Above 1200 Sq/FT The Retread Shed

[Gizmosity]

This summer is slipping by FAST. I’ve now torn my shop partially apart now twice in the month. So, not much is getting done other than some organization. I’ve put some things up for sale and had a few bites. Getting rid of a large tool cabinet that I’ve had for 3 years and have struggled to be able to use. I’ve had it in both sides of the shop trying to use it. For the last year it’s been holding two Kohler engines off the floor….time to let it go. I finally saw a former student needed one and it looks like he’s buying it and getting it out of my shop. Been trying to sell the Walker Turner table saw I bought and put new bearings in, only to find a deal on my Grizzly cabinet saw I’m using now. No takers yet, but I’ve only offered it up on OWWM.

My wifes family had a potluck a couple weeks ago and I realized that my nephew, who I still view as 10 years old, is actually 15, lifts weights and wrestles. I hired him for a day in the upcoming week. We will be moving many heavy things. Much of what I’ve been doing has been organizing for a single day of moving quite a bit of stuff, shoving some things that I plan on keeping into a corner and moving things OUT of corners that I’m trying to sell. Some stuff will move to the garage at the house.

I plan on busting out about 15 feet of the partition wall and taking over about 450sf from the unfinished side and getting that insulated and sheetrocked. That’s going to be a very long term project as I have time/money (the two rarely occur at the same time)
For now, I’ve actually gotten some organization done. I have a temporary benchtop on the new drawer base. It’s a salvage top I volunteered to put together for my CNC lab at work. It’ll get cut in two and become tops for two carts. I have access to a ton of oak for super cheap so I’ll make mine out of that, but I can use this until late August. The Emmert will finally have a home once I get my top made.

Those drawer units were only a portion of the cabinets I got a few weeks ago. There were also these two steel cabinets. The doors are 3/16” thick. Built like a tank. I was going to just sell them an recoup some of my cost, but…..they fit so I think I’ll keep them.

I needed to get some clamps closer to my assembly table. My barrel still works great, but I need to find a barrel dolly to make it convenient to move around when it’s needed and wheeled out of the way when its not. This isn’t particularly elegant, but it was certainly cheap, fast and easy.

If I had two more 1/2” EMT straps, I’d have the other side done as well. I have so many router tables set up right now that I’m about 24 clamps light. I need to sneak over to HD and see if they have any more of their 4 for $20 deals on the Bessey’s.
Speaking of clamps….I bought a couple of Jet parallel clamps the other day on Amazon. I’d been watching them for a while and had them on the ‘save for later’ section of the cart. Amazon decided they were no longer available and deleted them. 3 months later, they showed up again with a 1-2 month ship time. It’s a 2-pack for like $70. I figured I had nothing to lose. They still haven’t shipped, but they might….or they might not. If you’re looking for a deal, you might check that out.

I got the jointer knives on my old Wallace jointer replaced. It was a golden disaster. I hand lapped each gib down about 0.005” on a diamond stone so my new knives fit. I had planned on making a video on how I set jointer knives on a skewed 4 knife cutterhead as there really isn’t anything out there on it that I could find. It’s a little less than what I was hoping for as I was so set back on time with the lapping that I set the knives and then made a video on how I did it. Anyway, if anyone has an interest, here is that:

Which leads me to the last topic…..me:
This whole thing is sort of a selfish deal for me, not so much anybody else. I mean, if anybody gets an idea of a nudge to do something, that’s great, but I don’t really interact much with folks who read this within the bloggy type thing itself. I assume there are some as the numbers show that SOMEBODY is reading it.

Anyway, I’m coming out of the ‘woodwork’ so to speak. Just curious if anybody has any ideas on this:
I was cleaning up some storage bins of **** I have lugged around the country for the last 20 years or so. I found these 3 casters.

Why I have three casters is beyond me. 2 of them lock. They came from some heavy duty wire shelving units. I think I might recall one of them getting bent in one of my moves and I replaced it. Anyway…..anybody have any ideas on a great use of 3 casters?

I have a couple more things in the studio that I have in storage that I’d like to find a use for that I’ll be dragging out and seeing if anyone wants to play the ‘what the hell am I going to do with this’ game.

