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Here’s the latest video on the shop wall renovation. Not a whole lot of progress, but I did manage to finish the last of the electrical access panel frames.This last frame was the tricky one, incorporating a door to reach the electrical panel. Download the MP3
Date: July 1, 2013
By: Chris Adkins, Dyami Plotke, Tom Iovino
Description: Join us for this episode with Paul Lemiski. For more information on Paul, show notes, and the Modern Woodworkers Association visit http://modernwoodworkersassociation.com
Show notes:What’s in the shop?how did you get into woodworking?
High School Shop Teacher
whats your favorite tool?
Kutzall or Festool RO150
who has influenced you the most?
Sam Maloof
What was your biggest stumbling block & could it have been avoided?
Starts many projects simultaneously. Juggling them is hard.
How has the internet influenced your work?
The influence has been very important.
Working without influence has been
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It’s not quite that time of year again, but Marc’s pre-planning (a good thing with the coming little Spagnolo) his 2012 winter Guild Build already.This year he’s planning to help with your physical as well as educational woodworking fundamentals. That’s right . . . we’re building a bench!
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| The Worlds Greatest Workbench. |
I was working on a bench myself when I stopped to participate in this year’s Winter Guild Build: The Wall Hanging Cabinet.
Workbenchs have been a favorite topic of mine since first hearing Dave Noftz discuss them on his (sorely missed) Modern Woodshop. As Im sure is true for many of you also, its high time I got off my butt and built a proper bench. The support, encouragement and friendly rivalry of the guild is just what I need to get back to the bench. You should too. |
| My Timberstrand Bench Slab Experiment. |
If youre bench obsessed like I am, heres a partial list of links worth checking out:Schwartz’s Rules for WorkbenchesMy cross postsChris cross postsMarc’s build or buy postKari’s joinery benchShannon’s joinery benchMorton’s Sourcing the LumberMy bench build postsHeres a blatant re-post of the video I took of Chris Schwarz discussing his Petite Roubo:
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Clamping the shelf perpendicular to the carcass
to be sure that its square when attached. |
Other Bastard Wall Cabinet PostsWinter Wall Cabinet WonderlandThe Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)Trudging Towards Tool StorageCutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)A Home For My PlanesContinued Wall Cabinet AssemblyWhats a Bastard Wall Cabinet without Shelves?
Boxing in the Bastard Tool Cabinet
Door Hinges on the Bastard Wall Cabinet
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About 3 months ago my Sister-in-Law asked me to make her a wand to take to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. It’s not that she often requests things (though she does have a bookcase I built), it’s that she’s A) a harry potter fan and B) a follower of mine on Google Buzz. |
| Kenneths awesome wand that made my Sister-in-law go "Oh." |
You see, in November of 2010, my friend, Kenneth Woodruff, wrote a blog post about the fantastic Harry Potter wand he made for Halloween that year. As I was truly impressed, I of course shared it on Buzz. I happened to be visiting my Sister-in-Law at the time, and as soon as I shared it “that’s a cool wand” could be heard from her corner of the living room.
Fast forward to May of 2011 and as the movie date approaches I get asked to make wands, wands for my Wife, Sister-in-Law and her partner. Wands like Kenneth made.Had Kenneth made a tool cabinet or a vacuum boom arm, I would have jumped right into the project. However, as Kenneth’s wand was faithful to the original (in that it is round and has carvings), it was a project well outside of my woodworking comfort zone. I’ve never worked in the round or carved before. As neither round work nor carving have held any appeal for me, I’ve never even read up on them (as I have with many other woodworking methods that I am interested in but have yet to try). |
| Kenneths great carved wand handle. |
My first reaction was to stall. I didn’t really think about the project for 2 or 3 weeks. When I finally did begin planning, I went right to the source and contacted Kenneth about the wands. He was nice enough to provide some details on how he made his wand and some more detailed photos. The instructions still left this carving virgin wondering how I was going to make the wands. The photos though, were a fantastic help and a full 8.5” x 11” print out on photo paper served as my plan for making my wands. Following Kenneth’s advice, I then contacted the best and most enthusiastic carver I know, Kari Hultman. Unfortunately, my total carving naiveté was a deficit that even Kari’s detailed email instructions could not overcome. |
| One of 16 draws worth of carving gouges my dad has. |
Frustrated, I then turned to my Dad, a rather proficient carver in his own right, for advice. He pointed me towards his vast collection of carving tools and said have at it. Unfortunately, as sharpening is a task I’m only slightly better at then carving (and his curved carving tools looked awfully hard to sharpen), I turned down his offer to lend me his carving gouges and I decided to make the wands from my own tools that I knew how to use.
