Let's Talk Wood

A nifty little finish for you to make...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:54:00 +0000

Two months ago, at our Sin City Woodworkers meeting, a new fellow brought an amazing table. The top was a walnut burl, and he'd taken great care to flatten, sand and finish it. Just about everyone in the room had to touch the burl top - it was so gorgeous, we could barely keep our hands off of it.

The finish on it was amazing - smooth and soft, without any sheen. When quizzed about what he used on the wood - he explained that he's used a mixture of beeswax, oil and turpentine.

Of course - a lively discussion ensued about custom blends of finishes - almost every woodworker I know makes his own custom blend. I've never loved the one I've mixed up - it uses turpentine and it's too smelly for my taste.

Later - one of the members sent me a link to this video. That's one of the great things about this woodworking group - there's always a woodworking tip to be shared, or a technique to be demonstrated. Awesome.

Where do boxes come from?

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:52:00 +0000

This is a terrific video, forwarded to me by no less that four of my woodworking buddies here in town. The woodworking community here is growing every single week - at our last Sin City Woodworkers meeting, we had close to forty people in attendance!

One of the best parts of that is the diversity of the group - we have carvers and furniture makers, toy makers and turners. Have a question about dovetails or dust collectors? No problem, someone is there to answer it for you.

Though this video is on the long side, I think it will keep you captivated.

By the way, have you heard of this Kickstarter campaign for a fellow making wooden pinhole cameras?

Yes, the woodworking community here in Las Vegas is growing and evolving, but I love how the Internet allows us to become one larger global community.

Can you imagine working the same job for 76 years?

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:05:00 +0000

Holy crap, this makes my back hurt.

Here's a clip of a fellow who had been doing the same job for 76 years. It's a charming short video, and obviously - there is one important factor here. He loves what he does, so his "job" doesn't feel like work.

But - can you just imagine doing a job that long? I mean - I love working with wood, and I often feel invigorated after spending a full day at the shop. But - if I worked with wood for 76 years, that means I'd still be doing it when I'm 90.

Ummm.... no.

Let's hope I'm retired by then!

It's OK to change direction in mid-stream...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:02:00 +0000

When I said it was time to wrap up a few things around the shop, I wasn't kidding! Remember those four drawer fronts I've been working on for-fucking-ever? The ones with the inset pulls

and the carved areas?

To tell you the truth - once I started carving them - ugh.... I wasn't all that about them.

In fact, I really didn't like what was happening at all. You have no idea how tough it is to be working on a piece that you're not "feeling."

One of the best things about owning every tool under the sun is that at least one of them will do what I want it to do - in this case - I used a router with a straight bit to eliminate the carved area. Took it right out!

See, I wasn't satisfied with the carved area - it just didn't pull the piece together for me. I had been planning on using a little MilkPaint in the carvings, for some contrast. But instead - I came up with a scathingly brilliant idea.

(Ode to Hayley Mills...)

Why not inlay the area with a contrasting wood? There were a couple of details to consider - the grain of the wood had to run in the same direction as the drawer fronts. So I glued together a piece, and then cut and thickness-sanded the pieces to the correct dimension.

They already look great - much more like what I envisioned.

I needed to put a small chamfer, but the wood was so thin - it was a dicey operation. A router table and a scrap piece of wood to act as a hold-down was all I needed.

Here's the routed edge.

Before and after pieces.

It's funny how I really hated working on this piece before, when I was carving it. Now that I was doing something that I really felt, this was coming together beautifully.

Normally when you glue two pieces together, they will slip and slide around a bit, usually ending up mis-aligned. But this hold down clamp secured the two pieces nicely.

One side was applied almost flush- just a hair over the edge, so I would get a good glue joint.

Here's an edge waiting to be cleaned-up.

One or two passes with a plane evened things up.

I trimmed the other edge flush on the tablesaw.

Don't these look a hell of a lot nicer?

Last thing to do was chamfer the two long-grain edges.

Ready for sanding - and knobs. Knobs will be the next design decision... but this time, I feel much more equipped to make the right decision!

One last thing - Happy Mother's Day, mom! I miss you and wish we were hanging out together. And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Broken Arms

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:33:00 +0000

Now that this last round of classes has ended, it's time to hop back onto a few jobs that are piling up. The first one has something to do with broken arms.

No, not like this.

Or this.

Or even this.

It's more like this.

And this.

