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

    • Brainstorming Quick Miters

      My brother asked me in January of this year to make him a huge 5.1 sound system. I am not really sure why I agreed to it, because the project was a little outside of my scope. The biggest sections of the project have been done, but there are some things still left to be done. I still need to make a center speaker, and the two surrounds. I’ve made the front left/right and the sub so far. These were particularly challenging for me because the joinery called for huge miters. I don’t have a proper table saw, so ripping miters has been a huge challenge for me.

      I’m thinking I’ll do these miters with a jig. I’ve got a bunch of aluminum linear rails from when I took my router table apart. I could use the linear rails in such a way that makes cutting miters relatively easy. My vision for this is a flat surface, with the rails elevated 3/4″-1″ off of the surface. The piece that is being mitered slides underneath the rails. A circular saw is fastened to a plate that is fastened to the rails. I measure and glue a stopping block, so all I have to do is butt the workpiece up against the stopper, run the circ saw down the linear rails and just like that: fairly accurate and quick miters.

      Clamping could be as straight forward as holding it down with one hand, but I think I’d like to have some sort of extra hold down. I have a bunch of lever action hold down clamps, but I could figure out another method for the farthest ends of the board to keep everything nice and flat against the jig. I’ve been thinking to make something like this for a very long time, for as long as miters have been an issue. I’ve got 12 big miters that need to be cut accurately, and having something like this should make creating a mitered box easier in the future if I ever needed to do it again.

    • Wood Ink Printing

      As I was falling asleep last night I came across a really awesome video of someone who was using wood to print in the same way that a person might do a linocut. You carve the negative space out of an image and then ink the surface and it will print the image onto a piece of paper. It got my wheels turning about maybe using the CNC to do prints in a similar fashion.

      I really appreciated how he made the entire thing completely by hand. He sketched the image, tweaked it in photoshop, printed a template, glued the template to the wood, and carefully carved away the negative space away with a sharp knife. The final result was incredible and it takes great patience to have such quality craftsmanship. I could most definitely do something similar with the CNC and it would take a fraction of the time. It would sort of feel like cheating though, especially after seeing the soulful result that he got.

      I could probably draw the design and import a scan into Carveco fairly easily, then extract the vector. Programming the relief carving would be very straight forward. I’ve been looking for creative ways to push the CNC and this one does seem very interesting. This would definitely be a more unorthodox way of using the machine, which I like. Every time I come across someone doing a linocut print it always fascinates me and looks like a ton of fun to carve. The carving aspect is what looks fun though, so having the carving be done for me sort of sucks the life out of the process.

    • WoodworkingCalc

      Yesterday I was looking after my daughter, which sometimes can be sort of boring. She’s playing happily with her toys, but what do I do? I pulled out my phone and started playing around with Google’s Gemini AI. I discovered that it can program web apps for you extremely fast. So at first I had it build a drum machine, but that quickly became too complicated for the AI and it started to get hung up, which was rather frustrating. I then asked myself, “what other problems can I solve with this?”. So I thought about my woodworking shop and how it sometimes takes me quite a while to add fractional inches together.

      I asked the AI if it could program me a fractional inches calculator and it did! I’m going to put the button presses in quotations its more clear what’s going on. You can press “1” “space” “5” “/” “16” “plus” “2” “space” “3” “/” “4” and it will do one and five sixteenths inches plus two and three quarters and give you the answer in fractional inches! I was very excited not only to have this tool for myself but I got to thinking that it might help someone else out there. I’ve looked for these on the app store before but they’re usually behind a rather large paywall or in need of a subscription.

      My next question to the AI was how do I put this on the app store? That answer was rather tricky, because you had to adjust the code to work in apple’s landscape. Apple’s landscape and the AI’s landscape are wildly different so the AI kept getting hung up trying to make the code work in both. The code will never work in both so this was rather frustrating. I was able to extract working code, though, and was able to simulate the WoodworkingCalc app on my MacBook. I based the color palette on maple, cherry and walnut wood tones so it sort of fits the environment it’s supposed to be in. I got majorly side tracked doing this yesterday, so who knows where it will go.

    • Woodworking on a Budget

      When I was living in DC with my girlfriend (now my wife) I craved woodworking like crazy. Before we moved to DC I worked in the scene shop for the university I was attending. We would work with sheet goods and 2x4s to build scenery for the plays that I would also have a hand in sound designing. It was one of my favorite jobs ever. Go in for 2-4 hours, get a cut list, make the cuts and continue building. It was stress relieving rather than stress inducing plus I was getting paid. During my last semester, I secretly used my time after work to build an electric guitar from scratch, alongside the big speaker set I was building for the transducer design class. I spent a ton of time in the shop that semester.

