Once upon a time, woodworkers gathered on Twitter to chat about woodworking. It was usually driven by a topic, with lots of great participation and sharing of ideas. It was really good. But then it stopped, and we miss it. For some, their path to becoming a better woodworker took a detour. Its time to get things back on track.

Woodchats Future

After a lot of conversations in the last three weeks with Dale Osowski (Timberworks Studio), Dyami Plotke (Penultimate Workshop), Matt Gradwohl (UpperCut Woodworks), Vic Hubbard (Tumblewood Creations), and Tom Iovino (Toms Workbench), we will berestarting #woodchat this Wednesday November 2nd at 6pm pacific time, thats 8 central and 9 eastern. Weve got permission from the former woodchat crew and have been working behind the scenes to ensure to define how wed like this to work best for everyone.

Lets make #woodchat like a dinner conversation among woodworking friends.

Our First Four Woodchat Principles

1. Easy for People to Get Involved

There are lots of woodworkers already on twitter, and its easy to sign up, so continuing to use the #woodchat hashtag makes things very easy. No special download, no separate account. So well start on twitter but may incorporate other technology as things progress. Right now, Tweetchat is the easiest choice to participate.

2. Approachable for All Skill Levels

If youre a beginner woodworker, you will be welcomed in and find people ready to help and encourage you. If youre a skilled woodworker, youll also find encouragement and help, and be asked to share your experience and knowledge by welcoming and being helpful to new woodworkers.

3. Focused on Actual Woodworking

In the past #woodchat drifted off topic at times. Well focus on woodworking: inspiration, design, stock prep, joinery, finishing, tool selection, shop safety, or shop layout, for the beginner, part time hobbiest or full time woodworking business. No preference towards power tools or hand tools.

4. A Team to Make it Successful

To make sure that chats happen on Wednesdays without one person carrying the workload, were going to work together to ensure success. We all have busy schedules with our day jobs and families, but with five (or more) people committed to making this successful Im sure well establish a regular rhythm.

Woodchat is Yours

Ultimately though, woodchat is ultimately driven by those who participate, so we need to know what topics youd like to discuss, what technology you might suggest that we incorporate, what days and times work best. Let us know on Twitter or leave a comment below. See you all Wednesday night.

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Progress on the shop renovations continue at a snails pace. In the last week, all Ive manged to accomplish is the installation of 4 magnetic catches for the door which covers the electrical panel. This quick video walks through the installed catches and the process of installing the final metal receiver plate (for the magnet to catch). I dont mention it in the video, but I drilled out for the magnets and receiver plates with a Forstner bit in a cordless drill.

For more on the shop renovation, check out these prior posts.

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Thanks to Tom Iovino, its Get Woodworking Week. Its a week when we in the online woodworking world and the regular woodworking world look to help others enter the craft. While many of my compatriots are writing fantastic posts about what tools to purchase, how to use the tools, what projects to begin with and how to do joinery, I thought I would offer a different take. I wanted to show just how easy it is to get someone into woodworking. Hopefully many others will fall prey to woodworking as easily as Pete has.

My friend Pete and I went to college together. We’ve got many shared interests and a lifetime of shared experiences. Up until recently, woodworking was not one of them.

L to R: Me, Shots & Pete. Circa 1998. Shots is a cop now. Pete and I are not.

Since I’ve been blogging and ranting on and on about how wonderful woodworking is, Pete has been one of the few, non-woodworking friends to show an interest. He’s actually been looking to come visit and go over some woodworking for quite some time. We were finally able to make it happen over this passed Christmas break.

As woodworking was one of many topics we hoped to cover during his brief afternoon with us, we choose to take on a very simple project I had pending and work on it from start to finish so that Pete could see the whole thing.The project was the construction of a simple shelf to hold the cable box and DVD player in my room. By simple, I mean simple. It only consisted of cutting a flat board to size, rounding the edges and sanding. I doubt any of us would even call this woodworking.

Yet, for Pete, it was a revelation on many levels.

Peter, rounding the edge.

On one hand, like most non-woodworkers, he’d never stopped to consider the steps involved in making something from wood, even something this simple. When we reviewed how using a simple ?” round-over bit in a trim router to address the edges would make the whole shelf much warmer and touch friendly, it was a eureka moment. Pete instantly understood why it was so beneficial to the project yet without this brief woodworking class it would never have occurred to him.

Sand old women. Sand like the wind.

On the other hand, Pete reveled in the hands-on work. Even tasks as mundane as running a random orbit sander over a flat surface were rewarding because their results could instantly be felt and appreciated.

The completed shelf, in all its basic, functional glory.

While spending a few hours in my shop, making a simple utilitarian shelf hasn’t made Pete a woodworking expert by any means, even small projects like this are important when shared with others. By choosing such a simple project, and working on it from start to finish, Pete partook in the most important part of woodworking, the creation of a piece from a block of wood.  He caught the bug. The actual methodology, the skills to make complex pieces on his own, that will come with time. First he needed the desire and that has been firmly planted.

A happy new woodworker!

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Ive been working on re-siding the front of my house for about two years. Between the white cedar perfections & PVC trim, its been slow going. With the coming of spring Ive been focusing on closing up the few open items before taking more down.
To that end, I installed half of my rake trim last weekend. Today, before I could install the second half of rake trim, I had to finish the last bit of cedar siding on the gable end.
I began by shingling up to the top of the window. I then I fit & soldered the window cap, allowing me to finish the shingles on the gable end.
Its not furniture making, but installing cedar perfections is one of the most relaxing forms of Woodworking I know of. Each piece is fit with a few passes of a block plane and attached with two hand driven nails.
Throughout the day I snuck into the shop and managed to install the jam extension for the first window. It was a good day. Both of my projects moved forward.

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