As I’m sure you all know, the 2011 Woodworking in America was a great event. The best part, as alchoices, was hanging out with my fellow woodworkers. One of the activities we did together was take the Hand Tool Olympics by storm.I shot a bunch of video of us making idiots of ourselves cutting, planeing, boring and tenoning at the HTO booth. Here’s my simple video collage.It features Ian MacKay, Me, Tom Iovino, Iggy the Shop Monkey, Mike Lehikoinen, Aaron Marshall, Matt Gradwohl & commentary by Emily Bonham Owen mocking TomI’ve sped up the actual cutting, planeing, boring & tenoning. Except for Matt’s. You’ll appreciate why when you see it.
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Selasa, 05 April 2016
Woodworking in Amercia After Hours
Woodworking in America 2013 is just around the corner. If you’re planning on attending, I’m sure you’re getting excited about a weekend of non-stop woodworking discussion already. If you’ve attended previous WIAs you know that the talk of - and camaraderie around - woodworking extend well past the actual conference hours of about 8:30 am to 6:00 pm.
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| Steve, Niks Dad, Sean, Vic, Kyle & Matt have fun at Keystone |
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| We work wood and eat German food (and were loud). |
Beginning at 7:00 pm, we’ll be hanging out in the upstairs bar room at the Keystone Bar & Grill. It’s a quick walk from the convention center and most of the hotels. Meeting at the Keystone on the opening night of registration has become a tradition for WIA and we hope you’ll join us. Many fellow MWA members, woodworking bloggers and other WIA attendees will be there. If you’re going to to the Roubo Book Release, don’t worry. You can join us at Keystone afterwards. All are welcome.Friday: Hofbrauhaus
The Hofbrauhaus excursion on Friday night is another WIA tradition. It’s less organized than the meetups at Keystone, in that we don’t reserve a private room. We just jump on the trolley and head to Hofbrauhaus. It’s a fun night of great beer, great food, great company and loud music. If you’re going to the official WIA Banquet, please join us at Hofbrauhaus afterwards. We usually stay late. If you’re looking to meet us at Hofbrauhaus, there’s no telling exactly where we’ll be, though in past years we’ve started the evening at the outside bar area and then moved to one of the many long tables. Just listen for Tom Iovino and you’ll be sure to find us. All are welcome.
Saturday: WoodTalk Meetup at Keystone
The WoodTalk guys have setup their own Meetup at the Keystone on Saturday night. It begins at 6:30. Since it was organized by and features Marc, Matt & Shannon, you should expect that this will be the smoothest running event of the weekend. Still, it’s going to be an absolute blast and all should come. I know we’re going to try to represent the MWA there in force.Afterwards:
Just about every night some folks will stop by the Behle St Cafe before heading back to their rooms. If it’s late, but you’re still looking to hang out with woodworkers, joint us there. All are welcome.
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He expresses with great skill most of all his outstanding artistic vein in the art of carving. 
This time we have "forced" him to teach us some good rule to acquire the best practice in this work and, under his leadership, we have tried to do some exercise. The quality of carving tools and their sharpness are fundamental prerequisites for best results.
In this regard, it is very useful to have a sharpening stone on the bench for honing more frequently the cutting edge of most commonly used tools. In the picture it shows a concave shaped oil stone that best fits the profile of some edges. Unfortunately the time available is never enough, but we memorized some good advice on strategies of work, the importance of a good initial design and the respect of plans on which the various details are located, in order to obtain a perspective effect.
Finally we add a couple of pictures that illustrate the Salvatores work. I think they comment themselves. 
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I must warn you, before you run out and learn to Dovetail as Chuck Bender does, you must consider the great responsibility that comes with such great power. It has been hard to watch the great Chuck Norris cope with the responsibility his power brings. If you learn to cut your pins and tails first like Chuck Bender does, you’ll become one of the few who are even more powerful than Chuck Norris. Consider that, and tread carefully.
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+Matt Vanderlist was paying much more attention in Roy Underhills Timber! class which opened the conference. He has this great video showing how Roy squares a log.