What projects have your family talked you into?
Popular Woodworking Magazine has announced that there will be two WIA12 events. One in Pasadena, CA from October 12-14 and one in Covington, KY from November 2-4.
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| The WIA11 Blue Shirt Contingent. |
By having two (2) events, I fear they have diluted the magic that is WIA. As Ive said before, the people are what make WIA so special, and now most people will have to choose which one to attend.
To that end, we at the Modern Woodworkers Association (or maybe just this one MWA admin) were wondering:
- Will your decision as to which WIA12 to attend be influenced by where everyone else is going?
- Which WIA12 venue will you attend?
Wed appreciate it if youd click on to the survey on the Modern Woodworkers Association site. Youll have the ability to view the results after you vote, and as event gets closer, well let everyone know the results so that those of you who are going to let your decision be influenced by your peers will know where to go.
Sadly, Woodworking in America 2013 is over. For the 3+ days of the event, it was a time like no other in the woodworking world.
While each day of the event – from arrival on Thursday morning to departure on Sunday afternoon – was filled with great camaraderie and woodworking banter, there were definitive highlights to this year’s show.
Loading & Setup
As Tom, Sean and I arrived at the convention center by about 1:00 on Thursday, we headed through the empty marketplace and met with our vendor friends. We helped +Scott Meek Woodworks, +Andy Brownell and +Ron Hock setup their booths.
MWA Meet-up
On Thursday night we played hosts at a Modern WoodworkersAssociation meet-up at the Keystone Bar & Grill. Our attendance was wonderful as friends, members and listeners joined us to celebrate the start of Woodworking in America 2013. This event also lead to the weekend’s catch phrase.
MWA Podcast
On Friday afternoon we took the new recording equipment our listeners were kind enough to donate for (thank you). We included our new MWA Chapter Administrator, +Sean Wisniewski and discussed all things WIA. It was fun to record in front of an audience, and we had some interruptions special guests too.
Online Panel Discussion
After the podcast, on the invitation of +Megan Fitzpatrick, Popular Woodworking’s Editor, we participated in a panel titled
Online Woodworking Roundtable. It was billed at “a panel of the best-known online woodworkers and educators . . . [discussing] how to get the most out of your online woodworking experience, discover what goes into creating valuable online content and learn how they are reaching a new generation of craftsmen and craftswomen.” It proved to be a wonderful discussion about the thriving online woodworking world. There were 9 panelists representing the full Wood Talk Show crew ( +Marc Spagnuolo, +Matt Vanderlist & +Shannon Rogers), the full Modern Woodworkers Association podcast crew (Chris, Tom & Me), Wood Central, Woodnet & Giant Cypress (+Wilbur Pan). Megan moderated and the 50 or so audience members engaged us with questions and their own experiences with the online woodworking community. To the person, I believe we can all sum up the community as a wonderful, educational and encouraging network of friends. I’m proud to say that even I knew – and am friends with – about 2/3 of the people in the room because of the online community (
it’s certainly not because I’m an overly social person, ask my wife).
MWA Member Interviews
After the RoundtableChris, Tom and I headed back to the hotel and setup our recording rig again. We sat down with some of the MWA members in attendance and recorded quick interviews with them about the conference. We’ll be adding them to the end of the podcast when it posts.
