Shooting in the garage

Yesterday Ken and Barry came over to prepare for the next shooting of an episode of the show.  They were testing out some new lights they had just purchased.

Sharpening Stones

Here's a sample of some of the product that DMT donated. 

Another Car Show

On Monday evening we went to another car show held in the parking lot of a local restaurant.

These cars are beautiful.  I would love to deliver a piece of furniture in a classic old pick up.

Grooming

I want to thank Eddie Fournier of 'Eddie's Classic Barbershop in Whitinsville.
Eddie has generously donated his time and talent to try and make me look good on camera. If he can make it work for me he can make it work for you.
Go visit Eddie. He's easy going and does a great job'
Thanks Eddie 
Best
Steve

Car Show

 I know the show is about woodworking and furniture making and not about cars but I had to show these photos.
Afterall- the title of the show is " The Garage" and we do feature a lot of music throughout the show about cars.

On Monday a local restaurant held a mini car show. It was awesome. I love these cars and wish I could afford one. Maybe one day. My favorite was this great 1950's ( sorry, I forgot the exact date ) Ford Fairlane. It was stunning. These cars have class and style. What happened to auto design? Where are the fins? The torpedo lights?.

When I do get my car I'll drive it to the Atlanta area and get it pinstriped by Hot Rod Walt, Aka Walt Richards. Walt is the frontman for the Atlanta based rockabilly band Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho - Devilles and is also a mad pinstriper. Rod pinstripes everything from cars to bass guitars.

In episode ten of the show, 'Dinner for Two' we closed out the show playing the bands song 'Doin' Fine'. You can watch the episode and hear the song atwww.thegaragewithstevebutler.com .
Hot rod Walt and The Psycho - Devilles have generously allowed us to use the song permanently. When the credits roll you will here ' Doin' Fine'. I love this song and am proud to have it in the show.
Thanks Walt.
Check them out at www.psychodevilles.com where you can see samples of Walts pinstriping and get a copy of 'Doin' Fine' on thier new Country Gold CD.

I recently secured the rights to a song titled 'Fugitive' made popular by The Ventures. I've been using the song since the beginning as the introduction music for the show on cable access. Now that the show is on PBS I had to secure the rights and was able to. So - you'll be able to continue to hear that song as the intro, how ever I still hope to work with the Chicago based band 'The Real Gone' who do a great rendition of the song. Check them out atwww.facebook.com/therealgone
Thanks for the music and as always
Thanks for following
Best
Steve 

Pomfret Tables

I love all things vintage, retro, rocket era, mid-century modern, whatever you want to call it. I love it'

We've had a busy month and a half so last weekend we went driving and rummaging. We didn't have a destination in mind just driving through small towns looking for thrift stores to browse through.
We were in Pomfret, CT and discovered a used furniture store where we found a great set of tables. We certainly don't need another table but I just love these tables. That and it's hard not to pass up a bargain.

The set needed a little work but luckily enough I know a woodworker. Pointing out the broken parts meant that we were able to get the set for less than half of what the owner was asking, nearly next to nothing. The tables really weren't broken, they just had some loose parts that needed to be reglued and tightened.

The best way to learn about woodworking joinery and what works and what doesn't is by taking apart and repairing older furniture.
These tables were inexpensively made but they've lasted decades. The tables bases are made up of pieces of 3/4" lumber with a 1/4" top laminated onto them creating a solid surface. The round tapered legs are screwed into corner blocks that fit into grooves in the table sides.

The corner blocks have a round mortise in them that is angled to make the legs splay out.
The tables work wonderfully.

I added a little glue and a few clamps to some parts and cleaned the tables with simple green and 0000 steel wool and they look great.
The tables are a nice addition to our little modern abode.
As always
Thanks for following.
Best
Steve

It's Final

It's final' 
The toy chest wins. The pine toy chest with the chalkboard panels will be the next project built for the show. The peek - a - boo raft will follow. The beauty of this project is that it's uncomplicated. The frame of the chest is made using off the shelf tongue and grooved lumber available at most stores. We are shooting a new episode of the show next Thursday and should have it released a month after. When the editing is complete I'll post the video on this page.
So stay tuned.
Thanks for following
Best
Steve

LW Tank Repair

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Brent at LW Tank Repair.
Brent bought my mahogany trestle table for his office. I delivered the table but we left it unassembled until renovations to the office were complete. 
I went and assembled the table. If I don't say so myself It looks great in it's new environment, and it feels good knowing that it will get used everyday. Now I just have to convince him to commission me to make him some chairs.
Sculptural furniture is hard sell so I really appreciate Brents appreciation of the table.
Thanks Brent

As always- Thanks for following
Best
Steve

Uxbridge Community Television

Well it's full steam ahead.
I visited Barry Giles and Ken Kaiser at Uxbridge Community television to get the next episode of the show ready for shooting. I can't believe that it's episode twelve already. This will be the first episode that the three of us will work on together. I'm excited to be working with Barry and Ken, they've worked tirelessly to bring the past eleven episodes up to Rhode Island PBS standards. I'm grateful to be moving forward with them at the helm.
I've narrowed down the project choices to two.
Both project ideas are really cool. One is a pine toy chest that has painted chalk board panels in it so a child can write on it and the other is a small raft, much like a swimming kick board, that has a port hole hatch in it that a child can raise and look through to see the wonders going on beneath them in the water. So cool'''

