Hugin Handmade

Working on this end grain, brick pattern cutting board for a coworker. It’s been a few years since I’ve made one of these, and I’d forgotten what a fun project they can be. A LOT of time spent milling wood; some woodworking projects are more about thorough preparation than complex execution.

Nightstands completed! Wish I was as good at photography as I am at woodworking (still not that great!). Carcass, legs, and drawer faces are all made from solid walnut; I chose a nice plywood for the drawer boxes instead of dovetailed hardwood, because I don’t hate myself. Not as cheap as IKEA.

I’m trying a thing: counting my hours spent on a woodworking project, hopefully helps with estimating level of effort on future builds. So far, 16.5 hours on the latest idea: a matching set of solid walnut (not veneered plywood) bedside tables. Still prototyping what the drawers should look like.

@metasynchronic.bsky.social kindly gave me a restored Stanley No. 3 (type 19) hand plane for my birthday a month ago. I’m happy to report that I finally found the perfect opportunity to test it out on a real woodworking project. Performed marvelously!

Six hours of woodworking to turn several small boards into two bigger boards.

47 board-feet of 5/4” walnut. Kicking off my next woodworking project.

I spent the last week trying, and mostly failing, to find cool (temperature) times to do some woodworking in the garage workshop. Finished this memorial box for our beloved dog Magnus. Grain-matched hard maple, with a walnut burl veneer, walnut splines, walnut interior, and walnut trim.

A dozen years of marriage with @metasynchronic.bsky.social.

Legs have now been cut to length for the second of the nesting end tables. I used dominos for the joinery on the larger table, but I think dowels will be good enough for this one; I don’t need the structure to be THAT strong. Will have the base glued together in the next 24 hours.

Been slacking in the workshop for the last week or two; yard and house projects have needed attention. Time to refocus! With a little woodworking magic and a lot of sawdust, this should be an end table by next weekend.

Meryem’s sitting spot, with a walnut sofa table I made, a walnut end table I made, a walnut C-table I made, and a walnut C-table I made. Not pictured but in the same room: a walnut bench I made, a walnut blanket chest I made, and a walnut chess board/box I made. Woodworking problems…

Happy Pride, y’all. Be proud.

For the last year, I’ve had a few leftover slabs in the workshop, some honey locust and black walnut, just waiting for the right woodworking project. Two-ish weeks ago, I started a pair of nesting end tables. Making steady progress; toughest part so far was using the CNC to flatten the slab tops.

Working on this (not a surprise) box build for my wife’s birthday, destined to hold a portion of her pen collection. A LOT of work went into installing the hinges and ensuring the lid stays perfectly aligned with the box. In woodworking, the least impressive things can be the hardest to execute.

Story time. A bit over a year ago, a friend asked me with great excitement to make her a cutting board as a wedding present and handed me about 40lbs of purple heart wood she wanted worked into the job.

75 terrifying seconds of the CNC cutting a juice groove into an endgrain cutting board. This is one of my least favorite tasks in woodworking, and the machine performed admirably once we got everything out of its way. @arrdem.com deserves full credit for believing this was possible.

With t-track and spoilboards added to the CNC table, the time had come for another (final) flattening job. @arrdem.com tweaked the machine’s script, we made a few minor cable routing tweaks to avoid snags, and hit the “GO” button. No problems to report. Except the visible arcs of electricity.

After last month’s cherry/walnut picture frame scratched that creative woodworking itch, I’m diving deeper down the rabbit hole. Currently have a half dozen unique profiles, and I’m happy to report that these are both entertaining and a great way to burn through scrap wood that needs a purpose.

This Lowrider CNC v4 from @v1engineering.bsky.social, built with an incredible amount of work by @arrdem.com, is nearly operational. A crazy tool to drop into my deeply unprofessional, garage-workshop woodworking situation. Can’t wait to see what sort of trouble we can get up to with this machine.

This weekend, I finished the two-wood picture frame and hung it on the wall. I still need to cut a glass pane, but this is good enough for now. Learned a lesson or two along the way. I find it quite satisfying when I can use my woodworking setup to replace the things I (frequently) drop and break.

The replacement picture frame project continues to go (mostly) according to plan. I’m not looking forward to all the sanding required to remove the burn marks.

My first time trying out this technique of using the table saw to make a cove cut. This setup felt less scary than I anticipated, and I’m always happy to figure out a new woodworking technique that won’t cost me a finger.

Waterfall bench finished this morning. Absolutely nowhere in the house to put it, but what can ya do? Such a simple concept, but transforming this cracked slab of black walnut into a usable piece of furniture ended up being one of my favorite woodworking projects so far.

Good news! My wife likes the thing I made for her. Here it is.

I think these are the biggest strawberries I’ve ever held in my life.

A whole bunch of wood (mostly walnut) to work with on whatever projects I can think of, especially once the weather warms up and the workshop isn’t so dang cold.