Cabinet doors. Chest sides. Drawer fronts.

Look around at the furniture you come in contact with every day, and you’ll see them there.  Some have transitions in their profiles that add shadow lines, yet others are soft and rounded, easy on the eyes. Raised panels just staring at you, adding visual dimension to plain, everyday items.

If you have never cut raised panels for a project, you might be intimidated to try, or believe that they require advanced tooling that would break your woodworking budget.  Not so.  In fact, there are several ways the average home woodworker can tackle these panels, making their projects that much sweeter.

The first method is a throwback to the days before power tools were common… or even invented.  Hand planes can raise a panel for you in a jiffy.  Back in April 2008, I wrote an article about planing a bevel on a workpiece.  Using just a jack plane and a marking gauge, I got very good results with a minimum of fuss and effort.

You could take the route my friend Craig Andrews went.  He had a custom-made panel raising plane made for his shop.  It’s a gorgeous piece of tooling, and it produces a very crisp bevel with some embellishment. Unfortunately, this kind of tool requires a considerable investment up front, but if you can swing it, the results are spectacular.

If hand work sounds  like too much work, there are other options.  How about your table saw? It may not seem like it would be a good choice at first, but the table saw can cut very crisp panels by simply beveling the blade and using a smart jig or two.  Tom Hintz of New Woodworker.com offers his take on this process here.

The late Danny Proulx also offers plans on how to cut a coved raised panel profile on the table saw. His method does use an unprotected saw blade and is best executed with the kind of push blocks used at a jointer to provide control and protection.

If you decide to go the router route, there are several options there as well. Eric Reed, the product manager for Eagle America, gave me a quick rundown on the different kind of router bits available with their strengths and weaknesses.

Vertical panel raising bits are generally the least expensive option. They require less steel and therefore weight less. This means they can run in less powerful routers that are at least over 2 HP. This does require more than one pass – usually three. The downside is that they are more difficult to set up in a vertical position because there is less surface material riding on the table to support the panel as you are feeding it through. However, they work great with a flat bed horizontal router table where the router is perpendicular to the router table top and the face of the door panel is supported by the table.

Horizontal bits are generally a little more expensive than vertical bits. They require more steel and therefore weigh more. This requires a more powerful router, at least 3 HP. They still require at least 3 passes to achieve your full depth of cut. The upside to this style of bit is that it is ready to work in just about any router table with no modification or special equipment. The panel lays face-down on the table and is fully supported during the cut. Another bit of advice is to check your router’s speed control. Larger diameter bits do require a slower speed of rotation, so adjust your router accordingly.

If properly setup, both bit styles will produce high quality cuts. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and what you are comfortable working with.

Regardless of the method you use to cut your raised panels, you may want to consider cutting a rabbet on the back side of the panel.  This relief cut will help prevent the pane’s face extending above the rails and stiles.  If you don’t mind the panel being raised out like that, then it’s OK to go.  But, a shallow rabbet on the back of the panel – say 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch – can keep your panels from riding proud.

If all of this panel raising sounds complicated, it’s really not.  However, another option available to you would be to cut a groove in the stiles and rails of your door and use a plywood panel in the door.  Or, you could use some MDF which can be painted or veneered…

You know, there are lots of ways to get this accomplished. Think of the possibilities you can try in your shop!

I love to report exciting news.

This one is a doozy.

If you are a reader of Wood Magazine, be sure to check out page 18 of the October 2009 edition.  There, you will notice what is the first of hopefully many articles I have written for the magazine.

It all started when Dave Campbell called me to float the idea of adding a new voice to the magazine. The editors had evaluated several different blog sites to see who had the ‘right stuff.’  Alas, they got me in the deal….

After some discussion, the Shop Monkey title was selected because it should attract the readers’ attention. And, gazing back from the pages is the image of my good friend Iggy the Trained Shop Monkey.

