Woodworking Dungeon

One man's journey through woodworking

Name: Darryl Masterson
Location: Keene, New Hampshire, United States

I'm 37. I'm married and have three daughters (15, 8 and 5). Woodworking is my escape from the "real job".

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Time to Catch-Up

well let's see, it's been so long where should I start?

30 projects in 30 days:
I liked the idea of this challenge. I never thought it would have been as hard as it was. I made it to day 15... I hate to admit defeat, but I got my butt handed to me on this one! I may try this challenge again in the future, but I think I will go in a bit more prepared next time.

wine bottle stoppers:
I wanted to starting making these almost two years ago. I finally started when I was asked if I could make twenty of them for a customer/friend in Colorado. I have finally got them all boxed up and ready to ship now.

Etsy Store:
Now that the order of twenty wine bottle stoppers is complete, I can focus on posting more wine bottle stoppers to my Esty Store. Currently I have seven of them listed. I've got five more glued, drilled, tapped and ready to turn. Yesterday I finished the first glue-up phase on three more.

Other Stuff:
I started working on a bookshelf a while back for my eight year old similar to the one I build for my fifteen year old. I pulled that off the shelf about a week ago to get that moving along again. It would be nice if I could get that finished by Christmas or her birthday on January first, but I'm not going to stress myself out about it.

Monday, June 08, 2009

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 8

I know it's day 8 and I'm only posting project #s 5 & 6... I'll get caught up!

well there's not much more to say than these two cigar pens should have been done a long time ago, but I seem to recall a saying that I like:
Better late than never!

Sunday, June 07, 2009

30 Projects in 30 Days - Project # 4

I finished my fourth project yesterday. I wanted to try something new, so I put a little extra work into coming up with this new wine bottle stopper. For the highlight area of this stopper, I used the open segmentation technique. This technique leave open spaces between the segments leaving the stopper hollow and see-through.

serial # 2009-017

Stopper Stats:
Total Pieces: 121
Primary Wood: Walnut
Secondary Wood: Red Leaf Maple
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8" tall, 1" diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

here's a picture that shows a little more of the detail.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 2

Day 2 project 2 of the June 2009 30 projects in 30 days.

Continuing on my positive start for my 30-in-30 challenge, I’ve completed my 15th segmented wine bottle stopper. With this stopper I've used my Patchwork pattern combining four species of wood; Jatoba, Cherry, Red Leaf Maple and Walnut. The randomness of the assembly gives this pattern a great patchwork quilt type look.


Serial # 2009-015

Stopper Stats:
Total pieces: 121
Wood: Jatoba, Cherry, Red Leaf Maple & Walnut
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

To purchase this stopper through my Etsy store, click here.

Monday, June 01, 2009

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 1

Day 1 project 1 of the June 2009 30 projects in 30 days.

Off to a positive start! I’ve completed my 14th segmented wine bottle stopper (shocker I know!). This stopper is a new pattern that I have named 1/2 & 1/2 Twist.


Serial # 2009-014

Stopper Stats:
Total pieces: 121
Wood: Red Leaf Maple & Walnut
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

To purchase this stopper through my Etsy store, click here.

30 Projects in 30 Days - Intro

I have taken up the challenge of a fellow woodworker to create 30 projects in 30 days!

All through the month of June, I shall be creating new projects everyday. I'm expecting to finish several new bottle stoppers, a few pens and hopefully a new shelving unit for my daughter's bedroom.

Items that will be available to purchase will be posted at my Etsy store.

Stay tuned for all of the action!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Lila's Bakugan Battle Game Board

Lila, my eight year old daughter, has kind of a silly personality. She's been interested in this game called Bakugan recently (she keeps her battle cards in a little pink zip-up purse that reads "Kiss" on one side as I'm sure all Bakugan battle cards are kept!) so I decided to make her a little game board for her to play on. I'm hoping she gets a kick out of this!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Wine Bottle Stopper # 13

I was inspired a few weeks back to try something new with my segmented bottle stoppers by this project. I made a jig for my drillpress to hold my individual segments so I could drill a little hole and insert a small dowel (also known as a toothpick!).
Stopper Stats:
Total pieces: 137
Primary wood: Red Leaf Maple
Secondary wood: Walnut
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

serial # 2009-013
a close-up to show more detail.