I have been working at ShopBot Tools, Inc. since January of 2018. In this time I have expanded on a love of creating and woodworking which had really only encompassed pool cues before. These tools have taken my imagination and made it reality for every single idea that I have wanted to create. I am showing some of my favorite projects here to show what I have been doing in my spare time with the tools that I have grown so intimate with while I have been working in the technical support of them. P.S. Sorry about the photo quality. I got this nice custom lens for my phone camera, and all I had to pay for it was a quick trip down a flight of brick stairs. Better camera coming soon I promise.
Leaf Shelves
These shelves are part of a new office desk design that I created, and add a bit of a natural aesthetic to our office space. Each shelf rotates around the support post allowing them to be swung around between employees or moved to change the overall look of the area. I was playing around with new stain ideas at the time, so each is a slightly different hue from my experimentation with color blends. I have written each combination down in a color guide log book, with corresponding example pieces, so that they can be duplicated in the future. This particular one is a prototype piece to see how much weight each shelf can hold at different locations across the top. Once I have finished the rest of the desk design I will create a sanctuary desk space with natural themes to make my work atmosphere a little bit more enjoyable. I am still working on a concept for a poured concrete portion of the desk which can accomodate a small stream/waterfall...
Address Stamps
We needed an easy way to apply return labels to our wedding RSVP's, and so we created a custom stamp. We are now creating new stamps for every new address that we move to, and are working on creating stamps for each family member as well.
O-HI-O
My wife's family are huge Ohio State fans, so I made this plaque for her father as a Christmas present. As I mentioned before I am a huge fan of brightly colored stains, and the red turned out fabulously with the Curly Maple.
Real Men Wear Pink
This was one of the more fun and interesting projects that I have done lately. I made this State of North Carolina wall mounted piece for one of my Real Men Wear Pink auctions, and it was a hit! Weighing in at 5' wide and a little over 2' tall, each county is glued in place with a small gap between it and it's neighbor. The staining pattern was interesting as I did not want any two counties with the same stain color next to each other. A good friend ended up winning this for her son!
Creation is fun! If you see something that you love, and you have the capability to literally turn around and make it(Provided you can figure out how) you can add all sorts of spice to your surroundings. These were created by your truly to celebrate the battling themes of our home, with my wife holding true to Harry Potter and my own self orienting towards Star Wars. A little bit of time in design can make great things to have around.
Magic Card Receptacle
Magic the Gathering has been huge part of my life since the game first came out, and I have collected cards since that time. I have an enormous amount of cards and decided to do something about the way that I was storing them. This cabinet system that I created allows me to store them all, though I had to make a second one for them all to fit, in a way that is easy to catalog and keep track of. At some point my wife will probably throw them all out into the front yard, but at least this way she will have to remove them from the cabinet first. At some point I will make custom drawers for each color with carved mana symbols representative of what is inside of each drawer, but for now it will suffice to hold all of the cards.
Yet Another Real Men Wear Pink Event!
I hold Cornhole tournaments every year as one of the fundraisers. The first place team usually gets a set of custom cornhole boards that I build. I team up with local Wine-and-design shops to get them painted. I have used two different designs in the past, and definitely favor the one on the left more than the one on the right. It just holds up better.
Wedding Time!
Sarah and I made as many of the flourishes and detail pieces as we could in the time that we could. We made our own ring boxes, inlaid serving boards for our wedding party members, and the cake topper!
I have had the opportunity to make several large panel signs. The one on the left was commissioned in a Breast Cancer Auction for a musician, while the one on the left was the guestbook at my sisters wedding. We put out a pile of differently colored Sharpie markers and everyone got to write and draw in the open space, creating a marvelous wall mounted guestbook to display!
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ShopBot has given me many gifts over the years. One of my personal favorites was a work trip to Japan. While there Sarah and I purchased several nice pairs of chopsticks for use at home. I needed a nice storage place for them, so I made this!
One of my sisters tasked me with construction of a new Bailey chair for their dog stone. Stone is a great Dane so finding a bailey chair that he could fit in was problematic. for those of you who do not know, bailey chairs are necessary if the dog has a condition called megaesophagus, where the muscles in their throat do not push food down the esophagus towards the stomach. bailey chairs help the dog maintain an upright position while eating so that gravity can pull the food down their throat to the stomach. it took some doing but i finally built a chair that will hold up to stone's size and weight, while keeping him upright and comfortable while he eats.
I had the opportunity to make two additional Breast Cancer auction Commissioned pieces.
One is for an avid Alabama fan, and the other for a retired Air Force service member.
The Alabama sign is comprised of individual pieces for each color that are assembled onto a back plate. The flag is one of my personal favorite pieces, and I used an aluminum panel from a fighter plane for the inlay of the Air Force emblem.
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My friend Dylan, whom I play a lot of Magic with, has a parrot named Bailey. Bailey has a lot of toys, food, and other accessories which need lots of storage space. Dylan wanted to make a new shelving unit with some individual flare for Bailey, so we did! I am really happy with the Epoxy pours into the parrot carvings on the front of the doors.
We had a baby!!! Both sides of the family gave us many gifts to help Josie feel comfortable, including almost a dozen blankets from generations of children. They are largely hand made, and have a ton of character and history, but we did not have a great place to store them. So I made a blanket ladder and knocked one of the items off of my bucket list. I stained it with a stainbow! While it is not a true stainbow, due to not covering the entire color spectrum, I am really happy with how it turned out.