Last week we installed the last bench on the back porch (picked it up out of the garage shop and carried it to the back porch, then set it down, but “installed” sounds so much more … official ) and it looks great. The next big project is to put together a table with a type of pivoting insert (a design I’m still working on ) so people can walk through to get to the other side rather than having to scoot around on the benches. I likes a challenge!

Spent the day getting chores done for the workshop; traded out the power strip I was using for the tablesaw cabinet for something with a little more … body to it. Picked up a woodburning kit and a linked belt for the table saw. I’m looking forward to that install!

Larger, more appropriate wheels on the drill press cabinet (what a difference!), and some wiring taming.

And somewhere in there a trip to the Y.

What a day.

As I sit here typing, I want to thank all of you on Lumberjocks, who have helped inspire me to take up this hobby that I find both relaxing AND rewarding. The stuff that some of you do are beyond the ken of my simple wishes, for now, but I am always amazed at the things that come across the interwebs, and the great ideas and realizations thereof. It is inspiring; all of it.

I’m finishing up the last bench for the set of back porch benches. I took my time, getting one thing at a time done, not trying to finish the whole project, just one task at a time. The slat supports were installed with a minimum amount of fuss ( Miller dowel joinery, but I’m considering going to just straight dowels ), then I ripped a 2×6 down to 1/2” slats. While the initial cross cut was a bit exciting ( I didn’t have enough support on the cutoff side, so there was some binding toward the end of the crosscut ), the ripping portion went exactly as planned. I got 8 good slats out of the 2×6, which are now ready for some final routing (1/4” round-over on the top ), and the base is now ready for sanding and staining with the slats soon to follow.

After that, I spent some time getting some cuts done for Christmas presents. This year I’m making a passel of coat hanger holders. Here’s a picture of a prototype.

The rest are going to get red oak banding and red oak handles. This is a design I’ve wanted to try for years, and it’s servring two purposes – using up scrap and making a useful Christmas gift. The base is 3/4” cabinet-grade plywood ( 17” x 5” ), and the handles are 3/4” wood ( protoype I used plywood – the rest are going to be red oak ) with 17” uprights and 12” handles. I don’t currently plan on putting a finish on it, but my wife my have second thoughts on that ;-).

After lunch I spent some time correcting an error on a drill-press cabinet I put together. Turns oug the glides I installed on the drawer was upside down. No wonder it was having issues! Once that was finished, everything moved smoothly.

Vacuumed up a lot of sawdust, and felt the cool-front come through. Now it’s drizzly rainy, and I’m calling it a day. A very good day, where I took my time and a lot went right.

While I don’t know if it makes me a pariah or selfish, I don’t feel another shop cabinet, another set of cabinets, or my latest jig I’ve create is worth noting as a blog or a project post. Plus, I’m lazy, so I don’t feel the need to snap a picture of everything I do.

That having been said, I have a project I’m posting soon; coat hanger racks. They’re easy, functional, and use up scrap; all three things that make me happier.

In any case, there’s a new rolling drill-press cabinet in the shop and a tenon jig I copied from an earlier posting here. I’m in the middle of the last of the sets of benches for the back porch, and generally keeping myself happily busy in the shop.

Three years.

When I first popped into this site, I had a table saw, circular saw, and a router, and no further ambition than to learn a few more things about woodworking.

Since then, I’ve gained a few more tools, and a few more tips, seen ingenious devices created by ingenious minds, and generally been exposed to an inviting community of people sharing knowledge about a hobby that we all enjoy.

The productivity of some of you astound me; I have another time-consuming hobby ( music ) that is actually my first love (I have a VERY understanding wife), with woodworking being my third (see understanding wife for reference ;-) ).

I have a bench sitting in the garage waiting for a second coat of poly and the slats for the top. I was hoping it would cool down enough tonight to put the poly on, then put the slats on tomorrow and a final topcoat before carrying it out back. It’s currently 89 in Houston with a 10 degree added index factor, so maybe tomorrow morning will be better.

