woodworking tools tips

weve got a new claro walnut dining table almost ready to go. it doesnt have a home yet, and its not 100% finished, but weve got no place to set it up to finish it right now. the finish room is full with the 11 walnut table at the bottom of this post and a few other items. the walnut table will be leaving this week coming up and well attach the top to the base below, and polish it up. it will be available at an attractive price. if youre interested, please give me a call and we can talk about it. click the photos to enlarge them ..

sam finished the base on thursday. its natural finish steel; lightly polished and oiled. the slab is slightly wider at one end than the other, and so is the base. the top overall is 35-38 wide and 91" long. the base is about 60" long overall.

this is the slab we started with. it wasnt too flashy in the rough, and some folks like to have live edges, but now that its finished, it has a nice consistent color, has some nice grain, and overall has a really pleasing look.

and behind the walnut slab were two other coffee table size slabs that were in the process of finishing up. this one is big leaf maple burl, about 31 x 54 and it will be fitted up to the base below that sam should have finished on monday. also homeless and available at a good price soon too.

and the claro slab below, i think ill hold off on for a minute ... it could be squarish; it could be round?? or it could just hang out here until someone comes along to claim it. maybe it wants to be a really small round center table.

and the three new slabs below will be arriving in a couple weeks ... desks ?? coffee tables ?? well see.

and below is the double pedestal walnut table that will be on its choice to california mid week next week. its been in the works for a while awaiting final color approval, but its good to go now. more on that one in my next post.

there are other pieces ready to go on this page

Kamis, 11 Agustus 2016

The New Year

Ahhhhhhh.... I alchoices think of the New Year as kind of a blank slate .... I know its just another day/week/year coming up, but I like to think I can start anew and correct little things in my personality that irk me. Hasnt happened in the past; probably wont happen this year either. I did, actually, even though everyone else had a paid holiday, spend some time today organizing my office and getting my job list on my whiteboard, but, why is my bench alchoices such a mess .... Where is that thing I had in my hand not TWO seconds ago? Why oh why oh why do I hate Quickbooks Pro 2010 sooooo much? Why dont I have a proper tool cabinet of my own after 35 years of doing this when everyone else in the shop is so orderly? This is starting to look like a list of new years resolutions and maybe it is ... Well see ... My wife Kit is finally getting a real bureau as we speak, after about 5 years of me talking about it, so there is hope, maybe .... I leave you to ponder the above with me and also you can ponder the stuff below I scraped off my bulletin board recently ... Enjoy ... Dont go too deep with it ... Its light stuff ... Click the images to enlarge them ....

I had a wonderful conversation the other day with an old friend about the current vagaries of the custom work business ... the slow pay .. the almost order that takes as long and is as complicated as the real order, the lack of choice caused by the lack of demand, and it all boiled down to cash flow. Things do seem to be picking up though recently, (dare I even say it????) The above quote from Paul Downs, a Philadelphia furniture maker who was interviewed a few years ago by, I think, Woodshop News is a true thing. His quote above resonated with me as it has been the back story of my 31 years in business ... So true ... We like the craftsmanship, but we also need to do the money stuff. ... almost everyday ...

Error and Trial .... We often say we work from one recovery to the next ... No mistakes, no progress.

We dont know .... in some choices, another part of the story of my life ... listening for inner voices .. Id like to write some this year about creativity. Where do ideas/designs/processes come from? Can you teach other people to have ideas? Im interested in your thoughts ... Comments?

Failure to failure, one recovery to the next ... obstacles into opportunities .. variations on a theme ....

More on having ideas above... We do know,however, that every idea is not a good idea ... Then there are a few humorous ones ...

I love Roz Chast ... she often has her finger on the pulse of the thoughts in the back of my mind.

How can you not buy that coloring after a good ad like that ... ?

A little Zen .... I guess this means that hings are just as they are, regardless ...

Who can tell how events will be transformed? Indeed ... I love this story .. Its from the reference section of the Steven Mitchell translation of the tao te ching. It also, along with the one below, has the most thumbtack holes in it and I now can retell it almost verbatim ...

Tom Peters gave me this one one day when I was complaining about teenagers (Will, I think) ... Nature? Nurture? Coincidence? All Of The Above? Who knows?

Good thing ...

The Moby Dick guy .... Hand lettered and posted by the time clock for about a year by yours truly .. Everyone should memorize this one ...

Jim Harrison ... another favorite ... ready and attentive .... love the concept ...

And, I would have written you a shorter blog post too ...

Jumat, 29 April 2016

Goodbye Old Friend

My college graduation gift was the Porter-Cable 1-1/2 HP router kit. It came with a single motor, a D-handle base, a plunge base & a small router table. It was my first power tool. While it still serves me well, Ive moved on to bigger routers with soft starts and dust collection. Router technology improved, and so did my collection.

The DeWalt 12" Dual-Bevel Sliding
Compound Miter Saw.

A few months later the first power tool I bought myself was a DeWalt 12" Dual-Bevel Sliding Compound Miter saw. I bought it at Home Depot when my wife and I went into closing on our first house (how, after all, can anyone work on their house with a 12" dual-bevel sliding compound miter saw?). Once in the house, I built a bench for the saw. That was in early 2001. The bench was 10 long and 37" deep to accommodate the travel of the saws rails. It served as a miter saw bench, a work bench and an assembly table.

The DeWalt takes up 37" from the
front of the handle when turned in
to the back of the rails.

Two years ago when we moved and my shop was squeezed into a 911" x 22 single car garage, the 37" deep bench became un-workable. There was just no choice I could give up all that space along a wall. Shortly after moving I sold the bench and the 3 custom made rolling carts that fit underneath it to one of my co-workers. The saw stayed with me. It spent most time folded up in the corner. I had to unfolded it and set it on a folding table in the drivechoice for work.
Ive known that the depth of the big old DeWalt was too much for the new shop, but when compared to the newer saws on the market today with less rear projection, I didnt see the same types of improvements as occurred in routers. I still think my 10 year old DeWalt is nicer than most saws on the market.

Packed & Ready to go.

My hesitation in replacing the DeWalt ended this week when we needed a saw at work to crosscut 12" wide strips of plywood for the 100 or so custom curbs were building for the skylights on a condo re-roof project were doing. I immediately offered up my 12" DeWalt, Forest Chopmaster and all. Work bought it with no haggling and the DeWalt quickly set to work making skylight curbs.
Now I approach a weekend of home improvement (PVC fascia & window trim installation) with no miter saw. Im not sure how Ill do it. Using a track saw to cross cut 16 PVC 1x6s to length seems the most accurate choice left to me and also like so much more work than with a miter saw. To remedy the situation Ill be scoping out miter saws at Woodworking in America next week (thankfully theyve added power tools this year). I know Festool will be there with a Kapex and Im hoping the new Bosch Gliding Miter Saw will make an appearance. Ill cross reference them both against the new Makitas and hopefully one will come out a winner. Then my shop wont feel so empty.