Safety Is A Family Affair – Woodworking Safety Day 2013

I thought about what I wanted to post this year for Woodworking Safety Day (formerly Safety Week), and was honestly having trouble thinking of something that hasn’t been covered already. I then thought about posting about simply listening to your inner voice and making sure one analyzes and is comfortable with a certain operation, but I think Tom and Dyami have covered that really well already this year.

So what I though I would offer this year is how family can contribute to shop safety. After all, we each have our own personal set of rules we follow to help us keep safe. Our family should be a part of the equation too. For instance, some of the safety guidelines we follow in our house are:

• If you hear cutting machines (table saw, jointer, planer, etc.) running, wait until they are powered off before interrupting.
• Communicate. If you’ll need a certain amount of time to complete an operation and think it could be a safety risk to be interrupted, tell your family. “Hey, I’ll need about an hour to get this part done. I’m cutting up a bunch of small pieces at the table saw and will need to focus on that.”
• My son is 8 years old, so this is pretty much a no-brainer; but he’s not allowed in the shop without supervision. I’m all for exposing kids to the goodness of woodworking, so when kids do come into the shop and want to watch or help, show them where to stand that is safe and out of the “line of potential fire” for any hand or power tool work you may be doing. Take it step further and explain why you’re asking them to stand there. They will begin to develop a sense of safety for themselves.
• I do the vast majority of work alone, but when I do need a second person to help, as was the case recently when I had to replace my basement door and needed to route out the mortises for the hinges, my wife will help. In these cases, I have dedicated hearing and eye protection set aside just for her (my son will use these too when appropriate).

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Take some time to talk about shop safety with your family, and come up with some rules that make sense for your situation.

Stay safe! Take some time to check out the other safety posts listed on The Wood Whisperer’s Safety Day page here.

3 – The Rack

I now have a new, much improved wood storage solution. Before I had wood sitting on sawhorses in the basement, that was taking up a large amount of space, which is now freed up for more useful things. As I mention in the video, this wood rack is based on The Wood Whisperer “Racking My Brain”, Episode 144.

I also want to thank Marc, Matt, and Shannon for taking my question about wood storage location back on Wood Talk Online Episode 83 (Yes, I planned on this that long ago, and just got around to building this recently…). I was hoping the garage would be a suitable location, since I could then reclaim space in the basement shop. As it turns out, it’s also a better location due to the increased air flow.

100 Pieces Of Wood

To celebrate their 100th day of the school year, my son’s homework tonight for his second grade class is to bring in a collection of 100 small items. We were going over our options of what he could bring in: maybe some Lego pieces, pennies… or how about pieces of wood? He loved the idea, especially when I offered some different species to make the selection of different colors. This was turning into a great opportunity for Get Woodworking Week!

After cutting up 25 pieces each of pine, red oak, maple and walnut, my son helped me sand any of the rough edges. Then came sorting time. We labelled four sandwich bags for each of the species. We then talked about how each of the trees make a different color wood, with different grain and how some woods are harder or softer than others. Some of the red oak pieces had some of the bark still on them, so when my son asked why those were two colors, I got to explain how that was part of the bark from the tree still there, and that wood came from the outside part of the tree.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until Get Woodworking Week to teach your child about woodworking, take any opportunity to do that! It just so happened this opportunity came up this week!

The Sawdust Tour & The Woodworking Shows

I recently had the chance a couple of weeks ago to take a Friday off from work and take the couple hour drive out to West Springfield, MA for The Woodworking Shows stop at the Big E (aka the Eastern States Exposition). This was my first trip to one of the Woodworking Shows, so of course was interested in the vendor booths setup there, but I especially was interested in what education opportunities were going to be offered.

I found one such opportunity at The Woodworking Coach booth run by Andy Chidwick of The Chidwick School. Andy is travelling with the show in what’s called the Sawdust Tour - a “social media blitz” where Andy is teaching at the show, and in the process taking the opportunity to meet with other woodworkers along the way, including visiting folks’ shops if possible, such as Todd Clippenger and Matt Vanderlist.

Of course I checked out the vendor booths and caught parts of a few other seminars, but after attending Andy’s first seminar of the day, it was clear I was going back to hear more. Andy spoke about steam bending, picking out the best grain direction from a board, sculpting work – and the joinery that goes into a sculpted chair, and also encouraging us to think outside the typical woodworking publications – to become an observer anywhere and gain inspiration from something that could then be used in a project in the shop.

I had a chance to talk with Andy after the seminars. He’s a great guy, very knowledgeable, and clearly has a passion for the craft along with the desire to pass that along to others. Check out the site for the Woodworking Shows to see if one is near your area. I highly recommend going if you can and check out Andy’s seminars. You can learn quite a bit and they are highly motivating. Also check out The Chidwick School site as well. Andy offers classes in Montana, and soon will be offering an online curriculum as well.

So Andy, it was great to meet you, and thanks for the Sawdust Tour shirt!

Andy demonstrating sculpting a chair seat.

Andy shows how he joins a chair leg/back piece to the seat.

Andy with a tulip poplar board with some great color contrast, and how to pick grain for a component.

Andy with a demo piece showing a tenon would fit into a mortise in a sculpted chair.

The sculpted chairs Andy has on display.

The Lee Valley Booth

Veritas shoulder planes at the Lee Valley booth. I’d like to add one to my arsenal at some point soon. I’m leaning toward the medium size one, but would be interested in other folks thoughts…

View of the show floor.

Another view of the show floor.

The bargain area.

Double Dose of Goodness

The months of November and December have been great ones here at the shop. Allow me to explain…

November – The Puja Table is complete!

