And With This It Begins

The date and location for Woodworking in America 2013 has been set. For anyone who didn’t know:

Psst: Mark your calendars for Oct 18-20, 2013. Thats all for now.— megan fitzpatrick (@1snugthejoiner) January 3, 2013

The date was first teased on Twitter and confirmed on the Popular Woodworking Editor’s Blog the following day. It will be October 18th through 20th at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky (Greater Cincinnati). This is the same venue as WIA10, WIA11 and WIA12 MidWest. I’ve been to them all, and it’s a great venue with nearby hotels, a $1.00 trolley and a Hofbruahaus. I’ve alchoices had a good time there and I’m sure you will too.

WIA 2012 MidWest: We came, we saw, we posed on Megans bench.

I’m not such a fan of the piecemeal approach to announcements that has been used for WIA lately (if there’s a date and venue, I’d like a ticket), but at least we can all block out our calendars now.

I’ll see you in Kentucky.

p.s. - There’s a White Castle.

Im at White Castle!

MWA Woodworking in America 2012 Midwest Photo Sharing Event

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With the entire step stool now glued up I realized I hadn’t cut feet yet. I took my Lee Valley Drawing Bow and marked out a subtle curve in the middle of each leg. Once I cut out the curve with a jig saw, it left two (2) feet on each leg.

All ready for  feet.

Now with feet I took the step stool over to my router table. After the nasty incident with my neighbor during this stage of my last project, I setup my router table inside this time.

I removed the fence and used a bearing guided ¼” radius roundover bit, I ran every reachable edge of the stool (except the bottom) over it. This method took a bit of getting used too. With a bit of practice I soon found it easy as the stool is not so big as to hang completely off the router table yet is big enough to provide plenty of reference and holding surface.

Its starting to look curved.

Fresh off the router table the stool (or any piece having this roundover method used) is rounded, but not done. The routed curves on the edges are hard, disjointed and where they do flow into each other they have a shallow, machine cut look. I only use the router to hog off most of the waste, not to provide my final edges. After routing it is time for rasping.

My arsenal (and some additional).

As I’ve grown to enjoy the process and results of using rasps, my collection of rasps has grown. As I’ve used them more and more, favorites have emerged and others have fallen out of use. On Stephen’s Step Stool I did all my initial rasping using my Shinto 9” rasp. Though amazingly cheap, the woven blade is exceptional at coarse and medium rasping with efficient chip removal. Unlike other cheap rasps I’ve used, the Shinto does not leave tooth tracks (due to the woven blade).

The Shinto is wonderful at coarse work.

Next I used my Auriou #9 Cabinet Makers rasp. The Auriou further refines the curves while taking the coarse surface left by the Shinto and smoothing it to a much more consistent surface. Finally I used my new Gramercy 5” 25 tpi cabinet makers rasp. This Gramercy is delightfully light and leaves a very smooth surface (for a rasp).

With all the rasp work I do my goal is to further refine and flair the curves. I want them be organic, flowing and invite touch.

As transformative as the rasps are, even fine rasps leave a surface too coarse for finish. When I’m done with the rasps I switch to my Rotex sanders. I use an RO 125 and an RO 90. When setup on Rotex mode with an 80 or 120 grit sanding pad and set to speed 1, they do a wonderful job of removing the rasping marks. They also use the Festool Interface pads which allow the sanders to wrap the rounded edges and prevent flattening.

Gaps? What gaps?

After sanding the curved edges I added blue Transtint dye to 5-minute epoxy and filled in the few big gaps in the dovetails. Once the epoxy was dry I took out the sanders again, this time sanding the entire stool. I currently sand up through 220 grit, though I’m not completely satisfied with my sanding results. I’m not sure what changes I’ll make, but I’m considering going much higher in grit.Find all of the Step Stool posts here.
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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Tour Steppingstone Museum with Wade

+Shannon Rogers, the Renaissance Woodworker and proprietor of the Hand Tool School, volunteers in a pretty cool 19th century woodworking shop at the Steppingstone Museum in Havre de Grace, Maryland (in Susquehanna State Park).The Steppingstone Museums mandate from its founder is to document and preserve the latter half of the 1800s. Their woodworking shop exemplifies this preservation. Though the shop mixes trades (jointer, turner, etc.) that would not have shared space at the time, the period correct tools and knowledge of the docents are amazing.When I stopped by the Steppingstone Museum last August I was lucky enough to receive a full tour of the wood shop from Wade, the senior volunteer. This video is the tour Wade gave me. Its a bit long for an internet video, but the working knowledge and experience Wade brings to the tour is well worth it.

For more on the Steppingstone Museum you can check out their website at steppingstonemuseum.org or reach out to Shannon. I know theyre alchoices looking for volunteers.

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I made some progress on the ice chest cooler box today and posted a new vlog about it

+Marc Spagnuolo does many generous and great things for the woodworking community. As much as I like the Wood Whisperer Guild, Wood Talk and the Wood Whisperer site itself, the most important thing Marc has done is Woodworkers fighting cancer.
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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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The 5 board bench video is now live on YouTube! Click play on the video box below to check it out!

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