Kevin S. Brady - Woodworking Page

Kevin S. Brady, Esq.
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Woodworking Projects Gallery     250+ Useful Woodworking Links     Beginner's Guide To Woodworking     Beginner's Guide To Power Tools     DIY Dust Control Devices     Woodworking Glossary
Electric Motor Horsepower Ratings (PDF)     Basic Math For Woodworkers     Resawing Logs On The Band Saw     Some Common Woodworking Fasteners     Links To DIY Woodworkers' Sites     Bowl-Turning
Pen-Making 101     Pen Care Tips     Woodworking Weblog     Free Woodworking Plans     My Woodshop Construction Project     Designing Your Small Wood Shop     Basic Home Shop Safety

HOME
EMAIL My Woodworking Gallery I don't do this for a living. It's just an out-of-control hobby. Way out of control...
CONTENTS:

Furniture and Home Improvement Projects

Shop Projects

Pen-Making and Other Adventures on the Wood Lathe

A Few Electronics Projects

Downloads

More Woodworking Resources

Some of my woodworking, home improvement and shop projects from the past several years.
I have a particular penchant for incorporating mission and arts and crafts elements into many of my designs.
Unless stated otherwise, all have been finished with non-pigmented Danish oil.

Click on thumbnail images below to view larger images.

Furniture and Home Improvement Projects

Mission-style bed. It took the better part of the summer of 1999 to design and build, and was an enjoyable project. Built from Red Elm. I call Red Elm "poor man's Mahogany," as it has a similar color, and is about one third the cost. However, elm has a rougher grain and doesn't finish as smoothly. But for two bucks a board foot, I can't complain - it looks great. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.	Mission-style bench. Built from Red Elm. A rather bizarre design I just came up with one day. No one says you have to follow any particular styles or designs - something that makes this hobby interesting. Sometimes it's fun to just experiment. In fact, none of the furniture I have built is really true-to-form mission; I use the term "mission-style" rather loosely. I merely incorporate some of the mission and arts & crafts elements into my projects.	Mission-style bench. One of my earlier bench projects - rather simple in design. Definitely not comfortable to sit in; it serves as a place in the spare bedroom for visitors to set their luggage. Built from Red Oak.	Garden bench - looking a bit weathered. I had finished it with spar polyurethane - a big mistake, despite the claims of the poly's durability. The elements have caused it to peel off, creating the splotchy appearance you see in the photo. I have since refinished it and applied a tung oil finish. I am going to allow it to weather to a natural silver-grey color. Built from White Oak, which is very resistant to decay.
Mission-style storage bench. Built from Kentucky Coffeetree, and sealed with a poly topcoat. Kentucky Coffeetree, sometimes referred to as "coffeebean," is not very common in Minnesota, but is commonly found a little farther south - in the forests of the central and southeastern states. It's worth seeking out as it is relatively inexpensive, easy to work, and looks very impressive. The wood is a bit more reddish in color than red oak, with a grain figure resembling that of ash. Some detailed views here, here, here, here, here, and here. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.	Book shelf. Plain, simple and robust. Nothing fancy. It now serves as a repository for all my old books from law school. Built from Red Oak.	Wall-mounted Shaker coat rack. Built from Red Oak in about 30 minutes.	CD shelf. Holds about 1400 CDs, which is most of my collection. It goes without saying that I like lots of music, and my tastes are rather eclectic. Built from Birch and Baltic Birch plywood. If I ever have to move this behemoth, I'm in big trouble. Some detailed views here and here.
Mission-style bedroom chest of drawers. Built from Red Elm. For the drawer faces I chose pieces with vivid grain patterns. The wood yields a sort of tiger eye lustre. The chest is massive and incredibly heavy. It was no joy to haul upstairs. If I ever move, I'm hiring movers. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.	Key hanger. I made a bunch of these and gave them to family and friends for holiday gifts. Naturally, I kept one for myself. Constructed of Red Oak, resawn to 1/2" thick.	Mirror frame. This is the only project I have built with cherry so far. I really should do more projects with this wood, as it is a pleasure to work with. It's easy to see why cabinet makers have coveted the wood for so many centuries.	Mission-style night stand with drawer. Built from Red Elm.
