So as Ron Hock so eloquently put it in his latest newsletter:

“Here’s the story: It all began with visionary and passionate woodworking bloggers who – ahem –  were drinking together  one evening in Covington, Kentucky, during Woodworking in America 2011.

Imagine the bar, please. Imagine the bloggers, beers in hand and orders up. Together they fret and cry aloud.

     “We are concerned that the appreciation of finely-crafted furniture will be lost in this disposable world we so love to hate! If we do not cultivate a new group or even a whole new generation of woodworkers, who will we bequeath our tools to once we’ve planed that last plank!”

So we came up with a small way we could help “get folks off the sideline and into woodworking as a hobby.” Since I was one of those bloggers — drunkards — I figured I better contribute something.

Tom Iovino, from the blog Tom’s Workbench, is coordinating our efforts. Many of us will be posting articles all week regarding first tool selections and good starter projects. This is a great opportunity for anyone to jump in and get there hands covered in sawdust. So please participate and post your results!

You can find out more over at  Tom’s Workbench. I personally plan on doing 1-2 articles on getting started with Asian style tools and setting up a basic shop. So tune in next week for those. Ok I’m out to the shop to make those projects.

This summer has been occupied by 3 major projects: a 55′x50′ garden, a flock of ducks, and a couple alpacas.

The garden is pretty self explanatory: till, plant, weed, weed, pick, can, pick, can, can, can…..

The flock of ducks involved a large, insulated, and frankly over-engendered coop.(at least I have a place to sleep if I ever get locked out of the house)

The alpacas involved fencing all our property and making a simple shelter.

I’ll be honest, most of my construction projects are pretty much by the seat of my pants.  On a whim for this one I decided I would attempt to plan a bit better and see if I could limit my trips to the store.

My criteria for this project were pretty simple:

1. Simple structure
2. Moveable to a different pasture once we build horse stalls in the front paster next summer
3. Have to be able to build it in less than a week.
4. 80+ square feet x 6-8ft tall

These criteria lead to the following structure parameters:

1. Skid foundation
2. Sloping corrugated flat roof
3. Sheet goods siding

With those parameters I dove into Google SketchUp. I started out with a simple 3 sided structure on skids. After some tinkering it evolved into this (download the SketchUp File):

This took me about an hour to design and model. Nothing fancy, but it allows me to make a very accurate shopping list.

Lumber:
pressure treated 2x6x8 – 2x
pressure treated 6x6x12 skid – 2x
2x6x12 roof – 10x
2x4x12 – 5x
2x4x8 – 35x
siding 4′x8′ pieces – 8x

Fasteners:
Galvanized nails
Construction screws
Deck screws for siding
6″ long galvanized bolts, nuts, washers – 4x

Roof material to cover – 11.5′ x 12′
Roofing fasteners.

4′ solid cinder blocks – 4x
Total cost for the shed: ~$550

Construction of this shed is pretty strait forward. I chopped a couple of lap joints into the 6×6 skids to house the 2×6’s. This allows 2×6’s to lock in and make the entire base self squaring (provided I did my layout and sawing square).

After day one I have the base and 3 walls built and in place.

Day two the roof and front small wall is in place

Day three I spent about 6 hours ripping 2×4’s in half and trimming out the shed.

Need to paint the trim when I paint the fence next week, and we are good to go.

So with the help of the ShetchUp workflow it took me just about an hour to design this shed…. and it saved me AT LEAST one trip to the store. That means that it was a time saver, and a money saver, in gas at the very least.

And here is our new fury friends.

Well, about the only thing I have a chance at is, edge jointing a board and ripping. So I embarked on an adventure to figure out this western sawing thing.

First things first… it looks like western woodworkers use something called a saw bench. Who better to teach me, than the master off all things western knuckle dragging “the Schwarz“? Utilizing this article and online access to this video i knocked it together in a few hours off and on.

I dont really have the western saws to build it like the master… so much to Wilber Pan’s chagrin I built it using my Japanese saws.

