We are living in difficult economic times. Many of us are having to tighten our belts and this may extend to woodworking projects. 

Popular Mechanics has a page on their website listing eight different easy woodworking projects that emphasize frugality by such tactics as using reclaimed wood and avoiding high cost machinery. The eight projects themselves are from the website Instructables, which gives step-by-step instructions on how to complete them in detail with pictures. The projects are as follows:

1. A table made from reclaimed wood. The finished product is a stylish, modern-looking table with steel legs. The reclaimed wood has to have nails, staples, and other debris removed and must be sanded before it is ready to use.

2. A method of flattening out lumber without using a jointer. A jointer is an expensive, specialized piece of equipment that many of us do not have access to. This article explains how to use a sanding drum in place of a jointer.

3. Projects using old fence boards. Several projects are detailed in this article using fence boards as old as fifty years. They include a router table, saw stand, picture frames, kitchen hutch, signs, and fence gate.

4. A substitute for a lathe. This project shows how to use a drill and grindstone for wood turning instead of using a professional lathe. It includes a method for creating identical objects such as drawer handles as well as how to create a unique object.

5. Woodworking without metal hardware or glue. This project explains how to make mortise-and-tenons, hinges and dovetails, and simple joints without using glue or metal fasteners.

6. Stool made from wheelbarrow wheel. A designer describes how he salvaged a wheelbarrow wheel to make a stool with a swivelling seat.

7. Low cost marquetry. This article describes how to use a wood burning tool to draw an image onto a wood plank and stain it to simulate the expensive practice of marquetry.

8. Make your own oars with 2×4s. The process of crafting oars from a 2×4 is described here, avoiding the necessity of buying the expensive item. You must have an existing oar to trace for the project, however.

These projects are worth checking out as low cost, do-it-yourself ways of creating economical quality projects. Who can afford to be wasteful in these times?

There is a lot of talk about going green and reducing your carbon footprint these days. It is refreshing to read in an article from Ashland Daily Tidings that some young people are taking that goal seriously and working toward it. Three high school students from Ashland, Oregon, are taking on a green easy woodworking project by building a wind turbine.

Ashland High School students David Erhun, Noah Slater and Jordan Alexander are currently working on the project. The idea originated with 16 year-old junior Erhun, who recruited seniors Slater and Alexander to help him. 

Erhun got the idea when he was in London this summer, attending the Camp for Climate Action. They discussed grassroots energy projects there and the wind turbine discussion peaked Erhun’s interest. He attended a workshop to teach people to build wind turbines and he decided to pursue the subject further when he got home. 

Because he did not have the knowledge to take the project on without research, he turned to a book by Hugh Piggott, a leader in the field of small wind turbine technology. A Wind Turbine Recipe Book, published in January of this year, proved to be Erhun’s guide. After reading it, he recruited Slater and Alexander and they began to work on a small wind turbine using Piggott’s book as their guide.

The wind turbine that they are building is about a quarter the size of a normal small wind turbine and will be made of wood and metal. The teenagers realize that it may not produce a huge amount of energy, but see it as a good starting project and will be proud of the accomplishment. The wood blades of the windmill are about one meter long each and were cut and sanded using simple woodworking tools. Their next steps are to install an alternator and a metal base. The metal work in the project is also simple but will require some welding that they will need help with.

The young men plan to have the project completed between November and January. They will then use it as a demonstration of how three high school students can complete an easy woodworking project that benefits the environment.

I think we could all take inspiration from these three young men from Oregon and work on our own environmentally friendly woodworking projects.

Recommended Reading:

• www.windaction.org | Another wind turbine before board – The Otter Tail County Board is scheduled hear from a property owner regarding a proposed wind farm near Parkers Prairie. …The discussion on the wind farm, proposed by Prairie Wind Energy LLC, is scheduled to take place at 9:45 am The …

• Use The Tax System To Reduce Your Small Wind Turbine Cost – Just a few months back, before President Bush left office, he signed the revised Emergency Economic.

• www.windaction.org | School mulls wind power – The Indian River Central School District is looking into putting a wind turbine on one of its campuses to decrease the district’s energy costs and carbon footprint. …”We are proposing a study to assess the wind we have,” district …

Looking for an economical and easy woodworking project? You may want to try a portable stool project similar to the one I found in an article on Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. The stools are made entirely of flat plywood pieces, can be designed in different ways for different uses, and may be designed in miniature using paperboard as a prototype.

The stools are made entirely with flat plywood pieces, making them very lightweight and portable. The author writes that her grandfather used to make similar stools that her family would use for backyard barbecues and camping trips. When disassembled, they can be tied together flat with a string or strap and easily carried. Fitting together with intersecting slots assembles the leg pieces. The seat sits on top of the intersecting leg pieces and is held in place by slats on the tops of the leg pieces.

The author came up with different designs for the stools with varying degrees of success. She writes that her first design was very wobbly and felt as if it may splinter with a slight twist when weight is put on it. This stool would probably not work very well for sitting, but it could be used as a small drink table on a camping trip or tailgating party. Her second and third designs work much better as sitting stools because they have three and four leg pieces rather than two. This makes them much less likely to twist and break than the two-leg piece stool in which the two pieces intersect right in the middle.

The author also suggests using paperboard models in miniature as prototypes for the full size plywood stools. Although plywood is cheap, paperboard is cheaper and smaller models are easier to make. They also give a good indication of how the larger plywood stools will bear weight.

These stools are composed of flat, easy-to-carry plywood, can be designed according to your need and preference, and can be made cheaply and quickly as paperboard models before building the actual wood stool. It may serve you well if you are looking for a useful easy woodworking project.