Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Thursday, February 20, 2014
I Am Wood Working And So Can You
Issues of Popular Woodworking Magazine always get a bit of a work-over in the blog-o-sphere after its out. Not usually one of those "a few rounds in the ring with Tyson" work-over, more that the folks over there do a talented lot, excellent at more than just woodworking they have a knack for inspiring discussion more so than any of the other magazine publications. This would most likely stem from the fact that Chris Schwarz is a prolific blogger, and bloggers tend to keep up with other bloggers stuff,and this results in more discussion. All a very good thing.
Chris did make me laugh out loud with this most recent issue of Pop Wood in his "On The Level" blurb at the beginning of the magazine. Where he called out the woodworking to community to take up the cause of blogging about woodworking to preserve the knowledge for future generations. I have to say that kind of goal puts only a little more pressure on the quality of my own blog posts, but it did make me think about why I started blogging about my work.
It wasnt necessarily to teach anybody anything, not that Im against teaching, Ill show you anything I know and make up some of the stuff I dont know if you ask me. And it wasnt to brag, if it was that then Id be putting up finished pics and talking about how great I am instead of documenting my mistakes along side my triumphs. It was some about creating a chronicle of my work, Before I started the blog I had been woodworking for about 8 to 9 years, but I had rarely taken a camera into my shop. In fact some things Ive built that have gone to other loving homes, I have no pictures or record of. The more that occurred to me the more it bothered me. How can you know where you want to go if you cant see where youve been. So the camera began to sneak its way into the shop.
Then we moved from LaCrosse Wisconsin to Presque Isle Maine. Just under 1700 miles away from family, friends, and the lives we knew. Why? The usual reason, something that looked like a good job prospect,
While we were living out there I began a blog about us, my wife, my daughters and myself, so that the folks back at home could keep up with us and we could feel like we were still in touch. A few months in I realized that I could also blog about my woodworking and I started with my first real project done out there, building a real workbench, a hybrid version between the 175 dollar workbench and the Nicholson or English Workbench. It was kind of raw and I fumbled my way through the process. Several times I have been tempted to go back and heavily edit those posts, but I fight it because again, I want to know where Ive come from.
We have moved back to Wisconsin, with lessons well learned, and the blogging not only continued, but I got a little more serious about it. Blogging about my work is great for several reasons, only one of those reasons is the point Chris brings up about passing along and archiving knowledge, but there are other reasons that are of a direct reward to me. One is blogging keeps me in the shop and motivated. I have a personal goal of making 2 to 3 posts on this blog a week, sometimes I do better, sometimes I do worse, but it averages out. To have something to write about, most of the time I have to have done something. This gets my arse in the shop, and more time in the shop equals better skills, and better skills lead to more ambitious projects, which lead to . . . you guessed it, new blog content, more work, better skills and better projects and outcomes. Its a delightful cycle that can fuel itself. If you need no other reason to blog, I suggest you use this one.
The other big thing blogging has done for me is made my very curious to read other woodworkers blogs, something that had never occurred to me before I forged a beginners blog of my own. This has opened the door to me to become part of an online woodworking community, both through reading and commenting on others blogs but also being inspired to search out other woodworkers on social media platforms like Twitter (shameless plug: you can follow me on Twitter @oldwolfworkshop). This has also given me more of a connection to woodworking than ever before.
As you can see in the left hand side of my blog I follow a good number of the woodworking blogs out there, I enjoy all the content that each of them offers, but tonight Im talking about inspiration more than anything and I want to point out a few blogs as particular inspiration to me. Obviously missing from the list will be Chris Schwarzs multiple blogs, his work goes without saying and needs no further fanfare from the likes of little ol me.
First I am going to start with one of the heavy hitters from the list, Peter Follansbee, and his blog Joiners Notes. Peter is a gifted woodworker who focuses all of his attention to working with hand tools only, using period joinery and carving techniques from the 17th century. You can tell from the execution of his blog that his work flows in an effortless practiced way that comes from a great amount of study, practice, and familiarity. I love his articles and how they delve past the "this is how you can do this" layer of work and into the thoughts and broad knowledge base behind the work. I feel smarter every time I read a post from his blog and I look forward to every one.
Next is a man who is a blogging machine, I am very happy if I can get up 2 to 3 posts a week. This guy posts
Heres a confession, I am definitely not a podcast kind of guy. I will watch a video if I feel its right up my alley but generally speaking I get more from reading and pictures than I do from listening, maybe its just me but my attention span checks out. That means that I dont get as much out of some great blogs like the Wood Whisperer, Renaissance Woodworker, or the Logan Cabinet Shoppe. (These guys all have great regular blog content as well, and are top notch, Im not knocking them I just dont always get as much from their blogs as other probably do) But to every rule there is an exception, and my exception is Matt Vanderlist and his Spoken Wood Podcast, where he features blog posts written by others yet recorded read out loud, either by the author, or by Matt himself. The fact that he links back to the original post in his show notes helps me as I can go and look at the post while Im listening, now the content really hits home.
