Tommy's ready to start the upper pediment of the secretary and shows the drawing for the upper case as well as what's left of his wood to make it. He now has to figure out how to make the frame. He's hoping that he's found his stride and he'll "get this thing done" because the bombe is "way more complicated" than he ever expected.

The next Woodturner's Group meeting is coming up on Tuesday. At our last meeting, one of the guys did a demonstration for us on how he constructed his segmented bowls. I'm working on a project that incorporates those methods and I'd like to be able to bring it with me on Tuesday.

I'm pretty sure I have all of the components I need, it's just the detail work in putting it all together. And yes, this is a big tease, as I'm not going to show you anything yet...

For me, finger joints have always been the nerdy, square cousin to the dovetail.

Finger joints are immensely strong when glued properly. But they are usually used by beginning woodworkers in places where a dovetail would be more appropriate, such as on a piece of 18th-century casework.

Add to that the fact that finger joints are tricky or dangerous to make on wide boards (without a commercial jig) plus the fact that gluing them with yellow glue is stressful, and it's a wonder that anyone uses them at all.

And so we decided to tackle finger joints for the Summer 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine, which will be shipping to subscribers next month. It took us a few months to really pin them down (pun intended), but I think we nailed it (and no, cut nails are not involved).

Here's a small taste of some of the problems of the joint we solved after three months of testing in our shop:

Appearance: Finger joints are a product of the machine age. Using them in styles before circa 1900 is just wrong to the eye. So consider the joint for more contemporary pieces only.

Cutting them Accurately: Right now there are basically two different ways to cut the joint: A shop-made jig for the table saw for narrow boards, and using a router jig that costs several hundred dollars for wide boards. We set out to develop a simple and safe shop-made jig that could handle both wide and narrow boards. Senior Editor Robert W. Lang had a stroke of genius on this and solved the problem forever (in my opinion).

Gluing Them Easily: You can assemble small boxes with finger joints fairly easily when using yellow glue. But at a certain point, you hit the wall because the glue sets up before you can close all the joints. So the solution would seem to be a slow-setting glue. Well, that's one way to go about it. But we found an easier and faster way that is super-strong (see the photo of Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick's boot on a sample joint). In the end, it took an anvil to bust up our sample joints.

Also in the Summer 2008 Issue
The finger joint is just one of the major themes running through the issue. Here are some of the other stories you can look for in the coming issue:

Building a Better Chest: Most woodworkers build chests using the most convoluted and fussy assembly imaginable. After reviewing hundreds of historical models, we settle on a method for building a chest that looks more complex at first glance, but actually saves an immense amount of shop time, requires less fussing around and allows more design flexibility.

Crackle Finishing: Many woodworkers who try a crackle finish have inconsistent results. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. And predicting how much it's going to crackle is almost impossible. Senior Editor Glen D. Huey cracks the code of crackle finish and finds out that the easiest and most predictable way to do it is also the simplest.

Trimming End Grain: When you have to cut back some end grain so it's flush with some face grain, it's always an opportunity to mess up the project. We show you two (actually three) methods for doing it right every time with a block plane, sander and pencil eraser.

And one more thing about the Summer 2008 issue: This issue is going to be mailed out to subscribers in a protective plastic bag, which will reduce the chances that the postal service will mangle it. If the plastic bag works for you, let us know so we can encourage our manufacturing division to continue using it.

And if you're not a subscriber, you can easily remedy that here.

— Christopher Schwarz

These last nine months or so of running unpluggedshop.com have been interesting and profitable to me personally. I have enjoyed doing this site, and believe it fills a needed niche. I am not thinking about closing it, but I don't have the time or incentive to take it to the next level.

You see, I am having a lot of trouble keeping up with my "real" job, and would also like to spend more time woodworking and less time writing about it.

My point is that I would be willing to work through a transition, and help someone (whether a person, business, or organization) take unpluggedshop.com who could express a vision for the site that I like. I might even stick around after the transition if the new owner so desired.