“The way I look at it, it’s doubly ironic since a western saw bench will be of little use with a Japanese saw.

On the other hand, Nik does not need to apologize for using the best kind of saw there is.” – Wilbur Pan

Even with all that, it went together great; and as usual Christopher Schwarz‘s classes and articles are amazing: educational and entertaining.

Now I just need to figure out how to use this thing.

Hmm…. that doesn’t seem to work very well. Maybe Wilbur was right?

That seems to work better, but I really  have no clue what I’m doing! Sorry guys! Our WIA team in screwed! But at least I’ve used a saw bench and a western saw once, and that nice Disston D-8 Rip saw I have isn’t just hanging on the wall.

Anyway… Supper excited about WIA later this week. Can’t wait to hang out with the online woodworking community and enjoy some great classes! Hope to see you there!

A small group of ruffians spent much of last years Woodworking in America conference hanging out together. So much so, that George Walker called us out as the “American Chopper crew”; for whatever reason, I guess we look disreputable to the design master.

Well we’ve decided to start this years conference with a bang. It started out billed as a blogger gathering, but really it’s just an online community gathering and all are welcome! (Thank goodness or I wouldn’t have been allowed)

Date and Time: Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m. until they give us the boot or we remember how old we really are.
Location: Keystone Bar & Grill, 313 Greenup Street, Covington, Kentucky
Facebook invite if you want to RSVP (no need)

I know no one knows me but we’ve got tentative confirmations from real celebrities. Such as: Kari Hultman, Tom Iovino, Steven Taylor, Rob Bois, and Matt Vanderlist. So get your butt there. If you show up late I can’t guarantee that I’ll have left you any of the good beer ;-P

I’ve been waiting ever since the 11″ MacBook Air was introduced, for Apple to put a decent processer in it. Finally that time as come and I jumped in and grabbed an i7 11″ Air.

Unfortunately my desk needs some rearranging to work with my new mobile lifestyle. I had to dump one of my monitors, and I need to make a stand to raise and angle my Air a bit, and maybe mount a few USB peripherals, we’ll see…

I haven’t had much time in the shop this summer as I’ve been building a coop for our ducks, managing a large garden and doing numerous outdoor things; but I had an itch to work with some hardwood so I decided to throw together a quick iPhone dock. I had some scrap Wenge and Cherry laying around so here is a quick gallery of the process.

Ok back to canning a huge amount of tomato sauce…

1. A saw of some kind (Sure you could probity cut wood with a chisel but it sure would take a long time, and while I’m pretty good with a hatchet a saw is a lot more versatile). If I only had one saw to choose from I would grab a 240mm Ryoba (Is it cheating that it’s 2 saws in one? ).

2. A workbench

Thousands of articles and books have been written on the subject and I’m certainly not an expert. If you want the current definitive book on the subject, go grab “Workbenches: From Design And Theory To Construction And Use” by the master himself, “The Schwarz”.

Long story summed up:

1. You need something relatively flat.
2. You need to be able to secure your work to the bench
3. You don’t want to bench to move or flex while you are working

Since I started on this woodworking journey almost 2 years ago I’ve made do with a 2×4 construction lumber table that was screwed to the wall.

As I started down my journey of hand tool usage I quickly found defecates and came up with solutions to those defecates.

Using the principles found in Fine Woodworking’s Getting Started in Woodworking video series I was able to add an MDF laminated top and a quick release vice.  That bench served me very well and I was able to get started for less than $100.

Due to a recent move I was forced to leave my starter bench behind attached to old house. Luckily for me the original owner and builder of our new house was a woodworker and left this great bench! (that’s a Stanley #608 jointer on there for size reference)

While the bench was incredibly out of level and uneven, there is a whole lot of wood here and there and the base is solid!

After a bit of planing I was able to determine that the top was made out of 4/4 Walnut about 3.5″ thick.