 

[jbmatth]

So you are telling me you have a barrel of clamps that needs a barrel dolly and you have three casters with no use for them? I'll see if I can come up with an idea on what to do and get back to you.
JB

 

[Gizmosity]

So you are telling me you have a barrel of clamps that needs a barrel dolly and you have three casters with no use for them? I'll see if I can come up with an idea on what to do and get back to you.
JB

Yea....That's definitely obvious....but 3 casters on something that *top*heavy I'm not so sure about unless I weld something together and lower the center of gravity. But, yep, that's one of the options for those. I MIGHT have 5 or 6 smaller casters laying around that are the same size that could work for that and keep it from being tippy.

Also.......I've started moving photos over to my new Smugmug account from PB and gotten some of the posts photo links updated. It's not quite as bad as I'd thought it was going to be. Still not how I'd like to spend my morning.

 

[jbmatth]

What I would envision is a square frame with two casters on on the adjoining corners, and the third centered on the opposite side. Then have two legs on the same side as the single caster with some over center mechanism allowing the legs or caster to move up and down about 1/2". Thus giving you "training wheels" to prevent tipping and be able to lock it in place. Clear as mud?
JB

 

[Gizmosity]

What I would envision is a square frame with two casters on on the adjoining corners, and the third centered on the opposite side. Then have two legs on the same side as the single caster with some over center mechanism allowing the legs or caster to move up and down about 1/2". Thus giving you "training wheels" to prevent tipping and be able to lock it in place. Clear as mud?
JB

Outriggers? Brilliant!

This might happen today. I've got a steel design penciled out but I can't really fab steel in my space.....yet. and it was a complicated mess trying to keep the barrel low.

I've got an auction to go to this afternoon..........

 

[Gizmosity]

Holy moly I got…..distracted…

The auction was a pure ****-show. .

Total damage for the day?
Food/drinks: $20
Actual winning lots: $1.50

Whatever.

This was a friends farm auction. 15 years ago (As the story goes) my buddy took a pile of junk to the dump. He didn’t know it, but my friend that had the auction went to the dump a few minutes after my buddy left and grabbed a bunch of stuff that he had dumped. Fast forward to the auction and my buddy was the only person at a remote location, the auctioneer said “give me a buck for all this stuff up here”. He looked around and saw a 30’ extension ladder and nodded yes….$1. When he went back to get the ladder (and all the other stuff in the lot) he noticed some of it was familiar. He bought back all the **** he’d hauled to the dump 15 years ago.

A house about ¼ mile from us was purchased by a couple that had moved away for a number of years. They happened to be friends with my wife before I entered the scene. The house they bought was in such rough shape that they just tore it down and started over. (River view acreage/**** house.) Their construction loan expiration date was looming. I got roped into some kitchen cabinet work that I just finished.

So…no new photos yet. It's like a moratorium.

As stated previously, this whole Photobucket thing bit me in the ***. I was working pretty diligently on copying photos to my new host, Smugmug and fixing all the links in SEVERAL forums. All of a sudden, I couldn’t even copy photos from Photobucket. I threw my hands up, yelled, had a beer and got over it. I just went back after a couple of weeks of cooling off. All of a sudden, I’m able to copy everything. I looked at their terms and still don’t fully comprehend why some photo links worked while others didn’t and why some photos I was able to copy, while others I couldn’t and what, if anything, happened between now and then that allows me to copy everything.

Their monkeys, their circus. I’m officially done with them.

It’s going to take me a while to fix the links…but they will get fixed. I started from the beginning and am working my way forward. I have the first 69 posts repaired. I have about 130 left to fix......in this forum.

 

[jbmatth]

Sorry to hear about your photobucket loss, it is a major pain to have to fix all those links. I know of other people that have thousands and thousands that they have to restore. It is a big hit to those of us who read old threads while doing research and now have no photos to look at.
JB

 

[Gizmosity]

OK, my photo projects on GJ are done. There might be a few posts floating out there I posted on with some photo links but I dug pretty deep. I think I got them all here. I’ve got one thread left on OWWM.org to deal with.

