Other Projects

Click on the pictures for larger versions!

I'm not sure where I got this idea, but I had a bunch of redwood left over from a bookcase project, so decided to make Nancy a small chest of drawers.

This was my first attempt at making drawers, which turn out not to be too hard. (They're just boxes without tops, right?) The drawers themselves just ride on small strips of wood, 1/4" thick and maybe 1" wide, which sit in dados cut into the sides (so very low-tech). Unfortunately, I made the mistake of staining it with oil-based polyurethane, so there's too much of an odor inside it to store hankies and the like, as I'd intended. So Nancy uses it for watches and the like. Live and learn!

When we moved into our house in Providence, we inherited some table legs. It took me a while to figure out what to do with them, but in summer 2019 I built this coffee table.

The top is ship lap planking laid over plywood, with a band of poplar edging. (A dado is cut into the poplar, so it basically fits over the edge of the table.)

Also that summer, we got some new amplifiers, which needed stands. So I built some simple stands in much the same way. This time it's maple over plywood with maple edging.

And this year, we got more new amplifiers, which also needed stands. These are nicer, made from poplar plywood laid over 1/2" MDF, with poplar edging, and then stained with Minwax Honey stain.

(For other audio nerds, they sit on Dayton spikes, from Parts Express.)

I also decided this summer that we needed more and better space for our various components. So I set out to build an audio rack.

The shelves are again poplar plywood with poplar edging, with the top and bottom shelves doubled up with 1/2" MDF again. Finish is just polyurethane. The posts are 1/2" threaded steel rod, hidden inside standard copper plumbing pipe, 1" diameter. The shelves sit on nuts and washers and are not actually supported by the pipe. On the right side, a piece of granite sits atop the rods to provide an extra-solid base for the DIY turntable. There are a few more pictures on the page about my system.