Welcome to Medullary Ray

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Perfect45Degree Installation day of one of my latest dine tables this year. 16' Guanacaste Parota slab dine table. What a beautiful piece of wood to work with! The muralist is still working on the ceiling above the table and the electrician has a light fixture to install. Yikes! All is well and worked out as planned! My client is still in the phases of finishing their new Vancouver home but special guests from around the world are due to visit so we install the table to help fill out the room!   We wanted to keep the live edge as an interesting element but straight cut the other three sides to work with the lines and shape of the room. Just sitting at this table is a treat!     The grain in this wood is phenomenal! It's like flying over the earth! Left: One of the base ends nearly ready to assemble. The base is built out of Shedua. Curved work is one of my true loves! Below: Building up th...

Looking for a beautiful Slab Dining Table? SOLD! I have two slabs coming from Costa Rica soon to be dining room tables. I made one table with this same wood, Guanacaste Parota last year and it was spectacular. Parota is stable, thick, and incredibly beautiful loaded with interesting grain patterns, color and figure. FOR SALE NOW, purchase directly through Paypal using your account or a credit card. Or buy through Etsy . . . https://www.etsy.com/listing/472979125/parota-slabs SOLD!   Here are a couple shots of my first Parota slab table with finish being applied: The surface of the Parota Slab with Waterlox finish: The shot above shows the heartwood at top and Sap wood at bottom. In this case the Sap wood was very solid and looks like Ivory with a spalted feather like pattern! This really helped make this table a beauty!  http://perfect45degree.blogspot.com/2015/10/parota-dine-table.html Please contact me if you are interested in having a ta...

Design your Music Box with me! A recent music box custom designed for an anniversary gift this season! This music box is beautiful, thoughtful and personal with superb sound quality. The movement plays Canon in D, which has three parts, by Johann Pachelbel. You can hear the music and see this box in action here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XOiwZJG2Kj8&feature=youtu.be A music box can be more than a box to hold the movement. You can incorporate a jewelry box or other container with the movement. There are so many possibilities here! I'd love to have a custom movement made with our bedtime lullaby (Durme, Durme) and give one to each child when they have their first born.  Made from American Cherry because acoustically this wood gives a very nice tone when combined with the music box movement. The Sankyo movement is fine tuned by  Better Music Boxes  to sound as precise as possible. On their site you can listen to the various move...

An example of elegance, simplicity and breathtaking beauty. The Parota slab comes from Costa Rica in the Guanacaste province . We had it shipped to my shop in Portland Oregon where I milled, sanded, and finished the slab. I designed and built the base after getting the slab in my shop. I wanted to see and feel the visual weight of it and make sure the wood I used in the base was compatible in color and grain. The base is made from Shedua, the one and only wood in my entire selection that had the correct matching! The base and slab fit perfectly and are solid as a rock! Exactly what I wanted for a 220lb slab.  Here are a few detail shots of the wood. I am still waiting for photos of the table complete in L.A. The slab has outstanding ribboning and below is a detail shot of the sap wood: Above is a test fit of the base to the top. There are rails that set inside the top which register it on center, fasten it and create a very strong bond between the base a...

self portrait, Jacquelyn Smith Whether you make wooden spoons, modern coffee tables, or far out executive desks, being a woodworker is interesting work on many levels. We do work with dead plant material which has many challenges. It's a nice mix of technical, creative, deliberate and happenstance. Want to try it out? Take a class at a community center or college that has some tools and give it a shot. If you are fortunate there may be a woodworking school nearby. If you get serious here are a few pointers to keep in mind . . . Just when you are convinced you know most things about the work, something presents itself to show you otherwise. It doesn't really matter how long you've been at it. There are very few shortcuts. When you feel the urge, resist. What's the saying . . ."do it right, once". The resources we use do have a limit. Your life and energy are precious. What we create can carry on and inspire many if we are present and respectful of ...

  Woodworking is a brutally honest work. There are many truths in this life.   For me, the whining sound of a 10” carbide tipped saw blade spinning toward my face driven by a 3hp motor , is one of them. It is very real, tangible, and responsive. The number one thing to remember when running wood through the table saw is to hold the wood down flat to the table as you glide it along the fence. NEVER LET UP. Dust and particles are spraying at your face; chips of wood are beating at your stomach and chest. Never let up. Once you commit to the cut you must stay true to your course until you have cleared the blade. There is no room for wishy-washy indecision. It can be life threatening and certainly is limb threatening with every cut. Hold it down and push the board through without turning away.   When building, I have to do the same. Assemble and look over every aspect. Proportions, color, grain and texture either work together or fall short of intentions. ...

LIFE is FULL of NATURAL COLOR!  There's NO STAIN on this Outside Dine Table made from Reclaimed wood by Perfect45Degree The reclaimed wood in this gorgeous dine table has literally been around the world. It has crossed the mighty seas. Yes, somewhere around the globe someone cut down trees and milled this beautiful hardwood into 4" x 4" sticks so they could stack heavy railroad rails. They shipped the rails from the other side of the planet. Still an amazing concept for me when I visualize our globe and all of the land and water between me and the South Seas. Just think of all of the conversations that have taken place next to, over and under this wood. How many languages? Were the trees near a path or road? Somehow this wood has ended up here, in my town, for sale, thrown randomly into a plywood box as if it were Popsicle sticks. Five dollars each. 36"wide, 9'2" long (divided into four sections) with an angle iron base It was w...