This past weekend I had the opportunity to do a tour of Fine Woodworking up in Connecticut.  While I was there Dyami of Penultimate Workshop and I spent some time talking about the future of Modern Woodworkers Association and came up with lots of great ideas.  One of the things we also finalized was completing the design on the T-shirts and setting up a store at CafePress.com.  To visit the Modern Woodworkers Association shop just visit http://cafepress.com/modernwoodworkersassociation

Getting the MWA shirts finialized made me realize that it was time to finally set up a shop for High Rock Woodworking.  I have the store set up and am very happy with how the T-shirts came out with the design.  I hope you like them as much as I do.

High Rock Woodworking’s shop can be found by going to the shop tab above or by visiting http://cafepress.com/highrockwoodworking

A few months ago the founding administrators of the Modern Woodworkers Association were given the opportunity to review the new Rough Cut book from Taunton. It’s a companion to the first season of the TV show entitled “Rough Cut – Woodworking with Tommy Mac”.

The book dedicates a chapter to each of the season one projects with an additional chapter on finishing. It does a good job of walking readers through the projects and with a basic understanding of woodworking and the corresponding episode as a supplement most of the projects should be easily achievable.

For our full review, please listen as four woodworkers banter on and on about actually having read a book.

For more on Modern Woodworkers Association stop by http://modernwoodworkersassociation.com

Click on the link below to hear the podcast:

This week is the first annual Get Woodworking Week set up by my good friend Tom Iovino of Tomsworkbench.com.  Often we talk about traditions and how we would like to have them carried on and this week in an opportunity to think about how we can get others involved with the woodworking we love and also get out there and get others in the shop.  There are many of my fellow woodworking bloggers writing fantastic articles this week, others inviting a friend to the shop, and some that just make an effort to get into the shop themselves.

This made me start thinking about how in days past even if you didn’t have a family member or other mentor to get you started in woodworking. We pretty much all had shop class.  For me it started in middle school.  In the 7th grade everyone had shop half of the school year and home economics the other half.  Boys and girls alike learned to build something along the lines of a bird house and how to use basic tools.  Of coarse we also learned how to use a sowing machine the rest of the year, I made stuffed football of our school colors…I think I still have it around somewhere?

In high school, shop was an elective class and to be honest most of us guys probably chose it to get out of the classrooms.  It was great to be able to spend and hour or so working with my hands and being in the shop.  I even entered in a carpentry contest against other schools and won 1st place in our region and competed at the state level.  I will never forget the night we came back from signing up for the state level, they gave us a set of plans that we would build the next day.  Mr. Orr my shop teacher asked if I wanted to build the project that night as a practice run or call it an evening as it was already getting late.  Like a lot of teenagers I was not exactly motivated and called it a night…..I have always regretted that decision.  I did ok the next day but could have done much better I am sure.

Many schools no longer have shop classes and that is a shame.  As a nation we seem to have forgotten the importance of being self-reliant and being able to build things with our own hands.  I am making it a goal to find a local shop class and see if there is anyway that I can help and get involved.  I hope that each of you will find your own way to get involved also.

For more on Get Woodworking Week and other participating sites visit Tom’s site at:   Tom’s Workbench

It has been a few weeks since I have made much progress on the Roubo bench as I ran low on 8/4″ boards for the legs and didn’t want to start on just part of the legs.  The local supplier that my dad picked the Hard Maple up from in North Carolina had ran out so we had to wait a week for a new delivery.  After picking the lumber up I wanted it to sit in the shop for a least a week or two, so I had to hold off.

Lucky for me, my wife took the opportunity to have me finish up a few tasks such as refinishing a dressing mirror for our daughter’s room and paint one of her walls with chalkboard paint.

This past weekend I decided that it was time to get back onto the bench build.  The legs are made from two 8/4″ boards laminated together.  After gluing the boards together to get to the thickness I needed for the legs, I used my #7 plane to make sure they were true and square.  Because of the width of the the legs I was able to run all four sides through my 12″ planer to get them to the final dimension.

Next, I cut the big tenon in the end of each leg that will fit into the top to hold two halves in place.  One of the most important steps in cutting the tenon is layout.  Making sure I had a line that meets up all the way around marking the shoulder, then cutting the shoulders right on the lines to the correct depth.  With the shoulders cut, the waste is pared off with a chisel and router plane to take the tenon to its final size.  The advantage of using the router plane is that you can make sure that the tenon is consistent and parallel with the leg.

With the legs shaped, I will start getting the rails to size and then work on the mortice and tenon from legs to rails.

Last weekend while up in North Carolina visiting family, my dad gave me one of his old hand saws.  I can remember this saw being around all of my life.  Dad thinks that it is a Sandvik and is not sure if it is one he bought or was passed down from my grandfather. Either way the saw is old and has a lot of history in its teeth.

