Peter Brown's ShopTime

Turning cardboard on the lathe. I needed a quick project after a failed larger project. This started out as an experiment, but I have to say I really like the look of it! I not sure if another cardboard project is in my future but for now, I'm just happy to follow up a failure with a success!

A Thunder Tube, or Thunder Drum is a really fun noise instrument. I've seen many versions of this but they all used a traditional drum head, which can be expensive. I made this for $7

When you think about PVC, you're probably like me, and consider it as a tube. Well, it's pretty easy to get it into flat material for the shop. I flattened a 4" piece of schedule 40 PVC in about 20 minutes. You just need a heat gun and a flat surface.  Odds are, you've got loads of the stuff sitting around the house. Why not recycle it into something useful?

Prepare yourself for a sugar rush. I'm going to mix glue, cake sprinkles and cherry wood into a bonkers looking cake stand. I don't think I was quite prepared for how colorful this project would end up or how much of a mess it would leave in the shop! Still, I'm quite pleased with it. My daughter was the only one who protested... "Dad, you used ALL the sprinkles?!"

I first saw this toy demonstrated over on the Grand Illusions YouTube channel, and I knew I had to try my hand at it! Walnut Dropping Top with wipe on ploy finish

I recently melted down some milk jugs and bottle tops to make a colorful block of material. I began pondering what I could do with it! This was the first I idea that grabbed me. A HDPE wall clock!

After spending 2 hours cutting up a single milk bottle with kitchen shears, I knew I couldn't do it again.  I felt like a late night infomercial and may have actually uttered the phrase, "There has to be a better way!"

Just don't let the MCP know what you're up to, or might just find yourself fighting for your life on the game grid....

The Bell Systems three position stool was a mainstay of the central telecom office. It was typically constructed from red oak and 2 inch screws. It was a was a real workhorse, just what I need...

What's absorbent, blue and covered in epoxy? Yep! A Shop Towel Bottle Stopper. I think I might have a problem...

When I first approached with this idea it seemed like it would be a simple project. That should have been a warning sign right there, but my brain just thought, "Make a functional pint glass from discarded beer coasters? I wonder why no one has ever done anything like that before." I now know the answer to that rather naive question.    33 coasters and 5 pieces of scrap cherry

 These wires are from a 25 pair telephone cable that was discarded at the office. It just didn't seem right to toss them!

I made a run of these two ring puzzles about three years ago, and they were quite popular as gifts. The joy is, once you know the secret, you want to watch others labor over it. Turns out we're all sickos....

This is actually the second box I made this weekened. The first one came out great, but I had a major allergic reaction to it. So much that I had to toss the wood and wait a day to get back in the shop to make a second. As good warning, some woods are more prone to this than others... So I ended up using my leftover from my wine barrel blank . As such the shop smelled strongly of wine during most of the build. I suppose I can pretend that is the reason for me acting a bit silly on film! The copper was just a 1" copper pipe from the hardware store. Cut open, pounded flat and heated with a torch. I also got to try mixing epoxy with coffee grounds. I helped fill some gaps in my copper inlay, and also smelled quite nice. Although I forgot to film it, I did spray the box with two coats of lacquer. I guess I just got a little ahead of myself!  Thanks!

So I posted what I thought would be a fun video on You-Tube last week: A ring made from colored pencils: What I didn't anticipate was how well received it would be! As of this point it has 190k views and about 125 shares. Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!  Also thank you to all of you who subscribed! I have a ton of new ideas. They are one part woodworking and one part crazy. I think many of them will prove to be interesting. At the very least I hope to stimulate some other ideas, or get people motivated to risk failing at something themselves! So stay tuned, and thank you again for the support! I hope I live up to it! -Peter Brown