Bill, how 'bout a pic? I've got the same issue, but with 3 more kids
and a wife how appears to hold stock in every shoe maker on the globe
- my problem is on the back porch (we've at least trained the little -
and not so little - buggers to remove shoes before entering the
premises...

She went out and bought a gadget that was mostly plastic - it didn't
survive its own assembly instructions. I want wood... wood I say ..
not more plastic in my world!

Any others solved a similar dilema and have a pic to share? My
creative juices are running a little low with the start of school and
both my wife and I starting new jobs ...

cheers all,

Jim E #2 in Wisconsin

On 9/12/05, Bill Taggart <wtaggart@c...> wrote:
> With two somewhat active children plus wifey and me, our front hall close 
t
> had become a jumbled pile of shoes, so I became determined to whack toget 
her
> a shoe organizer - just a simple 18" tall set of three shelves, essential 
ly.
> 
> I had some old used 1x12 pine boards that had been painted white in a
> previous life, and I decided they would suffice.  I was thinking much mor 
e
> of functionality than beauty - the finished product, after all, would be
> sitting on the floor in the back of a coat closet, covered with shoes.  S 
o I
> didn't really care if it was a bit, shall we say, "rustic".
> 
> Anyhow, I used my Stanley #80 (cabinet scraper, Jeff) to scrape the paint
> off, and as I did so, I noticed that it came out looking like the
> "distressed" or "reclaimed barn wood" furniture you see in the stores - t 
hat
> kind of weatherbeaten whitewash look, with grain and knots showing throug 
h.
> So rather than completely stripping off the paint, as had been my origina 
l
> intention, I just removed enough so that you could see the grain of the w 
ood
> and some knots, with some paint still adhering, for that "weatherbeaten"
> look.
> 
> Simple dado and half-lap construction would suffice.  I used a [transmiss 
ion
> garbled] to size the boards.
> 
> I realized that I have a Stanley #71 (router plane, Jeff) that I bought m 
any
> years ago.  When I first got it, I had fooled around with it and couldn't
> get decent results, since I really had no clue what I was doing, so it we 
nt
> to the back of the cabinet.  I thought that perhaps now that I've got a
> little bit of a better feel for using hand tools, and maybe half a clue w 
hat
> I'm doing, maybe I'd try it again.
> 
> Honed the straight cutter as sharp as I could (which is to say sharp enou 
gh
> to slice my flesh pretty well, but not quite sharp enough to get a really
> nice cut in actual wood), and HEY!  This thing WORKS!  Made short work of
> producing some lovely, very flat-bottomed dadoes.  I'll definitely be
> reaching for that tool again when the need arises!
> 
> Also finally had an excuse to use my Lie-Nielsen #98 & #99 (right and lef 
t
> side rabbet planes, Jeff) that I got for Christmas last year.  One dado w 
as
> a smidge too tight, and they did the job quite nicely, right out of the b 
ox.
> 
> I used cut nails and glue to hold the whole thing together; I figured the
> cut nails would help to give it that "rustic" weatherbeaten/old
> barn/reclaimed lumber look.
> 
> Once done and sitting on my bench, I concluded that it was the
> second-ugliest thing I have ever made.
> 
> I just put it in the closet this morning, and it actually looks better in
> there.  SWMBO is satisfied, so hey - good enough, I figure.  Plus the sho 
es
> are much more organized, and the floor of the closet is reclaimed!
> 
> Question for anyone: when using the routah and/or side rabbets, how do y' 
all
> go about preventing blowout on the far side of the dado?  I'm thinking th 
at
> if I had done a better job of scoring the sides first, or perhaps don't g 
o
> all the way out, turn the tool around and come at it from the other side?
> 
> -----------------------------------------
> Bill Taggart
> -----------------------------------------
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, 
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of 
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools. 

To read the FAQ, unsubscribe, or change email options, use the web 
interface at:     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html

OldTools Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/