      I was unable to woodwork for around 3 years after that, and it was all I wanted to do. I would watch woodworking videos of my favorite makers and wish that I could be doing the same. I ended up cracking, and bought a cheap carving knife on Amazon that came with some small chunks of basswood. I would sit and carve on my couch over a tray, which actually worked quite well. That was while my wife and I had an unborn baby, so I carved a little toy for her while it was still safe to do so in the house.

      We moved back to Michigan shortly after. I started working with my grandpas old tools and a few of my own in the garage. My grandpa had this really cool hand driven miter saw that I used for a long time. It had a very dull blade so it took ages to cut the wood, but it was very square in the end. I bought the cheapest Stanley plane and worked hard to turn it into a good tool. I flattened the frog and learned to sharpen. I was able to get decent shavings out of that tool. I built my tool collection slowly and made a small set of projects those first few months for friends that I’d been away from for too long.

      I made my friend a whiskey cabinet from cherry wood, another friend a chess board, and another friend a beautiful walnut charcuterie board. These projects were the beginning of my woodworking journey, even though I had made a lot of stuff in my youth. I’ll always remember those projects as the start because they had meaningful purpose. I told my friends how much I appreciate them as our lives all went in completely different directions,

    • The Bob Ross of Woodworking

      A friend of mine reached out over the weekend and asked if I could make her a chess board. We haven’t negotiated a price or a style yet, she asked what wood I like to use. I told her white oak, walnut, maple and cherry. She said that walnut and oak would be cool. It got me thinking that a chess board would be a perfect project to film. I don’t think I’ve made a chess board for my YouTube and it would give me an opportunity to plan and film a nice video. The key word there being plan, as I’d like to maximize the media that I generate. Perhaps do the chess board in 3 parts, with a set amount of Instagram posts in there as well.

      I’ve also been thinking it would be interesting to take a NDYakAngler approach to my videos too. He’s a fishing youtuber who gets regular comments that he is the Bob Ross of fishing. His videos are very relaxing to watch and he usually catches absolute monsters. People (including myself) love the simplicity of his videos. He just says “howdy everyone” at the beginning as he paddles through calm water.

      There are a few key advantages to his style that might be worth copying. It is a set it and forget it approach. I dislike filming in the shop sometimes because it takes away from the making, constantly having to rearrange the camera. By turning the GoPro on, and chest mounting it, the viewer gets a really good angle of what I’m doing, while I don’t have to worry so much about placement, angle, focus and light. Another advantage is its easy to get a lot of footage to work with, and the GoPro is extremely easy to use, which would allow me to focus more brain power into the woodworking. I wouldn’t have to worry about being on camera very often.

      I’ve got a nice camera that I used to use regularly that honestly looks spectacular, so it pains me to not use it. The GoPro is also very nice but it’s a GoPro. I read somewhere that it’s hard to watch a wide angle for a long time, but that might not be true. As I’m writing I am thinking that a set it and forget it approach might be the way to go. Place the nice camera on a wide angle mounted somewhere out of the way so I can cut to a wider shot of the entire shop when I feel like switching it up in the edit. The problem with my nicer camera is that it only shoots for 30 minutes at a time, so I do need to allocate some brain space for the management of it.

      My main struggle is consistency. Once I get my approach figured out, it should be smooth sailing. If I can generate a video a week, while working full time and being a full time dad, then I’d be more than happy. I write these blog posts to organize my thoughts in my spare time at work. Believe me, I’d much rather be working in the shop.

    • Last Weekends Projects

      I have a boys weekend in Chicago coming up this weekend, so I decided to make gifts for everyone. I spoke about it a few blog posts ago. Luckily, I already had a batch of whiskey smokers made up, so I was able to sand and finish those with no issues. I made a bottle opener for my buddy who recently broke up with his girlfriend; I spoke more about that one in my last post. I made a really cool little watch display and lidded box for the bride and groom. I engraved small cherry plaques with their names on them and glued them to the padouk. Those turned out really well. I made little ball bearing mazes for my buddies twins, and my other buddies newborn. They’re engraved with the kids’ names and should be a good gift for them.

      The ball bearing mazes were actually quite a challenge to make. I did a few MDF prototypes to make sure that they worked before cutting into the white oak. I ended up using a quarter inch end mill to make the maze and a 7/32″ ball bearing. Luckily, I purchased a set of ball bearings in different sizes because I had no idea which one would fit best into the routed grooves. I have a quarter inch and eighth inch end mill, and getting fancy with the tool path would have taken way too much time.

      My quarter inch router bit left a terrible finish, so there was quite a lot of cleanup work to do. On every corner of the maze it left little furry fibers that either needed to be sanded or cut away. If I didn’t, the ball wouldn’t progress through the maze. This was very tedious work and it took a very long time. I capped the mazes, which are circular in shape, with a thin piece of 8″ diameter acrylic sheets. The acrylic also proved to be tricky. I didn’t drill large enough pilot holes for the acrylic so on one of the mazes it cracked and looks unsightly. I purchased 2 new sheets and will be redoing the acrylic for the twins.

