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Link of the week

Link of the week

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Berlin Flyer Wooden Wagons

If today’s link of the week doesn’t fix your little red wagon, at least it can be the place to find a new one!

Tucked in the rolling hills of Berlin, Ohio, what started as a company making wooden components for wheelbarrows became a company dedicated to the building of quality,old-fashioned all wood wagons. The company offers five different models of wagons – from the P-Wee Flyer all the way up to the massive Berlin Loadmaster, there’s a model that will make for a very happy young one in your life. And, yes, other than the wheel hardware and some other strategic parts, everything on these babies is wooden – the stake sides, the body and even the handles.

Centered in the middle of Amish country, the company employees 20 Amish craftsmen who are turning out wagons similar to the ones that rolled out of the factory 30 years ago. It’s good to see a company stick to its roots and offer such a great throwback project.

Just two posts remain until the big thousand post milestone! 

 

Experiences

Important People: My Advertisers

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There have been a bunch of folks who have had a major influence on Tom’s Workbench over the past five years. I wanted to take the time to recognize a few of the folks with which the blog would have never happened.

Today, I send a shout-out to my advertisers! These folks have taken a great chance on my site. By helping to underwrite my site, they are betting:

  1. I am going to keep up the pace of four posts a week
  2. My posts are going to be at least semi-lucid enough to make sense
  3. I’m not going to embarrass myself by doing something incredibly stupid. Like this.

(No  chickens were hurt during the writing of this post, but a few shop monkeys could not stop laughing and may have pulled something in the process.) There, now I got that out of my system.

Without any further ado, I want to take the time to thank my sponsors each in turn:

Bell Forest Products: They have been a sponsor for several years now, coming online in November of 2008. The folks up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have treated me like a prince, supporting my wood junkie habit (hey, man, can you spare some tiger maple?). Eric Poirier has been my chief point of contact, and the entire organization has thrown themselves behind me and other online woodworkers. Remember – no wood, no woodworking, right?  These guys will go out of their way to pick the board you need for a project. I am most grateful for their support.

Infinity Cutting Tools: David Venditto called me out of the clear blue one day to offer to become my advertiser. Since then, David has been a great supporter of the site. Now, as I get ready to hit the 1,000 post milestone, he coincidentally is moving into his new warehouse setup.  Not sure if it’s karma or kizmet, but hey, it can’t all be bad!  🙂

Tormek: Our friends over in Sweden make what has to be the easiest sharpening system out there to master. And, the darned thing is rugged, to boot. I have been working with their United States distributor (more on him later) during our sponsorship, and I have heard from the home office is that they like my writing style (voice, humor and the like) and they want me to keep promoting their product. I send my thanks for their support and encouragement across the Atlantic.

Bora Tools: The newest member to the team is Bora, an brand sold by Affinity tool works (they also make some great work holding tools I will feature in future articles). When a mutual friend recommended that the manager – Craig Ursell – give me a call, we immediately hit it off. Craig is a very personable guy with a great vision for the future of his brands, and an imagination and an enthusiasm that knows no bounds.

A few readers have commented recently that they think the blog is becoming a little too commercial. To them, I can understand their concerns. After all, a huge chunk of my blog is about my experiences in crafting wood. However, I also want to say that these four companies offer high-quality products that I am proud to use in my shop, and I would gladly recommend to my friends without hesitation. I also want to assure you that if something comes across my bench from one of these companies that isn’t top notch, they will hear from me before I write the review to see how we can work to improve the offerings. It’s a great relationship that we have forged, and the trust level is high between us.

This is post number 997. I will have a regular link of the week this week (post 998), and Sunday (post 999), I will be announcing the winners of the Great Thousand Post giveaway instead of the quick poll for the week. I hope you join me this weekend and this coming Monday as I cross the thousand post threshold. We’ve come this far together, and I’m getting used to your company!

 

Shop Talk

Going Big…

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For those of you who may not be aware, Infinity Cutting Tools is one of my advertisers. I had the pleasure of meeting up with David Venditto last November when we cut the deal – so to speak – and brought him on.

It was at that time when I realized that – holy crow – his office/warehouse space was tight. I mean like submarine tight. Working out of a 2,000 square foot unit in an airport business park, David walked me through the cramped space. There were racks of router bits, saw blades, jigs, fixtures and other goodies stacked high on racks. This did make it convenient to walk through the warehouse and pick out the parts to complete someone’s order, but wow, if they offered any more tools the place was going to explode.