Dyami is fairly new to the blog-o-sphere as he has only been posting at The Penultimate Woodshop for about 2 months as I write this post, but he is a great example of everything that is great in blogging. When I find new blogs, one of my favorite things is to go back and read the very first thing they posted, Dyami writes exactly about the reason people often dont blog, in fact the same hurdle I had to jump myself to start typing, the great question "Compared to those guys out there, what value can I possibly add?" and hes a perfect example of why that thinking is wrong. You should definitely be reading what hes up to, theres good stuff here.
When I started a hand tool only odyssey a year ago there were tools I wanted to use, but I could not find them as a "non antique" for an affordable price. What was I to do? Then I found Leif at the Norse Woodsmith, and began to read his blog. There is a ton of information over here on maintaining hand tools and even making some from scratch. (Making my own floats following his example is fast approaching on my do do list). A quick look at his archives told me he has been placing his quality content on the net since 2004, so until I wrote this article I didnt even realize the depths of information that are contained here. Im going back to dip for more as soon as I finish this post, you should come with me.
Rob Porcaro and his blog Heartwood does things just right, He offers a good mixture of well thought out and well written content, from technique to tools to projects. He always has a new little tip or trick he likes to share. Again if you go back and look at the first post he blogs I think he really has the philosophy correct and verbalized better than I could. He talks about an oily rag he keeps in his shop for wiping down tools after use, I keep a similar rag and I think a lot of woodworkers do, but hes right when he says that something like that would never be discussed or covered in a woodworking book or magazine, and then that information is more difficult to pass along to those new to the passion. Rob describes the idea behind his blog is a chance for others to sneak a peek over his shoulder, maybe to be inspired, maybe to just find a different way of doing something. This mirrors what I try to do with my blog.
I should say that the choices I made in which bloggers to feature is like a slice of pie when it comes to getting woodworking information on the internet, I take that back it would be just a bite of a slice of that pie, and even though that bite is sweet on the tongue and lights off a million pleasure sensors in the brain, there is another bite to take after this one, and there is so much more to discover out on the net. I cannot encourage you enough to take up the cause, to read, and start your own blog, You will not only be helping, motivating, and inspiring yourself, but youll be sharing your time and motivation with others.
Cheers
Oldwolf
P.S. I would be remiss here if I didnt take a second to thank all of my own readers out there. I have been blogging for a little over a year and my hit counter just hit the 5 digit level, thats 10,000+ pages read on my blog and that is indeed a humbling number, Thank you again for all the support and please keep tuning in.
Read More..
Chris did make me laugh out loud with this most recent issue of Pop Wood in his "On The Level" blurb at the beginning of the magazine. Where he called out the woodworking to community to take up the cause of blogging about woodworking to preserve the knowledge for future generations. I have to say that kind of goal puts only a little more pressure on the quality of my own blog posts, but it did make me think about why I started blogging about my work.
It wasnt necessarily to teach anybody anything, not that Im against teaching, Ill show you anything I know and make up some of the stuff I dont know if you ask me. And it wasnt to brag, if it was that then Id be putting up finished pics and talking about how great I am instead of documenting my mistakes along side my triumphs. It was some about creating a chronicle of my work, Before I started the blog I had been woodworking for about 8 to 9 years, but I had rarely taken a camera into my shop. In fact some things Ive built that have gone to other loving homes, I have no pictures or record of. The more that occurred to me the more it bothered me. How can you know where you want to go if you cant see where youve been. So the camera began to sneak its way into the shop.
Then we moved from LaCrosse Wisconsin to Presque Isle Maine. Just under 1700 miles away from family, friends, and the lives we knew. Why? The usual reason, something that looked like a good job prospect,
We have moved back to Wisconsin, with lessons well learned, and the blogging not only continued, but I got a little more serious about it. Blogging about my work is great for several reasons, only one of those reasons is the point Chris brings up about passing along and archiving knowledge, but there are other reasons that are of a direct reward to me. One is blogging keeps me in the shop and motivated. I have a personal goal of making 2 to 3 posts on this blog a week, sometimes I do better, sometimes I do worse, but it averages out. To have something to write about, most of the time I have to have done something. This gets my arse in the shop, and more time in the shop equals better skills, and better skills lead to more ambitious projects, which lead to . . . you guessed it, new blog content, more work, better skills and better projects and outcomes. Its a delightful cycle that can fuel itself. If you need no other reason to blog, I suggest you use this one.The other big thing blogging has done for me is made my very curious to read other woodworkers blogs, something that had never occurred to me before I forged a beginners blog of my own. This has opened the door to me to become part of an online woodworking community, both through reading and commenting on others blogs but also being inspired to search out other woodworkers on social media platforms like Twitter (shameless plug: you can follow me on Twitter @oldwolfworkshop). This has also given me more of a connection to woodworking than ever before.
