Total frustration

May 20, 2015 Tom 2 Comments

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you may have noticed that I started posting links to plans every Sunday morning. I figured, what the heck? Each week, I post a link to someone’s project plans that may inspire you to try your hand at a new piece, maybe look at a solution to a problem in your home or your shop or just entertain you.

Yes, I amuse you. Like a clown. In Goodfellas. You got a problem with that? (Oh, yeah, the language is definitely NSFW…)

But, I have got to tell you that recently in the online land of woodworking, I have seen some thing that just make me not such a fun guy. In fact, they make me downright frustrated.

For instance, this past week, I had a cool idea to perhaps explore the building of a desk design. One style that really caught my attention is known as a partners’ desk, where basically two people can sit and work at the desk at the same time. Most of the desks used by the Presidents of the United States of America are of this model, and it would be a really sweet design for a couple who works together at a home office.

Well, I started searching for partners’ desk plans, and I was initially excited to see there were thousands of links. Awesome! I soon discovered, however, that not everything that looks promising actually is.

Link after link I clicked, I was shown a brief flash of a nice looking website, but before I could scroll down the page to see what desk plans were being offered, the screen flipped, and my old nemesis – Ted’s 16,000 woodworking plans – would appear. Crap. (Click here to see what I really think about this nonsense) This was always followed by an auto-play video that would start to tell me how awesome it is to use the plans (stolen) assembled from across the internet to help my woodworking.

Not wanting to sit through this schlock, I would click on the back arrow of my browser, and blammo, I would get hit with a dialogue box that told me to hold on, my man Ted was serious about helping me become a better woodworker.

Grrrr… I’d rather poke my eyes out with a card scraper than read that crap, but that’s me.

Another sneaky little trick is a tad more subtle, but just as offensive. It’s known as a link farm, and while the site may look legitimate on the surface, it really only serves to make the owner as much money as possible while doing the least amount of work. These sites look like helpful blogs or tool review sites, but when you do a little digging, it gets easy to see what’s going on.

First, if the page is something like 3/4 advertising to tools for sale on some online service – namely Amazon – you can bet that the site’s owner has set up an affiliate program. Sure, for the average woodworking blogger, it’s a great way to make a little cash to buy some nice tools of his or her own. However, if the site’s manager doesn’t disclose – up front – that they are working through an affiliate program, they are in violation of these agreements.

How can you tell if you are about to buy an affiliate product? When you mouse over the item on their site, you can see the site’s URL attached to the end of the link. This tells the servers over at someplace like Amazon that the link is coming from that page.

Another red flag is when you can copy part of the text, paste it into a search engine with quotation marks around it, and find the exact same text at some other well known online resource – Wikipedia, a woodworking magazine, etc. That, kids, is known as plagiarism, and you can get booted out of school or kicked out of your job for doing that in certain professions.

Again, a legitimate blogger or woodworker will disclose who they work with, let you know they are benefitting from the arrangement and actually does work to offer you something unique to them. Everyone else? Well, they are just trying to pull a fast one on you.

Another technique that makes me want to rage like the Incredible Hulk is known as freebooting, and you’d be amazed at what some people put up on their websites. Videos from people such as, I dunno, Norm Abram, Tommy MacDonald, Steve Ramsey and other luminaries of the woodworking world are posted to these sites, and – in effect – they are stealing views from the creator. Now, I have done a few videos, and I can tell you that the short, crappy ones I have produced pale in comparison to the works of a David Marks, so I can only imagine how much time, effort, energy, practice and sweat goes into making those. Give the credit to the folks who earned it.

Why does this matter? Easy. As a woodworking blogger, I know how much work goes into producing original content. It takes time away from me being with my wife and sons. It takes time away from other hobbies and chores I have to do. It takes away form time in my shop. So, when I bust my posterior to put out content, I can appreciate how much effort went into it, and how much it stings to see someone copy it and post it to their site as if they did the work.

What can you do? Gosh, I guess there are a few things. You can visit sites you know. You can check with others in the online woodworking community to see who they trust. And, if it looks shady, there’s a good chance it just might be…

Shop Talk

Entropy

May 18, 2015 Tom 2 Comments

So, anyone up for a rousing discussion about Thermodynamics?

Hmmm, I figured not. After all, this is a woodworking blog, and the only times we really like to be concerned about temperature are if we leave wadded up oily rags in a corner, the comfort level of our shops or how toasty we can make the marshmallows we are roasting over a scrap-fed fire to make some S’Mores…

Instead, let’s take a look at another definition – A lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. And, it’s one of those constants in a shop that needs to be battled on an almost daily basis, otherwise it has the power to overwhelm you and make your next shop visit that much more challenging.