It was fairly beat up and there are a number of nails that later caused me a fair bit of cussing. One interesting element is this cool little pop up planing stop.

Further investigation revealed that the top was nailed together as opposed to glued. While I’m sure it would have been just fine to leave it like that, I decided I wanted it a bit more solid so thus begin the following process.

Retrofitting an old bench:

I did a bit of rough flattening on the top and then took the top off and flipped it over.

I got myself some West System Epoxy and mixed a slow set epoxy with some 404 High Density Filler and a bit of brown dye to make the white filler not stand out so much.

After that it was just a matter of spreading the epoxy over the surfaces and allowing it to seep down into all the cracks.

Make sure you have a good selection of long clamps if you ever attempt anything like this. I had to get a few more!

Vice Selection:

I launched myself into this process with no idea what I was going to do when it came to work holding. The original bench had a leg vice. While these have been all the rage due to the resurgence of the Roubo bench that Christopher Schwarz’s book popularized, I’m not a huge fan.

As for a tail vise, there wasn’t one at all on this original bench. I hemmed and hawed long and hard and put off my decision and managed to procrastinate so long that I still hadn’t decided when it came time to head to Wood Working In America in October (this workbench project began July). This turned out to be a hidden blessing.

enter some really inventive Canadians…..

While at WIA I stumbled across a new product by Lee Valley – Veritas® Quick-Release Sliding Tail Vise. If there ever was a tail vise intended for bench retrofitting, it’s this one!

One thing to consider with this vice. You have to put a skirt that is at least 3 5/8″ blow the bottom of the rest of your bench top (in my case that meant I needed almsot a 7.5″ wide skirt). This will limit some clamping options (and add a few others).

installation…..

I decided that if I was going to be putting a shirt on the front I may as well just border the entire bench. (It needed end caps anyway). I got a hold of some 12/4 Ash and decided it would be perfect for this application.

I used a router to make rabbets in the ends of the bench and bolted on the end caps (making sure to drill slotted holes for the bolts to allow for wood movement).

Once that process was completer the vice installation was as breeze! First you carefully measure and place a metal plate on the bottom of the table.

Then it’s just a matter of drilling holes for all the lag bolts and anchors and bolting the vice in place.

Really the only hard part is holing and positioning the vice while putting in the lag bolts  (an extra set of hands to hold the vice or to help flip the bench over would have been handy … but as the weight this bench is, flipping it myself is about the bottom of the things I want to tackle.)

And presto vice installed! As you can see I did the vice install before I did the rest of the skirt. No particular reason, other than I wanted to play with the new toy…. of course a one sided vice doesn’t’ do much good

It ended up being a few more weeks before I got back to this project but I got all the dog holes drilled in the skirt and attached it. I also replaced the metal pop-up planing stop with a big ash one that goes all the way through the bench.

So how do I like the vise? Works great!!!!! the quick release is nice and smooth and you can apply more than enough pressure and clamping force with it. I still need to drill some holes along the face of the skirt and the front of the vice to allow clamping along that face.

Is it perfect? No I really wish it would reengage the threads as soon as you started turning the handle. Instead you have to flip the quick release lever back down. Not a big deal… but it would have been nice if it was automatic.

Really that’s the only flaw I’ve found so far.

It’s easy to install and it works great.

As for a face vice?

Well that’s still being decided. I’m thinking I’ll go with a twin screw vice to allow joinery and dovetail work on the ends of wide boards…. but I hear rumor those crazy inventive Canadians are working on some sort of new quick release face vice so who knows….. these days there always seems to be some new improved product just around the corner. It’s a good time to be a woodworker.

After much tweaking that’s the best I could come up with for me…. I look busy.

So I’ve had this #7 that I got with a broken tote. I glued it back together with titebond and it snapped a couple of uses later. I cleaned out the glue and tried gorilla glue… Broke again….

I’ve been using it for 6months with a broken tote so I made one last attempt to glue it back together and while applying clamping pressure I managed to break it in an additional spot.

