Noah B Woodworks

A woodworking page for the free time foot soldier

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about

Hello there! My name is Noah Budd and I am a woodworker from southeast Michigan. I hail from a small set of towns in the Upper Peninsula called Houghton/Hancock. I lived there for 24 of my 31 years, and graduated from Michigan Tech in 2019 in audio production.

In my free time I am a dad first and hobbyist second. I make music, read books, smoke pipes, and kayak fish. I am a broadcast engineer in my professional life, working an early morning 3:30 – 11:30 am shift. The early bird has most definitely gotten a worm or two.

Thanks for stopping by my site and feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @noahbwoodworks or via the email found on the contact page

-Noah

    • Butchers Block Fold Out Table Cutting Board

      I had an idea as I was driving home from work yesterday to build a big butchers block for camp cooking. The vision is to have fold out legs on the bottom carved into the bottom so it lies flat. It’ll be a fold-out table butchers block cutting board. I figure that would be pretty useful around the campfire or camp site. I’ve definitely been longing to get outside and do some camping, so that’ll be the focus this year. I’d like to film as much of it as I can and do some adventure camping this summer if possible.

      So I’m thinking I’ll try to make this folding butcher block table cutting board fairly big. Probably at least an inch to an inch and a half thick, at least 1 foot by 2 foot in size. The trick will be making it big enough to be very useful but not so big that it’s annoying to move around. I figure I could start doing some day trips with it, film some outdoor cooking videos. I’m thinking that I’ll 3D print the legs for the table, or make them out of wood. I’m struggling right now to understand how I’ll attach the legs to the bottom. I’m thinking I’ll CNC the recess for the legs into the bottom, and perhaps use some sort of mechanism that allows the legs to fold out and lock into place, but also allows the legs to be attached nicely to the bottom.

      I’ve got a fire pit in the back yard so it will be fun for me and my preschooler to do some fire making and cooking. This little butchers block table cutting board will be a cool thing to have for that as well. If you can’t tell I’ve been craving hanging out around the fire, doing some camp cooking and enjoying some warm weather.

      This weekend I’m planning on doing a bunch more ice fishing because there will only be a couple more weekends to make use of all of the equipment that I purchased. It’s my mom’s birthday on Monday, so we’re going to early dinner on Saturday. I’ll probably hit Lake St. Clair Friday morning for a couple hours targeting perch, then we’ve got a meeting with our preschoolers school in the early afternoon to get her enrolled. Saturday morning we’ll hit Union for an early morning walleye bite and then early dinner with the family.

    • Getting Back to the Grind

      I didn’t post yesterday because I felt like there wasn’t much to say. I haven’t been doing much woodworking lately and I’ve been feeling sort of stuck in life. I’d love to do my music work and woodworking full time, but I’m also a full time dad and employee, so I’m experiencing the struggle of basically everyone else in the world right now. I suppose that in itself is comforting. I’ll have a little time today to do some sort of work while our preschooler is at preschool.

      I need to fix the stool that I made a few months ago. The dryness of the season got to it and the figured walnut on the seat has split apart. I’ll most likely try to plane it flat and the router the whole crack out of the seat. I’ll replace the routed section with a strip of cherry or walnut depending on how flashy I’d like to be. I believe that is next on the to-do list.

      Once we get our next big warm up I need to do a couple of things. I need a haircut, I need to figure out a roof rack for the kayaks, and then I need to finish the speaker boxes for my brother. I learned my lesson last winter trying to do big glue ups when it was too cold. I need to be patient and allow the weather to get warm enough to do the big glue ups I’ve got planned. I’d also like to continue the puzzle box work I was doing a few months ago, or at least make a bunch more boxes this year. I’d like to get a system down for creating very high quality, hand made boxes. I liked the idea of puzzle boxes because it’s an opportunity to tell stories and combine 3D printing, CNC and woodworking all in one small package.

    • Ice Season Coming to an End

      I spent nearly the entire weekend ice fishing, and the ice rod case did its job very well. I was very happy to be able to transport my rods safely and jam pack a bunch of gear on top of them. Snapping my fragile jigging rods was never a worry and so that in itself was worth the effort. The entry was melted on the first lake that I tried Friday morning, so I shifted to another nearby lake that ended up being pretty sweet. I was shooting for panfish, and I found a school of bluegill and pulled a few out of the water. Most of them were dinks, I might have caught one decent one.

      I set up the shanty and before long the winds were gusting the pop up walls in. I had never experienced this, and I actually discovered that I could have prevented this by staking the pop up walls down from the outside. I bought a fairly cheap clam insulated pop up on a really good sale at Bass Pro. I paid $350 for a $450 3-4 person insulated pop up shanty. What is annoying about the shanty is that it only came with 4 ice stakes when you really need 8. 4 for the inside and 4 for the outside on windy days. I don’t know why they only included 4 because on windy days this pop up is useless.

      On Saturday my brother and I went out to Union Lake to try to get an early morning walleye bite. I purchased some more ice stakes from the bait shop as we picked up our minnows. We ended up getting a bunch of rock bass and perch early and then got skunked going into the afternoon. It was a ton of fun and the shanty did awesome because I staked it down properly for gusty wind.