On Saturday in the marketplace I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Lee Valley Tools. Connie from their social media team talked with many bloggers and some actual talented wood workers and tool makers. I believe there will be a few videos coming out in the coming weeks. This first one covers what the interviewees would teach kids first. I cant say mine is the best answer (it isnt) but there clearly are some wood workers with a great grasp on how to bring the young into the craft.
Of the silly Vines I shot, here is my favorite. Ive already shared it and Im sorry if youve already seen it. I just cant help buy laugh every time I watch.
For any woodworker with children, Grandpa’s Workshop is a must have. Even for woodworkers without children, it’s a great tale of the tools we use and some of the people who’ve used them.After enjoying Grandpa’s Workshop so much, I feel I may have to revisit the Anarchist’s Tool Chest. While I don’t think I’ll be taking my tools down off the wall, there may be more to the Anarchist woodworking philosophy than I had given it credit for.
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Venue Information
Keystone Bar & Grill
313 Greenup St
Covington, KY
Hofbrauhaus Newport
200 East 3rd St
Newport, KY 41071
Take the SouthBank Shuttle (trolley) to the stop between Monmouth St & Saratoga St (it doesn’t have stop names)
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Behle St Cafe
50 East Rivercenter Blvd
Covington, KY 41011
Across the street from the convention center in the same building as the Embassy Suites
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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.Senin, 04 April 2016
Dylans Clock Stand
Last Saturday my son displayed his art in a show with his art class at the Central Park Zoo. It was a well received show and outside of heat, it was a wonderful day. My frame was actually well received, sloppy corners an all. Luckily though, I was able to make a second piece to help display his art and this one came out much nicer.
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| Dylans art show display |
One of his three (3) dimensional projects was a clock. It’s a collage of clocks glued onto a box, with a round porthole cut out to reveal a clock face inside also.
Since the clock just sits on whatever you put it, I was asked to make a clock stand.
Initially I was going to make a low stand with ornate feet. As the deadline approached I was looking through The Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction. After thumbing through the section on feet and basically deciding on making a rounded base with mitered legs, I then flipped through the cabinet on stand section. I occurred to me that I could make a tall stand for the clock rather than a stubby one.
With that idea in my head, I went out to the shop and started milling legs and aprons. I was making a tiny shaker table to hold the clock.
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| Should I clean my table saw blade. |
I won’t go into too much detail on the table, as there are many resources online for making a shaker end table (I’d personally recommend the Shaker End Table Woodwhisperer Guild Project).
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| The finished clock stand with the clock atop. |
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| Perfect miters right off the miter saw. |
Minggu, 03 April 2016
Ive been practising in Sketchup
How many people remember the hall tree that I built last year? In an attempt to increase my skills in Sketchup I made a drawing of it. I put it in the download section and is available for free! Please take a moment to download it and let me know what you think.
p/downloads.html
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?Jumat, 01 April 2016
Lesson in carving
We knew Salvatore Mastrangelo at one of the many pleasant meetings we organize in the shop of our friend Daniele (left in the first pic). Salvatore is a really pleasant and exclusive person, full of life experiences. A true professional, filled with an uncontrollable passion for everything is related to woodworking.
He expresses with great skill most of all his outstanding artistic vein in the art of carving. This time we have "forced" him to teach us some good rule to acquire the best practice in this work and, under his leadership, we have tried to do some exercise. The quality of carving tools and their sharpness are fundamental prerequisites for best results. In this regard, it is very useful to have a sharpening stone on the bench for honing more frequently the cutting edge of most commonly used tools. In the picture it shows a concave shaped oil stone that best fits the profile of some edges. Unfortunately the time available is never enough, but we memorized some good advice on strategies of work, the importance of a good initial design and the respect of plans on which the various details are located, in order to obtain a perspective effect.Rabu, 30 Maret 2016
Chuck Bender Cuts His Pins Tails At The Same Time
Woodworking in America 2012 Midwest was filled with banter about the awesomeness of Chuck Norris. While it doesnt take much for a bunch of (mostly) guys hanging out for a weekend to start talking about Chuck Norris, the catalyst for the discussion in Covington was clear. There was an even more powerful Chuck in convention center with us: Chuck Bender.
