This guy is my new woodworking hero! I cant wait until I have some free time to just sit there and watch all of his videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/lgosseuxdbois

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Its been a crazy week. Ive spent two days at work past midnight and another two at Christmas parties. As the year draws to a close, the to do pile on my desk isnt shrinking quite fast enough.
Im sorry that means this has to pass as my post for 12/21. Im also sorry I had to miss this weeks +Modern Woodworkers Association podcast recording. +Christopher Adkins was able to talk with +Tom Fidgen about his woodworking, his books and much more. Chris is still working on editing, but it will be out soon.
Until next post, I hope youre having a productive holiday and are a bit more on top of your work than I am.
By the choice, here is the state of the project Id hoped to have done for my wife by Christmas. Alas, it will not be.
Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.Read More..

Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast 22 Megan Fitspatrick

Current/Future project description

• Tom’s Bandsaw Box
• Building Pinewood Derby
• Chris’ Dollhouse Table

Blog post that piqued our interest

• St. Petersburg Woodworkers Guild
• Matt Kenney at Fine Woodworking: It’s impossible to cheat at woodworking
• Steve Branam hosts Free Woodworking Classes at the New England Home Show (The Furniture Project)
• The Drunken Woodworker David Picciuto

Goings on in the MWA

• Lie-Nielsen at 3rd Ward last weekend
• The Woodworking Show in Western Springfield Massachusetts 1/11/13 - 1/13/13

Main topic

• Megan Fitzpatrick, the new Editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine
• Megan discussed taking the reigns at Popular Woodworking magazine, how she got her twitter handle and the up to the minute info on Woodworking in America.

Next broadcast’s topic

• Scott Meek, of Scott Meek Woodworks, maker of beautiful hand crafted wooden planes.

Where can they find us

• Modern Woodworkers Association
• Twitter
• @MWA_National
• @tomsworkbench
• @highrockww
• @Dyami Plotke
• Google+
• Modern Woodworkers Association
• Chris Atkins
• Tom Iovino
• Dyami Plotke

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Ghetto WorkCenter Boom Arm Part V The Second Video

This second Ghetto WorkCenter video shows the completed WorkCenter. After making the saw tray and boom arm I kept going and moved on to make a tool holder. As I documented in my last post, I made the Tool Holder by coping the V design of the Festool Tool Holders. I made mine of wood and it mounts on the Ghetto WorkCenter. Now I can hang two tools on the WorkCenter while keeping the saw off the ground and the hose out of the choice.

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Bessey Snip Review

A few weeks ago Danette from Bessey mentioned on twitter that she was looking for testers for some new sheet metal tools they’re introducing. I spoke with her about the sheet metal fabrication we do at work and how I like to mix sheet metal into my projects when I can. She was nice enough to send me a set of their new snips for testing.

Some day, this will be a picture frame.

The new Bessey snips lined up next to my existing snips.
The Besseys are on the right of each pair. Theyre the one that look German.

Out of the box, the snips look great and come with a healthy coat of oil, which ensures that they’re rust free. The handles are well sized and the cutting heads appear to be well machined with micro serrations on some of the blades. This gives a reassuring zipper like feel when cutting.I tested the snips out on some copper, aluminum and steel sheet metal scraps we had in our metal shop. I also gave them to Rich, our lead metal mechanic, for a week of use in the field.We found that in practice the long, straight snips work fantastically. The cut smoothly and straight with an easy mechanical action provided by the snip’s built in mechanical advantage. The Bessey straights are the best straights that I’ve ever used.The right and left offset snips are also good performers, though not quite up to the standard established by the straights. While they cut smoothly and the same mechanical action is evident, I found that the heads of the right and left offset were a bit too big. While I was able to make tight radiused cuts, I could only do so after prying open the metal to allow the head to fit in. In thick materials, this would make using the snips quite difficult.

Bessey to the left, MidWest to the right.
The difference may not look like much, but it does matter in thick materials or tight curves.

In these photos, you can see the difference in head size between the Bessey and an equivalent snip from MidWest Tool & Cutlery (the current snips I have in my tool bag and have been satisfied using). The smaller head means the metal doesn’t need to be bent open as much to allow the snip in.Regardless of head size, the Bessey’s cut quickly and cleanly. I will certainly continue to use them for all but the tightest curved cuts.My mechanic, Rich, was impressed enough that he’s looking to buy a pair for himself. I think think that says all there is to say about the Bessey snips. If you work with sheet metal, they’re definitely worth trying out.

