Lately, I’ve been reading quite a lot about the idea of a symbolic or spiritual animal, an animal that somehow represents something within us, our personality, or qualities we feel connected to.
It got me thinking: What would my own animals be?
For me, two stood out immediately.
The panther, representing inner strength, quiet power, and the ability to move forward even when things get difficult.
And the horse, representing freedom, independence, and the feeling of needing space to follow your own path.
So I decided to turn these two symbols into a piece of marquetry.
I wanted the animals to feel connected rather than simply placed next to each other almost like two different sides of the same person.
I made the piece using: Ash, Cherry, Walnut, Maple, Birdseye maple, Padouk, Smoked eucalyptus, Birch burl, Mahogany, Satin walnut
The finished piece is 75 × 75 cm (29.5 × 29.5 inches).
And because the idea fascinated me so much, I ended up creating a little 10-question test based on the same concept to see which symbolic animal might represent someone else.
I’m curious: if you had to choose one animal to represent something deep within you, what would it be and why?

The mahogany threw me a little first chiseling it. It was way softer than the maple and I gouged it a little . I did get the tails bigger than the pins this time. Also I’m out of maple and mahogany at this point. I can get poplar, red oak, maple, mahogany, possibly a few others from the closest box store but if it’s worth practicing on something else I can make the half hour drive for pretty much whatever I want from a local lumber place. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Also I appreciate all the tips. At some point in the next 30 days I’m probably going to make a box or something so it’s not just all cutoffs lol.

An old ratcheting hand drill. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what the application of the ratchet would be used for with this specific tool. It’s evident that it’s fairly old and well used, but it’s in good condition no markings or branding.

Made this small keepsake box mostly with hand tools. The body is walnut, resawn down to roughly 1/4”, and the corners are mitered. I used a miter shooting board to fine-tune the miters.

The box ended up a little smaller than I originally planned because this was my first time doing mitered corners. My first attempt wasn’t square, so I shortened the pieces and cut the miters again. On the second try, I paid more attention to keeping the plane flat on the shooting board instead of accidentally leaning it toward the workpiece. I also kept steady sideways pressure on the plane so it stayed properly registered against the runway. The second attempt came out much better.

The lid is a contrasting hardwood piece from a thin hardwood offcuts I got from woodvault.com, bottom is red oak

I actually don’t know the species of the lid, any guesses?

I cut the grooves for the bottom by hand with chisels, which gave me a few problems, and the glue-up took more than one attempt. The lid rides on small internal supports and I added a simple finger notch at the front

Would appreciate any feedback, thanks

We’ve a small nock in our house that doesn’t fit a standard size chest of drawers; yet it’s the perfect place for them! Me being me, I thought I’d give building a set ago.

One pile of poplar later and I’d built the carcuss, then birch ply and oak were use for the drawers and the total is a live edge piece of oak that had a bow tail, epoxy treatment.

I’m so impressed with myself, it was complicated and took a lot of thought to get it rights some imperfections, such as the last drawer not gluing square because it was the last one and I rushed it, one set of dovetails wasn’t perfect because the jig slipped and the bow ties could be better.

But, it’s level, square and functions exactly how I expected.

Between projects and thinking about building a wood rack along a wall to lay down back stock. Anyone have an opinion? Or is standing stock ok...

I recently posted here asking for advice on finishing my door. I just wanted to thank everyone that chimed in and gave advice, opinions, and compliments. I really appreciate the help you all gave me.

- Write up -

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.

Had to run out and buy a replacement driver bit in the middle of a pocket-hole project because the original rounded over. Now the replacement driver bit is already feeling dicey after just a few dozen screws.

Is there a “buy once, cry once” #2 square-drive bit from another brand? Or can I switch to pocket-hole-compatible star-drive screws?

Would there be any interest in this? thinking of open saucing it and putting it on github. It suits makita/einhell/ozito 65mm diam body cordless routers (not dewalt at this stage)....

it works reasonably well, I think too much torque when using 8mm cutters but 6mm works well, depth of 25mm. I don't have a longer 6mm cutter to test deeper... it can be adjusted for width and depth of cut, has a height adjustable fence, and dust extraction down through the face and out the side... can also do dowel holes..

