Builds
Every project from the shop, written up honestly: what went right, what didn't, and what each one was the first time for. Plus tutorials, tool reviews and the odd street find.
Making IKEA Look Expensive
I wanted to make something nice again, so I put an oak top across two IKEA bookcases. Then I glued two panels end to end, remembered how grain works about an hour too late, and spent the rest of the build repairing my way to something defensible.
February 2, 2026
A Workbench, Some Shelves, and a Bucket That Kept Imploding
I gave myself three tools for Christmas and immediately needed somewhere to put them. So: a folding workbench, shelves for a garage that isn't level, and a dust collection setup that destroyed bucket after bucket before a T adapter and some tape finally solved it.
January 25, 2026
Never Tell Me the Odds
Meet the new Cutting Board Designer. Pick a style and two woods, and it draws your board to scale, spins it in 3D, counts the wood and walks you through every cut. Everything my butcher block ran without.
December 20, 2025
Pine Is Fine. I Bought Walnut Anyway
After one pine side table, pine felt like ordering chicken tenders at a fancy restaurant. So I found walnut in the back of a veneer warehouse, drove it home in the kids' booster seats, and spent four weeks earning a real butcher block.
December 3, 2025
I Bought a Circular Saw and Declared Myself a Woodworker
I bought three tools and declared myself a woodworker. Then my 2x3s turned out smaller than their name, the first leg I cut went straight onto the floor, and the pocket holes started smoking. My drink got its table anyway.
November 3, 2025