Done

I did a little work on the chest yesterday and was able to finish it.
Well - almost. It still needs a finish on it. I haven't decided if I'm going to stain it or not.
I added a tray that can be removed to access the interior or you can slide it from side to side. This small chest has a lot of joinery in it.
I'll be making another one for the show. This is the project for the next episode.

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

The fruits of our labor

The fruits of our labor'

You should've seen the look on my sons face when he looked out his bedroom window this morning and saw a couple of sparrows making a nest in the house he and I made last week.

I hate sounding preachy, and I never want to use this face book page as a platform to do so'
So - lets call it, 'A gentle reminder'

We live in a very rushed world. It seems like everything has to be instantaneous, like a scratch and win lottery ticket. We get impatient if our internet is slow. We expect immediate responses to emails and text messages. We have smart phones, tablets, laptops, you name it.' I'm not opposed to technology. I use power tools to create work. We all live busy lives and at time it's easier to hand our child the smart phone or tablet so they can entertain themselves while we do other things. I get it''
But what I don't get is why we would prefer to do so over spending some time with them. Time- the most valuable of all things. We rush around living our lives but then as we get older we try to slow it down. crazy'

I'm by no means perfect, or have the perfect recipe on how to live your life. To each his own. I feel that the making of objects is an inherent trait to the human species. we are makers. We have articulated wrist. This is a trait only found in humans and apes and monkeys. We use these articulated wrist to build and make objects, play musical instruments, type on a keyboard and to communicate. There's a reason why we feel so fulfilled when we make something. I feel along the way we've ignored this inherent trait and forgot how to nurture and foster it.

What I don't want to do is to ignore what's important to my son. Time with his dad. Back to the bird house. The house took only an hour to build but during that time spent with my son I learned what was going on in his seven year old world. I learned about his friends at school, the games they play at recess, the books they read, his likes and dislikes and a whole bunch of random things. One hour. That's all it took to make a positive impact on his life. We got caught up and connected. My son cheered when he saw the birds in the house he made. He felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, more than moving up another level on a video game. He gave me a high five and said "way to go dad'
I apologize if I've sounded preachy. It's just the act of spending a single hour to make a simple bird house,and getting back to basics had a huge impact. I hope that one day when my son's a parent and his kids are complaining because there isn't anything to do- he remembers this moment and spends a single hour and makes something with them.

I figure that I've been around for more than 760,416667 hours in this world. I can spare one'

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

Curves

Curves

Yesterday was spent working on the coopered lid chest I'm making for the next episdoe we shoot. The lid is made up of ten individual pieces that are cut on an angle, called staves. The staves are then put together to form a curve, or radius. I made a full scale drawing in order to work out the angle of the staves, but they're is always some tweaking involved. I nailed and glued the staves to the lid sides and then cleaned up the points where the staves join together to create a smooth curve.
I have an old no# 27 Stanley Bailey jack plane that is my go to plane. It works beautifully. I have a metal jack plane but I just love how this one feels and works.

The plane is made out of beech wood. I ran the sole of the plane over my jointer to make it perfectly flat. You have to be careful when you do this, you can enlarge the mouth opening too much and shavings will get jammed up in the mouth. If this happens you can make an insert for the mouth and piece it in. You want just enough space to let a shaving go through.

I hit the high spots with the plane and then I used my Stanley no#3 smooth plane to finish the job.
I then cleaned up the edges and planed them level to the sides
I use my hand plane as a level and a straight edge to tell me when I've gone far enough.

I have an 'L' shaped fence that I clamp to the table saw and my bench to help keep the lid in place when I'm working on it with a plane. I love how the lid worked out. A curved top adds a dramatic affect to a simple box/chest.

Today I need to work on the interior shelf'

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

For the birds

For the birds

My son and I spent yesterday in the garage doing what has become a wonderful annual tradition, building bird houses together.
Each year after the snow melts we gather up our scrap wood and off cuts and build a couple of bird houses.
I love these moments and I love the look on his face when the birds actually occupy the house.
We used some scraps of pine and made two funky bird houses, complete with a beer bottle cap clad roof. We don't have a plan, we just " wing it" ( sorry - I just couldn't help myself).
My favorite one is the one with the two Narragansett brewery beer caps " Hi Neighbor" on it.
We have a lot of fun and it's a great piece of quality time spent with my son.
Thanks buddy'

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

Rikon

Rikon

I can't thank Jack Bransfield and Joe Taylor of Rikon tools enough. These good folks at Rikon donated a much needed six inch bench top jointer and a midi lathe to the show.
I spent yesterday afternoon setting up the jointer, model #20-600H. I can't wait to put it to use. I have a project idea for an episode that this will be perfect for.

The lathe, model # 700-220VSR is the largest of the bench top lathes, known as a midi-lathe. It is beefy. Both of these products are perfect for anyone working in a small space such as the garage.
Visit www.rikontools.com to see the full catalog of products.

Thank you again'

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

Staves

Staves

It's been a busy week but I finally got around to cutting and making the templates for the coopered lid.
I made a full scale drawing and worked out the radius of the sides of the lid, and the angle of the staves. Staves are the individual pieces of wood that are cut on an angle to make a curved component, like a bucket or barrel. The process of cutting these components is called coopering.
The sides are a partial ellipse so each angle is different. The lid is comprised of ten staves an 1 1/4" wide.

The best way to cut the staves is by laying them out right on the full scale drawing. The good thing is you only half to work out half of the staves. The other half is a mirror image
I made a smaller prototype and wrote the angle degree right on the pieces of pine.

