Saturday Mornings at Highland complement our woodworking class & seminar offerings. Join us at our store in Virginia-Highlands on Saturday mornings at 10am EST for FREE, live demonstrations featuring a wide variety of woodworking skills, tools & techniques. These 1 to 1-1/2 hour-long demonstrations feature our knowledgeable staff and instructors, local clubs & guilds, guest authors, and others. Upcoming events include woodturning, woodcarving, care & use of hand tools, joinery, book signings, an introduction to woodworking design software, and much, much more.

Saturday, August 23, at 10:00am—Shy of a hammer, a hand plane is one of the most basic tools found on a woodworkers bench. Bench planes, block planes and specialty planes are used for joinery, stock dimensioning, shaping and finishing. Join instructor Jim Dillon for a free demonstration on hand plane use and maintenance. You'll learn practical ways to true the soles, customize the handles and improve the bodies. Watch Jim show the proper and safe ways to utilize hand planes for various tasks. Feel free to bring along your own hand plane that you obtained from that yard sale or flea market and get Jim's advice on how best to turn your paper weight into a useful new item for your tool box.

All demonstrations take place in Highland Woodworking's retail store in Atlanta, Georgia and begin at 10:00am EST.

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

Drilling a centered hole in a dowel can be a challenge. It’s hard to get the drill bit centered and keep the dowel from turning as the hole is drilled. To make it easier, I built the jig shown below.

Build the jig by first drilling a hole the diameter of the dowel in a piece of hardwood. Then just cut a saw kerf through the hole from the end to make a clamp.

Using the jig is simple. Begin by centering the dowel under the bit. To do this, clamp a piece of scrap wood to the table and drill a hole to fit the dowel. Then change out the bit to the size needed.

Next, slip the dowel into the hole in the scrap wood. Then slip the clamping jig over the dowel and squeeze the kerf together with a small clamp. Now you can clamp the jig in place and drill the hole in the center of the dowel.

To learn more essential woodworking tips and techniques, just go to: http://www.plansnow.com/basics.html.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Saturday Mornings at Highland complement our woodworking class & seminar offerings. Join us at our store in Virginia-Highlands on Saturday mornings at 10am EST for FREE, live demonstrations featuring a wide variety of woodworking skills, tools & techniques. These 1 to 1-1/2 hour-long demonstrations feature our knowledgeable staff and instructors, local clubs & guilds, guest authors, and others. Upcoming events include woodturning, woodcarving, care & use of hand tools, joinery, book signings, an introduction to woodworking design software, and much, much more.

Saturday, May 31, at 10:00am we are pleased to have Hal Simmons in the house teaching the Natural Edged Bowl. When he's not busy at the American Red Cross, he's teaching wood turning. He has studied with Nick Cook, Willard Baxter, David Ellsworth, Johannes Rieber, Chris Scott, Soren Berger and Ray Key. He enjoys traditional spindle, bowl, and hollow form turning using both exotic and domestic woods. Hal is President of the Chattahoochee Woodturners and member of the Georgia Association of Woodturners.

Hal will demonstrate how to turn a natural edge bowl. He will talk about consistency in wall thickness, chucking and mounting the piece on the lathe.

All demonstrations take place in Highland Woodworking's retail store in Atlanta, Georgia and begin at 10:00am EST.

After slicing (resawing) and dicing (ripping, cross-cutting) the rough blanks for the interior parts, I am now left with a few fairly identically sized boards. The individual boards are thicker than the final dimension to allow for any cupping ,bowing, or twist that may result from the resawing operation and acclimatization of the boards. I have also resawn a few extra boards to allow for any problems or mismatched grain when creating the wider panels for the drawer cases. The boards are fairly similar in width but differ in length. Half are destined for the single drawer case, the other half to the stacked drawer case. Some wane or bark can be seen on a few of the boards and this will be trimmed off to create square edges with minimal removal.

Now that the drawer front has been laid out, Tommy takes a V-tool and goes to work carving. He then reviews how he works the pattern while listening to Run-DMC.

With the upper case taken off, it's now time to put the lid on. Tommy explains the whole process for viewers, from fitting it to the front to putting on the hinges.