I was trying to keep photos in some sort of order to make it easier to deal with fixing things. As it turns out it’s just a royal PITA, no matter how you slice it.

Charlie Parr made it more enjoyable:

I mentioned some cabinet work from a couple weeks ago. I needed to join some base cabinets, make custom side and back panels and add casters so this island rolls. I can do that.

Speaking of casters. I ended up using only two of the three and two smaller casters. I glued up a center brace and milled it the right thickness for the smaller casters to be mounted to. It’s actually just a smidge under. So I could push down on the barrel when moving it and only deal with three casters. In reality all three are swivel, so it doesn’t really matter. The top is a drop from my previous chop saw station that I notched around the propane line to my furnace. It was the perfect size as long as I ignore that notch cut out….and I do.

The dead space is for a vacuum pump for vacuum clamping. I have the pump but need to source some bits and pieces to make it a usable unit. I need a bag too. A few curvy things in my head that I need to make and I’ve been hording a vacuum pump for about 3 years.
I grabbed some walnut the other day. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, but it’s all 8”+ wide and 10’-6” long and the 6 pieces are sequentially sawn.

My wife was the assistant director for a small production and they needed a cover for a projector that needed to ‘blend’ into the floor of the stage. I knocked out a plywood box and cut some vents in the top and sides. I ended up having to cut one side out for the exhaust to vent out more.

I worked ‘front of house’ for the performance.

Yesterday my wife and I had a ‘hot date’ at my favorite surplus place. Picked up 50’ of compressor hose. Passed on the aerosol lice killer….for now.

 

[Gizmosity]

Had a friend ask me to make a card box with a built in picture frame for her sisters wedding. Couldn’t say no…….

She wanted something like this:

I pulled some materials out and started to think about how I would hold the glass/photo/matting/back inside and still be easy to swap out. She wanted it fairly narrow so it could be used as a picture frame on a shelf after the wedding.

I knew I had a couple of 8x10 frames we had bought but never actually used and figured I’d steal the glass and backer from that. When I grabbed the frame, I thought……why make a new frame?

Turned out not too shabby.

Going to a CNC seminar tomorrow that I’m looking forward to. John Saunders is supposedly leading the day long class. I’ve followed NYCCNC from WAY back. I’m pretty much self taught. This will be a nice change of pace.

 

[Gizmosity]

As is typical, it’s been busy.

I have been traveling and visiting interns at various manufacturing facilities and commercial construction sites over the last week. I should be done with my more remote students, by phone, on Monday afternoon.

In a fit of organization, I started building drawers for my chop saw station after 3 years or so of putting it off. I initially thought I’d put pullouts behind doors, but that seemed like a total waste of space and added complexity to store ‘stuff’. I’m not really sure exactly WHAT stuff will be going in the drawers. I’m actually not a huge fan of drawers. Technically each box gets one top drawer about 5” deep. The other two drawers on each box will only be a 4” tray with a 11-1/2” drawer front. This will allow me to put larger things in there and keep me from throwing tons of **** in the bottom drawers. I’m still not sure what I’m doing with all the totes I’m currently storing in the empty cabinets. I’ve been wanting to add some color to the shop. These drawers will have applied fronts that will end up being paint grade and I’m leaning toward a green similar to Festool’s green, for no real reason other than I seem to like it better than anything else I’ve seen so far. Paint is cheap….at least it used to be.

The materials I’m using for the drawers I bought a while ago. I picked up some 5/4 soft maple for the drawers in the jewelry boxes and liquor cabinets I started a few months ago. The idea is that with 5/4 stock I could resaw and double my yield with only about a 25% increase in price. About half of the stock I got couldn’t quite net two pieces of ½” material, it was too warped. I thought the maple would be a nice contrast to the cherry and walnut I used in the pieces. The maple that came up thinner than ½” will get used for drawer bottoms and cabinet backs. Still a good use of material.

My CNC seminar was a good time. I learned some stuff on Fusion, which I’ve avoided until recently. I’m actually pretty impressed with it. There were some cool features in the CAD portion I made note of. I’ll still be teaching Solidworks, but when I get my CNC built, I’ll need CAD/CAM outside of academic software licenses. Fusion to the rescue. We made a mill vise speed handle and looked at feeds/speeds/bit engagement. I liked the soft jaw fixture we used and plan on doing more of that in my classes in the future.

