Projects of Jim Hinkson

These projects are from Jim Hinkson hinksonja@yahoo.com of El Sobrante, California, USA.

"Our daughter requested a mobile kitchen work center like the one I built for my wife.  I had no plans for the project and more or less winged it.  It is built of oak and has a laminated birch top that I coated with mineral oil.  The 3/4 inch birch is joined with biscuits.  The "skin" is 1/2 inch oak plywood.  I stained the oak with MinWax Golden Oak and applied MinWax semi-gloss polyurethane.  My daughter says the top is too pretty to use, so I may have to make the first knife cut in the wood for her.  No problem.  As with my wife's work center, I'll run my belt sander over the top when needed and renew the surface." 

"This is a mission style end table I just finished.  I used cherry wood which is a delight to work with. The finish is Min-Wax cherry stain with a few coats of semi-gloss polyurethane. Plans for that table (and two others) are available from Rockler."

"Here is a pix of pens I recently made. The upper one is "snake" wood. The bottom one is spalted maple. I picked up the blanks at the Pleasant Hill Rockler Store. I must have made 50 by now and just given them away to people.  Now I have requests from a whole bunch of folks. It's just amazing Don. Show folks a bit of hand made beauty, and they go nuts for it."

"I am severely limited regarding shop space. My wife's car has to be put in the garage at least once a week. That forces me to be tidy and a bit inventive. Here's a photo of three of my tools set up for use. The Delta 22-580 13" planer is mounted on top of my DeWalt 723 miter saw stand. I saw a photo in a Rocker ad showing that planer attached to another collapsable tool stand and thought I'd try it. I had to take care to get the planer center of gravity positioned correctly. It weighs 100 pounds.

I believe the DeWalt may have been the first collapsable miter stand on the market. It is very strong and perfect for the planing jobs and cutting boards with the Bosh sliding miter you can see in the back ground. I have my belt/disk sander, a five inch vise, my grinder and my small band saw set up this way. It's really great to be able to move around the tools as I work.

I'm making progress (slowly) on a big cherry bed. Things like teaching my nice neighbor lady to turn pens, has slowed me down a bit and of course, the list of honey-do's is quite long also."

"I learned humility today. It came in the form of cocobolo. It is a wood created by God to try men's souls.  If "Old Ironsides" had been constructed out of cocobolo, the British Navy would have lost their entire fleet. Shoot!  Cocobolo doesn't even float!"

Here's Jim's portable sidetable for his barbeque.

And here are some more of his handiwork of pen turning.

"Grampa told me he's making pens.  I'm always a day late and a dollar or two short, but I liked what Don told me and got a little lathe.  The investment was small.  The pleasure is big.  Everybody I know above the age of seven can write despite computers.  I'll make these things until I get bored and finish some work I began a year ago.  Short attention span.  Doing pens is good for an old man like me."

"The woods came from Africa.  On the left is paduck, paduc, or whatever.  Next are three pens made from bubinga.  Nasty wood and very hard.  The right pen is made from zebra wood, quite soft and fully "grained".  I have some olive blanks and a few others to play with.  If I mess up a job, no worries mate.  Just do it again."

"I followed advice from an old pro at the local Rockler store and used Hut Crystal Coat for the finish.  Great stuff.  I like the Rockler folks because they do wood and have fun.  My wife told me that I cannot take money or credit cards when I visit that store again.

Maybe I'll finish the "classic cherry bed" I began last year.  Maybe I won't.  Maybe I'll go fishing.  I won't use bait though.   I'll be looking at trees and lusting for them."

"Here's a photo of a small file cabinet I made with my neighbor girl years ago.  She wanted a real wood cabinet.  I told her she had to help me, so we made it together. 

We used birch and stained it in walnut.  She wanted a gloss finish.  It turned out pretty well!"

"My neighbor asked me to build cabinets for his high school administration office. He teaches photography and ceramics at the school. The job was to make display cabinets for display of school sports and art trophies. The window frames are steel. They are not square. Fitting the cabinets in was hard work, but thanks to a hand power planer from Bosch, I got it done. I'm pleased with the results. I should have selected the poplar wood more carefully, but the school folks like what I did."

"This table is a solid oak copy of a rather cheap lamp table my wife and I have had for many years. I bought the red oak from Woodworkerssource.com. I used about 30 board feet of 4/4 and 8/4 wood. The legs were fashioned from the 8/4 stock. I used Varathane Red Oak stain and three coats of Minwax water-based Polycrylic semi gloss finish.

