Last summer, Kari Hultman kindly shared her lumber stockpile with me, and let me take as much as I could fit on my truck (leaving room for the contents of my Sister-in-Laws apartment). Since I brought it home, this lumber has resided in our sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room. Unfortunately that room is the only choice to the back door that lets out onto the deck. As the room had to serve duty as a buffet station during our Memorial Day Party, we set about cleaning it out.

The sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room lumber pile.

Moving the lumber was, of course, my job. As I broke down the stacks and transferred them one-by-one to the attic I came across a piece with two live edges that looked particularly like a tree to me. I couldn’t initially think of what to do with it, but its form struck me and I set it aside.

This beauty caught my eye.

By the time I was done moving the lumber, it had dawned on me. I knew what I would do. The piece would serve as the left vertical member of the banner rack I have to make for the MWA banner we’ll be displaying at Woodworking in America.I immediately broke out an assortment of sanders and took the rough sawn face and still partially barky edges to a smooth, 80 grit. Then I successfully filled a face crack epoxy. When it came to the multiple cracks in the back face, I first routed out the cracks a little bit to make the epoxy application easier. Unfortunately, the epoxy application didn’t go so well on the back face. I probably mixed it wrong, but whatever the reason, my 5 minuted epoxy was still tacky 2 days later.

A typical crack on the back, routed to allow additional epoxy to fit in.

I allowed it a third day to dry, and when it was still tacky I posed the question to Twitter. What should I do? One of the ideas I liked was to heat it up under a heat lamp in order to accelerate the drying. Unfortunately, within about an hour the heat lamp took hard and tacky to soft and bubbly. Thankfully, removal of the heat and time seem to have restored it to hard and tacky.

Not a formula for dry epoxy.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on the Banner Rack so far, but since I have to design the rest, buy the lumber for the rest and it was one of may pices of word stacked in the shop preventing me from walking around, I took the piece as was and put it achoice in the attack. It gets warm up there, but not crazy, heat lamp hot. Hopefully when I pull it down in a month or two, it’ll be dry enough to work on.These videos walk you through the process of sanding and epoxying the piece.

I’ll keep everyone posted when I get back to it, and please don’t forget to check out the MWA Banner Rack in person when you visit our booth at both Woodworking in America Conferences.

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We knew Salvatore Mastrangelo at one of the many pleasant meetings we organize in the shop of our friend Daniele (left in the first pic). Salvatore is a really pleasant and exclusive person,  full of life experiences. A true professional, filled with an uncontrollable passion for everything is related to woodworking. 

He expresses with great skill most of all his outstanding artistic vein  in the art of carving. 

This time we have "forced" him to teach us some good rule to acquire the best practice in this work and, under his leadership, we have tried to do some exercise. The quality of carving tools and their sharpness are fundamental prerequisites for best results.

In this regard, it is very useful to have a sharpening stone on the bench for honing more frequently the cutting edge of most commonly used tools. In the picture it shows a concave shaped oil stone that best fits the profile of some edges.   Unfortunately the time available is never enough, but we memorized some good advice on strategies of work, the importance of a good initial design and  the respect of plans on which the various details are located, in order to obtain a perspective effect.

Finally we add a couple of pictures that illustrate the Salvatores work. I think they comment themselves. 

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When I first posted about the videos from WIA, Lee Valley had just released their first and I included it.
They have just released their second, video from the conference. This time, find out what we all made as a first project.

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.

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Yeah, the plane, the tool I love more than others! I have many, most in use.I love hearing the sound of the blade cutting fine and fragrant wood chips. No matter if you need to sweat a bit: the satisfaction of obtaining a bright, smooth and above all ready for finishing surface content with every effort.The model shown in the picture is a Marples, glorious mark of the best English tradition, a deluxe model, with a hardwood button to facilitate the removal and setting of the cutting unit and the rear lowered to allow an optimal distribution of power while planing.

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Ive just about posted all of the content I created and recorded at Woodworking in America 2013. Luckily, my good friends +Tom Iovino, +Sean Wisniewski, +Neal Becker gave me some photos to share. I hope you enjoy. By the choice, if you want to see really good photos of WIA13, check out +David Picciutos blog, Drunken Woodworker.

The Online Woodworking Discussion Panel.

Somehow, the let the Modern Woodworkers Association in.

The Wood Talk and Giant Cypress guys were let in too,
to provide actual information.

Yes, Tom talks just as much in person.

Neil Zenuk (@twowheelneil) chops some sweet dovetails.

Tom likes me!

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.

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After The Woodworking Shows a few weeks ago,  Andy Chidwick and his family were kind enough to slog through New York City traffic and come visit my shop.

When lecturing to a large group, Andys constantly on the move.

We had a great talk about how the shop is coming along, how I usually work, what its like to work on the road and how Andy needs an on demand class. As a true Montanan felt my shop was warm and soundly put together, I had a nice ego boost of knowing the shop is coming along. If only my tools had been setup and we could have played with building methods rather than shop assembly.

