February 2012
16 posts
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Building a Roubo workbench rerun - 4
Last night I got a leg up on flattening the bottom of my benchtop. When I was gluing up the beams, I tried to align the tops of the beams as best as I could. The top side looks pretty good, but what this means is that all the misalignments show up on the bottom side of the bench. Since I’m using a Roubo design, the legs are going to be mortised directly into the bottom, so if the bottom...
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The Woodworking Show, Somerset, NJ, Feb 24-26 →
The woodworking club that I belong to, the Central Jersey Woodworkers Association, will have a booth at The Woodworking Show at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset on Feb. 24-26. Our club will be running demos throughout the weekend.
Bob Rozaieski and I will be at the CJWA booth on Saturday afternoon, so expect some East vs. West woodworking cage match action. Please stop by and say hi.
...
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Building a Japanese Workbench →
Speaking of Nik Brown, he did a terrific writeup for Get Woodworking Week on building Japanese style sawhorses that serve as a basis for his workbench.
I have a pair of sawhorses that are made from 2x4’s screwed into sheet metal brackets that I got from the local borg. Boy, am I embarrassed.
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Waste not, want not →
Nik Brown doesn’t know you can’t use Japanese saws on hardwoods, much less exotics like ebony.
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Building a Roubo workbench rerun - 3
Got the last glue up done for my workbench top! Whew! Glad that’s done with. Now all I have to do is flatten it.
The last photo shows what will be the top side. It wound up being 22 1/2” wide. Final length and thickness TBD.
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the legend of lin | angry asian man →
madeoftofu:
Yes, we all watched. Yes, we’re all crazy excited.
Jeremy Lin may do the impossible — make this born-and-raised Chicago sports fan who lives in New Jersey cheer for a New York team. May Michael Jordan have mercy on my soul.
Also love this from the article:
Dare I say it, Jeremy Lin is the biggest sports story in a city that just won the effin’ Super Bowl.
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The Shellac Redemption
Prologue: Tom Iovino has come up with a great idea, Get Woodworking Week, where the internet woodworking community gets together to write articles encouraging people thinking about taking up woodworking to jump in. I initially imagined this post as a bit of shellac trivia, the sort of overly technical article that would only be of interest to woodworking geeks, but if you stay with me, I think...
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Anonymous asked: Heard your debut on Car Talk. Defying our parents -- universal.
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10 Reasons NOT to Use Liquid Hide Glue for... →
I disagree with reason #10. I use these things called paper towels that avoid this issue.
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Woodworking Media – How Do You Learn Best? →
Great observation from Bob Rozaieski on his experience learning how to do some sleight-of-hand tricks:
The simplest of tricks seem to be really complicated when they are written out in a book. However, actually seeing the sleight explained by someone who is practiced in the effect all of a sudden makes it much clearer to me. It makes my practice time that much more focussed and productive...
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January 2012
22 posts
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Building a Roubo workbench rerun - 2
Some of my friends look at me like I’ve grown a second head when I tell them what I’m up to, especially when I tell them that I’m doing this with hand planes. This is probably not new to many readers of this blog, but I thought I’d share how this is really not as much manual labor as you might think.
Here’s a picture of how out of square the beam I was working on...
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Maebiki, by Lenox
I’m due for a new bandsaw blade, and I’ve been looking at trying out a bimetal bandsaw blade to get a longer lasting blade. These blades are typically made by laminating a piece of high speed steel to a carbon steel backing to form the teeth of the blade. I was marveling at this modern application of welding technology, and then I saw something on my maebiki that I hadn’t...
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The Happiest And Unhappiest Cities To Work In →
Gee — I always think the Popular Woodworking Magazine folks look like they have a lot of fun.
If you happen to work in Cincinnati, Buffalo, or Austin and you’re constantly down in the dumps—don’t worry. You’re not alone.
These three cities are where some of the nation’s unhappiest workers are, according to online career site CareerBliss.com.
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lanthorn asked: I think the other good thing to remember about a Roubo bench is that the weight provided by that extra bookcase of lumber is an important part of the design in and of itself. The stability you get from it is worth the extra board feet.
