By James Powers
Shortly after bringing Babka home, James and his wife decided she deserved a sturdy and handsome dog house to protect her from snow and rain.
Category Archives: Weird & Wonderful
Mammoth Tusk Restoration
By Bruce Schindler
I love mammoth tusks. I love their grandeur! I love their immense size and elegant double curve. I love the beauty of mammoth ivory with its rough, stained outer texture and the creamy inside with its carbon fiber-like cross-hatching and rich colors. And I love the stories they tell of their Pleistocene past, of their cold storage in the frozen soils of the north, and of the gold miners who unearth and care for them. I especially love, of course, how mammoth ivory is brought back to life by artists and conservators. Continue reading
The Eat a Peach Tribute Guitar
A Marquetry Love Letter to the Allman Brothers
By James Macdonald
The design features my marquetry rendition of some of the original artwork by Wonder Graphics on the inside cover of their epic Eat a Peach album, released in 1972.
In the early days of my woodworking career, beginning in 1981, I spent time as a boatbuilder at Wood Boats, a restoration yard in Norwalk, Connecticut. From the first day of my job there I learned the importance of epoxy in all aspects of boatbuilding. Inspired by reading Mother Earth News, I moved to rural Maine, built my own home, and got a job at another boatshop (this one in a huge, defunct chicken barn) in Lincolnville, Maine. I started my own woodworking shop in 1988. Continue reading
Chris Craft Baby Runabout
by Daniel Laeyendecker
I designed this project by scaling down a Chris Craft runabout from pictures I found online.
Hull and Drive Assembly
I started with five rib frames and a center beam temporarily mounted upside-down on a workbench. I glued and stapled the ¼” x ¾” bead-and-cove pine strips to the ribs. Once all the strips were installed, I removed the staples and sanded the hull smooth for the heat-activated 2″ mahogany strips I’d apply later.
Readers’ Projects, Issue 48
A whale of a wheelchair
This group of students built a costume for a child in a wheelchair for the non-profit organization Magic Wheelchair. The design was inspired by his favorite book, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat. Continue reading
Railroad Repair
By Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor
“It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry…”—Bob Dylan
I received a call out of the blue from an old sailboat racing friend, Gary Plezia, who is now the owner and founder of Southern National Track (SNT) which he began after leaving Conrail in 1996. SNT is a regional railroad company based in Florida certified and licensed in the southeastern United States from Texas east to South Carolina. SNT specializes in building and maintaining railroad tracks and complex switches, track beds, gradings and drainage, crossings, signals and platforms as well as crane rails for ports and industrial clients. Continue reading
A Penguin in Iowa?
By Ryan Krafka
I first got the idea for this project driving through a neighborhood in Iowa City where my wife and I live and work. “You have to see this awesome mailbox,” I said to my wife as we drove through a neighborhood one day this past fall. There it was, a dolphin mailbox. Not just a mailbox with dolphins painted on it, but an honest to nature fiberglass dolphin with fins holding a mailbox beneath its head. Continue reading
Bronze, Glass, and Epoxy Sunflowers
By George Gish
My sunflower project began after I’d brought home from the farmer’s market three sunflowers planted in a small barrel. I placed the flowers on the patio outside my kitchen’s sliding glass door. Every time I sat at the kitchen table, I looked out at this bright splash of color and felt pleasantly relaxed. That happy, soothing view ended two days later when deer ate the sunflowers. I wanted my view back, but knew that buying more flowers would just provide another meal for the deer. I decided to re-create the flowers in something they couldn’t eat: glass and bronze. Continue reading
Building the Modern Vardo
By Greg Ryan
This vardo was an exciting project and design collaboration with my friend Jill. Recently retired, she and her husband were looking for adventure and a home away from home.
Jill and I studied vardos (Romani wagons), modern RV’s, train cars and tiny homes, borrowing elements from each. This vardo is only 8′ x 12′ yet has a queen size bed, bathroom, refrigerator, hot and cold running water, holding tanks, a furnace, AC/DC electricity, a fold-down porch, and plenty of storage. It is solar-powered and completely self-contained. The wagon is insulated as well. Continue reading
Stayin’ Awake at Daryl’s House
Build an insulated coffee box for when you need a lot of hot beverages
By Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor
To stay awake at Daryl’s house requires a lot of caffeine—it must if the box o’ coffee idea he came up with is any indication. Epoxyworks readers may recall his riveting article in issue 40 Dirt Bike Loading Ramp. Daryl is talented, imaginative and loves to build stuff with carbon fiber.
The inspiration hits
Inspiration hit him one day after buying a box o’ coffee (Tim’s Take 12™) from Tim Horton’s® on his way to teach a motorcycle safety class to aspiring scootertrash. Disappointed that the Tim Horton’s boxed coffee didn’t stay warm for as long as he would have liked, he salvaged the Mylar® bag with its built-in cap and built his own insulated coffee box. Continue reading