I recently picked up two additional pieces of camp cookware. Added to my collection are a 10″ dutch oven and a massive 20″ skillet (aka “The LumberJack”). The problem is that these items are way too big to fit in the chuck box so they needed dedicated storage boxes.

I made both of these boxes with mostly scrap materials. The skillet box is made from 1/2″ plywood that is finger jointed together. The bottom is 1/4″ birch plywood and the lid is three layers of 1/4″ birch plywood scraps that are laminated together. Inside the box there is a small divider that holds the handle securely in place during transport. There are three rare earth magnets counter sunk and super glued to the divider that hold the wing nuts for the handle. A piano hinge and two draw catches hold the lid on.

The dutch oven box is made very similar to the first box. I reinforced the corners on the inside with some Douglas fir triangles. I also added some strips of Douglas fir to hide the plywood edges on the top and oak edge banding on the front of the lid. The hinge is the cutoff piece from the first box. The draw catch and handles also match the skillet box. The finish on both boxes (outside only) is Minwax 32450 Golden Pecan spray polyurethane.

If you are looking for something to cook in your 20″ skillet for your next camping trip, be sure to try this Campfire Paella recipe courtesy of the NOSH blog.

I made 24 of these bottle openers this year as office Christmas presents. These started out at 12 board feet of 1×2 hard maple from the home center. The finished openers are just under 6″ long and use a 1 1/4″ fender washer to catch the bottle cap. The finish is tung oil.

I tried cutting various designs in plywood before I settled on the design seen below. I clipped the corners of the blanks 5 degrees using a sled made with a piece of scrap 2×4. After cutting the first side, the scrap wedge was used to hold the blank for cutting the opposite side.

I then made a template out of a small piece of hardboard to mark the locations for drilling. The center of countersink for bottle is 1/2″ back from the edge and the countersink for the washer is 1 1/8″ back from the edge. Two small nails in the template mark the location to center the drill bit.

After the all the cutting and drilling was done, I rounded over all of the edges with my orbital sander. After allowing the tung oil finish to dry, the washers were installed with a 1/2″ stainless steel screw.

I got a guitar a while back, but no amp to go with it. So I decided to make my own practice amp mostly using electronics parts that I had lying around. The amp cabinet is based on a vintage Fender Champ (5F1) practice amp that was introduced in the 1950’s. For my version, the cabinet is constructed from a single select pine board and joined together with finger joints. The speaker panel is 1/2″ plywood and holds a single 6″ speaker. The back panel cover pieces are 1/2″ birch plywood with edge banding on the tops. The cabinet is finished with Minwax golden pecan stain and two coats of tung oil.

The amplifier section is my implementation of the Noisy Cricket Mark II schematic from Beavis Audio. The Noisy Cricket amp is designed around an LM386 1-watt audio amplifier chip that is intended for clock radios, boom boxes, etc. The amp circuit is constructed on a small project board with only a few resistors & capacitors as support components. The three knobs control volume, gain, and tone. The switches control power and grit (distortion). The amp is powered from a 9v battery.

Here is a video demonstrating the Noisy Cricket amp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whZsV6QZ9rM

Click this link for the picture of the plans that I found and used for this project.

Edit: It looks like the Beavis Audio site has gone away. I have put the plans for the amp circuit here.

Edit: Almost 6 years later, now it has a handle! I used a Penn Elcom Tan Leather (218mm), model # H1008-TAN. I used tee nuts underneath to secure it with machine screws.

I recently bought a wireless charger to go with my Nexus 5. I liked the concept of wireless charging, but I didn’t like the mechanics of laying the phone down flat on a desk and having to slide it around to find the sweet spot where it would attach to the magnets in the charger. I decided to make a stand to house the charger that resembled the charging cradles that used to come with older cell phones.

The Nexus wireless charger is a small, square shaped device that charges compatible phones and tablets. It is powered by a plug-in USB power adapter. When the phone or tablet is placed over the charger in the right spot, magnets in the charger will hold the two together. The phone or tablet will make a special sound indicating that charging has begun.

I started making my charger stand by tracing an outline of the phone on a piece of paper. I then cut out the template and taped the sides to the phone. Next I took the charger and placed it over the paper on the back of the phone and positioned it in the right spot for charging. I then traced the outline of the charger on the template.

The back of the stand is a piece of 1/2″ red oak with a cutout that holds the charger in the proper position to make contact with the back of the phone. The bottom is cut at a 30 degree angle. The height of the back piece is approximately 3/4″ shorter than the overall height of the phone to allow a place to grab the phone when removing it from the charger. The arc of the top matches the arc of the phone itself. The overall width of the back is about 1/16″ wider than the phone to allow a slight gap when placing the phone into the charger. The two side pieces are glued in place to provide a cradle to position the phone in the charger.

The reverse side of the back has a grove chiseled into it to allow space for the micro USB connector and wire that powers the charger.

The charger assembly is glued on to an oval shaped base of 1/2″ red oak.

The completed charger base before finishing.

The back side of the charger has a cover plate installed to hold the charger in place.