Take my shop for example. It’s a standard two-car garage in a Florida house. However, because it is a multi-purpose room, it’s difficult – if nigh on impossible – to prevent the regular creep of entropy into it. Now, many times a week, Rhonda, the boys and I all head to the laundry equipment out in the shop to keep our clothes nice and clean. Of course, once done with the equipment, it’s not easy to put everything back where it started…

The same thing goes for the cooler. Sure, it’s easy to go GET the cooler to stock full of cold beverages, but once its job is done, it could spend weeks here…

And, you know, we all use the bike, but after a long ride on some of the local trails, it’s just not easy to find someplace out of the way to put the bike…

Gotta empty out the back of the Jeep Compass and not sure where to put the reusable shopping bags? Hey, how about behind the table saw?

It’s not like I am going to whack on the rest of the family and not take swipes at myself. I mean, yeah, perhaps I should have removed the router bit I last used about three weeks ago – and maybe I should probably take the time to clean up the dust I made.

Oh, and yeah, it might be time to close the lid on my toolbox…

And, how could I have let this area get all cluttered up with a strip of plywood from the bed project I am holding onto ‘just in case’ – and the miter saw station could use a big time clean up.

So, I guess it’s time for me to restate my old rule and break it out of mothballs. From now on, I do solemnly pledge/affirm that every time I go into the shop, I will put five things away. It may not seem like a lot, but before you know it, I bet the shop will be back into fighting shape.

At least I hope!

Plans

The weekly plan

May 17, 2015 Tom Leave a comment

JRL Woodworking’s flat screen TV entertainment center plan

A lot has changed over the past decade when it comes to designing and building entertainment centers. The formerly deep and heavy tube style TV’s have given way to lightweight, flat screen TVs with bigger, higher resolution screens.

Since this has created a change in the way we approach our construction methods, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on a design that embraces the new reality. JRL Woodworking has a great plan for an inexpensive entertainment center that’s easy to build and looks great. An added bonus – it has tons of storage, something that makes keeping your entertaining space neater a whole lot easier.

Safety

Woodworker’s Safety Day 2015

May 15, 2015 Tom Leave a comment

In addition to celebrating my 1,500th post this week, I was also at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference teaching emergency responders how to work with the media. It was a great class, and I have got to tell you that I had a ton of fun.

OK, maybe a little too much fun, but who cares, right?

A big part of our classwork is helping our aspiring public information officers understand where they fit in during a disaster. And, according to FEMA, there is a very specific place where they do belong – front and center. That is a major rule laid out by the Incident Command System, which operates under they National Incident Management System.

Public information shares that top billing along with the Liaison officer, whose job it is to coordinate between agencies outside of the responding agencies, and the Safety officer, whose job it is to ensure that everyone gets home without injury if at all possible. Together, these three officers and the Incident Commander make up the Command staff.

Now that you are thoroughly bored, let me ask you why those three positions are so close to the Incident Commander? The reason? Well, it comes back to an old expression – out of sight, out of mind.

Without a PIO, the needs of the citizens will be forgotten. Without a Liaison officer, the incident can become siloed, and no one thinks to reach out to the other affected organizations. And, if safety is overlooked, people get hurt or die.

With today being Woodworker Safety Day, how much time do you spend thinking about safety in your shop, or is it an issue of out of sight, out of mind? Sure, the tools we buy all come with operators manuals, but how many of us just skip by the safety warnings inside them? How many of us remove the safety devices from our tools because they get in the way? How many times do we make that one last cut and forget to grab the eye or hearing protection?

It happens. And, for the vast majority of times, nothing ever happens.

But, just as with any accident, that split second of carelessness can jump up and bite us hard. That’s why we have to think like Incident Commanders and ensure that we put safety front and center.

For instance, I know that my old table saw’s splitter did create an area where kickback could occur on behind the blade, but my new saw’s riving knife is a much safer option. I always keep my push sticks and other sleds handy, because I can work with more confidence at the power tools.

I keep my eye protection close at hand. After having my share of accidents where I was able to walk away from them with minimal damage, I am very happy to take the time to ensure safety is job number one, two and three.

While it may not be the sexiest part of woodworking, safety gear keeps you in the shop in command of your tools. After all, isn’t that the best part?

Tom

1,500 posts?

May 11, 2015 Tom 2 Comments

What were you doing May 19, 2010? You remember, don’t you? BP had a major oil spill on its hands, Floyd Landis had just accused Lance Armstrong of blood doping on the Tours de France he won, and I was recovering from a stupid hedge trimmer accident.

