I made a hardwood sign for a birthday gift on my CNC recently. I use an X-Carve for my wood CNC work and for this sign chose walnut as the base material and a 60-degree v-bit to carve the letters. I imported the logo and used a font in V-Carve, but the same could have been done in Easel Pro, which is what I use as my cut driver/interface.

I have outlined all the steps I take in making a single color hardwood sign, but an additional color or colors would use the same process. To do a sign carving on a painted surface, the process and materials are completely different, so if you use my tape and paint method, your results will vary…

While playing Canasta on New Year’s Eve, I was asked about “someday” making card holders. Someday!? I went out to the shop and cut some scrap walnut, eased the edges, and was back in the house within 10 minutes.

Having a fully kitted out wood/cabinet/furniture shop has its privileges. 😁

After spending 6 months rehabilitation after shoulder surgery, I was really itching to get back in-front of my anvil/an anvil/any anvil and start forging again. With the current world-wide medical issue and shutdowns, using one of the local blacksmith forges that offers shop time rental was out of the question and I REALLY didn’t want to set up my anvil and tools under a popup tent in the back yard again. I decided to add on o my shop – a small 8’X12’ space and forge indoors from then on.

Plans were drawn up, permits were applied for and the city of Seattle said… “NOPE, too much percentage of lot already covered by structure, no additions allowed.” OK, fine. I put my thinking cap on and researched city codes and BLAM! I could build a temporary structure and not be beholden to the lot coverage and setback rules.

I found a small temporary (not anchored to a slab, footings, or existing building) metal-framed, open sided shed sold by VersaTube that fit the bill. It was ordered and 6 weeks later construction began. I figure it took me a total of 50 man-hours to put it up, working solely at night after work and on a couple of weekends, and finish it out by myself. The total cost for the building and all the material was around $1600 – not bad for a 120 sq’ for usable shop addition.

I am currently kitting out the interior, with most of my blacksmith tools already in, and building up a new medium sized propane forge for use the new building.

I was making a yarn bowl as a gift for my mom out of some cherry I cut and rough-turned in France. I did something stupid on the bandsaw and almost cut off my right thumb, got hit in the chest by a flying bowl, destroyed a $45 blade and almost had to scrap the project completely. I fixed my screw up and learned some really good lessons in the process.

Skip ahead to 6:23 if you are just here to see the stupidity.

I wanted to do a quick little project on the lathe and it turned into a weeks long exercise of broken parts, a ton of replacement part research on the web, shipping snafus, inadequate tooling, and material issues. 10 days later the “30 to 40 minute” project of building some counter weights for my shop camera was done. I am better for it and I learned a bunch, but it was painful.

I spent 45 minutes this evening making a small hand tool holder for my metal lathe. There are 3 hex wrenches and 3 combination wrenches that I use EVERY time I make a part on the lathe. They are hanging close on the tool wall, but I have to take a few steps over and get each in turn and then they end up on the ground or in the chip tray instead of being were I need them.

After completely losing the 13mm wrench tonight, I said ‘enough’ and took an 11” piece of scrap aluminum angle over to the drill press and started making holes. A little work on the portaband saw, and some touch up smoothing with a file was all it took.

I drilled three 1/8” holes and riveted it onto the chip shield out of the way of spinning metal, but well within my reach.

Should have done this a couple of years ago!

The video linked below is the second iteration of my small parts bin organization – the first is also published on YouTube – and is the first real project that I have used the “new” radial Arm dado saw on. The original organizer has seriously cut down the time I spend looking for parts and supplies and this one will add to that efficiency and declutter effort in the shop.

Plano boxes:

Drawing Notes:

I had some custom steel 4” corner gussets made for an on-going project: one has an anvil design and the other has my logo. I am stoked on how these turned out. Both designs will add strength, class, and flair to the pieces they are meant to reinforce. They were laser cut and the detail and finish right out of the package is perfect. They are all 3/16” thick and ready to weld on.

I may have a few extra when the project is done because I had to buy in bulk. I will put some back for future use and may sale a few of the anvil ones.

The board & batten shou sugi ban door is done and installed on the the new forge building. The building in now in the dry and I can secure it. Happy how this idea in my head turned out. Next step for the exterior is to oil everything 😁