      As far as woodworking goes, the weather is getting warmer so it’ll be easier to glue and take on bigger projects. My primary focus will be on getting the rest of my brother Jack’s speaker system done. I’ll post pictures as that’s happening. I might try to start working on that again in early march. I’m still fishing obsessed so I’ll most likely be trying to do one day of fishing and one morning of woodworking a weekend. My preschooler is getting into preschool, so I’ll have a little more time to do focus on these hobbies later this year.

    • Ice Rod Case is 99% There

      I ran to the hardware store yesterday after work before returning home and picked up a small metal handle and four sets of stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers. I was on daddy duty yesterday afternoon so I tricked my preschooler into going outside. I kicked the soccer ball and she retrieved it, and in between retrieves I drilled the holes for the stainless steel bolts. Once my wife returned home from work I did the leather work for this case in a hurried and rushed fashion. I had around an hour to do everything. I created two buckles to hold the lid shut, and that is pictured below. These work, but would benefit from a small piece of leather to hold the strap down, like you’d find on a normal belt buckle.

      It’s hard to see in the picture that I took yesterday, but there are leather straps that hold the rods in place inside of the case. The color of the leather straps match the color of the case so the one that wraps around the middle 3D printed insert blends into the stained cherry wood background. I 3D printed little knobs onto the 3D printed inserts on either end of the case for the smaller leather straps to attach to. This fastening method works well and I am able to turn the case on it’s side to carry the case. The internal leather straps are important because when you’re packing things up on the ice, things get tossed around, so I wanted the rods to be very secure inside of the case.

      All that’s left to do is put a healthy coating of oil onto the sides to provide a bit more water resistance and maybe add little leather rings to the leather straps to help contain the straps when they’re fastened inside of the buckle. For all intents and purposes though, the case is ready for use. The weather is supposed to be terrible this weekend, and I’m fairly certain that there will only be a few more weekends of ice fishing left in the season. The case might get maximum 3-6 uses before the season ends, but it will still be good to have for storage this summer.

    • Epoxy Work is Done

      It might not look like much, but this is practically the final result of the ice rod case that I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks. I poured the last two rounds of epoxy yesterday and it is ready for the last finalizing steps. I 3D printed the center spacer that helps the rods not droop so much in the middle. It can hold four rods, which is one more than I currently own. I’ve got one rod that is dedicated to my tip up, and two jigging rods. If you look closely the two 3D printed inserts at the top and bottom have little extrusions on the top that are for a leather or rubber strap to be used to fasten the rod handles in place. I probably should have put a couple onto the middle insert as well, but I’m hoping that it’ll be held well enough on the ends. It’s okay if they rattle around a little bit, the whole purpose of this case is so that the rods don’t get crushed in my car on the way to the lake.

      I’ve got to make a trip to the hardware store to finish the case. I need six sets of most likely stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers. I might get the black oxidized bolts instead because I like the look of them but stainless would be a smarter choice for the long run. I need two sets for the leather handle, and then I need four sets for the leather straps that will hold the whole thing together. I’ll install some belt buckles onto these straps and space them so that the lid stays firmly shut when strapped in. I’ll apply some oil finish at some point to help the water resistance of the sides and it’ll officially be done.

    • Buckles for the Ice Rod Case

      I was on daddy duty yesterday so there is nothing new to report on. I’ve got to finalize the rod case this week, which entails a few tedious steps detailed in yesterdays blog post. Yesterday was 50 degrees and sunny so I took the little one out for a long walk and then played dragons and castles with her for a while. I’ll most likely try to 3d print the middle insert and then perhaps do another round of epoxy overnight on the bottom of the case. I’m sort of running out of vertical space as the epoxy is making the bottom thicker. I need to pour epoxy into the top as well which means I need to devise a way to keep it level while the epoxy dries.

      I also need to do the leatherwork for this. I’m looking to do a leather strap piece that will keep the lid shut and then another set of straps that will keep the rods in place. I’ll most likely use a bolt to fasten the leather strap to the case and then fashion some sort of buckle. Come to think of it, I’ve got some small buckles that might just work for this. So I’ll use a nut, bolt and some washers to fasten the leather straps, then attach the buckle to one side, and then poke holes in the other side and I’ll have a fairly reliable latch. I could do two for extra sturdiness.

    • Ice Rod Case is Almost Done

      We had a pretty awesome weekend. On Friday the family came out ice fishing and my wife caught a decent sized bluegill which was very exciting. My daughter almost had a fish but she didn’t know what to do when it came to reeling so we lost it. It’s okay though she had a ton of fun being in the shanty and watching her mom pull a fish in.

      I ended up pouring a ton of epoxy into the ice rod case. This morning I was looking at it and it needs another insert in the middle to support the rods from dangling down. I’ll be trying to figure out what to do there during this week. It’s pretty much ready for use as is though ,so I may hold off. The only purpose for the case is so that the rods don’t get crushed when being transported in the car. If it can do that, then it is doing it’s job. When I get to the ice, my sled has rod holders that I’ll transfer the rods into, so it’s not a huge deal if this rod case isn’t perfect. I’d still like it to be nice though incase I go north with the boys at some point.

