A Slight Re-design to Pay Due Respect

You may notice my blog has a little different layout.  I don't know why I hadn't already addressed this, but now is better than never.  I have been following Marc Spagnuolo for about four or five years.  I think I discovered him shortly after he entered the realm of woodworking podcasting.  The guy is simply a genius.  He is a constant student and never claims to know everything about woodworking, but he does knows a hell of a lot and he knows a hell of a lot of other great woodworkers, who know a hell of a lot.  (Could I use "a hell of a lot" anymore?)  He's accessible and his podcasts are the best on the internet and, in my opinion, the best woodworking shows period on or off the internet.  I've been a member of The WoodWhisperer Guild since it's inception and although I don't usually build along with the projects that The Guild is making, the enormous amount of information make it very well worth the money spent to become a Guild member.  Please take the time to to click the affiliate link on the right side of my page and peruse his Guild site.  If you don't know who Marc is or the online presence he has built, check out the free The WoodWhisperer offerings:  The WoodTalk Online site for a really great talk radio webcast featuring Marc, Matt Vanderlist of Matt's Basement Workshop, the Podfather of Woodworking and Shannon Rogers - The Renaissance Woodworker.  On Woodtalk Online you'll also find a new radio show featuring Marc and Matt reviewing woodworking DVDs and giving them a rating of 1 to 5 "grape sodas";  The WoodTalk Online Forum, which is the most friendly woodworking forum you will visit.  Mean spirited or overly judgmental people simply aren't welcome;  Last, but not least, is the Live Chat/Live Stream page where you can chat in real time with fellow woodworkers and usually get a glimpse into one of the many shops that stream live via Ustream, including mine.  All these sites can be reached via the main The WoodWhisperer site.


Another addition is The Hand Tool School badge.  The Hand Tool School is the brain child of Shannon Rogers, mentioned above.  The premise behind the school is to capture the apprentice experience as best we can in this cyber age.  You will learn how to use hand tools, which is an essential aspect of creating fine furniture.   While I'm what is referred to as a hybrid woodworker, which means I make furniture with both power and hand tools, all the fine tuning and fit is done with hand tools.  You simply can't set up any power tools to give you the fine fit and finish you can achieve with hand tools.  


If you love woodworking as much as I do, are a beginner or even a well skilled woodworker, you have a more available knowledge base than ever before.  Take advantage of that.  I hope to see you around the community I love so much.

My First Dovetail

There are a lot of firsts in life. Your first step, first kiss, first time making love. To be honest, I'd like to forget all my firsts, because I pretty much sucked. But, you deserve full disclosure on my woodworking abilities, or, more accurately, inabilities. So, here is my first dovetail joint. I know, pretty sad. But, believe me, not as sad as some of my other firsts. Thankfully, if you are willing to practice, you will generally get better. I give you my second attempt at the dovetail joint. While it is no where near what I could be proud of, it is better than my first attempt. I hope those of you who are just starting out, will be inspired to know you are not the only person in the world that sucks at this. Everyone had to start somewhere and like all my other firsts, everything that followed has gotten better. I usually walk pretty well now, at least when I'm sober.

Serving Bisket - Top and Bottom

I'm behind on my little project due to being "forced to spend a day by the pool, BBQing and drinking beers with a few friends?" Well, at least it was fun and I got to eat my two favorite foods, Pork and Bacon. YUM!!! Throw a piece of ham on that and I'd be in heaven! I BBQ'd pork tenderloins, wrapped in bacon and rubbed with roasted and ground fennel seed, salt and pepper. I don't know if I've covered the fact that Sylvia has decided that nothing needs to die for her subsistence. While I agree with her feelings on the subject, I told her I'd like to get through the summer before I go completely vegetarian. At least she can still eat eggs. The new diet hasn't completely killed me because Sylvia is an awesome cook who could probably make brussel sprouts taste OK.

Anyway, I managed to get a little shop time in tonight and got the top panel that I'd re-glued, re-sanded. I cut both the top and bottom to final dimension and tomorrow will hopefully have time to get in and figure out the dimensions for the legs and start getting them rough cut.
Also, on a tangent, be nice to others. Yesterday, someone attacked a friend's blog with some really just plain, nasty comments. It was clear the guy had some weird agenda, probably because my friend has worked hard and made a very, very successful blog (http://thewoodwhisperer.com).
Anyway, like I said, be nice. Life is WAAAY too short to spend any of it being someone that you wouldn't even like.

Serving Bisket - OOPS! & Changes

Well, I got the top and bottom of the serving stand glued up. That was one step forward. When I ran them through my drum sander, the bottom looked good


but the top, mmmmm not so good. I didn't pencil on a triangle to keep my boards organized and I got my heartwood stuck between my sapwood.


Or did I get my sapwood stuck between my heartwood. Either way, I doubt it tastes much like peanut butter and chocolate. So, one step back and re-saw and re-glue the top.

The rest of the night I spent trying to figure out the edge detail. Since I am still limited on the selection of tools to choose from and I really wanted a curve that I can't get with a router (at least that I know of), I decided the tablesaw was probably my best bet. This first profile just seems too much of an ogee to have the Asian feel I'm going for.

I tried a few different configuration of the angle of the temporary fence and the angle of the blade, but nothing felt good. So, back to the sketch book. I think this design has a better Asian flair and is much more doable with the on the tablesaw.



We'll see.

Serving Bisket - The Rough Milling

I learned several lessons yesterday. First, no matter how hard you try to get the blade tracking correctly on a bandsaw, if it's been neglected for over fifteen years and therefore the tires have gone bad, the blades gonna still fly off. Second, you can't joint a board on a jointer that isn't tuned correctly. Third, and final (at least for yesterday), you should probably wear shoes in the shop. I dropped a piece of lumber on one of my toes and OUCH! Well, after getting Ken's jointer adjusted correctly I was able to get my boards faced jointed and get a square corner. Today I hobbled around barefoot (I did say probably should wear shoes) and cleaned an area to work in and I got the top and bottom of Bisket's serving stand rough milled and glued up.
Even though I'm not to good at this yet, I'm having a great time. I went into the shop this morning when Sylvia went to church, turned on some Elton John, and started cleaning. You can actually see the floors again. As I said, I'm really not ready to start projects. I need to build cabinets to house all my "stuff" and build some actual work stations (notice the door on sawhorses I'm currently using for a workbench). Those saw horses are the base for my "router table", too. I don't remember what I was thinking when I built the cabinet for the drill press. I must've been feeling very tall that day, 'cause it's built for someone that's over six feet. But the old girl takes precedent. I try to always remember "family first, then friends, then everything else." Once I get the final top and bottom of Bisket's stand cut to size I can figure out the dimensions of the "legs". I'll probably need to tune up my drum sander as it hasn't been used in about five years and it's been bumped around a lot.