Many of you, in one way or another, have helped get that bench to where it is now; a nearly finished product, with words of encouragement to each other, and me. Knowing that the projects go south with other people is an important part of not giving up and throwing in the towel when you find out you reversed your glue order in the haste to get things done, or the finish may not be perfect on every square inch of the project, but some of that’s against the wall and will NEVER be seen, so quit fretting over it, or the reason dowel joinery works so much better than screws.

All these projects, small and large, long-term and 30 minute, grand and simple, are humbling and inspiring, each in their own way.

So. Thanks for the well-wishes of the past, the comments on projects when they come out, and the body of work that this place has become. Mrs. Debbie and crew, thanks for finding a way to start this, and keep it going. It’s a good work, and you deserve the praise. Here’s to many years to come.

It’s been sitting in the shop, unused, for quite some time, and has a go of rust on it along with some general attention required, but at that price it’s what I expect.

So.

A while back someone had an entry about what type of shop you could put together for X amount of money. To date I’ve spent around $1000 American and have acquired the following (in order of purchase): 10” Jet contractor TS ($400), Freud router ($180), 17” Crafstman drill press with Rockler drill press table and stops ($175), Delta 14” band saw circa 1960 ($150), Delta 6” jointer ($100), and now the planer for $50.

If the progression continues, my next major power tool (a lathe), will cost only $20. Right?

There are any number of hand tools that I still want to have for projects down the road, and a DC unit that doesn’t consist of my shop vac, but all in all, a nice set of tools that serve this hobbyist just fine.

Now I’m off for another cup of coffee and a bit of time to contemplate the next steps in my restoration (probably limited) of the planer, then off to the “Y” before heading to a pub for a day spent playing Irish traditional music. Just remember – Irish beer ain’t green!

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

I installed a Rockler paddle power switch on the “end” of the cabinet. It was a fairly simple matter of taking the jig saw and cutting a hole through the outer wall of the cabinet, then drilling a hole for the cable to come through. I attached the switch box to the inner wall and used the space between the two walls to hold the surplus power cord.

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Because of the configuration of the switch box, you have to cut the hole bigger than the face of the box. I trimmed it in some scrap redwood that I had.

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Next was a drawer to hold the plunge-router body for the Freud as well as a Ryobi router. Typical drawer, butt joint at the end, 1/4” dado for the bottom and 3/4” dado for the front piece all held together with mini X Miller Dowels. Heavy duty rails installed and voila, a drawer. Of course, as I”m taking measurements for the drawer I discover that the innards of the cabinet aren’t square. Sigh. However, they’re square enough for the drawer and slides to work so onward through the fog we go!

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So.

Progress.

Next step? Sketchup the upper-level divider to include an air-flow channel and router bit drawers.

Any comments are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

There was one other aspect of this project that I hadn’t mentioned before – try to use up as much of the wood that I have laying about the shop before having to go and buy any more.

And off we go.

Below is a shot of the exploded view of this plan. I want to place 2×6 on the bottoms to support the bottom shelf as I plan to put heavy things there (routers, sanders, blah blah blah) as much for a comfort factor as anything else. I’ll use 2x Miller dowels for this; probably overkill, again, but I like they way they work and I hope to use this for quite some time. Then cut the 1/2” plywood. Turns out I have to cut a notch in the bottoms to accomodate the back 2×2 I used to frame the case. For the plywood I intend to use brad nails to secure to the frame.

2×6 pieces cut and installed. The hardest part of this was drilling the holes for the dowels. I have to assume that the cold was affecting the batteries on the cordless drill, as I’ve never used up two batteries in one sitting like that before. Still, the pieces are solid in place. They’ll help hold whatever I end up putting in the drawer.

And the plywood is cut. I’ve put both boards front to front to show the two notches I cut with a jig saw.

A little cleanup, and then the install.

On the right side of the cabinet I ended up with a shorter piece of plywood. Since this isn’t about esthetics and that side will be used for the router equipment drawers (bits, wrenches, etc.) I wasn’t worried about it’s looks. Still, it didn’t come out that bad.