I have also been maintaining a blog over at the Wood Magazine site where I’ve reprieved some of my old Tom’s Workbench posts.  I will also be posting a weekly “Gimme Five with the Shop Monkey” column where I’ll be throwing  out a top five woodworking list.  This should prove to be fun.

The current schedule for the Shop Monkey right now is that the columns will appear in every other edition (the next one is scheduled to appear in the December 2009 edition).  I feel fortunate to be a part of Wood’s 25th anniversary edition – a piece of woodworking history.

Based on reader feedback, there is a good chance that the column could be picked up to run in all seven editions of the magazine.

Now, let’s all go bananas about woodworking!

It was about a month ago that I had posted a link of the week to a poll that the folks over at Tool Crib had posted a few years ago seeking to plumb the depths of the woodworking community – who were the three greatest influences in your getting started in woodworking?

After linking to the Tool Crib results, I was approached by the blog’s moderator to let me know that it had been a few years since the poll was conducted, and that it might be interesting to see if there had been any changes.  The follow on article launched the project, and, I am pleased to report that the results are in! I have compiled the list of those people or entities who received more than one vote each.

Without any further ado…

Norm Abram – 65 votes  The New Yankee himself.  Woodworking on TV since 1979 (on This Old House), the plaid-clad bespectacled one got the most votes of all. Many who voted cited Norm’s outstanding ability to communicate complex woodworking concepts and his  consistency.  In fact, Norm has inspired one full generation of woodworkers to get off their butts and get started in the craft.  My hat’s off to you, Norm!

Dad – 50 votes For many woodworkers, their first male role model was the reason why they got into the craft. Whether it was dad teaching his child the family trade or helping to carve out a winning Pinewood Derby car for the Scouts, dad consistently found his way to the top of the list.

Shop Teacher – 31 votes  While my dad did tinker with woodworking in the house, my first true hands-on experience with woodworking came as it did for many others – in a shop class.  After years of readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmatic, it was a pleasant surprise to be allowed to get my hands on the tools and do some woodworking.  Many thanks to the shop teachers who made it all happen.

Grandfather – 24  votes Whether from necessity (the have-to spirit of the Great Depression) or because of vocation, many woodworkers look back fondly at their grandfathers as a source of their love for the craft.

Roy Underhill – 19  votes A woodworker who has been doing the TV woodworking thing for about as long as Norm, Roy’s passion for hand tools and methods used before power tools became the norm showed the way for the current hand tool revival.

David Marks – 18  votes The calm, laid back delivery and the gorgeous curves are the hallmarks of David’s work.  His show Wood Works opened many eyes in the woodworking community and showed just how much fun it can be to play with design and materials.

The Internet and online communities – 14 votes  Woodworkers are intensely loyal to their online communities, and several minced no words when it came to touting the inspiration and assistance they find online.  This is what the early pioneers of the Internet hoped would happen, and it has manifested itself beautifully.

Marc Spagnuolo – 12 votes  The Wood Whisperer has stormed onto this list like no one else has.  He’s taken his woodworking talent, gift for communication and technical savvy and has helped turned the Internet into a richer source of information for woodworkers around the world.

Friend/Neighbor – 9  votes “Hey, can I borrow your router table?” Whether they were the first people to guide you into woodworking or sold you your tools, friends and neighbors helped to pave the way for many who chose to respond.

Writers in books and magazines – 9 votes  Those magazines arrive edition after edition.  A trip to the library will show dozens of books to choose from. These authors who take an idea or project from their imaginations and put them into black and white have done their share of inspiration over the years.

Wife – 8 votes  “I promise to be true to you, in good times and in bad, when the glue ups go smoothly or when they seem to self-destruct…” At first, this came as a surprise.  But, then I realized that without the support, encouragement – and understanding – of my wife, my woodworking wouldn’t be where it is today.  Kudos to the better half!

Uncle/Aunt – 6 votes  Is there no end to the family connection?!?  Your parents’ siblings weren’t there just to get you riled up and leave your parents with the results – the proved to be valuable instructors and inspiration into the craft.

