Author: Jim Ashley

Husband and Dad. IT professional tech guy and woodworker. Will bring some sort of camera with me outdoors.

Toddler Sitting Bench

This is a toddler size sitting bench that my coworker friend commissioned me to build for him as a gift to his niece.

There are a couple of firsts for me on this project. I used milk paint for the first time and I’m really happy with the results. Poplar takes milk paint well. It gives color without a thick layer, keeping a nice “close to the wood” look. I also for the first time did carving using a trim router. After many practice pieces using a template and spray paint, I found the lines weren’t the most crisp. That’s when I went with adhering a printout to the board covered in blue tape, which I felt gave better results. Cleanup was done with a Dremel and then some sandpaper taped to a pencil’s eraser.

by Jim Ashley

Small Display Case | A Dad & Son Project!

I absolutely love that my son Ian came to me with a project idea that he wanted to build with me.

While the negative is that he broke his wrist a few months ago, after getting signatures from us, the kids at school and his teachers, it turned into a bit of a badge of honor. He got the idea for this project after seeing a trophy case, and wanted to build a display case for his cast. And as usual when he joins me in the shop while the camera is on, he is “the goofball”!

This was definitely some good quality dad/son time where he had fun and hopefully learned a few things along the way!

by Jim Ashley

Simple Sawhorses

Sometimes everyone needs to do some shop builds. I used to have four of the plastic sawhorses, but I killed two of them when I built my workbench. I decided that my next set would be ones that I built.

For these ones, each sawhorse gets three pieces of 2×4 cut to 32″ for the “I beam” top and 4 pieces cut to 30″ for the legs. There are many ways to do sawhorses – this type I was introduced to by Paul Meyette. Some may recognize them as well as the type Jay Bates did a few years back. I’ve linked to both of them below.

Paul Meyette sawhorse video: https://youtu.be/YnMgYdXXLJY

Jay Bates sawhorse video: https://youtu.be/zxf6xMe_PKY

by Jim Ashley

Where’s Jim Been? Life Stuff, Boston Mini Maker Faire, Lie-Nielsen Tool Event, and Some Wood Turning

Sometimes “lifestuff” happens and disrupts the normal routine of life, including shop time… The last year to year and a half have made it so I haven’t had as much shop time as I normally would have. Though both my parents passed in 2017, not all life changes are bad. I have been able to get started in wood turning recently and made some pens. Here is a quick update of what’s been going on, including a new day job, Maker Faire in Boston, and the Lie-Nielsen event at the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts (Phil Lowe’s shop) in Beverly, MA.

by Jim Ashley

Ditching the Numbers

Hi Folks, I just wanted to post a quick update that I am dropping the numbering from video posts. I’ve removed the numbering from this site and Youtube, but you will see them within the videos themselves to date, but not going forward. It seems a little antiquated to me at this point for video content that doesn’t have a large back catalog.

I hope to focus on more video content in the future and I wouldn’t want to “label” videos by how old or new they are, but rather they stand on what content they present on their own. More to come! Until then…

Keep experimenting in your shop!

Jim

by Jim Ashley

Sushi Cutting Board from David Picciuto’s ‘Make Your Own Cutting Boards’

As a wedding gift, I recently made the Sushi cutting board from David Picciuto’s book Make Your Own Cutting Boards: Smart Projects and Stylish Designs for a Hands-On Kitchen.

This cutting board really has an elegant design with an Eastern feel. The hard maple and walnut contrast nicely on a smaller project like this.

Sometimes, when shop time is at a premium, you’re really itching to use a particular tool. In this case I used my #4 smooth plane. It’s a joy to use and I believe it cut down the amount of time required to get to a smooth surface as opposed to going through each grit of sanding. I also eased many of the edges using my low angle block plane.

Buy David’s book on Amazon! – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1940611458/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_G3ZdzbEH48A0A

Check out more of David’s work at Make Something:
https://makesomething.tv/
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrunkenWoodworker

 

by Jim Ashley