Sadly, this is the mid-renovation condition the shop was in when Andy visited.

After the full shop tour (it takes surprisingly long for such a small shop) my family and the Chidwicks headed to dinner. They explained how a benefit of being on the road, all over the country, was that they were experiencing the best local cuisine.
Over dinner we discussed how part of the Chidwicks charge is to promote the Woodworking Shows and help reengage the audience. If this past show season is any indication, they are well on their choice to a revitalized Woodworking Shows (you can find my post about the 2012 Woodworking Shows here).

Andys work is stunning to examine in person.

The Woodworking Shows season has come to a close for 2013 and the Chidwicks are back in Montana. The next show season isnt far achoice. If you can make it to the Shows be sure to see Andy and the other presenters. I think youll be glad you did.

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The wine rack construction is rolling along and thankfully its on track for completion by Christmas.
Im in the middle of the finishing now. This video take you through my finishing process and shows the rack between the 8th and 9th coats of shellac.

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.

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During a visit to a friend of mine, Michele, owner of a Record 778 plane, we enjoyed to compare it with my Stanley 78 in order to verify technical differences and performances.Both planes are suitable for cutting rebates up to about 3 cm wide.

Looking to two planes, leaps to the eye the difference between parallel guides. That of Stanley (left ) is supported by only one circular bar , unlike the Record that provides two circular bars support.

In both planes there is  a stop on the right side for rebate depth adjusting.

Another difference  regards the depth adjustment system: The Record 778 has a comfortable wheel for finest regulation,

while in Stanley 78 the task is

provided by a coarser lever, easy to  move downward accidentally during the pushing action , compromising the blade adjustment. The blade sits on the bed with a double contact, on the top and on a machined

area just above the mouth. We measured the extension of this area, important for the good stability of the cutting edge. For Stanley 78 this portion was about twice than the the Record one . If we look  at the two parallel guides more closely, we see that the Record guide has three holes useful for adding an auxiliary  wood fence, important to increase the plane stability while planing . Unfortunately, both guides were out of square (more for Stanley 78)  but for Record 778 the gap can be easily correct,

adapting the auxiliary hard wood fence.

Both planes also have a spur just before of the mouth, for  cutting cross grain  rebates (but we have not tried to). We then sharpened blades with  25 ° bevel and 30 ° microbevel and tried the  planes  on a well flat and square pine board (Michele in the pic).  We not  found very different performances (we even tried to exchange blades to highlight any differences in steel quality ) . The Record 778 seemed to us better prepared in technical solutions , especially for the two supporting bars, the possibility to add a larger hard wood fence and the more accurate  and easy to operate cutting depth adjusting system. However its cost in online auctions significantly exceeds that of  a Stanley 78.

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+Marc Spagnuolo does many generous and great things for the woodworking community. As much as I like the Wood Whisperer Guild, Wood Talk and the Wood Whisperer site itself, the most important thing Marc has done is Woodworkers fighting cancer.
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With everything milled, the Dominos cut and the tile recesses made, it was time for the initial glue up. I glued up the four (4) side of box which forms the rear glue stick storage compartment. Then I glued the extra long walnut side and rear ebony block to it.

Still a bit too square for my taste.

Next I began the shaping, as I wanted to make sure I was able to work the edge I would no longer be able to reach after final glue up. The shaping was, of course, the hard and the fun part of the project. It was the first project I was able to use my Foredom rotary tool on. Using a Kutzall bit, it made quick work of the walnut and ebony. I still used my rasps for final shaping, but the Foredom was much, much faster for the rough work.

The glue stick caddy, post shaping.

Once I’d done about 70% of the shaping, I  glued the sub assemblies to the base. As you may have guesses, I joined everything with Dominos. This made for easy, quick and strong joints between the vertical components and the base.

Flaring the curved verticals into the base was easy.

The final shaping could now be done. I used my Festool RAS 115 to blend the shaped side of the base into the shaped side of the verticals. I learned from Andy Chidwick that using a hard platen on the RAS 115 with a 40 grit sanding disc allows you to use the sander like a grinder with better dust control and more finesse. As I had with the Foredom, I followed up the RAS 115 with rasps.

With the shaping done, I dealt with the small gap that was left between the ebony and walnut on the front piece. The glue up hadnt been perfect and there was about a 1/16” gap at the top of the joint. To fill it I dyed some 5 minute epoxy with India Ink. This created Epoxy almost the exact color of the ebony.

Just a touch of black epoxy made the gap disappear (I know I messed up the order).

After the shaping, I had to deal with the coarse texture.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.

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A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part I

This project began many months ago when my wife, a crafter, pinned this glue gun rack to one of her Pinterest boards. When I saw it I figured it would be easy to make and improve upon, so I re-pinned it to my Neat Things Carolyn Would Like Me To Build board.

The pin that started it the odyssey.