Now, I need to brew a little more coffee and pick up a good friend and FINALLY go look at that 16” jointer I’ve been talking about for a few years. Fingers crossed that the head isn’t a clam-shell and that the motor is dual voltage 3 phase. If those are both negative, I’ll worry about how to drag it home over the next couple of weeks.

 

[xtremek]

The handle is awesome looking.

 

[Gizmosity]

After over a year of back-and-forth, I was FINALLY able to see this mystery jointer that I first heard about nearly 3 years ago.

As it turned out, my friend knows the farmer whose barn has been this jointers home for the last 9 years or so.

The main part of the barn had been knocked down and it has been living in the area on the left, under the remaining floor for the past week. It’s been out of direct rainfall, but not out of the weather.

We literally showed up and saw this:

We assisted in getting it moved into an actual barn and were able to get a better look.

It’s a B. M. Root 16” jointer.

I've been lusting after this thing since I moved into my place over three years ago when I first heard about it.

Sadly, very sadly actually, this isn't the machine for me. I'm passing. It's in a new safe place and hopefully it finds a good home. I'm on the lookout for something that's slightly less of a project.

 

[Gizmosity]

The handle is awesome looking.

It's a beauty. I don't have any photos of it completed, but it has a brass handle that rotates freely around that shoulder bolt. The supplied us with a flashdrive with the part files on it. I may turn this into a CAD/CAM/CNC project for my classes, including soft jaws. We'll see.

 

[xtremek]

That's a bummer about the jointer. I'm among the many who know the feeling of watching that "great deal" disappear, for whatever reason. Good luck with your search.

 

[Gizmosity]

It feels a little like someone in my family died at a family reunion.

Historically, I'm a bottom feeder. I tend to find things that I can get for cheap and then get them to function at as high a level as new.....at least in my head.

I may be changing my tune and buying something that is higher dollar up front and less futzing. I have my sights on one now that's available, affordable and has a gibbed cutterhead in roller bearnings. At the same time, I found one at auction that MAY have a gibbed cutterhead, it's hard to tell from the photos.

The safety heads, as far as many are concerned (myself included) are similar to one night stands without wrapping your rascal. Maybe you'll be fine........

http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/Clamshell Heads.ashx

 

[Gizmosity]

Clamp shaped objects……

I need more clamps.

I’ve purchased literally hundreds of clamps in my lifetime. Many for myself, others for lab facilities I work in, others for consulting work. I’ve almost always purchased the best ‘bang for the buck’: the lowly pipe clamp. Specifically, the Pony ¾” pipe clamp.

Are there better clamps out there? Maybe in terms of applied clamping force or some random features, but for around $10 you could get a Pony clamp, cut and thread some pipe for about a buck a foot and you’re in business.

That changed about a year ago. Pony (Jorgensen) is no more.
But, I need more clamps, NOW. Surely, there are alternatives out there?

There sure are. But be careful.

I looked around on Amazon and found a couple that had some promise. The Rockler version at about $20 and the Bessey at about $14. Both of these have extended bases to raise the work up in order to clear the table when tightening. I’ve never required this feature, my Pony clamps clear just fine. I also hesitated because now I’d be mixing different working heights, complicating glue ups. It sounds minor, it’s not. Yes, there are the parallel style clamps. $35-$80 for a clamp of that style is ridiculous to me. I don’t need fancy clamps for this job. Maybe fancy clamps are in my future, but not for now.

I looked on Craigslist. Yea, you can find them on Craigslist and auctions randomly. My time is worth more than that and I need them NOW.

I was going to town the next morning and saw that Menards had some pipe clamps for $10 and thought I’d try a couple before I plunked down 50% more for the Bessey’s and then have to fumble fart a fix for either adding height to my exisiting inventory of Pony clamps, or hacking off the feet on the Bessey’s (most likely)

They had 4 in stock. I looked at them through the plastic and saw one of the 4 had a really crappy installed pin holding the screw into the clamp housing. So, I bought the three that had full pins installed. I got home and put them on some new 24” pipe I also bought and started a glue up session.


