All posts by Tom

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Link of the week

Link of the week

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Zen Wood

Sometimes, when your mind is racing, you have to make a conscious decision to slow things down. Take a mental time out. Pray. Meditate.

The eastern cultures seem to have the right idea, working this self-centering activity into the daily fabric of life. Surrounding yourself with simple, uncluttered space and furniture can help put you in this right frame of mind.

Woodworker John Clark has this peaceful aesthetic down perfectly at his Zen Wood site. The pieces he builds come from the Buddhist traditions of Asian cultures, but these gorgeous pieces could be repurposed to hold whatever is important in your life (a Bible, family photos, treasured possessions) and serve as your dedicated place to clear your mind and relax.

Who knows? While you are contemplating your peaceful surroundings, maybe you will be inspired to build a project of your own.

 

Shop Talk

Transition time

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So, I lost this entire weekend. Total bummer, because I had a busy weekend planned of woodworking and finishing projects up my sleeve.

This past Friday, I took delivery of the material for the next project I’m working on – a pantry unit for a good friend. I also had the rocking horse that Dominic and I were working on to complete. So, the plan was to get into the shop, knock out the rocking horse, move it to a corner of the shop and let Rhonda and the boys complete the finishing job.  Then, start hoisting sheets of plywood up onto the bench and start breaking them down into project components.  It was going to be the perfect weekend. Heck, I even had the weekend off from coaching, as the basketball league took a one week break.

Well, all of that went out the window. Total bummer. So, I’ve been working after work to get some stuff done in the shop. Tonight, I was able to get the horse assembled.  The results… Well, they did leave a little bit to be desired. My horse has a bit of a forward lean – no doubt a miscut in the shape of the rockers.  Looks perhaps like there is a bit of a peak in the middle that needs to be shaved down.  Oh well, that’s why I have a spokeshave and a month or so before I have to drop it off at the pregnancy crisis center.

So, while the horse is up with the vet, the sheets of plywood for the new pantry project are taking up space in the shop. It’s amazing how large – and heavy –  4 x 8 sheets of plywood are in person. One of these days very soon, I’m going to have to find a safer more out of the way place to stash them…

Because this Saturday is the annual pumpkin carving party as well…

Oh, well, life is all about going with the flow. And, I know that once I get everything back on track, we’ll be off to the races.

So, I’ll just have to sit tight, get some stuff done a little at a time, and try to enjoy the start of the hectic  season!

 

Projects

Some finished shots

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I had a lousy weekend. No, nothing went wrong in the shop, and the wife and kids are all doing well. I just had some health ‘issues’ which needed to be resolved.

Since I’m here relaxing at the house, I realized that I have left you hanging on a few projects. Ones which I wrote articles about, but never showed you the final piece. Well, today I’m going to fix that.

First, here are those stair-stepped bookshelves in place. As you can see, my friend Carla wasted no time getting them in to their final location and loading them up with goodies. I like the way you can look into the side of the cases to see what’s stored there, and she likes the width of the lower shelves for larger storage.

I do have to go to her house to install some leg levelers on the shelves. While they sit very stable on the carpet, one unit has a bit of a wobble on hard floors. Since they are planning on replacing the carpet one of these  days, I figured it would be good customer service to head over there and install those potentially necessary pieces.

The other piece is the Munkstol. After I repaired the round tenons in the piece, I glued it all together with hide glue and replaced a few dowel pins which were holding the chair together. The challenge with this chair is that it is triangular, so getting good clamping pressure on the joints took a little bit of work and finesse. In fact, what I did was glue the front assembly together and clamped it until the glue cured, then clamped the other parts in place. It took some muscle and a few naughty words, but now it’s good to go.

Rhonda and I brought it to our neighbor’s home once it was done. Our neighbor was so happy, she took a picture and sent it back to the family in Sweden.  Once that happened, gosh, the praise started coming in two languages!  I’m glad that Google offers its free translation service…  otherwise, I’d be sunk.

Now, I meant to finish the rocking horse over the weekend, but that plan went by the wayside. I’ll get that done this week (I hope) and then I have to move on to the next project.

Great weather. A busy shop.  Fairly decent health. Hey, what else can you ask for?

 

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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You see the middle part in this joint, right?

Not the two elements with mortises in them.. the thing in between them? That joins them together once you glue and clamp it?

It’s an interesting way to join two boards without creating an integral tenon on one of them.

But, what do you call it? I’ve seen woodworkers get worked up about different terms for it. They will argue their point all day long that a certain term applies, and none of the other make sense.

So, what do you call it in your shop?

Link of the week

Link of the week

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DIY’s how to build a banquette

Seating and storage. In many homes, there’s just not enough of either.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution that can help you get more of both in a stylish form known as a banquette.

Banquettes are typically built-in seating benches that provide extra space for guests at the dinner table, while providing storage for less-frequently used items below. This plan, offered by the DIY network, gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a basic unit with plywood and common lumber. Of course, with this as a starting point, you can feel free to design your own plan to meet the needs of your dining area.

