Hi Folks
Right - I promised some pictures.
This is the prototype of my shoulder plane design. It's made from Rosewood and brass, with the sole fixed to the body with a sliding dovetail. In use the plane is very comfortable and has a good weight to it - I'm very pleased!
I am about to make two more, one 3/4 inch wide in African Blackwood , the other 1 1/4 wide in Pau Rosa. They should be ready by the end of the week, and I hope to take them to Kentucky with me to get some feedback on the design.
Back to the workshop......
Philly

Pocket holes are one of the simplest forms of joinery in all of woodworking. All you need is a pocket hole jig to drill the holes and some special pocket hole screws to connect two pieces together. They’re great for avoiding problems with laying out your workpieces and with alignment. Plus, they eliminate the need to clamp up a lot of pieces during glue up. During this week’s podcast, Phil Huber will show you some tricks for using pocket screws and he’ll build a complete patio table using pocket screw joinery.

As usual, all of the links to articles, seminar guides, and products that you’ll see being used during the seminar podcast can be found at the Woodsmith Podcast Store. They include a link to the seminar guide, a couple of great project articles from Woodsmith magazine that feature pocket hole joinery, and several great Kreg Tool Co. products for sale. Be sure to check it out by clicking on this link: Woodsmith Podcast Store

A common question and concern for anyone using vintage planes is the topic of replacement blades.  While some vintage planes come with blades that work perfectly fine, often we may find ourselves with one that sorely needs to be replaced.

Modern manufacturers like both Veritas and Lie-Nielsen sell replacement blades, but the most common name most are familiar with is Hock Blades.  Hock blades are available through a number of resources including Woodcraft.com.  But if you're looking for a vintage replacement blade or just replacement parts for your vintage planes checkout Bob Kaune's Website.

REMEMBER!  If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or you want to enter for some free schwag drop me a line at mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com or you can always leave a voicemail at 231 354-2338.

Hendrik is back this month and we're talking about "Why we woodwork".  We'd love your feedback on why it is that you woodwork also, so call or write in to the show.

Don't forget too that on June 14th, Hendrik is conducting a seminar based on his book "Starting and Running a Woodworking Business"at his Acton, Ontario Workshop.  If you'd like to attend or just get more information about these seminars contact Hendrik at info@passionforwood.com.

If you have the time, please take the new listener survey.

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We have decided to go ahead with a cabinet base of the European beech. The process of creating a base from the beech slab involves a few steps. Initially the slab is partitioned for optimum use and minimal waste with an important consideration to grain orientation. Ideally, the slab is quarter-sawn. This particular slab is a cross between rift-sawn and quarter-sawn but I do need to pay attention to how the grain is oriented on the individual pieces. Ideally, the grain should be straight along the length of the aprons and all faces of the legs. The grain pattern in this case is diagonal to each face and not parallel to any of the four faces of the individual legs. I will saw the four leg blanks from the larger pieces I have already sawn with this in mind, and the possibility of re-orienting the leg blank within the larger piece of beech.

Hi Folks

Yesterday I had a friend of mine helping out in the workshop. And what a new experience that was!
As woodworkers we usually practise our hobby on our own, quietly (or not) working away in solitude. And to suddenly have to share that space with a second person is an unusual but pleasant shock. Thankfully, I had arranged for Steve to prepare some blanks for me while I worked on some planes. He also carried out some much needed adjustment of the drill press. Well, I didn't ask him to fiddle with the drill press but he just couldn't leave it alone ;)

Here are some tips for sharing your workshop. Make sure you have lots of spare pencils, engineers squares and cordless drills. And keep supplying hot drinks on a regular basis. This will keep your new "workshop buddy" happy and productive :)

Thanks again, Steve!

Philly

I will admit it - I am quite spoiled with some of the infill wood I have. Genuine Brazilian Rosewood tops that list - but a while ago, I ran into a piece that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a small section of burl. There was not much, and I had to really work to get enough for an XSNo.4.