Basically, I am looking for someone who is technically literate or willing to pay for quality development services (sorry, I am not for hire), and who will use the site to promote hand tool woodworking.  read more »

Hardwood floors are part of an established home?s heritage. The look of the wood is what draws a guest in and what adds warmth even on the coldest of days. When you decide to install solid wood flooring in your home or office you are not only going for that old familiar aesthetic, but you are also acknowledging that wood flooring is extremely sensible. There is a treasured stability with hard wood flooring, something that immediately elevates the value of your property. With wood flooring you give a nod to the baroque.

In addition to looking beautiful and lush, wood floors are also unquestionably good for the environment. The flooring is, in a sense, insulation between your home and the elements. This insulation is said to be sixteen times as powerful as steel and four hundred fifteen times more productive than steel. Most solid wood flooring is made in America and therefore must adhere to the nation?s strict environmental codes and ordinances.

What grain of wood you select will determine the overall character of your floor. Nothing exudes dependability like oak solid wood flooring. Within each plank you see the life of the tree: the knots and burrs. Another benefit to choosing solid oak flooring is that it does not scratch easily. With proper care, the warmth of the color will last a very long time.

Engineered oak wood flooring is a less expensive option. You get the same look and character, but the installation is much easier. In most cases nails or screws are not necessary, all that you need is a foam underlay. Since most of the engineered oak wood flooring is made in China some may argue that the quality is lower.

While some of the heartiness of solid oak wood flooring may be lost, and the value of your home or business may not increase as much, the appearance is not sacrificed and most people rarely can detect the difference. The greatest difference is in the cost and the installation. A professional with elaborate and specialized tools must install solid oak wood flooring.

A benefit for choosing engineered oak wood flooring is that you have the option of putting in the floor yourself. With the do it yourself craze at full tilt many new and established homeowners are getting excited about improvement projects that can be accomplished within a weekend.

Most major chain home improvement centers not only offer a large variety of engineered oak wood flooring, but they are now offering workshops that will guide you through the step by step process. An added bonus to doing it yourself is that now under floor heating is becoming mainstream. In the same workshop where you learn about wood flooring you can learn about the under floor heat process and how energy efficient a row of heating coils can be.

Choosing to upgrade your home or business flooring is simple, and in most cases, affordable. Going with solid oak flooring or engineered oak wood flooring is up to your taste and your wallet.

Natalie Aranda writes on home improvement. Hardwood floors are part of an established home?s heritage. The look of the wood is what draws a guest in and what adds warmth even on the coldest of days. When you decide to install solid wood flooring in your home or office you are not only going for that old familiar aesthetic, but you are also acknowledging that wood flooring is extremely sensible. What grain of wood you select will determine the overall character of your floor. Nothing exudes dependability like oak solid wood flooring.

When the Dremel folks stopped by our office a couple of weeks ago, one of the products they were showing us is the new MultiVise. I’ll admit that my first thought was, “This can’t be a serious tool — it looks like it’s made out of plastic.” But I was soon to be impressed. The way this thing can twist and contort to clamp almost anything is amazing. 

It clamps to your workbench or table. A ball-and-socket joint can rotate the clamp 360° and tilt up to 50°. I was skeptical that this ball-and-socket couldn’t be locked too securely. But once you tighten the blue ring, it’s there to stay. The clamp itself as a 7½” capacity. And it has removable “soft jaws” for clamping delicate or irregularly-shaped objects. I was impressed.  Really.

Now, as a woodworker, the first question I had was if the clamp was available in longer lengths. The Dremel reps said that they honestly hadn’t considered it but really appreciated the comments. I suggested that they offer “accessory kits” with longer clamps for us woodworkers. The reason is that the clamps are great by themselves. They’ve got large “feet” that sit on your benchtop and won’t topple over as you clamp down. The only problem I had with the clamp was that the screw was rather stiff and took some effort to turn. But I suppose it would loosen up over time without compromising it’s clamping ability.