As you can see in the left hand side of my blog I follow a good number of the woodworking blogs out there, I enjoy all the content that each of them offers, but tonight Im talking about inspiration more than anything and I want to point out a few blogs as particular inspiration to me. Obviously missing from the list will be Chris Schwarzs multiple blogs, his work goes without saying and needs no further fanfare from the likes of little ol me.
First I am going to start with one of the heavy hitters from the list, Peter Follansbee, and his blog Joiners Notes. Peter is a gifted woodworker who focuses all of his attention to working with hand tools only, using period joinery and carving techniques from the 17th century. You can tell from the execution of his blog that his work flows in an effortless practiced way that comes from a great amount of study, practice, and familiarity. I love his articles and how they delve past the "this is how you can do this" layer of work and into the thoughts and broad knowledge base behind the work. I feel smarter every time I read a post from his blog and I look forward to every one.
Next is a man who is a blogging machine, I am very happy if I can get up 2 to 3 posts a week. This guy posts
every
single
day.
His name is Brian Meeks and his blog is called Extremely Average, but it is far from that. Brian is fairly new to woodworking but he is really catching on fast and his progress is fun to watch and, through his blog, he makes you feel like youre participating in the journey. Besides being so accessible in his writing Brians photography is incredibly beautiful. It puts me and my little digital camera to shame. I want him to come and take some photos of my work because I get so jealous of the quality that translates through with his. He is progressing fast and is definitely someone to read, and watch.Heres a confession, I am definitely not a podcast kind of guy. I will watch a video if I feel its right up my alley but generally speaking I get more from reading and pictures than I do from listening, maybe its just me but my attention span checks out. That means that I dont get as much out of some great blogs like the Wood Whisperer, Renaissance Woodworker, or the Logan Cabinet Shoppe. (These guys all have great regular blog content as well, and are top notch, Im not knocking them I just dont always get as much from their blogs as other probably do) But to every rule there is an exception, and my exception is Matt Vanderlist and his Spoken Wood Podcast, where he features blog posts written by others yet recorded read out loud, either by the author, or by Matt himself. The fact that he links back to the original post in his show notes helps me as I can go and look at the post while Im listening, now the content really hits home.
Dyami is fairly new to the blog-o-sphere as he has only been posting at The Penultimate Woodshop for about 2 months as I write this post, but he is a great example of everything that is great in blogging. When I find new blogs, one of my favorite things is to go back and read the very first thing they posted, Dyami writes exactly about the reason people often dont blog, in fact the same hurdle I had to jump myself to start typing, the great question "Compared to those guys out there, what value can I possibly add?" and hes a perfect example of why that thinking is wrong. You should definitely be reading what hes up to, theres good stuff here.
When I started a hand tool only odyssey a year ago there were tools I wanted to use, but I could not find them as a "non antique" for an affordable price. What was I to do? Then I found Leif at the Norse Woodsmith, and began to read his blog. There is a ton of information over here on maintaining hand tools and even making some from scratch. (Making my own floats following his example is fast approaching on my do do list). A quick look at his archives told me he has been placing his quality content on the net since 2004, so until I wrote this article I didnt even realize the depths of information that are contained here. Im going back to dip for more as soon as I finish this post, you should come with me.
Rob Porcaro and his blog Heartwood does things just right, He offers a good mixture of well thought out and well written content, from technique to tools to projects. He always has a new little tip or trick he likes to share. Again if you go back and look at the first post he blogs I think he really has the philosophy correct and verbalized better than I could. He talks about an oily rag he keeps in his shop for wiping down tools after use, I keep a similar rag and I think a lot of woodworkers do, but hes right when he says that something like that would never be discussed or covered in a woodworking book or magazine, and then that information is more difficult to pass along to those new to the passion. Rob describes the idea behind his blog is a chance for others to sneak a peek over his shoulder, maybe to be inspired, maybe to just find a different way of doing something. This mirrors what I try to do with my blog.
