This is the gaze of a man who doesn’t want to start over. That’s what I normally look like when turning anything. Total focus and somewhere in the back of my head hoping I secured the wood to the lathe correctly. Reader Rboyett, however, is probably just thinking about how the taper on his cup should look.

Our collective hats are off to all the turners out there cranking out bad-ass stuff. I recently made a few attempts to turn a few projects myself; though they were very similar to cups you might have seen before, the quality of my craftsmanship will not be displayed at any art shows anytime soon — or ever, on any planet we know of.

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A favorite past time of mine is to see what I can turn scrap into out in the shop. It seems others like reader Jeffrey Immer play the same game. Jeff turned his pile of scrap into this sweet desk set.

Of course “scrap” is a relative term that differs from one shop to another; however I can say that I don’t see anything here other than hardware I couldn’t go to the scrap pile right now and duplicate — so we’re calling this one a fair ball. We love the construction of Jeff’s desk and the simple pieces it took to make it.

It’s not like other projects you might see on TV where they just found hundreds of dollars worth of rare, perfect hardwood lying around. That doesn’t happen to anyone but Norm and the guys at a lumber mill.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Once again reader Jeffrey Immer takes basic materials to the extreme with his newest toolbox. From a guy who builds bridges and buildings out of 2×4’s and ply, a big-ass toolbox must have been an afternoon project.

officially dubbed the Giant tool box of Awesomeness, or GTBA for short, my tools were being removed from all there hiding places so I made this to lock them, it has to moved by forklift and I estimate it to weigh in around 2500-3000 pounds with everything in it empty it was not too heavy. it is made with 5/8 ply and 2×8’s cut down to 2×4s and 2×2s and lots of screws, took me about a day to build. 8′x4′x 42″ tall

I wouldn’t have thought of making a one-ton toolbox before seeing this, but I can definitely see the appeal. Jeff wins the “my toolbox is bigger than yours” contest – hands down.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

This is long-time reader Peter P. who is starting to blast the paint off his soon-to-be amphibious ride. We’ve never tried this method in the Toolmonger shop — normally opting for bead blasting ourselves — here Peter is working a soda blast rig.

Soda Blasting is relatively new, as far as we know, but the proponents of the system say it’s the new hotness to strip paint and/or clean hard surfaces. The blasting machine uses compressed air to pump baking soda onto the surface to be stripped. It’s about the same as sand blasting, but less abrasive as far as we’ve heard.

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The proverbial heart-shaped box — I think almost anyone who has attempted woodworking has cranked one of these bad boys out at one time or another. This one is the handywork of long-time reader Beano_T.

For those of you who have never put one together, there are two ways to go about it. Cut the shape and hollow it out and do the same for the lid, or cut the box, cut it in half, and cut the sides out of flat stock and glue it all up.

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Many woodworkers make drawers out to be a beast that cannot be tamed by fire or steel, when in fact they can be quite simple to build. Case in point: reader Flabby Boohoo stuffed these keepsake drawers into the bookcase he’s building.

Before anyone jumps the gun and lets loose the slings and arrows of carpentry finish work, we can see that when open, the drawers show the ply lines. However since Flabby Boohoo was going for a nice piece of furniture and not a woodcrafting showboat, we say well done.

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We always appreciate the small things that make life easier around the shop. This homebrew vise is a fine example of what a little tinkering around will get you. Reader Matthew Byrne lets us in on his little project and even went so far as to put together an Instructable on the process.

The idea behind this project was to create a simple and useful woodworking vice that could be clamped to my makeshift workbench (my desk). As I don’t have any metal working equipment, and only a few hand tools, a wood based vice made sense. Also, the wooden clamps I made a few weeks ago have performed so well that they seemed to be a good base for the project.

It wound up looking great, and as you can see from the above pics, it doesn’t take a whole lot by way of materials to build. Check it out if you have the time — you never know when this kind of MacGyvering will come in handy.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]
Wooden vice [Instructables]

Reader Tmib_Seattle has managed to put together a badass little blacksmithing program for the local Boy Scout troop he labeled “Camp Hahobas 2009″ in the Toolmonger photo pool. Whether or not it actually is located in the historic BSA camp grounds doesn’t really matter to us, though it might be since Seattle is only about 30 miles north of Tacoma.

Check out the wicked metal bending these guys have going on and you begin to understand what Tmib is actually doing. These are kids that would probably have no exposure to blacksmithing in their lives, and a day or two spent over a fire gives them a positive, hands-on experience to take away with them. (more…)

Our friend Brad was recently schooled in the ways of mud. He fell prey to the same situation that nabs all of us at one time or another: that classic scenario where once one vehicle is stuck the quickest thing is to bring something else in to push/pull it out. Then something like this happens.

