HEC (Home Entertainment Center)

A few months ago, my grandmother passed, and Tina and I drove out to Clyde, OH to attend her funeral.  On our way back to New York, we went through Warren, PA where Tina's mother grew up.  Warren was once a major supplier of lumber for the US.  Now not so much.  But there was one mill still open and we went to go see it.  It was awesome!  And one of the woods that they mill is Curly Maple.  It is beautiful, and so interesting to look at.  I had to buy some.  We got the guys to cut the pieces down so they would fit in the rental car, and we brought them back home.  Now they are the doors to our HEC.  Maybe soon they will also be a bench for the kitchen table.

 I like this because it's so small.  We've always been annoyed at how the TV becomes the center point of a room.  For the most part, all of our electronics fit inside, as does our small DVD collection and also some of the coffee table books that normally take up too much space on the table.

 Generally speaking I'm not very good at colors.  I don't understand how they work together, or why they don't work together.  But Tina helped out a bunch with this, and I think that it came out pretty good.  The exterior is a unassuming grey...It'd be nice to do this again with a lacquer finish.

Guitar Head

Guitar Head

Maple and Walnut

Polyurethane finish

This is a fun project that I did for a friend.  Originally I had intended to stain the outside a much darker color, but once it all went together it was too nice to color it.

Walnut End Tables

End Tables

Walnut, Maple, Purple Heart, and brass watch parts

Tung Oil finish

This pair was built to go into the same living room as the Ouija table.  The crescent shape is solid brass that came out of an old stop watch.  The brass pieces work so well with these table because they go with the Ouija Coffee Table.  A lot of the imagery on the Ouija board itself looks like the crescent shape. 

The interior of the table is a drawer box that is just big enough for a magazine or a nice print.  It make a functional display case.  The purple heart is fun to work with, and it makes a nice subtle accent.

Oak Coffee Table

Oak Coffee Table

Oak and Mahogany

Tung Oil finish

This is the first time that I inlaid a key.  In hindsight it seems a little risky to make your first attempt in the top of a solid oak table, but seeing as how this one is for my house, it's just fine.  I'm getting better at inlays.  Maybe a wishbone sometime soon.

Floating Ouija Coffee Table

Floating Ouija Coffee Table
American Walnut and Curly Maple
Tung Oil finish

The Ouija table that is in the middle of this is custom made by a wonderful artist named Florian Bertmer.  Please check out his blog here

Tricky joinery makes the whole think look like it's floating.  Thank you James Krenov for the inspiration.

Every piece has a slight curve to it.  This is something that has always seamed very daunting to me, but once getting my system down, they went pretty smooth.  This is what they look like as I rough them out on the band saw.

Once all the legs we close, I used the large belt sander to get them a little closer to their final shape.  This is a new tool to me, and I'm learning all this great stuff you can do with it.  Anything with a curve becomes very easy to sand with this machine.  Also, this helps with some more of the sculptural aspects of wood work.  Curves are fun because they aren't as rigid as angles.  It's real easy to get carried away.

These are all the little pieces with all their mortice and tenons.

CLAMPED!

Walnut Entertainment Center

Entertainmanet Center-Walnut
Hand rubbed oil finish



This project was built and designed by Wishbone Woodworking but I can only take partial credit on this.  Max was the main builder for this project, and it came out so nice that I wanted to post it here on the site.





Behind the doors are maple cabinets with adjustable shelving for DVD's and storage.  The doors are on touch latches and open easily with a bump to the doors.

Kitchen Table

Kitchen Table-Maple and American Walnut

Hand rubbed Tung Oil finish

I feel like making a kitchen table is a big deal.  Its always been something that has intimidated me since I started building furniture.  Families are made around the kitchen table.  The conversations that are had, the delicious food that is served, the homework and science projects that are done around a table make memories for a life time.  I hope that the family who now owns this will thrive and prosper, and maybe, this table will be a pretty thing that stays with them for a long time.






This is the clamp up for the table top.  It was done in three steps to make sure everything stayed flat and equal.

This is the mortise and tenon that holds the legs to the table top. 

Hidden Key Dressers

Dressers-American Walnut and Maple
Hand rubbed oil finish

These dressers were designed by myself and close friend Seth Babb for Wishbone Woodworking. They were built for a very talented artist named Myles Karr. You can check out some of his work here.


A subtle concave in the face of the walnut adds dimension to each face. This small detail was very challenging and took quite a bit of time. Totally worth it in the end.

I've collected keys for as long as I can remember, and finally I have found a use for some of them. As doing inlay work becomes more common, it's fun finding small flat things to put into furniture projects. Hidden within a few of the drawers are these little gems from the 1930's.


The bow tie joints are made of a wood called cocobolo. A real treat to work with, but so expensive that it may have to be for just small things at this point.


This is what the dressers started as...


All of the pieces were ran through the table saw perpendicular to the blade to start to get the concave. Each drawer face was passed through the saw 25 times to get the concave close enough to start to work it it by hand...That's 250 passes through the saw to get a 3/8" concave!


Then it each face was hand planed to smooth out the surface.

Next was using the scraper across the grain to further smooth it out before being able to get into using sand paper.


This is what they looked like before putting the straight maple piece along the sides and sanding.