So. That completes the first phase. Next I’ll build a drawer for the bottom and install it.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

As with most projects, it took a while, but I eventually found a Freud router that would work with what I wanted, so I got the router, a router table plate from Rockler, and the template to match the place, and installed it.

The cabinet was very raw in it’s design, though has proven very sturdy. While there’s a part of me that says “rebuild it from scratch”, the frugal Cajun in me (a small percentage, but there it is) just can’t see all that work going to waste.

Since the original build I have done little to improve on it, spending time on other projects, jigs, etc., but the time has come for an upgrade, and so I’m choosing the router table portion as my starting point.

To tell the truth, I’ve been inspired by several posts on LJ concerning various router table cabinets and designs. It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to the site.

So.

Here’s the router cabinet area in it’s current state:

Note the lack of dust collection, protection of items in the shelves … the list goes on.

Here’s what I get after taking the two drawers out.

And here’s what I finally cobbled together in Sketchup.

Here’s what I plan to accomplish:

Enclose the cabinet in 1/2” plywood
Rebuild the bottom drawer so that it functions on full-extension pull out rails
Add a middle drawer for other storage items
Add drawers along one side of the router for holding various router bits
Dust collection/containment
Better routing of the power cord
More Handy On/Off switch.

It’s a big list, but something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I plan to use as much scrap wood as I can for the additions.

And off we go.

So.

Put the fence face on my router table fence.

Built shallow drawers for our kitchen counter cabinets and mounted them. It’s nice to be able to use all the space in those cabinets and get to everything. No pictures, just half inch baltic ply glued and nail-gunned together. Since our cabinets are open on the inside, I had to mount the drawer slides to wood pieces and screwed them into the shelf. While I was at it I built a pot holder rack for one of the drawers after discovering that Ikea no longer sells the cheap little $10 (US) wood racks. It was an easy build, two pieces of wood cut down to an inch square by 20” long, drill holes in the tops and pegs for the sides, then cut some dowels 4” long and tap them into the holes. I may go back and glue it at some time, but I don’t expect a whole lot of wear, so not a lot of need for strength. We’ll see what happens this summer when the A/C is kicked on.

A while back I got a deal on a used 17” Craftsman drill press which included a Rockler drill press table, fence, and sliding stops. One of the faces to the fence broke at the point where the dado for the inserts ran through it. Took some scrap pieces from the board left from my router table fence and cut to size, then routed the channel for the jig inserts.

I play flutes, recorders, and whistles. A while back I had a small box that I could use to hold my instruments when I’m playing in concert or in a sesiun, but I lost it at one event or another, and so I started working on building a replacement. The box is a little flat thing, about 8” wide, with three pieces of wood sandwiched between hardboard. Holes drilled in the wood will accept dowels of different sizes, while one end is screwed in with washers so the ends can pivot, with a 45 degree cut in the middle where the pieces meet. I’m planning on finishing it today and drilling for the pegs as well as buying a piece of felt to put on top.

One of my first major projects after buying my table saw was to build a cabinet for it. It’s a doozy (I think I have it in my work shop pictures if you want to see what a doozy looks like), and I purposefully left room for a router table on the other end of the cabinet.

To shorten the story, I put two drawers of unusual size in this, and when I got my Freud router it became the router for the table. So far things have worked well, but I’ve lately seen some pictures of other router tables and am inspired to “neaten” up the original workings. I’ve got dimensions for the space, and me and Sketchup are going to have a talk for a while as I figure out how to reconfigure everything in that part of the cabinet.

Pictures? The drawers? No. Router fence? Maybe, but still chewing that idea around. There are far better router fences than mine, but the purpose serves me fine. The router table rework? Yes, when I get to work on it, maybe in the next couple of weeks. Definitely pictures of the instrument holder when I’m done.

