Test Depth Woodworking

Test Depth Woodworking Specializing in CNC, laser engraving, and custom gifts!

Well… this is a post we didn’t expect to be writing again.It’s been about a year and a half since we last showed up here...
04/10/2026

Well… this is a post we didn’t expect to be writing again.

It’s been about a year and a half since we last showed up here at Test Depth Woodworking.
Turns out completely uprooting your life and moving 900 miles away takes a little longer to settle into than you’d think. Who knew? 😅

But here we are. New land. New home and a hare brained idea to build a NEW SHOP.

Yeah, we thought we had closed this chapter for good. Funny how you don’t realize how much something means to you until it’s gone.

Now let’s talk about how this is actually going to work.

We were lucky enough to land a property with a massive “Quonset hut” (don’t worry, we had to Google it too). 2,800 square feet. 20-foot ceilings. Sounds perfect.

Michigan weather: absolutely not. Unfortunately, an uninsulated metal building only works about 3 months out of the year which is not exactly ideal when you’re trying to run a woodworking shop. Lots of chattering teeth and rusting tools!

And then Brett had a lightbulb moment.
What if we just… built a shop inside the shop?

So that’s what we are doing.

Over the last few months, we’ve been framing out a fully functional workshop inside the structure; complete with power, workspace, and overhead storage for all the things we somehow keep collecting, and trimmed to look like an antique hardware store. Yes he's very extra, but I also made him buy me glow in the dark petunias, so I'm not going to argue with him. 99 percent of the labor is coming from our own hands, which is both amazing and often incredibly infuriating. 🤣

We’ll still have room for the tractor, vehicles, and hey… if we get a little too ambitious one day—maybe even an RV or boat. 😉

It’s a huge project. It’s a little chaotic and I often feel like my brain is mush, but we are ridiculously excited to be stepping back into this and creating again.

TEST DEPTH WOODWORKING IS COMING BACK!

We are not dead, we promise! The last few months have been INSANE! Remember when we closed the plan was to use our tools...
11/25/2024

We are not dead, we promise!

The last few months have been INSANE! Remember when we closed the plan was to use our tools for our own projects? Well, when a once in a lifetime opportunity knocks, do you ignore it? We didn't.

While trying to figure out where the heck we were going to live with all our pets and our tools, through some networking magic, we were introduced to a homeowner who has a lakeside cottage in need of updating. Her idea? We provide the labor/do the design work on the remodel of a couple rooms in her vacation home, and in exchange we can live there while we navigate shopping for our forever home and setting up a new shop!

Well, you don't have to ask us twice for that deal, and so here we are, in SW Michigan finding ourselves mastering the art of home renovation!

Follow along as we do the biggest (and hopefully last) job from Test Depth Woodworking.

Photos include closing our old shop, some glamour shots of our temporary home, and the beginnings of a bathroom remodel that's going down to the studs 😳

Hey, I'm not saying we have anything to do with Dale Earnhardt Jr...but if you looked carefully, and were standing in th...
07/22/2024

Hey, I'm not saying we have anything to do with Dale Earnhardt Jr...but if you looked carefully, and were standing in the right spot, my logo is in here...somewhere (back of the shirt haha).

Congrats to our sponsored driver Stuck Motorsports, check him out. Rookie of the year last season, finishing top 5 last few races. If you're a southeast Virginia resident, he's a great person to know!

It is with a bittersweet heart that we announce the closing of Test Depth Woodworking. This has been an absolutely amazi...
07/13/2024

It is with a bittersweet heart that we announce the closing of Test Depth Woodworking. This has been an absolutely amazing endeavor that has given us so much. As many of you know, we are a military family and Brett has finally reached retirement. We are ready to do new and exciting things and are off to the beautiful city of South Haven, MI while Brett navigates a new career path in Nuclear Power.

This does not mean we will stop making things. We will still be posting awesome creations, but while it has been an absolute pleasure to make so many things for all of you, we are now ready to take time to make things for ourselves. Brett started this page as a hobby in 2016 and I never in a million years thought we'd be so lucky to have built such an amazing customer base and to turn it into a full time business in 2020.

Current outstanding projects are still on schedule, we will be reaching out with updates as we slowly transition. We also have many amazing woodworking friends in the area that we would love to refer you to.

Thank you for all you've given us
Brett and Kindra

This last month has been a bit unusual. Apparently, we now specialize in party planning! Hey, don't blame us, we just ma...
05/31/2024

This last month has been a bit unusual. Apparently, we now specialize in party planning! Hey, don't blame us, we just make whatever you guys dream up! 😅

All joking aside, this was a blast. The customer? A very proud grandma to a soon-to-be one year old. The mission: turn a toddler car bed into a buffet table, construct some method of holding 3 eight-foot photos up at the front of the hall, and make giant checkerboard patterned boards to hang party favors from.

