Last year, I published a woodworking year in review which you all seemed to really enjoy. 2024 was a relatively slow year for woodworking. With a laser focus on getting the OpenCTD project across the finish line, I ended up doing far more work on electronics and sensors than on wood. Fortunately, with my massive pile of walnut finally dry, 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for Old Man Thaler’s Woodshop.
January
January was a utility project month. We needed to get the old racing shell and the kayak off the ground and knew that there was a canoe coming in our future. So I cheated. I ordered an excellent pre-cut log canoe rack from Log Kayak Rack and knocked it together over a long weekend. It’s a stout one and has held up for the better part of a year.
In January, I also wrote my favorite piece of science writing for the year: A good joint is built to last: archaeologists uncover evidence for the earliest structural use of wood. Unsurprisingly, it also happens to be about woodworking.
February
The weather in February was not great for woodworking, so, instead, I kludged together the terror saw, a beam cutter build from an old circular saw and a chainsaw kit from Harbor Freight. Is it safe? No. Does it look like something out of Warhammer 40K? Yup. Does it cut big honking logs? Heck yeah!
March
In March, me and the podcast crew were prepping for AwesomeCon. I cobbled together a few more custom coasters for fan swag.
April
In April, things were getting wet and the goats were getting sad, so I built a shanty for the goat using pine logs I felled the year before. My first attempt at timber framing isn’t the prettiest, but it sure is tough.
They liked the shanty so much, they asked for another platform.
May
Did you know that you can just sponsor a local sports team and have your company name printed on all the jerseys? Team Blackbeard Biologic had a great soccer season, so I made a little walnut jersey frame for my kid’s team jersey. Go Blackbeard!
June
In June, we built the Big Red Coop.
July
July would have been a great month for woodworking, but our 20-year-old dishwasher finally met its end and my hobby time was committed to sourcing and installing a new dishwasher for the house. Fun!
August
My wife inherited her great grandmother’s sewing table. The machine need to be fully rewired and repowered and the table needed to be fixed and finished. This was the big project for the year.
It turned out great!
September
I was itching to practice my dovetails and use up some spare wood. In September, I knocked together a little case for all of our miniature paints, using cherry and walnut with handcut dovetails. Some of them even turned out ok.
October/November
It was all OpenCTD all the time for the months of October and November. No time to build.
December
December I finished up a clock for my niece, which I didn’t get any photos of.
There were lots of small projects throughout the year, including a small enclosure for some birds, a new cutting board, the frame for a hyperbaric chamber, and other odds and ends that didn’t make the feature list.
And that’s it for my 2024 year in woodworking. Follow me on Bluesky to see what I build this year!