That’s why I was excited to hear that Infinity Cutting Tools was getting ready to relocate to more spacious digs. This past Saturday, I met David for lunch up at his new facility. It’s a 10,000 square foot space in an industrial area of Oldsmar, Florida – about 20 minutes away from my house. The building has an interesting history with his family – it turns out that his dad custom built the place  in the mid-1990s. Back then, David’s dad owned Jesada tools, and this was part of a larger manufacturing/warehouse facility. “Oh, I can remember working in this building 15 years ago,” said David, “it’s got a lot of family history.”

The building is still empty, but the walls – inside and out – are sporting a new paint job, and he’s outfitting the new offices with furniture in preparation for the big move. The huge warehouse area (nearly 8,000 square feet of uninterrupted space) has freshly sealed floors and is ready for shelves to be installed. The additional space is going to provide him the ability to double his product offerings right off the bat, with plans to expand his inventory quickly after that. “Even with the increase in product offerings, we still have tons of space available for expansion.”  Packing and shipping areas will be far more spacious, allowing his employees the opportunity to spread out while working. David also envisions a friendly area where people can come in right off the street and have their orders fulfilled right there on the spot. Given the large number of woodworkers in the Tampa Bay area, this will be a convenient service.

One thing in the warehouse that surprised me was a walled-off area – about 20 feet wide by maybe 35 feet long. It was recently constructed, and had a ton of power outlets. This is where David plans on setting up a woodworking shop. “We’re planning on using it for product testing for sure,” said David, “but, our vision is to make it a place where woodworkers can come and take classes and really get the hands-on experience.”  When I asked him why, David was very candid. His is a world of steel, carbide and engineering drawings. “The raw materials come on one door and roll out the other side as a complete bit or blade. Once that happens, the process isn’t over – it’s just beginning.” Woodworkers will use the completed product to build their projects, and making that connection between the bit or blade and the wood helps bring the design process full circle. While the plans are still being developed, there’s a chance that you might be seeing yours truly teaching up there in the not too distant future.

The big move is planned for sometime later this month. As the date gets closer, Infinity is planning on offering a moving sale with some pretty sweet deals. “I mean, it’s easier for us to ship our stock out to customers than schlep it across town.”

David has asked me to keep y’all updated as the new facility take shape, and he’s asked me for some input on the new shop. I’ll have to tell him where to put the banana dispenser, just in case a stray shop monkey should swing by.

The countdown reaches FOUR to go to 1,000!

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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It’s no secret – woodworkers love woodworking.

However, everyone has a breaking point – some point at which they could be convinced to give up something – even something as beloved as the craft of woodworking.

Imagine if you will, a multi-gazillionaire were to come to your town to make you an offer to give up the craft.  Cold turkey. A truck and a group of workmen would be dispatched to clear your shop of all of your tools and prized timbers, and, once completed, you would get a  briefcase full of cash to use as you wish.

With one caveat. A big one.

The terms of this agreement  would be severe –  absolutely no woodworking at all.  If you were to even read a woodworking magazine, participate in an online woodworking forum, even touch a piece of wood that you intended to cut, shape or drill – you would have to surrender the money and everything you bought with it.

Would you do it, and for how much?

 

And, just like that, it’s post 995!

Link of the week

Link of the week

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Wikipedia’s entry on crates

Wood has been an important building component for humankind for millennia. It has been burned to warm and cook, split into boards to build shelters and sculpted into shapes to express an artistic flair. But, little thought is given to wood as a packing and shipping material.

This page from Wikipedia covers – very briefly – the history of wooden packing crates. From carrying ammunition for wars to be waged to the medical supplies that have cured diseases, wooden packing crates have been there, done that. In fact, during the heyday of wooden packing crates, many hobby woodworkers got their start using delivered crates as their material of choice.

Today, most shipping crates are made of cardboard or plastic, but there is a brisk business in classic wooden crates on eBay and other auction sites.  They are definitely a piece of history.

And, there’s post No. 994.

Experiences

Which Router?

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One of the things I have noticed while writing the blog is that readers sometimes turn to me for advice.  Now, if it’s how NOT to cut dovetails (based on my personal experience, mind you), I’m your guy.  If it’s about how not to treat your band saw, guilty as charged.  Heck, I can even advise you to steer a wide berth around tiling!

But, it’s cool when someone new to woodworking seeks advice on the first tool of a certain type they should buy. Oh, I’ve made mistakes when buying tools, and have had to later correct the situation through the expeditious use of additional funds…  So, if I can help folks get off onto the right foot, hey, I’ve done my good deed for the day.

I recently got an e-mail from Randy (the name has been changed to protect the pseudo-innocent) who asked me:

I’m about to buy my first router and have no clue which to buy. My primary reason for the purchase is to do template cuts using 1.5″ to 2″ flush bits (although I am sure once I get the machine I’ll find many more uses for it).

