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There is a long toothed rookie trying to make a name for himself this upcoming baseball season; he has special needs on his personal bat style. Hopefully he doesn't break the bat.

Glue up was interesting because it takes time to put this all together. So I used a glue I'm not used to but it seemed to work well.

Thanks for the welcome. I've build several kayaks, all detailed in build logs on my site farback.ca. I'm currently working on a Bear Mountain Redbird canoe. some pics: Kayaks, toy boxes for two newest grand daughters, display stand for WWII era Gurkha knife, solid oak 'liars table' for fire hall.

People often think I am joking when I say that I can not afford my own work. I have been fortunate to have cultivated a clientele which allows me the opportunity to use my apprenticeship, formal education, and creative desires. All of my best work sits in others homes, but that affords me a home of my own.

I made a pair of sideboards based on a piece in Good, Better, Best , Masterpiece by Albert Sacks. They are mahogany, with holly, ebony, lacewood and poplar. The finish is about 15 coats of super blonde shellac, which were rubbed out with pumice and rottenstone, and then obviously waxed. I am sorry to have to watermark the pictures, but photos of mine that have been on this forum have been used by someone who claimed my work as his own. Pictures when I am in the shots have no watermark, and I hope that the other pictures are not obstructing the view of the work. The hardbound book that I made of the project has 104 pages showing all the aspects of construction. I choose more pages to show then may be appropriate for this forum. If this is too much for the site I hope the webmaster would politely ask me to remove whatever needs to be trimmed off the post. I hope there is a way for anyone of you folks to feel that the information will assist you in your work. Any questions will be responded too, and if pictures make the explanation easier, I will post those upon request.

One the glue was dry it was time to cut the curves. I used a French curve template and marked it to where I thought it looked OK, then cut it with a cheap coping saw. It turned out OK.

Fitting all the splines took MANY attempts before I got them all right, but persistence is the key with these things.

Drilled the holes then cut them square. I don't have a mortiser, which would've saved time but I have more time than money apparently These pics are slightly out of order, sorry. But you get the idea.

There are 24 spindles for this project so that means 48 mortise right? Add another 24 because the top spindle mortise are stepped. So 72 separate operations for the head and foot board assemblies. This took some time.

The book you have is Good Better, Best. The color version is Good Better, Best, Masterpiece. Both are indispensable when trying to get a client to see things, " my way is the right way." I also made the people who worked my gallery for me to know the book, and more importantly, how to convey quality to a perspective buyer.

I had a young guy stop one day wanting to watch me saw. I told him he could watch as he worked stacking lumber. He said no thanks and left.

I'm 76, and I remember when there were fewer machines in woodworking. But hand tools still get more attention in my shop than the machines.

You can’t see the curls in the pics but it’s curly.

My space is 30x40. I have a delta contractor's table saw, drill press and a small benchtop bandsaw. A small collection of cheaper routers, circular saws etc. Thank you for the welcome!

Thanks for all the replies. To wrap things up nice and tidy: I sent an email to this company via their website, Groff & Groff Lumber in Quarryville, describing the situation. After hitting send, I started typing the first post in this thread. Literally five minutes later, I received a reply from the company, apologizing that the board was unusable and that I should bring it back. I stopped there later that afternoon. Two guys in the yard took a break from running a monster slab through a thicknesser (i.e. stuff that actually makes them money) to help me pick out another board. One stressed how surprised he was that I found one that was honeycombed and, after we picked a board that looked promising, offered to make an initial crosscut to be sure. It came out fine and I was on my way with even more board footage than I had initially purchased. Needless to say, this far exceeded my expectations. I know I have at least one project in the works for 2019 for which the shopping list will run well over 200bf of hardwood with perhaps a few exotics thrown in. Rest assured that I'll honor these folks with my patronage again. Now to get back to that balustrade.

Spectacular piece, Joe. In addition to having to master about 24 new skills, I would have to study meditation for years to acquire the patience necessary for such a project. Kudos!

I understand. My Daughter is a 3rd grade teacher.

Hi everyone! It took me a while, but I finally finished securing it. I took your suggestions and used a combination of a french cleat and brackets. the top part is used a metal french cleat (because it was 22 bucks and an easy way to get exact alignment) I ran into 1 minor issue and that was the fact that the wood piece of top has a 5 degree cant. Initially i thought to anneal the edges of the cleat and widen it by 5 degrees but i was worried it would mess w/ the integrity of it, so after chatting and bouncing ideas off a neighbor, i realized I could do a sort of overlay made of wood that has that 5 degree cant built into it so the clean will not have to deal with any structural damage. this was the finished overlay piece. Top View Side View to show the 5 degree cant I took a 2x3 stud, trim the edges and then combined them into a bigger piece to build the overlay that fits over the original wood piece and after I stained and sealed it with shellac, I mounted it. took some effort for find the right studs and secure it properly but it worked out. This is with the cleat installed and mounted to the original piece Then at the same time I wanted to make sure that whatever weight is put on it (ie a kid who decides they want to start mirror climbing....) it will hold, so I took a spare piece of wood from an older project and cut it down to 40" wide so it's hidden behind the mirror but if someone looks there, it won't look like scrap wood. I beveled the edges in case someone, somehow ends up hitting the edge by some crazy act of freak accidents. Here are the pics of the wood after I finished it. Installed it onto the wall (found 4 studs so i screwed x2 3.5" wood screws per stud) and mounted the brackets on it. Here's the piece installed and followed up by the bracket (which took a lot of finagling to make sure it fits in exactly This project took me about 6 days to complete (spending about 2-3hrs a day on average). The part that took the longest was the planning, then followed by the staining and sealing. the installation itself took about 2 hours. Here's the overall look of the mirror now that it's secured: Original pieces pre installation (with the overlay moved off to the side to show how it fits close up of the clean (you can see the x3 2.5" screws I drilled through the overlay to hold the original piece to the new piece) If you look all the way down, you can see all 3 points where it is secured to the wall. All in all, Thank you very much everyone for giving me all sorts of great ideas for me to formulate and put together!! My wife is very happy about this and I am happy this project is successful and should be inconspicuous!

Take a deep breath Spanky, I don’t know anyone here who doesn’t like to see your wood keep on posting

Thanks for detailing some of your methods Joe. You are a gifted craftsman. Truly beautiful work. You are spot-on about choosing your clientele. My brother has made a good living in the car repair, restoration and parts business . . . but, . . . he doesn't cater to Chevy owners. I learned from his success. I have been lucky enough to gather some repeat customers who want something made just for them; and they have friends, and their friends have friends.

I downsized as well when I went from my PM66 52" to the PCS 36". I found cutting down sheet stock with my track saw was easier than hulking it into the shop and up on the TS.

Yeah, coffee table fairy... the one with the 4" splinter in his right forefinger.

I'm thinking that instead, I'll just bring it in and put it in place without telling anyone - a stealth coffee table delivery. They don't know I'm building it, just that I took the piece of wood. I'll transport it in pieces, though.

When it's all done tell your partners, you built it, now they have to come over and take it to the office.

I've basically got the joinery fit together. A couple of the bridle joints need a bit of finessing to close done gaps, but it's all square and going together fine. Here's my mock up, after I heaved the top back onto the bench. And a view of the under carriage. It definitely looks like I'm building the ultimate bench on bench here... This thing is heavy!