I should say that the choices I made in which bloggers to feature is like a slice of pie when it comes to getting woodworking information on the internet, I take that back it would be just a bite of a slice of that pie, and even though that bite is sweet on the tongue and lights off a million pleasure sensors in the brain, there is another bite to take after this one, and there is so much more to discover out on the net. I cannot encourage you enough to take up the cause, to read, and start your own blog, You will not only be helping, motivating, and inspiring yourself, but youll be sharing your time and motivation with others.
Cheers
Oldwolf
P.S. I would be remiss here if I didnt take a second to thank all of my own readers out there. I have been blogging for a little over a year and my hit counter just hit the 5 digit level, thats 10,000+ pages read on my blog and that is indeed a humbling number, Thank you again for all the support and please keep tuning in.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part I
This project began many months ago when my wife, a crafter, pinned this glue gun rack to one of her Pinterest boards. When I saw it I figured it would be easy to make and improve upon, so I re-pinned it to my Neat Things Carolyn Would Like Me To Build board.
 |
| The pin that started it the odyssey. |
Fast forward a few weeks from my initially seeing it and after a particularly rough day at work I declared that I would need some time alone to unwind and headed to the shop. That’s when I set to building my version of the glue gun rack.
I decided that the the glue gun rack I built would be an experiment in sculpted design. Specifically, I wanted to juxtapose a rigid, rectilinear design on two (2) edges, while creating a flowing, sculpted surface on the other two (2).
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| Starting on the rack. |
I made the glue gun rack from some scraps of Walnut and Ebony I had on hand. As with any process, it began by milling the lumber flat and square. Then I did my basic layout.
 |
| Figuring out where things will go. |
First, I glued the Ebony to a piece of Walnut to make a large billet. Then I used my Domino to make the mortises in all the pieces.
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| Dominos anyone? |
With the joinery done, I marked out the basic shapes on each piece, and rough cut them on my band saw.
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| Rough shaping prior to assembly. |
Next time, well glue up and begin shaping.
Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
I made my first picture frame!
My wife made a new chore chart for the family out of a piece of 20"x30" foam board and asked me how we should hang it on the wall. Ive been looking for an excuse to make a picture frame so I told her that I would take care of it. She had already decorated the board and the writing at the top was all the way to the edge so I had to come up with a way to frame it. My answer was to make a groove on the front of the board and just inset it in. This made the job a little harder because I had to make that groove perfect to fit the board. I just took my time and made several small cuts and inched up on it and I think that it turned out really good.
Read More..
I used 2 pieces of 1x2 furring strips that I had sitting in the garage. They only cost 75¢ each so I wasnt too worried about wasting them.
The furring strips were 8 feet long so I cut 2 pieces at 35" and 2 at 26" on the miter saw to have some room for mistakes.
I labeled all the good sides so that I would know which face to use.
I used my router table with a 3/8" straight bit to cut the groove for the foam board to sit in.
I made the groove with several shallow passes.
My wife didnt like how wide the furring strip was so I made the groove wider rather then trying to rip the pieces into a smaller width.
I cut an extra bottom/top piece just in case and then sanded them all smooth.
I cut the outside edge using a Roman OG bit. I tried it at a couple of different depths until I found the profile that I liked. I ended up going with the one on the right.
It looks like a good fit to me!
I try to label everything that I can so that I can keep everything straight in my head.
I made marks on the boards for the mitered angles on the ends to make sure that I cut them in the right direction.
I made all the cuts at a 45 degree angle.
Heres the first cut!
I clamped the 2 pieces together and set the foam board in so that I could check the fit and mark where I needed to make the next cuts.
I put the frame together using glue
and brad nails.
I checked the inside of the frame for square and it looked good.
I also put 2 staples in the back of each corner just to play it safe.
I applied 2 coats of polyurethane with a light sanding between each coat.
I marked the top for center
and hammered in a simple hanger. (I cant think of the name of it right now)
I used hot glue on the back of the board to attach it to the frame.
Here is the completed board hanging in our kitchen.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Wheres that Studley guy when I need him
Last week I purchased a great set of English Turnscrews from jimbodetools.com. The minute they came out of the box I started putting together a template of the rack I want to produce so they can hang in splendor in the tool cabinet.
I’ve been a tad remiss regarding this tool cabinet these past few months. The reason for this is that it is not going to work for me. The reality is, I have purchased too many bloody tools!
I think my collection totals over 300 pieces now and it is still growing. Currently, I have two pieces out being worked on by pros, and I have no idea where I’m going to put them when they are finally delivered. Hell, I haven’t even seen them yet, as I purchased them and had the seller send them straight off to the refurbishers. One of them is a beautiful French veneer saw that I purchased, again, from jimbodetools.com. Because I plan to actually use this thing, I had Jim send it to Woodnut4 to sharpen, as well as doing anything else to it that he deems necessary. In honour of Mr. Shepherd over at the Full Chisel blog, I’m now looking for a glue pot.