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As woodworkers we all have benches. Some are just a sheet of 3/4" plywood on saw horses and others are full blown hand made Roubo shrines. Until we come up with at least the most basic bench (just a horizontal work surface) were really of very little use as a woodworker.

Thats my current bench, under all those routers.

My current bench is a factory made Whiteside that I picked up on Craigslist for $150.00 a few years ago. It is a basic Nordic style bench, about 24” wide by 60” long and has two (2) mediocre vises. Mediocre is in fact the best choice to describe the whole bench.While it is what I have and it usually gets the job done, it is certainly not what I want. What I want is a mutant with the ancestry of Roubo, the bones of modern materials and an eye towards the 21st century.

But before I go too far into describing my own bench design philosophy I would be remiss if I failed to first bring up Christopher Schwarz, for he is certainly the current authority on workbench design & construction on the interwebs & the greater woodworking community as a whole.As many of us have, Ive been influenced by Chris rabid consumption and propagation of all things workbench. While he has so far failed to convert me to total Roubo adoration, I think there is more actionable workbench advise being put out by Chris than any other source we have access to today.Beyond a general workbench philosophy, Ive taken from Chris two (2) main points. The second is a direct result of the first.Point #1: The workbench is a 3 dimensional clamping surface. Its job is to hold a work piece still so that any number of woodworking tasks can be accomplished without the piece moving.

An out of proportion hand drawn cross section
of the bench design Im working on.

Point #2: The legs must be flush with edge of the top. Without this feature youre left with a 2 dimensional clamping surface, or put another choice, you have 2/3 of a workbench.

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Mike Pekovich’s shop is a model of both woodworking and building efficiency. More than just the Art Director for Fine Woodworking, Mike is one of the most productive and efficient woodworkers I know. His shop, in the detached two-car garage behind his suburban Connecticut home, it the front-line tool in his efficient work.

The Pekovich Workshop

You first realize that there’s something special about Mike’s shop even before you enter. As part of his 2011 total shop renovation Mike built new, insulated doors from scratch. In one garage bay opening, he made traditional barn doors. In the other he made fixed panels to narrow the width and then set a standard, insulated exterior door between the panels. The custom doors and panels were built utilizing wood frames filled with polyisocyanurate insulation and skinned with plywood. The outside of the doors are trimmed in a traditional arts and crafts door pattern.

The work Mike did on his doors is representative of the entire shop. Between his CMU block exterior and 1/2” drywall interior, Mike has built the walls with 2”x3” and 2”x4” framing, filled in with a double layers of 11/2” polyisocyanurate insulation. This gets his walls to about R-20. When combined with the insulated ceiling and floor the well insulated walls allow a simple propane heater and window air conditioner to keep the shop toasty in the winter and cool in the summer.

Looking down the table saw at the outfeed table and planer.

Within the shop Mike’s big equipment - his jointer, planer and table saw - make up an island in the center. Each tool is arranged to provide optimal infeed and outfeed space without interfering with the adjoining tools. A small dust collector fits between them to capture most of the dust coming off the jointer and planer.

A workbench completes the island. This is Mike’s secondary bench. It serves as a table saw outfeed table, assembly bench and auxiliary workbench. Mike is really fond of this arrangement, and I must say I agree. Given my small shop space, I’m going to have to make my outfeed table serve double (or triple) duty too.

Chisels at the ready, and natural light abounding,
theres work to do on the workbench.

The walls of Mike’s shop are lined with benches and countertops. When you first walk in the passage door, Mike’s main, custom made workbench is on the right. It’s a little bit sorter than most at 60 inches, but it fits the space nicely and serves as sturdy work holding platform (even if Mike would like to upgrade the vises). Above his bench is the custom tool cabinet. A clamp rack fills the final bit of wall space between the tool cabinet and the inside corner.

Continuing in a counter-clockwise path around the edge of the shop to the back wall, you’ll next encounter a bank of drawers capped with a countertop which rests in the corner. The counter holds his oscillating spindle sander and Tormek. It serves as the sharpening station. A small wall cabinet above the counter holds the sharpening supplies.

The sharpening bench.