Oh…I almost forgot. It comes with an adapter and wrench so you can fasten your Dremel rotary tool to the vise. It’s great for grinding or sanding operations.

I’ve got to get one of these for my own shop.

In ShopNotes 95, I wrote an article about some quick (and some unusual ways) you can keep rust at bay on your hand and power tools. For those of us with basement or garage shops, rust is an issue we have to deal with. I remember moving into our second home of our marriage and almost losing every tool I owned because I kept them in the basement. Actually, the basement was more like a root cellar and whenever it rained, water poured through the walls. It wasn’t until years later that I was able to jack up the house, replace the foundation, and finally have a dry basement for a shop.

Some months ago, I ran across this web page by Bob Neidorff. He does a great job of explaining what rust is, how to remove it, and how to prevent it. He also lists several resources for products and suppliers, including web links. Check it out.

July 18, 2008 Atlanta, GA. Highland Woodworking is pleased to announce the addition of The Fretboard Journal to their collection of woodworking books, magazines and DVDs. An important journal for luthiers and instrument enthusiasts, the quarterly publication is archival quality and chronicles the most innovative fretted instruments and instrument makers of the last 150 years. Fretboard's writers, historians and photographers from around the world provide well researched and insightful stories highlighting the best players and the most interesting tales in music.

The Summer 2008 Fretboard Journal features David Grisman's Chris Thile interview, details about veteran luthier Rick Turner's Compass Rose acoustic guitar and examines the tradition behind Kamaka ukuleles. The Fretboard Journal published by Jason Verlinde is a magazine for musical instrument makers, players, collectors.

Highland Woodworking, Atlanta, GA USA is a purveyor of fine woodworking tools and supplies with a 30 year reputation for quality tools and service. It is the exclusive source of the Wood Slicer Resawing Bandsaw blade, voted by Fine Woodworking Magazine as the best resaw blade available. Highland Woodworking is a trusted source of woodworking education and information. A schedule of woodworking classes and detailed product information is available at highlandwoodworking.com. Highland Woodworking 1045 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta, GA 800-241-6748.

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.

Trend doesn't seem to sell this any more. It's the "RoutaSketch" and I picked one up on clearance at Rockler for $25.

It was when they had the coupons 50% off any clearance item. They had two of these RoutaSketches, original price $99, clearance price $50, with my coupon $25.

I figured for $25 it was worth checking out. I was intrigued by the concept, that's for sure.

Inboxed, it's clear the thing was made as cheaply as possible. All plastic except for a pair of brass thread inserts in the base and the steel bars to hold up the template and the tracing stylus.

I assembled according to the directions. The steel bars were a REALLY tight fit in the plastic bases. Tight enough I feared I'd break the plastic before even getting to try it. But they survived. The plastic may be tougher than I initially thought!

After assembling the stands I looked at the instructions to determine which holes in the base to use for my Porter Cable router. But, alas, there were no PCs listed in the table!

No Porter Cable support? How can this be?!?!?!

I suspect that maybe PC isn't as big in Europe as it is here in the US. Trend seems to be based in the UK. That might explain it.

I tried to line up the holes in my PC with the myriad holes in the base of the Routa Sketch. No luck. None at all. Bleh.

I decided to grab the Harbor Freight plunge router that's been pretty much setting on the shelf. Sure enough, the template holder screws were a match. In fact, Trend was nice enough to include long screws that fit! A good thing since the ones that came with the router were far too short to mount the RoutaSketch base with.

After some dry runs making sure I had the motions down and was comfortable controlling the router with this big thing attached (really it isn't that bad, things moved quite smoothly) I picked one of the designs that came with the RoutaSketch.

The RoutaSketch comes with a good assortment of line art to use. Oddly enough (or maybe not), at least a few of those are public domain line art. My wife saw one of them at the local library for the kiddies to color!

With the paper on the tracing platform, my plunge router dialed in to make a very light cut, and my daughter and I wearing goggles, I started cutting.

