Stuff I made in 2019

Every year I like to do a quick roundup of all the things I’ve made. Making stuff is important, and it’s nice to record what I’ve done for posterity.

The cooker

Having made a kitchen sink for the school last year, I went on to make a play-cooker this year. All made from scrap wood and bits and bobs.

The front garden

Kerb appeal! This year’s mamouth outdoor project was the front garden, where we cleared out a jungle of weeds and put down two tons of gravel. I also made a nice “bin area” and a patio/path in front of the door. This was much easier than the patio project and lawn from previous years, but still involved a lot of digging!

Random wooden things

Too many wooden things to mention! A variety of boxes, some new mirrors for the bathroom, a sauce caddy for barbeques, which makes setting the table 100 times faster and some more “artistic” creations…

The stool and the lamp

I’m super-happy with how these two projects turned out. The combination of raw steel and oak is beautiful, even if the overall quality is limited by my dodgy welding.

Another shed!

Not content with a single shed, I built another, which houses general garden tat, bikes and a huge quantity of scrap wood for future projects.

Router table

Routers are great, but really hard to use on small parts. I started to find that whenever I used the router, it was clamped upsidedown in a vise and I was risking my fingers feeding things into it. After a little welding and bodging, I now have a servicable router table, which makes these operations much simpler.

Posh Picture Frame

Having made 20-something picture frames last year, this year I went for quality over quantity. I made this one from oak. It’s simple, but it’s clean and neat and should last a very long time. It was a pressie for the in-laws, so had to be perfect!

Lathe Revamp

Finally, after years of living with a broken lathe, I replaced the broken DC motor and controller with a shiny new AC setup. My budget would only run to 1 horsepower, so the lathe does tend to stall if I push it too hard, but it’s 10x more usable than before. First job was to turn a new pulley for the new motor…

Working in London eats up my time these days, so I managed much less than I wanted/expected to get done in 2019. However, looking back at these pictures from across the year, I realise I still managed a fair bit. Mustn’t grumble!