One of the habits I've developed over the years is to stay focused on one project at a time. This is the only way that I don't end up with a shop full of half finished projects. With ADD like mine I can easily get distracted by new exciting project ideas. This past year I spent a lot of time making the Media Cabinet. While I was doing that I came across numerous ideas for other small projects that I really wanted to do, but I had to just make a list of them and press on with the Media Cabinet. Since finishing that project I've finally had a chance to knock out some of the smaller projects that I've wanted to tackle. This time around they seem to all be tools of some sort.
Category: Misc
Create Your Own Custom Heirloom Screwdrivers
I've been wanting to make my own set of wooden handled screwdrivers for several years but I was never able to find a source for screwdriver shafts. In 2008 while attending the Woodworking In America conference in Berea, KY I had an opportunity to chat with Rob Lee, the owner of Lee Valley, a supplier of premier quality woodworking tools. I told him that I though they should make a turning kit for screwdrivers and that I was sure many more woodworkers would be interested in creating their own screwdrivers. He wrote the idea down in a little notebook and said that he'd pass it by his product guys when he got back. I didn't think too much more about it. Then, this summer a Lee Valley catalog arrived in my mailbox and inside the front cover was a Screwdriver Turning Kit, exactly as I had requested
It’s a Chicken Coop!
Although fine woodworking is my passion, there comes a time when SWMBO doles out the honey do's. This spring my wife decided that she HAD to have chickens at the house. When we began to price chicken coops I almost croaked! $1200 and up! So I said what most handy spouses say "No way! I can build that!" I built a small 2' square pine box to use as a brooder when the new 2-day old chicks arrived. They quickly out grew that and moved on to a cardboard wardrobe box. We saw the end in sight for that too. A real coop was needed and sooner rather than later. I spent a little time researching chicken coops online. I found one I really liked and the fit our needs well and reverse engineered it from photo's.