Broken arms on chairs are one of the most requested repairs I do. A few weeks ago, my dentist called and said he had some chairs that needed repaired. Not my favorite job, but - hey, that's why they call it work, right?

Apparently the manufacturer of these chairs knew that this part of the arm was its weak spot. All of them were broken in the same place, and had mortises in the arms, with a loose tenon inside. An interesting thing though, was that the tenons weren't glued into place. At least I didn't have to dig them out, that made this repair a little simpler. They all looked like this.

I felt the best way to repair them was to cut new tenons and glue the arms back together. Since the mortise was one-quarter inch square, I set the fence on the table saw up to cut a one-quarter inch rip.

I made a vertical cut on a piece of wood,

and flipped the board around, making a vertical cut,

to create the square rip.

I cut a few different pieces, each slightly larger, so that I'd get a good fit. (Richard W. makes fun of my stubby pencils, so I thought he'd like this shot.) I love stubby pencils!

This is a perfect fit, so I cut them to length, and started my repairs.

These were miserable to clamp - I tried every which way to find a way to clamp them - making a special wooden block to support that big curve in the arm, but nothing worked, so I clamped them by hand.... yes, I put some glue on the pieces and held them together

with my hands for about ten minutes, until the glue set up.

Ah... the glamorous life of a woodworker.

But - in the end - the repairs were pretty solid. All four arms glued together perfectly. The best part was scratching this off of my "to-do" list.

I'm just happy I wasn't called to repair this chair leg!

Hiding in plain sight...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:07:00 +0000

This bookcase is incredible. I'm not a huge fan of guns - but this bookcase isn't really about guns, as much as it is about building a multipurpose piece of furniture. Wow.

Someone really put some time and thought into producing this piece.

Q-Line SafeGuard Shelving System

Think that was cool? Check out this side table!

Hacking made easy....

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:28:00 +0000

Seriously, I have the best friends!

I was whining (I know - I'm not proud of it) about my tough teaching schedule and a friend of mine sent me this in the mail.

When I was writing this blogpost, I found this!

I'm not sure I'm up to hacking this button, but it got me thinking about hacking.

Which brings me around to the topic of this post - hacking with wood. I had no idea there is a whole IKEA hacker movement, it's ridiculously fascinating. (At least to me!)

The concept is - you purchase an IKEA kit for something - like a bookcase or a side table - and then you use the parts to create something completely new and different. And cool.

Check this out! This hack turns an end table kit into a kid's bicycle. Love this!

Here's a link to read more about the IKEA hacker's movement - it's really interesting.

There are simply too many cool things to read about on the internet, and not enough hours in the day!

(Thanks for the EASY BUTTON, Susan! You made my day.)

Sticky parts?

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:08:00 +0000

Things are pretty busy this week, so not much time to write anything. But - here's a pretty handy tip from American Woodworker!

I told you it was a small world....

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Life has felt kind of heavy lately, hasn't it? The events in Boston and West, Texas remind us of how precious life is, and how it can be gone in an instant.

TIme for a break!

I thought I'd give you a couple of things to smile about - first - in the "Wow, the world really is a small place" category, I received an email today from a woman who recently visited Maui and met Moe, the same tiki carver I met a couple of months ago. Remember I blogged about him here?

Stephanie bought one of Moe's carvings and when she did an internet search for him, she found my blog. How cool - she even sent me a couple of photos.

Seriously, if you're ever down on the south side of Maui, near Big Beach, look for him on the side of the road. You won't be sorry.

Stephanie added this -

"The carvings in the turtle represent the road to Hana and a Haleakala sunrise...both activities that we did here. And I had told Nathan that I wanted a hand carved turtle as our souvenir because while snorkeling we swam with three honu...so when we met Moe and saw this turtle, it was meant to be. :)"

That is one of the magical things about Maui - the sheer coincidences of things that occur there. You ask for something, and something comes your way.

Here's a true story - something like 15 years ago, I was snorkeling in a small bay by Little Beach. There was a fellow spear fishing, and he had a squid on his spear. It was surreal, and since I had an underwater camera with me, I asked if he would take a picture of me with the spear.

(I'd post the picture here, but it was a nude beach and I'm not so sure my mom would appreciate seeing that.)

Anyway, I got the fisherman's address and told him I would send copies of some of the pictures I took of him, they were very cool. The water was SO clear and he was surrounded by fish and squid ink.

Later, when I returned home and sent the pictures to him, they were returned to me - he had moved.