Ejler Hjorth-Westh
On Saturday I took two (2) classes with Ejler Hjorth-Westh: Chairs: Style & Substance and Working With Curves: Design & Execution. Taking these classes with Ejler (Eye-ler) was a revelation. Not because of the content (which was excellent) but because of the instructor. Ejler brought his personal style, experience and philosophy to the classes. Through very different in both style and method, I think the best comparison as a speaker is to Adam Cherubini. Adam is another instructor from whom I would take any class – regardless of topic. As a side note, my only disappointment about the conference was Adam’s absence.
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| Ejler was awesome. |
Workbench Beefcakes
Last year we took some adorable photos of Tom on some of the benches and our group MWA photo standing and sitting on Megan’s bench. This year we wanted to take it a step further. We found the best looking woodworkers we could (or one good looking woodworkers with red hair and the only guys we could convince to do it) and shot what will be the premier woodworking beefcake calendar. We owe a big thanks to Gorilla Glue, Lie-Nelson, Lee Valley, Bad Axe Toolworks, Hock Blades, Scott Meek, Lake Erie and everyone else who let us use their benches. We also need to thank Ejler for being such a handsome woodworker (and good sport).
WTO Meet-Up
Saturday night was the Wood Talk Online meet-up at Keystone’s. It was a great time to hangout and chat with the Wood Talk guys and their listeners. I think it was a WIA13 highlight for everyone there.
WTO Podcast
After their meet-up, Marc, Matt and Shannon retired to the hotel to record an episode of the Wood Talk Show. During their recording, the MWA had fun repaying their kindness.
After all this fun it was time to go home. I’m already counting the days to Woodworking In America 2014.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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So I bought a new jointer a few weeks ago. Its a mid-1950s 8" Delta with giant 1 HP General Electric motor residing in the cast iron bases pot belly. It is a penultimate jointer, in that it has dovetailed choices and a straight cutter head. My ultimate jointer will have parallelogram beds and a helix cutter head. Still, considering what I paid, this big old Delta it was a bargain and a big improvement over my old 6”.
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| Here is the beast, in all her fantastic, frustrating glory. |
As I’m starting work on a non-paying commission from my wife for her friend which will require jointing some thin and expensive boards I wanted to first tune up the jointer.
I began that process by watching Marc Spagnuolo’s Jointer Setup Video. It’s a very informative video, but as Marc has a parallelogram jointer, I found that though the theory is the same there were more differences than similarities in the technique he showed versus the one I had to use. The biggest difference I found was that Marc shows making all adjustments to the infeed table. While this works on a parallelogram jointer where cam wheels make permanent adjustments which are held as the bed is raised and lowered, it doesn’t work so well on jointer with dovetailed choices such as I have.
By reading Roland Johnshon’s excellent Tune Up Any Jointer article from the Tools & Shops 2013 issue of Fine Woodworking I learned that with when tuning up a jointer with dovetailed choices such as mine, you want to shim & adjust the outfeed table. The reason for this is that in use, the infeed table is the one you move and adjust up and down. The outfeed table is only moved during tune up and alignment. If you were to shim the infeed table, the shims would be prone to shifting and moving as the bed is adjusted up and down. Less movement means the shims will stay in place longer. Rolands article is behind their pay wall, but its certainly worth checking out if youre a member.
Before I could shim, I had to figure out how close to coplanar my beds were. I did this with a large Veritas straight edge from Lee Valley. It’s probably the one I would have used anychoice, but it was reassuring to see both Marc and Roland recommend the same straight edge.
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| Begin by loosening and re-tightening the gib screws. |
First I loosened the set screws which hold the gib and provide tension against the dovetail choice as Roland suggests. As this relieves tension in the beds, I did this for the infeed and outfeed beds. Unfortunately after resetting them, I still found that my beds were not coplanar.Next, I adjusted my beds so that the infeed table was just barely higher than the outfeed and both were above the cutter head. With the straight edge clamped to the infeed table, I measured between the outfeed table and the straight edge at the four corners of the outfeed table (this requires moving and re-clamping the straight edge).
