Shop time with a friend - re-building chest of drawers

Yesterday, Saturday,  I had the great pleasure of a very good friend coming over to work in my shop.

I really enjoy having other men over to help them with shop projects.    My wife calls them "play dates" with my friends.   I call them "Men doing Manly things with other Men".   

David, my friend, has agreed to help his adult daughter with a used furniture modification.

She had found an chest and wanted it 5 inches taller.   David and I talked during the week at work and decided on a plan.  We started about 11am and finished at 4:30pm.    

One piece of trim needs to be added and the whole thing will be spay painted to get everything to blend together.   

He was VERY happy with the results. 

Here are a few pictures of the work.

Woodworkers Guild of GA - July Meeting

The July meeting was held as normal at Woodcraft on Holcomb Bridge Road.   ( Really nice, is it 1/2 mile from my house ).

I always enjoy these meetings.  I have learned not to really question the value of the topics since they always turn out to be very interesting.  

This month was no different.   We always have two presentations.  The pre-meeting from about 6:30pm til 7:15, then a break and the main meeting and presentation starts at 7:30.  This always runs over so we get finished about 9pm++.

The month Eric Garner, a younger ( less than 50 with NO gray hair ) woodworker, presented a short demonstartion of the Mortise Pal jig.   This looked to be a very well constructed jig to create loose tenon joints.

Eric did an excellent job of demonstrating the jig using a 45degree joint and a butt, off set joint as examples.   

 

 

Our Second speaker was John Ming.   A past president and very active guild member.   His business  http://www.heirloomwoodcrafting.com/ is just him.  He does amazing work with his Shop Bot CNC tool as his only assistant. 

John is shown  here with an enhancement to a large mantle.   

He explained that while a shop CNC machine is a very large investment,  it pays off with a number of jobs that he simply would not being able to do by hand and be able to sell to the customer.   

John is an excellent speaker and always has too  much material.   

He owns a Shop Bot that is approximately 4 x 8'  It is an older model which he purchased used.   He highly recommends this approach.  His primary reason for selecting Shop Bot was the extremely large user based forum support.   It is one of those special communities of people who are really in competition with each other, but end up providing friendly support for all kinds of questions.  I think is very common amoung craftsman.

WIA - Woodworking In America 2010

I attends WIA 2010 October 2-4 of this year.

With all of the excitement over a work benches in the WW community, here is an album of the benches at WIA 2010.

WIA Workbenches

IWF Atlanta 2010 - My Friday Visit

So I went to IWF Friday.

Here is what I found:

The show was much smaller. Grizzly was not there. 

Friday after about 11:30am the crowds were VERY thin!!

In no particular order:

I talked for a while with the owner of JDS. The have a 2 and 3hp cyclone that is really great design for hobby guys. If you are looking at cyclones Take a look at these. JDS website 

Talked with the owner of Oneida ( the Gorilla people ). Another very nice guy. Talked about the cyclone "wars" of the last 12 years. Interesting - he said the "dust deputy" was one one of the things that got them thru the last two slow years. They have a cool new sensor for checking if your clone bin is full. It will be $119. If you want it you may have to call and ask for it.

Bosch has some really nice new stuff. They have 3 new drills in their 12V line. I bought the new hex drive. It is now 2 speed 350/1300 with 200 in/lbs of tourque. VERY nice !! AND I got a free PS20B. 

John from Bridge City was there. He showed my how to use the kerf maker. And talking with him is always fun. 

Ridge Carbide has a dado stack that really should get some more attention. He did demo cut in plywood. the bottom and side were perfectly smooth. He had this 
for $169 I think. Call him on the phone. I have a Ridge Carbide 10" combo on my TS which I like alot.

Stopped by the Jorgensen clamp booth. Got 20 free plastic shims that will make my big clamps stop sticking. Nice people. !!!

Looked at the Noden Adjust-a-bench system. This has really changed my mind about what to do about a new bench!! 

Got to play with the new Veritas end vise !! This is another new device for work benches that will make you think about how you are going to build your next workbench, or re-work your existing bench. Here is the Lee-Valley Link This mechanism is REALLY smooth and the flip lever to engage the threads is very easy to work. I talked with the lady who mounted the vise to their travelling bench. It took her 30 mins total !!

Oliver, General, Rikon and Steel City all had like 40x40 booths. 

Laguna was there showing off their in-house re-saw blade. And a new feeder that is about $800-900. I liked the feed because you do no have to drill you table. 

One more thing! Ace Tools was selling a new line of Fein ( and all the others ) blades. This is a univeral fit for all of the major virbrating cuttoff tools.

Oh yea, Woodcraft was a late arrival. There booth was in the wrong building any good exposure and was only a 10x10 booth. Rob Cosman was there promoting his new product. Got the feel the new version 3 of the WoodRiver brand planes. About $170 for a Stanley bedrock-style 5 1/2 plane. These look pretty good. They have a 62 for about $70 which really looks nice. 

So if you read all of this... there ya go !!! 

If you do not live in Atlanta and you are a Hobby Woodworker, I do not see much value in the show anymore. If you are looking to outfit a shop, well you do get to touch a lot of stuff, so it might be helpful.

I am really looking forward to Woodworking In America. There is a GREAT line up of vendors and the competition for our dollars will be intense. 

Christopher Schwarz at Woodcraft

Our local Woodcraft owner, Steve Steve Quehl is very active in getting great woodworking speakers and classes.  

This last weekend was no exception.  Christopher Schwarz, Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine was in town.  Steve had a reception and informal lecture on Thursday night for free ( with food ) and then two days of classes presented by Chris.

I attended the Thursday evening lecture.  Chris presented a nice slide lecture on the history of workbenches from his vast knowledge and collection of old plates and pictures.

Chris is very entertaining to say to least.  His question and answer session on planes, saws, and every thing wood, including the magazine changes was really fun.  Let's just say he does not hold back on any opinions.  And if you were thinking about buying the new Stanley planes, just don't.

Chris also talked about his books.  Lost Art Press, his publishing company is going very interesting work with the history of woodworking.  I did purchase the Joiner and Cabinet Maker and Hand Plane Essentials.   I have started reading the Joniner and the Cabinet Maker.  This starts to give a new perspective to the craftsmanship of woodworking.   I can already recommend that if you love hand tools and wood, this is a must read.

 As has been posted in the Popular Woodworking blogs, the magazine is taking on a new look.  Chris had the very 1st printing of the magazine.  I think it is a great new direction.   Much more about woodworking projects and techniques that we  all need to learn and practice.  With project to support that process.

Chris also talked about the up-coming Woodworking In America.  It sounds very interesting.  So much so I am looking at the date and hoping to go.  A new and very different format will allow much more access to the master's that will be giving lectures and hanging out to show techniques.

 In summary, a great evening.  Any time you get to hear great woodworkers, you will always learn something.