The blade is in great shape with no pitting or broken teeth.  I was cautious as I didn’t want to remove any watermark that might still remain on the blade to identify the maker but I quickly realized that any sign was long gone.  I wet sanded the blade with 400 grit paper and then oiled it down for protection.

Next came the handle, it was still functional but looked pretty rough and I am pretty sure that it had been replaced somewhere down the road.  It was made plywood and had made it for many years but was now spitting and cracking.  I decided to make a new one out of some Cherry scraps I had laying around the shop.  I removed the old handle, copied it onto the Cherry and then made a few of adjustments in the design that I liked.

I cut the new handle out with the bandsaw, rasped the hand grip to a comfortable shape, then sanded everything smooth.  two coats of wipe on poly later and its finished.

I can’t wait to get the saw sharpened and start making saw dust.

I am very pleased with the progress I have made this weekend on the Roubo bench.  Right after I posted the last entry here my hardware arrived from Benchcrafted.  I am very hands on and wanted to hold the hardware in my hands before I jumped to far into the build, so I was glad when it arrived as I really wanted to get on with the project.

The first task after getting to two halves of the top home was to cut the mortise and tenon in the front slab for the end cap.  The tenon was fairly simple, even though it is rather large.  Most of the work was complete with my Lie Nielsen carcass saw, pared with my chisel, and then smoothed to final depth with my router plane.  On that note, I must say that I sometimes forget how much I enjoy using my router plane, it is  a great tool.  After fitting the end cap of Maple onto the slab, I made a decision to add some contrast.  I stopped by CAG Lumber and picked up a 12/4″ slab of Walnut and started over on the end cap.  As I had just been through the process it didn’t take long to have the cap remade and fit into place and much happier with the results.

Next, I glued the dog hole strip, cut the tails in the front laminate, and cut the pins into the end cap.  In the process of doing each of these tasks a curious thought occurred to me.  I had expected to use a lot of power tools on this project as most of the parts are oversized and in the end it is a bench so ultimately I want to get it complete to move on to other project waiting in line to be built.  But at almost each task I found myself still going for the handtools.  Most of the cross cuts were just easier to just cut by hand rather than fumble with the long boards.  I had also planned on running the top back through the planer before I fixed the end cap but again it was simpler to just run my big #7 jointer plane across the top to even it out.  The problem is that because everything is on such a large scale…then so are the weights and most of the pieces are just awkward to handle.

It was a great moment when I was able to mount the tail vise hardware into place as it is now starting to look like a bench…well at least half of one anyway.  There are still a few details left in the top but I should be finished and ready to move onto the base next week.

Thanks for following along!

Like this project? Join The Wood Whisperer Guild and build along with us.  Just go to http://thewoodwhisperer.com/guild

My current workbench is a solid core door on a steel frame.  It has served me well but as I move further into my own woodworking I realized that it does not meet all of my needs.  To read more about my current bench check out my post on Woodworking Benches.

After deciding to join in on the current build, I had some decisions to make like type of wood and hardware.  For both of these decisions I tryed to keep in mind that I want this to be a bench that I use for a lifetime.  For the wood my ideas ranged from Spruce to Maple, and I had settled on using Spruce until I spoke with my father.  He asked what would I would really want to use if I had all choices and the answer was Maple.  Maple is the best choice for me as it is dense, heavy, and well traditional which I do like.  Dad called me the next day and found some Hard Maple from a local guy up in North Carolina.  He picked it up for me just before Thanksgiving and I couldn’t wait to get up there to get started.  Over Thanksgiving weekend we ripped, cut to rough length, and glued up the 8/4 boards for the two halves of the top.

Since that time I have managed to complete a few other tasks in between building Christmas presents.  The major task that I completed was cutting the square dogholes into the doghole strip.  I created a jig for my router to ensure that all of the holes were exactly the same.  The jig worked well and all of the notches are cut, next I will glue on the face of the strip and plane it down to final thickness.  I also, planed the glued up tops to rough thickness this past weekend to just over 4″ thick.

For the hardware I considered many options but in the end decided on the Benchcrafted hardware as I believe that it is the best on the market.  The price tag is not for the faint of heart but considering it is a lifetime investment I believe that it is worth it.  I ordered the hardware in November and hope to have it within the next few weeks.

With the holidays coming to an end and the guild build officially beginning soon, I hope to be able to spend more time getting into the details of the project.  I must say that setting the tops in my shop definitely gave me some motivation to get going.  So be sure and stop back in as I will be posting my progress as I go along.