Sam Maloof – 6  votes  The late, great one.  Sam’s woodworking career spanned decades and helped to create a uniquely American style.  His furniture was beyond reproach, and his signature rocking chars will be sought-after cultural relics for generations to come.

Chris Schwarz – 5  votes  The  Editor of Popular Woodworking magazine, Chris is on his way to becoming a revered master of the craft.  His seminal work on Workbenches is a must read, and his leadership at the magazine continues to inspire hundreds of thousands of woodworkers each month.

Scott Phillips – 5  votes The host of the American Woodshop, Scott has offered his guidance for 15 seasons.  From furniture projects to the building of a custom wood shop, Scott has taken us on a very interesting ride and taught quite a bit along the way.

Charles Neil – 4  votes  Virginia-based woodworker Charles Neil has graciously invited woodworkers into his shop since launching his site in 1997.  An instructor, prolific blogger and a talented woodworker, Charles has led the way in demonstrating fine furniture building.

Jesus of Nazareth – 3  votes  The world’s most famous carpenter, several participants offered prayers of thanksgiving for their God-given talents and creativity. Looking at several of their projects, it’s easy to see their work is truly inspired.

Tage Frid – 3 votes  The Great Dane, Tage was a tireless instructor, bringing woodworking education to the homeowner through his books  and as an editor of Fine Woodworking magazine.

David Elsworth – 3 votes   Primarily a wood turner, Ellsworth’s work is exquisite in detail and form.  Bowls, vases, platters and other sculptural work come off David’s lathe in an impressive variety of sizes and materials.

James Krenov – 3 votes  A master in his own right, Krenov’s work has inspired countless woodworkers to achieve harmonious design and honest joinery.  His books, including the Impractical Cabinetmaker, describe his design and construction process in great detail – a treasure trove of ideas for aspiring woodworkers.

Hall Brothers – 2  votes The team which worked with Charles and Henry Greene produced much of their millwork and many of their furniture pieces.  You can see some pristine examples of their projects at the Gamble House in Pasadena, California.

Necessity – 2 votes   Hey, sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do….

What struck me were how many one-vote getters there were out there.  Notables such as Thomas Moser, Glen Huey, George Nakashima, Danny Proulx, David Charlesworth, Doug Stowe and so many others all showed in the results, but were mentioned by only one woodworker.  While this may sound shocking, it’s not surprising.  There are many talented woodworkers out there who reach in and inspire us all individually.  It’s actually a huge benefit to all of us to have a diverse group of inspiration sources to pull from.  That’s what makes woodworking so unique, exciting and interesting.

Now, there was one vote that wasn’t cast or counted in this poll… mine.  If I had to identify the three big influences in my woodworking, they would be:

Dad. I can still remember the period from 1982 to 1984 when we finished the basement in our home.  My dad taught me a lot about tools and how to get accurately fitting joints.  Thanks, Dad, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Norm Abram. Even when I would sit Saturdays in my one-bedroom apartment on the beach, I would watch the New Yankee Workshop and imagine myself in the shop beside Norm, building those pieces.  I always wanted to visit the shop.  One day… perhaps…

Gail O’Rourke. You may not of heard about her, but if Gail had not called to invite me to a charity build-a-thon at a woodworking school back in 2005, there’s a good chance I would still be an anonymous woodworker toiling away in my garage.  From that initial contact, the doors began to open.  Since then, Gail has been a mentor, encouraging me to take step after step to get more involved with the woodworking field.  Thanks, Gail.

Before I start this article, I want to say that every woodworker I have ever met in real life or online could not be any more eager to help one of their own.  Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to help with a problem that needed to be addressed?

For example, take a look at this…

What is this jumble of boards all about?  Well, I’m ashamed to admit it, but that is my lumber stash.  All of those choice boards of oak, ash, maple, walnut and other species.  Some are big rough planks just waiting to be jointed and planed while others are smaller, more perfected pieces showing off their color, grain and figure for all to see.