I was wondering if you had any advise for me which machine to buy.

Oh, can you ever find uses for a router!  It’s one of those tools you wonder if you need when you first start out, but wonder how you got along without one after you get it.   Now, my first router was given to me by my mom, and it served me very well. It just had its limitations – a 1/4″ collet and a fixed base. Now, it got me through a lot of years of routing, but, when I had the chance to upgrade, it made too much sense to not go for it. Based on my experience, I replied to Randy thusly:

Welcome to the wonderful world of routing!

You will find as many suggestions are there are woodworkers. And, that’s cool, because everyone works differently.

For my money, you definitely want to go with a combo kit. Something that gives you the ability to use the router as a plunge router or a fixed-base model. This way, you slip the motor unit from base to base, and can do just about anything with it. Heck, if you found one, a three-base router would be optimal.. you could dedicate one base (probably the two-handed fixed base) to a router table, then keep the second fixed base (a D-handle model) and a plunge base for all of your hand-held work.  That would give you most flexibility, until you can get your hands on a larger, dedicated router table model (probably the second one you will buy.)

I have the DeWalt 618 3 base model:  http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW618B3-Horsepower-Plunge-Fixed/dp/B0000CCXU3

I like it a lot. DeWalt is made to use all of the Porter Cable accessories, so everything you could want to use with it (edge guides, guide bushings, etc) will work. It has the guts to use big bits, and is pretty nimble.

If I had to do it all over again, I might go with the Ridgid router kit: http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Heavy-Duty-EVS-2-14-Peak-HP-Router-Combo/EN/index.htm

Sure, it only comes with two bases, but this one has an LED light mounted into the base, which really throws a lot of light onto what you are working on. That will make it much easier to see what you are doing, and the kit comes with a lifetime warranty – so, if seven years from now it acts up, they will fix it for you, or give you a new one.

Whatever you do, get one that has a 1/2″ collet. The DeWalt I have comes with both a 1/2″ and a 1/4″ collet. Sure, you can save some dough by going with a 1/4″ collet, but I can guarantee you that you will outgrow that router quickly. All of the cool bits come in 1/2″ shanks, and they aren’t that much more expensive. Plus, with a 1/4″ collet as well, you should be able to tackle just about anything.

I would also strongly recommend you buy a book about router basics and read it from cover to cover. There are tons of them out there, but they all offer some really good advice on how to get the most out of the tool. Look for books that feature a lot of jigs you can build… you will be surprised how much a good router can do for you.

As always, eye and ear protection are a must. The router is VERY loud, and you will appreciate a good set of ear protection. And, a dust mask is also a very good idea… there so far isn’t a perfect dust collection setup for routers – especially when used hand-held.

Remember, buy a good model, learn how to use it and get practice. Soon, you’ll be using it on just about every project. Seriously.  Heck, I use mine for mortises, tenons, dovetails, box joints, edge jointing, smoothing, profiles… it can do a lot!

Let me know how things go for you!

Will Randy take my advice?  I’m not sure, but he did seem intrigued by the idea of having the multiple bases. I asked him to stay in touch and let me know how things worked out for him.

That, my friends, is post number 993!

Spotlight

Important People: Jim Heavey

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There have been a bunch of folks who have had a major influence on Tom’s Workbench over the past five years. I wanted to take the time to recognize a few of the folks with which the blog would have never happened.

Today, I send a shout-out to Jim Heavey, Contributing Craftsman at Wood Magazine. 

If there was an all-around nice guy award for woodworkers, I would nominate Jim. I first had the opportunity to meet him at the Woodworking Show here in Tampa a few years back. He was demonstrating some very classy-looking and labor-saving ways of embellishing projects – real rocket science stuff for me. I must have annoyed the crap out of everyone at the booth that day, asking about a thousand questions about the process, but Jim took the time to answer each of them clearly and with a great sense of humor.

After his presentation, we had a chance to catch up, and I offered to do a woodworking spotlight on him. During the e-mails back and forth, I made the causal offer for him to come over the house the next year for some home cooking on the road. He accepted, and the following year, he had his first taste of my jambalaya. I think he’s hooked!

Jim still takes the time to answer all of my inane questions. When I was looking to design a push stick to hold pieces vertically against my router table, Jim was full of intelligent, useful suggestions that made the design safer and easier to use.

Even today, we still ask about each other and our families, and I look forward to his return every spring to the Florida State Fairgrounds to catch up with my good friend.

BTW – today is post number 992