Chuck Bender is the proprietor of the Acanthus Workshop and the host of the No BS Online Woodworking Show. Chuck’s also a regular at Woodworking in America at many other woodworking shows and seminars around the country and especially the northeast (I can’t think of the last time I went to a show and Chuck wasn’t there).At Woodworking in America I was able to attend Chuck’s “How To Cut Fancy Pants Bermuda Dovetails Like A Man” seminar. Apparently, as there was nothing to do in Bermuda except drink, have sex and work wood, amusement for the natives came in the form of decorative patterns cut into their exposed dovetails.
Chuck took us through the basics of cutting dovetails his choice, the choice, and then we moved on to the Bermuda Dovetails. After learning the technique, I’ll say that Bermuda Dovetails are not as hard as they look, but they’re still pretty hard. If the aesthetic peaks your interest, you should probably pick up Chuck’s Dovetail DVDs, as they’ll give you the opportunity to watch over and over as you practice. |
| Chuck Bender chatting with our very own, Tom Iovino at WIA |
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| Chuck cuts Dovetails in class |
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| A sample set of Chucks Bermuda Dovetails. |
Selasa, 29 Maret 2016
The Greene Greene Guild Blanket Chest
Right after the Tilt Top Table, Marc is back into a new Guild Build. This time well be making a Greene & Greene style Blanket Chest.
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| The SketchUp of the Greene & Greene Chest build. |
I have a checkered history of Guild Builds, have participated in the Shaker End Table and the Hanging Wall Cabinet builds (sort of). Alas, sometimes live does get in the choice.
But dont let my busy schedule keep you achoice. The Guild Builds are a great choice to learn and build along with your friends. This will be a fun and practical project. Beautiful too. Build along.
But dont let my busy schedule keep you achoice. The Guild Builds are a great choice to learn and build along with your friends. This will be a fun and practical project. Beautiful too. Build along.
Minggu, 27 Maret 2016
Moving Pictures of Woodworking In America 13
I never seem to leave Woodworking in America having taken enough media back with me. This year, though I took plenty of photos, I didnt take any videos (except for some silly Vines). Luckily, many others did take videos.
+Marc Spagnuolo took many great videos and after what Im sure was much more editing than I would like to do, he put together this great video on what he saw in Covington.
+Marc Spagnuolo took many great videos and after what Im sure was much more editing than I would like to do, he put together this great video on what he saw in Covington.
Of the silly Vines I shot, here is my favorite. Ive already shared it and Im sorry if youve already seen it. I just cant help buy laugh every time I watch.
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.
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Sabtu, 26 Maret 2016
Grandpas Workshop in Greenwich
With his seminal work Workbenches: From Design and Theory to Construcion and Use, Christopher Schwarz had me hooked. It is a fantastic tome about workbench theory. Within my limited workbench use Ive come to agree with virtually every point Chris makes about the design & use of workbenches.
With the later release of The Anarchists Tool Chest, I strayed from the choices of the Schwarz. I could never wrap my head around using a chest in a shop as small as mine. Floor space is far too precious to waste on a tool chest when a tool cabinet frees up the floor and keeps the tools closer to hand. As for the philosophy of a limited tool kit espoused by The Anarchist’s Tool Chest, I own 10 routers. Need I say more?
It was in that mindset of respecting Chris’s projects while not thinking they were for me that his publishing house, Lost Art Press, printed the English translation of Grandpa’s Workshop by Maurice Pommier. Initially I was uninterested in Grandpa’s Workshop, thinking it was simply the French children’s version of The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.
I began to warm to the idea of Grandpa’s Workshop when I saw many glowing mentions of it by my friends on twitter and google+. When I met people singing the book’s praises at Woodworking In America, I decided to walk across the aisle of the marketplace and finally buy a copy.I’m glad I did. So are my kids.
I was initially taken by the beautiful illustrations of Grandpa (Pèpère Grosbois) and his tools. It was once I sat down and read the book with my three (3) sons that I really fell in love with it though.