Fast forward a few weeks from my initially seeing it and after a particularly rough day at work I declared that I would need some time alone to unwind and headed to the shop. That’s when I set to building my version of the glue gun rack.

I decided that the the glue gun rack I built would be an experiment in sculpted design. Specifically, I wanted to juxtapose a rigid, rectilinear design on two (2) edges, while  creating a flowing, sculpted surface on the other two (2).

Starting on the rack.

I made the glue gun rack from some scraps of Walnut and Ebony I had on hand. As with any process, it began by milling the lumber flat and square. Then I did my basic layout.

Figuring out where things will go.

First, I glued the Ebony to a piece of Walnut to make a large billet. Then I used my Domino to make the mortises in all the pieces.

Dominos anyone?

With the joinery done, I marked out the basic shapes on each piece, and rough cut them on my band saw.

Rough shaping prior to assembly.

The final step before glue up was to recesses out for the glass tile the tip of the glue gun rests on. To do this, I used my small DeWalt trim router with an 1/8” spiral upcut bit and the plunge base. I routed freehand to within about 1/8” of the line and then cleaned up the edge with my chisels.Next time, well glue up and begin shaping.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.

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Building The Wine Rack Part II

Fabrication: Initial Cutting & Setup

Once I had the design sketched out on the LVL I began by making relief cuts in the back face which would make the concave curved cut easier.

These Relief Cuts Will Make Cutting The Rear Curve Easier.

I did all my cutting on the band saw. This was the first project I made using my new Carter Guides. I won’t say they turn my crappy Ridgid band saw into a super star, but they do make it usable and predictable. For that, I give them credit and appreciation.

Once I had made the relief cuts, it occurred to me that a square block would be much easier to clamp and work then a curved one. Thankfully I thought of this when I did and left the back square (if slotted) for the time being.

Next, I cut out the “L” shape on the inside face. This too was easily done on the band saw using the Carter Guide. Though an “L” because the back and base are at 90° to each other, they are both reclined slightly to hold the bottle at a slight back tilt.

The Basic L.

Once the “L” was cut out of the inside face, I got ready to sculpt the concave face of the back. Having picked up an ArborTech Turbo Plane and a Saburrtooth Extra Coarse donut wheel since my last power sculpted project, I began the sculpting on a practice piece. When I was done I had tried the Turbo Plane, Saburrtooth wheel, my Festool RAS 115 and my medium grit Kutzall wheel. While the Turbo Plane and Saburrtooth have some potential and the RAS 115 is a great tool for finer shaping, I ended up preferring the moderate material removal rate, controllability and smooth resulting finish of the Kutzall. To paraphrase Paul Lemiski, the Kutzall is awesome.

The Saburrtooth Extra Coarse Proved Too Aggressive.

With the sculpting tool decided on, I took a scrap piece of 1x3 and screwed a very small piece of OSB to the end. Then I took the wine rack and placed it on the OSB. I secured it by screwing up through the OSB into the bottom of the wine rack. This firmly attached the 1x3 and allowed me to easily hold the rack in position with my bench vise.

Catch all the Wine Rack Posts Here.

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.

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Dougs Clamp Rack

A few weeks ago I made it up to my Dad’s shop in Greenwich, NY. He’s still setting up the shop and working on finding homes for all of the tools he moved up from Long Island in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sandy. While I was working with him I set up a new Very Super Cool Tools table saw fence (which I’ll post about shortly), cut about 40 drawer bottoms on the table saw, dadoed for the drawer bottoms in the sides, front and back of the drawers and finished a new clamp rack.

My Dads shop during a visit I made over the summer.

The clamp rack is a fairly basic design which he first intended to be a temporary solution to get the clamps off the floor. He assumed that he’d live with it for a while and then make a permanent one from better materials and of a design refined by use.

This initial clamp stand is fairly simple. It’s a box made of ¾” CDX plywood. It rests on a base of plywood that has a dimensional lumber lip for stability and four casters underneath for mobility. There is one half shelf and one full shelf. So far half the base holds heavy duty pipe clamps and the half shelf holds wooden handscrews. He hasn’t figured out what to put on the top shelf.

A view of the clamp rack showing the side, base, half shelf and shelf.

Inside the clamp rack, there the half shelf is missing there are racks running down each side. These racks hold his F-Style clamps.

The racks for the F-Style clamps are deep to accommodate the handles.
They dont have ends so that the clamps can be slid, rather than lifted, out.

On one exterior side is a Woodpecker Heavy Duty Clamp Rack filled with K-Body parallel clamps. The other exterior side is lined with shop made racks of my own design which hold Irwin Quick-Grip clamps. There’s also a half-length rack on that side for the shorter Quick-Grips.

This side holds the Quick-Grip clamps.

These racks were quick to make and the head of the clamp fits in easily.

This was a quick and rewarding project that has helped clean up the shop and made finding and reaching clamps much easier. Though it’s barely been used, my Dad is already regretting not having made of better wood as he thinks this could be the final design.

The finished clamp rack.

How do you store your clamps?

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