DMT Sharpening

I spent this past week in Toronto so I'm behind in posting the latest news. I want to thank Stacey Brandon, Vice President at DMT, Diamond Machining Technology for her generous product donation to the show. DMT manufactures the best sharpening stones out there. Chefs covet them for the razor sharp edge they get on their knives and woodworkers love them for keeping their chisels and plane blades extra sharp. I first used them years ago when I was the department head of the wood studio at The Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA.
DMT manufactures a sharpening kit for all purposes. Check out their catalog at www.dmtsharp.com.
As always-Thanks for following
Best
Steve

How to do it

My local grocery store has a section where you can donate books for charity. The proceeds go to the local food pantry. Most of the books donated are novels or paperback romance books but now and then you find a gem.

I love the hardcover do-it-yourself books from the 50's and 60's. The exploded view drawings and graphics are great and there's loads of ideas for projects. A few days ago I was there and checked out the books and found ten books by Mechanix Illustrated titled How-to-do-it. There's 20 volumes in the set. These books are fantastic, not only do they give you a sense of nostalgia but there are so many cool projects to build inside them. I got some some great books and I've helped the local food pantry, it doesn't get better than that. I have volumes 10 - 20.
Thanks for following
Best
Steve

Flea Market Finds and Music

In episode four of the show I made a cigar box guitar. They are a blast to make. I've since made a few more. Two of them I installed pickups in to amplify them.
This morning my wife and son and I were rummaging around a flea market when I saw a hand made cigar box guitar. I love these things. They are easily made with a few simple parts and a few hand tools, and they sound great'
I've included some images of the few I've made and the one I saw at the flea market.

If you've never made a CBG ( cigar box guitar ) give it a try, you'll have a blast. You can find instructions on the internet or watch episode four of The garage with Steve Butler on youtube. All of the music featured in episode four is played on a cigar box guitar by musician and cigar box guitar maker Mike Snowden. You'll be amazed at how it sounds.

The closest thing to a genesis event for the cigar box as an invention per se happened between 1863 and 1865. As the Civil War was nearing its end, In 1863 the sale of cigars in boxes and barrels of 1,000 was made illegal.
Second-The Federal Revenue Act passed into law that the number of cigars in a box be restricted to 25, 50, 100. 250 and 500. Primarily these two regulations affected the size and shape of the cigar box – important because it somewhat presciently restricted the cigar box to a size suitable for reuse in a stringed instrument.

Cigar boxes could not be reused to sell goods again once the tax seal was broken. Since they were made primarily out of wood, they earned a place as fuel for burning to warm the house and heat the stove. A few survived to store scraps of paper or sewing items.

In the late 1800’s the cigar box was used as stringed instrument to teach children until they became proficient enough to move to a more advanced instrument. Stringed instruments such as a guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele and a violin were all made using cigar boxes. The primary wood used in making a cigar box is mahogany, a perfect wood for instruments because of its acoustic qualities. The advent of big box stores such as Wal-Mart made it feasible for lower income families to afford an instrument. Before stores such as Wal-Mart and Targets lower income and rural families made their own instruments. The cigar box guitar found its way out of being a child’s instrument to being a serious instrument used by blues musicians, a favorite instruments to the early delta blues artist because it actually works and sounds well.

I made these cigar box guitars much like how they were made over 100 a years ago. The only difference is the contemporary tuning pegs. The guitars consist of a guitar box, a 1” x 2” piece of wood for the neck and fretboard and a bolt used for the bridge. There are only three strings on a cigar box guitar. They are tuned to open tunings such as G, A, and D, common blues guitar tunings. I love how resourceful people can be and these guitars are true to that character. I think about how the first person must have felt after he made one of these guitars, strung it up and listened to the sweet sound it made.
They are still used by many delta blues musicians today. They have a unique sound. The three strings are meant to be tuned in an open tuning and played with a slide. The most popular tuning is the open ‘G’ tuning (G, D, and G). Others are ‘A’ (A, E, A), and the Hawaiian A6 tuning (A, E, F#)

As always- Thanks for following.
Best
Steve

Stiletto Kitsch

If you love all things kitsch then you have to love these chairs.
I saw a pair of stiletto chairs at the local flea market today.
As a furniture maker I could never make a chair that has so much WOW factor as these high heel beauties . These are crazy'
I wish I had the space ( nerve ) to buy them and give them a home.
I'd love to see the look on peoples faces when they'd walk in the room.
As always- thanks for following
Best
Steve

Mike's Kitchen

I hope you had a great FOURTH'''
We just got back from a trip to Toronto last evening. We were there for unfortunate reasons but it's always great to see family and friends. We stayed at my brother's place. His kitchen is the first kitchen I did. The cabinet doors and frames are made out of solid oak. The doors are made up of stiles and rails with a raised panel field. I set up a small work sight on his back deck and built the kitchen on site. It was easier than running back and forth for a measurement. Even with measured drawings you can still make a mistake. After all of these years they are still hanging on the frames by the original hinges. Not bad'
As always- Thanks for following
Best
Steve

Nails, Screws, and Baby Food

Hey'
Remember the days when every basement or garage shop had baby jars filled with a variety of screws and nails of different sizes?
I recently had a plastic cabinet with small drawers in it break. The contents spilled all over the shop floor. It took me hours to sort through the mess. I forgot I had the nails and screws. I saw a bunch of baby jars attached to a makeshift lazy susan at an antique store.

