'Oh The Circle.... Is '

Almost complete.' All that is left to do to complete the cafe table is to cut out the round table top. I glued together the shelves from the bookcase I got from the local library to form a solid plank. I turned the board over and attached a home made circle cutting jig for the router. You can buy circle cutting jigs but it's easy to make your own. All you have to do is cut a piece of plywood ( I used 1/2" thick ply ), drill a hole for the router bit to fit through, and attach the router base.

In my case I'm using my Bosch plunge router, but you can use any router, plunge or fixed. You simply measure the center of the bit and then measure the distance away from it. I am cutting a 26" inch circle so I measured half of that distance, 13 inches.
I drilled a small hole at that point and attached a screw. I screwed the circle jig in the center of my boards and then I'll rotate the router around the screw point. Increase the depth of the bit each turn until you cut through your boards. It doesn't get any easier.

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

following.

Uxbridge First night

On Saturday it  was my towns Santa parade and first night festival.
It's a fun event for us. After the parade the kids ( and parents ) line up at the fire house waiting to visit Santa. The first night committee painted and decorated the toy box I donated. It came out really well, but I apologize for the shaky image. It was difficult to get a clear shot of it.

Also - We walked past Lynch's package store. they had decorated it for the festival, even the planter boxes I made for them. Lynch's commissioned me to replace the old boxes on the building. I used the planter box as a project for the show. It was nice to see them being used this time of year.

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

Fine furnishings

On Sunday morning we went to the fine furnishings show in Pawtucket, RI.

The fine furnishings show is an annual show showcasing American made handcrafted furniture and accessories.
I love going to this show. I get very inspired by the pieces I see.

Some are more traditional than others and some are very funky.
For the artists and craftspeople involved it gives them a chance to sell their work and maybe get a commission. It also gives them a chance to see and talk to like minded people. Most artisans work alone in their workshops or studios so the show offers them a chance to see what others are doing and creating.

I enjoyed talking to fellow furniture makers. I couldn't wait to get home and make'. I've attached some images of work from the show

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

WAM

Yesterday was a fun creative day. I'm ambivalent about big box stores. I'm neither for or against them. I do prefer to give my business and money to a local, neighborhood mom and pop store. However - because of the volume of business a big box store does enables them to offer some things a smaller business can't.

Each first Saturday of the month the Home Depot offers kids workshops for free. The kids get an apron, a badge with an image of the workshop project on it, a certificate of completion, and a finished project.
Yesterday we headed off to the workshop at 9 AM. It only takes an hour to complete the project but what a great way to spend some quality time with your child. And - it's free. These workshops occur at every Home Depot in the nation at the same time. We purposely went to a Home Depot further from our house so we could enjoy a country road drive.
Yesterday my son made a military style jet in honor of veterans day. It came with decals from each service.

After the workshop we drove the country roads and headed to the Worcester Art Museum. Each first Saturday of the month the Worcester Art Museum has free admission. Not bad considering that the regular adult ticket is $14. If you've never been to the WAM you should go. It's a first rate museum. My son loves the collection of armor they have. The knights exhibit even has the real Batman dark knight costume. I always look at the collection in the Americana exhibit. The period furniture is so well crafted and beautiful, I'm in awe at what was achieved.

There's an exhibit by a Moroccan artist that I fell in love with. His recreation of a vernacular Moroccan salon is fantastic. I love high end furniture like the pieces in the Americana exhibit but I also love pieces that are simple and made out of necessity. There's a different beauty to them. The ordinary is made extraordinary.
As is the case in the salon. Flour bags are made into beautiful pillows that sit on coca-cola crates, creating a sofa. Paint cans and buckets are made into beautiful stools and seats, adorned with cushions of Moroccan patterns. I could feel the sense of pride the maker must have had when he finished. He had to be resourceful due to economy and finances and yet he created a beautiful place for his family.

After our trip to the museum we went out for lunch. Our creative venture started at 9 AM with a visit to our local library. We finally got back home sometime past 2 PM. What a great day we had. We all had fun. The drive was like a Sunday dinner at the dining table. It allowed us to talk to each other and catch up. I - like the salon artist at the museum had a great sense of pride. Because of economy we have to be resourceful, we created a fantastic day for ourselves, and all for free.