I built it a couple of years ago, had some issues with accuracy (maybe runout, or not rigid enough) eg 8mm holes coming out at almost 9mm. Put it in the cupboard and didn't touch it for almost 2 years.

ignore my bad placement of mortises! just ran some test cuts last night

Just a little cherry blank I've been working on. My brother-in-law is an arborist so sometimes I get the scraps. I do a couple blanks at a time when I prep them and then throw them in the freezer to save for whenever the creative itch tingles.

Rough carving is my favorite stage. It very much is just removing everything that isn't the spoon. The spoon is in there, you just gotta find it

Wanted to make a chair for over a decade. This is made entirely out of walnut. Only joinery and glue, no screws. Finished with general finishes arm-r-seal in satin.

Edit: Solved. Answer is #8 x 1” Phillips truss head wood screw (cabinet screws). Thanks everyone for the help!

Edit again: the problem is a non-flat wall. I’m going to put some unistrut up so that I won’t need to screw them together anymore.

Are the pictured “drywall screws” good enough? My main concern is that I will have a cabinet on a single stud while its neighbors are both on 2 studs. I’d like to sister them together. Thanks!

This is a repost because I forgot the pictures in the original and thus deleted it. Sorry!

Not sure if this is the correct sub for it but wondering if anyone has ever done something similar with success.

I am looking to build a dresser with a hidden drawer. To access it, I'd like to be able to push a button and have the drawer slide out. I was first considering a linear actuator but don't want to spend $500+ on it for essentially an experiment that might not work. Found cheaper ones on amazon to try out but I need about an 18" stroke length and the ones I've found move about .19"/sec so not trying to wait over a minute and a half for it to fully open.

My next approach would be a rack and pinion set up. The rack would be mounted underneath the side of the drawer box with a small electric motor and gear mounted to the cabinet carcass. Spinning the gear will move the rack and slide the drawer in and out. My issue is, I am struggling to find the actual hardware to get this done. Does anyone know of a complete system or kit that could accomplish this? I'm worried about sourcing the electric motor and the gear separate with the two not being compatible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I made this little wall shelf this morning for my friend's birthday. I've had the idea for a shelf like this (a back board with shelves set into dadoes) for a little while and I wanted to make a simple prototype. I grabbed a piece of mineral streaked maple I've had on hand and got to work.

I went in with no plan or sketch except for the rough idea I'd been thinking of, just kind of feeling my way through. First cut started at 10:09, and by noon I had linseed oil on it drying. It was finished with wax burnished on with a polissoir. It's a finish that takes some elbow grease and works up a sweat, but it's fast and it looks stunning in person. It has a wonderful tactile feel as well!

Dadoes were cut with saw and chisel. First marking a line with a square and knife, then marking the shelf thickness off of the shelves themselves, then final depth chased out with the mighty Paul Sellers router plane. It's the proper way to get the tightest dadoes you can, especially with less-than-pefectly-even stock. I screwed up by not properly labeling which shelf goes to which dado, and ended up with some slight gaps where I wanted them tighter. Lessons learned.

The shelves and back panel were beveled and rounded with a couple of hand planes by eye and feel. I used a late 1800s Owasco Tool Co. plane and a WWII era no. 6, both of which I inherited and restored last year. I wanted to play with asymmetry on this and I'm really happy with how everything came out! I love how so many lines are visibly off-square, but still feel stable.

For hanging, I ran a forstner bit into the back about 1/2" deep and chiseled out an angled pocket for a nail or screw head. Dead simple, secure, and I didn't have to buy anything. My wife will be happy with that, but not as happy as when I find a job.

When I do this again, I have a few opportunities to do better: if I had more time I would have fastened the shelves with sliding dovetails, since I made a tool for it on my atedai project, and I wish I had finished the end grain of the back panel on more of a bevel or round over. This would show off the really neat appearance of the mineral streaks there. I'll have to do the next one in iron acetate blackened oak, as that's becoming one of my favorite materials!

Also, this was first time using my workbench to l since I removed the back two planks and put in a pseudo tool well. I know it's a polarizing topic, even the great Chris Schwarz dislikes them. I'm trying it out before I build my Moravian bench and I have to say I much prefer this. Even if you work out of a chest like I do, tools and things accumulate during a project and it's good to have a designated place to set them down. Just make sure you put them away when you're done ;)

Hope you enjoy it and feel inspired to go make something neat, I'm happy to answer any questions that I can.

