My name is Angel, though the people who matter most to me have always called me Lito. That's where the shop name comes from.
I've been around wood since high school, when a shop teacher pointed me toward an after-school job that changed how I saw what hands could do. Life took me in other directions for a long time. The Marine Corps, a long career in tech, years where the tools sat quiet.
When a hard chapter hit a few years ago, I needed something real to do with my hands. I went back to wood. My son is a chef, and he lives far away. I wanted to make him something. Without a lathe, I used my drill to shape a set of chopsticks by hand. They weren't perfect. But making them made me feel close to him in a way a phone call couldn't.
I kept building. The garage grew. The tools multiplied. And somewhere along the way, the pieces started finding their way into other people's homes.
The shop is a garage in Mountain View, California, listed as two-car, though it doesn't feel like it. It has what it needs: a table saw, a CNC router, a laser engraver, hand tools, and enough hardwood stock to keep things moving. Every piece starts and finishes here.
The floor usually has sawdust on it. That's how you know it's working.
Occasionally a larger project finds its way into the shop. This built-in banquette was designed, built, and finished here before being installed in a family member's home.
Most of what comes out of this shop is small to medium scale, pieces meant to live in someone's home, on a desk, in a kitchen, at a grill. Hardwoods mostly: walnut, cherry, padauk, maple. Every piece leaves with the Lito WoodWorks brand mark. That's not decoration. It means the piece was made here, by hand, and I stand behind it.
Have something specific in mind? A personalized gift, a custom size, a particular wood species? Reach out — most things are worth a conversation.