One more thing.   I have a Shopsmith in the bedroom shop.  great machine when set up right.  One thing you can't do is use a zero clearance insert and adjust the blade by regular means.  Had a an old 1993 American woodworker with this fence in it. Made some modifications and its just turns out to be a great thing.  Way more handy than I even thought in the beginning.   Going to  make some for my router tables.

Reckon its been a while again so I will put this on here for those who are frugal and want to use two liter bottles for prep storage.  I describe it in more detail here.  Not big time woodworking but useful

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/specialty-forums/survival-emergency-preparedness/460935-2-liter-bottle-filler-including-flour.html#post6197309

Gettin Lucky

A  few scraps from the wood pile, some time and little linseed/beeswax/turpentine to bring out the beauty and a guy can get lucky

Just been on a break and made a few boxes from scrap. Tried some new things.  Hidden hinges , wood hinges,  spalted woods, book style

Well haven't been here for a while.  But been busy doing more windows.   Just uploaded 44 pics.  You can go here and see how an old TN hillbilly builds them without anything too fancy :)

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100847892867924761353/albums/5737772358549260577

Making Windows

Here is a cheap and easy window build.  I'm going to be doing a bunch of windows over the next couple months.  This thing can literally be built with just a table saw and a few hand tools. Uses regular dimension lumber. In this case a 1x6 and some 2x2.  From here you can refine it into all kind of things..  Some of the experts might not think much of it, but its a place to start.  I will go a full double hung as I proceed.  These are the most environmentally friendly windows there are.  They got a bad rap because they last 50-100 years and no one does even a little maintenance on them, except slap some paint on them and all over the glass..  Your modern thermopanes are lucky to last 10-20 years and are way more expensive.  But most of us would rather pay triple than hang a storm window.  But even the storm can be left on year around nowadays since we have air conditioned homes.

The Bedroom Workshop  

Back again. My hats off to people who have their own shop, blog, twitter and sell their stuff and can keep up.  I haven’t learned yet    i would be interested in any and all comments!

Let’s talk about a “Bedroom Workshop”.  :)  
Being single and living in a three bedroom home has advantages. :)   Generally as I have lived here its gets pretty cold from mid December till about the end of March.   Heating an 1800 sq ft pole building is either expensive or you work a lot in the cold.    Last summer was thinking about this and got to thinking about the way we use to do carpenter work when I was young in the 50’s when you didn’t need your house in 90 days..  Back then we would frame in the warm weather and when cold weather came on we moved inside to trim the place out.     My idea then was to build a lot of project carcasses and then finish them up in the house when it got cold.   That meant turning an unused bedroom into a minishop. And that is exactly what I did.   I built a new workbench, sort of a hybrid, from things I have learned from my other three benches I use and the fact that “storage” was important.

I like working with hand tools but not everything.   So I dusted off the old shopsmith I used for sanding and made it and the new bench the focal for the “New bedroom Workshop” :)   And here are the pics of how it looks now.

  I got a room full of stuff to finish.  A lot of it was in the last pics I posted.   So far I love it.  Using hand tools has proved to not to make the space seemed so cramp and I have had to learn and adapt some new techniques.  But day by day I am finishing a project or two.  If I need I can sneak out to the big shop for to do something I can’t accomplish inside.  Now I just have to sell a bunch of it :)

The down side: It’s been mostly warm and in the 50’s this winter :)