Hi Everyone!

Below are photos of a Custom Advent Calendar ordered by an awesome customer! She contacted me with hopes of starting the yearly Advent tradition with her children and I was super excited to learn and build one of these complex projects.

This project was built using various thicknesses of Baltic Birch plywood ranging from 1/2" to 1/8" thick. It took awhile to dial in the key cuts for each box but it worked really well. I adapted plans from the wood whisperer's original design to meet the customer's request for 25 individual drawers instead of doors for each day counting down to Christmas.

I really, REALLY, like the way the drawers turned out. It took a little effort to get the measurements just right and gluing each individual box went quicker than expected using Cyanoacrelate glue and activator. Without that glue, these boxes definitely would not have worked out as well as they did!

Sanding took a little while but this project came together really well and I'm excited to build different versions of these for customers in anticipation for next Christmas. I have received a few orders already do you'll definitely see more of this project in 2016. I'm still taking other custom orders for next year and have a few really awesome projects lined up for 2016!!

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year from my family to yours!! There is much more to come... Stay frosted..

Hi Everyone!

Are you ready for the holidays?! I'm definitely not as I'm working like crazy getting my Christmas orders finished - from awesome new and returning customers and my family. We're really happy to have networked in Airdrie and Calgary area and my last two sales events were really great! My best seller was business cards which makes me really happy to see people interested in the work that I do!

Here are a few project photos of the work I have done over the last couple of weeks:

First of all shop updates! It's been a few weeks since I had power upgrades in my garage shop. We installed drywall on the ceiling and my friend Victor reluctantly got up into the rafters to install some hefty r40 Insullation up there so I can work in the garage when the temperature drops below 0 degrees. There are a couple of spots left that need insulation and I need to still build an access door to seal off the attic space and keep the cold out to the best of my ability. Since this work has been done, it's made a HUGE improvement to the space itself and I'm loving working out there more and more..

I just need to set aside some time to dedicate it to building some shop organization projects to get more use of my wall space. I'll do a separate post to review my new bandsaw as this post will get pretty lengthy. I'll just say right now, I love it! It's solid, is easy to set up and super quiet! More on the bandsaw to come!

Heat is a big thing. Especially with cast iron tools in the cold. This bad boy makes the cold bearable. I'm interested in the power consumption while running this guy. I only use it to keep the temp above freezing while I'm out in the shop so we'll see how much better it will be in the space once the attic access is sealed. If my prices have to go up, you'll know why haha! Just kidding.

Here's a batch of projects I built and delivered recently. The bandsaw boxes are made of walnut, hickory and Baltic birch plywood. I had to test out my new bandsaw of course! The mitred corner box is, as I just learned, a hardwood called ipe, pronounced eeepeyy. Say it slowly haha you'll get it. I was given a large amount of hardwood flooring scraps that will work out great for jewelery box projects. Getting the wood flat was a challenge but you end up with essentially just enough to make these gorgeous boxes. It has a maple top and bottom with the same species splines in the corners to give it a great color contrast!

All of the boxes were finished with Tung oil which gives them a smooth soft finish that is really durable. These boxes were donated to the Rotary Club of Calgary for their yearly Christmas Auction! I'm glad I was able to get them to a great cause and I hope they earn a fair amount of money at the auction.

I also got a couple of orders for important date block sets which I'm getting more efficient at building in short timeframes which makes customers happy and in turn makes me happy to deliver them! Teal coloring has been the best seller this year out of the block sets but it depends on whether the baby is a boy or girl as I've had all different color requests. This project becomes more interesting as i build each one!

I suppose I should wrap this up for now. I'll have a few more things to post before we go on Christmas holiday break. I have a few projects that haven't sold yet. Be sure to check out my for sale section to see what is left for sale if you want a last minute, awesome gift for that special someone who is difficult to shop for! To make space I'll be discounting some of the larger items to get them into your hands!

Thanks again for following my work and for supporting my addiction! I'll be writing up some project how-to's in the new year to help others who are interested to learn the process I use for building my projects. Stay frosted!

Happy Hollidays! 🎄🍷🍻🍾

Brad
Woodprojectsbybagel.com

A customer sent me a photo of their bottle opener in use! He told me they are at 23 bottle caps and going strong. Please send me photos of my work in use! I love hearing back from customers to see how their items are working for them! Thanks for sending this to me Mike!