A while back my son said I should list all the woodworking projects I and my employees have completed over the years. So I spent some time trying to remember as many as I could. I did come up with a sizable list but I’m certain I didn’t get nearly all.

I remember very few things I made during the time that woodwokring was simply my hobby. Yet that time did provide a lot of learning experiences, which were both successes and failures, but they prepared me for the work that was completed from 1981 to today.

One project I have to laugh about today is a 4′ round table with a 2-21/2’ round drum base. I also made five round drum stools. I didn’t have much money then so I made everything from cedar 2×4 lumber. We used that table and stools for several years until I received my grandparents’ dining room set, which I wrote about in this post.  Looking back, I can see my interior-designer wife, and probably the kids, didn’t like it much. It was tippy if you leaned on one side too heavily, and the stools were uncomfortable. What was I thinking? 

However, one feature that proved to be beneficial to my daughter Kirsten, and maybe my other two kids too, was the ½” hole through the center of the top of the stools. I had drilled that hole so I could mount the glued-up blank on a piece of plywood with a dowl sticking up. Clamping that to a bandsaw table allowed me to turn the top into a running bandsaw blade to cut a perfect circle. 

Some years after using these stools, I had occasion to pick up the stool Kirsten always sat on and heard a rattle sound from inside it. I then realized she had used the hole to dispose of food items she didn’t want to eat, especially green peas. She made clever and unintended use of what I thought of as a production design feature.

Even at a young age she outsmarted me.

Ken Kaiyala
1-8-25