It's a D5 Dinghy, seven feet nine inchs long and almost four feet wide. The hull is mainly ¼ in. plywood with some ¾ plywood for structural support.

The construction method is called 'stitch and glue'. It involves drilling a series of holes along every seam and using wire or zip ties to 'stitch' the plywood sections together. After assembling the hull, the seams are filled with a composit filler which permanently bonds the sections and fills the holes with the stiching. After the resin has hardened, the ties are cut off flush to the outside of the hull which is then covered with 9oz. fiberglass mat and fiberglass resin.

There are compartments fore and aft that are filled with spray foam for boyancy.

This boat will be painted to match Jeff's sailboat and used as a dinghy, but there are D5's that are fitted with sails and used for sailing.

Click the photo here to see more of Jeff's boat project

Another project made from scraps in the shop, this mirror frame is held to the wall with screws in keyhole slots on the back of the rails. The mirror simply rests in a rabbit on the bottom rail and fits into a corresponding rabbit in the top rail. The stiles have the back half of the lap joints, so they just slide behind the rails and are held in place by friction alone. It's a very simple frame where the only tricky part is getting the screws placed precisely to accomodate the keyhole slots in the rails.
Click the picture to see the gallery for this project.

Put together from scraps in the shop, this table has served me quite well over the years. I used a variation on the caster mounting system that Norm Abram used on his work table. I built this to be carry a lot of weight and hold up to some pounding/beating since this is pretty much my only workbench in the shop. You can see that I also mounted a vise making this more like a workbench with wheels rather than an assembly table. I've been very happy with the melamine top which I keep waxed. The wax allows drips of glue, stain and varnish to be scraped off with ease.
Have a look at the pictures where the captions explain some details.
Click the button here to see photos of these units.

A number of years ago, I decided to get rid of my radial arm saw and replace it with a table saw. Since I had a miter saw that served for crosscuts on long boards, I figured I could live without the radial arm saw. I had used it for ripping boards on occasion and found it to be less than ideal for that purpose. I wasn't really sure I would be happy with this swap, so I decided to start with an inexpensive table saw and see how I liked using it. It was somewhat under-powered and had a fairly crude rip fence, but was quite usable and I quickly learned what an essential part of the workshop a table saw is. After using that aluminum and plastic saw for a couple of years, I started shopping for a 'real' table saw. I was quite interested in the Jet and Dewalt hybrid saws. They seemed sturdy, and had pretty nice rip fences. I was hoping to see a big sale on either of those when I noticed that Craftsman had come out with a cabinet saw with a Biesmeyer fence. This Craftsman saw was getting good reviews and Sears was offering a really good price through the Craftsman Club. I decided to take a chance on that saw and to this day, I haven't regretted it once. The saw has worked wonderfully for me. I love the fence. The motor is so smooth that you can balance a nickel on the table while it is running. I raved about this saw so much that Jeff decided to get the same saw and he's had nothing but good things to say about his. I have pictures here of uncrating and the initial assembly of my saw.
Click this button to see these pictures.

We currently have photos of three shop dust collectors. Jeff has a Penn State Industries model that he is very happy with. It has two felt bags and filters down to 1 micron. Bob has a Steel City with a single felt bag, and I have a Delta also with one felt bag. I used a small Delta "hot dog" style collector for a few years before getting the larger, more powerful model. The bag on the smaller unit filters only to 30 microns which means that fine dust is blown through the bag back into the shop. I generally refer to that unit as a 'chip collector' and it does a very good job at that. BTW, Bob got his at Hartville Tool in Ohio which is a great place for tools as well as any other hardware/houseware item you can think of. I got my Delta at Marsh Power Tools in Livonia Michigan. They were great to deal with and I ended up with a deal better than mail order. -Dick
Click the button here to see photos of these units.

Jeff has created a very nice shop in Kalkaska. Notice the epoxy floor paint and the abundant lighting. The centerpiece of his shop is his Craftsman table saw. Click the button here to see photos of Jeff's shop.
(I won't show the picture of Molly's car parked in Jeff's shop)

Ace had a wonderful shop in East Lansing. It was a shame to have to pack it up and move it to Kalamazoo. But, we all know that building the shop is half the fun.
The entire shop was on a raised floor with dust collector ductwork and electrical wiring under the floor. The shop had more lights than any other shop I've seen. Click the button here to see photos of Ace's shop in East Lansing.

This is a very nice small table with a dovetailed drawer that slides to either side of the table. I believe it was one of the fist projects to be produced in Ace's Lansing shop.

Bob built this Oak bookcase for Robert in his shop in Canal Fulton, Ohio.