We Started Our Project The Night Before...

... Discussing The Objectives And Design Concepts.

I Made Some Scale Sketches So I'd Recall What We Discussed.

Leon's Shop is Larger Than My First Home - 1,200 sq ft!

He's Got an Enourmous Collection of Tools and Supplies That He's Collected Over 50+ Years.

The Majority of the Lumber He Uses Comes From The Trees Removed From The Family Farm.

If We Needed It, Leon Had It.

He Never Had Trouble Remembering Where Something Should Be Stored, Just Sometimes It Had Been Moved.

He Supervised Much of My Work From This Chair.

We Headed to the Shop After Breakfast Every Day And Remained There Until Between 6:00 and 8:00 PM Every Evening (Except Sunday).

I've Had Very Little Shop Experience So Leon Taught By Doing.

I Learned How to Safely Use a Table Saw...

... a Joiner,...

... a Planer, ...

... a Radial Arm Saw, a Shaper, a Circular Saw and a Number of Other Power Hand Tools.

On The First Day We Built The Vertical Pieces For the First Frame.

I Think Leon Was Surprised How Long It Took.

On the 2nd Day We Started Creating The Pieces That Would Be Molded on the Frames.

I Never Realized How Much Glue Was Involved in Woodworking and Discovered That Leon Has Well Over 200 Clamps.

We Decided to Create the Parts For 2 Frames.

This is When I Learned That The Clamps Dimple The Wood!

I Was More Careful After Seeing the "Damage" the Next Day.

We Duplicated the Work From Day #1 for the 2nd Frame.

Time For Supper. Leon Has Been a Vegetarian Since the End of WWII.

Leon Waited Until Day #2 to Inform Me That the Dust From Black Walnut is Hazardous! We Generated LOTS of It!

My Friend Marcus Had Given Me Some Black Walnut for the Project But It Wasn't Enough, So...

... We Took the Truck to the Farm to Restock Leon's Supply.

Leon & Sam (Anita's Daddy) Survey The Inventory.

This Cherry Was Stacked on the Black Walnut So We Moved It Aside.

These Pieces Will Do Just Fine!

We Backed The Truck Up to the Storage Building And...

... Loaded It Up.

Anita's Parents Have a Few Tractors!

Big Ones, Small Ones, Old Ones and New Ones!

Leon Takes a Rest, While...

... Sam Surveys The Load.

It Was a Beautiful Spring Day.

The Dogwoods Were in Bloom.

Notice Something Different From Previous Years?

They Added an Awning Over the Steps.

Time to Pack It Up and Get Back to the Shop.

Now We Had Enough Wood to Create the Bottom Portion of the Frames.

We Stretched Leon's Clamp Supply, and...

... Had to Glue a Few of Them the Next Day.

These Pieces Are Thick!

The Pile of Shavings From The Planar is Growing.

I Visited Anita's Aunt Regina That Evening After Dinner.

She Has a Dog, And...

... Two Kitties.

Leon and Regina Planted a Garden Before I Arrived. Leon Was Out Fertilizing the Next Morning.

Our Design Began to Fall Apart on Day #4. We Realized the Frame Was Too Wide for the Shaper, Requiring...

... Us to Make These Parts Separate and Glue Them to the Base (i.e. the Output of Day #2 Was Scrap).

We Also Realized That We Had Not Provided a Robust Design Solution for the Glasss.

Fortunately, Both Issues Allowed Us to Get Creative Using ...

... This Approach! The Shaped Top Was Split in Two And Glued to the Base With an Overhang For The Glass.

Once It's Glued, Filled and Stained, No One Will Know But Us (Can You Keep Our Secret?).

Here's the Results of Our Efforts.

Notice the Scrap Strips Under the Clamps to Protect the Work?

The Shaper Got a Workout, And...

... We Ran Out of Clamps!

The Day Finished on a High Note.

Time to Begin Cutting the Frame Pieces to Size.

The Pieces Were Too Big for the Jig And Our "Solution" Ended Up Causes Us a World of Grief.

True to Form, Leon Teaches by Doing.

We Made Our Pieces Long Enough So We Had No Issues.

Here's The Concept (Without the Center Brace For the 2nd Column of Proof Coin Sets).

Our "Solution" For Cutting the Mitre on the Table Saw Resulted in a Terrible Fit. We Ended The Day Without Assembling Either Frame.

Anita's Mom Louise Visited to Check On Us.

Leon Was Happy to See Her.

Louise Took Some Pictures of Me Working.

This Way You Can See That I Learned Something, and...

... I Didn't Make Leon Do ALL The Work!

I Think He's Ready For...

... a Group Photo.

The Mounting Solution is One Used For Hanging Cabinets.

The Frames Are Heavy Even Without the Coins.

The 2nd Frame Fit Better Than the First So We Built It.

What Do You Think? We Had to Fill Some Gaps, But...

... As My Dad Used to Say "If You Look That Close You Deserve to See Something!"

The Base is Deeper Than Required, But...

... They'll Serve Their Purpose Nicely.

Can You Tell The First From the Second?

Bye Leon, I'll Be Back to Finish Them. View the Spring Break Photos of My Spring Break in Jacksonville With Mia and Anna.