OK, Thanksgiving (in the United States) is now behind us, which means the holiday shopping season is in full swing. The are runs to the mall, items to buy online and lots and lots of wrapping coming up in the weeks ahead.
With the holidays approaching, many woodworkers’ thoughts turn to building gifts for friends, loved ones and others. Which means, of course, it’s time to get out there and start building!
This week, let us know if you are planning on building holiday gifts.
At the most recent Woodworking in America conference, I realized that there are many other woodworking bloggers out there that I count as good friends putting out tremendous content. Each is skilled in his or her way. So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to be featuring their blogs on my Friday posts.
Today, let’s start off with my good friend Joe Ledington over at Sleepydog Woodshop. Joe is – how shall I put this – a renaissance man. In addition to wood sculpting, furniture and tool making, he’s also studying to become a professional video editor. Joe even gave me a carving knife he had created from a scrap of walnut and an old barber’s straight razor. The thing – as you might imagine – is razor sharp.
Why not go pay a visit over to Joe’s site, and be sure to tell him that Tom sent ya!
Each year on this blog, I have written a special post just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’m not making an exception this year. In fact, just last night, I returned from New York City with the Tampa Bay area response team that went up to assist with Hurricane Sandy relief. With that experience fresh in my mind, I have a newfound appreciation for just how fortunate and blessed my family and I have been this year. Without any further ado, here’s the 2012 edition of what I am thankful for.
I am thankful for my lovely bride Rhonda, who has taken a bit of a shine to working the shop this year. You go, girl!
I am thankful for my two sons. They are both doing well in school, growing like weeds and making me proud.
I am thankful I had the opportunity to go to New York City to do just a little bit to help the people who have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy. My thoughts and prayers go out to them for a fast recovery from the impact of that terrible storm.
I am thankful for the woodworking friends I have met – and made – at the Woodworking Show that happened in Tampa back in March and the Woodworking in America Conference in November. Oh, and the folks at the St. Petersburg Woodcrafter’s Guild I joined this year. You guys are the greatest.
I am thankful the brain trust over at the Modern Woodworkers Association have included me in their podcast. Yes, you have to endure me as your host, but the three other guys do an AWESOME job on the show!
I am thankful for the support and enthusiasm we were able to build for the first annual Get Woodworking Week this past February. I’m not sure how many woodworkers we got into their shops this past winter, but even if it was only one, I consider that a positive development.
I am thankful that I was able to reach 1,000 posts on this blog. That’s an awful lot of writing, but hey, people keep coming back! I am also thankful for everyone who helped out with providing prizes for the readers during the thousand post contest. Youse guys made the thousandth post something to remember.
I am thankful that I was selected to be a pilot instructor for the Master Public Information Officers course in Emmitsburg, Maryland this past August – and even more thankful Kari Hultman was able to pull together a meeting of woodworking friends for a get together in Gettysburg. It was great to put many names with faces.
I am thankful to my supporters – Bell Forest Products, Infinity Cutting Tools, Bora Tools, Tormek and my newest supporter Laguna Tools. Your faith in me has been unshakable, and words can’t express my thanks to each of you.
I am thankful that the folks at Wood Magazine still keep the Shop Monkey in circulation in their magazine. After all these years, and all those empty banana skins, you would think they would have grown tired of those monkeyshines by now…
I am thankful I invested the time and money into reimagining my shop space. Who knew that when I had the first idea to do this in April, I would be working in such an efficient and well-appointed shop – all within the same space I’ve been using for years.
I am thankful that my family gave me some time during our summertime family vacation to make a few woodworking side trips to the Thomas Day exhibit, the cabinet shop at Colonial Williamsburg and the USS New Jersey.
And, most importantly, I am very thankful for each of you. Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself – I can’t believe that you take the time out of your busy days to check in here to see what random zaniness is happening. It is my honor to have you here at the site, and I cannot overstate my thanks to each of you.
Tomorrow, as we sit down around my table here at home, I will raise my glass to each of you in appreciation of all you do for me. You deserve it.
Tampa Bay area strike team Hurricane Sandy relief
AGAIN? What gives?
Yes, there was no post this past Wednesday. Why?
Because I was deployed with a Tampa Bay area strike team to New York City to assist with the relief efforts post Hurricane Sandy. No woodworking here, but lots of tracking relief supplies, inventorying shipments and documenting what has been going on. The days have been grueling – 12 to 15 hour days, but it’s nothing compared to the troubles that storm affected areas have been experiencing.
Today’s link is to the blog I have been doing day by day (yes, another blog for me to work on) giving everyone a look into the workings of the logistics center here in Brooklyn.