I hung on to them, and a few years later, when I returned to the island, I was walking on the beach and ran into him again. Luckily, I had stuck his photos in my sketchbook, which I always have with me on vacation, and was able to give him the photos in person!

What are the chances? He and I were amazed that we ran into each other again - and that we recognized each other; this time we had our clothes on!

So here's Moe and Stephanie and Nathan - with a little commemoration of their carving experience. (Thanks for sending the pictures, Stephanie!)

Finally, this video just made me smile, which I think we could all use right about now.

Speaking of Earth Day - Sundays are for Gardening. And Carving.

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:32:00 +0000

A friend of mine gave me an amazing tip for starting plants in my garden. I've never started plants from seeds, but she said it was a hell of a lot cheaper, and really simple. I started saving the cardboard tubes that we're all familiar with. Don't you feel good when you recycle?

I filled them with dirt, dropped some seeds in them, and kept them hydrated.

Whoa - three weeks later, I had about a dozen zucchini plants.

In fact, I had so many, I took some to the Carving Class and shared them with everyone. We all agreed - we need to do this every year, with each of us starting a different plant.

The little plants were really healthy,

and went into the ground easily.

But it was still a little chilly at night when I planted them, so I covered them with yet another recycled container - one of those large clear tubs you get when you buy an industrial supply of spinach.

(Or - as Stella says - green treats.)

Here's that same plant, six weeks later.

And another.

All told, I have about a half dozen around the yard. Yes, I love zucchini!

That got me thinking - what else could I start from seeds? I love this yucca plant, the pink shoots and flowers attract hummingbirds all Summer long, but the local nursery charges way too much for them.

You guessed it - I saved up some more rolls

and found a pod of seeds laying near the plant. The plant drops these pods at the end of the summer. I never knew what was inside until I noticed Stella gnawing on one. She had little black seeds all over her tongue, and you know what your mom says - if you're going to eat that, you're going to have plants growing in your stomach!!! (Where do mothers get those lines?)

I grabbed some of my favorite planting mix

but you-know-who was all about playing, rather than helping.

Fold the bottom up,

put a little dirt in it and drop in some seeds.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Of course, just after I planted all these seeds, I read an article about pre-soaking the seeds before planting them - that it gives them a boost in the sprouting stage.

Next time!

These will be out in the sun until they're ready to go in the ground.

Here's a recipe for a great organic weed killer - don't you feel guilty spraying highly toxic stuff on weeds? I know I do! I'm planning on making a batch of this ASAP.

Yup, that's it - pretty much what I fill my Sundays with - gardening, working around the house, and catching up on my R & R. This lettuce looks great, doesn't it?

Speaking of R & R, someone asked me the other day what I do for relaxation. Ummm.... I had to think about that one. Yesterday I had the day off, and this is what I played with - a simple carving based on a tee-shirt I just bought.

It was an interesting design, so I thought I'd try my hand at it.

Happy Earth Day!

More talking dogs...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 06:30:00 +0000

In other words... a slow day in the shop!

Where were you?

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:53:00 +0000

You know how you mark historical events by remembering where you were at the time?

It's just easier to remember the event when you recall where you were at the time it happened. Like being at a concert when Princess Diana was killed, or at work when the shuttle exploded, or the Cowboy Christmas show when Newtown was decimated by an insane freak. I even remember the night John Lennon was killed - don't you?

Or - if you're really effin' old - at a toy store when President Kennedy was assassinated.

I was at the lumberyard buying wood when I got a call, asking if I'd heard the news about Boston. I'd found an amazing board - luckily the sweet guy working in the warehouse was willing to put up with me taking a picture of it.

Yes, this beast was 23" wide. I haven't seen boards like this in... well....fuckingforever. This is a once in a lifetime board.

You've got to know your limitations - so I bought the next narrower board - a mere 18" wide specimen. I don't even know what I'll do with it, but I had to have a piece of this magnificent tree.

Dee was even kind enough to help me load it into my truck. That was service with a smile!

My heart is (once again) broken for the victims of the bombing at the Boston Marathon. It's horrific and I'm pissed at the evilfuckers who did this.

Have I ever mentioned I'm a huge believer in karma? Somewhere, there is a place waiting for these idiots.

Where were you?

For your morning reading...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 15:49:00 +0000

Like most people in their morning routine, I like to settle down with a cup of coffee and read the morning paper online.