I grabbed a new clamp, lined it up and applied pressure. It gripped at the base near the pipe and as I turned the clamp it just turned with the applied force until it rotated off the work. I grabbed another. Same result. Grabbed the last one, same result. I fought with it a bit. I hung onto the clamp and tried to keep it in place as I tightened. No chance. Grabbed a Pony clamp and no issue. After the glue up was over I looked closer at the clamps. The faces of the ends aren’t perpendicular to the pipe (90 degrees). They only contact the work at the bottom of the clamping feet.

I was able to return them thankfully. A clamp that doesn’t actually behave as a clamp. I went ahead and assumed most of the no name random pipe clamps available at Harbor Freight and Amazon would be just as crappy.
Great.

I did a little bit more digging. Irwin? Twin clutch ends? Are you high? I found that both Wilton and Bessey made a standard height (traditional) pipe clamp. The Wilton doesn’t seem to be available anymore other than a deep reach. The Bessey seems to be the only name brand choice. I threw 8 in a shopping cart on Amazon, at about $11.70 each and the vendor I bought from also had free shipping for over $50 so that was nice. Bessey Item number PC34-2.

They actually function as clamps, for about $2 more than the ones at Menards. They seem to be well enough made. There’s a few things I’m not super happy about:

The screw is shorter than the Pony clamps.
They’re assembled using roll pins instead of solid pins.
The clutch levers seem lighter gauge.
The clamps don’t come with a spring to install at the end of the clamp to protect the threads.

On the plus side, they come with clamp pads at no additional charge and the clamping surface is larger in width and height.

Time will tell if they hold up as well as the Pony clamps I’m used to. But, for now I don’t really see any alternatives.

 

[xtremek]

I've read one of the GJ members signature lines, "I don't have time for cheap tools". I think that applies here.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Love the post/pictures and stories.

Where in the world did you come up with this mallet?

 

[Gizmosity]

Love the post/pictures and stories.

Where in the world did you come up with this mallet?

About.....15 years ago I was teaching Woodworking at the University of Idaho. I got a new issue of Fine Woodworking magazine and in it was an article about the top 5 or 10 articles/projects since it's beginning. That mallet was listed. I turned it into a lab assignment. The laser engraving was each students choice. This mallet was my prototype. Still works fine.

Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Gizmosity]

Where to start.......

I kept myself pretty busy since I last posted. I set a goal to make 50 pieces while I was 50 years old. I had that done before December, I still have 9 months to go and about 15 unfinished pieces in the studio. I may hit 75 total before September if I don't start too much else.

My mother in law had been suffering from mild/medium/stubborn brain bleeds for the last several years. Her shunt has kept her alive and able to live at home with some assistance. She had a series of catastrophic bleeds and passed in October. We were ready for it, but that doesn't make it any easier. My wife had been the primary caregiver/grocery grabber. She initially had a rough time with her available time. She's since transitioned into running her business as an actual business enterprise. Profits have been down since she prioritized her mothers care and hopefully there will be a change in her sales revenue with an ability to spend her time in it. This is the slow season so she's just been substitute teaching 3-5 days a week. The additional income makes a huge difference.

My sister in law literally died on her feet at work. Lucky for her she works at a hospital and someone saw her collapse and immediately performed CPR. She's fine after a prolonged hospital stay and physical therapy.

This scared the hell out of my wife and I promised to get a physical. That netted me a discovered growth on my Uvula which I had removed last week. I lost most of the Uvula and frankly it hurts like hell. Solid food is almost more pain than it’s worth. Spousal sympathy nets me an XL milkshake everyday. It’s a fair tradeoff. In the mean time I pretty much just eat Cream of Wheat hot cereal.

It's cold here. Prolonged cold. I don't know that it's been above above zero for the last week or two.

Clamps!

So, I bought a bunch of Bessey pipe clamps and then a week later a good friend unloaded some older Pony pipe clamps on me. I'm clamped up.