The Puja Table, the project that I had been working on for the better part of the past year, was finished back in November and given to my friend who it was for. This was my second furniture piece, and my first commission. When I completed my son’s work table and posted it on Facebook, he approached me about building him the puja table. After discussing some design items, and what wood to use, he gave me a deposit to buy the materials.

One of the reasons I did not cover the project in too much detail before (one blog post and one video), is that by the time the project was really taking shape, it was also getting to be a while since he asked for it. I spent a good amount of time sweating the details. I must honestly say he was more than patient though, which I really appreciated. My focus however, especially between August and November, was to finish it up to deliver to him before Thanksgiving.

When it was delivered, he was more than happy with the result. My first commission ended with a happy customer!

I had a few things I set as woodworking goals for this project.

• I had worked with walnut some when making some paddle cutting boards and really liked how it is to work with. I helped “steer” my friend toward walnut as the primary species, as I really like the look of it as well. When I showed him some pictures online of projects made with walnut, he readily agreed.
• Attempt a new joinery technique. This was my first attempt at sliding dovetails, which I used to join the leg pieced into the top. This definitely proved to be a challenge, especially with some limited tooling. With some finessing though, I was happy with the result.
• This was also my first experience with spraying finish. In this case lacquer. Once I got the hang of it, things went pretty well. I did have to correct some overspraying and drip marks initially though.

Some pictures of the final piece. Click each for a larger view and info.

Completed Puja Table! Walnut is the primary species, with red oak shelf for a contrasting color, inserted into dados in the leg pieces.

The top is made from two pieces from the same board that I thought had interesting grain pattern. I slipped matched them to make it look as continuous as possible.

One side’s sliding dovetail. They are visible on both sides. I relieved some material in the middle to create less friction as they were being put into place. See Episode 2 “The Dove’s Long Tale” for more info.

Sliding dovetail on the other side. One of the challenges I had was that I borrowed a small tabletop router table that had a slight bit of flex on the table top. I used my router plane to help tweak the shoulder part of the dovetail in the middle parts of the leg pieces.

Low angle view of the table top.

Low angle view of the table top from the other end.

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December – The Wood Whisperer Guild for Life!

I’m no longer one of those folks who can say that I never win anything. The Wood Whisperer had their yearly Holiday online party a couple of weeks ago, and as usual part of the festivities were prize giveaways. The prizes ranged from tshirts, USB thumb drives, DVDs, to Guild memberships. This year, saving it for last, the granddaddy prize was a lifetime Wood Whisperer Guild membership. When I heard my name as the winner, I had to pick my jaw up from my desk! I was surprised and excited beyond belief. I was now a Wood Whisperer Guild member for life!

Now, if you don’t have any experience with the Guild, you can find out more and sign up here. I joined the Guild last year when Marc had a one night sale (after the 2011 Holiday party) of 50% off. I was able to sign up for the three month option, which I then renewed that next spring for one year. Since then the Guild has been restructured to have various levels of access. You can gain access to the “a la carte” version, where you pick which projects you want, or an option to gain access to all the currently existing projects. Again, check out the link. There is a section that explains all the levels available that goes into more detail than what I am here.

So now the next question… why join the Guild? After all, there is a reason why I renewed my membership before winning the lifetime membership. In short, because it’s a great resource – both in knowledge and the community. The level of detail that Marc goes into in the videos that accompany each project is incredible. There is also access to help for your project, and interviews with experts that are recorded and posted if you can’t make a live event. Even if you’re not in a position to build the particular project that is ongoing at the time, the insight that you can gain when watching the videos can be easily brought to whatever project you are working on. Having that level of education at your fingertips really makes it a no brainer in my opinion.

So am I excited I won the lifetime Wood Whisperer Guild membership? “Heck yeah” would be an understatement.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

2 – The Dove’s Long “Tale”

Finally Episode 2! As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been working on a puja table for a friend of mine. I have not filmed much of the process since I’ve already been working on it for a while and while he’s been very patient, I do want to get it to him as soon as possible. The legs are joined to the top of the table with sliding dovetails that are 12 1/2″ long and visible from both sides. I did find there was some interest when I posted a picture online of the first sliding dovetail, so I decided to capture some video of the second one. I did run into some technical difficulties with the filming, so as I explain in the video, I apologize for any quality and issues with the content being a bit disjointed. But I do hope that folks will still find some value to the content. I don’t claim to use the most orthodox method here, but it worked for me, and as I’ve seen with much woodworking content, there is more than one way to get a task done.

The Four Piece “Vise”

It’s been pretty quiet on the Wood Lab blog lately (sorry), but not so quiet in the shop itself. I’ve been working on a Puja (meditation) table for a friend of mine the last few months. Part of this project involves sliding dovetails for the side leg pieces to be joined into the table top. I have a clamping straightedge that I used as a guide to route out the dovetails on the underneath side of the table top, where I then realized after the fact, the clamping parts left some marks on the side of the table top. These marks were enough that I would have been forever trying to remove if I were to sand them…

A good note to insert at this point: I don’t have a good woodworking bench, nor a decent woodworking vise. This was one of those “shortcomings” that I was determined to not let thwart me.

The solution? The “Four Piece Vise” (That’s what I call it anyway): Two wood screw type clams, and two bar style clamps…

Basically clamp your work piece in the wood screw clamps, then clamp those to your bench top. Now that I had the table top secure, what to use to remove those marks since I don’t (yet) own a #4 or #4 1/2 smoother?

If you don’t have what you’d ideally like, try to use what you do have… in this case, my Lie-Nielsen block plane served well.

With a little wax on the sole, and skewing the blade just a bit to handle some interesting grain, I was able to clean up that edge without much trouble.