I'm not sure how it started, but reading the San Francisco Chronicle

has become one of my favorite morning rituals. The columnists are insightful, the food columns are to die for, but the absolute best part is the reader's comments. No where on the planet will you find funnier statements about news stories.

Want a terrific example?

In today's paper, there was a story about someone walking into a Home Depot and practically cutting his arms off. My first thought - uh oh, a panel saw accident. Turns out the man was either mentally ill, or drugged up, and just grabbed a drywall saw to hack off his arm.

Not necessarily appropriate reading material for my morning coffee. But the best part - the comments that followed. Here are some of my favorite ones.

(Click on the first image below to enlarge all of them.)

By the time I'd finished writing this blog, there were another fifty comments left.

I won't even comment about all the readers leaving comments about another person's misfortune, and what it says about our society. Instead, I'l just pour another cup of coffee and go back to the paper.

The Carving Class is winding down...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:26:00 +0000

The WoodCarving class taught by Dennis Patchett ended this week - it was so much fun that we added one extra class to the schedule. Here's one of his linenfold panels, he probably whipped this up in an afternoon!

There was definitely a nice vibe in the shop, with everyone in their own zone.

Look what John made!

One of the nicest things about this class is that Dennis brought a tool chest full of his amazing chisels - so everyone had a chance to use tools that they might only see in specialty catalogs.

And by the end of class, everyone thoroughly understood how to use this buffing wheel.

Mike was by far the most productive carver, coming up with all of these designs during the class.

M is for.... ?

He's an amazing carver.

Here are some random shots of everyone working.

They make it look easy, right? Well - truth is - it's incredibly hard to do, as you really have to develop an "eye" to see what to leave and what to cut away. The good news is - by the end of this class, their eyes were getting much more developed.

Even though this video is in Italian, you'll get the idea of what's involved in carving something like the panel shown below.

The mania of perfection -inset pulls, carved fronts and a fear of commitment...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:01:00 +0000

It's not often that I get so obsessed about something. I've been screwing around with "the perfect" drawer front for a dresser I've been working on, not able to decide what I want to carve on the drawer fronts. Spending some time in Hawaii recently has my head filled with visions of tribal artwork, and I've been playing around with designs for weeks. Ugh, I've always regarded a carving design like marriage - once you commit, you're committed, right?

So I've been having appropriate fear of commitment feelings with these drawer fronts.

I'm not a huge fan of hardware in drawer fronts - I feel like knobs or pulls distract from the piece. Or - at least - they distract me. I decided to play around with an inset pull, to see if I liked the effect on these drawer fronts.

Inset pulls utilize the face of the drawer to create a recess, eliminating the need for a knob. I grabbed a piece of scrap - to test a idea I've had rolling around in my head.

I drew a few lines on the scrap, the same size was the actual drawer face,

and then went to the mortiser. I want this inset pull to be diamond-shaped, so I rotated the 3/4" mortising bit

to 45 degrees.

All lined up -

and drilled.

You need two different router bits to complete the pull - a cove bit for the back of the pull,

which makes this cut.

And a small roundover for the front.

Which gives you this result.

I've rounded over the top edges of the diamond, but the bearing on the router bit doesn't really allow the bit to get too close to the corners. Still - I could envision what the drawer face was going to look like - so I decided to try again, this time with an actual piece of oak, not scrap.

I cut a small piece,.

and went through the same process.

Practice really does make perfect.

Rounded over and waiting to the corners to be squared by hand.

Yup, that's pretty much what I could see in my head. I wonder if other woodworkers have visions of things before they actually make them.

Finally - my goal is to carve a small area around those inset pulls - just a simple set of triangles, sort of randomly placed. My mind kept pulling me back to some simple tribal design, almost as if these triangles were carved with a simple pocketknife, a little crude and imperfect.

I cut some small triangles out of masonite, and started playing with their placement.

Once I was satisfied with the layout, I drew directly on the wood.

The carving has commenced!

Next time I write about this, I hope to be able to show some pictures of the finished piece. I'm ready to move onto the next project!

The Secret of Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0000

What a terrific little video!

Shake your (Dj)Bouti....

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:37:00 +0000

Once you get a catchy song in your head, it's hard to get it out. Right?

Shake, shake, shake....

That has nothing whatsoever with this post.

When someone brought this hand-carved table to my shop for repair, and told me it was from Djbouti, my head started playing an endless loop of this song inside. When you're trapped working in a shop all day, it's easy to get silly about stuff like this; I make no apologies for this.

