When I picked up my little Delta bandsaw way back when, the first thing I wanted to use it for was a bandsaw box. It’s a simple technique where you start with a solid block of wood and cut it up then glue it back together in such away that you have a little “box” at the end. This one is made from laminated pieces of oak and alder and finished with shellac.

When my youngest was about one he was obsessed with chairs and stools so I made him this simple little stool out of 4x4 scraps and some black pipe.

My wife asked if I could make a “rustic industrial” console table for her. This is what I came up based on what I had in the shop. The wood for the top is 100+ year old barn oak that was actually being used as I shelf in my shop when we bought our home. It was rough sawn and had who knows how many years of dirt and grime on it. Not to mention an old paint can had been sitting on the corner long enough to create a twist in the board. I cleaned up the board in the planer and discovered absolutely beautiful color and grain. This is the piece that made me realize what was possible with reclaimed lumber.

This piece was part of my first large batch of bottle stoppers and beer bottle openers. I wanted to make gifts for all of my siblings and siblings in law. So I got to work producing six sets of matching stoppers and openers. All from tiny scrap pieces glued into turning blanks. This is my favorite way to use scrap material. In my shop, nothing goes to waste. My brother in-law uses this opener to this day and that is really cool. It’s made from oak scraps from the console table build and scraps of 1/4” plywood slats that were salvaged from my sons old bed.

My wife and I both have stretched ear lobes so it wasn’t long after I got my lathe that I started making plugs for us. These are made from Aromatic cedar that I rescued from the mulch plant that I used to work at.

For my mother and father in-law’s 50th anniversary I made them this Maple clock. The idea was that time is the most precious gift one can give as it’s all we truly have in this world. So a gift of time seemed an appropriate way to celebrate 50 years together. The Face is from a scrap piece of spalted maple that my brother in-law gave me as a wedding present. This only added to the meaning of the piece. Turning something from the start of our marriage into a piece to honor the legacy of there’s. The rim is made from curly maple with some light spalting and much lighter color and came from a local tree that was downed in a storm. This contrast of colors within the same species of wood is one of the things I love about maple. The hands and dots are brass.

Another shot of the anniversary clock to show the figure.

My brother in-law owns and operates a furniture shop/store and as a wedding gift he gave me a huge box of scraps. In that box was a piece of cherry that had a bit rot in it but the colors were so cool I couldn’t bare to throw it out. So one day I started carving the rotted bit out and a sort of river shape started to appear. I kept carving and thinking about what I’d do with it. Then it hit me. I cut through the middle of the “river” on the bandsaw to create a void that I could then fill with epoxy. I built out he side to hide the LEDs and give it more substance along with a bit of contrast. This piece is made of Cherry, Maple, and Yellow Birch.

After making a few cutting boards for family gifts and customers, my wife asked why I hadn’t made one for us yet. So this is what I came up with. This is made from Cherry, Wenge, and Hard Maple.

This an experiment in different styles of plugs. These were made from some walnut scraps. I used a piece with some sapwood to create some contrast.

My first craft show was to benefit a church and part of the entry fee was a donated item. So I made these. This material was so absolutely beautiful. It was mind blowing! The picture really doesn’t do it justice. Of course this came back to bite me as most people saw these and bought a raffle ticket to try and win them instead of buying one of my other pieces. That day, I learned not to donate your nicest piece.

This isn’t the first bowl I turned but it is the first nice one. I bought the blank that was used to make this at a Rockler store after my first craft show. The figure in it is incredible and almost doesn’t look real. The cost of the blank made it unprofitable to sell so I use it as a display for the tops I sell at shows.

Last Christmas, I had a ton of fun making seaonal items for shows. These little snowmen were no exception. They were a fun challenge to my turning skills and my ability to batch pieces. The bodies are Ash and the hats on the first two are Tornillo and African Mahogany on the last.

A colleciton of stoppers and openers. All of these have sold but I love this picture. The variety in form and material is really cool to me and one of things I love about turning.

Front LtoR: Polyesther Resin in irridescant green, Spalted Maple, Clear Polyesther Reisn w/ Suspended Mahogany Shavings, Hard Maple, Ecopoxy UVpoxy w/ “merlot” formica pigment

Middle: Hard Maple, Walnut

Back: Curly Spalted Maple, Walnut and Maple, Spalted Maple

When I made the maple clock for my in-laws, there were tiny scraps of that beautiful spalted maple. I made turning blanks form what I could but there were still little “shards” of wood that were too small to glue into blanks. After some thought i realized I could make jewelry out of them. This pendant was one of the pieces I made. I wanted a faceted look so i started sanding it and discovered a crack in the piece when it fall apart into a few small pieces. there was a small chunk that instantly disappeared, so i filled the gaps and repaired the piece with black tinted resin and it actually made it even better! Happy accidents.