Experiences

Bringing woodworking to life

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I’m not sure why this claim was made, but a rumor was going around at Woodworking in America that online woodworking is dead. Deceased. No more.

What a strange thing to say, because the folks I met who blogged about woodworking and marketed their tools online seemed to have a very lively and robust exchange, and they relished the thrill of posting what they were doing for all the world to see.

In fact, I think two more blogs were born in the short time between the end of the conference and this posting, with a few more folks looking to get in off the sidelines.

And, I don’t think it would take much more to convince others about the power of online woodworking. In fact, there are a few opportunities coming up that just might help get more folks involved in the craft and enthused about building.

The first opportunity was created by my friend Chris Adkins at High Rock Woodworking. He and several Atlanta Area friends have been meeting at some local woodworking haunts. This inspired the idea of creating the Modern Woodworkers Association.

It works when woodworkers get together with other woodworkers in the area to build, source lumber, shop or just shoot the breeze. The only thing you would really need to do to be listed would be to take some shots of the event and … well.. we’re still working on a way to get those babies uploaded. But, imagine if we had ‘chapters’ of the Modern Woodworking Association around the country – and the world. Wouldn’t that be a total blast to see what Chicago, London or Sydney woodworkers were doing?

The other opportunity comes with the Woodworking Shows. Yes, it’s that time of the year again, when the Woodworking Shows makes its rounds around the United States. It kicks off this weekend in Dallas, Texas.  Demonstrations, classes and cutting edge products always draw woodworkers from miles around. My friend Jim Heavey of Wood Magazine is also out yukking it up with the crowd while teaching some valuable shop tips. I know that last year, Andy Chidwick and his wife Shari were working with the show managers to get the online woodworking community out in force. I spent my time at this year’s Tampa show working the crowd at a booth of my own, and had a great time talking to central Florida woodworkers.

There are 19 stops on the show’s route this year, stopping in major cities from coast to coast. Again, wouldn’t it be awesome to get a bunch of woodworking folks together at each of the stops for a little camaraderie, fun and telling some big fish shop tales? If you know that you are going to be coming out, why not e-mail the organizers and let them know you’ll be out there in force?  After all, if they know you’ll be there, maybe they’ll help roll out that red carpet for you! The e-mail address is info@thewoodworkingshows.com.

I don’t know about you, but if we’re going to demonstrate that the people  who write online woodworking content and watch it to gain valuable insight into the craft are alive and well, they just may believe the hype that online woodworking is overrun by woodworking zombies.

That would be kind of frightening…

 

Projects

Woah, big fella!

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Back in late 1999, I was still just a budding novice woodworker (sometimes it’s tough to tell that I have improved any), I wanted to build a new project. I think this was my third. But, what to build? I had already built something for my wife.

There was also someone else who was very special in my house – my oldest (and my only at the time) son Dominic. I had already missed the window to build him a cradle. I could have built something practical like a bookshelf, but where’s the fun in that?  That’s when I decided on a rocking horse.  And, I think it’s safe to say that the client was pleased.

Fast forward a dozen years. Marc Spagnuolo is running a charity build where he’s donating $1 for every completed rocking horse plan that is built.  I have been building a rocking horse or cradle to donate to a local pregnancy crisis center every holiday season. And, that little boy who loved his rocking horse so much has been bugging me to get more shop time.

Thus, a plan was born.

So, this weekend, Dominic and I went to the nearby Lowe’s to pick up a glued up project panel and the other supplies. And, we had to make two trips to the local print shop to get the plans enlarged to the right size.  Apparently, 200% in one FedEx store doesn’t mean 200%.  But, Emily at the local shop was able to get everything printed up nicely, and we were off to the races.

Since Dominic had used a jigsaw in his tech class at school, he wanted to show off his mad skillz. So, we spray mounted the plans to the board, and Dominic got right to work with my jig saw. First, he cut off the parts of the board that we had drawn out the smaller parts of the project on. I took those over to the band saw and made those cuts while Dominic cut out the sides of the horse outline.  We were using my holdfasts to keep the board down to the bench, and he was VERY energetic using the mallet to snug them down.

After we cut things out, I broke out my Ridgid spindle/belt sander, and we started smoothing out the rough cuts.  And, they were pretty rough, but that’s what the sander was for!  Dominic took to the sander with skill. I watched him closely at first, but he was so good, I was able to back off and take a few pictures.

Did we get as far as we wanted to today? Nope. Dom had the idea we were going to have a fully assembled horse waiting for a finish on it. Ehh, what we do have is a stack of edge sanded, cut out pieces ready to have pilot holes drilled, surfaces sanded and finish applied.

Dominic left the shop sweaty, covered in dust and energized by the build. I left with the pride a father feels when his son grows up and finds the joy in working with his hands. My buttons were bursting. It brought a tear to my eye…

Hey, Marc and Nicole… Having an infant is a great thing, and you will enjoy every minute of parenting a little one. But, when they get old enough to work in the shop… that’s when it gets GOOD!