Monthly Archives: December 2008

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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Using wood fillerIt never fails… you get to the end of that tough project, and you begin to scrape, sand and plane the wood to get ready for finishing.

That’s when you notice it.  That little gap in that joint that you were sure you had closed during the glue up.  Now what?

A lot of woodworkers turn to wood fillers to bring their work to perfection.  Whether you buy a commercial product, mix sawdust and glue or use a wax stick after the finish is applied, there are lots  of options that can help bring your piece to looking more perfect.

Heck, I think that some of my earlier projects were more wood filler than wood!

Wood fillers, however, do have a certain stigma attached to them.  I mean, if your work was perfect, you wouldn’t need them, would you?

So, this week, let us know what your thoughts are on wood fillers. Are they useful in your shop, or do you turn your nose up at the mere mention of them?

[poll id=”51″]

Link of the week

Link of the Week

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Building Chess Pieces and Checkers

The Chess SetA few weeks ago, I posted a link to Popular Woodworking’s Classic Chess Board plan.  Since then, a few readers have asked if I could find any plans to build chess pieces for the board.

After some searching, I found this link by ShopSmith which shows how you can build a full set of chess pieces as well as a set of checkers for those who prefer that game.

While the plans refer back to using the attachments of a ShopSmith, you can build these pieces with any band saw by using a compound cut method.  In fact, all of the pieces, with the exception of the bishops, require just two cutting setups.  The bishops are just a little more complicated due to the saw kerf cut that gives them their unique appearance.

Full -scale diagrams are available for you to print out and use to cut the pieces.  This is a great way to make chess pieces, especially if you don’t have a lathe.

Experiences

The Halfway Point

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40th cakeI woke up this morning.  That’s always a good thing.  It means I have another day to enjoy on the green side of the grass and do what I do.

Yet, I woke up this morning, and things were totally different.

Today is my 40th birthday.  A big moment in anyone’s life.  After all, with the average life expectancy of a male in the United States pegged just shy of 80, that means that statistically half of my life is now in the book.

Today, I look back at the accomplishments of my past 40 years, and I have to smile.  Sure, I did some pretty dumb things through the years.  Opportunities lost – or completely missed.  Bad decisions when I should have been making better ones.

But, all in all, I am where I am by making a lot of the right decisions.  Studying hard in school.  Graduating high school – then college.  Asking my wife to marry me.  Buying our first and only home.  Deciding with my wife to become parents…

Becoming a woodworker.  It’s amazing to think that I’ve been woodworking for a quarter of my life.  About the same amount of time I have been a parent.  I just can’t imagine life without my kids or my craft.

The crazy thing is that I feel like I’m not over the hill – but as if I am finally arriving at adulthood.  My thirties were better than my twenties, and I feel as if my forties will be even better.  After all, now I have another decade of knowledge and wisdom that I didn’t have when I entered my thirties.  I am better at my job, I’m a better husband and father and I’m a much better woodworker.

Now, a lot of those painful learning lessons of just getting here are over and done with. Oh, sure I have a whole bunch more to get through – after all, my sons have yet to reach the terrible teen years.

However, I also know not to take myself so seriously.  Now, I know that I have established myself at my job and in my craft.  Now, I come armed with the knowledge and experience to accomplish what I want to in my life.

Now, I don’t feel like it’s all downhill…

It’s not a midlife crisis – it’s a midlife realization that yes, I did put my mind to what I wanted to do, and I was able to do it.  Besides, if I did have a midlife crisis, I wouldn’t go for the stereotypical red convertible Corvette- I’d spring for a Powermatic 66 or a Delta Unisaw…

It almost makes me want to go out and build a new project with techniques I have never tried before…

Thanks for reading.

Projects, Shop Talk

Great Jigs: The Square Assembly Jig

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The Square Assembly JigThis is one of those projects I have always thought about, but never got around to building.  That was until I had to build a box that had mitered corners.  Trying to square those slippery joints and keep the joints aligned… well, that was tough.

The square assembly jig couldn’t be any more simple.  I took a scrap sheet of 3/4″ MDF I had laying around the shop – about 2 x 3 feet.  I then took a scrap of 1/2″ cabinet grade birch plywood and ripped 1″ wide strips.  I made sure the scrap MDF was perfectly square, then I glued and bradded a double stack of the plywood strips to the table, again ensuring I was perfectly square.  I held the ‘junction’ of the two strips apart by about 1″, so I could see any miter joints I was gluing up.

The Jig in ActionAfter I built this, I finished it with four coats of polyurethane to help prevent any glue from sticking to the jig.

To use the jig, simply glue up the joint you want to build.  Then, you can clamp the piece to the plywood strips however you see fit.  Once the piece is glued up with the boards tight to the plywood fences, your assembly will be square.  Pretty clever…

The best part of the jig is that you can use short clamps to grip the boards on small peices, or you can use the plywood fences as a contact point for larger bar clamps.