When you think about the Jersey Shore, you might think of boardwalks, sand and sun.  Or that crazy TV show with the obnoxious, ill-behaved teens. But, at the southern tip of the of the Garden State, there is a treasure to behold.

Cape May is one of the oldest seashore resorts in the country. One of the best known features of the town is the unique Victorian architecture. When it comes to Victorian, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth OVERdoing…

Here’s just a quick sampling of the many ornate buildings you can find on a quick walk through the shady tree-lined streets.

Some of these buildings are bed and breakfast inns, so if you were looking for a place to get away for a while and admire some of the fanciest woodworking available, Cape May might be a good place to visit.

At dock in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy, and one of the few remaining wooden warships in the world.  Laid down in 1794, this ship was part of an order of six frigates authorized by President George Washington. She took to the seas in 1798 and fought brilliantly in operations during the War of 1812 and along the Barbary Coast.

Today, she rests at anchor in Boston Harbor where visitors can come aboard to see her in all of her majesty.

This is a view of the stern as you prepare to board. The ornate woodwork on the exterior of the ship captures your attention. The windowed areas along the back are the location of the captain’s cabin.

This is one of the cannon positions on the upper deck.  Unlike the guns below, which were designed for range, these upper guns are known as carronades and were designed to fire much larger shells a shorter distance to smash opposing ships hulls.

This is the ship’s wheel, but it didn’t start as the ship’s wheel.  The Constitution originally had a single wheel to steer her over the high seas. During the war of 1812, the ship battled the HMS Java.  A shot from the Java splintered Constitution’s wheel, but the Constitution gave better than she got, leaving the Java as a total loss.  Before sinking the Java, the crew of the Constitution retrieved Java’s wheel and installed it on Constitution.  That’s where it is today.

This is the ship’s capstan.  It was used by sailors to gain mechanical advantage over the massive lines used to rig the sails.  The bronze cap helps to protect the wood.

A view up the ship’s bowsprit.  Imagine shimmying up that…

When the Constitution needs some serious work, she comes to the dry dock.  This huge facility allows yard workers to bring her in, close the gate, drain the water and have the ship’s keel settle on the blocks.  Once there, workers can gain access to the hull for repairs and maintenance.

So far in my life, I have had the opportunity to actually go to court twice.  The first was for an accident I had gotten into when I was just a wee lad at 16 years old. The second time was when I got pulled over about ten years ago in Tampa for speeding.

In both cases I learned a few important lessons.  First, when you have a court date, it’s vital that you show up – on time – for the hearing. Other folks who didn’t discovered quickly that the judge didn’t take kindly to tardiness.

It’s also critical to know that when the judge is talking, you are supposed to sit quietly and pay attention.  Back during the case when I was just a novice driver, the lady across the aisle trying to convince the judge that I was reckless liked to make snide comments under her breath concerning her opinion of the judge’s abilities – while he was speaking.

That, my friends, is a big time no-no.

Basically, the judge is charged with keeping order in the court.  Things have to go a certain way if a case is to be heard properly and be able to hold up in a court of appeals should someone choose to go that route.

When it comes to woodworking, keeping order in your project process is critical if you want to keep yourself out of trouble during the building process.

Case in point, your honor…

On this project with my friend Paul, this case is the most complicated one in the build.  All of the others so far have just been boxes.  Sides, top, bottom and back.  But, this case is where his CPU will live.  And where he wants to hide his wireless router, networking hubs, power strip, a boatload of cords and other computing essentials.

Sure, we could have built this case as two separate cases, but that would have involved more material, more assemblies and more coordination when joining the separate cabinets together on site.

So, we went with a single cabinet.  Me, I was rarin’ to go. Cut ’em down, mill  the joinery and slap ’em together.  No fuss, no muss.

Fortunately, Paul is a little more level-headed than I. He kept bringing up some very important points that I was missing.  For instance, a number of holes needed to be drilled to allow wires to go from one cabinet to the next. If I tried to feed my drill which, with a hole saw attached, comes out to 14″ long from drill bit tip to butt end, into a 12″ wide cavity, how did I plan on making the hole?

Similar questions were brought up over and over again – just for this one case.  When should I insert the divider which broke the piece into two distinct cavities?  When should I drill the shelf pin holes for a shelf in the equipment side? When and where should I drill a slot to accept a grille that would allow air between the two sides?  Should I notch out an area of the top to receive a vent before or after assembly?

All great questions, and all required a moment of quiet reflection and a bit of mental gymnastics. It got to where Paul and I were talking through each step of production and assembly of the case in order to make things work properly. If I put this piece in now and then drill those holes…

Ultimately, taking the time to mentally walk through the steps of the project helped out tremendously. Before long, we were able to get the assembly together with all of the holes in the right place and pieces where they had to be.

Later, we’ll just need to face frame the piece out and we”ll be good to go.

Of course, the finished product will be the final verdict in judging how well we did.