Skill Builder: Building Woodworking Low Horses
Hone your woodworking skills while creating a useful shop tool by creating these simple, lovely, and very useful Japanese “low horses.”
woodworking
Build a Simple, Sturdy Wooden Table
MAKE engineering intern Nick Raymond can’t get enough of making. When he’s not at the Make: Lab building projects for upcoming issues of MAKE, he’s at his home workshop crafting useful objects like surfboard slip covers, light boxes, and this solid, classic wooden table, which he documented and shared with the community on Make: Projects. […]
Making the Perfect Set of Spoons for Percussion
Redditor zimian’s friend had trouble finding the perfect set of spoons to play. Not only did they need to sound good but they also needed to stand up to the abuse they’d receive during a performance. Zimian’s uncle helped them create a custom set of spoons and they documented the process, which took about six […]
Ten Easy Woodworking Projects
I’ve built a lot of stuff with wood in my life, but I do not consider myself a “woodworker” by any stretch of the imagination. When I evaluate a project that uses wood, personally, what I look for is the maximum cool result for the least amount of technical skill and work. Here, then, are ten of my personal favorite bangiest-for-the-buck wooden projects from the vault. Enjoy!
Wooden library, Italian-style
The collection, housed at the University of Padua’s Center for the Study of the Alpine Environment, was manufactured in the 19th century or before. Each specimen consists of a 7.5x5x1.5-inch book-shaped box, executed in the wood of the subject tree, which opens to display samples of that tree’s seedling, leaves, flowers, seeds, fine roots, sawdust, charcoal, and ash. The spines are bound with samples of the tree’s bark, and of course everything is labeled. [Thanks, loondawg!]
Inside the San Francisco Fire Department’s wooden ladder shop
San Francisco, as many of our regular readers will know from experience, is hilly, and can be windy. It has many narrow, winding roads and lots of low-hanging power lines. Which is why the SFFD is the only major US fire department still using wooden ladders–they don’t conduct electricity, and won’t fault a power line to ground in the event of an accident. The SFFD ladder shop made its first wooden ladder in 1917, and they’re still crankin’ em out today, using Douglas Fir timbers that are first aged 15 years in the shop itself. Very cool maker story and an excellently produced video from Adam Kaplan of ASK Media Productions. [via Gizmodo]
How-To: Plycycle!
Instructables user LongToe, inspired by design student John Hobson, borrowed tools and techniques from plywood kayak construction to make this beautiful laminated Baltic birch bicycle frame. Best of all, he shows us how.