And even after it was roughed out- I was not 100% sure I had captured enough of it. About a month ago, I started the plane. As I was working away I realized this piece was spectacular.



What sometimes happens is the figure and curl of the wood disappears as you cut it down and fit it to the metal shell. This piece was the reverse. With every cut - the infill kept getting better and better. There was a great light patch of wood on the rear infill that I really wanted to keep. I cheated the rear infill as far to the right as I could to capture as much of that patch as possible. You can see the patch in the photo below.



The front bun was equally spectacular - despite its small size.



This piece of burl was a very rare find. I cannot promise to find another one like this - but there are a few other large pieces that look promising. I just feel lucky to have found this piece.

Hey matt (napaman), no need to bug me about the next, previous project buttons – anymore ;) Each project page now features 2 new navigation widgets with thumbnails of the previous and next projects. Just click on any thumbnail and you will be taken to a respective project page.

Author’s projects are first… followed by the Everyone’s projects:

Enjoy!

Double glazed windows are definitely a great way to save money on your heating and energy bill, there is no question about that. However, there is a lot that needs to be done when upgrading to double glazed windows, and although the installation and upgrade process is not too complex, there is a lot of research that needs to be done to insure that you get the best deal and the highest quality of work.

Double glazed windows are very expensive and that is the primary reason that it is important that you do your research. It is recommended that you spend some time online doing searches on various companies and finding all the info available. Then compare all companies and ask at least four or five for a custom quote and a few references to contact about the company and the quality of work. Doing this almost assures that you will hire someone reputable who will be able to give you everything you want at a fair price. Like with anything else in life, just remember that you get what you pay for. There are also a few questions that you should ask each company you seek a quote from. You should find out if the windows have a BSI number or some other standard, if installers are covered in the code of practice, if there is an official trade organization that can recommend companies, and of course if there are any discounts.

The second major aspect about double glazed windows is a contract and you need to make sure that you get one. The contract should include all details about the job including rates and any additional fees or charges that may be implied, plus the number of people that will work on the job and the estimated time required to complete it. Also, the contract should contain the materials that will be needed and any insurance programs, and finally, if you agreed on anything else not in the standard contract, be sure to get it in writing and signed.

Payments are also a big issue and you should be sure to get all payment details in writing. Most companies should require a deposit of somewhere between 20-30% of the total offer. If they are charging substantially more that that, you may want to look into the company further and find a possible explanation. The rest will be paid on completion. When it comes to payment, just make sure that both of you agree on all the details and be sure to get everything in writing.

Finally, the last aspect of this process is the legal part of ordering this service. According to the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, consumers of home improvement and service goods have special rights and you need to be well aware of these rights. For example, if the installation is not completed to the quality that it should be and you have to pay another company to fix this problem, you can pass this bill to the original company. There are a number of benefits that this Act provides so be sure to read it thoroughly. There are also a number of things that could go wrong so getting some insurance may be very helpful.

Getting things double glazed shouldn't be a difficult process, but if you follow the steps outlined above, chances are, your buying experience will be much more enjoyable.

David A. Howarth has been working in the home restoration and improvement business in the UK for over 20 years now, and enjoys writing about home improvement features such as double glazing and conservatories.

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

My oscillating disc sander has built-in dust collection and it works great — but only when the holes in the sanding disc are aligned with the vacuum holes in the sander’s pad. And this simple requirement isn’t always as easy as it sounds. So rather than rely on a good aim when installing the discs, I put together a simple tool that makes hitting the mark a sure thing.

As you can see in Figure 1, the tool is nothing more than two dowels glued into a small block of wood. The diameter of the dowels and their spacing in the block matches that of the holes in the discs and sanding pad.