The reason I wanted to use the PC router is I hate plunge routers. I understand the need for them, which is why I own one, but I prefer a straightforward simple router without the plunge feature. During this trial, the biggest reason I hate plunge routers showed itself. If I concentrate on the work, I'll relax my arms, causing the router to "de-plunge". The router keeps making the right motions, but the bit is no longer cutting. Grr...

Another thing that was irritating me was the stylus would grab the paper causing the paper to move. Well this screws up the pattern being cut into the wood. It turns out that the package came with a sheet of acetate to lay over the paper so the stylus moves more smoothly.

Whoops!

Even so, I thought it came out pretty decent!

I just carved into the mini-bench top. Don't worry, I'm not damaging my work surface. I had enough damage to it already that I need to resurface it with my jack plane.

I didn't carve any of the details. This was more a test of the tool. It's not a project. The outline looks good, but you can see where the aper shifted. it shoved the sea horse's forehead into it's ears. The acetate should prevent that from happening next time.

Yes. There is going to be a next time...

I would like to thank everyone who has already participated in our survey. Providing us with demographic and woodworking information helps us to tailor our sponsors to our needs. As you know, I strive to keep LumberJocks and our sponsors happy with quality advertisements suited to LumberJocks.com… without taking away from your enjoyment of this site.

This is the last day to participate in our survey for a chance to win some great prizes from LumberJocks and DuraGrit!

• DuraGrit 5 piece Cutting Wheel set – $71.90 Value!
• DuraGrit 6 piece Carving Burr set – $71.90 Value!
• LumberJocks T-shirt

The winners will be drawn and announced, tomorrow August 10th.

Click here to open the survey

Thanks!

If you are a regular visitor you will notice that my website has a completely new design.

This is very exciting as it coincides ...

Now that we’re publishing Woodworking Magazine four times a year (you can always subscribe via this link), we have an even greater demand for quotations related to woodworking, craft or (on occasion) even artistic expression.

We ran a contest last year to solicit quotations (with great success), and I’d like to run it again to deepen our well of material in reserve. If your quote is picked as the best of all the entries by our editorial staff, we’ll send you a miter plane from Philly Planes. (You can read a review of the plane here, but trust me, it’s an awesome piece of kit).

All the runners-up in this contest (meaning that we publish your quote in the magazine) will receive the hardbound edition of Issues 8 through 12, which will be released at the end of 2008.

Here are the rules:

1. Contest ends on midnight on Friday, May 16, 2008.
2. One entry and one quotation per person.
3. Your entry must be submitted via e-mail to chris.schwarz@fwpubs.com, along with your full name, street address, phone number and valid e-mail.
4. The quotation can be from any source (even yourself). However, it needs to be attributed – where you found it and who said it. Here’s an example: "It's not just about making beautiful furniture, but how do you get rid of it?" — Tage Frid, quoted in an article by Jonathan Binzen in Fine Woodworking.

Here are some tips: Short quotes are better than long quotes. Original or unusual quotes are better than common ones (“Measure twice, cut once.�). Quotes that are funny, make you think or challenge conventional wisdom are always appreciated.

Good luck, and thanks in advance for entering.

— Christopher Schwarz

Beautiful Mesquite Cabinets require the hand of a craftsman and Mesquite HardWood from ADM.



Photo Courtesy of Warsaw Woodworks

Fine Mesquite Cabinets installed By Craftsmen Like Joe Mozdziock of Warsaw Woodworks of Chino Valley Arizona really make an impression. This Kitchen Center Island was installed by Joe in the Prescott area. The Kitchen can become a place of warmth and beauty , and premium lumber from Arizona Desert Mesquite is the place to start. Here's a shot of some cabinets in the kitchen.

