These are my two latest projects, distinctly different!
The first is a tongue drum, I pondered for nearly a year on how to build this. I really liked the looks and sound of the drums on the tonguedrum.com site, and was fortunate that by the time I was ready to build it plans were available for sale on the web site. I think it was money well spent, there are a few specifics I would not have been aware of. The top is African Padauk, ends are walnut and oak, sides are tiger maple and walnut, bottom is birch plywood. It is finished with two coats of tung oil. It is about 9" tall, 10" wide and 24" long and weighs just under 20 lbs. I used the CW only to make some vector paths with a 90° V bit, which I used for guides to cut the tongues with a jig saw. If I did it again, I would probably use the 1/8 bit and cut clear through, and then place 1/8" shims between the tongues when gluing the sides on (the drum is too high to cut the tongues after the box is assembled). Tuning the drum was fairly easy with the help of a microphone and free software which displayed the frequency of the tongues.
I am not musical at all, this was just a project I wanted to do, but here is some audio of my brother playing it:
Tongue Drum Solo
Tongue Drum With Guitar
The second project was a quickie project for my wife. It is a necklace tray which is used to hold beads and other supplies when making jewelry. The ones sold at the craft stores are made of thin flimsy plastic and she wanted something sturdier and a little more basic. It is an edge glued 9" X 14" maple scrap with two coats of lacquer. It was completely done on the CW. Nothing special, but I am posting it since it might give someone else an idea.