There are boards with outstanding figure I just HAD to buy when I saw them at my hardwood supplier.  There are boards I got for free when a friend – out of the clear blue – sent me a coffin-sized box of stuff when he was clearing out an area of his professional shop.  There are even pieces in there I got as birthday gifts.

I have some nice pieces of cabinet grade ply in there from old projects.  Yup, there’s a big chunk of a piece of cherry veneer ply in there that cost me more than $120 per sheet here in Florida.

All of it is a mess.

Oh, this was a huge improvement over my old system…

Yup, back in those days, all I did was build a stack behind my workbench.  It was all stacked back there, nearly impossible to find.  And, when the old washing machine started to leak… well, the boards all got a nice soaking.

I am indeed a candidate for building some type of lumber rentention system.  I will be spending some time over the next few weeks looking at lumber storage ideas to see how I can best transform my mess of a lumber pile into a clean, convenient, organized system to get at the boards.  Some of my design criteria include:

• I really prefer vertical storage to horizontal.  I don’t have a great deal of area around the shop to dedicate to horizontal racks… Yes, I have an 8′ ceiling, but most of my stock is in the sub 8′ range anyway…
• I have to have a way to store small stuff as well as big pieces.  Many prized little chunks and splinters are in that stack… I’d like to be able to get easy access to those babies.
• The wall where the stack is now is masonry, and the space I have dedicated to lumber storage is about 8 feet.
• I need it to be cheap.  Frugal. Cost-conscious. Penny-pinching.  Sure, I could just dial up a few companies and order their systems off the shelf, but what fun would that be?

In the meantime, I will finally HAVE to get off my butt and get out to the lumber pile to organize it before  it collapses, crushing small towns and leaving destruction in its wake.

Oh, and to all of my generous woodworking friends who would GLADLY take that wood and store it in their shops… No way, José… I could send it to you, but I’d never get it back!

A few weeks ago, I was marveling at the design of some benches built by Japanese woodworking master George Nakashima.  He had a way of blending crisp joinery with the natural raw character of some choice timbers.

Woweee… wouldn’t it be great if I could find some cool looking lumber like that.  Some figure.  Some color.  Two awesome live edges.

I started poking around my lumber suppliers here in Florida, but I was out of luck.  Most of the lumber that comes in here is already at least rough cut on four sides, leaving just a stray bit of wane on the outside of the board.  The timbers were very nice, but they didn’t do it for me.

That’s when I asked Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products to take a peek around his inventory.  At first, things didn’t look so promising, but he assured me that there was a new batch of wood in the kiln that might have some likely candidates.

Would this count as a likely candidate?

This is a piece of gorgeously figured bird’s eye maple.  It is about 36″ long by 14″ wide by 2″ thick.  The best part of this board is that it has a live edge on both sides… which means this bench will be viewable from both sides… pretty striking.  There is a dark mineral streak running about half the way across the board, giving an interesting contrast across the face of the board.

According to Eric, finding a piece of wood like this is pretty rare for his operation.  “Most of our 8/4 Birdseye gets edged to sell as grade lumber, so finding a live edge board like that is something special! ”

As many of you have discovered, while bird’s eye maple is beautiful to behold, it’s a pain in the rear to work.  Even my sharpest smoothing plane gave me very bad tear out.  So, I have resorted to my belt sander with a coarse grit belt to get the faces of the board ready to work, and I’ll go to finer grits and ultimately a scraper to get the surface ready for use.

I took some time over this past weekend to start working on a simple mahogany base for this bench.  That should provide an interesting contrast for the top.

More to come…

It’s been a tough couple of weeks if you are a fan of celebrities.  The King of Pop Michael Jackson passed. ’70’s sex symbol Farrah Fawcett passed. Kung Fu and Kill Bill actor David Carradine passed.   TV pitch man Billy Mays passed.