The stories that the tools tell are so captivating, fanciful, pragmatic and instructive that even my 4 year old’s attention was held through the entire 48 page book (read over 3 sittings). The tools tell of history, use and the often tragic lives of the Grosbois family that owned them. By the end of the book you feel you know Pèpère as well as the young narrator does. You’ll also know what all the tools are and what they do.The translation from French by Brian Anderson is wonderful and captures the poetic nature of the text (not having read the original French I assume this to be true, otherwise Anderson added poetry to the English, either choice, its poetic).The illustrations are the perfect compliment in tone to the text. Through images large and small, in full color and in silhouette, the action of the text plays out across the pages for all to see. |
| The Cover, in its wonderfully decorated glory (image from the Lost Art Press site). |
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| A fuzzy photo of Chris holding court in my kids Grandpas workshop with fellow woodworkers at the Northeast Woodworkers Association Showcase 2011. |
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| Wesley in my shop. |
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| My Kids Grandpas Workshop, filled with the Long Island Woodworkers Club during the Northeast Woodworkers Association Showcase 2011. |
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| Pèpère shows the besaiguë to Sylvian (image from the Lost Art Press site). |
Kamis, 24 Maret 2016
Marcs On TV In My House
A few weeks ago it was announced that all of the Wood Whisperer episodes would be coming to YouTube. This is great news.
I’m not the biggest fan of YouTube, but I will say that it’s ubiquity means that it is where I consume most of my internet video. With the advent of the ChromeCast, watching YouTube on my flat screen has now become the absolute easiest choice to consume video in my living room.
YouTube is also nice because it’s easy to watch in my shop on a mobile device and it’s easy to share via embedded video here on the blog.
This announcement means that it’s even easier to watch +Marc Spagnuolo. Now that the entire Wood Whisperer catalog will be available, I’ll be able to watch even more.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.
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Rabu, 23 Maret 2016
A House In The Trees Part II
Once the first two (2) bolts were in and I’d cleaned up from the first day of the tree house build, I walked the site and thought about how I would lay out the platform. As part of this process, I measured between the trees and discovered that the clearances between trees were 9’11” (too big for my intended 10’ beam) 12’6” (too big for my intended 12’ beam) and 15’7” (too big for my 16’ beam). Ungh.Initially, I thought I’d just get two 2”x8”x18’ boards and make an 18’ beam. If I did that and discarded the 10’ one I’d already made, I could shift the other two down in location and still end up with the triangle shaped platform I had in my head.In the morning, before going out to get the 18’ boards and walked the site again, with a slightly clearer head. While an 18’ beam would allow me to make the triangle shaped platform I’d intended, as I stood there between the trees I realized that the triangle was going to be too small. If I added a post to act as a fourth tree, I could turn the triangle into a rectangle and just about double the size of the tree house platform.With this new plan, I headed to the store and picked up two (2) 2”x8”x16’ board to make a second beam for the long side and two (2) 2”x8”x10’ boards to make a second beam for the short end. I also picked up a 4”x4”x12’ post for the fourth “tree.”
As soon as I got home I again glued up the joists. Then I set to work marking out and digging for the post. To my astonishment and delight, I managed to dig the 3’5” hole for the post without hitting any roots, rocks or other impediments.
I tossed a few inches of gravel in the bottom of the hole to help with drainage and tossed in the post. After temporarily bracing the post level, I slowly filled the hole with dry cement. Every few inches I would tamp it down with a broom handle (on which I’d cut a flat end instead of the original rounded end) and added a bit of water with a watering can. Years ago I read somewhere that when setting posts you didn’t need to actually mix the cement, but could get achoice just watering it in place. I’ve used this method a few times now, and it seems to work fine.
With the post in place, I again thought about the beam layout and how I would frame and deck the platform. I realized that since the double 16’ beams would extend past the trees and pick up the weight of all of the joists, the double 12” beams at the end wouldn’t add anything but weight. At least I’ll be able to use two (2) of the five (5) beams I’ve made.Other Tree House posts.
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| Additional beams during glueup. |
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| The easiest hole Ive ever dug. |
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| The four trees for the Tree House. |
Penultimate Woodshop Renovation Video 11
Its been a hectic few weeks here. While I cant say its been busier than usual, my holiday schedule has been a lot less predictable.