To use the tool, you simply place a disc over the dowels and then insert them into the holes in the pad (Figure 2). Slip the disc off of the dowels and onto the pad and you’re ready to go.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

Send for a preview issue of Woodsmith magazine

I like old tools. It can be a 100-year old hand plane or a 50-year old table saw. I enjoy the history and reading about old tool companies. For power tool history, the Old Woodworking Machines (OWWM) web site is a great resource. There you can find photos, instruction manuals, and catalogs that tool collectors have uploaded to share with everyone. I’ve used OWWM frequently when I needed a manual for an old tool that somehow managed to find its way into my garage shop.

And if your a fan of old catalogs, photos, and other paper items related to old manufacturers of hand tools, check out Gary Robert’s Toolemera web site. Gary collects, studies, and enjoys old tools and related books and ephemera. There you’ll find old bills of sale, postcards, letterhead, books, pamphlets, and assorted other items from Gary’s collection. I’ve got one of his old photos as wallpaper on my computer screen. It’s fun just browsing through Gary’s site.

Hey everyone I've finally went and done it, I've built a chisel plane from some scraps laying around the shop and a brand new Hock Block Plane blade (the most expensive part of the build!)

Many of you sent me the plans to the FWW article featuring the chisel plane construction in issue #148.  Here's a link to it Wooden Chisel Plane.

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

Interested in ordering DVDs containing the complete series of audio, video and PDF episodes from Years 1 & 2 of MBW?  Drop me a line at mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com, $25 for each or $40 for both.  Also, each month I'll be selling CDs with all of the previous month's episodes for $8.

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I had a chunk of cocobolo left over from my other projects. Too short for a pen, too nice for the trash, I was determined to find a use for it.

As I was digging through the "box'o'candles" (everybody's wife has one of those, right?) I found a seriously fugly rocking horse candlestick holder. It was plated pot metal, with a screwed on candle cup sticking out of the top. It was plated with a gold color that was partly worn. It really looked crappy.

I removed the cup from the rocking horse and chucked it in my lathe. The cup was pressed steel, and had pressure ridges, scratches, etc. I sanded it to 2000 grit paper to get it smooth, then hit it with the buffer and white diamond compound. Polished steel looks much better than cheap "gold" plating.

I chucked the chunk of cocobolo and turned the simple shape shown in the photo. Sanded to 800 grit and applied two coats of thin (1# cut) shellac followed by a couple coats of Hut's Crystal Coat.

A note about Crystal Coat. It's crap. It can add a nice deep shine to your turning, but durable it isn't. Just removing the piece from the lathe can dull the finish! I left this piece on the lathe for an hour before removing it to drill the hole for the steel cup's mounting screw. I still ended up marring the finish. Once I had the hole drilled and the screw run through a couple times so it would go easy later, I re-mounted it on the lathe and applied another coat of the finish.

I left it on the lathe overnight before taking it off and mounting the cup. I then immediately placed it on the shelf in the living room where it sat for a week before I had the courage to take it down again to photograph it.

I have no experience with other friction polishes, but Hut's Crystal Coat isn't worth the bottle it's sold in, unless all you're going to do is take pictures of your work.

My two younger daughters are completely fascinated with fairies right now. All they seem to be talking about lately is fairies. My seven year old told me earlier today all about how she and her neighborhood friends built a little fairy house in the back yard under a bush.

Apparently the fairy didn’t want to sleep outside with the bugs and decided to set up a little condo in our hallway.

I’m keenly aware of the affects of breathing in too much dust thanks to an unfortunate attempt years ago to carve a duck decoy with a moto-tool! Now, whenever I’m sanding or routing (or doing any job that produces a lot of fine dust) I wear a dust mask. The problem with your typical dust mask is that they don’t work very well.

Believe me, this is not an area where “good enough” suffices. You certainly don’t want to scrimp on dust protection, but too often I’m using an old mask that’s past the point of effectiveness. That’s why I recently spent the money on a half-mask respirator (photo at left). I like this 3M product for several reasons, including the fact that it’s comfortable to wear and economical (they retail most places for around $10 - $12).