Night stand for the other side of the bed. No drawer on this one. Built from Red Elm.	Back yard storage shed. I wasn't impressed with the wobbly shed kits offered at the home center stores, with their flimsy 2x2 framing and cheesy barn-like gambrel roofs. I prefer to design for stability, opting for solid 2x4 studded walls and robust 2x6 rafters. I used decay-resistant T-111 siding on the exterior walls and 3/4" marine plywood for the floor. This shed measures 8' x 12' with a gable roof and has a full 8 foot ceiling height inside. The total cost of materials for this project was about the same as the cost of a wobbly shed kit of similar size. Naturally, it is now full of yard tools and all the things I didn't want lying around the house. You can never have too much storage space.	Built-in wall shelving. Built from Red Oak. The shelves are attached to the walls with construction adhesive -- they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.	3-way loudspeakers. Built from Red Oak veneered MDF. All the cabinet joints are compound mitered, leaving a solid, monolithic appearance. These monsters stand 46" tall and can handle a continuous 150 watts per channel RMS. Smooth bass, clear midrange, and crisp treble. Loudspeaker components from Madisound.
2-way loudspeakers on stands. Built from Red Oak. Solid hardwood is not the best acoustic material for building loudspeakers (MDF or Baltic Birch plywood is better), but that's what I had on hand at the time, and they still sound good.	3-way loudspeakers. Butt-ugly, and using cheap speaker drivers, they sound surprisingly good. Built from particle board, and painted flat black, with metal waffle grilles mounted over the drivers to keep our inquisitive cat out. Download my free DIY loudspeaker design program.	Stereo rack. Built from Red Oak. Yes, that's a turntable sitting in there, and VHS tapes down below. I still use those once in a while.	Table. Built from Maple with Walnut trim around the edges. The top is sealed with polyurethane.
Table. Built from Maple with Padauk inlay for contrast. Top sealed in polyurethane.	Table. Built from Red Oak. I made the top by edge-gluing a bunch of narrow scraps of oak. It's always good to save those scraps of hardwood - you never know what you can make out of them.	Plant stand. Built from Walnut.	Coffee table. Built from Red Oak, with a polyurethane topcoat.
Mission-style end table. Built from White Oak. The vast majority of my projects are left unstained -- I tend to prefer a tung oil treatment to display the wood's natural color. However, I decided to stain this piece with a medium brown oak "wipe-on" gel stain for a darker mission look, then sealed it with a polyurethane topcoat.	Kitchen table. Built from Red Oak. Three coats of polyurethane finish protect the surface from all the things that get spilled onto kitchen tables.	Mission-style sofa table. Built from Red Oak. One of my earlier projects, I built this from purchased plans. I added a few of my own tweaks to the design, of course. Call me a non-conformist.	Mission-style hall table. Built from White Oak. I used a medium brown oak wipe-on stain to create a more authentic mission look, and sealed it with poly. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.
Table. Built from Hackberry. This wood has an interesting herringbone grain pattern and is quite beautiful. The wood is also very inexpensive - nice for projects on a budget. I think I paid around $1.50 per board foot for the wood about 5 years ago. Hackberry wood sometimes has black streaks in it. These stains are caused by improper drying, and are rather common with this wood, so be very selective when you buy it.	Wine rack. Built from quarter-sawn White Oak and stained with a medium brown oak finish. As you can see, I need more bottles in there.	Magazine rack. Built from Red Elm. It keeps some of my favorite publications at hand in the "reading room" (bathroom).	Cutting boards. Upper photo: board made from narrow scraps of Baltic Birch plywood glued together, with cherry end caps. I treated the wood with a non-toxic mineral oil suitable for food contact. Lower photo: board made from narrow scraps of various hardwoods, including Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, etc. I made a bunch of these and gave them out as holiday stocking-stuffers one year. Of course, I kept one for myself.
Bathroon towel cabinet. Built from Red Oak. A view of the cabinet's inside.	Mission-style sofa servers. Built from Kentucky Coffeetree wood, and sealed with poly. They were gifts to family members. And as always, I kept one for myself. These are indispensable if you ever work on a laptop while relaxing on the couch. Have a look at a slightly different version that I built recently. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.	Table. Built from Walnut, with a polyurethane finish.	Table. Built from curly Maple. The top is a single slab - I don't often find 14" wide curly Maple boards. After I built it, I gave it away as a gift. What was I thinking?
Wall curio shelf. Built from Walnut and attached to the wall.	One of many DIY picture frames. This one was made from Red Elm.	Desktop tray - a place to empty all the junk from my pockets at night. Made from Red Elm.	Table and benches. Made from White Oak with inlaid ceramic tiles.