      All in all, it was a very successful weekend of woodworking. I was able to churn out a bunch of product which was a good testing experience I prototyped some new objects on the CNC and I’m planning on making a bunch more bottle openers because they’re so useful and easy to make. I’ll be engraving U of M, Michigan State and Lions decals onto them for football season. I had forgotten how beautiful exotic wood can be. The padouk, when finished, was gorgeous. I tend not to use exotic woods because I don’t support deforestation, but I can see why people like to use them.

    • Bad Habits

      I have a nasty habit of seeing what I can get away with when I’m woodworking. It usually happens when I’m trying to save time. Can I do it this way, save some time but run the risk of messing the whole thing up? If I do take the risk, sometimes it works out and I save time, encouraging me to do it again in the future, but sometimes I ruin the whole project. If the whole project does get ruined, I question, “why in the world did I do it that way?” as I start over.

      The wood I buy is fairly expensive ($4-10 per board foot) I have ruined enough of it to question my methods. A lot of the pain of starting over can be remedied by performing small tests. Instead of making the object and discovering it doesn’t work, discover it doesn’t work before you make the object. I tend to skip these small tests because they take time, but what I am realizing is that they actually save time. If it works the way you think it will, then proceed to the making. If it doesn’t, though, it is always worth discovering before committing your valuable resources.

      I made a neat little bottle opener this weekend. The opener is screwed to a flat surface, and then magnets stick the surface to a fridge, and another magnet catches the bottle tops. I purchased a really cool bottle opener, in the shape of a bears head. It is very rugged looking and sturdy, which fit the qualities of the person I’m making the bottle opener for. What I didn’t realize was that the bears head protrudes out too far so that the magnet doesn’t catch the bottle tops.

      I went ahead and spent a bunch of time making a fancy backing piece, with a V carved image and routed edges, installed the magnets, only to find out that it doesn’t work. Used a fairly large piece of quartersawn white oak. I probably wasted a good hour on the piece that ended up not working, and could have done a 15 minute test to avoid wasting that hour. The failed piece is on my shop wall as a reminder to do tests, and to open bottles from time to time. You just have to catch them before they fall onto the ground.

    • Camera Usage and Sliders

      This week I’ve been subconsciously thinking about how to put my woodworking out there. I’ve made quite a few videos in many different styles, but I’ve never been able to land on anything solid. A few blog posts ago I stated what I think a good video is made of. It’s visually interesting, has a clean voiceover, and tells a story. What I missed in that post was a project that teaches something, or solves a problem. If you can teach something well with beautiful visuals, that is a winning combo.

      I’ve got three middle of the road cameras that are of decent quality. The one that looks the best is the hardest to use. It’s a Canon M50 with a nifty fifty millimeter lens and a speed boosted adapter. I can’t take stills with it but the video is beautiful. If I want to shoot 4k its 24 fps, so I usually shoot in 1080p to save on space and it generally looks fine. If I’m not mistaken this means that I’ve got to match my other cameras to this resolution and frame rate.

      I’ve got a GoPro Hero 13 black with a bunch of cool accessories. I bought the media mod, and the macro lens. I shot my last video with it in more of a vlog style and it did terribly. I learned that with woodworking, or any art piece that is consumed visually, the quality of the video is of the utmost importance. So now it is a question of how to utilize the GoPro. It takes fantastic time lapses. There’s no audio in the lapse, so it is quite easy to weasel into the edit. I’m thinking I need to make or buy a slider to add movement to those timelapses and play with motion. It could really shine when running the CNC for a long time. The GoPro also has this neat feature where it can easily switch between horizontal and vertical resolutions, which makes it really great for shooting footage for social media. It also will import directly to my phone with the GoPro app.

      My work just gave me an iPhone 16 Pro so I’m wondering if I can use its camera, which looks really good, to do some things for Instagram or even for my YouTube videos. One of my more successful YouTube videos was shot completely on iPhone. I did a weekly Instagram upload in a horizontal resolution (which looked completely amateur) and then segmented those edits together for the YouTube video. I’m sort of set on using the DSLR for the Youtube videos, but it might be worth it to shoot some projects for Instagram with the new phone.

      In general, especially for YouTube, every shot needs to be cohesive and well thought out. If I’m going to do a timelapse, then put the camera on a slider. If I’m doing handmade joinery, get a close shot with a good angle to show more detail. If I’m showing the final product, put it on a lazy Susan with awesome lighting. Make sure the colors and brightness are matching. Pick the music first and edit to the music, not the other way around.