But the thing I like best about it is that there are a wide variety of filters available. There are cartridges and filters designed to be used when working with sawdust, as well as fiberglass insulation, pesticides, lawn chemicals, and spray finishes. The respirator I purchased didn’t come with a cartridge included, so I was able to save a little by buying just the ones I needed.

I picked up my respirator at McFeely’s.com, but they’re available at several locations including Ace Hardware and Lowes.

Hi! First of all I want to thank you for the sweet comments and emails. I´m happy to share my work with you and give you some ideas and tutorials, and I´m even happier that my work is useful!!

Today I want to show you a very looooooooong necklace that I made: I used very small beads, so it takes me more than an hour to finish the work.

The good thing is that I can use this necklace as a bracel: just put it around the wrist many times….

You can visit other posts for more ideas:

Strange earrings

More handmaded earrings 

Handmade jewerly

My earrings collection… they´re all handmaded!

Handmade bracel with wire and beads

Step by step: how to make a necklace with beads

A necklace with beads 

Bye bye,

Fran

It's near the end of July and  it's time to give away some great schwag to some even greater listeners!!

This week we have another set of 2-1/2" Whiteside Brass Height Gages for one lucky winner and another great title from Sterling Publishing for a second lucky listener.

If you're interested in getting a set of your own gauges from Woodcraft click here, Whiteside Brass Height Gauges.

WIN AN iPOD TOUCH!!  If you have the time, please take the new listener survey, and when you do you'll be entered to win an iPod Touch.

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 www.mattsbasementworkshop.com or call our Skype Voicemail at 231 354-2338.

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I had originally planned on releasing this video as part of a series on Monday and Wednesday.  But based on the number of requests I had to see the construction process as soon as possible, I couldn't wait.

So here is Pt. 1 of a two part series.  Today's video highlights the basic construction of the base, the 90 degree fence and the hook. 

This is a great start on the project considering that easily 90-95% of the work I do on the shooting board is cleaning up end grains of 90 degree cuts.  In Pt. 2 which will be released on Wednesday covers the construction of an auxillary fence for 45 degree cuts and then a very basic lesson on shooting.

Don't forget!! Hendrik is back in September so get your questions in for our open Q&A session.  

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 the website www.mattsbasementworkshop.com or leave a voicemail at 231 354-2338.

To download directly to your computer Right Click on direct download, choose "Save Target as"

I'm pretty happy with how it's come out. I used a new finish technique (CA/BLO) that I haven't used before and I'm quite pleased with the results. To see the others as they are completed, head on over to my other site...

I've added two new feeds to the RSS page. One is Chris Swarz's Lost Art Press blog and the other is Leif's Norse Woodsmith blog. Both are excellent blogs well worth following.

I have been using the new Jet curved blade jig on my large Tormek, to grind the subtle curve which I find so useful in ...

We have just finished shooting the 'Precision Plane Tuning' DVD, after three days of hard work. This concentrates ...

The latest Popular Woodworking magazine has a good shooting board article with plans. An expanded version of the article is available as a PDF file. It is pretty big at almost 2mb so it might take awhile to load over a slower intenet connection.

Say you've spotted an antique in a museum that you would dearly love to reproduce. How do you obtain permission and, if approved, how do you go about taking measurements and photographs?

First, you need to contact the museum's curator and ask for permission. In correspondence, be polite, honest, brief, and let the curator know that you will accommodate his/her schedule.

So. Now you have permission to document measurements and photos of your beloved artifact. What do you need? How do you prepare? All you need is a ruler, tape measure, notebook, pen, and camera, right?
Yes and no.

That's all that accompanied me on my appointment with the scheitholts, and I was ill prepared....and nervous that I would take up too much of the director's time. So much so in fact, that I forgot to take the measurements of the overall length of both zithers!

This morning I heard back from the curator at the Gettysburg Military Museum, granting me permission to photograph and measure Robert E. Lee's Medicine Box (after December).

I haven't been this excited since the Christmas I unwrapped my "Space 1999" action figure set and model spaceship.

