And, for those Last Minute Elf winners...

Well, the holidays are just about over, but the fun is getting ready to begin!  First, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to submit projects for the Last Minute Elf event. We had 28 entries, and all of them were winners in our book!  There were some great ideas in there, but, as you know, there can only be a few winners. So, without any further ado, here they are:

1) Best turned project: Adam Wroten's light sabers. 
The force is strong with young Adam, as he turned the handles on his light sabers. Using PEX tubing and some inexpensive flashlights, he is ready to rule the galaxy...

Adam's light sabers

2) The greenest project: Krishen Kota's lobster sign.
Take some scrap wood, put it together with a great image, and you have a beautiful hand-made sign that would be fit for anyone in your family. A great reuse of materials!

Lobstah, anyone?

3) The best project to fit inside a USPS flat rate shipping box:  Brian Igielski's candle centerpiece. 
This project's simplicity made it a favorite, with the sloping sides and alternating species of wood adding a touch of elegance to any holiday table.

Brian's Candle Centerpiece.

4) Best for a child: Chet Kloss' child block carts.
What child wouldn't love one of these colorful block carts? Chet made these babies to be fun, exciting and something that kids could enjoy for hours!

Chet's fleet of block carts

5) Best for an adult:  Marilyn Guthrie's flag box.
Not only is this a great box for a commemorative flag, it's also a beautifully built version of it. We loved the use of the splines to hold the edges together.

Marilyn's flag box

6) The coolest tip:  This one came from Gary Shuler. He made a number of cribbage boards as gifts, and gave us a few golden bits of advice, including making an extra board or two in case something should go wrong during the build, and finishing the boards before drilling the holes, making finishing a little easier.

And, for the best overall gift, it was a tough choice. We had to go deep into the monkey cage on this one to find out, but this year, the best overall prize goes to Brian Eve for his Coffee and Cream Roorkee Chair. I mean, who wouldn't be pleased to receive a fine piece of furniture like this?

The chair in all of its glory

Congratulations to all of our winners, and we hope you enjoy your gift packages courtesy of the Gorilla Glue Company!

By the way, we will have more opportunities for prizes, including the upcoming Get Woodworking Week. Mark your calendars for the week of February 8 - 14.

The Last Minute Bench

Happy Boxing Day dear woodworkers. Have you given your saw its Christmas Box?

I haven't either, though I did wrap up the bench I made for my Dad for Christmas.

In the coming weeks I'll share more of the build and I'm working on a video showing my method for reinforcing the bench seat. In the mean time, here's a brief photo essay of the bench build.

Don't forget, now that Christmas is over, there's still time to share the gifts you made as part of the +Modern Woodworkers Association Last Minute Elf contest. You can read all about it here. Just send an email to iggy@tomsworkbench.com and you'll be entered.

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas build as much as I did.

In order to flatten the bench seat, I hot glued it to a piece of melamine and ran it trough the planer.

Here is the bench leg, also hot glued to a piece of melamine, midway through being flattened.