Finally I decided to try my hand at making my own. It wasn’t near as bad as I though it was going to be.

First I glued a template to some rosewood.

Then it was off to the “tailed devils” for the first part of it’s construction.I justify this to myself because I needed a good first project for my new Christmas present Jigsaw…. and I hate braces!!! (Note for you non woodworkers: Most serious hand tool users consider it a borderline religion and the use of electrons a sin.)

I’ve never used rasps before so this was a learning process. I was shocked at how fast they work!!!

It’s certainly not perfect, in fact it already looks old due to some dents and dings of mistakes with the rasp, and the fit isn’t quite perfect.

But I’m happy with the first attempt and I finally have my jointer back. Finished with BLO, Shellac, and paste wax. Took about 2.5 hours of work.

This is my first “furniture” project out of hardwood and using traditional joinery. I started tinkering around with woodworking a little over a year ago and after a very intense first 6 months of learning and rehabbing old tools I managed to burn myself out.

Well fall is coming to an end and it was time to bring most of our herbs inside for the winter. (It’s impossible to beat fresh Basel, Sage, Oregano, & Rosemary). I decided at least one of the plants this winter would have a proper home and the best way to get back into woodworking was just get into the shop and start something.

I had a stack of 4/4 walnut and ash sitting around and I started this design thinking I would use that. After initial Sketchup design I decided that 4/4 wouldn’t be enough for legs and I didn’t want to do a glue-up with ash. I still wanted to use a contrasting wood so off to the hardwood dealer.

I found a nice 11′ 8/4 piece of cherry and having never worked with cherry I figured it would be a fun wood to play with.

My shop is pretty small and most of it is occupied by a workbench and a table-saw, so I take a very hybrid approach to woodworking. I start by breaking the stock down  into major chunks with a crosscut pull saw and then proceeding to square and flatten one side with a #5 & #7c hand plane.

I then take the half squared stock over to the table saw and rip it parallel to the jointed edge & in the case of the legs also ripped the other face parallel to the jointed face.

This process leaves me with jointed and squared stock  for the legs and a top ready for glewup. Once I glued the top up I again used the #5 & #7c to flatten the rough face and get it thicknessed properly. I have a power thickness planer but it’s just too much of a hassle to get out and set up for such a small project.

For joinery on this project I am using mortise and tenons for everything. Not having a power mortiser I utilize a drill press to clear out most of the wood and then switch to bench chisels to square up and clear out the mortise.

Once all my joinery was cut I glued up the project in 2 stages. I made 2 sub assemblies of the sides and glued them up using the top to dry fit them so that I would make sure my joinery was aligned properly.

I decided I would use a pinned through tenon on the bottom just because I thought it would look cool. The pins are made out of a ebony pen turning blank. I re-sawed them with my dovetail rip saw and shaped them on a couple of pieces of marble tile with sandpaper affixed to them. (my hand tool sharpening setup)

I smoothed all long-grain with a Type 2 Stanley #604 with a Hock blade (best investment you can make on an old smoothing plane). All end-grain was sanded to 220 grit.

I finished the project with a coat of Boiled Linseed oil. After it cures for a few days I’ll go back and apply a couple of coats of shellac and some past wax. Because this isn’t a constant use table It won’t need thick film coat on it but I do want to give it a bit more protection than just a coat of BLO will provide.

This took me about 16-18 hrs total over the course of 2 1/2 weeks. (mostly an hour or so every other night plus a few hours on each day on the weekends). Overall I’m pretty happy with it… There are a few mistake but I learned from all of them and only had to remake one piece.

The design turned out fairly good, in my opinion. The only part I’m critical of is the through tenon on the bottom stretcher extends way further than the top, so it can never be put into a corner, and the balance seems a bit off.

I like the look of the contrasting wood but I’ll have to not go too crazy with this contrasting wood thing or our house will end up looking very busy… 1-2 species of wood per room max.