Oh, another important thing… this event is no where near done. While contributions of coats, blankets and other material are great, they do create a logistical logjam, since they need to be shipped, sorted, warehoused, packaged and delivered. Contributions to organizations like the American Red Cross allow for items to be sourced from vendors and shipped directly to where they are needed. Thanksgiving is coming up here in the United States… we have a lot to be thankful for, but a lot of folks here in New York are suffering… Just a thought.
A quarterback spies an open receiver down the field and throws the ball with tremendous velocity and extreme accuracy to a place where only his guy has the ability to catch it. A sports car that pours power from its highly tuned engine, yet allows the driver to turn a corner as if she’s riding on rails. A gymnast generates an awesome swinging speed, launches herself into the air above the parallel bars with such precision that she merely has to extend her hands to catch the bar, saving her from an terrible fall to the floor.
Raw power is a great thing, but without precision, it can leave things a mess. That’s especially true with it comes to power tools. When you are talking about fractions of an inch meaning the difference between a perfectly fitting joint and one that’s suitable for the scrap heap, being able to put your power in the right place means a lot.
For about the past nine years, when I needed to rout something in a table set up, I would turn to my trusty, second hand Freud FT2000 router I had bought from a friend. And, for years, it did a fair job. Oh, it had the power to spin big bits – cope and stile, panel raisers.. the works.
The biggest problem I had was that there was no above the table adjustment for setting cutting depth on the bit I was working on. In order to get things to the right height, I would have to hold my set up block or bit height gauge over the bit, duck down under the table to grab the adjustment knob (the old router was a plunge model I removed the spring from) and spin it until I got close, then look above the table, trying to spin the knob to get the exact height. Sometimes, I was right on. Other times, well, let’s just say that with the fire pit season closing in here in Florida, there soon won’t be any evidence of my mistakes.
The other pain in the butt with this router set up was that I had to pull the entire router assembly out of the table to change bits. Not a problem if I was using a pattern bit with a bearing, but if I had a fence set up, I had disassemble the entire set up and reset everything from scratch. A total time waster.
All of this changed when David Venditto of Infinity Cutting Tools asked me at lunch one day, “So, what’s your router set up like?” I told him my tale of woe, and before you know it, David asked me to swing by his old Tampa location. He had something for me.
This is quite a something! Infinity is now carrying the fully redesigned Triton 3 1/4 hp plunge router. This is one extreme bit of tooling.
First of all, I was terrified that it would be a brute. The old router I was replacing was very heavy unit that screamed when you turned it on and vibrated the table to no end. The Triton, while loud, is nothing like the old one. It also has very little vibration, spinning the bit with ease.
And, does it ever have power! I was using my cope and stick door set, and the router didn’t bog down once. It poured out the power smoothly and evenly throughout the cut while I made full-depth passes. Rock solid.
The other feature I love about this router are the above the table adjustment features. Sure, you could go with a router and a separate router lift, but when one machine does the deed, that’s just pure gold. This router is set for that kind of operation. First, it’s easy to remove the plunge spring from the unit if you are going to dedicate it to the router table. (I already have two hand-held routers for above the table work, and won’t be needing a third). From there, a handle can drop through a hole in the router plate to adjust the height of the bit from above the table. This makes setting the depth a whole lot easier.
And, another cool feature of this router is that a spindle lock/safety is incorporated into the switch. When the switch is off, a clear plastic shield prevents the switch from being bumped. When it covers the switch, it also locks the spindle on the router, allowing for simple one-tool bit changes above the table. Where has this feature been all of my life?
The unit also features a sealed area around the bit with an integral dust collection port. This, paired with a dust collection fitting on your fence, should be able to keep your work area clean of dust.
I still have yet to totally put the router through its paces, but I can tell you from what I have seen, it has this whole power and precision thing down cold.
Woodworking requires a certain degree of know-how.
Whether it’s deciding on what kind of wood to use for a project, the best method for joining two boards together or building up a perfect finish, the more you know about the process, the easier it is to complete it successfully.
Today, tell us where you get the majority of your woodworking know how. Do you go online or to the library? Do you ask a knowledgeable friend or relative, or do you figure it out through trial and error?
Yes, I did once feature Lake Erie Toolworks a few years back, but after running into them again at Woodworking in America, I have got to tell you about two new products they have.
Known for their giant wooden screws that make vise building a piece of cake, they are now offering two new vise kits for your workbench – a wagon vise and a shoulder vise. I had a chance to use both of these vises at the show, and I can tell you they work VERY well. Nice and smooth, with a thread that’s fast enough to release your work quickly, yet provide tremendous amount of leverage and clamping power.
Give their site a look.. I think you will be impressed.