Projects

Stuff I’ve Built: The Valentine’s serving tray

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Yesterday was Valentine’s Day… Which meant that I had better come up with a gift or face the wrath of my sweet beloved…

Just kidding, Dear.

Actually, my long-suffering wife had once mentioned something about our living room.  There, we have our couches, a few side tables, the TV, a built in entertainment center and an ottoman. A nice big one that two people can sit on, or you can throw your feet up on after a hard day of work. The only problem? No coffee table. No place to put a drink down, especially when you are sitting at the end of the love seat farthest from the end table.  “Wouldn’t it be great if we had some kind of serving tray to put on there?”

Of course, she said this about three years ago… but, who’s counting?  With the hanging wall cabinet done, my shop was kinda quiet, so I put my mind to building a serving tray.  Which plans to use?

It turns out that the folks who published Tommy Mac’s Rough Cut Season One companion book had sent me a copy to evaluate. And, there was a plan in there for a serving tray.

Digging around in my wood pile, I found a 8/4 chunk of walnut. Rhonda had mentioned that she liked the way the wood looked during the wall cabinet build, so I figured that would be the piece to grab. With my band saw now able to forgive me after the years of abuse I had heaped upon it, I rigged it with my 5/8″ resaw blade and proceeded to resaw the piece into three separate pieces. Working with my new thickness planer, I was able to get the pieces looking sweet in very short order.

In fact, I think I fell in love with resawing… I may need to do a whole lot more of that!

Following the instructions in the book, I was able to glue up the bottom and cut the sides and ends out of the plans I cut from the board. The tip in there about building a ‘magic block’ to help set the compound miter cuts was killer, and I got everything right on the first try. I cut rabbets on the ends pieces to accept the sides, and my boys came out into the shop to help with glue up and assembly.

Unlike Tommy Mac’s version, I used brad nails, filling them with some dark wood putty. I had the boys sand the piece, and finish it with a coat of shellac.  After smoothing the finish with some 320 grit paper, I rubbed in three coats of Johnson’s paste wax to get a soft, touchable feel to it.

After Rhonda left for work, the boys and I staged the tray on the ottoman with some special chocolates and cards from each of us. And, it was my youngest son Steven who got to surprise Rhonda with the piece when they returned from school yesterday afternoon.  How sweet…

So, you wanna hear a review about the book?  Funny you should ask… The Modern Woodworkers Association – more specifically, myself, Dyami Plotke, Chris Adkins and  Michael Lingenfelter – got together to do a review of it.  Here’s the audio review for your listening pleasure…

Be on the lookout for more stuff from the Modern Woodworkers Association coming soon!

 

Spotlight

Species Spotlight: Leopardwood

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I have a friend who – many years ago – used to work for Busch Gardens here in Tampa. He was involved in the transportation of animals between zoos and the theme park, and that involved getting up-close and personal with some very large – and very dangerous – animals.

So, I asked him, what was the scariest animal he ever moved? A lion? A tiger? A bear? Oh my!

Nope. It wasn’t any of those. It was – surprisingly enough – the leopard. Unlike the other big, strong animals that made their presence known, the leopard was always stealthy… moving carefully in its enclosure while the staff would coax it into a vehicle for transportation. My friend told me several times that the leopard’s stealth was so good, he would often lose sight of the big cat while it moved through its habitat…

While the big cat that bears the name leopard can be sneaky and covert, that’s the last thing you could call the wood bearing the same name. Leopardwood grows in carefully managed forests in Brazil. The tree is a magnificent specimen, growing nearly 100 feet tall with trunks as large as 48 inches in diameter.

While it’s gorgeous to look at on the outside, once it is cut into, the real beauty starts to show through. The wood is a reddish-brown with a coarse, straight grain.

But, that’s not where the beauty ends. As with white oak, leopardwood has rays in the grain. Unlike white oak, these rays are numerous and closely packed, giving the wood a lacelike appearance similar to quartersawn sycamore. These rays are similar to figure in maple or other hardwoods, and can make working the wood a bit of a challenge. Using very sharp tools and skewed cuts gives the best results.

As with many tropical hardwoods, leopardwood sawdust can cause skin irritation or respiratory issues with some people, so dust collection, a mask and other precautions would be a good idea.

Leopardwood is readily available, so finding boards shouldn’t be an issue. Its figure is so prized, it also makes outstanding veneer and works well in that application. It also accepts finishes beautifully, so once your project is sanded, planed or scraped to a fine finish, have at it.

So, the next time you are looking to sneak a little exotic wood into your project, why not give leopardwood a shot?

 

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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When you go to a lumber store, there are some pretty looking boards there, begging to be turned into gorgeous furniture. Maple. Walnut. Cherry. And, many of these boards come with some pretty steep prices – six, seven, eight or even more dollars a board foot. Often times, though, there’s another pile somewhere in the back of softwood boards.

Domestic conifer. You know… pine.

Many times, woodworkers start out with white or yellow pine while building their first projects, but ‘graduate’ to working with hardwoods as their skills improve. But, there’s little doubt that there have been many pine furniture masterpieces built by skilled woodorkers.

Today, tell us what you think about pine as a wood for building furniture.