I started saving all of the pickle and relish jars we used and mounted them under the shelves in my shop. I screwed the lids to the underside and filled the jars with the assortment of nails and screws. Now I can see what I have. The process made me feel good. Why did we stop doing this? Maybe there's a small chance of breaking one of the glass jars but I love how they are so visible. I feel a little nostalgic'
Thanks for following
Best
Steve

Snow shoe chair

I love rummaging through thrift and antique stores. I get great ideas for projects at these places and at times you see something that just makes you smile. Attached are images of a folding chair made out of an old snow shoe. The snow shoe and the chair are made out of ash. The maker did a great job of blending all of the parts.
I can only imagine the smile they had on their face when the project was finished and they sat in the chair. It made me smile looking at it'
Best
Steve

Dad

I like to keep this page for my work and leave personal feelings and opinions out of it but some things just need to be said.
I struggle now and then about what I should post. We are shooting a new episode soon so I'll have plenty of images of the newest project to post.

If there is a message behind the show it's a simple one. " Be creative, make something, and have fun" Don't be intimidated by not having all of the bells and whistles, or thinking you can't do it.
Skill level doesn't matter, just try and have fun doing it.
I talk a lot about spending time building and making projects with our kids. A few nails, a couple scrap pieces of wood and you have a boat, an airplane or a racecar. They have fantastic imaginations and can turn an old paper towel roll into a spaceship, half an hour out of a day can turn into a lifetime of memories.

Attached are a couple of images of racecars my son and I built out of a couple of pieces of wood found in the scrap bin. We bought the wheels and stickers. He painted them.

I don't ever want to sound like I'm standing on a podium spewing out my opinions so I apologize if I offend anyone. I don't claim to be the best Dad in the world. Finding the time to play or build something can be difficult, we all lead busy lives and have bills to pay. It's easier to buy a toy rather than make one. It's not about the object or toy though. It's about the time.
I lost my Father this week so I'm reflective. I can't remember what he bought for me, but I can remember the time spent with him.
Thanks as always for following.
Best
Steve

Liesls studio bench

Now and then my wife Liesl and I get asked to teach workshops out of our studios.
She's a jeweler specializing in sterling silver jewelry of her own design.www.lcarlsonjewelry.blogspot.com. I recently built her a small workbench to accommodate two students. The bench frame is made up out of 2" x 6" spruce bolted to the wall at one end. The center post is made up of small pieces nailed together to form a frame that holds newspapers for the wood stove. I made two drawers out of 3/4" thick pine that I simply glued and nailed together.

I ran a bead of glue along the bottom of the pine pieces and glued them to a piece of masonite/hardboard I used for the bottom. The bottom length and width extends beyond the drawer size to act as the drawer runners. The drawers are light duty so this technique works well. I drilled a hole into the drawer bottom and then used a cork to plug it. The students saw pieces of silver above the drawer so collecting the dust is important. The dust is swept through the hole and collected in a jar that will then be sent out and evaluated.

My wife redeems the cash value for materials or tools.
The top of the bench is made out of a piece of 3/4" plywood that I covered with a piece of tempered masonite/hardboard. When the hardboard gets worn out I can simply take the screws out and replace it with a new piece, preserving the life of the plywood bench top.

Glen

I met my good friend Glen when he enrolled in a table making class I was teaching. The class taught students how to do woodworking joinery appropriate in making a table, such as mortise and tenon joinery and how to cut tapers for the legs. Glen built a wonderful sofa table. Recently Glen converted an old pine bookcase into a beautiful chest for his daughter. The chest is held together with box/finger joints that Glen cut using a router.

Nice work Glen'

Bird on a wire

Any artisan/craftsperson/artist, whatever title you'd like to use, will tell you that the part of the job they dislike the most is self promotion. We would rather be in our environments doing what it is we do. The difference between being a starving artist and a successful artist is that side of the business we dislike, self promotion. So it is with humble humility ( is there such a thing ) that I ask you to read the press release on Rhode Island PBS blog. The show premieres on Saturday, July 5th at 2:30 PM. I saw the schedule and am incredibly excited. The show is scheduled between two woodworking greats, Scott Phillip's American Woodshop and Roy Underhill's Woodwright Shop. I can't believe the opportunity Rhode Island PBS has provided me. Please check out the blog link below and read the press release and as always.
Thanks for following and watching.
Best
Steve
www.rhodeislandpbs.blogspot.com