These are just some of the projects I’ve been blessed to have built over the years. All of these projects were built for either family or close friends. Though these items were built to be either gifts to family and friends or to be used personally, they also represent the uniqueness and quality of construction that Scrudder Fabrications puts into every product we design and build. Simply put, these items represent a sort of resume of some of what we can do.

Book shelf, @ 1992 - One of the oldest pieces of furniture that I've built, this shelf uses blind dovetail joints to hold it together. No glue, no nails, no screws, the shelf pieces press fit into the slots on the back side of the uprights. This one is six feet tall and six feet wide, though I've made quite a few variations of this pattern since (some three feet tall and six wide, some three feet wide and six tall). My favorite is the 3' x 3' version.

Built in June 1996, this solid wood cherry dining table comfortably seats eight people when all four leaves are put in place. The table easily opens up so that the leaves can be added. It is 48" in diameter, and the leaves add another 32” in width.

This solid oak table, built @ 1996, is 18” wide, 36” long, and 18" tall. My older two kids were four and two years of age at the time, and I wanted them to have a table and chair set to play with. The seats are roughly 12" above the floor, with the backs straight up and down. My oldest now has this table set in her son's bedroom for him to use.

This bible box was made to be a Christmas present for my wife, JuJu, December of 2015. I made it out of cedar. I had gotten her a bible with her “new” last name on it, when we up to Mom’s for Thanksgiving. While there, I saw Mom’s bible box, and that was the inspiration for this one. I custom built it to the measurements of the bible I’d gotten for her, so that it fits in this box perfectly.

June 2017 - JuJu had given me a Batman jigsaw puzzle for Christmas a few years earlier. The special thing about it is that it's double sided. How do you frame a puzzle so that you can see both sides? Easy. You build a frame that holds two plates of sheet plastic, with the completed puzzle in between them. As of this writing it is hanging in my classroom, over a row of computers desks.

Dec 2017 - JuJu had a great idea that I build a cedar chest (she called it a "hope chest") for my youngest daughter. This was her Christmas present from me.

Dec 2017 - JuJu had an idea for a floating cross that she wanted for a good friend of hers. It was surprisingly easy to set it up so that the one cross can spin inside the other. She wanted turquoise and brown. If you're interested in one similar, the cross design, the size, and the colors can be changed to your personal preferences.

March 2018 - I had talked Mom into coming down to visit with us during our Spring Break weeks, mine and my youngest daughter’s, and she asked me to make a couple frames for her. It just so happened that she'd brought both items with that she'd wanted framed. The first is an old news article about my Dad, my Brother, and my Nephew, three generations of blacksmiths. The other item is a painting that she'd made for her sister. These are only two of the many frames I’ve built over the years.

My youngest daughter inherited half of my Mom's thimble collection. This is the shelf we built for it to sit on. And yes, we made it big enough that she can add to it in the future. We built it November 2019.

Feb 2020 - JuJu had the idea for this headboard, and guided me through the design process so that it was exactly what she wanted. Her dream design, and I was happy to make it a reality. As of this writing, we are in the process of talking about a matching dresser and chest of drawers, just to take a further step towards making this a complete bedroom set.

June 2020 - My stepdaughter made this painting for my Mom, a year before she passed. A year later, having inherited the painting back, she asked me to build a frame for her Grandma Ann’s painting. Making it with the beveled shape just seemed to be the right thing to do, and copper seemed to be a good color match.

Summer of 2019 - I was playing around with an idea, and before I realized it, I'd made about a dozen of these "Old Rugged Crosses". My Brother is the person that named this particular project.

Spring 2020 - This is an offshoot from the Old Rugged Cross idea. With the onset of the pandemic that spring, I had plenty of time to play in the garage.

Another variation on the Rugged Cross, mounting it on a piece of pine. I came up with this design also in the Spring of 2020.

May 2020 - Having been quarantined like the rest of the world, I spent the spring playing around with several ideas. This one became the graduation project to one of my students from his Mom. JuJu had shared a picture of what I was doing with this project, and the Mom just had to have me make one for her son, a Senior that year. And yes, if you’ve made it this far into my historical resume, and you like this idea, please reach out to me and I will be happy to make a version of this one for you.

Spring 2020 - Having gone into Spring Break 2020, the pandemic kept us from going back to school that next week. Somewhere in April I started using the available time to clean in the garage, and found the checker board that I'd made a couple years earlier. I decided then that I needed to make a cabinet around it.... I made the decorative cuts on the legs with my scroll saw, and I tapered the legs using my table saw. Drawers are on both sides to hold the checkers.

This project reignited my desire to be creative in what I build. I realized that I’d missed the challenge of problem solving a final product from start to finish. In a sense, this cabinet was the catalyst that would eventually come to fruition these years later. There have been several other events over the past few years, but they’ve all combined to become Scrudder Fabrications.

At the time of building the board, I made a special design to go on the checkers. With JuJu originally from the Midland area, and me being from Southwest Oklahoma, the small stars represent where we're from. The big star represents the Dallas area, where we live the time of this listing.

May 2020 - The painting on the left was done by JuJu's Mom, the painting on the right was done by mine. While I was cleaning in the house early May of 2020, I came across both paintings. Immediately, I realized that I needed to build frames for each and get them hung up on the wall in our home. Both frames were completed just in time for Mother's Day. JuJu loves the character in the old reclaimed lumber, and the frames turned out perfect.

December 2020 - JuJu asked me to build her a ranch style dining room table and chair set. I poured resin on the top of the table to keep food from falling into and getting stuck in the cracks. I also designed the chair backs with a 10 degree reclined tilt. The seats were originally designed to be 18" above the floor, but with JuJu and myself being on the short side, I lowered the seats to 16", which allows them to fit us perfectly. No swinging feet for us. 2" x 4" framing, 2" x 2" diagonals. The table top is made of 2" x 8"s, and the chairs seats and backs are 1" x 4"s. Note the bench behind the table, up against the wall.

Spring Break of 2021, JuJu got us an above ground pool. Within a couple weeks I'd decided we needed a deck to safely access it. I designed the deck using SketchUp online, then built it over a weekend. My favorite part was building the stairs, getting to cut the step spaces into the 2" x 12" risers, as well as cutting the two center deck plates to fill in the 20 degree angle space in the middle of the deck.

Shoe shelving, Spring 2021 - My youngest asked me to make her a shoe storage system. We sat down and worked out the design together, then I began the construction. Both cabinets are identical, with the middle separators able to be slid out for boots to fit. She is currently using them in her college dorm room (Soph, Fall 2023).