Wood Shop Ideas

I am working on using the church pew seat to make a bench for our dining room and I have added ends under the seat. The back of the seat is slightly off square and so I needed to hold the work piece firmly while I trimmed 5 degrees off the ends. I decided to add the ends to give me something more to attach the legs to when I finish the bench.  Traditionally the pew would have had an end on it that was both leg and sides.

 My bench is going to have open ends and lighter style legs. Hence the adjustments that need to be made as the work goes along.

one end is in the vise,

this end is clamped using a bit of inspiration,
and improvisation.

     

    I am using Miller Dowels for some of the assembly on the bench.  My Miller drill bits are in case that I made as a prototype a while ago.  You can see that two of the bits are rattling around in the case naked. I decided to do something about the nakedness this time. I have a foot or two of plastic plumbing tubing which makes perfect easy cases for the drill bits.   

 By protecting the bits they will stay sharper longer.  I want them to last until I run out of dowels.  I bought a shoe box full of mixed dowels on a "clear out" a few years ago and find them useful for certain types of assembly.