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.