Shop Projects

DIY Air-filtration unit that hangs from the ceiling. Built from Baltic Birch plywood. A pair of 1500 CFM attic fans are mounted atop the unit, drawing air through a series of furnace filters. Removes much of the airborne dust in my shop. See my article, DIY Dust Control Devices for the Home Wood Shop. Download my dimensional drawings in PDF for this air filtration unit.	DIY downdraft table for sanding. Built from MDF with a hardboard top. A squirrel-cage furnace blower is mounted inside, drawing air (and sanding dust) downward from the top work surface. The air passes through filters before being expelled. This significantly reduces the amount of fugitive dust created by sanding. This is also covered in my DIY Dust Control Devices article. Download my sketch in PDF for this downdraft table. (Warning -- it's a rather crude drawing.)	DIY benchtop router table. You can download my free plans for this project in .pdf.	DIY rolling tool cabinet, made from an old electronic equipment rack. Top and sides are MDF, drawers are Baltic Birch plywood.
DIY crosscut sled for table saw. I don't have a sliding miter saw or radial arm saw (yet), so this is my best means of crosscutting lumber. Cuts lumber up to 24" in width. Made from 1/2" MDF with birch sides. A 5-inch cube of laminated oak is mounted on the front of the sled. This cube encloses the blade when sled is pushed all the way through the saw, thereby minimizing the danger of the blade passing through the front.	DIY woodworker's bench. It weighs about 300 lbs., and is on heavy-duty casters so I can move it around the shop. Built from Maple with Baltic Birch plywood cabinets. The top is constructed from strips of Maple glued together (like a butcher-block) and is 2½" thick.	DIY tenoning jig for table saw. Other views here, here, and here.	DIY mortising jig for a router. Built from Baltic Birch plywood. The workpiece is clamped under the top of the jig. The router is mounted on a sliding polycarbonate plate, and the router bit protrudes downward through a rectangular aperture in the top of the jig. Four plywood stops are positionable to adjust the length and width of the desired mortise cut. More views of the jig can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.
DIY drill press table constructed from 2 layers of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood with aluminum T-track flush-mounted for jigs and hold-downs. A movable fence (at back of table) adds versatility.	A 3"X3" sacrificial piece of 1/2" plywood can be lifted out and replaced with another when it gets too many holes.	Resaw sled for ripping small logs on a band saw. Made from 1/2" MDF. See my article on this topic for more information. Download my dimensional drawings in PDF for this log sled.	Racks for bar clamps and pipe clamps. Cobbled together in haste one afternoon.

