Bethany Miller

Repair on a Japanese carved panel.

Une baguette? Non! Un kalaha. Made from a spalted aspen branch.

How to fix miter
I have been trying to bevel and mess with the square of my blade to the plate but cannot get it perfectly square. Is there something else I can do? It’s a newer blade so it’s not warped. It is a sliding miter saw by Kobalt. I’ve noticed that when pushing the blade down it does have some twist to it but I don’t see a particular bolt that I can tighten to keep this twist from occurring. All my cuts are slightly angled.

Best way to cover this without starting from scratch?
I made 7 poplar windowsills for my new house. It’s an old 1895 log cabin. Nothing is square. I accounted for that when I was making the cuts along the window, most of them are longer on one side than the other. I didn’t account for them getting wider towards the window. Not I’ve got these gaps on a few of the windowsills. I’m hoping someone has a solution that isn’t just starting from scratch, since this wood costs an arm and a leg in my area. Thank you

Coolest thing I've made so far
Been working on this for about 6 months, finally got it done! (Well, drawer pulls are in the mail). It's a bench seat made from cherry and curly maple. I'm particularly proud of the grain matched front, it was my first time doing it across drawer faces and I definitely complicated things by adding the angles. My approach for this project was also very different from previous ones, in the past I would design something in SketchUp, then buy the wood and make it. With this project I first found a really beautiful and figured piece of cherry and designed the bench around it. I really wanted to keep it intact and showcase the grain pattern. The result was a project that feels much more intentional

Knowledgeable equipment people needed!!
I have a 1940’s Oliver jointer that I refurbished and I have tested the motor with a multimeter and it shows the motor is still good, I took off the old control/start assembly cause it was old and busted up and I’d like to put a VFD on it since I don’t have 3 phase power in my shop but I’m not sure where to start and how I would know what to buy in addition to the VFD to be able to use this piece of history

work bench
Here is a work bench I made for my son, the wood is hickory top and bottom with a poplar core and white oak frame and lower shelves. Also the top is floating but so heavy you don't even notice.

My own straw marquetry TV cabinet
Just wanted to share my own Straw Marquetry TV cabinet I made awhile back. Sun bleached natural straw was wrapped around a solid beech wood case. The interior is beech ply finished with blonde shellac. Three doors with knife hinges and a TV lift. The exterior of the doors are laid with a sun burst pattern while the rest of the case is just a straight pattern. This was my first straw marquetry project. The client handled the designer I worked with a picture of a similar piece made by Jean Michael Frank during the art deco period. This cabinet is much larger and included a TV lift. I never want to say no, so I went down a rabbit hole of samples and trying to find out as much as possible about straw marquetry techniques. I learned a ton along the way and had to problem solve the entire way.

I finally got rid of all the thin cuttoffs ive been hoarding for years

French Cleat shelf material
It might be a dumb question, but what material should I make the shelves out of for my French cleat in my garage? The garage is all cedar, my cleat is cedar… should I do the shelves in cedar, too? I’ve been thinking too hard about this and now nothing seems like the right answer anymore 🤷‍♂️