This was the most challenging project I've done so far. There were many tough angle cuts. The legs have no perpendicular sides. It was quite a challenge for my table saw and miter. I think I'm pleased. I know that I'll forget the little mistakes in time."

"I made this out of red oak.  The front piece is 1X4.25 inches by 48 inches.  I added 1X1 oak to the back to make it thicker and to make room for wires.  The lamp sockets are ceramic and are held in place with small wood screws.  The decorative tubes are made from maple dowel, 2.5 inch dia.  I drilled 2 inch diameter holes in the dowels and glued them on.  Each tube is 2 inches deep.  I stained it all with a dark red oak stain and sprayed on poly."

"My daughter wanted doll beds for her girls.  She gave them dolls that looked something like each girl.  Of course they needed beds.  I built bunk beds for them and painted them.  My daughter added some art work to them.  Beds stand alone also."

"My two neighbor boys are crazy about trains.  Their grandmother asked me to build them a rail road crossing sign.  I guess I should have added coat hooks or something like that to them.  There are many coats of gloss white paint on that sign.

Dimensions
Post:  4X4 by 72 inches high.  Cross bars, 1X6 by 30 inches.  Horizontal bar, 1X6 by 30 inches.  Base, 3/4 plywood, 24X24.  Disks, 10 or 12 inches."

"My other daughter has a little boy who loves trains.  She asked me to build a train table for him.  I made it out of poplar and stained it to look like maple.  The large surface is a birch veneer over 3/4" plywood.  I used my daughter's requested dimensions and some artistic license to do the rest."

"I had some birch scrap lying around so  I built two toy boats for my neighbor boys.  They enjoyed playing with them in the tub.  Rubber bands and paddles made the boats move.  I see the boys almost every weekend when they need more air in their soccer ball."

"My wife wanted a set of cabinets for her laundry room. This was a good opportunity for me to do rail and stile doors. New tools!  The cabinet was cheap - the new router, special bits, and router table were not."

"My daughter asked me to build a copy of a small stool her little boy used to reach the bathroom sink to brush his teeth.  I built two of these, one for my grandson and one for a friend in France.  It's kind of cute."

"I built an oak clothes hamper for the laundry room. The design is based upon an old-time ice box. I bought the plans from U-Bild.com and the brass hardware from Rockler." 

"My brother in law gave my wife a step stool made of plywood. She used it a lot and wore it out. I made her one out of oak. Later on I made eight more of them for family and friends. I used birch and cherry along with oak. I got the plans from my brother in law. I don't know where he got them. The right photo shows my production line in my garage."

Here's a recently found source for the plan. If this link fails, copy & paste it into your browser.
http://www.meiselwoodhobby.com/cgi-bin/webplus.exe?script=/shop/item.wml&groupid=2&prodid=W1331&deptid=8&SessionID=2005120152648269

"Here's an oak curio cabinet I built. My wife wanted a cabinet for her dolls. I found the plans at: http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/plans/index.cfm/plan_details/5/29/397

A local glass shop cut the windows and shelves for me. At the time, it was the most difficult project I'd done.  I didn't have my 10 inch table saw at the time, so I couldn't cut the nice contours in the base.  The photo shows the cabinet before my wife stuffed it."

"I built a potting bench for a friend. I used cypress for the first time. I couldn't find the wood locally, so I ordered it on line. I chose it because it is supposed to be resistant to everything. It's a hardwood technically, but it is really soft and a delight to work with. I didn't stain or finish it. I left that to the lady. She was very pleased with it. I sort of liked it myself!"

"This a porch swing. I put it up under some 4X4 treated lumber. The plans are available from:

http://www.u-bild.com/projects-outdoor/897.htm

I used clear fir for the job. I know it's not the best wood for outdoor service, but a coat of spar varnish each year keeps it healthy. I really enjoy the rich grain patterns. My grandchildren sure love it."

"This is a mission-style table. I found the free plans for it on the Home Depot web site. Beware!  Free means that you get exactly what you pay for! Anyway, after a few adjustments for physical reality, I got the thing built. 

My wife loves it. I sort of like it too. I used it as a reason to buy a mortising tool from Grizzly. I used red oak again."

"Here's a photo of a coffee table I built last year.  I got the plans for it from Rockler. The table was designed with a pop-up top. I chose not to do that and installed dove tailed drawers instead. I used birch and stained to look something like walnut. I should have used the real thing." 

"I finished my easel in time for Christmas. I used rather large, threaded knobs on the sides to make height adjustment easier. I installed a black (green actually) board and a white board. The small clamps you see in the photo will be used to hold drawing paper. I hope my grandsons enjoy it."

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