The good news? What a cool table - carved from a SOLID LOG - the top and base are all one piece. Can you imagine the skill it takes to carve this from one log?

There was one slight problem - Djbouti is way more humid than Las Vegas, and when the table was transported here - it started losing moisture.

Within a month, huge cracks started developing.

In fact, one whole area broke off.

This table needed some TLC.

We had a discussion about the table - and the chance that - given its construction and the moisture content of the log, this table was probably going to continue cracking.

Our best remedy was to separate the base from the top. The owner of the table decided that he would put a glass top on the base, which would probably remain stable and not crack any more.

And the top? I would try to repair it - and turn it into a wall piece.

I pulled out a thin kerf flexible saw and separated the top from the base. I rocked it with my wood-awesome-ness, because - honestly, you can't even tell the table top was once attached! The base actually looks better separated!

I touched up the tops of the three elephant trunks with a bit of sandpaper, testing the three points for "flatness" on my table saw top. Once it was perfectly flat, I stained the wood to match the rest. Phase one - completed!

The table top - now that's another story! It was in horrible shape - in fact, it's not very often that I say this - but I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to restore it. Then I remembered - a while back, my buddy Eddie gave me a set of burn-in shellac sticks.

And a burn-in knife.

Truth be told - I had to pull up a video on YouTube to see how these are supposed to be used. I think I learned about these in college, a hundred years ago.

One of the really helpful tips I learned was that the knife - if it's never been used - needs a little TLC. I lightly touched up the edges of it on some 400 grit paper, to eliminate any burrs.

The set of burn-in sticks supply you with just about every color you'll need for a repair. And the good news is - you can mix them together to create custom colors.

Basically, you plug in the knife until it heats up, and then melt a dab of the shellac onto the blade. I found it easiest to to this while the blade was flat, so I could mix the colors together onto it - like a small palette.

Turn the knife sideways and the shellac drips down onto the tip of the knife, where you can direct the flow where you want it. They recommend that you use a shade to match the lightest color of the area you're repairing - but when I did that, it was too light and didn't match well at all.

A piece of blue tape acted like a dam, stopping the flow of shellac at the edge.

When the shellac cooled, I peeled off the tape and worked on smoothing out the shellac.

It took a few sessions to fill these cracks with the correct color - but the end result was WAY worth it.

You can barely spot the cracks in the wood.

Seriously - can you see them?

I don't often do repairs like this one, and I find them to be very stressful! I did a little dance around the woodshop (Shake, shake, shake....) when this repair was complete!

Taking a day off...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Once a month, I try to get out of the shop and do something new. The good news is - there's always something to explore here - whether it's a new restaurant, the farmer's markets, an exhibit or a museum - whatever.

This week, I stopped by The Mob Museum. I'd heard a lot of mixed reviews, and decided it was time to check it out.

You start at the top - the third floor and enter a police line-up area.

You can even pose for a picture in it, with your friends.

Luckily, there are guards everywhere, protecting innocent citizens from being muscled. (That's a joke.)

Apparently, it was Spring Break for kids here in Vegas, so the place was bustling with children everywhere. That struck me as odd, considering the graphic content of violence at the museum.

Like this barber chair where a famous Mob hit took place.

You can read about the hit here.

Or these "tools" of the trade."

I didn't realize there was such a huge "Cleveland connection" with the Mob. Hell, I lived near Cleveland when some of the bombings and hits took place - but I was a kid, and oblivious to the violence back then. Here's an ID of a prominent mobster, with his Cleveland address clearly written on it.

Each floor of the museum was devoted to a different theme - the top floor was mostly history of the Mob - how it started and was formed through the years. I never realized that the Hoover Dam played a pretty big part in establishing Las Vegas as a resting place for the Mob.

The cool part was all the memorabilia - like these old comic books,

or this Tommy Gun that you could shoot.

I was going to say - one thing that bothered me, but I don't think that's the right way to put it - was the desensitization of the "hits" that this museum depicted. There are hundreds of photos of dead bodies. As you walk through the halls, you're seeing corpse after corpse - and normally - that would make you squeamish, right? After a while - those images just seem routine, and that struck me odd. Of course, watching all the kids play with the machine guns, or sit in the electric chair, seemed odd too.

WTF kind of person would bring their kid here? I don't get that.