    • Gifts for Friends

      It brings me a great deal of happiness to make woodworking projects for friends and family. The weekend after next I’ve got a boys weekend celebrating the wedding of one of my best friends. We’re going to Chicago to watch Michigan beat Northwestern at Wrigley Field. Strange because Wrigley is a baseball field. I’m looking forward to it very much so this coming weekend I figured I’d try to make something for everyone.

      I’m making my buddy, Mike, that got married a 3 watch display stand with a contrasting engraved wood plate. The plate will have his name engraved on it and be embellished in some sort of interesting way. I’m going to be spending the most amount of time on this little project. I’m planning on making a small lidded, magnetic box for his wife Loretta with her new name engraved on it. Mikes brother, Chris, just helped welcome his first child into the world, so I will be making some sort of toy for her. I’m thinking about getting him a toothbrush too as a gag gift because he used to be obsessive about cleaning his shoes. Our friend, Luke, had twins a few years back, so I’ll be making a set of toys for them as well. I’m thinking a small ball bearing maze puzzle with their names engraved on it.

      For the rest of my degenerate buddies I’ll be giving them white oak whiskey smokers. I already made a batch; I have 10-15 of them made up so that should be easy. Another one of my best friends, Alex, who just split from a long time relationship is going, so this boys weekend will be an excellent distraction for him. I’m thinking I’ll make a fridge, or wall mounted bottle opener for him with some sort of engraved mountain biking scene. The bottle opener will have a magnet to catch the bottle tops as they fall. The engraving will probably have to be simple, so it doesn’t take a ton of time. He’s huge into mountain biking and beer, so a biking themed bottle opener will be pretty sweet.

    • Projects on the Horizon

      I’ve always wanted to make money with woodworking. I’ve made a few huge projects and have assembled a valid portfolio, but I am far from breaking even on all of my investments. I believe I am still a few thousand in the red. Having a work shop is well worth it though and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m constantly juggling the making of projects for myself, my friends and my family for free, which brings me great joy and happiness, and the making of projects for paying customers. The paying customers are few and far between, but usually they make up for it by paying what I’m asking, and having immense patience. I only get a few hours a week to work, and usually a larger project takes a minimum of a few months to build.

      I’ve slowed down quite a lot in the pursuit of paying customers. I’m honing my craft, and trying to catch up on personal projects that keep my fire for woodworking lit. I’m also using this time to optimize the shop. I’m hoping to start filming again, which takes a lot of time and effort, but is usually worth it in the end. I have a nicer camera, that I haven’t been using because it takes a little more effort to setup and get going but the quality of the video is superior. It is easy for an audience to tell the quality of craftsmanship, and it starts with the storytelling and quality of video presentation. These metrics are extremely competitive in todays day. The average consumer has access to a variety of quality tools and there are endless creative ways to utilize them.

      I am working on a humidor, that of which took a little detour last weekend. I decided to just go for it, and I almost made it out unscathed. At the very last moment disaster struck. I was running a toolpath on the CNC and the wood ended up coming loose on my new spoil board. I wasn’t paying close enough attention, and the mahogany got ruined. I’ll be getting new wood for that project and trying again this weekend. Once I’ve got the mahogany box made I plan to inlay it into a thicker piece of wood and then power carve a texture into that, once the box has been glued and the hardware is in place. It should be an interesting result.

      My friend got married a few months ago, and he’s having a boys weekend in Chicago as a bachelor party replacement. I’m looking forward to it very much, so I’m planning to make him a simple watch display case on the CNC. I purchased the watch pillows, and so I’ll measure those and cut 3 watch sized slots into a piece of inch and a half thick walnut or wood of similar beauty. I’m thinking I’ll engrave his and his wife’s name onto it or something. Embellish it in some sort of tasteful way. I’m thinking I’ll probably rout grooves onto the edges to give it a sleeker, more professional look. That smaller project needs to be done this weekend, as the boys weekend is the following.

      I need a place to store my whiskey, so I am pondering the idea of a wall mounted whiskey cabinet to go behind the door in my office. The bottles need to be out of sight, in a sturdy cabinet preferably up high. I’d like to do this project on the CNC as well and use it as an opportunity to push the cabinet making capabilities that the tool possesses. I’m still trying to form the piece in my head, and figure out what I’d like for it to do. It would be good if it could hold 5-10 bottles, and maybe some glasses. I’d be happy if the door had glass or some decorative quality. I’m hoping to film this project because it seems like a good opportunity to do so.

      I’m hoping to finish a speaker project I started in January for my brother, but that project is not any fun. However, he is a paying customer, and if I do finish it, I’ll bring money into the house which is always a plus. I’ve got time for that one though, he’s not in any rush and the wood isn’t going anywhere. I’m hoping to do that one on the CNC as well, but it is tricky to cut miters on the CNC so I’ve slowed down on that project.

      It’s exciting to have projects ahead of me but feels overwhelming at times. I appreciate that there are things to do, my problem is I struggle to find time to do them.