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| Lots of light under the straight edge. |
From here, it was a slow, tedious process of measuring, adding shims, re-measuring, adding more shims, re-measuring, etc. For shims, I bought two (2) extra feel gauges. I took them apart and used the blades for shims. |
| More shims. She needs more shims! |
I started this process on Friday night. I did it for about 4 hours on Sunday. As I write this on Monday night, theres more shimming to be done. Hopefully Ill have coplanar beds by my Saturday post.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.
Having reviewed the wands with three (3) fellow woodworkers, and having been given solid advice by all three (3) of them, I was still not completely sure how I was going to make the wands. Yet, since I had been procrastinating like a pro, I decided the time had come buy the lumber and start the making if I was to have any chance of finishing them by the movie premiere. As I’m not familiar with any good local hardwood dealers and the project itself was enough stress, I went to my go-to source for nice wood, Bell Forrest Products. Though I had received advice on good carving woods, I completely ignored everything I’d been told and ordered me up five (5) 1.5”x1.5”x18” turning blanks of hard maple. I know . . . this didn’t make for easy shaping.
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Heres a somewhat random picture of the walnut book stand I made for the
2010 Sawdust Chronicles Fall Build Challenge. It doesnt have anything
to do with the wands, but I like it and I dont have any photos relevant
to this stage in the wand saga. |
About the same time as I ordered the wood for the wands, I also was lucky enough to have my Slide Out Storage Cabinet featured in the Tools of the Trade section of Popular Woodworking Magazine. The Lee Valley gift certificate I received as a result was put to good use. I ordered a spokeshave, rasp and cabinet scraper. Finally, having received all the advice I could manage and with tools and wood in hand, it was time to start making some wands. The first thing I did was take one of the blanks, and turn it into an octagon by cutting off the corners on the table saw. I then went crazy with my new spokeshave and turned it into a dowel, about ¾” in diameter. Though useless as a wand, this first test piece was set aside for carving practice and dye and finish experimentation.
How did you finally start that project youve been procrastinating about?
Its Wanderful Part 1
I know Im starting to sound like a broken record here, but if you havent already seen it on the MWA site, twitter or Google+, please check out this posting at the Modern Woodworkers Association. Ill be interviewing Asa Christiana, the Editor of Fine Woodworking about Fine Woodworking Live, and Id love to know what youd like to know about the event.
Click here for the original post.
In order to keep you questions organized, please post them as comments to the original post, not here.
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Before I get to my November shop tour, Id like to present that of my good friend, +Aaron Marshall. In the the beginning stages of laying out his new shop in his new home. Take a look as Aaron takes us through the space and his plans.
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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When Im not woodworking (or talking about woodworking or going to a woodworking conference) Im a project manager for Roof Services, a large roofing and waterproofing firm on Long Island. In that role Ive been lucky enough to connect with the nice folks at Fine Homebuilding to record a few of our recent residential projects. I had a full length article on residential flat roofs in the June/July 2012 issue (#228).
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| My Coworker Tom, during a video shoot at the Fine Homebuilding Project House. |
A few weeks ago I shot a short video with Fine Homebuilding, explaining how to bend copper chimney flashing from sheet copper. The video was released yesterday on the Fine Homebuilding web site. Ive had a chance to watch it, and thanks mostly to their great editing ability, I think its pretty good. Im certainly proud of it.
If you like mixed media in your woodworking projects, there are bits in here you can pick up that will apply to any sheet metal you may fabricate with. If youre only into woodworking, then Im sorry youll have to wait for my next post. I was in the middle of writing a review of
Maurice Pommiers Grandpas Workshop, but the release of this video was too exciting to pass up. The review will come next week, along with more woodworking.
