I Like To Build Things

One Christmas after having moved out of my parents' home, my mother remarked that I had entered the stage of life in which power tools became appropriate gifts. I'll never forget coming down the stairs to that compound miter saw (featured in the video on this page). I'll stop short of calling it the best gift I ever received, but it's certainly a contender.

I have always enjoyed working with my hands, and as a child I'd help my father with odd jobs around the house. However, I didn't really catch the woodworking bug until I got my own place and found myself in need of furniture. Luckily, my father was more than happy to lend me the use of his shop, not to mention his wise tutelage. Over the years, I've returned to that shop, and I've done my best to start my own, confined as I am to an apartment. You can see the results below and in the video above and to the right.

Building is a love that I've done my best to share. When I taught astronomy, I introduced some students to their first power tools when we built a Dobsonian telescope. Many of them had never even picked up a hammer. You can see one of our builds here. I also used to teach a summer day-camp in rocketry that involved building on a slightly different scale. Fun times. ;)

This video documents the construction of a Jeffersonian Bookstand I built for my wife's birthday. You can download the plans here. If you like this video, you might also like my educational science series--The Tabletop Explainer.

Below, you'll see my standing desk. I wanted to free up room in my office. So I designed it to sit atop three open bookshelves--two in the back and one in the front. Here's an album chronicling its construction.