How to make a coffin

With this Friday being Halloween, it’s only appropriate that we as woodworkers adorn our homes with some custom-built decorations to bring a little spookiness to the celebration.

Today’s link is to the WikiHow plan to build a decorative Halloween coffin to serve as a yard decoration. The plans are easy enough to bang together in a short amount of time, which can have it ready for your spooktacular later this week.

The best part? The decorative coffin I built nearly a decade ago for my yard serves as a great container to store other Halloween yard decorations in once the season is over.

The Wood Whisperer’s multi-function toy chest plan

Being the dad of two boys, I know that trying to corral all the toys that the little fellas play with can be its own nightmare. So, having a high-quality toy box is a critical need. Now, imagine you could build a toy box to give a deserving child in your life AND throw a beating down on cancer. Well, that would just suit me fine!

That’s what Marc Spagnuolo – the Wood Whisperer – is doing over at his site.

Oh, and I would be totally remiss if I didn’t also throw out some love to Steve Ramsey at Woodworking for Mere Mortals, who is also co-sponsoring the build with Marc. His version is slightly different, but both are doing awesome work rallying the online woodworking community to this cause.

Now, if you build Steve’s or Marc’s version and send either one of them a photo before November 30, matching donations will be made to the Cancer Research Institute to further the effort to find a cure for this disease which has affected many of us – either directly, or the ones we love.

If you don’t want to build one, you can donate directly to the team for this worthwhile cause.

Even if you don’t have someone in mind to build a toy chest for, you might consider doing what I plan on – building one to donate to a local pregnancy crisis center … something I do every year during the holidays.

Wood Magazine’s five clamp organizers

The old woodworker’s maxim that you can never have enough clamps is true enough. However, simply having clamps leads to the next inevitable question:  How do you store them so you can get to them easily?

Our friends at Wood Magazine have a set of clever clamp organizers that you can build that will help with you clamp cleanup efforts. From the minuscule spring clamps to the hefty bar clamps, each of these plans is easy to build and very useful.

Build a Tansu Chest

As I have probably mentioned, I live in Florida. This means I have no basement, which eliminates a ton of potential storage area at my house. That’s why most of my projects incorporate storage in them – it’s just too important to not miss an opportunity to add more.

Today’s plan is one that just doesn’t provide storage – it does so with style. The Canadian Home Workshop magazine has an awesome plan for a traditional stepped Tansu chest (also known as a kaidan tansu) using gorgeous maple. Not only does it provide tons of storage, it does so with some serious elegance.

The Drunken Woodworker’s Serving Tray

Football season is underway. Hockey season is getting ready to start. The NBA and college hoops seasons aren’t far behind. And, what’s watching a good game on TV without a snack?

The Drunken Woodworker – David Picciuto – has a great, easy to build plan for a serving tray on his website. The real flair in this design comes from using contrasting woods and building an elegant handle making it easier to grab the tray to bring out to hungry fans.

It promises to be a winner in your shop!

Wood Magazine’s Book Stand/Tablet Holder

This summer, with all of the heat in the shop, I have spent a lot of time reading. And, playing on my iPad. And, reading books on my iPad. Those things are just so versatile.

If I would have thought ahead, I might have built one of these nifty stands before the heat got cranked up, and it would have made my reading that much more pleasant. Made with simple, repetitive cuts, this stand can hold your place in a book by laying it over the top peak, or, by building the base with two extended pieces topped with some non-skid pads, can hold your tablet computer for reading, watching movies or in the kitchen while you whip up a quick recipe.

The plan costs $3.95 at the Wood Store, and could be downloaded to your tablet computer, just in case you want to bring that to the shop while you work. Just sayin’.

The one and two sheet plywood bookcases

The students are back – or will be getting back – to school, and they need someplace to put their reference books, text books, yearbooks and other various assorted items. Sure, you could build an impressive solid wood bookcase, or – heavens forbid – buy one for your star pupil, but why not consider building an easy, simple version using only one or two sheets of plywood?

The Wood Whisperer’s guild has a sweet looking plan to build a bookshelf in either a one or two sheet configuration. While they are simple to build, they look awesome, and you may very well want to keep them around long after the kids graduate and move out.

The cost for these plans is $30, but you not only get eight detailed videos that walk you through the process step by step as well as measured drawings.