Over the weekend, a loyal BroBible reader named Christian Reed e-mailed us about some of his recent woodworking projects. We’ve featured Christian’s work here on BroBible in the past, mainly his custom bar and “dunk proof” beer pong table for his fraternity, Phi Beta Epsilon at MIT.
Christian is out of MIT with a degree in engineering and serving in the military now. Currently he’s deployed to the Middle East. In his free time, however, he was able to construct a woodworking shop on base. He uses for some really amazing, patriotic wood projects using recycled and repurposed materials around the base.
He explains on his blog, Invention Factory:
What better way to spend extra/free time on deployment in The Middle East then to make a wood shop to work on various projects. All the wood and materials used to make the shop were completely recycled. The tiles on the ground are metal plates that serve as a floor when interlocked. This project is ongoing and continues to get better each week. Special thanks to all the hard workers of 3rd Platoon for making this project possible.
The final workshop:
Now let’s look at some of projects he’s built. Note that all of his projects are made from materials that are easily found on site, like discarded wood pallets heading for the trash. His woodworking talent incredible. Nick Offerman-esque, even. For example, this amazing American flag table, which would look great on every Bro’s patio:
Christian documents this particular project on his site:
The American flag table is the first thing I made in the Middle East while on deployment with the Army. I began by constructing a frame from 2x4s to support the table top. I mitered the corners to make it appear better. Next, I had to make a jig for the circular saw to make rip cuts in the 1x3s to get them to the required width (I have since gotten a table saw which would have made this much easier). Once all the pieces were cut, I decided to leave the stars section boards the original width so the seams did not line up. Next, I sanded alternate stripes to represent the white stripes on the flag. I left the other boards untouched to represent the red stripes. I sunk in finishing nails to secure the boards to the frame and then used a framing nail to countersink the finishing nails below the surface. I then cut and mounted 4x4s for the legs. For the stars, I made a stencil in Microsoft Publisher and then printed and cut out the pages to make a single sheet. I then went over all the stars with a pen and ruler to imprint an outline of the star on the wood. Finally, using a Dremel, I engraved each individual star to achieve the 50 stars and finish the table made of scrap wood.
He documents how the American flag table was made in meticulous detail, in case you’re looking for a project:
How sick is that? Here’s an awesome coffee table he made out of scrap wood with the United States map etched onto it:
What started out as a coffee table top quickly turned out to be a better wall piece instead. I originally wanted to make a scrap wood table consisting of various sized wood blocks that would be pushed up against one another, sanded, and then turned into a flat piece. I starting off by making a simple, mitered, frame to hold the pieces. Next I cut several scraps to the proper height and began to arrange them in place. I avoided, for as long as I could, the need to make scrap pieces that were not original board profiles but some needed to be made to fill in the 10 or so gaps that remained. I cut all the pieces with the Miter saw and had to make some simple jigs to safely cut the filler pieces. Once I verified all the pieces fit, I removed the frame and began to glue all the pieces together in the frame to lock everything in place. I needed to reference the picture I took to make sure they all fit back together properly. Once they were all attached and the wood had dried (kind of), I sanded the whole thing down to get an even surface and then the idea came to me to engrave the United States into it. I used Microsoft Publisher to create an appropriated sized and proportional US outline. I then cut it out, glued the sheets together, and attached to the surface. I traced over the whole thing with the Dremel with Flex Shaft and a wood carving bit. I then touched up a little with the stencil removed and then spray painted the whole thing black. Next I went over the whole thing with the sander to remove the extra paint. I thought the US being slightly darker than the extra space looking nice so I focused on sanding the outsides.It left a nice effect, almost as though it was stained.
Here are the pics of the U.S. map table project:
And finally, here’s the incredible lounge area he constructed from recycled materials outside his living area in Camp Buehring, Kuwait. In an e-mail to BroBible, he calls it “my frattiest project.” It’s a little touch of Florida in the Middle East desert:
Third Lagoon was created by our platoon as an outdoor hangout area outside of our living area in Camp Buehring, Kuwait. After coming up with a design for the project, the guys in my platoon began making it. We brought in beach sand we found on post to make walking in the area much more pleasant than the hard under surface. A combination of wood decking, metal plates, and sand was used to create several hangout areas in the Lagoon. I created a logo and then cut it out of wood to make a sign for the entrance as well. This is a continuous project and will continue to be improved and expanded upon in the coming months.
He even made a suspended outdoor wooden lounge chair out of a pallet:
Bravo, Christian. Amazing work, Bro. Thanks for sharing it with us. I hope Christian can do something with his custom, patriotic creations when his deployment ends. Heck, maybe even auction some of them off for a veteran’s charity like Team RWB or something. I don’t know how that works, but I think a lot of Bros would love to have something like this in their man cave from a soldier with so much talent.
FOR MORE information about Christian’s awesome woodworking projects, go read his blog, inventionfactory.blogspot.com.