Did you know the mob tried to smuggle drugs into the country using these canned tomatoes? You can't make this shit up!

This Italian restaurant was a front for much illegal activity,

but looked like a regular "mom and pop" operation.

Far from it!

The building that houses the museum is the actual old federal courthouse, and the second floor is the actual courtroom where the Kefauver hearings took place in the 1950s. This isn't a great picture of it, but here it is -

they play an interesting film while you're sitting in the courtroom.

It's hard to ignore the history in that room.

The room stacked with money was pretty impressive! I love this address book - I forget who it belonged to , but there - plain as day - is Oscar Goodman's address.

He was the mobster's lawyer at the time, but later became the mayor of Las Vegas. Oscar - people either love him or hate him - but he was instrumental in getting this museum built.

Again - it's hard to ignore the sheer violence contained in this building. Umm - read this sign below and tell me if kids should be here?

The wall commemorating "The Mob's Greatest Hits" featured photos of dozens of assassinations. Bizarre.

Did you know that when casinos close up and are imploded, they actually take the old chips and destroy them? In this case, they actually added them into the concrete used in the footer of the new casino going in its place.

You know the first thing that leapt into my head was wondering what else was cast into that concrete footer!

The bottom and final floor of the museum was devoted to more recent Vegas connections with the Mob.

Cassius Clay was the first boxer not controlled by the Mob. You might know him as Mohammed Ali.

There was a fun wall of Hollywood depictions of the Mob, including my favorite - Carmella Soprano

and her ruthless husband - Tony. There was even a display for The Sopranos, featuring some outfits that Tony wore during some of the episodes. (I remember that shirt, Ton!)

The last floor also featured modern day government methods for fighting mobbed up businesses - which now includes the broader influence of women.

There was a fascinating film clip discussing the ties between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby and the assassination of JFK and the influence of the Mob. Wow. Hard to ignore that connection.

Four and a half hours later - I ended the tour in The Mob Museum's gift shop - a fitting way to end the day, since it features capitalism as its best. Who can resist a Brass Knuckle Meat tenderizer?

Or the Soprano's cookbook with Carmella's famous Baked ZIti recipe? I may have to go back and buy this!

This mug was pretty nice, too -

but one of my favorite items was this tee-shirt.

I SAW NOTHING AT THE MOB MUSEUM

All in all - a terrific way to spend the afternoon. Las Vegas locals get in for ten bucks - but it may take a bit more money with a therapist to get all those images out of my head.

Dr. Melfi - where are you?

An amazing antique desk

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Check out this desk - it is incredible.

Time for a new Cote

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:18:00 +0000

With the arrival of Spring, most people are finding some rust on top of their tablesaws. Here's an easy way to fight it - although instead of using paste wax to polish the top,

I like to use TopCote. Well, it used to be called TopCote. The new name is GlideCote.

My least favorite woodworking task...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:59:00 +0000

It's time to work on this tall cabinet - I need to hang the drawers and attach the drawer fronts. Hanging the drawers isn't difficult - I usually attach the slide member to the drawer on the lower edge of the drawer box.

I generally use scrap pieces of plywood as spacers for attaching the slides to the cabinet. It's easiest to work from the bottom up, so that you can rest the spacer on the slide below.

Here - three of the four drawers are hung. The drawer faces are next, and every woodworker I've ever met had their own method for attaching these fronts. Believe it or not, it's one of my least favorite tasks in the shop.

I need a little sustenance and a whole lot of shims. In this case, I pull out a chain full of laminate samples. And some Girl Scout cookies.

But first - I have to drill some mounting holes in each drawer box. I drill the holes, and countersink them from the inside, so the screw sits flush.

Here I've shimmed the bottom drawer face into place, checking the margins all around. Once everything is aligned,

Add a couple of clamps

and screw the box to the drawer face from behind.

The plastic laminate samples are a hair under 1/16 on an inch, so two of them stacked together gives me nice spacing.

For all of my complaining - this actually went pretty smoothly, which isn't usually the case!

The bottom two faces are in place, but when I measured the opening above those two, I found it to be ever so slightly out of square. The best thing remedy for this was to hand the top drawer face, and compensate on the second one down from the top.

Here the top one is in place, now I need to fit the last one into place.

I marked where the next face needed to be - first on the left side,

then the right side.