Sometimes there’s nothing better than tinkering in the shop and making something just for the sake of doing it. For me, it’s often making my own wood hinges. For Canadian engineer/woodworker Matthias Wandel, it’s wooden gears, geodesic spheres, and other fanciful, if not always practical contraptions. His most recent creation is a Binary Marble Adding Machine, the latest in a series of “rolling ball sculptures.”

Why build a marble machine? Well, according to Matthias, “My Marble Machines are complicated and ingenious, but utterly useless pieces of toy machinery that automate the process of playing with marbles. With toys like these, mankind is free to pursue more productive ends, while leaving the playing with marbles to his trusty automated machine servants.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Sometime back in 1996 I took a piece of cloth that was cast off from my wardrobe. I cannot remember what the garment was. A sweatshirt perhaps? Long underwear? It’s a bit stretchy. And I soaked the sucker in WD-40.

Since that day, I have soaked that rag with every kind of oily substance you can imagine. Here’s the short lubricant list: Camellia, 3-in-1, Jojoba, mineral spirits, thread-cutting oil, spray-on “dry” shop lubricant and oil from various recesses of my personhood (yes, it’s true, and historically correct. Ask me over a beer sometime).

I use this rag to wipe down every tool after I use it. I lubricate my plane soles with it while working. I use it to wipe off the sharpening slurry from my tools after honing them.

And what I’m about to say will upset people who know anything about chemistry: I have never suffered any ill effects from this nefarious mixture when finishing my projects using any of the known finishing compounds: shellac, lacquer, oil, varnish, wax and all of their wacky combinations. No fish-eye has ever appeared in my finish. No orange peel. No silicone contamination.

So what gives? How have I cheated the finishing gods for 12 full years?

Probably because of the cutting action of all tools. When I wipe down a tool – a sawblade or a handplane – I leave the thinnest coat possible behind. This thin film is all I need to protect the tool from rusting. Then, when I apply the tool to the work, there is little doubt that some of this lubricant winds up on my work.

This first cut removes the lubricant from the tool. Then my next pass with the tool removes the wood that has the lubricant on it. Problem solved.

In addition to my magic rag (Lucy, my wife, calls it my “woobie”), I also am very fond of the Sandflex blocks from Klingspor to remove rare and errant spots of rust or staining that show up on my tools. These spongy “rust erasers” are like rubber that has been impregnated by a mild abrasive. The blocks will abrade your tools, but only slightly – in most cases less than steel wool. One block (I like the “medium” and “fine”) will last for decades of normal use.

As a result, I have had few problems with rust on my tools, despite the fact that I live outside a humid river city (Cincinnati) and my home shop is in a basement.

The bottom line is that diligence is far more important than the brand of lubricant.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Below is my latest project with a shellac and lacquer finish with no finishing problems. Maybe next project....

Well-crafted, durable wood shutters - whether interior or exterior - represent an investment in your home you will never regret. Apart from contributing to the elegance, grace and atmosphere of your dwelling, wood shutters will prove their worth in many practical ways over time - not the least in protecting your home from the harsh extremes of sun and storm!

Exterior wood shutters are available in a number of basic designs. These range from the raised panel that is particularly popular in coastal areas, to the familiar fixed louver. Alternatively opt for "country style" board and batten, or an exotic, but practical bermuda wood shutter installation.

What should you take into consideration when deciding which wood shutter set to order?

To start with you will need to decide what look you are trying to achieve, and this will depend largely on the style of your home. Wood shutters can be designed to complement just about any residence, but cost will of course play a much bigger role in highly customized, and fully functional wooden shutters.

Before making this major home improvement decision, look at your general interior design, patio design, and patio furniture. Your window shutters should blend into, and enhance these aspects.

You will also want to ensure that the right wood is used for a durable, and warp-resisting wood shutter. Although many woods are used in the construction of wood shutters, the woods of choice are Western Red Cedar, or Mahogany. Vertical-grained wood is also more resistant to warping.

If wood-work isn't your cup of tea, take a carpenter-friend along to check the quality of construction, especially the joints. Mortise-and-tenon joints are much more durable than screwed, or butt-glued joints. While you're at it, also ensure that you get wood shutters with copper or aluminum capping for more protection from the elements.