Last June, on a long shot, I ordered a pair of 60" Jet parallel clamps for some ridiculously low price (74.99 for the pair with Prime shipping). I've received notices of delay from Amazon ever since. I thought I cancelled the order. Apparently I didn't, they showed up a few days ago. Heck of a deal.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UBIXD0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I got a wild hair and made a huge amount of end grain cutting boards with the intent of selling on Etsy as well as locally for this past holiday season. While I got them done, with the passing of my mother in law, I just didn't have the time or patience to deal with online sales. I put a large quantity of them in a local retail shop. Sales sucked this year. I may leave some on consignment, nothing to really lose there. I may drag them to the Farmers Market in the Spring/Summer and see what happens.

I stumbled into a deal for a ceramic kiln a while back. My plan is to use it for melting aluminum, bronze and brass. I also snagged a Creality CR-10 3D printer after Thanksgiving. The liqueur cabinets I have been in the process of making need some pretty cool hardware. Now I can design it. 3D print the master, create a silicon mold and cast them in pewter. The kiln is for my half baked scheme to make cast bronze infill handplanes.

2017 might do down in the books as the worst year, ever. But…..some good came of it. I completely quit smoking. No sneaky treats from smoker friends. Done. I also quit coffee, which honestly I thought would be the harder of the two. I don’t miss it at all. I just drink water in my thermos now. My lectures may be a little slower paced……

I made a few videos this past year.

Nothing groundbreaking but I’m playing with it. Editing is one of my goals for 2018.
My other goal is to cut some weight and get back on my bicycle for a 2,000 mile ride either this summer or (more likely) next summer. We’ll see..

Here's to 2018.

 

[Gizmosity]

Where does the time go?

I can't decide which is worse here: the unbearable 95+ degree heat or the thick blanket of mosquitos. If you go in the shade to avoid the heat you lose a quart of blood.

I've been quiet for a million reasons, the largest one is because I signed a Non disclosure agreement so, yea....there's that. I probably just broke it by saying it exists.

Classes went well I think. Always room for improvement and I'll sit down with some notes I took the last week of classes and make some changes/tweaks in late August.

I have been taking some classes after joining Skillshare. I really like it and see myself hunkering down In a few locations in town (that have AC) and pounding through the 20 of so classes I have bookmarked. I did a couple already on Video Editing.

I threw a few more videos on YouTube. Still learning. I bought a microphone so I can do voice-overs which will really change some of what I've been doing.

I took part in the Rockler Plywood Challenge and finished last week. I wanted to play with veneering so that's what I did. Most folks 'celebrated' the ply's. I hid mine under walnut.

I learned A LOT about veneering. I've wanted to dig into veneering for years and years. I'm definitely going to be doing more with veneer and also digging into vacuum clamping.

In the 3-4 weeks I was working on it, winter left and then came right back. It's 95 degrees right now but a couple weeks ago I couldn't glue in the shop for a week because it was so cold.

Much to do this summer, some of it I can't talk about.....yet.

My wife and I are blasting out from behind the cheddar curtain and beelining for Glacier Park then spending as much time as we can with family, both mine and hers.

Next week I am heading out to New York. I'm one of the lucky 9 people who get to attend a workshop hosted by Jimmy Diresta and I believe will be held in his new shop.
I will likely be posting a video of that when I get back.

We got new phones (Google Fi is the bomb) and I just noticed that I haven't been taking as many photos. I'm working on that......

I'm 'Driftlessjoinery' at both Instagram and on the Tubes if you're into that sort of thing.

Here's to a great summer for everyone.

 

[xtremek]

Good to see you back. But truth be told, now I hate you, because you have to hold back information, and the curiosity bug is worse than the mosquitoes. :

 

[Gizmosity]

Ha....when I can talk about it, you'll yawn and close the thread......trust me.

 

[jbmatth]

Yes glad to see you back, hope to see some more of your work soon.
JB

 

[Gizmosity]

Summer is flashing by and I've neglected this space.

The shop is trashed but that's normal.

As I mentioned earlier, I got to head to New York and spend nearly a week at Jimmy Diresta's farmhouse, attend a seminar and spend some time with other like minded 'maker' types. Jimmy and Taylor are great hosts.