Pen-Making and Other Adventures on the Wood Lathe

I recently purchased a midi lathe from Penn State Industries, along with some chisels and an assortment of various pen-making supplies. Pens can be turned from many kinds of materials: exotic woods, burls, laminates, composites, polymers, metals, even old bowling balls. Narrow blocks of wood and other substances - pen blanks - can be purchased for turning on the lathe. Pen blanks of rare and exotic woods, laminates and other materials can be obtained for as little as a dollar or two apiece. The pen hardware kits are readily available for around $3-$5 each. Pen turning is also a great way to use up some of the small scraps of wood laying around. I never realized this stuff could be so fun. In addition, pen turning is great for when you don't have the spare time to tackle big projects. With the right tools and a little practice, you can make a fistful of nice pens in an afternoon. As I create projects on the lathe, I will post photos of them below.

For a basic tutorial on pen-making, go here.

Click on thumbnail images below to view larger images.

My first batch of pens. Top to bottom: "Slimline" pen in Cocobolo, Euro-style pens in Goncalo Alves and in Cocobolo.	A couple "cigar" pens. Top one in Tulipwood, bottom one in Desert Ironwood.	A couple more Euro-style pens. Top pen is in Zebrawood, bottom pen in Padauk.	Cigar pen, made from Kingwood. I turned this one a little fatter. Nothing like a writing instrument with a little heft.
Two more Euro-style pens. Top one is Bubinga, bottom one is Bocote.	A "slimline" pen, made a little less slim. Made from Canarywood.	Another cigar pen, made from Desert Ironwood.	A "slimline" pen, made from Wenge.
Euro-style pen, made from Cocobolo.	Euro-style pen, made from Banksia. This reddish-brown Australian wood has an interesting "snakeskin" figure.	Euro-style pen, made from Amboyna burl.	Slimline pen, made from Ipe (Brazilian Ironwood).
Slimline pen, made from Bloodwood.	Rollerball pen, made from Sapele.	Euro style pen with black titanium nitride hardware, made from Gmelina.	Slimline pen, made from Vasticola burl.
Slimline pen, made from a scrap of off-white Corian ®.	Cigar pen, made from Cocobolo.	Cigar pen, made from Vitica Arborea burl.	Rollerball pen, made from Macassar Ebony.
Euro style pen, made from Red Morrel. I used pen components with a Titanium Nitride finish. The hardware has a subdued, greyish finish that looks similar to gun metal.	O.K., I finally used the lathe to make something other than a pen. I decided I needed a mallet for mortise work. I glued up some scraps of Maple, and turned it using my pen chisels (I really do need to buy a set of full-size chisels for this kind of work). It turned out so nice I hate to actually use it and ding it up.	Cigar pen, made from laminated wood.	Slimline pen, made from Cocobolo.
Two-tone slimline pen, made from Padauk and Maple. I glued narrow pieces of each wood side-by-side, then cut the blank at a slight angle. I used copper pen hardware for this one.	Slimline pen, made from Bubinga, with Titanium Nitride hardware.	Slimline pen, made from Baltic Birch plywood and Titanium Nitride hardware. Who would've guessed that plywood would be suitable for pen-making? It pays to experiment. I simply laminated several strips of plywood and cut the blanks at an angle.	I finally got around to making a display rack for my pens. The shoebox I had been using to store them in had become rather unsatisfactory. I cobbled this together with some 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood.
Rollerball pen, made from Cocobolo.	My first bowl, turned from a blank I made from edge-glued scraps of 8/4 Walnut, and finished with tung oil.	"Polaris" bullet pen, in Cocobolo.	Slimline pen, in Tulipwood.
Small bowl, turned from Cocobolo.	A couple baseball bats, turned from White Ash.	Slimline pen, made from Osage Orange.	Another two-tone slimline pen, made from Padauk and Maple. Diver down!
Cigar pen, made from Amboyna burl.	Euro style pen, made from Osage Orange with copper hardware.	Polaris bullet pen, made from Cucumber Magnolia.	Euro style pen, made from Cucumber Magnolia.
Polaris bullet pen, made from Purpleheart.	Slimline pen, made from so-called "Florida Rosewood," though I suspect this is actually East Indian Rosewood, that may have been grown as a non-native species in Florida.	Four slimline pens, (L-R) Huisache (aka "Sweet Acacia" - a shrubby tree considered a pest in Texas), Mesquite, Desert Ironwood, and Koa. Thanks to Dario at AO Turnings for the kind gift of these wood blanks.	Slimline pen, made from Osage Orange.
Euro style pen, made from quilted Maple.	Euro style pen, made from Vasticola burl.	Cigar pen, made from Mesquite.	Euro style pen, made from so-called "Florida" Rosewood. Whatever the real story is on this wood from Florida, it sure is striking. Note the lighter-colored sapwood along with the darker heartwood.
My first acrylic pen, made from "inlace acrylester," in a design called "Molten Metal," which I ordered online from Woodturningz. The material has a swirling pattern of silver, gold and copper colors with a deep lustre. I quickly discovered that turning acrylics is a lot different than turning wood. Extra care and patience is required, as the material chips and fractures easily. Go very slowly when drilling, raising the bit frequently to eject chips to prevent overheating. And make sure your turning tools are razor sharp. I found that the roughing gouge tends to chip out the surface, so I roughed the blank down to a slightly larger diameter and did the rest of the turning with the skew. This yielded a much smoother surface, which prepared it for sanding. Acrylic also has a relatively low melting point, making it susceptible to damage if too much friction is applied in the sanding and polishing processes. One plus: acrylics require no topcoat of lacquer -- just bring it to a high polish and you're done!	A euro-style pen made from Bethlehem Olivewood.	A euro-style pen made from Pink Ivory, which really isn't ivory at all (don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this pen). It's actually a rare wood from South Africa.	Gentlemen's rollerball pen made from African Blackwood. Note the cream-colored sapwood highlights. This pen is massive, measuring 0.725" in diameter at its widest point and 5-3/4" in length. The hardware is finished in Titanium Nitride, which is much more resistant to wear than gold plating.
Gentlemen's rollerball pen made from Kingwood. The hardware is finished in polished Rhodium plating.	Another Gent with Titanium Nitride hardware, made from Walnut burl.	Euro-style ballpoint, made from Buckeye burl.	Slimline ballpoint, made from Live Oak burl.
My first pencil, a shop "sketch" pencil. Something that will always be useful for layout in the wood shop. Ordered the kit and bushings from PSI - this is an easy one to turn. Made from Bloodwood.	Desk set with Euro-style pen and letter opener. All pieces milled from a single 3" x 3" x 12" block of Cocobolo.