Interior wood shutters can be considered part of the furniture, and if the right design is chosen, they contribute greatly to the atmosphere, elegance and warmth of a room.

Even though interior wood shutters are not directly exposed to the same range and intensity of the elements as exterior shutters, they will still need to properly deal with temperature changes and design stresses. To avoid warping and other alignment problems, wooden shutters constructed of 100% hardwood, such as American Yellow Poplar and Elm, are well suited to the role.

Of course, interior wood shutters are also more than mere decorations! They are excellent insulators to keep temperatures at a comfortable level.

Don't go for the first fit-all-sizes window shutters you come across. By doing some research, and getting lasting, stylish and functional wood shutters, you will greatly increase the value of your home!

Awnings-and-Blinds.com - Read the Plantation Shutter article at Awnings-and-Blinds.com - also by Rika Susan of Article-Alert.com.

Copyright 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.

I attended a “press event” at Leigh Industries near beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia last week. They’re excited about some new products for this year, and I can see why. They are coming out with a new line of Leigh jigs and accessories. The new Super Jigs maintain the high quality that Leigh is known for. But they come in at a lower price point than previous models. They were able to redesign the jigs to lower the cost of production, providing great value in a top-notch product. I’ve seen the pre-production prototypes, and I think that the quality, capabilities, and pricing of these new jigs far surpass their competition.

Here are just a few of the things you can do with the Super Jigs:

• Variably Spaced Half-blind Dovetails
• Variably Spaced Through Dovetails
• Sliding Dovetails
• 5/16” and 5/8” Box Joints….that fit!
• Single Pass Half-blind dovetails – multiple sizes  

You won’t see the new Super Jigs on their web site just yet.  They don’t expect to start shipping them until mid-July. And the one you see here is shown with the optional $69 VRS vacuum attachment (available now). By the way, you’ll want to purchase the VRS — it’s available for ALL of Leigh’s jigs (even their original and older models). And it’s so practical for eliminating dust and chips. It’s amazing how it works. And the great thing is, it also provides a resting platform for your router.

There will be a 12″ ($199), 18″ ($259), and 24″ ($329) version of the Super Jig.  Street prices are expected to be lower. 

TRIVIA:  Do you know where the name “Leigh” comes from?  The founder of Leigh Industries, Ken Grisley, was born in “Leigh-on-Sea” in England.  Now you know.

So I recently bought six handscrews (two each of the 8", 10", and "12 jaw length). I put them on the rafter near the workbench and radial arm saw where I can reach them easily if I need them, and I can tell already I'll be using them a lot. They've been here less than a week, and I've already used them for several tasks:

As an impromptu saw stop,

To hold a smaller machinists clamp (that held a modified hook that I had cut and was filing smooth), and also to serve as a third hand to hold up a chair rail (I attached the handscrew to the door frame at the height where the bottom end of the rail went and set that end of the rail on the hand screw. I could then hold the other end with one hand and attach it with the other.).

If I was at all unsure of the purchase of these handscrews, I'm now convinced of their flexability and importance for workholding. In fact, I picked up 4 more of the Rockler 10" hand screws for the bargain price of $20.

Tommy builds a custom scrub plane to work the side shapes of the bombe lower cabinet. He transposes the curve to the bottom edge of the plane and the blade and then shapes the tool. Once the plane is shaped, he shows off the new plane working the sides. PLANE, PLANE, PLANE...Nothing like making a tool before you start the job.

With the drawers fully assembled, Tommy shares a insider's tip on protecting the finish of the exposed inside surface of the case where the drawers have a tendency to rub as they slide in and out. To offset the outside drawers ever so slightly, Tommy glues a thin strip of veneer to the outside wall of the drawer cubby interior. Once applied, the veneer provides just enough breathing room for the drawer to glide smoothly without touching the case wall thus preserving the finish.

It's a Monday and that means it's time for Magazine Monday!!!

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time at the computer and it got me to yearning for a project in the shop.

So in today's episode I'm sharing a few of those thoughts with you!!

Don't forget!! Hendrik is back in September so get your questions in for our open Q&A session.  If you're planning on being at the IWF in Atlanta, anyone wanting to have a chat with Hendrik can leave a message for him in the Press Lounge.  Or, better yet, he'll be attending The Wood Whisperer's after-show get together Friday evening, August 22nd.

