Woodshed

This is a woodshed I built in the fall of 2008. It's all rough-cut, green hemlock from a local yard. It's about 6'x8' and should hold about 2 cords of wood if I pack it good and tight.
It's a very simple foundation: the corner posts just rest on a stone that sits on crushed stone. I used this project to learn how to cut rafters and build roof trusses. They came out pretty close to what I wanted. Next time, I'll just build a regular gable roof rather than try the shed roof. I didn't really get the shed roof proportions right so if I did another roof like this, I'd need to do some more studying on the correct measurements, etc.
The woodshed served us well this past winter. I already have a few cords of wood cut into rounds that needs to be split. Once it's split, I'll fill the shed up again.

Peel Follow-Up

We used the pizza peel last night for the first time. It worked just fine. A good measure of how it worked is the fact that we were much more focused on the pizza itself then we were on the tools we were using to make it. The peel just functioned and took its place in the story behind a successful meal. Note that we used corn meal on the peel to be sure the pizza would slide off.
Sarah's pizza was delicious!

Pizza Peel

Sarah has taken to making homemade pizza for us on the weekends. She's using a baking stone which needs to be heated up in the oven prior to baking. The problem with that is that it's really hard to lay out a pizza on a 500-degree pizza stone. Hence the need for a pizza peel.

I didn't want to spend any money on it so I used 3/4" pine that I had in the shop already. The pizza stone is 13" in diameter so I didn't need to build a giant, restaurant style peel. I edge-glued (with biscuits) two pieces of 1x5 on either side of a longer 1x3 to get a peel that's about 12" wide.

Once the glue had cured, I drew the curves on it as well as the taper. It tapers to a quarter inch on both sides. After cutting the handle out and curves, I hand planed the taper on both sides. Since this is just a prototype that uses what I had on hand, there are a couple knots on the leading edge of the peel that made planing and finishing a bit awkward. If Sarah likes it then I'll build another with better wood that's clearer to make it look better and easier to finish.

The finish is just a coat of mineral oil.

Study Nook

We've been wanting to build this study nook since we moved into the house. As the kids get older, we needed a place for homework that was not the kitchen island so I built this. The desk itself wasn't difficult to design; it was figuring out the shelves that kept me from doing the project. I don't have a router at this time so this was keeping me from doing it. Once I decided to attach the shelves with pocket screws, it all came together for me.

The shelf unit is about 34" x 44". It's made from a 3/4" piece of birch plywood that was left over from the house construction.

The desk is 28 1/2" deep by 45 3/4" wide. There's a u-shaped support screwed into studs in the wall made of 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" supports cut from 2x4s. The top is two pieces of 1/2" A/C plywood glued together. The nook isn't square so the top took some fussing to get in place.

Why Proud Hands?

In 2003 I was involved in a project to build a new classroom building at the kids' school. I started out on a committee doing the planning and ended up donating dozens of volunteer labor hours. I did everything from helping build a stone retaining wall to laying acres of flooring. I installed kitchens, trimmed windows and doors, put down subfloors and hardwood floors, all kinds of things.

One day I was talking with the architect on the project and was embarrassed by all the cuts, nicks, and scrapes on my hands. Rather than talk down to me, as he could easily have done, he complimented me instead. He said my hands showed how much work I had done and that they were called "proud hands" in the trades. Now, I'm not a fine woodworker or carpenter by any stretch but that compliment and the memory of all the work I did always makes me feel good.