I still butcher wood, making REALLY stupid mistakes because I’m trying to hurry through a project rather than taking the time to consider what I’m doing, but the mistakes are coming less rapidly despite the fact (or because of the fact) that I’m doing more work. I still enjoy the completion of a project, and have so many in line that I’m not worried about what to do next, just which one.

And off we go!

It started with a concept – wrap-around benches for one side of the porch. For various reasons the final design calls for three benches, 2 5’ x 19”, and one longer bench to take up the space between the walls. Slats on top, sturdy legs, and with a forest green body and ocean blue slats. Construct the whole thing out of 2×4 pine to keep the cost down.

I worked on a sketchup design and decided on butt joints for ease of construction.

Since I don’t have a jointer or planer yet, I picked as straight a pieces of 2×4 8’ boards as I could. Some day I hope to have those tools, but until then ….

So. Rip the 2×4’s down to 3” widths, then cut eight pieces to 16 1/2 ” lengths. gluing two together will give me a nice square leg.

And here’s the result after the glue-up:

That having been done, I stain them using a minwax water-based stain (it’s the only kind you can use for the non-wood colors). Forest Green is the color of choice for these benches.

The legs stained:

And that’s where we stand at the moment.

I hope to have the sketchup file uploaded into an easily accessible site for downloading purposes some time tomorrow. More on the progress as time allows. Thanks for looking.

I set up the design on Sketchup, then started the build.

A few things to note:

First, I replaced my old cross-cut sled with a new version. It’s simpler, sits to one side of the blade only, and I added an incra measureing/tbolt track which helps me create a quickly definable, easily repeatable stop. There are some issues with having the sled on only one side of the blade, but I’m working around most of them with a second “bed piece” on the other side of the blade the same height as the sled. I may someday re-design back to the initial “both sides the blade” approach, but that’s another project at another time. I’m pretty happy with the sled in it’s current incarnation.

Second, I finally built a router fence for my router-table. Again, nothing fancy, and there are versions of it all throughout this site, so no real need for pictures. I needed it for the 1/4” rounding of the bench slats. Who knew it’d be so useful (just everyone else on this site and a few million other people)?

The bench is made of yellow pine 2×4s. I’m going to write a blog (yes, with pictures) on the construction of the 7 footer, so I’ll spare the details of the build for now, but look for the blog in the coming month or so. I’ve used yellow pine for other benches and they work fine. While they may not hold up for decades of abuse as white oak or teak, the build is easy enough that it can almost be considered a weekend project (the build can be done in a weekend, the stain/finish takes a little longer ;-)).

If there is a point to this ramble, it’s that progress is being made. I didn’t have to re-design, significantly shift, or otherwise drastically modify my cuts, re-cut, or drastically trim any pieces. The bench ended up very close to my wife’s concept (at least I think it does), and it turned out to be pretty easy to build, so much so that I’m really looking forward to the putting the next two together as well as writing the blog up.

All that being said, I have been fortunate to have some accidents early enough in this undertaking that involves sharp blades of death whirring at inappropriate speeds around my anatomy. The fortunate part of these accidents was that my injury was minimal and non-invasive.

Protective Eyewear

I had just purchased a circular saw, having mastered the art of brandishing a hand-held drill. Because there are enough diy-type shows that admonish the viewer to always wear protective eye gear, I bought some.

So I put the glasses on, put some gloves on, and lay down my first 2×4 to cut. Blade is tight, blade-path is clear, chord is tucked away so it won’t get cut. I bring the plate to the wood, pull the trigger, the saw blade spins, and I move forward at a slow feed rate, when I hit a splinter that breaks from the wood, bounces off the blade, and heads straight for the center of the pupil of my right eye before it bounces off the protective glasses. It happens so fast that I just release the trigger to stop the blade as the splinter is falling back to the ground. It was a sizeable splinter, about an inch long, quarter inch at the thickest, and a point that narrowed down to pupil-mutilating sharpness.

I set the saw down for a moment to get over the split-second incident. If I hadn’t been wearing the glasses, I might be up for a patch or a glass eye now. As it is, I seen fine, thank you. I now wish I had kept that sliver.

