Month: March 2013

The Woodworking Shows and Tool Gloat!

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

As you may or may not have noticed, but I am attempting to do more posts, and doing one at least weekly.  This week, there are two posts!  This past weekend, I attended The Woodworking Shows in Columbus Ohio.  I must say, I had a blast!  This was the first time I attended one of these shows.  This show is mainly about the vendor booths, but there were also some excellent presentations as well.  I watched presentations by Paul Moore, also known as The Crazy Woodworking Canadian.  He showed off some techniques and products, but was popping jokes left and right and had the audience rolling.  I see the same theme coming up at this show as I do at other shows, which is the growth in hand tools.  I watched a presentation by Paul Sellers, who is a very talented woodworking.  What he did with hand tools in a very short period of team puts most of us to shame when using power tools.  Andy Chidwick and Chuck Bender also put on a great presentation as well.

Something that was great about both days I went to the show was meeting up with people.  The first day, I brought my Dad up with me.  While he has an appreciation of the craft and the tools that go in to them, he isn’t into woodworking to the degree I am.  Still, we both really enjoyed the time together.  The next day, I met up with Kevin and ran into Sean, both of whom I have had some conversations with online.  It is always great to put a real face on those we talk to online!

2013-03-04 20.27.54Finally the tool gloat.  🙂  There were a lot of good deals at the show.  After walking around the show a bit, I started making me purchase strategy, which includes the okay from the boss (aka the wife!).  Some of my smaller purchases came from the far back corner of the show where there was a tool closeout area.  There was a lot of junk there, but a few gems with in2013-03-04 20.03.34 the junk.  It was priced so cheaply it was worth the risk on some of it.  First off, I bought 4 calipers for the lathe, at $3 a piece.  I also got 3 boxes of sand paper for my random orbit sander, also at $3 each.  Finally, I bought a file for $2.  For my big purchase I bought more clamps.  I ended up going with four 18″ Bessey Revos, for under $140!

All-in-all it was a great weekend!!

 

Spring is coming soon…… Please hurry!

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

2012-09-23 18.45.19So, it is early March, and reflecting back on the winter we had, it was COLD!  I do have a kerosene heater that I can warm the garage, but it is only effective if the outside temp is over freezing.  Most any day I can get it tolerable to be in the shop with a sweater or jacket on, but if I can’t get it into the mid-50s it isn’t worth it.  First, I don’t like working in the shop with long sleeves on, for various safety reasons, as well as I feel like I can move more freely when working with hand tools.  Next, and yes on this one I am being a wuss, but cast iron and tool steel is COLD and uncomfortable to work with!

2013-01-30 22.44.46That said, I am starting to think ahead as to what I will be working on this spring.  First off, I want to finish the box for the box challenge.  It is nearly done, but I have an idea of a detail I want to put inside the lid first.  I will post here how that works out.  Once that is done, I will mortise out for the hinges and once the outside temp is steady enough, put some finish on it.

Next, I want to finish my hand tool cabinet.  I made a lot of progress on it last fall, and it has been sitting on saw horses waiting for me to get back to working on it.  One thing I have been thinking on is the drawers.  First, I want to do hand cut dovetails with them again.  One thing I am tempted to try is making them half blind.  I will have to do some more research on it.  The other thing is, I want the drawers to be unique.  I have been thinking about getting a small amount of some sort of figured exotic for the fronts.

As for other projects, I have a few ideas in the works, as does my wife.  🙂

A day of zen in the shop

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

2013-01-19 18.22.49As mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on box that was part of a challenge in the chat room for The Wood Whisperer.  While I missed the deadline to get it completed for the trade portion of the challenge, I still have every intent to finish it.  There have been a lot of firsts on this project, with far more hand tool work done on this, including hand cut dovetails as the primary joinery for this project.

That brings me to my day of zen in the shop.  Most days I spend in the shop are good days, but this day was one of the best days.  During this day, I did not use a single power tool.  The only electrons abused were the ones powering the lights in the shop.

So, what did I accomplish during this day of zen in the shop?  I finished cleaning the tails, cut out and cleaned up the pins, and fitted all 4 corners of the box.

Just me, a dovetail saw, a few chisels, a mallet, and four pieces of wood, with some classical music playing.  Does it just get any better then that?  Well, yes, it does.  When I brought the first corner together first time.  The fact that it slipped together with some light taps of the mallet.  Even better?  Doing it 3 more times!  After doing a little more cleanup, I had a box that was reasonably square.

Since the day of zen, and the previous post, the box parts were sanded, glued together, and the lid separated.  Still some work to do on it before putting the first coat of finish on it, including a little more hand tool work.  Perhaps another day of zen in the shop?