I do some CNC work for a guy who makes all kinds of things to sell up in the Adirondack Mountains in NY during the tourist season. He's a really good artist and wood sculptor, and a fair woodworker. He brought me a serving tray he had made that someone else had carved the word Adirondacks into several years ago and asked if I could match the font. Sure, most likely, and I also can make the ends for those trays with an integral handle. I'll make some for you. Later, when I looked at the tray more closely, I saw that he had assembled it by gluing and screwing the ends to the end of the solid wood bottom. Rut ro, no good. I decided I'd make him a complete tray and use more appropriate joinery.

Here's my version. Sorry, no photo of the one he brought me, but it's mostly the same except for the two-piece ends.




I cut the end handles on my CNC, the rest in the conventional way. The four frame pieces are butt glued together, and then 1/4" dowels are added to each corner, with another at the middle to keep the panel from slipping around.



I found the font after some searching. The process is pretty simple. Carve the word, clear coat the word and area around it to seal it so the paint won't bleed, paint in the letters with a small brush (or spray), then sand the top surface back to bare wood when it has dried.



A simple project made so much easier with the CNC.

John 

Can you recharge a window A/C anymore. It's 6 years old 24000 btu.

How many of you here still remember Pat Warner aka Router Man? I still have his custom router bases and use them regularly. Needed to route a 6" disc and recalled that the elongated base he did for me included centering holes to do 2" to 6" circles in 1" increments. 

However, I always used the base on my fixed router base. Wondered if it would go on the plunge base and lo and behold it worked! I cannot do 2" or 3" circles but 4" to 6" are no problem.

Said a silent prayer of thanks to Pat for his engineering and foresight. Miss his cryptic post and vast knowledge of routers.  

RIP Pat! You left this world a better place.

  The cedar siding on my house, built in 1971, was showing its age and I had the house re-sided with Hardie fiber cement boards. The crew that did the residing was putting Hardie cutoffs into the dumpster, and I felt it would be a shame to have what could be used destined for a landfill and asked the crew to simply put the cutoffs asside for me to sort through. About 40 years ago I'd built an A-frame structure to support solar collector panels to help with heating in the winter. It's also used for storage of outdoor power equipment. The exposed end of the structure had remained in an "unfinished" state, and I decided this woiuld be a good place to use up the salvaged cutoffs. 

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If you have one you'd like to sell shoot me a PM.

Thanks, Gary

Just curious, What kind of table saw do you have. Just taking a general survey. Brands are not necessary but fully optional, I include Shopsmith, although it is a horse of a different color, it still is a functioning  table saw.

The options are: 1. Portable or bench top, 2.Contractor, 3, Hybrid, 4, Cabinet saw,  5. Also included is the Shopsmith, and 6. Is anything I missed. 

I think forum members would also like to know the reasons for why you have what you have. Some options would be  1. What the family can afford at the present time, 2. Space considerations or movable because of sharing space. 3. Lets get personal here, type of work you do. Have a friend who builds toys, no desire for cabinate saw.  And last but not least, anything you would like to share as to why you have what you have.

And lastly what would you like to have, IF, money and space were not a problem.

Tom

In the barn this week I saw some old boards leaning against the back wall. Rough sawn, some 15 feet long. Enough to make a dining table. Here it is, glued up. Ash? White oak?

   
   

I get it. They don't want it junking up their house but solid 3/4" Maple or is it Cherry?

The top is a bit funky...maybe this was a hobbyist...no one from here obviously....
 

The pieces are not matched well and the joints are a bit too obvious.

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This is what I have been doing for maybe 13 months


For the churches Bible School.  I ended up making a total of 155 and only 144 were used.  That was a lot of kids

   

Now this is the end product of the Dust Collection and drops to all the tools 

On the first one you can see the clearvue DC which had taken me 40+ hours to install first.

   

   

   

   

This is the cabinets that Ray made for me and I just had to pay for the materials and helped for a few hours to make.


   


After all of this I cleaned the shop which is NOT in the photos.   I can not work in a dirty or messy/cluttered shop.  I like knowing where everything is and in it place.

I do have one photo of where some of my turning tools in a drawer are stored that Ray made me.  The drawers are 34" wide and 16" deep.  The wall cabinets above are 36" high and 14" deep to hold the plastic containers I store things in.

   

The tablesaw and router table is what Aram sent to me along with a MM16 which is in the above photo.  He sent a whole POD full of tools and equipment which I will post later.

   

While working on a couple of saws for two guys I started a few more and got a little carried away on a 12" carcass saw. Plenty of time filing and sanding the spine. May wind up keeping this one. It's mahogany if my memory serves me correctly. I sometimes I get Sapele and Mahogany mixed up. 14  ppi X cut. Haven't even filed it yet. 
20250605_131401 by Ron Bontz, on Flickr" />
20250605_131628 by Ron Bontz, on Flickr" />
20250605_131638 by Ron Bontz, on Flickr" />