And, on September 17, 2012? I bet you were souping up your iOS6 equipped iPhone 5, you were begging for the Presidential race to come to a quick end so we wouldn’t have to see any more campaign ads, and I was counting down to a big monumental post on this site.

Well, today, I break another important milestone in my blogging career – post number 1,500. Wow, I still can’t believe I have put so much energy and effort into doing this blog, and you haven’t called my internet provider and asked them – politely – to pull me off line!

I am so fortunate to know that you have allowed me to become part of your woodworking experience. And, I have to thank each of you that I have had an opportunity to meet – each of you really has demonstrated that the woodworking community is full of caring, heartfelt people who all share this passion we have with cutting big boards into littler ones, than putting them back together in different forms.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my supporters – MicroJig, Affinity Tools, Tormek, Infinity Tools and Bell Forest Products, as well as my ever loving and ever patient family. Rhonda, Dominic and Steven, you guys are the best!

This week, I am here at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference, so I am getting ready for the big safety message this year. And, I want each of you to mark your calendars for this coming Friday – which will be Woodworking Safety Day. It’s being hosted over that the Modern Woodworkers Association, so let us know about your safety tips!

There, a few more posts to write!

Projects

The weekly plan

May 10, 2015 Tom Leave a comment

Build a wooden table hockey game

With the Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing, I know that I wish I could be out there on the ice, skating fast, digging the puck out of the corner and shooting some high-speed slap shots at the goal.

Then, I realize that I can’t skate all that well.

Since that’s the case, I may have to play out my fantasies on a table hockey game. And, this set of plans from Minwax and American Woodworker gives me the chance to play for the cup just like the pros.

Game on!

Finishing

A friend finishes

May 6, 2015 Tom Leave a comment

Tonight, I was out in the shop getting the hope chest into its final stages of finish … and I hope to show you the finished project shortly. Since I was going to use my regular finish formula, I wanted to give the opportunity for someone who learned the process from this blog the opportunity to share his experience with it. His name is Steve Stutts, and we met at the St. Petersburg Woodcrafters Guild a few years back.

Take it away, Steve:

I don’t know all there is to wood finishing. No one knows it all but I have learned a couple of things that have given me some very nice results. Until I read an article on finishing, my technique was a hit-or-miss experience for me. I sprayed it out of a can or slapped it on with a brush and it turned out after it dried. Then I read an article by my first and favorite wood blogger. Tom Iovino and he writes “Tom’s Workbench.”

I was surveying his past articles and I found an article entitled Become your own mixologist where he gave us his formula for finishing that has been the basis of all my finishing techniques since that time. First, it makes sense to sand and seal any wood that is worth finishing. Whether you paint it with a pigment stain or leave the wood to a natural color, my theory is that all woods need to be sealed. Tom recommends mixing #2 dewaxed shellac with 50% denatured alcohol. First you want to sand the surface of the wood with progressively finer grits until you get the surface to at least 220. I have four palm sanders and I put a different grit of paper on each sander (I bought them all at the guild “used tool” sale for $10).

After sanding, I wipe on the shellac by hand. I wear rubber gloves – they keep my hands from getting messy. I leave it to dry for a few hours. The alcohol makes it dry fast. Then I sand it down to 220 grit and repeat the process. I apply 6-8 coats and it takes me a few days. The final few coats I sand further to 330/360. The wood is well sealed and will not blotch. Even cherry seals – and it is the worst for blotching.

Then I like to wipe on polyurethane that has been thinned with linseed oil 10% and paint thinner 20-25%. This is Tom’s formula for the perfect “mixologist.” The wipe on poly sits on top of the smooth shellac and is not much absorbed.

It just shines!!!

I let it dry for at least 24 hours since the linseed oil tends to sit on top of the finish. I wipe off the excess. Then once the surface is dry, I sand it again to 330/360 or 400 grit and wipe the poly mix on again. I do this for 5-6 coats again. So far, my results have been very nice. An even, lustrous finish that looks deep and rich the darker the wood. If you don’t want a high shine it works well with satin finish too. Sometimes I have to wait a day or two between coats of wipe-on poly. Particularly if its below 65 degrees. Once the finish is cured I like to wipe the surface down with a good furniture polish, oil or paste wax. It preserves that shine. Then once or twice a year I reapply the polish to preserve the work.

Like I said, I don’t know everything about wood finishing but I have confidence in this method.

Thanks, Steve. Glad you liked the process! It looks like you have had a lot of success with it. Hey, don’t be afraid to mess around with finishing. With some good techniques, you can have a blast with it!

Tom's Workbench

Total frustration

Entropy

The weekly plan

Woodworker’s Safety Day 2015

1,500 posts?

The weekly plan

A friend finishes

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