The completed charger finished with Minwax #210B Golden Oak stain and two coats of polyurethane.

I saw this on lumber jocks a few days ago and immediately knew that I had to build one. Luckily the plans were available free from here. The vertical slats are all identical pieces of 1/2″ poplar. The spacers along the back define the width necessary for each type of battery. All the pieces are just glued and clamped together with no fancy joinery required. The space where the D batteries go has no back spacer to provide the additional depth for that size battery. Both sections are then glued to a piece of 1/4″ birch plywood. A piece of acrylic plexiglass serves to keep the batteries contained as well as providing a window into the dispenser.

I made some wooden stocking stuffer gifts this year.

In no particular order:

1. Oven rack puller. 1/4″ poplar sandwiched between 1/4″ oak. Routed from a hardboard template. Tung oil finish.
2. Bottle Opener. 3/4″ oak. Uses a 1 1/4″ fender washer. Tung oil finish.
3. Wine bottle balancer. (details here)
4. Child’s alphabet blocks. Oak with adhesive letters applied. Spray polyurethane finish.
5. Woodsmith peg board screwdriver rack. (details here [pg 6.]).
6. Red Oak End grain cutting board.

I had some nice pieces of 2×2 red oak leftover from the tile top end table project that needed to be put to good use. I decided to try and make an end grain cutting board as a Christmas gift.

I started by gluing the strips together in sections:

I then cut the slab apart into 10 strips. The strips were numbered before cutting to keep them properly orientated. If I had a planer, I would have planed the slab perfectly flat before cutting it apart. Since the pieces were not all identical in thickness, small gaps became apparent in the next step.

I then flipped the strips on end to expose the end grain. I flipped the even numbered strips end for end to make an alternating pattern. With the pattern established, I then glued the strips back together.

After a lot of sanding, followed by finishing with mineral oil and beeswax, this is the result:

This is the second one of these that I have made as a gift. I believe they are intended as a place to set a hot pot, but also look good as a display piece.The frame is made of 1×2 poplar. The inside dimension is 5 1/4” square. There is a rabbet on the inside edges of the frame on the back to receive the hardboard backing. The finish is Zar oil based wood stain (#124 Rosewood) and a couple coats of tung oil. The corks are hot glued into place.

I made these for my brother in law for his birthday. He makes his own beer and I had observed his bottles being kept in the cardboard carriers that come from the store. So I decided to make him some crates to hold 6 cases or 144 bottles of beer.

The is my first project that I have done using finger joints made with the Shopnotes homemade jig. I am very happy with how the joints turned out except for some chip out on the back side of the cuts. Since the pieces have to be flipped end over end for the jig, each piece ended up having crisp edges on one side and ragged on the other. In retrospect, I should have used a thin piece of hardboard to back up the cuts.

The outer dimensions of the crates are 16 1/4” x 11” x 10 1/2”. This dimension allowed enough space space on the inside for a removable divider to keep the bottles separated in groups of 6. The hand hold cutouts are 1 1/4” x 4”. I used up almost a full sheet of 1/2” plywood to make the box sides. The bottoms are are rabbeted into the sides and made with 3/8” plywood.

The finish is tung oil and the personalization was done using the acetone transfer method.

I think we have all been here at some point. A tool box full of tools, but they are all jumbled up and hard to find anything. Well this year I finally did something about it. It started with a single 1/2” plywood divider in my utility knife drawer (not shown) to keep all of the contents from migrating to the back of the drawer. That got me thinking that the screwdriver and pliers drawers needed help. And then I thought the wrenches shouldn’t have to miss out on all the fun either. Which got me thinking that the nut drivers were always a jumble. Which finally culminated with arranging all the sockets. So here it is, my tool box organization side project of 2013.

Socket organizer. I had a HF plastic organizer board but it of course didn’t match the set I have so the sockets were still pretty jumbled. The solution is two sheets of 1/4” birch plywood and some poplar dowel. I drew layout lines on the first piece to arrange all the sockets in rows. I used a brad point drill bit through the socket to locate a mark along the line where the dowel should go. The dowel holes are drilled through the first sheet of plywood. The the various 1/4”, 3/8”, and 1/2” dowels are glued into place. After those were set, the other sheet of plywood was laminated onto the back side of the first. The finish is spray polyurethane.

Wrench organizers. These started out as scraps of 1×6” Red Oak. A series of progressively smaller kerfs were cut to fit the wrenches. The kerfs are cut at 20 degrees. The finish is spray polyurethane.

Screw driver and pliers drawers. Three pieces of scrap 1/8” hardboard laminated together. Glued and pin nailed together inside the drawer. The screwdriver divider is a friction fit, but on the pliers drawer, it was necessary to drills some small holes through the sides of the metal drawers and tap in some small brad nails.

Nut driver organizer. 1/4” birch plywood base with some scrap pieces of Douglas fir for the structure. No fancy joinery was used, just glue and pin nails.The finish is tung oil.

The socket organizer under construction. Lots of holes to drill and fill! Very time consuming, but well worth the effort.