If you'd like to enter for free schwag or just have a comment, question or suggestion drop me a line at mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com or  head over to my website at 231 354-2338.

Listen to today's show by clicking on the player below

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Yesterday was our special day and everything was just GREAT! Wedding photos coming soon ;)))

UPDATED: I’ve just added some wedding photos to my Facebook photo albums.. click here to see the photos

I know, I know, I know….it’s been a week.

Were you worried? Any chance you thought I had been sucked into a machine and was still spinning around the cyclone just waiting to drop down into the dust bin?

Well, it’s nothing that dramatic. Instead, I have just been distracted by things in life other than the blog. I’m sorry. I know you deserve better.

Today on the way to work I started fixating on all of the pressures and distractions that we face in life, and the next thing you know in an effort to find clarity I was scribbling out my random, deep thoughts as I drove along.

This morning I bypassed the 40mpg economy of the Jetta in favor of the top down sun-basking glory of the Benz, and I think that (the near heat stroke from the sun) is what led to the eclectic mix of today’s thoughts .

Without further babbling, here are today’s little nuggets....or as the late, great Mr. Carlin would say....today's Brain Droppings:

Recently I put Baby in a Corner, and it was actually about as anti-climactic as the time I messed with Texas.

My old girlfriend Carly still confuses me….even now, years after we broke up. I understand she was mad about the breakup, and she wrote the song about my being vain. However, given her follow-up song about me was NOBODY DOES IT BETTER, don’t I kind of have a right to be vain? Come on, Carly. It’s time to move on.

Speaking of songs, I was talking to Neil Diamond last week, and he told me that in the original version of Cracklin’ Rosie….the line went, “Cracklin’ Rosie make me a sandwich….”

Which do you think chess playing woodworkers struggle more with…..end grain or end game?

Do Deaf people sign in the shower?

That was it. Notice there were far fewer thoughts today. It’s because the commute is so much faster in the Mercedes than in the VW….

For the record, there was no Night Ranger during this morning’s drive to throw my world into a Tizzy. Rather, the drive was somewhat calm and relaxing, with the exception of one radio visit from Rammstein that made me move the shifter lever from sixth to fourth and plant the right foot hard.

Narex Chisels have just arrived—in stock now! Fine Woodworking Magazine selected Narex Czech Republic Chisels from 23 top brands as Author's Choice for "Best Value" western style bench chisel.

Don't pay too much for Narex chisels! Our customers tell us that some retailers have raised Narex Chisel prices because of increased demand. Don't be fooled—Narex Chisels are a great value here at Highland Woodworking!

Visit Highland Woodworking for more information on this and all of our fine woodworking products.

Tommy marks up the dove tail on the writing surface and then using a ramp block chisels out the 45 degree and 1:6 dovetail. Just ease into these dovetails and tap, tap, tap it in. Finally scoring the case for the final work to complete the dovetail.

Playing with inlays. This is powdered copper in walnut with 4 coats of lacquer.

After Tommy got the pattern drawn on the fret pieces, the next step is to start removing material. He starts out with a small router and takes the bulk material out. Then, with sharp chisels in hand, Tommy shows how to clean up the edges.

It's time to assemble the lower case. In preparation, Tommy must get the dove tails on the lower assembly of the bombe 100%. To do this he uses a router on a quarter million dollar piece of furniture...insane or genius? You be the judge. Roughing in the pins and paring it with a chisel, Tommy makes quick work of the job.

Three people at "the real job" have requested a set of Adirondack chairs. I'd also like a couple more for my own yard. To get everything ready,I've been working through a pile of rough pine my brother-in-law had given me. One set of chairs need to be done by Friday. Thankfully the person that wants these doesn't want me to finish/paint them. That is going to save me some time, and quite frankly if she had wanted them painted they would not be done in time. I do need to add little cup holder divets to the arms rests, but that shouldn't take to long.


One of the sets of chairs I made a while back had an unfortunate encounter with a puppy that liked to chew things. I'm going to make a replacement set of arms because it drives me crazy knowing that my chairs look ugly! I've seen them too, that dang dog did a heck of a job.