So you can see my problem.
While Mr. Studley was quite adapt at putting his 300 tools together like a jigsaw puzzle in his, roughly, 4 cubic feet of tool chest, it turns out I’m not so well blessed. I built this case six or seven years ago and have already reconfigured it twice, the current work being the third time I have ripped it all out and started again, trying to make it accommodate the new purchases. Sadly, I don’t live on a farm where I could take over some outbuilding, drive a bunch of nails in its walls and just hang every up around me. Compact storage is a necessity of life.
With all this in mind, I have decided, much to my wife’s chagrin, to chuck it all and start again. To this end I have been mulling things over in my head, trying to get a handle on what would work and what wouldn’t. I think I am now ready to start the plans for a cabinet that will be mainly drawers, a lot wider and deeper than the current version, with a few cupboards with glass doors so I can display some of my pride and joys and be able to look at them as I pass by. I still get a buzz just looking at this stuff.
With my current workload, that new chest is going to be something that is going to take a while, so in the mean time, I am going to do a few additions to the current one, just to get some of these tools up and out of the way. Ok. That is really not the truth. The real reason for wanting to get some of these tools mounted in the cabinet is so my wife won’t really know how this obsession with tools has taken over my life. Included what is already mounted in the cabinet, I have the two huge drawers in the bottom of it crammed full of tools, a bunch sitting on top of it, and a number spread out around the office. I even have three planes sitting beside my main computer station; the No. 3 I turned into an iPhone dock with a No. 2 on one side of it and a No. 4 on the other. Because I have no place for any new tools arriving, I have to leave them out and my wife is starting to catch on. “Is this another new tool?” she asks. “No, dear. It is one I pulled from the drawer just to have it around so I can see it” he answers, lying through his teeth.
So I started this template for the turnscrews and, speaking to a buddy this morning who is into tools, I mentioned it to him. He asked how I was creating it and was surprised when I explained it to him. I thought everyone did it this way.
I use a flatbed scanner.
I mainly work in Adobe Illustrator when I make plans. I have AutoCad and know how to use it, but I just don’t find it as workable as Illustrator when it comes to making templates and things. Illustrator is a vector based graphics program that is the best thing in the world for creating line drawings, as far as I am concerned.
I have a fair sized section in the back of the cabinet that is still empty, so it is a great spot for these turnscrews. The area is 22 ½ inches tall and is more than wide enough to accommodate these screwdrivers. I laid the set of them, all five, down on the flatbed scanner and took a scan of them. This gave me a full-sized image of each. One thing you have to be aware of when doing this is that the scan you make has to be at the same resolution as the drawing you will be creating.
I brought the image into Illustrator and traced them, resulting in a full-sized line drawing. Before I start doing any layout, I take accurate measurements of each piece, making sure it matches measurements of the critical parts of the pieces, which in this case is the collars that will be used to rest the tool on in the rack, as well as heights and widths overall.
Using these line drawings, spacing them out the same as I want the real versions to be in the finished rack, they allow me to find the centre points for each, resulting in the template that you see below. This is created full-sized, printed, and the resulting paper template is stuck to the stock with double-faced tape. This works out great for drilling the holes and reaming them and makes doing that work very easy and quick as all the sizes are listed for each.
To figure out how the rack will be configured, I use the full versions, this giving me the height and width of the space required, and if I have some space left over, I can do the same for what I want to fill that area with.
I purchased a Stanley 70, a complete set, a year or so ago, and I have been worried I would misplace some of the pieces ever since. The space I had under these screwdrivers would be ideal.
I took all the parts to this plane and laid those out on the scanner. The result is the image you see below; a full sized display of each part’s footprint.
In this case, I just cut out each piece in Photoshop and brought them into Illustrator, leaving them in the original image form so you can see how this works. By moving and rotating the different pieces, you can put it all together like a jigsaw puzzle, taking advantage of every inch you have. You also have to remember the “Z” factor as well; the depth of the area. There are two blades and the depth stop shown in the image below, one on top of the other. This is because they will be mounted in holes drilled into a block of wood on the cabinet base, one in front of the other. With the drawings done, I can lay down the measurements required, print it off, and get to work.
In reality, it is a real buzz doing things this way; using 21st century technology to build something using 19th century tools. Added to that is the fact that what you start out with is as accurate as possible, so mistakes are minimized.
Give it a shot. It works like a dream. If you run into any issues, or want some help getting the templates, give me a shout. I would be happy to help.
Peace,
Mitchell
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