Behind the Veil

Yesterday at my local wood monger I was searching for some cherry and a nice wide plank of maple. Like I normally do I dig in the back of the wall stacks to find that special neglected piece. There it was in all its glory full of shimmers and waves. I pulled it out from the rack and admired the beautiful piece like it was one of my own children. It was 4/4 s3s and about 4"x8' long ttl of 2.63 board feet Price was 7.89. It may be a little hard to see in the photos "foggy and cold here in sunny California" but the pattern is great when the sun does hit it.

When looking for an ordinary piece take a little extra time looking and that special and often neglected piece will guide you to it.

Jointer Pal

Like with anything that I buy for the shop I took my time and read the reviews. There were only a couple jointer set up kits available in my price range. Being a small shop with limited resources this is a big deal.

There are some really nice and pricy units out there. But none that spoke to me like the jointer pal. It had good reviews and was simple not overly complicated.

There are two models one with a plastic body and the other with metal. I chose the metal body because of the durability. Yes it was a bit more in the pocket but I wanted something that would last. I hate spending hard earned cash on crap and have it fall apart a year down the road.

I purchased it through Grizzly and waited patiently for it to arrive. Less than a week later it shows up on the front porch. Opened the box and found instructions even a monkey could figure out. With in 15 mins I was up and running with no problems. The wood I feed through my jointer is smooth and has even cuts.

All in all read your reviews and do our home work. This tool was well worth the $54.00 I spent.

Wow!!! Thank you Thrillist

A little less than a year that I've been doing woodworking and what a great time it's been. What is even better than that is being added to the favorite Etsy shops of 2011 from Thrillist.com

I was first contacted by Grant from Thrillist somewhere about 7 months ago. He was interested in my cutting boards and how I've come up with some of my ideas. Also of interest was some of the utensils and how they've come about. I explained the ideas just come and go and I have to write them down before they escape my forgetful memory. I never thought that conversation would lead to such a proud moment in my woodworking adventure.

What an honor to be part of a great collection of shops. 

Thank you Thrillist!!

Bosch sander review

12 years and the countdown was done! Through thick and thin. My craftsman orbital sander finally had hit. Now it was time to look for the most ideal and reasonable sander on the market. With so many sanders and options out there I took my time.

I spent what seemed like hours reading reviews and watching videos on YouTube about sanders. I think sometimes having to much information can be a good thing or bad thing with comparison graphs, pie charts, etc there great but make the decision factor that much more complicated. You can get XYZ with this model but you lose Z with this model but gain G with this. Going back and forth on some of the best and ideal sanders I finally made a decision. I ended up buying the Bosch ROS20VSK orbital sander with caring case for 69.00 at Lowe's

This tool takes some getting used to, it wants to do the work with you tagging along. Light pressure is all it takes there's no need to apply any type of hard force. The variable speed option is great it has a smooth start up speed and it blows through some wood. The filter system works like a charm hardly any dust as long as you use the 8 hole disks.

Overall I think this was a great investment to the tool collection.

Great tools make for great customers

In my Esty shop I've been having a busy couple months with normal and custom orders. When this hectic time happens it's easy to forget why we have a business in the first place. It's your customers, they build you into a happy and thought provoking business. I've had some customers give me ideas that I probably would have never thought about making.

I love hearing stories about a customer using one of my wooden kitchen tools to make there favorite sauce. Or cutting some smoked tri-tip on one of the cutting boards. I makes me feel good to know that a happy customer is satisfied with there tools and wants to take of them like a family member.

I received a great email from a loyal customer yesterday who posted a blog about my tools. I just wanted to share this with you all. http://allrecipes.com/cook/10810822/blogentry.aspx?postid=244924

This is what makes us woodworkers happy!

New cabin sign

Spending gobs of time at my inlaws cabin I’m always finding someway to contribute to the upkeep. I feel it’s my way of letting them know that I love this place and want to keep it around.

The plaque was from the front face of the cabin it receives full sun and heat, with very little shade. The original one was so warped and brittle I decided to make a new one that was a little more updated.
I ended up laminating some redwood together and traced the original outline to the new body. I then began the sanding and routing part of the operation. The routing was done on my new Hitachi MV12VC router using an estate sale router bit set. I then painted the plaque with the color match from the original piece let dry and wait.

Now here’s the part that I enjoyed the most. I scoured the web for various fonts for the numbers I wanted something that had a western style. I eventually found just what i was looking for. Printing out the font on paper I then trimmed it to size and taped it carefully to the board. Once completing the numbers I use Deft spray lacquer on cardboard and brushed over the exposed redwood sealing in the natural beauty.

Lumberjocks

It all started when I was having trouble trying to figure out small problems with my coat/storage shelf project. I'll post pictures later. I searched and searched but nothing out there in the vast cyber space of code helped. You search on Google and find some help but it's not very specific to you or what your looking for. Well I've seen Lumberjocks numerous times before and was just a lurker "someone who just stops by but never registers or posts"and browsed.

So I joined and this place is GREAT! On here you can share different stories about what your building or just browse around. Its full of ideas from a bunch of great woodworkers who share ups and downs of the woodworking field. You can participate on forums which is nothing new, but when it comes to finding good info on wood projects this the place. It's like having Norm Abram at your beckon call. I'm going to be a devoted member and share what I can here and on my project blog. 50Splinters at Lumberjocks