A few boards

I have a small shop space. Most of my machines are on wheels so I can move them around and out of the way when I'm not using them. When I made the shaker bench I had a few pine boards that needed to be glued together. Instead of hauling out the jointer and running the edges over it I made a quick jig for the table saw. The boards I was using were 1" x 8" dimensioned pine boards. I simply used a scrap piece of plywood that I made sure was square and had two parallel edges. I then attached a straight edge so that when I place one of the boards against it the edge of the board hung over approximately 1/4". I attached two toggle clamps to the straight edge to hold the boards in place.

Simply butt the board against the straight edge ( it doesn't have to be perfectly flush against it ), clamp and then set your saw fence so the plywood jig rest against the fence and the blade.
Make a cut. Do the same thing for the other board. Because it's pine the fresh sawn edges are fine for a glue up.

It very efficient any doesn't get any easier.
As always - Thanks for
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

following

Saturdays ( Thursdays ) Tip

When you're not gardening

I haven't tried this one. I would try it on a dull knife but I don't think I'm ready to use my good chisels on it.
Apparently it works well.
This tip, like the others comes right off the pages of my old 1959 popular mechanics book.
If you don't have a whetstone to sharpen with you can always use the edge of a clay pot. A Terra cot-ta, unglazed one I assume.
This actually makes sense' I think I'll try it'. I'll let you know how it works.
If you tried this or have a tip you'd like to share please send it along.

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Two Plank Chair

My son has flag football tomorrow morning. Every time I'm at one of his games I'm standing. I always think about buying a camp chair to bring to his games but forget until I'm standing there.

I was feeling a little restless after dinner. I wasn't in the shop all day.
Well - I made a two plank chair. A lot of people call these viking chairs. I'm sure every boy scout troop has made a bunch of these. I went out back to my pile of wood and pulled out a couple of old pressure treated boards. They've turned grey with weather and look awesome.
All you need is a couple of boards approximately four feet long and a jig saw. These chairs take about an hour to make and work.
Nothing can be easier.
I attached a couple of pieces of foam rubber and gave it a coat of wax.
If you have a couple of boards left over from a project, make one of these chairs. Perfect for outdoors by the fire or indoors by the wood stove. Also perfect for that fall football game.

As always - Thanks for following

Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Historical Uxbridge

Yesterday we shot the opening of a new episode at the historical Coronet John Farnum House. I want to thank Francis Cove of the Uxbridge Historical Society for letting us shoot at the house. The house is beautiful. It dates back to the 1700's and is on its original site. 

It originally overlooked an apple orchard, a grist mill, a gun factory and livery stables. It was purchased by the town in 1968.
John Farnum was a constable in 1703 and died in 1750 at the age age 78. It's unfortunate there isn't enough volunteers to open the house to visitors on the weekends, it's awesome. If you love history and old buildings contact Francis Cove at the historical society and pay a visit to these awesome places. Better yet, Volunteer. I'm sure they would appreciate the help.

I think I'll pay another visit to the site. There a few pieces of furniture I'd like to replicate. After shooting at the house it was back to business, in the garage.

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Coggeshall

This past weekend we went to the Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol, Rhode island. Coggeshall is a living historical farm set on 48 acres. The museum depicts Bristol's agrarian life in 1799 through live interpretation, historic structures, and heirloom plants and animals. It was the farms 42 annual harvest fair.

I love living history museums. I love seeing the trades as they were back then. People worked hard, very hard, but what satisfaction they must have felt when you can see first hand the fruits of your labor. The farm is situated on beautiful Narragansett Bay. I always feel inspired to get back in the shop and make after visiting a place like this. We had a lot of fun. It was nice to see my son play traditional games from the era and spend so much time outdoors just being. We unplugged and left our devices at home.
Perfect'

We had a lot of fun.  My wife even came second in an apple pie baking contest'

As always - Thanks for  following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Lap desk

Lap desk

When i was the department head of woodworking at Peters valley craft Center I had the pleasure of working alongside many talented and renown woodworkers. One of them was Christian Becksvoort. Chris is a furniture maker from New Gloucester, ME and is a contributing editor of fine woodworking magazine.
My position at Peters valley meant I had to teach workshops as well as hire guest artisans to teach woodworking workshops.

