Here's My Woodworking!
by Tom LeRoy
Brunswick, Maine
Click on any picture to see a larger version.
Here are a few pictures of my work. This is a plate rack that I made for my wife for Christmas...you'll see a theme here (the coffee table was a gift for her as well). I've included a pic of the first sketches I had made of plate rack ideas. I started with a colonial design with plates stored below in more of a displayed fashion and ultimately dropped the shelves that were below and used an article by Lonnie Bird about making the "gallery" of a secretary desk for the mechanics of the sliding dovetail and angled rabbet dividers. This was my first project with re-sawing and to get the visual interest of the curve (caused by housing dinner and dessert plates) I stack laminated the lower drawers. I finished the plate rack with hand rubbed tung oil/linseed. The carvings on top of the plate rack were done by me as well. The one on the left is a zig-zag bridge in a japanese garden, carved in MDF and hand painted while the right is a woodcut that I've made prints from...it is "heron reflected" carved in pine.
The coffee table below is the first project with legs that I turned. I used Moser's book to get some of the details along with some articles written by Becksvoort. I also turned the knobs. The drawer fronts are and the horizontal pieces (top dovetailed in, bottom mortised) are all from the same board.
I also wanted the top to be curved so both the long edges as well as the bread board ends have the same curve (bandsawn close and then using a template and router to finalize). I also wanted to do a stopped bead on the aprons as I wanted the bottom edge to have more visual interest than just a straight line. I wound up having to use a scratch stock and a home made chisel narrow enough for the stopped bead.
The secondary wood on the walnut table is poplar, and the finish is dyed and hand-rubbed shellac.
These are a couple of picture frames I've made. The first one is of a pen/ink drawing of our first house, a 1700's salt box in NH-working on that got me into woodworking. The other is of a digital art photo of the Portland ME skyline that I made the frame and was a birthday present for my wife. The artist whose print is framed Ross Elliot.
This cherry and milk paint splayed leg table was another gift for my wife. The legs/aprons are poplar with milk paint finish. The cherry top is tung oil/varnish mixture. Mortise and tenons are pegged.
I recently completed an Asian inspired side table (ash and cherry) that has a display area under glass that I designed to hold shells collected on a family trip to Captiva Island. The cool thing is the table is based on an antique that was in the house we rented, so I did a basic measured drawing and modified the construction so there would be the display area and also to take care of a split that occured in the original due to the design.
The legs are turned ash, the cloud lift stretcher and top is cherry. The milk painted intermediate area is birch. I've included a measured drawing that this table was based on.
I've also included the walnut-based spinning cabinet that I made for my daughter, Olivia. One side is a mirror, another chalk board, another shelving and finally beadboard with hooks.
You can email Tom at
tplergo@yahoo.com
.
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