Hobby desk bench

I build a new hobby desk bench for myself. It is made of oak and maple work surface.  The maple is cut turned, so end grain is up. It had four drawers which features laser engraved knobs.

Silicone Bench Mat from Woodcraft

I was having trouble with glue on my bench, I was always trying to put down wax paper to protect my bench. I was at Woodcraft dtore the other day and saw this bench top silicone pad. Glue does not stck to the pad.
The come in three sizes, I bought the middle size.
Hopefully, now I wont always be cleaning my bench.

Wood River Chisel Plane

Just purchased the small chisel plane from wood river at Woodcraft.
I wanted to use this to clean up glue joins, so I bought the wood river as apposed to spending more money on the LN. The wood river is about half the cost. I bought mine on sell for $ 59.99. Out of the box there is a good feel to the plane and fits my hand nicely.
I tried it straight from the box and although it felt good in my hand, but I can tell it will need some tune up work, to get it where I want it.
I will updated after I do a tune up.

Turned wood box with lid

Turned a little box using ambrosia maple. Finished it with hemp oil. All turned from one piece of wood. Also inlayed a small button of abalone shell in top of knob on lid.

Nautical Pen kit

Nautical pen kit from Penn state industry.
I used a teak wood blank from the battleship deck, USS  North Carolina. I bought the blank from woodcraft.

Probotix CNC X90 router , First Cut

Well last night , I finally made the first cut on the CNC that looked like anything.I have been trying for a couple of days. I just could not get the router to do what I wanted it to do.


The router would go when when I thought it should go down ,or I would try a 3" letter and it wanted to cut a 10" letter. I went to the forums and found that the settings file that came with the Planet CNC USB software had to be changed for the Probotix CNC. I want lucky and some one sent me the correct file, I uploaded the new settings and things got much better.

I had one more piece of the puzzle to work out.What post processor to use with the Vertric CUT2D software. There are no choices in the drop down menu for Probotix. Again back to the forums.

I found out that the EMC2 G64 arcs choice in the drop down menu works. This works for CUT2D, V CARVE PRO and ASPIRE programs from Vectic .


Armed with this, I made very simple letter word, (my name) in CUT2D and chose the EMC2 G64 ARCS post processor went to the shop. I changed the settings file, a simple import settings from the menu and I was ready.

The router did what I expected it to do. I still have a lot to learn about CUT2D software but I am well on the way now.I am trying to decide if I should stay with CUT2D or upgrade to V Carve Pro. CUT2D is the basic program with limited design tools. V Carve pros more advanced and can do a lot more design work. It also cost a lot more 4 times as much.


At this point I am happy with the Probotix cmc ,there customer service and where I am at in the process. i will keep you up dated as I progress.Oh I did find out the hold downs in the fiber board will not work. I will be looking for a new or improved method, I may simply order the extrude aluminum base board.

Country Hutch from Fine Woodworking Magazine

On the cover of Fine Woodworking Magazine for the October 2014 issue is a hand made country hutch.
We needed extra storage in our kitchen, so I thought I would build my version of the hutch.
I ordered there plans and cut list via the Fine Woodworking Web site. I made my changes and went to work.
I used pine just as they did in their build but instead of Cherry, I decided to use Walnut. I had a few pieces left over from a tree that was cut on my wife's old home place in south Alabama. It has a nice rich dark color.
My wife helped by doing the finish, we decided to finish with a warm white milk paint rather than leaving the pine natural.
This project took me two week ends of work but really turned out nice. Btw I did not do mine all by hand tools like the people at Fine woodworking. I did use pine, walnut and finished the back with plywood instead of slats like the one in the magazine. The plans were well drawn and easy to follow and along with the magazine instruction made this an easy build.