This time, I'll take a worksheet with me that lists all the parts of the cabinet that need to be measured and columns for wood/other material, width, length, height, and thickness. I'll also sketch the cabinet (it helps if you can take a snapshot before your appointment) and label the parts so I remember what each set of measurements refers to.

The other thing I'll do is not get too creative with the photos (like I did with the zithers). I'll be sure to take lateral, top & bottom, and straight on shots of each part of the cabinet. That way, if I forget to take a measurement, I can refer to the photo and use a known measurement to obtain the missing one.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably. But it's an exciting learning experience of galactic proportions.

Unpluggedshop.com is continuing to attract more and more users. In the last month, we had over 10,000 pageviews, over 3,000 visits, and more than 1,500 absolute unique visitors! The average time spent on the site is 3 minutes and 47 seconds or about one minute per page.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for the site.

Luke

も���り研究会��毎年３月�旬�楽��実習��り��。
学生��学�����をリクエスト���れ�����外部�先生を�招��る���。
今回���ら�り人形を作り�����学生�リクエスト�より���屋��ら�り人形師�玉屋庄兵衛�ん��越�頂����。
We have a series of interesting lessons at this time of the year.
Students request what they want to learn in addition to what we provide here in the Forest Academy. We invite professional craftspeople as lecturers for the special lesson. This year one of our students wants to learn how to make Karakuri Ningyo, the Japanese automata. We invited Mr. Shobei Tamaya, the Karakuri Ningyo maker and performer in Nagoya.

玉屋�ん��代目。マサ�ューセッツ工科大学や大英�物館��世界中�公演�実績も�る�日本を代表�る�ら�り人形師��。
���実演�������������れ����。
弓曵童�����江戸時代��ら�り人形を復刻��も���。
Tamada is one of the most known Karakuri Ningyo makers in Japan. He is the ninth Shobei Tamada. He has performed and lectured worldwide, including British Museum and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He first showed us one of his works. Yumihiki-Doji or the Arrow Shooting Boy was originally made during Edo era and Tamada reproduced it.



����ん��仕掛���人形�矢を�り�狙�を����矢を放��次�矢を�り��。
The doll picks up an arrow, aims at a target, shoot the arrow, and picks up the next, all driven by a spring.




�ら�り人形師�内部�メカニズム�ら��衣�頭（��ら）������自分�作る������。
今回�授業����ら�り人形�頭�彫り方を教���������。
頭�目�詰ん�ヒノキを使���。
視線を上�る�嬉�������む��悲����表情を��る頭��能��技法�用�られ����。
The Japanese automata makers make all the pieces by themselves, from the internal mechanism to the face carving, even doll's clothes.
Students learned how to carve the face. Fine grained Japanese cypress is the material. It uses the same technique as the Japanese Noh play mask making, so that it shows delightful face when looking up, and sad face when looking down.

��先生��手本。左�学生�も�。

２日間��玉屋�ん�手も���ん借り��ら�頭������。
学生�感想���ら�ら。
It took two days for the studens to roughly carve the face, with a lot of help from Mr. Tamaya.

Well, the news from the Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps rolling in. Today, I received notice that Performax and Wilton miter saws are being recalled. These are Chinese import brands distributed by WMH Tool Group (makers of Jet and Powermatic tools).

Here’s the hazard they’re reporting:

“The saw handle’s switch can fail, causing the saw to smoke, spark, and trip circuit breakers, and disable the safety brake. The saw also can keep operating unless the unit is unplugged, posing a laceration hazard to consumers.”  

Yikes.  You can contact WMH Tool Group for a new saw or a full refund if your saw is included in the recall.

For additional information, contact WMH at (800) 689-9928 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.wmhtoolgroup.com.

You can read the entire text of the recall notice here.

Time to put on the finishing touches. Tommy goes to work on the finish with a heat gun. After that's done, he takes the completed chest down to Downes & Reader Hardwood Co. for a critique.