I would have framed it with a sign, “Protective glasses keeps this out of your eyes.” It was the best lesson in that it was personal and caused no injury nor damage to any machinery.

I ALWAYS wear some type of protective eye wear.

Push Sticks and Sharp Blades.

And other things that keep one’s digits away from the speedily-spinning whirling sharpness.

After I bought my table saw one of the first things I did was buy the push-stick/pads package. The first jig I made, a cross-cut sled. I’ve since made another cross-cut sled that better suits my needs and doesn’t invite me to put my hand near the place where the blade may come through the back.

I’m currently working on back-porch benches for my wife (I’ll sit on them too, but she’s the one that wants ‘em. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it), and was ripping 2×4s down to 3” wide. I noticed that the cuts were actually putting some strain on the motor of my Jet 10 JSL (something-or-other) contractor saw, a good sign that I needed to get a new blade while I had the old one sharpened, but I figured it would be good for at least a few more rips. I was at the end of the last rip on the first side of all the bench wood, using a push-stick and push-pad and when something joggled where it shouldn’t have. The push-stick swerved into the blade, got caught by it, and was immediately cut/tore in two by the saw blade. The push pad got caught in the mess and had a slight blade score on the rubber pad.

Like the splinter, this happened fast. There was an instant where I heard something wrong, then the hand holding the pad was jerked toward me while the hand holding the stick struck the table. I first turned off the saw, then looked at my hands to see if the gloves had been ripped through. All digits accounted for. I took the gloves off for a more thorough inspection. Not even a bruise.

The push stick? In pieces. I figure I moved the wood too fast through the dull blade, there was some vibration, then the wood started to twist or bind, at which time all other things went wonky, possibly being thrown by the blade, which caused the stick and pad to do their dance. In any case, all digits were intact and useable, no injury involved. I shut down until I had a sharper blade, and put together another push stick (I couldn’t think of push-pad for my life, so while writing this blog I googled it, and found a design for a simple push shoe, which I am inclined to put together very soon now).

Two accidents; incidents that could have caused grave injury, if I hadn’t been using the safety equipment that we all hear about using all the time. While the dull saw blade was my stupidity, it was another thing everyone here will read about time and again when we talk about safety. For me they’ve served as reinforcement that these safety tips, pieces of information that are shared here, and throughout the wood-working industry, really work.

Getting Things Done

I’ve been working on a design for a set of benches for our covered back porch. I’m using yellow pine 2×4s for all the construction, ripping the seat slats from 2×4s as well. We’ll stain it with a golden oak stain and a couple of coats of spar varnish. It’s nothing fancy and not supposed to be, but we’ve got a prototype that’s been out for over a year and is doing fine, without the varnish (so I may not varnish. Who knows?). The design is simple enough that even with the tools I have (table saw, router, bad saw. drill, fingers) it’s a weekend project for the build, another day or two for the finish. Glued up the legs and they turned out fine. I am constantly amazed at the power of glue and wood together!

After I glued up the legs I put together a half-dozen zero-tolerance plates for the table saw. This is a project I’ve been meaning to do for some time, just never took the time to do it. Leftover 1/2” maple plywood, ripped down to plate size, then a quick round off at the band saw before using a guided finishing bit on the router table.

After the above incident I bought a set of blades from Home Depot. They’re Dewalt thin-kerf blades, a 24 tooth and a 60 tooth, 10” each. I mounted the 24 tooth this morning to continue ripping the 2×4s down to spec and it made a load of difference in the feed and the cut. The motor hardly seemed to notice the wood the blade was cutting. They were about $35+ at HD for the pair, and while they may not be the best blades on the market, they certainly seemed to cut just fine.

If you’ve got to this point, thanks for reading, and I hope your accidents are as fortunate as mine.

