Tim turned a family loss into a special bonding project!

This is one of those projects where we should just let the customer do all the talking.

"We had three generations of Yorkies. They are all getting pretty old as far as dogs go. However, the youngest one passed away due to a sudden health complication, she was almost 10 years old, born just a few months before my son. She will be forever remembered. I thought this would be the right time to really get my son more involved with woodworking. He has tinkered with the scroll saw and put some Lowes and Home Depot projects together, but hadn't used any major tools."

"With this project, I showed him how to take rough sawn cedar and make a beautiful box for our dog to be put to rest in. I taought him how to use the jointer, the planer, and the compound miter saw. I did most of the cutting on the table saw, but I let him use a box joint jig. I created some molding on the router table and I also showed him why I didn't want him dealing with the router... I had a 3/4" round nose bit barely lifted out of the table and mostly covered by a fence. I purposely launched a missile (sent a small piece of wood into the bit along the fence from the wrong direction using a LONG push stick). ZOOM - BANG! Yeah, he got the point.

We together glued up a panel for the lid of the box. After that, we worked together to send that panel through the drum sander to flatten it and set it up on the CNC. This is where some magic happened. By hacking together the frame of the Rose Tiles project, the cross from the Praying Cowboy project and the collar and dog bone tag from the Furry Friends No.1 project, the lid was ready for a little text to top it off.
I think for a quick build, this came out great for our beloved little friend. She was laid to rest and my son was able to take part in making that special box for her.

Thanks for the perfect 3D touches."

We are sure Mia will be missed and what a fitting project to include your son in.  This a great way to help with the healing knowing he was involved in the making of her final resting place.  I am sure the experience, in many ways, will be with him for years to come.  We can't say enough about how great it was for you take your family loss and turn it into a learning and bonding experience with you son.

 

Tim Babb has a great channel on Youtube that that you just might want to check out - Woodworking Maniak

Thank you Tim for sharing this special project with us!

For more Customer Focus posts click here! 

John Mordus has been busy with "Under the Sea" projects

The last post we created for John was focused on his shop and garage signs he made.  Now he's back with 2 more projects that have gone in a totally different direction... Under the Sea. 

"Used your "Under the Sea" for a couple of things for my daughter's wedding
on the ocean beach."

"First one - took a piece of 4' rough birds eye maple, cut it in half and glued them together. Thought it looked pretty good so I left the edges as they were untrimmed."

The untrimmed edges really give a worn look and add to the piece.  It would have been a shame to remove them... good call in our opinion. 

"Second one - 3 pieces of scrap maple glued up, a 5x7 cheap unfinished picture frame, and your project pieces.  Don't think it turned out all bad."

We are with you on that, it does look very nice!  Great idea to use the models in the way that you did.  Gives you the illusion you are looking at a small section of the bottom of the ocean.

John also sent us in a bit more information on his projects - 

That last item in the list... that's the special ingredient in using any of our CNC projects, but we do try to give you a little help with the Project Sheet and Food for Thought ideas for each project.

Note: John used our first installment of the Under the Sea Series.  There are currently 3 CNC projects in the series that were designed, from the star, to work very well together. 

Thank you John, again,
for sharing one of your finished projects with us!

For more Customer Focus posts click here! 

James Patton and his Praying Cowboy project!

You might remember James Patton from his previous Shop Notes post where we highlighted this wonderful Thanksgiving sign and a couple of his other pieces.  Well his is back with another very impressive piece...

"Thought I’d share my latest semi finished piece from your western collection."

"So, I used a sun bleached stain first to try and deaden the grain, then went over it with early American. After it dried, dry brushed some colonial maple on the bottom from the skyline down. Still need to semi gloss it, but I think it's coming along alright...About and 11" x 22"...I want to say it was a 22 hour carve with a 1/16” bit..."

That's a small bit for such a big piece but we think the time it took to CNC it certainly paid off in the end. WOW... what a great looking finish!

"Now, I don't like the grain in mahogany, but it was all I had in the garage, and I was anxious to carve another one of your fantastic models."

We never noticed the the grain at all... looks perfect!

Finished Pice - Updated 

"Here’s a pic of the finished piece. After all was said and done, I went over parts of the carving with and ebony stain to draw out some of the recess in the mountains and the frame, and then just to take some of the orange out of the main detail. Then I sprayed it with a few light coats of deft semi gloss wood finish. Hope I’ve done your model justice."

James... you surely have done it justice.  Hard to believe it could look any better than the first image you sent... and that extra touch makes everything pop! 

Thank you James, again,
for sharing one of your finished projects with us!

For more Customer Focus posts click here!