I thought this was a great combo. Jimmy gave each of us an icepick. He put a twist in them if we wanted, which I did. I was making a holder to hang it in a tool cabinet and the name tag that Harry J. Epstein Co. gave me for ordering one year fit PERFECT.

Anyway, great trip.

As soon as I got back from New York, my wife and I drove West to Glacier Park for a few days, then spent about 3 weeks visiting family and driving back home.

Our lodging, the 'Goat Chalet' in Polebridge, MT.

While I was in Seattle, I grabbed a copy of Gary's new book and started reading it. While not mentioned by name, I'm in the book a few times in a roundabout way. I may be over recommending the book simply because of my stardom.....but seriously, it's a good book.

My summer secret never materialized. Time conflicts on both sides sidelined any actual work. It may still be possible in the future and the NDA is still there so.......mums the word.

 

[Gizmosity]

Ummm......I got busy. Laughing uncontrollably.

My plans are to sweep up and get back to tracking shop changes. There have been quite a few.

Perhaps updates in less than 4 years.

Hope this group of miscreants is well.

Get your Epstein's order in pronto.

 

[xtremek]

Just been a couple of days since you last posted an update. I'm not much better myself.

 

[Gizmosity]

Posting for me was a PITA for a long time. I had no internet in the shop and the older interface of this site did not play nice with my first gen IPad. I live 9 miles out of town. For those of you in higher populated areas that means nothing. For rural SW Wisconsin, it means no garbage pickup, no fire services, no police and no Internet service. I got on Starlink Beta and it was a game changer.

During peak Covid I got the option of teaching remotely since I teach computer programs, so I spent all summer changing my courses to full online delivery with video lectures, gave each student who registered my personal phone number and just answered questions via text/phone calls for an entire year. The past year I resumed face-to-face teaching. I'm not sure which I like more.

I also enrolled in the Northwest Woodworking Studio Online Mastery 2 Year Program. I'm in the first cohort and we will be done in about a month. Highly recommended if you are able to commit to it and have the space/tools to do it. It has kept me insanely busy for the past two years, which has been really helpful.

So, if you're new here keep in mind that this is primarily a personal journal with photos. I had to just set this aside and not write at all for quite a while. I still don't have time to do this, but I'm going to make time. Creativity has many forms and while I'm a horrible writer, the only way to get better is to do it....so here's proof of my mediocre efforts.

The shop has changed drastically in four (?) years. I'm not even sure its recognizable to anyone but myself as the same space in earlier photos. I have a LOT of new tools in the space. I don't have kids, I don't drink, I don't have boats or motorcycles, I don't golf, I no longer have project cars. I even quit riding my bicycle for the last two years. This is what I do. All. The. Time. Just went to a wedding last night and connected with old friends for the first time in about 3 years. We live 9 miles apart........I'm not kidding. This is what I do.

These are all current photos as of yesterday. I have a final piece of furniture to design/build over the next 3 weeks or so. I've already started building it, but I'm going to try to do two pieces, one in cherry and one in white oak. I'll abandon one of them somewhere along the way with the idea of finishing it later. The humidity here has changed pretty drastically since I started prepping stock, so I keep parts in sealed garbage bags to help keep wide panels flat until I'm ready to glue.


OK, the shop as of yesterday afternoon (it's honestly even worse now).




I've not really used any image storing sites in quite a while. I've kept my SmugMug account but haven't been uploading photos there regularly. I'm going to try to get photos of the furniture/pieces I've built over the last couple years up there and posted here as well. Get caught up a bit and then, TRY to post weekly with something worthwhile. We'll see how that goes.

Go make smart mistakes. Forgive yourself. Repeat.

 

[Gizmosity]

Just been a couple of days since you last posted an update. I'm not much better myself.

2/5 of a decade goes by fast......

 

[Gizmosity]

I started the Online Mastery Program (OMP) in October of 2020 I think. It’s all a blur.

To be totally transparent, I have been designing (poorly) and building furniture since about 1992. I’ve worked in fabrication in metal, plastics, and wood, commercial and residential as well. I’ve been teaching the process of design for manufacturing for about 15 years, teaching woodworking for over 20. The process of designing and building things is not a new thing.

