Beech Wood Flash Light

I'm not a woodturner, so I may not be totally up to date on the latest turning projects. But this one made me smile.
While it's not for sale as a project or a kit (that I know of), I thought it was an interesting use of turned wood.
I have no clue how difficult it would be to hollow out the inside to accommodate the batteries, and you'd have to make a tight fitting (screw-on) cap to keep the batteries inside. But those are the kind of challenges woodworkers usually enjoy.
If you like the idea and don't have a lathe, you can visit the Generate online catalog and decide how badly you want one. They're US$49.00. Ouch.
[Thanks BoingBoingGadgets]

Designer Firewood

In an earlier life, I lived out in the country and burned firewood (mostly split oak) to heat my home. I discovered early that paying attention while stacking the firewood would often yield some useful, if somewhat short, pieces for woodworking.
Of course, that was pre-iPod, pre-iPhone. Now there are many more useful things an enterprising wood burner with a sharp eye can do with an attractive, if somewhat short, log.
If you are lacking in logs but really like this idea, you can find it in Etsy.com.

Note: You may find this hard to believe, but this item is actually sold out! Where does this guy live, inside the Arctic Circle?

Disappearing Table Act

This fold-up table was created by Japanese designer Nobuhiro Teshima to accommodate small Japanese homes. The table unfolds out of its roll-around cabinet when you have a group over for dinner. There's even room for storage in the cabinet. I liked the idea and the execution, but I wondered where are the chairs?

Guess what? There are no chairs. Take a look at the photos with the wine glasses set on the table and you get a better sense of scale. You're supposed to sit on the floor, or on a cushion on the floor. Perhaps it's possible to scale-up the design to fit the more ample behinds and stiff knees of the western world.

Lots more photos on the TrendsNow website.

Notirondack Chairs

I have always loved the look of Adirondack Chairs, and sometimes sitting in them. Recently I came across an interesting, beautiful, and functional variation, the Notirondack Chairs by artist/designer Zeke Leonard.

The settee in the photo is actually two chairs. One with an armrest on the right and one on the left. Reverse the chairs and you get two chairs with a table between. Line up a lot of them and you get... well, you get the idea.

You can see more photos and read about the chairs at Zeke's website. And check out his other designs, most it seems come from found objects.

One Day-$40 Bookcase

Here's an example of how your woodworking skills can help even if you're not, strictly speaking, woodworking.

WoodNet Forums member BandMan built this bookcase for his daughter in a day. It's made from pre-finished, maple particleboard that's sold as shelving at his local home center. It looks terrific and is better built than the flat-pack bookshelves you can buy (and cheaper, too).

Here's a link to the post on WoodNet where he explains what he used and how he did it.

Make Your Own File for Tight Spots

When smoothing curved profiles, you'll need a fine-cutting file to get into the inside corners that your sanding drum can’t reach. But the thick square edges of the file can get in the way and sometimes even damage the workpiece. So rather than abandon this method, Woodsmith's Ted Raife simply modified the tool to fit the job.

As you can see in the drawings above, he ground a bevel on both edges of the file to get more clearance in tight corners. You can make this modification with just a few minutes work at the bench grinder. But you want to be careful to not let the file get so hot that it loses its temper. Keep a container of water close by to quench it and this won't be a problem.

You can get e-tips like this esent to your email address each week. Sign-up here, they're free.

Best Use of Used Stir-Sticks Ever

Paint-Stick Table from the Flickr Photo Stream of matangi.esty. Terrific!

Not sure I believe this...

[Thanks FineHomeBuilding.com]

Earthquake Safe Wooden Buildings

Over at Treehugger.com, they've got a terrific article and video about using wood to build earthquake safe buildings. And wood also has some environmental benefits too. From the website:

Wood construction has some tremendous advantages. Wood is strong, light, flexible and fast. Unlike concrete, which adds a ton of CO2 to the atmosphere for every ton of cement made, wood is renewable and sequesters carbon dioxide for the life of the building.

Definitely worth a look.

Click the photo for a larger view.

Vanity of Vanities

As in most things, in wood-working the devil is in the details. Here's a beautiful bathroom vanity just built by Twitter user @davewest1. In this case, the devil and the beauty are in the careful attention to the grain of the black walnut. The whole front of the cabinet and the side are from one piece. Click photo for a larger view.

Dave also has a beautiful website which you'll especially appreciate if you're looking for inspiration for new bathrooms and kitchens in your home.