A WoodWork in Progress

My wife is a professional photographer. As a result, she really enjoys printing and framing her favourite photos of the family. Since moving into our new home, she has had a desire to fill the walls with prints, and has been making lots of holes in the walls doing so. Her tastes in which pictures need to be featured changes often, which results in more holes. One day, while I was browsing the DIY plans at Ana-White's website , I saw some picture shelves that were in a photo there. Showed it to my wife and that was that. She needed some. It would allow her to put up her pictures and change them and their positions without making new holes in the walls. I didn't use any plans from Ana White, but the design was simple enough that it wasn't needed. This wouldn't be a complicated build. It was was composed of straight boards stuck together and finished with paint or stain. That should have been simple and headache free. It was not. By the end, I wanted to toss them into my f...

After completing the edge-grain cutting board, I decided to try something more complicated. End-grain cutting boards are more difficult, because there is more room for error, and the slightest misalignment will show up very clearly, and usually only after the glue has dried. Much of the process is the same as with an edge-grain, so I thought I could do it. I had learned a lot on the previous project, so I headed back to the WoodSource store to get some nice hardwood. This wood would need to be twice as thick as the previous boards, because I had a goal of making a checkerboard pattern with squares, and a thicker board. I didn't want the squares to be small, so my wood needed to be about 2" thick. I chose Padauk and Purple Heart. I bought Brazilian Walnut also, which can be used for another project later. At this stage, my equipment was still a bit limited. I had: circular saw drill and driver sliding compound mitre saw router Cutting boards are really dependent on the wood bei...