Projects by John Miller

These projects come from John Miller dr.miller@comcast.net who recently moved to Pennsylvania, USA and who is a fellow MS patient. John describes his work below.

"This is an custom carry case for HO scale slot cars. The dividers inside can be removed (to make it into a breifcase) or changed for more or less slot cars. The dividers are 1/4" masonite. The body of the case is made from poplar with a red oak insert.

As per my usual it's coated in high gloss poly. And has brass plated or solid brass hardware. The handle is a padded, leather wrapped breifcase handle from Rockler. The outside measurements are 20 1/4" long by 13 1/4" deep by 4 1/8" thick. You will also note that it has felt covered foam in the top and bottom to cushion the cars."

"This started as a very first project some 35 years ago. I was 15 and really didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know a mortise & tennon from a dado joint. Tools? Ha! Consisted of a $19 plastic body B&D 7 1/4" circular saw, a combination square that I didn't know how to use and a brace and a 1/2 sheet sander. No electric drill here. The cabinet was made from cutoffs from building additions on our barn. The main wood was rough cut, still green (wet) hemlock and the doors from leftover pine. The back was made from 3/4" particle board.

This thing almost cost me a finger tip. On the back of the doors are cross braces made from knotty pine. Dad's saw blade was "real" dull. Now I'm normally right handed which means the saw is in your right hand. Well because the blade was so dull and trying to cut through knots, I switched hands and put the saw in my left so I could control the wood better. Push came to shove and the blade cut free of the knot and jumped. Of course it hit my middle finger between the first knuckle and the tip. Being a dull blade it made a mess. Dr said 1/16"  further and we'd have had to amputate the tip.

 At the time I did not know how to put a finish on. I used walnut stain and just put it on and let it dry. The sander wasn't much good as I didn't have any sandpaper for it. So the wood stayed basically rough cut. The doors were not square and were uneven in length. When I left home I left it behind. My brother snagged it and kept it.

Last time I went to visit him, he had started cleaning out some old junk. One of the things he brought out was my old stereo stand. He asked me did I recognize it and did I want it. So it ended up home with me again. I immediately started a rebuild. First thing was to pass the rough boards through a planner and take them to 3/4". Then the back was replaced with some 3/4" plywood. I also had to rip the boards down and trim the ends to get rid of some serious checking. I lost about 2 1/2" in height and about 2" in length. Which allowed me to square up the doors and to cut them the same length. The side now have dados in them to receive the top and bottom. I used the same stain as I first did. But this time I wiped it off after 3-4 min. I also used high gloss poly on it and replaced the hinges ( the old ones were really bad and wouldn't open anymore). The door catch is the same one from long ago. All I did was paint it. It now will hang on the wall instead of sitting on the floor. Believe me it looks 150% better than it did 35 years ago."

"The first picture in the series is of a set of 3 tools. A marking gauge, a marking knife and a height gauge. The first 2  are made from some purpleheart that I had laying around for a while. The height gauge is made from Claro walnut. Both gauges have brass parts (1/16th sheet brass) The knife has a 1/2" Japanese Kiebiki blade imbedded in the handle The knife was made by resawing a 3/4" piece and then hollowing out a place for the blade in the bottom half. There is a rare earth magnet in the top half that helps hold everything together. Then the 2 slabs are glued together and sanded to final shape. The height gauge is one of my best efforts. I've had to make a few of them for other people. There's a 1/2" dado running down the back side of one piece. The whole deal revolves around that dado as a reciever for the other half.  There is also a threaded insert set in the bttom of the dado. There's a 1/4" slot in the other half for the shouldered knurled screw. that's what's used to set it. The ruler on it is made from stainless steel. It's held on by 2 rare earth magnets set flush on the side of the half. All 3 were finished using a wipe on solution that I picked up on one of the woodworking sites. 1 cup of oil-based polyurathane, 1/2 cup mineral spirits(paint thinner)) and 2 oz of boiled linseed oil. All this mixed together makes a wipe on finish."

"The second pic is a ALL wooden drill press vise made from glued up pieces of red oak. An old screw clamp yeilded up the screw and threaded pins that make up the heart of this piece. There are 5 pair of rare earth magnets spaced out along the bottom to hold it to the drill press table. There is also 2 pair on each jaw as the grooved plates are removable to help hold odd shaped pieces. It has a wiped on coat of "Sealacell" pecan stain/tung oil/filler and then 3 coats of oil based poly as a finish."

"This picture is a joining mallet that I "finally" finished after 5 years (I got tired of looking at the pieces). It made from purpleheart and red oak. Inside the purpleheart sections on either end of the mallet are 2 - 1 1/4" pockets and the pockets are filled with split-shot fishing sinkers. Then epoxy was poured over them to stop them from rattling around. They are there to add mass to the mallet. There are pieces of oil tanned leather on the ends to protect the work from being damaged by the mallet. The handle was cut out with a band saw and then sanded to final shape. The whole thing is finished with some of the wipe on solution from the first three. The plans for the mallet came from an early copy of "Shopnotes" magazine as did the plans for the height guage. The rest of the plans came from various copies of "Wood" magazine."

"The base and wall cabinets were made almost 7 years ago. They are made from 3/4" particle board with black formica as the over all color. The doors and false drawer fronts are gray marble formica. They were cut on a Skil table saw that barely made it to the end of the project. They used to have a gray marble top as well. But we moved in Sept. and  I broke up the top so I could bring the bases with me." 

"When I got to PA and we bought a house, I started rebuilding the computer room. The new top is 3/4" red oak plywood from HD faced with 3/4" real red oak and has 3/4" 1/4 round along the back edge (also real red oak). The finish is a "Seal-a-cell" mixture from Rockler (has tung oil, stain and sealer.) It was flooded on and then wiped off. Then it was all tied together with 4 coats of Min-wax  high gloss poly sanded in between coats with 220 grit paper. The false drawer fronts and doors WILL be redone with real red oak. But that's a ways down the road."

"For those that have never seen one of these, it's called a range box. It's designed to carry pistols in. I made this one approximately 24" long by 10" deep by 16" high. As with 99% of my projects there were no plans used.

All I started with was a set of dimensions. I just keep adding bits of wood until I like what I see."

"This is a rifle case which is 4' long by 18" wide by 4.5" deep."

"Both projects are made from poplar and Philippine mahogany and are finished with Man-o-War Marine Spar Varnish."

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