This last face needed to be tapered just a bit - about 1/16 on an inch taller on the right side. So - I set the jointer to make a verrrryyy small cut, and machined a slight taper into this drawer face. Once it was cut to the proper size, with the perfect margins all around, I attached it the same was as all the others - by first removing the top drawer and clamping the face against the drawer box.

You'd be surprised how much there is left to do - I need to rout and sand these drawer faces, and then start carving them. Meanwhile, I need to figure out what sort of knob or pull I'm going to use on them. Decisions! Decisions!

All in all, hanging these drawer faces went on rather easily. It's funny - I went into the shop not looking forward to this chore, but in the end - it was a breeze. I wish every day in the shop went this way!

Resource Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:47:00 +0000

This furniture is amazing.

I can barely wrap my head around some of these pieces, like the Murphy beds that come out of the wall - with perfect balance. Crazy engineering!

Check out the green desk at the 3:15 minute mark. I totally want one of those in my office at work! Imagine how well those would work in college dorm rooms.

Not to sound corny, but when I see pieces like this - it makes me want to up-my-game in terms of dual functionality. I love the dual purpose of all these pieces.

Add to it - a lifetime warranty - I'm sold.

Except for the upholstered couches and two Thomas Moser stools - I built every piece of furniture in my home. But - I would totally make an exception and be willing to share my home with one or two of these pieces.

Take your Meclizine for this one....

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Meclizine

Meclizine is used to prevent or treat nausea, vomiting and dizziness caused by motion sickness.

Or off-center turning.

I actually got a little queasy watching this. What this lathe chuck accomplishes is pretty interesting, but I just don't think my stomach could take it.

Extreme Woodworking! Or...guys with planes

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:35:00 +0000

One of the big things I've noticed recently is that guys just love their hand tools. Maybe there's something Freudian to that; I don't know.

There's a common "discussion" going around the shop of hand tools vs. power tools, but I suppose it boils down to something more basic - time. Yes, time. If you have it, you tend to use hand tools, which admittedly gives you better surfaces. There's no doubt that a hand planed surface is much nicer than a surface achieved by a power planer, and then sanded smooth.

Still - we're talking about time. And time-is-money. Especially for a professional furniture maker. Most clients don't want to pay for the romantic feel of a hand planed table top.

My buddy John E. sent me a link to this video, which shows some of the most amazing wood planing ever. Great video! - but again, I feel like - only a guy would get that turned on by this.

Maybe someone ought to come up with a woodworking reality show - Extreme Woodworking!

More celebrity woodworking...

noreply@blogger.com (Wood It Is!) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:53:00 +0000

Do you watch Portlandia?

I've only been to Portland once, but I love the diversity and culture. It's like Austin, only with rain and colder temps. But - at least they're doing some cool woodworking there!

Let's Talk Wood

A nifty little finish for you to make...

Where do boxes come from?

Can you imagine working the same job for 76 years?

It's OK to change direction in mid-stream...

Broken Arms

Hiding in plain sight...

This bookcase is incredible. I'm not a huge fan of guns - but this bookcase isn't really about guns, as much as it is about building a multipurpose piece of furniture. Wow. Someone really put some time and thought into producing this piece.

Q-Line SafeGuard Shelving System

Hacking made easy....

Sticky parts?

I told you it was a small world....

Speaking of Earth Day - Sundays are for Gardening. And Carving.

More talking dogs...

Where were you?

For your morning reading...

The Carving Class is winding down...

The mania of perfection -inset pulls, carved fronts and a fear of commitment...

The Secret of Trees

Shake your (Dj)Bouti....

Taking a day off...

An amazing antique desk

Time for a new Cote

My least favorite woodworking task...

Resource Furniture

Take your Meclizine for this one....

Meclizine Meclizine is used to prevent or treat nausea, vomiting and dizziness caused by motion sickness. Or off-center turning. I actually got a little queasy watching this. What this lathe chuck accomplishes is pretty interesting, but I just don't think my stomach could take it.

Extreme Woodworking! Or...guys with planes

More celebrity woodworking...

This bookcase is incredible. I'm not a huge fan of guns - but this bookcase isn't really about guns, as much as it is about building a multipurpose piece of furniture. Wow.

Someone really put some time and thought into producing this piece.

Meclizine

Meclizine is used to prevent or treat nausea, vomiting and dizziness caused by motion sickness.

Or off-center turning.

I actually got a little queasy watching this. What this lathe chuck accomplishes is pretty interesting, but I just don't think my stomach could take it.