      The epoxy is just to sort of waterproof the joints. I’ll add either an oil finish or a spray shellac to add more water resistance, but it should be really sturdy now from the epoxy so if there’s any movement it will be met with some resistance. The next steps are to epoxy the inside of the lid, figure out the middle insert, add leather straps to the outside and inside, and add a water resistant finish to the sides.

    • Yay for the Weekend

      I came into work this morning and immediately started tying flies. I completely spaced writing this blog post until I was around 2 hours in. I’m having a great time tying nymphs and random little flies to try out on the ice this weekend. It’s been a ton of good fun. I’m a little hungover, work this week has gotten the best of me and I had 2 big slugs of whiskey last night before bed. Hoping to stay away from the sauce tonight so I can feel great when I take the family out on the ice Friday.

      After work yesterday I put in a couple hours on the ice rod case. I cut the box apart and installed the hardware. I gave it a really rough sanding and then used a min wax oil stain I believe it is called spiced walnut. It’s the darkest stain I have. After work today I’ll clean up the box by wiping off any excess stain and then begin the epoxying process. I’m guessing I’ll be able to pour epoxy into the basins of the box to get a really thin layer into every crevasse. The outer sides might take a little longer to do. My guess is I’ll do the inside first, because it will pool up nicely and then tackle the outer top and bottom. I’ll do the sides last as it’ll most likely take the most amount of time.

    • Ice Rod Case is Coming Together

      Yesterday, while my toddler was at daycare I was able to get some woodworking done. I dimensioned the cherry lumber for the ice rod case, completed the joinery and glued it up. It was fairly straightforward, and I’m definitely getting faster with these boxes. I opted for mitered corners, which made getting the dimensions of the lumber a little easier. I’m debating whether I’d like to do splines, but I have a feeling it’ll be sturdy enough without them. I’m planning to cover the whole thing in a layer of epoxy that will weather and waterproof the case while adding reinforcement to the joinery.

      My mitering jig is a little wonky. For some reason it wont cut straight, so I’ve got to figure out whether it’s the poor trueing of my dimensioned lumber, or the table saw jig itself. As I push the lumber through the jig, you can see that it isn’t cutting the miter evenly. It’s a couple of degrees off as the saw works its way through and when I hold a square to it, you can see the angle that the saw leaves. It was good enough for this project, but unacceptable for higher end boxes I’d hope to sell.

      I’m getting better with the router table. I used a quarter inch spiral bit to cut the dados and rabbets for the internal joinery on the top and bottom. I have confidence that this box will be very sturdy thanks to this joinery. Having the fence to run these pieces again made it very fast and easy once the quarter inch router bit was installed. The wall thickness of the box is half inch, so I raised the quarter inch bit a quarter inch and zipped all of the edges for the top and bottom to make rabbets. Then I zipped the top and bottom of the sides slightly further down on the edge to create the dados. For the rabbets, I raised the bit up about a sixteenth of an inch and this really helped with the final fit up, as the rabbeted tongue was ever so slightly smaller in thickness than the dado.

      I was able to glue everything inside, which I’m sure is driving my wife insane having these projects in the house. It’s starting to warm up but we’re still pretty far away from glue-able temperatures out in the barn. Here’s a picture of the glue up.

      Next steps are to sand a little, cut the lid off, apply stain, then apply epoxy, then install the hardware, and finally 3D print the pieces that will hold the rods in place inside of the case. I’m hoping to have all of this done by the end of the weekend, but we will see. It is my 2 year wedding anniversary this weekend so I’ve taken Sunday off work which will be absolutely fantastic.

    • Ice Jig Fly Tying

      Yesterday I got a wild hair and investigated the tying of flies for fishing. This is a lure crafting method that uses a vise, a hook, some thread and other materials to tie lures that look like flies and other small insects that hopefully will attract a fish. I never thought I’d be interested in doing something like this, because I’m not a fly fisherman, but I noticed when looking at some of my ice jigs that they looked hand-tied. Some of the more grub like jigs had a hand tied sort of look to them, and that got me thinking that when I don’t feel like making music or woodworking, I can tie some jigs on the couch.

      I’m attempting to do this while spending zero money. I’m looking to use some of my wife’s thread, and I 3D printed a bobbin holder. I can whip finish with my hands instead of getting a whip finishing tool, and I plan to use my needle nose vice grips to hold the hook instead of a dedicated fly tying vise. I cut up some old toddler clothes that were destined for Goodwill for my tying fabric. At this early stage, I’m just trying to see what I can make with what I have at my house. Anything that looks like a bug is welcome. I’ll probably end up making a trip to Michaels for some crafting supplies sometime soon but I just wanted to see how far I could make it without doing that.

      I’ve attached some photos of the jigs I’ll be trying to recreate and the 3D printed bobbin holder.