I've admired Chris's work for some time so it was exciting news when Chris agreed to teach a week long workshop . The project for the five day workshop was a shaker style lap desk. It was a pleasure to work alongside Chris, he was a gentleman and joy to watch work.

My copy of fine woodworking came in the mail recently and on the cover was Chris's lap desk. Inside the issue is detail instructions on how to construct the desk. I'm glad Chris's desk made it to print, it should be shared. It's an awesome project. My brother recently retired. I wanted to make him something special for his retirement. My brother is an avid reader and writer. Chris's lap desk project came to mind. I had sat in on Chris's class years ago so I simply had to go through some old notes, haul out the pine boards I had for this project, and then make it my own.

Thanks Chris- you taught a great class for me and my brother loves his lap desk.
Attached are images of the lap desk I made, and Chris's recent article in fine woodworking magazine.

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Here;s another simple tip right off the pages of my old trustworthy popular mechanics book.

I do have a pneumatic brad nailer and compressor  but I'm also old school.  I have a collection of jars filled with all different sizes of nails and brads.  Sometimes it's just easier and quicker to grab a hammer and drive a nail home.  I can't believe I just called a hammer and nail 'old school' but it's getting that way.  The sound of a compressor and a nail gun has replace the rhythmic tapping of  a hammer.

I'm guilty as charged, I use my compressor and nail gun also but if I have just a few to tap in then it;s the hammer.  Attached is an image of a very simple yet effective way to avoid marring your work surface when driving a nail home with a hammer.

Use a small piece of sheet metal to create a shield.   Notch one end of a metal strip, then bend the other end for a handle.  Finish driving the nails the rest of the way home with a nailset.

As always - Thanks  following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Maintenance

Nothing exciting to report I spent some time this weekend making fixtures and installing new lights in the garage. I've been lugging these lights around with me for quite some time. One of my hanging barn lights blew so it forced me to install the new lights. I spent Saturday running around getting electrical parts but I'm glad I did, I think the lights look great.'We'll be shooting this week so I'll have images of the shoot to share shortly.

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Check it out'

This is the coolest thing ever. The song I use as the intro for the show is a song titled 'Fugitive' made popular by the 1960's instrumental surf band The Ventures. I've been lucky enough to secure the rights for the song, but while doing some research for the show I stumbled upon this great band that does a fantastic rendition of 'Fugitive'.

The Real Gone are a surf vibe/rockabilly band out of the Chicago area that just wrote and recorded a song for the show, that oddly enough is titled The Garage.

I'll be using the music throughout the show for now on. What a pleasure to work with these guys. Please check out the song at the link below and check out the real Gone on Facebook as well as on you tube where you can hear that great rendition of 'Fugitive'
https://soundcloud.com/therealgone/the-garage

As always- Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

I want to thank DeWalt for their generous donation of a driver drill, impact driver kit
Thank you,  It is needed and  will get a lot of use

Tip

I work out side a lot. If it's nice out I'll do some sanding outside or some finishing. I have a set of sawhorses that I keep out back by the shed and I have another set in the shop. I need to make another set because I'm always in need of them.

This tip comes right off the pages of an old popular mechanics book I have from 1968. I love it' It's so simple yet genius.

" When you're working outdoors with a ladder and need a sawhorse to trim a board or two, remember this simple on - the -spot stunt: Place a scrap board on the second rung of the ladder in the manner shown so it rests at an angle to form a sawbuck.
In this position the slanting board will cradle the board to be cut when it is placed against the ladder. Saves looking around for something on which to rest the board."

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve