I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must say!)
by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

Anyone got any ideas?

I've got a drill, jigsaw, ROS , Compound mitre saw, router, & numerous
handtools.

Any ideas appreciated.

Ta,

Sam

Sam Berlyn wrote:
I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must
say!) by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

(We had a conversation in abpw.... g)

For usefulness (IMO g) it is hard to beat turning two pieces of wood into
an inclined desktop bookcase. See abpw.

-- Mark

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:16:19 -0000, "Sam Berlyn"
wrote:

I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must say!)
by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

Anyone got any ideas?

I've got a drill, jigsaw, ROS , Compound mitre saw, router, & numerous
handtools.

Any ideas appreciated.

Ta,

Sam



work small. use the maximum you can from the wood. get good wood.

make stuff people need. useless gift items suck.

boxes are always in style.
cutting boards.

Lol

Sam


"Mark Jerde" wrote in message
news:VFosd.808$S33.690@trnddc03...
Sam Berlyn wrote:
I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must
say!) by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

(We had a conversation in abpw.... g)

For usefulness (IMO g) it is hard to beat turning two pieces of wood
into
an inclined desktop bookcase. See abpw.

-- Mark

s wrote:

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:16:19 -0000, "Sam Berlyn"
wrote:


I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must say!)
by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

Anyone got any ideas?

I've got a drill, jigsaw, ROS , Compound mitre saw, router, & numerous
handtools.

Any ideas appreciated.

Ta,

Sam




work small. use the maximum you can from the wood. get good wood.

make stuff people need. useless gift items suck.

boxes are always in style.
cutting boards.

trivits, picture frames, key chain fobs,...
j4

Greetings and Salutations....

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:16:19 -0000, "Sam Berlyn"
wrote:

I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must say!)
by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

good news. both you and your family win when you do this.
They get a unique present...you increase your skill levels.

Anyone got any ideas?

I've got a drill, jigsaw, ROS , Compound mitre saw, router, & numerous
handtools.

Any ideas appreciated.

Ta,

Sam


Hum.. An interesting assortment of tools. Hopefully you have
a chunk of time in the next week or two to get these done. I know
that *I* am woefully short of time...but, that is just me *smile*.

1) Boxes (as mentioned in other posts) are always good. With
a good miter bit in the router, you can make nice, accurate joints
that will glue up tight. I would use a fairly nice, figured wood
for these...say, Bird's Eye or Quilted Maple, etc.
Boxes are a good choice too, because you can cut out a bunch
of them in a batch, so, it can go quickly. Since you really need
about a week for the finish to set properly, speed is good here.
Also, I see you list a jigsaw...Get some good blades,
and, you can quickly cut out patterns from the sides or lid of
the box...(although that DOES add to the work).
2) Jigsaw puzzles. Make a nice, smooth rectangle of
a pretty (but not overly figured) wood and cut a 15-20 piece
jigsaw puzzle out of it. Good for all...better for the younger
crowd.
3) A jigsawed manger scene, with a wooden box to hold all
the pieces would be good. I made several of these some years ago,
and, (to combine genres), the box was the "stable", and, there was
pretty much only ONE way all the pieces would fit into it.

Good luck.
Dave Mundt

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:16:19 -0000, "Sam Berlyn"
wrote:

making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

Go to the library (big library). Thumb through a bunch of books. A
stream of pictures will give you more ideas than text usenet can.

You can make 4 matching pieces in the time of 2 different ones.

Make things people want - as bridger put it so well,
"useless gifts suck"

At a guess, jigsawn plywood shapes with routed edges are going to
figure highly. It's a quick technique and lets you make lots of
different things with the same skills. Use _good_ birch ply - it'll
save a lot of effort on getting a decent finish, and the surface and
edges are usually good enough to look attractive just under a couple
of coats of shellac.

If you get a sheet of 1/2" or 3/8" birch ply in now, and keep the
bottom edge off the ground so it doesn't get wet, you'll never regret
having it around. You can make lots of stuff from this.

You have very little time left !

I like making keepsake boxes and serving trays, there simple and with a
little work very nice, upholster the inside of the keep sake box by cutting
a pice of paper board to fit each side then put a little pice of Quilt
batting for padding on it then wrap and then cut a pice of fabric so it's
3/4" wider on all side then your panel with the corners cut diagonally so
there isn't overlay on the back then glue the fabric to the panel using
fabric tace, contact cement, etc. then glue the panel into your box, turns
a so-so box into something much more attractive, here are some of the one I
made last year,
http://clemnet.org/~richard/pics.php...odWorking_pics

click on the project name or image to see more pics of that project and yes
the site is ugly, it's under construction, I work on computes all day at
work so when I get home for some reason I'm more interested in working in
the shop then on my web site, imagine that


Sam Berlyn wrote:

I would like to show off my woodworking skills (not that many I must say!)
by making Xmas pressies for friends/relatives

Anyone got any ideas?

I've got a drill, jigsaw, ROS , Compound mitre saw, router, & numerous
handtools.

Any ideas appreciated.

Ta,

Sam

Simple Xmas ideas..

Group: rec.woodworking Date: Sat, Dec 4, 2004, 7:16pm (EST+5)
(Sam=A0Berlyn) wonders:
snip Anyone got any ideas? snip

Of course. Impress the crap out of them with hand-made personal
treasure chests. http://www.bconnex.net/~zirgo/treasure/treasure.html

You really need to start checking the archives.



JOAT
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind dont
matter, and those who matter dont mind.
- Dr Seuss