A Few Electronics Projects

I built a few audio components years ago, back in the 1990s, during my engineering days. Not woodworking-related, mind you, but I thought I'd add them to this page just for fun. I constructed these from sample components I got from work or parts obtained from scouring the local industrial surplus stores. Here are a few examples of creations I still have around. They're not pretty, but they all work just fine.

Beauty is only skin deep...ugly goes all the way to the core.
This unsightly beast is a 68 watt per channel (into 4Ω) audio amplifier I built in around 1996. Not a lot of power by today's standards, but it provides very clean audio. The amplifier circuit is built around an IC amp made by National Semiconductor. I used a surplus plastic switchgear cabinet for the enclosure. Very industrial-looking. The toggle switches and black plastic knobs give the unit a sort of retro-'50s DIY look. Like something out of a bad sci-fi flick.

Audio amplifier viewed from above. I used clear acrylic for the top to provide a view of the internal components. As you can see, not much effort was expended on neat cable routing. My main concerns in the design were to isolate small-signal circuits from power circuits, provide good grounding, and adequate heat dissipation. The result is an ugly mess that sounds really good. Note the huge power supply filter capacitors and the toroidal transformer. If the power supply isn't clean, the sound won't be clean.
Rear view of the beast. Note the small muffin fan for cooling. I included a heat sensing circuit to activate this fan when the amplifier's heat sink reaches a certain temp. Normally this extra cooling wouldn't be necessary for an amp of such modest power, but I designed the amp to operate with stability while driving low impedance speakers (i.e., 4 ohms or less). A bit of over-engineering, perhaps.
Another 68W/channel DIY amp, using the same amplifier circuitry as the other one. Only without some of the bells and whistles. Just a plain amp in a streamlined aluminum case. This unit powers my garage-shop stereo. I plug a portable CD or MP3 player into it, and let it roll.

