The Woodworking Show in Tampa, Florida
OK, this weekend, you know where I’m going to be. The Woodworking Show is coming to the Florida State Fairgrounds here in Tampa, and I’m totally jacked.
I’m looking forward to meeting other woodworkers, learning all I can… and, of course, handling all of the pretty tools. Bet there or be out of square!
Why wait until the afterlife to have your own harp? Why not build your own in the here and now?
This guide, written by Sligo Harp’s Rick Kemper, takes woodworkers through all of the steps to build one of these gorgeous instruments. Start off with a discussion about design, wood selection and the function of each of the parts of a harp. From there, plans for the sound box to the neck and pillar, each of the steps are laid out in careful, illustrated detail.
While this is an ambitious undertaking, there’s nothing wrong with just sitting in awe looking at the intricacy of the plans. Some incredible woodworking here.
Oh, and one word of advice, if you are going to travel with your newly built instrument, be sure to exercise extreme caution should you visit the Golden Gate Bridge. After all, you don’t want to leave your harp in San Francisco.
Look at this face…
This is a good Italian boy. He loves is mom. Eats lots of spaghetti. Probably is a secret Pavarotti fan.
We all know him as Marc Spagnuolo, the Wood Whisperer. Without his encouragement, many blogs – this one included – would have never gotten off the ground. Many woodworkers wouldn’t have taken the plunge. And, many strombolis wouldn’t have been eaten.. but that’s another story.
If you have visited his site this week – or perhaps tried to visit his site this week – you may have not been able to get through. No, he did remember to pay his server bill. Instead, he was the victim of a Denial of Service attack. Basically, some troublemaker out there figured out a way to get computers from around the world to make millions of demands on the server his site is being hosted on. Because the flood came in, we weren’t able to get there. Total gridlock. Total bummer.
Even worse, his service provider is offering very little in the way of help to get Marc out of trouble. He’s managed to get things sort of back and running with some bubble gum, spit and bailing wire, but he’s going to eventually have to find a new home – one that will offer more assistance when it comes to keeping the bad guys at bay.
Right now, he’s also on the hook for the charges that have been incurred since this little attack has started. Marc has asked for our help, so if you have been on the fence for joining the Wood Whisperer’s guild, or you need a snazzy new t-shirt, why not stop by and give Marc a hollar. Remember, the majority of the stuff he has done is free of charge for anyone to read. I’m sure he’d appreciate your support!
After all of the help the folks at Bessey gave me on Wednesday’s post, it’s only fitting I throw a little love Bessey’s way.
Nice folks, and they make some great clamps for both wood and metal working. They also make a line of sheet metal snips for those of you who may want to do some of that kind of work.
Of course, you can never have enough clamps, right?
In addition to Marc Spagnuolo, there’s one other person I have to thank for helping me take that first step into woodworking blogging. Her name is Gail O’Rourke. She’s a talented woodworker from Cape Cod who invited me up to a charity build-a-thon at a woodworking school in Indiana back in the fall of 2005. From that one contact, I was inspired to take the next steps into the wonderful world of online woodworking.
Gail has recently had her website redone, and it’s still being tweaked. But, I thought I would list it here today to let you know she’s back online. Check out her site, which links to an article about her Cabinetmaker Magazine, he brand-new blog and a video pilot of a show she had shot. It’s a great tour of what you can find in a lumber yard.. a great primer for the new woodworker.
Thanks, Gail, for all you have done for me!
His show is no longer in production. But, if you ask woodworkers who entered craft from the late 1980s through the late 2000s, you will find a surprising number of them got into woodworking because of Norm Abram and the New Yankee Workshop.
While the show started its life before the Internet, the folks running the program have set up a great page where viewers can buy plans and DVDs, get the gear and watch featured videos each week. If you haven’t visited in a while, you might want to stop back and see how this woodworker got his start in the craft.
And, yes, it’s Friday of Get Woodworking week, and we’ve got more posts from some awesome blogs. Read. Learn. Enjoy!
Wood turners are an interesting bunch. They can crank out projects from rough blocks to finished masterpiece in short order – often times in one shop session.
Want to learn some of their secrets? Around the Woods is a site that offers interesting links to wood turning tips, tricks and projects for turners from the novice to the expert. Find out about building turning tools, what to look for when buying lathe accessories and even take a look back at some archived turning classes – from the early 1900s! There are also links to other sites that deal with wood turning.
If you are interested in turning, why not give this site a spin?