Optimus Prime

I've wanted to make a larger, "real life", surfboard for a while now, and was perusing Pinterest when I came across a "folding" surfboard chair. That was all it took to inspire me, and I came up with this design. 

It's different than the one I saw online, and from other "bog" chairs, as they are known, since this one slides back together to resemble an actual surfboard. I chose cedar and fir so that I would get the contrasting tones, and because hardwoods would have made the board too heavy, and expensive! $35 in wood and a few bucks more in spar varnish.

The big kahuna

One of the requests I received was for a long (3 to 4 feet) serving tray. Hmmm... I don't have any dark hardwood strips that long to make the contrasting stripes on a board, nor the maple for the main board. But I did have a pine board that had some unique knotty feature to it, so at 42 inches, it has become the new longest of the longboards.

Beer caddy

We were off to a 50th birthday celebration recently, and I knew that the birthday boy was a British beer fan. So with a pine board that I had tucked in the rafters of the garage, I put together a caddy with some of England's finest.

More longboards

After the first batch of boards was posted on Facebook, the requests started coming in. So I grabbed some more of the hardwood and created two more longboards - Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker (distinguished by their respective dark and light sides).

Also pictured at the bottom, is my new Brazilian black walnut cutting board, with oak stripes - there was some slightly thicker pieces salvaged from the box corners, but not long enough for surfboards.

RC Board Works is born!

I've always loved the shape of surfboards... I don't know why. I suck at surfing. I should have guessed that I wouldn't like it - swimming mixed with languishing in potential shark territory - not things I'm good at. But for some reason, surfboards have always been in the back of my mind as something I'd like to do. With my new supply of hardwoods, I decided it was time to make some!

The first crop came from the loose pieces of wood that had already come off the box, and the sizes/shapes of the scraps dictated the boards you see here. The longest, at 26" is a keeper, and the rest have found their way to lucky new owners.

The curly maple has wonderful detail that really comes out once oiled and waxed... my own concoction of mineral oil and paraffin wax, melted and hand smoothed into the surface. Ready for surfin' up some tasty appetizers!

Exotic hardwoods

So a few days after the dinner party, I get a text from the aforementioned friend, asking if I would like an old box that he had built for his wife's scotch. It had been in the basement during a flood, and was falling apart, but the wood was still salvageable.

The box pictured above has three different species of wood - Peruvian walnut, Brazilian redwood and Brazilian black walnut. Also, he gave me the remnants of a curly maple table that had also fallen victim during the flood.

So now I had a very nice pile of scrap exotic hardwood... what could this be used for?

Another iPod dock

While staying at a friend's fishing cabin in the interior, we were using a Sirius boombox that was giving us trouble with the electronics. So rather than throw it away, I thought I could recycle some of the components into a new unit. Many months later, after all of the eBay components arrived, the new boombox was completed.

Unfortunately, due to the $15 amp that I ordered from eBay, the quality of the audio isn't what I expected - proves that you get what you pay for. It looks cool however, and it got noticed one evening by a dinner guest. "You're into woodworking?". Hmmm.

The Swiss peanut dispenser

While on a recent ski weekend to the Swiss Alps, we saw a neat little wooden peanut dispenser at the bar we had lunch at. I thought to myself, "I can make that". And so here it is.

Oak boards - what to do with them?

The woodworking story continues when my father-in-law arrives one day with a bunch of re-claimed oak boards in varying thicknesses and sizes. So far, my woodworking had been limited to softwoods like cedar and fir, or simply re-finishing the radio cabinetry etc. This delivery opened up a whole new set of possibilities that I had not yet imagined.

The prototype iPhone stand

Being an Apple geek, we have at least a half-dozen iPod/iPhone/iPad devices around the house, and one of the things I thought I could make with the oak was some stands for them. The first one was perfect for my iPhone 5, so I started onto the MkI iPad stands.

One with integrated charging cable, and one standalone holder - both using the same design as the prototype. Once posted on Facebook, the requests started coming in. So I decided to forego the notch for the home button, and just run off a bunch from a single board.

These MkII stands were great for iPhone 6 and the newer iPads, but I found that some recipients were using rubber cases on their phones, and they would not sit properly in the slot. So back to the drawing board!

And so we arrive at the current generation of stands - the MkIII pictured above (unfinished) dual device holders with charging cable access. I've also made them in a slightly lower profile version without charging cable ports in the bottom.

Lounging on the patio

This old house has seen a lot of transformation since we moved in in 2005. Once the main reno was done, we started chipping away slowly at other projects. One big one - it took over two years - was the transformation of the back yard. A lot of "hardscaping" and endless hours of work added more patio space, and so we needed something to relax on.

I reclaimed some cedar boards that were hiding an ugly area of patio below the clematis, and fashioned them into folding loungers. Great for using as benches around the firepit, or when folded into loungers, to catch some rays in the backyard.

Finally, a coffee table

We've tried hard to keep our 1938 house in the period, by using antiques and finishings that are close to the era. We struggled to find a coffee table for the living room that would fit in, until Christine found an old table/desk on Craigslist. It had a warped and cracked top that was added or changed after, but you could see that it was an old base.

Anyhow, since it was no longer original, I had no problem cutting down the round pillars (which you can't see from the pic above) and then I created a new tabletop with a sheet of oak plywood. I added thickness to the edge with MDF, and then hid the plywood edge with oak veneer. You'd have to get pretty close to see that they don't belong together, and we think it fits in well with our living room.

Electronic diversions

Another side interest of mine is electronics, especially if related to audio. I've always been dabbling in either car audio, home stereo or anything in-between. Meld woodworking with audio? Awesome!

Ok, so there isn't a lot of "woodworking" involved here. But what you can't see, is that this 1930s "tombstone" radio has been converted to a fully functional iPod dock. With a set of self-amplified speakers I picked up on Craigslist, I was able to re-finish this Marconi radio and bring it back to life!

Woodworking?

What is RC Board Works, and where did it come from? To really understand the history, I guess you would have to go way back to my childhood, where I started to demonstrate an aptitude/desire to do things with my hands. Since my father's tools were very limited, the creativity of my projects were also pretty limited. Fast forward to my adult years, and I felt the need to have a garage, not just to house some of the fleet, but to put my creative hands to use.

So back in 2005, we finally bought a house with a two car garage - yippee! Well, not so fast there pal. The "fixer-upper" required lots of work, of which I/we felt that I could do most of the basic stuff myself. For this, I'd need some power tools, and ended up acquiring most of the basics - table saw, miter saw, router, and a number of other items that you need to do your own kitchen cabinet replacement. A byproduct of the reno, was a stack of 1/2" cedar boards that covered many surfaces in the house... yes, even the ceiling in some rooms! So rather than throw it away, I decided to rip the tongues (broken during demo) and stack it up for future projects.

 Cedar planters for both sides of the front stairs... you know what they say, happy wife, happy life!

So every once in a while, I'd come up with an idea where I could re-use this cedar (along with other wood that I had reclaimed). The deck needed a little table between the Adirondack chairs, as well as a bin for our recyclables.

But this was stuff that was created out of necessity, and not too much creativity went into them. Plus, they were relatively simple to make, even though they end up taking days to construct and finish.

The collapsible bar and matching cooler were my next use of the cedar, and have been very popular pieces during our many outdoor (and indoor) events.

As I neared the end of the pile of cedar, the projects needed to get smaller, and so the last bits were used for some chickadee birdhouses. Most were given away as gifts, but the one we have hung on our garage has had numerous occupants and offspring!