Let’s talk about some classic woodworking projects.

First, there’s the mailbox. I’ve seen some fine examples of homemade mailboxes as I’ve been driving all over the place to go to work. They’re not always made out of wood. The most interesting one I’ve seen was made out of checkerplate steel. The door might have been a bit heavy, but it would withstand an occasional hit from a baseball bat.

People still have a need for mailboxes, but perhaps for not much longer in this country, since the postal service is attempting to end home delivery. I’m not sure many people will even notice if they stop, though. Almost everything that comes in the mail for me is stuff I don’t want, anyway. I’m not in a hurry to get it.

Another good woodworker project is the home entertainment center. You make this wonderful big open cabinet or stand type thing and put all your components on it. The television occupies the central location, of course, surrounded by such favourites as the stereo amplifier, the record player, the cd player, the tape player (the 8-track player, if you have one), the VCR, the dvd player, and some speakers. Hey, speakers are a good woodworking project, too. I know someone who started his woodworking career making speakers out of plywood from billboards.

Anyway, now the TV is best screwed to the wall, since it’s only about 4 inches thick. When you try to use the stand they send with it, it feels like it will pitch forward any second and smash its expensive self all over your 2-year-old’s head. You will be upset. So, you attach it firmly to the wall (I used a cleat made from wood, actually – no store-bought junk for me) and toss the entertainment center on the burn pile.

Oh, but what about the other stuff that was on it?

Well, Virginia, no one listens to stereo systems, anymore, unless they have little white earbuds coming out of them. No one wants to hear your music, so keep it to yourself. The speakers go on the burn pile.

And the classic record stand…. Burn pile.

There’s that elegant CD tower…. Burn pile.

So, let’s leave the living room since everything else has.

Remember such favourites as the bread box and telephone table? These were mainstays of the woodworker for a while but no one puts bread in a box, anymore. They’d forget it was there until it turned into something that could walk out on its own. And even though many people have telephones, they use them so infrequently they probably don’t know where they are most of the time.

And then there’s the perennial projects, appropriate for every household, the bookcase and the magazine stand. You remember magazine stands? They were sometimes made and put in bathrooms to provide a distraction. Unfortunately, though, magazines have, for the most part, already been fueling the burn pile. Out go the stands.

Books are still in good service, but who knows for how long? And more and more people don’t actually want them around. They prefer their books in the second-hand stores. Bookcases, however, will always be useful, if you just change their name. They would, for example, make excellent display cases for defunct electronic doodads that are past their prime or battery life but hold so much sentimental value.

Tables will be next.