Yet another 68W/ch home-made amp. I didn't have a nice enclosure in mind for this one, so I built one from scratch using sheets of copper-clad circuit board I had laying around. I simply soldered the pieces of copper-clad together, and voila! Instant amp enclosure. Makes for good grounding and shielding, too. I use this amplifier in my study - connected to my tower speakers. As with the other amplifiers, this one has been working flawlessly for over 10 years.
This is a more modest (and simple) amplifier - delivering about 20 watts per channel. As with the other amps, this one is based on an IC amplifier. I had it connected to a small set of bookshelf speakers in the guest bedroom, though recently, this amp hasn't seen much use. I'll find another place for it eventually. Hmmm...there must be some other room in the house where I don't yet have a sound system.
This is a line-level noise-reduction component, built using the Hush_® noise-reduction IC from Analog Devices. Unlike many other NR systems, the Hush_® chip can provide 25dB of NR with virtually no degradation in frequency response. This works particularly well for removing tape hiss from older analog recordings.
This is a 7-band stereo graphic equalizer I built, using the Mitsubishi M5229P IC and a bunch of slide pots. I still have it in the sound system in my study. I feed all line-level signals through it, as it helps compensate for the poor room acoustics.

This odd little box with the red light bulb sticking out gives visual warning when the phone rings. It's a rather simple design - something like this one. I have the device in my garage/shop, so that I can tell if someone's calling when I can't hear the ringing over the sound of power tools. I also have a caller ID box out there so I can ignore some of those calls.

Downloads

DOWNLOAD my free multi-use woodworking mathematics solver. Calculate tapers and compound miters, solve right triangles, determine depth-of-cut on tenons, calculate board feet and circumferential speeds of rotating objects. Solve electrical problems, including line voltage drop; determining amperage, efficiency, torque and horsepower calculations for single-phase and three-phase A.C. motors. Calculate propane heater fuel consumption. Program also includes many unit conversions and geometric calculations useful to woodworkers. The "Swiss Army Knife" of woodworking software.
(8 KB .zip)

DOWNLOAD my free DIY loudspeaker design program for Excel. Designs for 2-way and 3-way speakers are covered. Calculates sealed and vented enclosure dimensions, port dimensions, crossover component values, L-pads, power distribution ratios, compound miter angles, and more. This isn't overly technical, though its use requires a working knowledge of math and electronics. You will also need to know the Thiele/Small parameters of the speaker drivers you plan to use.
(200 KB .zip)

FREE WOODWORKING PLANS (PDF)
Requires the free Adobe Reader

-ENTER-

A Few More of My Woodworking Resources:

As an attorney, I spend a good part of my professional time writing legal documents. So when I have precious free time that I'm not spending in my shop or engaged in other activities, what do I do? You guessed it - pounding out more stuff on the keyboard. Go figure. I have written a number of articles on woodworking and related technical topics over the past several years, and some others more recently. I have always passed these along to friends and colleagues who share my passion for woodworking. Now I have finally converted them to HTML, added whatever available photos and drawings I had, and posted them here for your perusal. Feel free to use these for your personal, non-commercial uses and share them with others to do the same. Also be sure to check out my woodworking links section, pointing you to hundreds of online woodworking suppliers, tool manufacturers, tutorials, lumber, charts, plans, and more. Enjoy.