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Overbuilt? →
The current project of Marc Spagnuolo’s Wood Whisperer Guild is a split top Roubo workbench featuring hardware from Benchcrafted. Recently, Brian Tracey posted a writeup on his Roubo workbench on the Wood Whisperer site. In the comments on the bench, choots raises a good question about sustainability:
This is no doubt a well-crafted and beautiful piece. I’ve been admiring all the...
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Building a Roubo workbench rerun
Yes, this is another series of Roubo workbench build articles. I posted this on Woodnet three years ago when I was in the process of building my bench, as well as in installments on WoodCentral. So why repeat it here? My main reason is that I wanted these articles on my own website, so that just in case something happened to those forums, I would still have a record of it.
Also, lots of other...
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Anonymous asked: Wilbur, two quick random questions about shellac. How do you store your dry flakes, and did you have any luck with Kari's undissolved lump? -Eric
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Anonymous asked: Mushrooming chisels: I have a few that were delivered with hooped ebony handles. Any recommendations on mushrooming that?
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Matt: I think I've seen Titebond liquid hide glue in my local home centers, too. next time I'm there, I'll get a bottle.
Wilbur: You're lucky. I thought I'd seen Titebond LHG at our home centers, but when I've looked for it, it's never there.
Matt: Don't worry Wilbur. Seeing as you live in NJ, I bet there's a hair care product that just as effective.
Wilbur: Ouch.
Al: LOL - Boy, the New England folks can hit where it hurts.
Wilbur: The New England folks are jealous that no one wants to make a reality show in their states.
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Building a Cherry TV Cabinet with Hand Tools →
Jay Speetjens builds a TV cabinet from curly cherry, but doesn’t know that you can’t use Japanese planes on hardwoods:
At this point the real fun begins. I sharpened two hira kanna, Japanese smoothing planes, a 55 mm Ishihisa and an old 65 mm kanna that I picked up on eBay. In the first video below you will see me planing both faces of the panels with the 55 mm...
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The problem with internet woodworking discussions
We’ve all seen this. A question gets posted on an woodworking internet website that asks a basic question, such as “How should I sharpen my tools?” One person posts a very well-written and well-reasoned explanation as to how they go about sharpening. Another person posts another method for sharpening that is just as erudite and logical. A third person weighs in with yet another...
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“In an obituary, I wrote, “Pauline Kael had a more positive influence on...”
– Roger Ebert on Pauline Kael, which for me puts discussions about the hand tool-power tool/pins first-tails first/Japanese tools-western tools/18th century-contemporary design/waterstone-oilstone woodworking dichotomies in a new light.
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A Frustrated Furniture Maker →
Christopher Schwarz:
A highly skilled woodworker, teacher, draughtsman and writer has said the following about me on several occasions, according to his students.
“You shouldn’t listen to Schwarz. He’s never been a professional woodworker.”
My day job requires me to be a highly trained and skilled professional. It also requires me to teach students who want to enter my field. I can say...
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Sawing to a Line →
Terrific discussion by Bob Rozaieski on what to think about when looking at your marking lines with a saw in your hand, especially when it comes to sawing the dreaded dovetail joint.
I have to say, what went through my mind when I was watching the opening sequence of this video podcast was, “I can’t wait to see what Bob has to say about sawing to the line and OMG LOOK AT THAT FREAKING...
December 2011
17 posts
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User made maebiki saws from France
Bensonlook Son sent me photos of two maebiki-inspired saws that he made. This is quite an ambitious project, and I salute him for trying this out. Here’s his description. (Bensonlook is not a native English speaker, but I think his description is excellent, even if his word choice might seem unique at times.) Thanks to Bensonlook for sending me the photos and writeup.
=====
Hi Wilbur,
...
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WatchIf you grew up in Chicago in the 1960’s-70’s, I’m sure that you’ll remember Hardrock, Coco, and Joe playing on WGN at Christmastime.
Asian American item of interest: Centaur Productions, which made this cartoon, was co-founded by Wah Ming Chang, who was also known for developing the model for Pinocchio when he worked at Disney, and designing the props for the 1961 movie The Time Machine and the...
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Progress of Sun-thickened Raw Linseed Oil →
Stephen Shepherd:
I started this small batch of raw linseed oil in April and it has been exposed to sunlight every day since then.
An eight month long demonstration of a traditional finishing technique. Now that’s commitment.
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