Two more from The Weekend Woodworker

As part of my ongoing restoration of maker.rip, I’m writing up the projects from the old version of this site that never got a post of their own.

I’ve written about the workbench and the patio table from Steve Ramsey’s Weekend Woodworker course, and reviewed the course itself for Hackspace Magazine. Two builds from it only ever made it onto the old site’s portfolio page, so here they are.

Harmony garden bench

The second build from the course, this is conceived to be a thing of beauty from the outset, enabling the learning woodworker to realise that you can create things of beauty with even the most basic of tools and materials.

Apricat approved.

Sonoma Vineyard coffee table

The fourth build from the course, this beautifully designed coffee table is the first piece of furniture on it meant for indoors, and as such has a lot of attention to detail. I’d ordered the materials just before lockdown, so they arrived late, and I built it over the May 2020 bank holiday weekend. I spent far too long trying to get a true 45° on the mitre saw, and went off script on the top: the technique for seating the surface in its frame needs a dado blade, which you can’t get in the UK, so I glued the frame to the edge of the top instead. Varnish finish, carefully stretched from the small amount I had left.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it would come out as nicely as it did, although there are some issues here and there. As long as I don’t point them out to anyone, they’re hidden enough that no one will notice.

It’s ever so slightly too large for our living room, and the reclining sofas need room for their footrests, but we’re making it work. Living room photos by Lucy.