We got the Defender stuck. So we took the Dodge to pull it out. Then we got the Dodge stuck. So we took the Backhoe to pull it out. Then we got the the Backhoe stuck.

Yes it must have been a fun and very clean time for everyone involved. Having put my right foot down and plowed right into one similar to this with an airplane tug I can say this image doesn’t capture the colorful phrases and descriptive language that was most certainly going down.

What’s the lesson? Pull from outside the mud if at all possible.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Reader JDwires put together this great-looking bookcase out of hardwood oak trim and veneered ply. It’s a combo that we’ve talked about before that comes out looking traditional without having to pay traditional amounts of cash for it.

Our bookcase project didn’t have the curved pieces on the capital and foot, but was essentially very similar. It’s amazing to see how the tiniest difference or adjustment can change the whole character of a piece with a little extra effort. It looks beautiful and we’re sure JD’s bookcase will be in service for a long time.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Reader Jmillerid just built this sturdy set of steps, and rather than leaving them looking average, he decided to finish ‘em up with some bluestone. We like that he didn’t just stop after the hard part was over — he kept going and added a sweet-looking topper to each step and a brick layer for the landing.

The best porch I ever built was made from wood and siding, and it removed the desire to ever undertake such an endeavor again. If this is the end of Mr. Miller’s porch project, we say it looks great — however, we suspect there’ll be more to this still. In either case, its not every day you add something to your home that’ll be around longer than the house behind it.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

The definition of picturesque is “striking or interesting in an unusual way.” Striking: that about sums up this photo of reader Sidney French’s brother’s workshop. Even if you’d never seen a shop in your life you’d know what this is with just one look.

More than just a place to build things, this spot, wherever it is, has so much character I’d spend most of my waking moments in it if it were mine. Someone spends a lot of time here or should. From the dozens of new and old projects to the homebrew storage, quiet improvements have been going on here for a long time.

Our hats off to both the guy this shop belongs to and to Sidney for taking photo.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Sometimes the answer to the famous “What is this thing?” shop question is as fruitful as it was for reader ghb624 who was cleaning out some old hand-me-down gear and came across this piece of tool history. As it turns out, some folks tracked it down for him.

This was among the items in a box of odds & ends which I inherited. It came to me along with an old Goodell Pratt lathe which had been in the family for 60-some years. I have no idea what it is used for, and am going to post a query on an appropriate discussion forum to see what I can find out.

I found a downloadable copy of the Goodell Pratt catalog for 1926, and here is the exact item:

All right: that is officially cool. Not only does he know what it is now, but it’s pretty clear that this is where it came from. For some reason seeing a direct link to the past like this always puts a smile on our faces.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Reader 1200tec built this sweet-ass side cabinet for his well-outfitted shop. It’s the kind of rig that makes his neighbors hate him — up until the time they need help building one for their own garage. In short, it’s handy, inexpensive and looks good.

From what we can glean from the photo pool picks it’s about 8 feet tall and somewhere in the vicinity of two or three feet wide with purpose-built shelves on the interior. It’s not unlike the storage cabinet I built for my shop a while back, except 1200tec’s is more elegant and less stupid.

The finished-out doors are a nice touch as well. Just a few days spent in the shop and you’ve got more organization and storage when it’s time to put everything away — hats off and beers up to you.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

It’s a verifiable fact that working with concrete sucks. The lifting and the mixing, followed by the pouring and smoothing, all while being rushed and worried that the mix isn’t right. I can’t think of much that’s physically more demanding and that has such a big potential for a hard-to-clean mess — which is why we tip our hats to reader Jmillerid and his new front stoop.

This had to be an afternoon of fun and adventure followed by copious amounts of Advil and a nap. In his caption Jmillerid tells us that this great-looking brick and concrete monster has 1,200 lbs of mixed and poured goodness in it. We cringe at the thought but will be the first to say that it looks absolutely great. Well done, sir.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Fixing an old wooden boat is a little like trying to dam a river with a rake. The more you try to stem the flow, the more you issues you find. I don’t pretend to know a lot about ship building or repair, as my experience is limited to fiberglass boat repair, which is child’s play in comparison (which qualifies me enough to say I know enough to know I know nothing). But reader BuckarooBob has taken up the challenge of restoring this old wind rider and, like all old boats, it’s a story and a half.

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Plywood is one of the building blocks of life. Group ply with studs of almost any size and you can build damn near anything. The shed out back, the house you live in and even the furniture in it can be constructed from ply and studs. It’s a powerful combo that isn’t fully appreciated until you’ve solved a few problems with it.

From the most basic sheet ply and pine 2×4 or 2×6 combos to the extreme furniture-building applications that boast double veneered ply and solid hardwood trim, the basic composition is still the same. Span the gaps with ply and make the frame with studs.

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