HUGE LIST OF 250+ WOODWORKING LINKS

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO WOODWORKING

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO POWER TOOLS

DIY DUST CONTROL DEVICES FOR THE HOME WOOD SHOP

A PRIMER ON ELECTRIC MOTOR HORSEPOWER RATINGS (PDF)

BASIC MATH FORMULAS FOR WOODWORKERS

RESAWING SMALL LOGS ON THE BAND SAW USING A SHOP-BUILT RIP SLED

SOME COMMON WOODWORKING FASTENERS WITH CHARTS AND OTHER TECHNICAL DATA

SOME SELECTED DIY WOODWORKERS' SITES

WOODWORKING GLOSSARY

PEN-MAKING 101: A BASIC TUTORIAL FOR TURNING A PEN ON A WOOD LATHE

PEN-CARE TIPS

WOODWORKING BLOG

WOODSHOP SHED CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

DESIGNING YOUR SMALL WOODSHOP

BASIC HOME SHOP SAFETY

BOWL-TURNING ON THE LATHE

Legal Disclaimer and Terms of Use

VISITORS SINCE 02/15/04:

Beauty is only skin deep...ugly goes all the way to the core. This unsightly beast is a 68 watt per channel (into 4Ω) audio amplifier I built in around 1996. Not a lot of power by today's standards, but it provides very clean audio. The amplifier circuit is built around an IC amp made by National Semiconductor. I used a surplus plastic switchgear cabinet for the enclosure. Very industrial-looking. The toggle switches and black plastic knobs give the unit a sort of retro-'50s DIY look. Like something out of a bad sci-fi flick.	Audio amplifier viewed from above. I used clear acrylic for the top to provide a view of the internal components. As you can see, not much effort was expended on neat cable routing. My main concerns in the design were to isolate small-signal circuits from power circuits, provide good grounding, and adequate heat dissipation. The result is an ugly mess that sounds really good. Note the huge power supply filter capacitors and the toroidal transformer. If the power supply isn't clean, the sound won't be clean.	Rear view of the beast. Note the small muffin fan for cooling. I included a heat sensing circuit to activate this fan when the amplifier's heat sink reaches a certain temp. Normally this extra cooling wouldn't be necessary for an amp of such modest power, but I designed the amp to operate with stability while driving low impedance speakers (i.e., 4 ohms or less). A bit of over-engineering, perhaps.	Another 68W/channel DIY amp, using the same amplifier circuitry as the other one. Only without some of the bells and whistles. Just a plain amp in a streamlined aluminum case. This unit powers my garage-shop stereo. I plug a portable CD or MP3 player into it, and let it roll.
Yet another 68W/ch home-made amp. I didn't have a nice enclosure in mind for this one, so I built one from scratch using sheets of copper-clad circuit board I had laying around. I simply soldered the pieces of copper-clad together, and voila! Instant amp enclosure. Makes for good grounding and shielding, too. I use this amplifier in my study - connected to my tower speakers. As with the other amplifiers, this one has been working flawlessly for over 10 years.	This is a more modest (and simple) amplifier - delivering about 20 watts per channel. As with the other amps, this one is based on an IC amplifier. I had it connected to a small set of bookshelf speakers in the guest bedroom, though recently, this amp hasn't seen much use. I'll find another place for it eventually. Hmmm...there must be some other room in the house where I don't yet have a sound system.	This is a line-level noise-reduction component, built using the Hush_® noise-reduction IC from Analog Devices. Unlike many other NR systems, the Hush_® chip can provide 25dB of NR with virtually no degradation in frequency response. This works particularly well for removing tape hiss from older analog recordings.	This is a 7-band stereo graphic equalizer I built, using the Mitsubishi M5229P IC and a bunch of slide pots. I still have it in the sound system in my study. I feed all line-level signals through it, as it helps compensate for the poor room acoustics.
This odd little box with the red light bulb sticking out gives visual warning when the phone rings. It's a rather simple design - something like this one. I have the device in my garage/shop, so that I can tell if someone's calling when I can't hear the ringing over the sound of power tools. I also have a caller ID box out there so I can ignore some of those calls.