Thankfully, Ive been able to sneak in a bit of shop time. After finishing my wifes Tin Can Caddies & the Wand Racks, I had a clean(ish) bench and it was time to get back to work on the shop.
I didnt get too much done, but I did get the rigid polyisocyanurate aboard up. Hopefully Ill also get the spray foam done to air seal it before I have to go back to work.
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| The caddies and my messy bench. |
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| The insulation it coming. |
One schedule I did keep during the holidays was our regularly scheduled MWA podcast. For the audio, check out iTunes or the MWA page.
I hope all my fellow woodworkers had an enjoyable and productive holiday season.
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Selasa, 22 Maret 2016
A Chair Or A Hole In My Head
I need to make a chair right now like I need a hole in my head.
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| Looks like a chair, no? |
I have at least a blog post worth of unfinished, halfchoice built projects in my shop. Yet, I’m having a damn hard time working on any of them. In my head, I keep turning my chair design over and over.
As with many of my ideas, I’m thinking of building my first chair out of Timberstrand. I’m in agreement with all of you who I’m sure are yelling that real wood - Walnut even - is what real chairs should be made of. Even though I’ve a soft spot in my heart for Timberstrand, I agree that it’s not what truly fine chairs are made of.
This chair though, is more experiment than fine woodworking. I’m using it to test my design, push my skill and see if Timberstrand shapes and dyes well.
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This video demonstrates the first part of the test. Will my arm and joinery be strong enough?
Minggu, 20 Maret 2016
A House In The Trees Part VIII
With the walls and lower shed roof done, this video documents the clear-story and main roof framing.
I framed the clear-story to accommodate the windows Im going to fabricated using some Kalwall samples I have. Im not yet sure if the main roof will receive a skylight or not, but if it does I wont bother to cut out the rafters within the skylight footprint. It is, after all, just a tree house.
If youd like to catch up on how the Tree House got to this point, be sure to check out these older posts.I framed the clear-story to accommodate the windows Im going to fabricated using some Kalwall samples I have. Im not yet sure if the main roof will receive a skylight or not, but if it does I wont bother to cut out the rafters within the skylight footprint. It is, after all, just a tree house.
Sabtu, 19 Maret 2016
Its Wanderful Part 7
When everything was sanded flat, I checked the bottoms on my tablesaw and joined them as necessary in order to eliminate wobble. Then it was time to sand. All four (4) wand stands were hand sanded from 80 grit to 220 grit.As I wasn’t concerned with the walnut blotching, and shellac is a resonable blotch control in it’s own rite, I skipped the blotch control and went right to shellacing the bases.
2 coats of ½ lb and 4 coats of 1 lb clear shellac were applied, using rags. Once the shellac was dry, I buffed it with synthetic steel wool. I had originally intended to add glue on plastic feet to the bottom of the want stands. As I played with the stands in my hands, I couldn’t bring myself to add plastic feet. Instead I decided I should make my own feet, out of brass.
I started with a ?” x 1½” brass bar from work. Then I used a hack saw to rip and cut it to pieces about ¾” x 2” (I say about, because I used relative dimensioning and my eye to make them, I never actually measured them). Once the were cut, I used a bastard file against the edge of my workbench to square the edges and clean the faces.
Then I tried to polish them using buffing wheels on a 6” bench grinder. This didn’t go so well, and after the first 3 or 4 feet I left them as the filed faces.
I cut out for the feet using one (1) of the full blades from my dado set for an ?” wide, flat bottomed cerf. Unfortunately, all of the filing left the feet less then ?” thick. The gap was barely visible, but the fit was also less than snug. In order to secure the feet I used a two part epoxy paste. So far, it’s doing a fine job at holding the feet in. Hopefully it continues to.
Now that the wand project is finally done, it’s finally time to again return to the shop renovation. Thankfully, I not only created four (4) nice and appreciated wand and wand stands, I also learned a bunch of new techniques and expanded my woodworking horizons along the choice.
What have you done to push the boundaries of how you work?
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| The wands, mid-finishing. |
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| Ripping the brass by hand. |
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| Two (2) sets of finished feet. |
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| Ready to mix the epoxy. |
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| The finished wand stands. |
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| A finished want stand, armed with my wifes wand. |
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