Experiences

Get Woodworking Week: Saturday

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Well, here we are. The last day of Get Woodworking Week, and I have got to tell you, I have been thoroughly impressed by the outpouring of support from the online woodworking community. The blog posts I have linked to have been funny, thought provoking and inspirational. As I have told several of the posters… if it wasn’t for these awesome posts and active participation, Get Woodworking Week wouldn’t be worth a bucket of warm spit.

As this week draws to a close, we are left with one nagging question: Where to now?

During Wednesday’s Woodchat, a few folks asked me how I was going to be able to tell if the week was a success. Number of hits? Some magic analytic that would show people who got off their butts and into the shop? The number of new blogs from beginning woodworkers?

My response to them was simple. Hopefully, Get Woodworking Week 2012 was enough to kindle a fire. To get folks revved up about their woodworking.  Now, the next step is up to each of you.  Take the enthusiasm we’ve built these past seven days, and help to spread it where you live.

  • Go volunteer to talk to kids in a classroom.
  • Maybe offer to talk to folks at a local library about woodworking (Libraries are always looking to put on programs to attract folks).
  • Why not offer to help a scout troop with some woodworking projects (the Pinewood Derby season is right around the corner…)?
  • Donate some old woodworking books and magazines to your local library or activity center for new eyes to feast upon.
  • Invite your spouse, neighbor, child, friend, co-worker, tennis partner, etc. to come to your shop to show them what you do.
  • Join a guild or club.  You don’t have one in your community? Well, why not start one?
  • Build something special for someone just because…

The point is that my little blog is just one miniscule slice of this giant woodworking pie. It’s going to take a lot of effort from talented, enthusiastic woodworkers to get more folks involved in what we do.  But, believe me, when those folks see how excited you are about the craft, your energy and excitement will show through.

Who knows? One day, you may have found that you have personally inspired the next Sam Maloof, James Krenov or Marc Spagnuolo.

Just how cool would that be?

By the way, mark your calendars… I’m thinking February 3 – 9 sounds like a good time for Get Woodworking Week 2013…

Oh, and here’s a totally kick butt video from Scott Morton to celebrate Get Woodworking Week…. It’s a must watch. Two thumbs up!

The blog posts are STILL coming in!  Here’s the latest of the bunch…

Link of the week

Link of the week

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New Yankee Online

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!

 

Experiences

Get Woodworking Week: Thursday

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We’re past the halfway point of Get Woodworking Week now, and the interest is running wild. The posts on other blogs have been top notch, and I’ve been happy to be a small part of this new endeavor.

Now, what do you think one of the biggest reasons people give for not trying woodworking? The cost? That they never tried it? Or… could it be the fear of making mistakes?

Believe me, when it comes to making mistakes, I’m the poster child. If there is a mistake I have not yet made in a woodworking project, stay tuned. I’m bound to do it at least once during my time writing the blog.  If you want to see one of my worst foul ups, check this out:

What the He%# am I doing?

Remember, though, it’s not important that you have failed… what’s most important is how you recover from your mistakes.  A child will fall down dozens of times learning to walk…  but, we celebrate when she succeeds at taking her first steps.

From D’Oh to Woah…

While you think about not letting your fear of mistakes hold you back, check out some of these awesome articles that have been submitted for Get Woodworking Week:

 

Tools

The most powerful tool in your shop

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Back when I was in middle school, my dad approached me one day. “Son,” he said, “when you go to shop class tomorrow, ask your shop teacher if he has any literature on raised panel doors.”

This struck me as funny because 1) I wondered why Shakespeare or Dickens would be writing about raised panel doors, and 2) How would the guy teaching me how to build a coat rack know how to build raised panel doors? Undeterred, I went to school the next day, worked through the hour long shop class and totally forgot to ask my shop teacher about how to build raised panel doors. Remember, that’s how the 13 year old brain works… I see that from time to time in my oldest son.

What my dad needed was something a little more – uhhh – available to him when he needed the information. Oh, sure, our library had books about woodworking, but its hours were limited, and my dad worked late. No, what he needed was… TA DA… the Internet.

It’s stunning to see how much the Internet has changed things since I first got into the craft back in 1999. Yes, there was an internet back then, and yes, there was information about woodworking on it. Compared to today, why, it was just a drop in the bucket.

If my dad had access to the internet today, he could not only found out about how to make raised panel doors, he could have also learned how to build a TV cabinet, stud a wall or  lay carpet– all tasks we tackled in the basement remodel at our house.

He could have even learned techniques to help his teenage son remember things.

The beauty about being a novice woodworker today is that there are thousands of sites out there, each available to teach you about the craft.  Are you interested in turning? Marquetry? Chair Making? Building kitchen cabinets? It’s all out there on the web.

Point is that it’s never been a better time to be a new woodworker. Your internet connection can put you in touch with tool manufacturers, hardwood suppliers, other woodworkers who want to lend a hand… it’s all out there.  Take advantage of the opportunities and get into the game.

And, to think, you don’t have to rely on a forgetful teen to remember to find information on how to do things.

For those of you who have Twitter accounts… check this out. Tonight at 9 p.m Eastern (that’s 2 a.m. on Thursday in Timbuktu), I’m going to be on WoodChat discussing Get Woodworking Week. If you would like to participate, sign in to your Twitter account, then follow this link to TweetChat. There, you can ask questions about why this week is happening and get further inspiration. Hope to see you there!

The links for Get Woodworking Week keep on coming… and, they are awesome!  Here are a few more…

 

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