tuning up my Stanley jack but never dealt with rust. Is this worth the $30 asking price?
This was my first “detailed” woodworking project (after I built my workbench). Final dimensions are 18” x 11.5” x 1.5”
I know I butchered the juice groove, but learned some lessons for next time. I know I can fix them, but want to keep them as is so I can look back down the road and see how far I’ve come since my first project.
Design from the book Minimalist Woodworker. The fence sits in a wedge-shaped dado and is removable with a mallet tap so you can put a long board on it and plane edge grain.
Learned a ton making it. First time cutting a dado with saw + chisel + router plane, first time laminating (for the fence) and edge gluing (for the deck). Also my first project where flat and square really mattered, so I had to get a lot better at planing (and got a second blade to put a camber on).
Boy does having a shooting board make a lot of things easier! If I did it again I would probably screw on the fence for easier adjustment instead of using this dado approach - this way adjusting the angle between the fence and the track requires recutting the dado wall, and in fact I'm 0.22° off square as is, but I called it good enough for end grain.
for reference, this was like a $50 table from Facebook marketplace but it is nice and solid wood so if there’s anything I can do to fix this, I would appreciate it
On all my chopping boards and cheese slicer boards i use food safe mineral oil,
What's your go to finish
Bought furniture online, first box came damaged, replacement box came damaged as well, but not as bad. I am communicating with the seller, but I have lost all hope with FedEx being able to deliver this intact. Seller indicated it would be 90 days before they are able to just send the broken parts outside the whole package. Returning it or getting a refund is still an option, but if they refund I am still stuck with all these boards.
So, can I do anything to make this workable or is it just too far gone? This is a storage cabinet for a closet. I could cover the top long board as that is the only outside visible part.
I searched for some plates that could be used to reinforce the cracked areas, but nothing really looked appropriate for this use case.
Thanks in advance.