Life's Little Moments

There are moments in a parents life where you just wanna gush about your kids. This is one of those moments.

My oldest daughter, Casey is a Freshman in high school this year and is taking Art as one of her electives. In addition to doing a weekly sketch, one of the requirements is to turn in what they call a Master Works project once a month. This can be anything from photography to cake decorating to a metal working project to, hmmm, a woodworking project. Needless to say I was more than a little happy that she chose a woodworking project. After a little discussion we decided on a small lidded box. To practice, we went out to the shop and just for fun I had her cut a practice dovetail. With little instruction, she seemed to get the hang of it fairly quickly. So, even though I knew it was ambitious for a first woodworking project, we decided on a small, dovetailed box. Well, it was a lengthy couple of days in the shop, but enjoyable ones. Casey did almost all of the work on her own, marking, sawing, chopping out the waste. I did lend a hand paring a few of the dovetails to the line but that was about it. She struggled a little here and there with sawing, especially starting the cuts, but she stuck with it and never got discouraged or disgusted. She kept a great attitude throughout and in the end she was extremely pleased with how it turned out and I couldn't have been more proud. She put some paint on it and then painted a flowering dogwood branch on the lid with her signature sitting on the branch. It sits on her dressing table in her room now and I hope she'll treasure it for the rest of her life. I know I'll always treasure the memory of building it with her.

Laying out the tails with dividers

Sawing to the line

Inspecting her work

The happy, budding cabinetmaker

 The finished product, with her artistic touch

A closer look at her painting

Oh, I also have a daughter in sixth grade who's been wanting to get out there and learn some tricks since before I even had the shop done. Gotta make time for that real soon. I can't wait!

Fun With Scraps

I had some cedar left over from my shutters and an ugly blue plastic dust pan that I was hiding behind the trashcan in the shop. Seemed to me like I'd found a good use for those cedar scraps.

The cedar proved to be a good choice because it kept the dust pan lighter than it looks. The paint is just some latex I had lying around, sanded down a little after drying; figured it'd make the shavings slide out easier. The handle is tenoned and pinned into the back. I have no clue what wood it is, but it's extremely dense. It's what was left after I cut the handle down of the mallet you see in the pictures. Made that Monday evening and after pounding on a mortise chisel for about a half hour there wasn't any sign that it had even been used. Tough stuff. Maybe some ambrosia maple or something? I love these quick little projects.

Some Exterior Embellishments

Time to dress up the outside of the shop a little. I wanted shutters on the two gable end windows and the lower window on the western wall. Actually, what I REALLY wanted was operational shutters with iron pintle hinges and decorative shutter dogs; but my last name isn't Rockefeller. I DID think that I could do better than the vinyl home center shutters though, so I went down to said home center and picked up some 1 X 6 cedar boards. I've never used cedar before but that stuff will make you feel like Hercules with a hand saw. The stuff rips and planes like butter; crosscuts nicely also.

There really wasn't much to making these shutters. The upper windows are narrow and two of the cedar boards butted together was within an inch of being half the width of the windows; close enough for non-functional shutters. After jointing the edges to a nice fit I edge glued the two boards together and then ripped some battens to 3 1/2", smoothed and chamfered the edges with a plane, and screwed them on from the backside so no screws show on the front. A couple coats of some black exterior latex finished the first pair off nicely. With the first window's shutters done and hung, I was satisfied with the look and made my other two sets. The larger lower window is 32" wide so three of the 1 X 6's per shutter worked out perfect. I just made the battens a little wider to keep the scale pleasingly proportionate. Hopefully I can get a few coats of paint on these and get them hung this weekend. I think they'll set things off nicely.

So far the shop is a real pleasure to work out of. :)

A Nice Little Feature I Forgot To Mention

When in the process of building my shop, it struck me that the way that I had to position my stairs was going to make it difficult to get long boards above stairs for storage. I was discussing the shop with Colonial Williamsburg Cabinet Maker Karre Loftheim on a trip down there a few months back and he suggested a trap door in the above stairs floor. What a great idea! I took his advice and I'm so glad I did. Made getting 15' lengths of mahogany up there possible when it otherwise would have been tough to get 9' lengths up there. I just shoot them from right outside the front door on up through the opening. And as an added bonus, it's a cool place to take aerial pictures of the shop. :)

Shop Update: FINISHED........

.............for now. I mean really, is any shop ever TOTALLY finished. There's always improvements that you want to make as you get in there and work and get a feel for what might make things work better or make the flow of work more efficient. For example, I know I want a dedicated sharpening station, but I don't know where yet. I know I want a built in spring pole lathe, but that's going to take time. But I'm in! The workbench is in place, with the tool chest by it's side. All the windows and doors are trimmed and painted. Baseboard up all around. Peg rails with custom made cherry pegs installed are hung, with saws hanging from the pegs. Lighting, check. And they provide more than enough light. And not a harsh light either. AC/Heat Pump, check. Works great. Runs quietly and cools the space very quickly. Guess I'll be finding out about the heating capabilities soon enough. 