Engineering a solution to this was a breath of fresh air from what we usually do, and it was such an honor to make the vision of this lovely family come true.

You know what has happened more than once? A total solar eclipse. You know what hasn't happened more than once? This awe...
04/08/2024

You know what has happened more than once? A total solar eclipse. You know what hasn't happened more than once? This awesome plaque, so you should look at it instead. Besides, looking at the sun is bad for your eyes! 🤣

Jokes aside, this plaque is a perfect example of why when someone calls and asks "what can you make?" my immediate response is "what would you like made?" We don't keep a catalog because with a few very rare exceptions, most of what we do is only ever done once. At over 2 feet tall, it's a beast!

Sometimes, when the stars align, we turn bourbon barrels into shadow box coffee tables. We may or may not drink the bour...
04/01/2024

Sometimes, when the stars align, we turn bourbon barrels into shadow box coffee tables. We may or may not drink the bourbon while thinking of the feasibility of such a task before taking it head on. We plead the 5th on that one.

First, Brett had to source a barrel, that was actually more time consuming than you'd think! Once that part was handled, the extra fun part came. Think of the barrel as under pressure like a giant spring. Cutting the metal hoops (as we needed since we only needed half the barrel) would allow the staves to basically erupt, with little hope of getting them back together. What followed was a proper amount of redneck engineering to keep the thing together while Brett built out the shadow box and the final touches that turn it into a finished piece.

Enjoy the finished product and a few build photos of one of the most unique projects we have ever completed.

Many of you don't know that our name originates from a submarine term, "Test Depth" refers to the maximum depth at which...
03/25/2024

Many of you don't know that our name originates from a submarine term, "Test Depth" refers to the maximum depth at which a submarine is permitted to operate under normal peacetime circumstances, and is tested during sea trials.

As a submarine family, it's always been one of our greatest pleasures to make submarine themed items for current and retiring service members. As ubiquitous to submarines as close quarters and hot racking is cribbage.

Lore has it that in 1943, while the USS WAHOO was on patrol in the Yellow Sea, Commander Dudley "Mush" Morton and Executive Officer Dick O'Kane were playing a round of cribbage. During the game, Morton dealt O'Kane a perfect 29-point hand, the highest possible in the game. They went on to sink an impressive number of enemy ships, and cribbage is still played aboard submarines to this day.

Here are some of our favorites we have made to date!

This definitely involved our thinking caps. An Army wife wanted to honor her husband's service by surprising him with a ...
02/11/2024

This definitely involved our thinking caps. An Army wife wanted to honor her husband's service by surprising him with a shadow box. The only objective - make something she hadn't seen anywhere else, and incorporate the Army Corps of Engineer Castle into the design. It took some planning, some 3d programming, and a whole lot of "hmmmm, I wonder if this will work..." but we settled on a design where the castle would open to reveal hidden storage, and thus not losing valuable space in the box!

Made from plans 50+ years old, this project touched my heart. Our dear friend wanted an exact replica of a rocking horse...
02/08/2024

Made from plans 50+ years old, this project touched my heart. Our dear friend wanted an exact replica of a rocking horse her father had made her as a child to give to a friend that is expecting! So we all rolled up our sleeves and got to work!

Brett started by scanning in all the old documents, digitally tracing them, then converting them into a pattern our robot router could cut! (shoutout CAMaster CNC Routers) Then it was sanding, assembly, and my favorite part, all the finish work to turn it from a shop project to a family heirloom!

We've all seen the paracord-wrapped paddles, but hear us out...what about paddles that aren't really paddles at all?This...
01/30/2024

We've all seen the paracord-wrapped paddles, but hear us out...what about paddles that aren't really paddles at all?

This is our take on the traditional, but often overdone Navy paddle.

Definitely not our usual type of job, but fun all the same! Kindra was getting fed up not having a dedicated place for h...
01/15/2024

Definitely not our usual type of job, but fun all the same! Kindra was getting fed up not having a dedicated place for her nice sets of gaming dice, and more often than not they'd end up chucked in a drawer to collect dust. After coming up empty on a commercial solution, we then remembered we have a whole shop full of tools to make the perfect display! It's not often we get the chance to make something for ourselves, but this one turned out great!

Address

Mattawan, MI
49071

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 8pm
Tuesday 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 10am - 8pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 8pm

Telephone

+17577377711

Website

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