But, my design ability has never been great. I can look at something closely and usually figure out how something was made and in most cases could duplicate it or even create a production system to mass produce them.

But a NEW idea? That has never been my strong suit. Now if you showed up to our first design meeting with a photo out of Crate and Barrel of a dresser, I could absolutely build exactly what you wanted. The problem is that people who know what they want and where they can get it before the meeting? Those are just people who don’t value your time. And I didn’t value my time either so, I guess it was a perfect match.

I’m not going to explain why these assignments existed, what the design criteria was or usually what my design intent was. There were always some ‘rules’ to follow. Maybe you had to start with an 8’ 2x4 and the only other material you could use was glue. Maybe it had to have a drawer or had to be made using hand cut dovetails.

But, if you aren’t the customer or the designer/builder none of that matters. After it’s done there’s just a photo and your impression of the photographed piece and that’s about all there will be here.

(These have already been critiqued by peers. This isn’t an effort to drum up business. Nothing here is for sale.)

First up:

Box

(Spalted White Oak, Hemp Cord, Rice Paper, Shellac)

 

[Gizmosity]

I’ve forgotten the order I made some of these. I think this is the next one. While we had a defined number of critiqued pieces, there were almost weekly design and/or process assignments. There have been so many (Pine dovetail box, cabriole leg, saber leg, leg carving/top dovetail, grid carving, drawer box/drawer, drawer box w/3 drawers, Corner intersecting tenons, 3 legged stool, quick chair, milk paint/carving experiments…..there were a lot) that I can’t recall exactly how they fit together perfectly in a timeline.

While I’m working on my final piece for critique right now, I’m also finishing a handful of random weekly assignments that really didn’t have a due date. I just keep pushing things along a little bit at a time.


Frame

Spalted Maple, Shellac.

 

[Gizmosity]

Tea Cabinet

Spalted Maple, White Oak, Milk Paint, Rice Paper, Brusso Hinges, Shellac, Oil.

 

[Gizmosity]

Bench

Walnut, Danish Cord, Milk Paint, Shellac, Oil

 

[xtremek]

That's some sweet looking stuff.

 

[Gizmosity]

That's some sweet looking stuff.

Thanks man!
I've sort of been living in a vacuum for the last two years. I forgot about a couple of these pieces until I started digging for photos and looking at my notes. I've given a couple of them away and one or two are stacked in a room covered in moving blankets so our two new rescue cats don't tear them to shreds.
Cats LOVE danish cord.

 

[jbmatth]

Glad to see you back, I'm still here and will follow along with interest, some very nice pieces you've posted.

JB

 

[Gizmosity]

Cabinet on Stand

Cherry, Spalted Maple, Basswood, Rice Paper, Brusso Hinges and Shelf Sleeves/Pins, Cast Pewter Pull, Shellac, Oil.

 

[Gizmosity]

Glad to see you back, I'm still here and will follow along with interest, some very nice pieces you've posted.

JB

Hey, right back at you. I'm still on the lookout for a good deal at the right time on a metal lathe and given an opportunity of zero $$, a Super Bee. Curious what you're going to do with that. I'd paint the lower 25%, put on nice wheels and bumpers, then put a car cover on it and only pull up a corner that shows the shiney paint and new SuperBee decals when people come over.......

 

[jbmatth]

Hey, right back at you. I'm still on the lookout for a good deal at the right time on a metal lathe and given an opportunity of zero $$, a Super Bee. Curious what you're going to do with that. I'd paint the lower 25%, put on nice wheels and bumpers, then put a car cover on it and only pull up a corner that shows the shiney paint and new SuperBee decals when people come over.......

Now that is a great idea, it has the same lug pattern as my cobra that I just pulled torque thrusts off of, may not be a bad idea. If you were closer my little lathe sold last week and I apparently didn't price it high enough, I had dozens of people wanting to get it right away. Oh well, live and learn but I'll make that mistake again I'm sure.

JB

 

[Gizmosity]

Coopered Door Cabinet

Cherry, Spalted Maple, Brusso Hinges/Pins/Sleeves, Cast Pewter Pull, Shellac.