I glued up the staves in stages, gluing a couple at a time until I had them all glued up. You could make a jig if you wanted to but when I cut and glue the full size staves for the lid I'll glue and nail them right onto the sides.

This simple chest has a lot of smaller, complicated parts. I love it'

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

Bottoms up'

Yesterday i spent some time cutting and fitting the bottom of the chest/box. Why spend money when you don't have to. I while ago I found a small bookcase made out of pine that came from the Pier One Import company. I took it apart and have since use some of the wood from it. I had a single board left that I used for the bottom of the box. The board wasn't wide enough to fit the entire box bottom so I used a piece of pine I took from a pallet.
I cut the stained pine board and put the pallet board in the middle. I thought it looked better. The pine board was cut from the pith ( center ) of the tree so it has some great grain running through it.

One of the boards has the pier one import logo stamped into it.
I love it.' Gives it a little history.
I know recycling/re-use/ up-cycling, whatever you want to call it, is popular and trendy these days. I call it being thrifty and smart.
Some might not like the look of it, I happen to like it and it makes me feel good knowing I didn't waste anything. I love giving new life to old objects or materials

I added 3/8 inch strips of wood to the bottom edges to elevate the box slightly. This makes the box look lighter. The strips are inset back approximately an 1/8 of an inch from the edge of the sides and front and back. This also gives it a sense of being lighter but it also creates a shadow line. If I had attached the strips so that they were flush with the sides and front and back you would be able to see the difference where the two meet. Any discrepancies would stand out. By setting them back you avoid this.

Now I'm off to make the curved top.

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

following.

'Come Together'

i spent the last few days working on the prototype for the next project of the show. I making a pine coopered lid chest. The box itself is joined together using large box/finger joints. I made a simple jig for the router to cut the joints. The front and back of the box fits nicely into the sides. I then glued and nailed the box together using old fashioned square head nails, giving it a rustic look.

The jig was simple too make. I cut a scrap piece of plywood to the width of my boards, In this case ten inches. I attached a fence at the ten inch mark. On one edge of the jig, using my table saw and a set of stacked dado blades, I cut the fingers for the front and back, and on the other edge of the jig I cut the mating fingers and recesses for the sides.

I simply cut the boards to length and width, placed one end and edge against the fence of the jig. I'm using a top bearing flush trim bit so I placed my boards on top of the jig, but - you also could use a bottom bearing pattern bit and do the same thing by placing the jig on top of the boards.

The bearing rides against the plywood jig/template and the bit cuts away the pine following the pattern. That's it. Turn the board end for end and do the same thing to the other end. Line up the side boards to the side pattern of the jig and do the same thing.
It couldn't be any easier. It all comes together nicely. Jigs don't have to be fancy, they just have to work. You'll have to trim a small amount of wood away because of the round profile of the router bit. Just simply take a chisel and square up the corners.

Next I have to attach the bottom and make the curved sides for the top.

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

following

Fork in the road

Sometimes you never know what you'll see when you take a left at the fork in the road instead of a right'
Saw this this morning
I love it -
Chainsaw woodworking at it's best

As always - Thanks for following
Be safe and be creative

Best

Steve

Process

I spent the day drawing a full scale drawing of the coopered lid chest that I'm building for the next episdoe. Drawings don't have to be elaborate or drawn on expensive drafting paper. I use Kraft paper. Even if your drawing style and technique isn't the greatest, I would still try to draw a full scale drawing of the project you're making.
You can save some money by making your mistakes on paper rather than on expensive lumber. Work the kinks out on ink first, it's cheaper in the long run, even though it might take some time to do a full scale drawing. Once you have the drawing done you have it for a life time.

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

Modernism Museum Mount Dora is a small, private, and focused museum devoted to collecting, exhibiting, and promoting the work of the American Studio Movement, with a core private collection of its founder, who resides in Mount Dora, just north of Orlando, Florida. Its new show “Esherick to Nakashima,” presents two seminal figures of the two formative generations of the American Studio Movement, which came to introduce craftsmanship to the notion of modern design. While Wharton Esherick, the ‘father’ of the American Furniture Movement was inspired by avant-garde European art and architecture as early as the 30s, Nakashima began his career as a furniture maker after WWII and his work was rooted in Japanese aesthetic sensibility and philosophy, paired with the his love for the legacy of early American furniture. Esherick, the pioneer, is known to have crafted no more than a couple of hundreds pieces of furniture, while Nakashima, who operated a successful business in his hometown New Hope, Pennsylvania, has made an extensive body of work. The exhibition seeks to present a comparison between these two giants who created personal languages in their crafted design, and who had made tremendous contributions to the story of modern design in America.

The information taken from the attached link below

http://www.daniellaondesign.com/blog/esherick-to-nakashima1

 

A family addition'

Nah'''' It's not what you think.
Yesterday we had some friends over and decided to go and peruse through Bernat antiques.
While rummaging through some odds and sods downstairs I spotted it' Could it be?, could it be?
Yes- It was''' My family of cove planes is complete'

I found an 1 1/4 inch cove plane, the one I needed. And - it's in great shape. The wood was a little thirsty but after a good cleaning and a fresh coat of wax the plane now resides beside the other family members.

I couldn't be happier' All I need to do is sharpen up the blade and get to work cutting coves on the underside of the staves for the chest I'm making for the next episode.
Ah''' The life of a woodworker'
It's these special moments that make it all worthwhile
Ha''' Sorry- I just couldn't help myself.

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