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

A new home

One of the Shaker benches I made for the show has a new home.
My good friend Glenn and his family wanted it so I delivered it to his house in Providence, RI today.
The bench is unfinished. I'm not sure if Glenn will paint it or just put a urethane topcoat on it.
The bench will stay on the back porch. I took this picture and sent it to Glenn when I got home. He had no idea I was delivering it today. He informed me that the cooler on the porch was full of beer. Timing is everything''
Oh well - next time'
As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve

Planes and mallets

I'm making a mallet and a hand plane. The mallet is pretty straight forward too make. The wooden hand plane is modeled after the type cabinet maker James Krenov made popular in his book 'A Cabinet Makers Notebook'

The plane is made by cutting a block like a sandwich on the band saw. You then take out the center piece and cut two sections. One section is cut at 45 degrees and the other is cut at 62 degrees. The center piece is used to make a wedge that will hold the plane blade in place. Before we glue the sides back onto the center pieces you have to drill holes to allow for the dowel rod we'll use. The rod holds the wedge in place, which then holds the blade in place. The 45 degree wedge gets a slot cut into to accommodate the cap screw of the metal chip breaker that attaches to the blade.

This is a quick explanation I know, there's a little more to it but all in all it's not that difficult to make your own hand plane. I then use the mallet I made to adjust the plane. This style hand plane is adjusted by tapping the back of the plane to loosen and retract the blade, and by tapping the top front of the plane to move the blade forward.
I love using a tool I made with my own hands, and then use it to make a piece of furniture.
Awesome'

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

Apples

Yesterday we went apple picking. It was a perfect day weather wise. I have a blast watching my son run through the orchard grabbing apples of all kinds.

I also love the scenery. Not just the farmland with all of it's fall colors but the weathered old barn boards and the gray apple bins.
I love how it looks when the land starts to reclaim it's territory and swallows up machines and equipment that have been left there to retire.
Crazy sounding I know but I find a strange beauty in it.
The gray boards, the colors in rust'
If you have the chance ask the folks who run the orchard for some of the prunings. Apple wood is beautiful. It turns easily and makes awesome candle sticks or mallet heads. And - if all else fails you can use it for smoking food on the grill, it's delicious'

The ride home consisted of eating apple donuts and drinking fresh apple cider. Awesome'

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

Thursdays tip

Thursdays Tip
Well- sort of

It's not a tip but rather a reminder. I was reading the October issue of Fine Woodworking magazine and turned to an article by Bob Van Dyke, founder and director of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. The article is about the simple wooden wedge and all of its uses. The title of the article is 'The Versatile Wedge.' Use these simple shop helpers to tackle tricky glue-ups, hold parts at the bench, and more.

I have a collection of How-to and woodworking books from the 50's and 60's and all of them show a simple wooden wedge being used for different purposes. The wooden wedge was the first woodworking clamp. Take a look at a traditional style trestle table and the wedge is used to lock the table in place and keep it sturdy. There are all kinds of clamps available at home centers and woodworking catalog stores. And all of them promise to do this, or do that, but a simple wedge can do all of the same tasks. You can save your self a lot of money on specialty clamps by making some wedges of various sizes and a few wooden jigs.
As adults we tend to over complicate things, when there is a simple solution staring right at us.

If you don't have a copy of Fine Woodworking magazine you can buy one at your local book or grocery store and online atwww.finewoodworking.com. Bobs article is on page 32 in the October edition.
Have a look and enjoy the simpler things. I've had the pleasure of teaching for Bob. Check out the school and all of the courses it has to offer at www.schoolofwoodworking.com

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

Face lift

The shop underwent a little face lift this week.
Friends of mine gave me some great cabinets that I installed in the shop, freeing up some room and giving me much needed storage space. It's funny how I added more to the space, but there seems to be more room now. Crazy how that works.
Anyways - I finally got it ready and cleaned..

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

Perfect

A couple of weeks ago I made a two plank chair. I've always wanted to make one but just never got around to it. It was after a visit to the Coggeshall farm museum in Bristol, RI that I got inspired to make one. I know it's a little late in the season but when I saw my son sitting in the chair around the fire pit at Coggeshell I thought now's as good a time as any.

The chair is simple to make and works really well. It's also a great project if you have a couple of pieces of off cuts you don't know what to do with. I used a couple of boards I had taken off of a large pallet to make mine. I added a couple of pieces of foam rubber to make it more comfortable. The chairs aren't the most comfortable chairs in the world but they only take an hour to make and they work'

I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I knew after I had made mine that there was something missing. After many hard, arduous hours of searching I found the perfect accessory for the chair. Now it's perfect.'

Check this out'

I know some of you might disagree with me, but think about it -
what can be more perfect than a chair around the camp fire that has a built in flush mounted bottle opener. It was simple to install the flat opener. You simple drill a shallow mortise the thickness and diameter of the opener, and then another smaller mortise, approximately 1/2 inch deep.
The chair is now complete and resides in the back of my vehicle.
Perfect'

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

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