Projects of Walt Matthews

Walt Matthews of Welland, Ontario, Canada lmsw@sympatico.ca, tells us about his projects.

"This cradle is made from ash. It has been stained with Early American stain and then many coats of wipe on poly.

Here's a close up which we added to help show a special feature Walt added to his project and describes here.

"If you look closely, you will see a penny put into the top side rail, to tell the year of the arrival. It is for my nephew whose wife is expecting a little addition in October 2006. The ends have walnut plugs to cover the dowels."

"On this project, the wood is red oak with a Minwax cherry finish with three coats of varathane. I did not use a grain filler on this. It is 72" high by 30" wide by 12" deep. It sits right in the corner - not across the corner. As you can see, my daughter-in-law took no time in placing her "wolf" collection in it. Although it is triangular in shape, the reflections in the mirrors makes it look almost square in the top part."

"This chest is made from ash and measures approximately 19 1/2 inches tall X 33 inches long and 16 inches deep. The top was laminated to make a 19 inch panel, then cut partially through on the table saw and then bent over the ends to form the top. The panels are mahogany. The finish on the ash is linseed oil with two coats of Johnsons wax."

"The finish on the mahogany is three coats of urethane, then sanded smooth, then two coats of wax. It has a purple look to it that almost makes it look like purpleheart. The bottom of the inside is aromatic cedar."

"This is one of my scrollsaw projects. Took me awhile but it turned out quite nice. It is made from 3/8" cherry. One picture is of the whole shelf and the other of the brace for the shelf part."

"The cutting board is made from, hard maple, cherry and a small strip of purpleheart, with a coat of linseed oil. The are 11 inches wide by 15 inches long. The matching bread nice is maple and cherry."

"The scroll picture is a small clock made from 3/8 red oak with a 3/4 base."

"Here is a rocking loveseat bench featured in Canadian Homeworkshop. The plans called for quarter sawn oak, but instead I used ash and stained it with Golden oak. The seat and back fit into dadoes and are dowelled. The back is doweled at the top and the seat is doweled at the front. The seat, back and ends are one inch. The rockers are 1 3/4" with the foot boards being 1 1/2" x 2 1/2". It is finished with three coats of Fabulon satin with a final coat of Minwax finishing wax."

"I got the plans at a local woodworking show, for this small windmill and decided this winter, to use up some of the smaller pieces of cedar that I had. The top does turn on a turntable and the windmill part will turn in a breeze as I inserted sealed ball bearings in the crossarms."

"This project was an easy one to make as it is a China Cabinet for a child's tea set. I measured up the tea set to see how many shelves were needed and the depth of the piece. I came up with 4" spacing for the shelves, 15" wide inside. The doors are plexiglass mounted onto pine edging. The material is pine."

"Here are a couple of simple projects I made for Christmas. The Toybox is made from pine tongue and groove, the frame is 2 1/2 square routed to accept the tongue and groove and the top rails are tenoned to fit into the routed uprights. It measures 42 long by 26 deep by 33 wide."

"The winerack also is made from pine and is also a simple project for a beginner, it was finished with just linseed oil as it was going into a basement and I thought this would be a fairly good finish to protect it."

"Both projects were featured in a Canadian woodworking magazine and adapted by me to fit in the places where they were going. Both were given a Christmas presents and the final recipients were quite happy with them."

"This project has been going along for a while. It will spend the rest of its time on my new front porch. It is made from 87 board feet of white oak, which was glued and screwed together."

"There are just a little less than 200 screws, and all the screw holes had to be predrilled. Even then, there were some broken screws. This is a big project for me as I have been making plate shelves and smaller pieces for about two years along with some turning."

"I am very proud of this piece, it should be around for my great grandchildren to enjoy."

"These two hope chests were made for Christmas for two of my granddaughters. These are not real fancy, as it was one of my first attempts at inserted panels. The chests are 40" long, 22" wide, 20" high. The frame is of walnut, the inserted panels are butternut, and the name plates are made from walnut. The walnut for the name plates were cuts that were close to the sap wood and so they are varying colors of orange, and light and dark browns. They do actually make quite a contrast and are very interesting. I now have 15 grandchildren, so I am sure there will be more requests for something for Christmas from Grampa."

"I really enjoy turning as it is something that can be made in a short time, and usually it is for someone who appreciates it. The lighter pieces are of Butternut, the covered dish has a walnut knob for the lid, the darker pieces are of walnut."

"I cut one piece of wormy cherry I had, into squares for turning, and it turned out quite interesting. I took the piece into my wife, and she said, 'I like that & I'll put a candle in it and it will really look different.' Well she did that and it sure looks different. Some other people saw it and now they would like one also.

Even though they are somewhat the same, the worms never make the same pattern. There is a lot of work to make one of these as you have to clean all the holes out and make sure there are no critters left in there. I microwaved the blocks a few times to make sure they were dry and hopefully the worms if there were any in it were dead, so far so good, I have made three so far and everyone is happy."

"Here's a cradle and rocking horse I made for two grandchildren for Christmas."

"The cradle is fashioned after Henry Wadsworth Longfellows cradle, approximately half size. It is made of 1/2 inch cherry and is 20" long, 13" high, 9" wide at the widest point. The top part seems to go dark out near the edge and in fact it does. There was a nail at one time in this tree and where it was, the wood was darker. I cut the pieces to have the dark edges out to the side.

I was once asked how I got the stain to go on so nicely; that it was that much darker near the edge. Mother nature has a way of doing this."

"This rocking horse is made of 3/8 walnut for the rockers. It is the wood near the outside of the tree or sapwood, so it has a varying mixture of colors. The head, foot rests, inside spacers, seat back and rump are made of cherry. The rocker height is 12", with overall height 21", and the rockers are 35" long. The seat is 7" wide by 19" long."

"Here is a picture of one of eight walnut boxes I made for Christmas presents. These boxes are 11" long x 5" wide x 4" high. They are a very simple box to make and everyone seems to enjoy having gotten one for a gift."

"The interesting part was the grain that was in the walnut. The picture shows the grain, or figure or whatever you would call it quite well. I actually had a friend take the picture with a digital camera and the sharpness of the grain came through real good."

Walt's been busy over the last winter! These next 5 projects are new additions to his page.

"On the left is is a quilt rack from a popular woodworking magazine made of walnut. I made two of these: one for my wife and one for a daughter's birthday."

"On the right is a sofa table made to a friend's required dimensions: 48"L, 40"H, and 12"W made from walnut. I made one for my daughte-in-law as well."

"The table on the left is of my design, just because I liked it for in front of the front window. It's a good place for the plants, and a good place for our cat to lay and watch what is happening outside. It is made of cherry."

"Because of the amount of grandchildren we have, I decided to make these bench and chairs to the right, for the little ones, and do they love them. These are made of poplar."

"This little shelf was also a feature in one of the woodworking magazines. The dimensions are 21"T x 15"W x 2 1/2". I made this out of ash with walnut plugs for the screws. I thought I would try ash, as I have never worked with it before and found it very nice to work with. I finished it with a combination of thinners and linseed oil and poly mixed together, which is very nice to work with also."

"The square posts are laminated  2 1/2, the top rail and bottom rail are 1 1/2 inch with 1/2 inch dadoes to accomodate the tongue and groove 1/2 inch by 2 3/4 inch wide pieces. The posts are beaded on four corners."

"The radius at the top and bottom rail was put in with the radial arm saw with the posts against a stop and drawing the saw sideways across the post and just kept lowering the saw until I got the size I wanted. This was a very easy and fun project to make. I did make two of these headboards."

"The clock is made of 3/4 inch cherry, 24 inches high by 14 wide, the face ring outside diameter is 10 inches."

"The bedside table is made from 3/4 oak, it is 24 inches high by 16 inches wide and 16 inches deep, it was made to match the headboards."

"Here's a pine child's table with 1 1/4 inch top by 30 inches square. The runners are box jointed 3/4 inch with 1 1/2 inch tapered legs. There is a drawer for the required needs, but I am sure that it will not be big enough for all the things that could be put in there. The bench and chair are made from 3/4 inch pine, which is of very simple construction. I have made a few of these benches and chairs as they are just the right size to fit under a coffee table where the children can sit to color or to eat. Some people put plants on them or use them for their stuffed animals and dolls.

My granddaughter seems to be enjoying herself in this picture, she received these items for Christmas from her parents."

"The cradle is made from mahogany door skin with one inch walnut ends. It is in the shape of a dingy. I used a jig to form the bottom which is rounded front to back (bow to stern ) and by gluing two pieces together it stayed formed. The ends were then attached to the jig. Then the sides which are one thickness of mahogany, were attached to one end and brought around to the other end and attached. That was quite a job as there is nothing straight to clamp to and I just don't have the required amount of hands that you seem to need to do a job like this. Then the gunnels which are walnut were glued in place. The walnut rockers were then attached, then the inside bottom was put in and attached to part of the original jig which stayed in the boat."

          "This was done and delivered one week ahead of the arrival of Casey."

To E-Mail the project maker, please click this button above!

To return to the Thumbnail Directory page of our Visitor's Projects, please click on BACK. To return to the Main Directory page for Grampa's Workshop, please click on HOME.

Email Webmaster
In an attempt to decrease the spam I get, my email address is
no longer clickable but instead is shown as an image in the box below.

If you wish to email me, please record the address below and email me there.