2013 July Shop Tour

Its saddening how little Ive gotten done this past month. I promised to document the build though. So here is my July shop tour. Theres not too much to show, but wait until next month. Ive got a date with the shop coming up.

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The Teasing Is Over And Were Playing It Safe

Conference passes for Woodworking in America 2013 are finally on sale at woodworkinginamerica.com. When they announced conference details and hotels a few weeks ago without releasing actual conference tickets, I did my now annual rant about how it should all be done at once. Well, thats over now. Conference tickets are available now. Theres no more excuse. Buy yours soon, before all the cool kids snatch them up.

The best part about events like Woodworking in America is meeting up with the woodworking community in person.
If you cant make it, youll be missed. However, you can still participate in the community. Contribute to events like Marcs Woodworkers Safety Day. If these three idiots can contribute, surely you can too.

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Modern Woodworkers Association

My buddy Chris, from High Rock Woodworking is staring a great new club (association). Its call the Modern Woodworkers Association and its intended to bring like minded, social (an usually, but not necessarily interweb savvy) woodworkers together in person.

Modern Woodworkers (Todd Hayman, Aaron Marshall, Chris Adins & Bill  Akins)

Chris has started a site for the group. Check it out here at Modern Woodworkers Association.
Also, if any of you are on, or know other woodworkers who are on, Long Island, let me know. Im trying to start a chapter up locally. If youre not on Long Island, check whos around and meet up locally.
Either choice, get involved. The wood wont cut itself.

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Were all Tusken Raiders

My Festool Random Orbit Sanders

I like to sand. I know that goes contrary to popular opinion, but I find sanding relaxing.The reason I like sanding is that I’ve stocked myself up with an arsenal of sanding paraphernalia that usually make it easy. My normal routine is to use a Festool random orbit sander connected to my CT22 dust extractor via my vacuum boom arm. The result is that sanding is usually a relaxing process. It could be a little monotonous, but listening to an entertaining podcast or book takes care of that. If you don’t have a decent vacuum and boom arm to connect to your sander, you really should. The less dust, the greater the sanding enjoyment.

This weekend I’ve had to leave my fancy set up behind and sand by hand. I’m making some wands (more on them in a future post), and there’s not a flat surface on them.The result has been lots and lots of hand sanding. I’ve used 3M Sandblaster sanding pads for the wands, and while I’ve been happy with the results, I’ve been hating the process. I now remember why so many of us hate sanding.How do you deal with sanding?

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