 

Contact :

Warsaw Woodworks
Joe Mozdziock
P.O Box # 2625
Chino Valley AZ  86323
(928) 636-0197

joemoz@netzero.net

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Mr.Hiraide visits our college at this time of the year.
He comes from Sanjo, Niigata, a production centre of knives and blades. He is a famous tool shop owner who travels around Japan with his van full of hand tools.

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The freshers buy hundreds of dollars of hand tools at this time. A couple of hand planes, chisels, sharpening stones, scales...these are the tools they must have at the beginning. They build their own collection of tools from here.

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Mr. Hiraide doesn't stop talking while selling his tools.
He talked about a short stop in Osaka to see cherry blossoms, a visit to a carpenter in Shiga whom he saw on TV just the day before. He loves chatting, traveling as well as his business.

In some parts of the world winter time has finished, while in other parts, autumn is starting… Wherever you live, is a good moment to show you this lovely puppet that is wearing cozy and warm clothes.

I improvised the pattern, so I´ll try to remember it for you.

1 - Cast on 14 loops. Make 7 rows of elastic stitch.

2 - Row 8: Knit 2, separate 4 loops in an extra needle, Knit 3, separate 4 loops in an extra needle, Knit 2. Increase 6 stitches (4 next to the loops you separate, 1 at the beggining, 1 at the end).
3 - Row 9: Purl (leaving the 8 loops you separate without purl, in their extra needles).

4 - Row 10: Knit

5 - Row 11: Purl

6 - Row 12: Knit

7 - Row 13: Purl

8 - Separated loops: they are going to be the arms. Make a knot with the yarn in the first loop of one arm (4 loops). Knit the row increasing 2 stitches (you get 6 stitches). Alternate Purl and Knit each row. I made 5 rows. Do the same with the other arm. After that sew the back part of the body and the arms.

9 - Head: Cust on 8 loops and alternate knit and purl along 9 rows. Increase until the 5th row until you have 18 loops, then decrease until you have 6 or 8. You´ll get a rounded shape. After finishing the head, sew it and fullfil it with cotton or a similar material. Then sew the head to the body.

10 - I Knitted the scarf, custing on just 3 loops and making Jersey. (Knit one row, Purl one row). I made the hat with sc (single crochet), crochetting circular. You can variate and put hair made of yarn).

11 - Make the hands: use crochet to make the little balls, there isn´t a technique, I made sc until I had a round little hand.

12 - I made tho little eyes with the sewing needle: look at those beautiful green eyes! But he is mouthless…

I think he is lovely! It was a moment of inspiration, I hope to have those moments more often!

FrAn

I have two pretty and small bags I made last week to show you. I used “unuseful” pieces of felt (that were useful in this case). Using my sewing machine I made, in no more than ten minutes, two little bags.

The handles are made, as you can see, of crochet (just a simple chain with a combining color).

The eyelets are made of crochet too… I made both of them and sewed them with my needles and thread, that´s all!

The stress is showing as Tommy glues the first set of dividers into the pigeonhole assembly. A last minute save rescues days of work, but in the end Tommy's spirits soar as the painstakingly shaped dividers glide right in.

Tommy is building up steam on the Bombe Secretary now and the next step is to shape the dividers of the pigeonhole assembly. rounding over 3/16" stock isn't a job for a router so Tommy makes a scratch stock out of an old scrapper. With 3 different radiuses in the scrapper he starts with a larger opening and rounds over the edge and then works his way down to the final size needed.

My 17 year old son, the one I built the black desk for, completed his first project on the lathe.

Using my Harbor Freight Mini Lathe he turned a mechanical pencil using a Rockler kit. The wood is some scrap padauk I had, and the finish is shellac.

While he had some guidance from me, the work was all him.

He's excited and wants to turn many more!

Tommy fine tunes a cabinet scraper which he uses to clean the undulating plane of the bombe cabinet's sides. Watch him rock and roll (get it, roll...) the scraper's edge with a file, then a "wata" stone and lastly a burnisher. Al sings the praises of the scraper manufacturer's line in hopes of scoring a complete set of tools for himself.