I've actually been working out of the new shop for about two weeks now. Cutting, molding, and installing the trim for the windows, doors, baseboard, and peg rails. I gotta tell you, it's a JOY to work out of. It so nice to have a dedicated space and to have that space look the way you want it to. It's quite an inspiring place for me actually. It makes me want to keep it clean and organized. Even on night's when I haven't wrapped things up out there until 11 at night, I've not yet failed to sweep up before coming in. Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with the place. Put me a cot and a mini fridge upstairs and I could be quite content out there for weeks. I'd have to install a privy out back though. :)

Health issues that have reared their ugly head again recently may slow my progress a little, but I'll keep plugging away. I've got a desk to build that I promised to the most beautiful woman back in the spring just before this shop odyssey began. I may sneak in a built in shelf here and there while working on the desk, but I have to get my focus straight and concentrate on completing that desk for my wife. MUST.....RESTRAIN.....FROM.......STARTING......THE SPRING POLE LATHE. 

Oh, and next spring I'm planing on a used brick sidewalk and some shrubbery out front and a nice tree, possibly a river birch, off the left front corner. Man I've got big plans. This has been one fun project.

Anyway, here are some pictures with a sort of a 360 view of the shop and a few detail photo's thrown in.

Why Is This Picture Significant To Me? (And To My Wife)

Because this is the first time in about 10 months that my wife's car has been able to be parked in the garage. Which in turn means that there has been pretty major progress on my new shop, and that my workbench, tool chest, some 14' lengths of mahogany, and other miscellaneous woodworking items have made there way OUT of my wife's parking spot and INTO my new shop. More to come on that VERY SOON.  :)

My Trip to Plimoth Plantation

While in Boston last week with my wife for a vacation for me/work conference trip-vacation for her, we rented a car on Thursday morning and headed off to Plimoth Plantation. I've been wanting to go to Plimoth since I first found out about the place 4 or 5 years ago. Judging by the web site it looked like a really cool place and of course a big draw for me was the possibility of meeting, watching and talking to Plimoth's joiner, Peter Follansbee.

Plimoth Plantation is divided into several sections; the Wampanoag Homesite is the Native American village; The 17th Century English village, set in the year 1627; and the Craft Center, where artisans and crafts people demonstrate their expertise. We arrived just a few minutes before the place opened, purchased our tickets, watched the orientation film in the visitors center and headed out for the Wampanoag Homesite. This turned out to be my least favorite area. The structures were well done, very authentic to my eye, but other than one native scraping out a canoe, there really wasn't much going on. From there we walked a path through the woods that led us to the English Village. This was much more my style. As much as I love Colonial Williamsburg, and I DO love Colonial Williamsburg, I've never been to a place with a more authentic feel as this. Dirt floors, thatched roofs, and sparsely furnished houses with amazing period reproduction furnishings; most made by Peter Follansbee. I spent quite a while in this area checking out the furniture and talking to the costumed interpreters, who were great by the way. They stayed in character and true to the year 1627; very knowledgeable too. If not for the other camera wielding tourist there, you'd think you were actually in 17th century New England.

Finally it was time to head to the Craft Center. Luckily, Peter was there that day. It was a real treat seeing him work up close and in person. He is an amazing craftsman, probably the premier green woodworker in the country and one of the most learned scholars of 17th century joined furniture anywhere. And to top it off, he's one of the most friendly and accommodating people you'll ever meet.
There were a couple of times when it was just Peter and I there and he was very engaging and happy to answer all my questions. I was very interested in his spring pole lathe as I think I'm leaning toward that style once I get my shop finished. He did a little turning demonstration and pointed out some features of his lathe; some that I would have never known, like the fact that his treadle is not hinged or fastened to anything, just butted up against a board on the floor that he stands on. Pretty slick.

While we were talking, I told him that I was in the process of building a dedicated shop for hand tool woodworking and showed him a picture on my phone. When he saw it he said that he'd seen it on my blog. How cool is that?! Kinda made MY day. :) He also personalized and signed a copy of Make a Joint Stool from a Tree that I bought in the gift shop. Again, very cool!

So, needless to say, my trip to Plimoth Plantation was one of the highlights of my vacation. And as a bonus, it's a really nice drive down from Boston if you stay off the interstate. Lots of nice old houses and some newer ones in the traditional style. And for the most part it seemed like everyone took pride in their houses and kept them really nice.

Oh, by the way; that elaborately carved chair in the photo above: Peter said that he has 60 hours in that. 60 hours! That's building the chair AND doing all the carving. AMAZING!

P.S.  Major props to my awesome wife for being so patient while I gushed like a school girl in Peter's shop for well over an hour. Many thanks to her for being understanding of my obsession with hand tools and history. :)