For more on the Woodwhisperer Guild go to http://thewoodwhisperer.com/guild

It is that time a year again.  When as woodworkers we have been spending the past month not only buying Christmas presents but making a few also.  For my projects I ended up with 6 end grain cutting boards and a toy block for my youngest daughters first Christmas.  The cutting boards are in straight Spagnoulo fashion all the way down to the Purple Heart and Maple.

The last cutting board I made, which you can read in my last post End Grain Cutting Board was much more difficult to make as I did the glue up of all of the individual blocks at once.  The issue was the it was much more difficult to control the glue up and I ended up with some adjustments to make.  In the end I was happy with the results and the pattern was not something that could have been achieved with the method I used this build.

For the current cutting boards I glued up alternate strips of Purple Heart and Maple.  Then ripped the boards apart cross grain and alternated the pieces to give the checker board pattern.  The next step was to flip each piece up so that the end grain is turned up.  I am not going to go into anymore detail in this post as I feel that Marc does a more than adequate job of explaining in his video which can be found here on The Wood Whisperer web site.

My wife also asked me to make an ABC block for our youngest daughters first Christmas.  The block was a lot of fun to design and build.  I wanted to have each side in contrast to the next and link together like a puzzle.  It was more complicated that I originally thought as I wanted each side to look the same and I was happy with the end result.

I decided that instead of just using the ABC and 123 on the block that I would use her initials on three sides and date of birth on the other three.  The letters and numbers were branded onto the wood with a wood burner and the letters sketched from a standard template.  Wanting the block to be more than…well just a block I decided to add BB’s to the inside to make the block a rattle also.  For more details on the ABC block check back in as I will be posting a full post on the details of the build as well as Google SketchUp drawing and patterns I put together.

It takes a lot more time to build things like the cutting boards and the toy block but I believe most of us do it in hopes that the things we build will be cherished and passed down as something special.  So what did you build this year that you will be giving as presents?

Dry fit

Glue up complete

We left the next morning heading to my dads in North Carolina, but the entire trip I kept thinking about how disappointed I was with the cutting board.  By the end of the 3 1/2 hour drive I had decided that I had to fix it.  I went straight to dad’s shop and started working.  Since none of the joints were off more than the width of a table saw blade the fix seemed pretty simple.  Just rip each joint length wise of the cutting board splitting each joint.  Then reglue the joints with a now perfect fit.  I repeated this on the width after the glue had set.

The end result was perfect fitting corners and I was surprised at how little sanding was necessary to get the joints cleaned back up.  Making sure the top was even and flat paid off since there were no dips to contend with.  Just need to put a few coats of mineral oil and it should be ready to use.

My dad and his new wife were very happy with the cutting board and so was I.  The only problem is that my wife now wants 3 more built for other members of the family as Christmas presents.  This time I will use the same method Marc uses and things should go a little better.

For me the answer is, at times yes and others no.  Don’t get me wrong I am the worst person to ask for a measurement.  I can remember many times when I still strapped on a tool belt framing and would call out measurements for a 2X4 cut 8′ 3 3/32″ only to receive blank stares. It’s just that if I need to take a measurement I like to be as close as possible but the fact is I rarely measure in my shop.  Most of my project are built from an idea in my head and really only need to be the size that I think looks best.  I tend to build projects from “the outside-in” meaning that I start with the outermost carcass first and everything else gets filled in.  If and when I build something that needs to fix to an exact measurement then of coarse I want to measure as accurate as possible.

For measuring using fractions there are many options that you can work with.  Many traditional woodworkers frown upon using tape measures but growing up in the construction field I am still fond of them.  I know that they have their limitations and adjust accordingly.  For instance, the hook on the end of a tape has a little play in it but this is intended to compensate for holding to tape against a wall or hooking it over something to measure.  The only problem is that it is not perfect and the groove wears out over time.  When measuring with a tape measure I normal “cut” an inch, meaning that I hold the one inch mark at the edge being measured and add an inch to the other end, the problem with this is you have to be very careful or you will cut all of your boards and inch too short!

For smaller projects I prefer to use a metal ruler, I keep a 2′ and a 6″ around me all the time for quick measurements.  A good 6″ rulers has more uses than I will write about now but include marking and laying out mortise and tenons to spot checking board thickness.

There are many more instruments that can be used to accurately measures such as the dial caliper but for now I want to move on to alternate methods that do not require conventional scale systems.  Often all that is needed is to transfer a dimension from either a pattern or opening, in instances such as this a story stick is a perfect choice.  A story stick is simply a length of wood that is used to transfer dimensions by marking the story stick against the pattern and then using the markings made to transfer the dimension to your work.

Dividers can be used to transfer distances or layout in equal parts such as dovetail layout or even laying out drawers.

Marking gauges can be used for layout and transfer dimensions and are often used for layout of mortises, dados, or rabbets.