And, the one that brought back the most memories for me was the passing of the long time Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon.  When the news broke, the memories of he and Johnny Carson came flooding back. Johnny and Ed ruled TV’s late night airwaves for decades, bringing laughs to insomniacs around the world.

One of the best parts of the show was Ed’s call, “Heeere’s Johnny!”   Doc Severinsen and the band would belt out the Tonight Show’s signature theme song, and Johnny would emerge from behind the curtains to peals of applause.

That’s when Johnny really got into it, starting with his monologue.  My favorite jokes were the ones where the audience got involved.  For instance, during the summers, Johnny liked to talk about the heat in Los Angeles.  His joke would start like this:

Johnny: It was so hot today…

Audience: HOW HOT WAS IT?

Johnny would typically pause for a second with a mischievous smile on his face while Ed and the audience chuckled, then deliver the punchline.  Some of the most famous were:

• It was so hot, I saw a robin using potholders to pick up a worm.
• It was so hot, I saw a dog chasing a cat… And they were walking.
• Burger King said, “If you want it your way, cook it yourself.”
• Chickens were lining up outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken to get plucked.

Classic stuff…

Now that we are in summer, one of Johnny’s lines could easily be, “I saw a woodworker in Florida melt.”  It’s hot in my shop.  I mean really hot.

My shop is in an attached two car garage.  There is no insulation above in the attic, and the garage door isn’t insulated, either.  Which means that the sun beats down, and the temperatures spike in the latter part of the day.

How hot does it get in the shop?  Well, a thermometer out there this past weekend registered a cool 94 degrees F.  It wasn’t too long into my work session that I was drenched in sweat from my the top of my head down into my squishy shoes.  That’s no way to treat a woodworker!

My first – and only –  line of defense for the first few years of woodworking was a box fan I had picked up at a mega merchandising store.  I put the fan in the back of the shop blowing toward me and the bench.  It did move the air around and provided a little bit of relief.  There were only two problems with this plan.  First, the box fan stirred up tremendous amounts of sawdust and planer shavings.  Secondly – and most important – it really didn’t do much to cool me off.  It was blowing the hot, humid air around.  Since the very humid air wouldn’t allow the sweat to evaporate, I just ended up  gasping for breath.

In those years, I absolutely had a woodworking off season. I would race to finish my projects by the middle of May, and then I would start again in late September when the humidity and the searing heat would start to back off and the fan became more effective.

One year, my wife told me to get in to the car and took me on a surprise trip.  “Where are we going?” I kept asking.  She drove silently with a big grin on her face. When we pulled into the Home Depot parking lot, I had an idea of what was going on.  We headed straight for the area in the store where the air conditioners were on display.

That’s where we found this little portable unit.  The boys used to call it R2D2, after the droid of Star Wars fame.  It’s a clever system that didn’t require me to make any modifications to the shop.  It plugs in to a 110 volt outlet and has a vent which exhausts the hot air through the window on my side garage door.  There is no condensation drain on the unit – apparently, the condensation is evaporated and sent out through the same exhaust port.

This unit has served me well for the past four years.  I can turn it on before a shop session to get a head start on cooling the room for me.

Now, while it does cut the edge off the ferocious heat, it’s only an 8,000 btu unit.  It does struggle during the heat of the day to keep up with the tremendous heat gain.  However, if  I turn the AC toward me, and I also use the box fan, I can get it to cool me more efficiently.

Is this the ultimate solution to my climate control problem?  No way. That 94 degree F reading was just as I turned the AC unit on, and all it managed to drop the temperature to was 88 degrees F.  I would definitely love to get my hands on a larger AC unit, even if I had to run a 220 volt circuit to serve its needs.    I’m sure I could also insulate the garage door to help hold some of the cool air inside the garage.  That will be work for another day.

Right now, I just have to remember to work more slowly, take more breaks and drink plenty of water and – if it’s a long shop session – Gatorade.

Ultimately, I could I could try working after the sun is down, which would limit the heat gain in my shop.

But that’s when I’m busy watching late-night TV…