What project are you currently working on?

Never ever considered walnut to be trash wood. Well, I found some.
My project, a rifle case, requires several different widths (1", 1 1/4", 1 3/4", and 2") of 5/8 thick walnut. Each 42" long. To be sandwiched between 1/8" strips of maple.
Pulled a couple boards from a stack that's been stickered in a closed shed for 12 years. Mind you, this is AZ where the humidity is near nothing.
Got enough of it rough cut to length, planed to thickness and ripped jointed to width. Several hours of labor.
Laid them out on the assembly bench to arrange the pattern and left them overnight. The next morning, Monday of course, every one of the walnut pieces had bowed. Some by as much as 1/4".
What to do? Start over with a different stick? Since the whole 300 bf. stack came from the same Tennessee farmer, I'd likely find the same condition in a random pick. Agonized over the dilemma the rest of the day. Tuesday, I finally decided to try soaking one piece in the bathtub for a couple hours. Took it out and clamped it to a flat, melamine coated piece of MDF. By the end of the day it had flattened out somewhat. So, remembering a wood bending project from several years ago, I decided to employ the same technique to UN bend my wood.
Previously, I'd used lengths of 4" black sewer pipe filled with water and copious amounts of fabric softener. Left overnight, 3/4X3/4 sticks of red oak bent like spaghetti. So, my contrary walnut has been soaking since about noon yesterday. Today, they'll come out and get clamped. We'll see. Fingers crossed.

Summer is my golf season. Played 5 days straight last week. This puts wood working on the back burner. However, while on vacation my wife promised some friends that I would make boards to hold dominos. I resawed some walnut and ran the boards through the planer. Ready to sand to finish thickness.

Also was going to take the mustang to the hospital where I volunteer. Turned key and everything went dark. Opened hood and smoke was coming from starter. Got it on jack stands, but have not taken time to remove and get tested.

Last project involves soffit. Had new roof and gutters put on last year. I am removing the soffit panels to clean the stains left from the leaks. Also cleaning the debre left by the roofers. Got 1 1/2 sides done. Hopefully will finish second side this weekend.

Frank

I'm making urns for deceased cats, of all things. I've made quite a few urns for deceased Veterans (photo attached), but this is the first time for cats.

They are similar in design, but smaller at only about 5" square. These are mahogany with mitered and splined corners. The top is pocket screwed on, with four screws (one in the center of each side) from the inside. The bottom is attached with 4 screws countersunk (one into each side with two offset to prevent incorrect re-assembly). All of the screws are round head stainless (Kreg doesn't offer #7 pocket screws in stainless). The urn is designed so that the bottom can easily be removed to insert the cremains. They should be suitable for placing on a shelf, or if buried, they should hold together for many years. This is a batch of four.

Two of these urns are planned for immediate use. The other two are speculation, or possibly display samples.

They are in the finishing stages now - 2 coats of Watco Red Mahogany Dainish Oil, followed by 3-5 coats of polyurethane. All surfaces, both inside and out, are being finished. Photos will follow when completed.

I'm also building a few more tool boxes from BB plywood with box jointed corners similar to the one attached.

Charley