I build lots of stuff for the shop, often to practice and to experiment with techniques. Most of this stuff isn't worth picturing, but some pieces—especially those that I finish—are worth a peek.
Blade Box. I finally built this box to store my table saw blades. The white disks keep the blades from bending and keep the teeth off the slide out shelves. The box is finished in 3 coats of satin polyurethane. 8/03.
Small Drawers. I store sandpaper in this small set of drawers, which fits in a cabinet. The side-hung drawers are made from cherry scraps from the dining room table and the box joints were cut en masse on the WoodRat. The finish is 3 coats of Minwax water-based varnish. These drawers are so handy that I built two more sets pictured in the middle below. The smaller set, shown in detail on the right, has two 2" drawers and four 1" drawers. I milled some L-shaped walnut drawer pulls and glued them into notches routed in the drawer fronts. The cases for these sets are finished with satin polyurethane, and the drawers are finished with 1 coat of shellac and 4 coats of Deft lacquer. 9/03, 5/04.
Planer Cart. This rolling cart is sized so the planer fits under the cutoff storage unit shown in the shop tour. The carcass and drawer fronts are maple shop plywood, and the drawers are Baltic birch with some extra 3/4-extension drawer slides (which I'll probably replace with full-extension slides). I used biscuits to build the drawer boxes; not fancy but very strong and an overall excellent technique. The top is 1/2" MDF, and I sprayed 1 coat of 2lb cut shellac followed by 3 coats of Sikkens water-based urethane. I usually brush Sikkens, but I found it sprays very well, too. 10/03.
Lumber Rack. The article "Cherry Chest of Drawers" in Fine Woodworking (#170, 6/2004, p. 50) mentioned that the wood came from Irion Lumber. I've been unhappy with the cherry from my local source, so, after some investigation, I ordered 200bf of plain cherry in 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4. I needed someplace to store this lumber and the 50bf of alder I purchased recently. By some stroke of luck, the very next issue of FWW (#171, 8/2004) described an interesting and inexpensive wood-storage system made from 1" electrical conduit and 2x4s (see p. 18). This system works so well that I built the two racks shown below in my cavernous (and lighted) crawl space; the photo on the right is a closeup of the left rack. I used 14", 15", and 16" sections of conduit on both racks. The vertical supports rest on the foundation so that it carries most of the load. 6/04.