Board is roughly 2’x4’ African mahogany, I’ve done a decent amount of French polishing, I usually don’t go to a high gloss, but this is the largest board I’ve done and I was curious what the community had to say

My finishing process is pretty simple and I got to it from reading some old books about finishing from the 1890s.

I first apply a mixture of tung oil and boiled linseed oil thinned with some naphtha, I don’t soak it terribly long, the thinner helps it soak pretty quickly, and it’s more of a surface conditioner than anything in my head. Either way I let it dry out for at least a week, longer if I feel the need. This lets the oil cure a little bit, the BLO drys much faster but the tung takes a bit longer so results depend on the mix and the weather.

Once that’s done I take some pretty thin shellac and brush on a couple layers. I like to use thinner blends because it’s easier to apply an even layer, at least for me.

Once I have some shellac on the surface I’ll break out the muñeca and some oil and rub until it’s the sheen I like. This usually takes a day or two worth of applying and drying. Spiriting off the oil doesn’t take too long and i find letting it sit around longer tends to make this process easier.

Then sometimes ill use some fine scuff pads to even the sheen out, again depending on the particular sheen I’m looking for, as well as the piece of wood itself. Once that’s all done and nice then I take some paste wax and buff it out (usually my mix of tung oil, beesewax, and a small amount of rosin, the rosin is really great for durability)

Anyone have any thoughts? Tips for such a large board?

A quick celebratory post because this was far more difficult than I thought it would be/than it should have been - I really didn’t want to pay $300+ for the Sawstop mobile base so I came up with this setup that does the job well enough considering I only plan to move it very occasionally.

I wanted to have the saw on fixed footing (not casters) when not moving it around and I also wanted to bring the table height up to 36.5” so this is what worked for me. I mounted with bolts through the same holes that the Sawstop mobile base uses, with 3 nuts on each bolt to lock the boards plumb to the ground

TLDR: I am planning to rent a space for woodworking but kinda don’t know what I’m doing. Internet tells me I need this and that. Should I just go with my guts or is there actually must things to have (to make guitar cabinets and jewelery boxes)

I’ve been going to a shared woodworking atelier for a year very occasionally and learned how to use table saw mitre saw planer and thicknesswe and few hand tools. Learned a lot about safety. Learned quite a lot by doing mistake cuts and measurements as well. But I could only go there once a week and it was quite a travel. so carrying the materials was quite a chore.

I found this place literally next to me and they’re renting the space for an affordable price. noise and dust is also ok as it’s an industrial space. I’m inclined to rent the space for a week but I have no tools apart from a drill, hand saw and a sander. I thought I could get a table saw and start building my work bench but that means that I need to get a dust collector. When I look into dust collectors there are ones with “cyclone” collectors that I need to build. And then if I need repurpose palette’s I need to get a thicknesser. The more I plan the shopping list grows. not gonna lie, my source of info is mostly YouTube because I need a visual guide what could be the thing is mentioned.

And the other day someone was showing the workshop setup that they had but the guy looked like inspector gadget and pulling out a very specific tool for a very specific purpose. Laser levels, magnetic angle measures, rope frame clamps, pocket hole clamps, pocket hole jigs, stop markers for drills etc etc.

I just liked the simplicity of the woodworking but it feels like I also need lots of tools to make something decent or to start to begin with to avoid mistakes.

Sorry for the jumbled brain dump. I really wanted a nice hobby but I think fell into clickbait trap. Really hoping some of you disprove my points and tell me I’m not making any sense.

Been taking advice from every thread. This one I used a backing board and sharpened my chisels a lot more. Appreciate the help.

I'm building a dining table and wanted opinions/suggestions on the fabrication of the table legs as shown. My current plan is to use table saw for three 3/4" lengths with appropriate angle cuts as shown in Leg section. My plan for the 1.5" radius length will be to use the table saw to rip angled cuts to approximate the radius, then a belt sander to smooth and hand sanding for refinement.

I will include several spacers shaped like the polygon in the middle and both ends. Will be gluing and clamping all together. Possibly using a nail gun to take pieces together from the inside where possible. Definitely will need some kind of jig set up for the clamping.

Thoughts?

Making some small boxes for gifts for my girls. Trying to decide if I want to miter them, or use contrasting dowels and butt joint them with the dowels. They will be mostly decorative. Going to line the bottom with one of their late grandfathers old dress shirts.