Next up along the the back wall are Mike’s hollow chisel mortiser and his new pride and joy - the propane heater. Having worked out of a cold shop myself, I can fully appreciate the value of that heater and why Mike is so fond of it.

You cant be productive if youre cold.
A good heater is critical during Connecticut winters.

The final wall (before we get to the front wall made up of doors) houses another bench. This one holds Mike’s vintage Buffalo drill press, his belt/disc sander and his miter saw.

Mikes Buffalo drill press is awesome - and older than I am.

Along the final, front wall the bandsaw lives between the door openings.

A new and awesome bandsaw.

When we toured Mike’s shop in Feburary of 2012 he was working on a cabinet project. You can imagine how quickly large plywood carcasses will fill up a shop that’s already stuffed with equipment as Mike’s is. But that’s ok. What’s a great shop for if not for filling with tools and projects?

Some of the cabinets Mike was working on when we visited.

Youll find out more about Mikes shop in Parts II & III, so stay tuned.

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A few months ago the founding administrators of the Modern Woodworkers Association were given the opportunity to review the new Rough Cut book from Taunton. It’s a companion to the first season of the TV show entitled “Rough Cut - Woodworking with Tommy Mac”.

The book dedicates a chapter to each of the season one projects with an additional chapter on finishing. It does a good job of walking readers through the projects and with a basic understanding of woodworking and the corresponding episode as a supplement most of the projects should be easily achievable.For our full review, please listen as four woodworkers banter on and on about actually having read a book.We’re working on setting it up in iTunes and we’ll update this as soon as we do. Until then, please listen here.Also, thanks to my fellow MWA Admins for making this happen.This post originally appeared at modernwoodworkersassociation.com

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After spending the beginning of the year working on Pinewood Derby cars, Cub Scout achievement birdhouses and tool instruction, I finally made it back to the Tree House and Shop a few weeks ago. It was mainly a day of Treehouse work, so I just snuck in a little shop work when I could.

To cutout for the window, cut and undersized hole then reach through
and mark the  jam locations on the back of the OSB.

That meant I didnt get too much done, but I did manage to fit another piece of OSB sheathing. This one was a minor milestone, in that it trims out the last window.

Unfortunately, the piece I cut out had the same measuring error in it that cost me 3 pieces of gable end trim on the treehouse (be sure to use the correct scale). I didnt realize it until the piece was hung on the wall and it was late in the day, but this is my shop, so I bit the bullet and re-made the piece.

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I said yesterday that I would finish up the poly on the table when I returned from SEMA.  I couldnt help myself and put on the first coat of poly about a quarter to midnight last night.  I checked it this morning and it is definitely going to need a good sanding before I put on the next coat.

?

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A few weeks ago for safety week I wrote about a friend of mine who lost two (2) fingers to his table saw. In that post I emphasized that you must respect your tools.Listen to that advice: Respect Your Tools. By that I mean pay attention; know how they work, where they are & what theyre doing.It is important you do as I say, not as I do. For if you do as I do, then youll be an idiot too.

My Birds Mouth Jig

You see, last Sunday I wasnt paying attention,I wasn’t heeding my router any respect. I was routing some birds mouths for some window trim. Completing each joint took many back & forth passes with the router. As I finished the last pass, I wasnt paying attention. My right arm maintained the fluid back and forth motion as the router came off the jig. I’m not sure what my left hand was doing, but the next thing I can remember is pulling my left hand achoice, realizing that I had just made contact between my palm and the 1” x ¾” pattern bit which was fully extended beneath the router base.

Thankfully a trip to the ER revealed nothing more serious than a laceration about an inch long just below where my index finger connects to the palm. Eight (8) stitches later I got back home and finished the trim piece I was making.

My Trusty Old Porter-Cable 6912 D-Handle.

Why’d I make out so well? Just dumb luck. The router I was using was a trigger activated D-handled 1-1/4 HP Porter-Cable, actually the first power tool I ever owned. Thankfully, though the bit was still spinning when the accident occurred, I had already released the trigger, turning the machine off and leaving no power behind the rotation.

Will you be as luckly? We can only hope so. Better yet, Respect Your Tools. Don’t let your mind wander off and your router wander into your hand in the first place.

Have you been an idiot too? Comment here or use the hash tag #WWSW (WoodWorkers Safety Week) on twitter.

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