This project has been a huge learning experience. Many of the things I’ve learned are mundane in the woodworking world, and have been expressed better by far more experienced craftsmen than I. A list of what I would consider to be the things that others probably do without thinking:

Measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure

Put the wood down before making adjustments to the blade height. This tip works for any type of saw.

Buy more wood than you think you’ll need. No. Really. If you’re working on a project you’ve got experience with, add 20%. If you’re using the project to gain experience, 30 – 40%.

Small block sanding jigs are great! 3/4” wood, sandpaper, and double-sided tape and you’re in!

No matter what, take your time. This is my hobby. If this were my job I’d have lost that 50 pounds I’ve been working so hard at.

Stay within your price range on woods. My most expensive wood so far is the curly maple I’ve bought for the lid. I’m thankful I realize that I shouldn’t plan experimentation with expensive woods until I have more projects/experience under my belt.

The blade insert is there for a reason. Don’t operate the saw without it. It’s not the law, but it should be.

Glued up 3/4” boards don’t ALWAYS add up to 1 1/2”.

Above all, stop when it gets frustrating. See the hobby comment. Also, frustration leads to anger, anger leads to carelessness, carelessness leads to missing digits.

I have enjoyed the process to date, and with a second grandson on the way, I’m thinking another chest, with the knowledge gained from this one, will be in the offing.

My thanks to all the lumberjocks who’s good advice and inspirations have helped me get this far in what hast turned out to be a very satisfying hobby.

My stepdaughter asked me if I could build a toy chest for my grandson. “Sure!” I said, never having built anything of this type before. She gave me rough dimensions of what she wanted, and I worked on a design. After some time, I came up with what you see below.

I wanted clean lines and an open design, rather than panelled.

The Materials

I’ve gone with a redwood frame and 1/2” maple plywood for the panels.

The Build

So. I get the wood, cut the pieces to rough dimensions and start working on the required dadoes.

I tried to use my router table, but the current set up requires me to move my fence every time I want to adjust the router bit up or down, this caused a problem with the dado, resulting in a space too wide for the plywood panels. Not only that, but either my setup isn’t good, or my understanding of routing dadoes isn’t good, or most likely, both. In either case, it was difficult for me to control the piece of wood as it was moving across the bit.

Also, I tried to shortcut the proces while the pieces were still apart and ease the edges with an orbital sander. Those of you who want to shake your heads, please do so now. I did later when I started putting it all together.

Once I had the pieces routed, I started gluing one of the side panels together, which is where I found out where all of these faults were; the pieces didn’t fit together cleanly, the dado was loose by at least a 1/32 ”, and the resulting panel didn’t look like something I wanted my family to have to pass on.

The Fix.

Bad dadoes! Bad! So I’m using the table saw to help correct the dado and square it out. Once that’s done, I’m cutting pieces of wood to fill in the too-wide dadoes. After I trim all of this back to the original spec, I’ll use my dado stack on my table saw to make the dado, with special emphasis on making sure that the dado is correct on some scrap wood before I try it on the build pieces.

Why Did This Happen?

Every new project I take up is a stretching of my skills. Not having done this type of work before, I still have to be reminded, time and again, that this type of work SHOULD take time, and that I should take that time to be careful, not only around the power tools, but in making sure that I’m doing the right thing. In this case, I did a CURSORY cut with the router and didn’t think about the set-ups down the road, etc.

Next Time …

A look at the repaired pieces, a second attempt at the dadoes, and building the top.

As always, comments are welcome.

And now a year’s gone by, and I continue to find myself humbled by the number of projects that are submitted on a daily basis, and the quality that speaks of the work in each of them. Every time I log in here I learn something new, and am reminded of how much more I have to learn.

It’s a slow process, as summer’s in Houston do not encourage working in an non-air-conditioned garage, but between reading the blogs and the projects, some of the fine documentation of what one can do with wood I continue to find pleasure every time I log in.

My thanks to those who share their knowledge, their projects, and their love of their craft.

I look at the projects that are done on LJs, and I want to learn to do them, but then I start a project and get so taken by the idea of completing the project that I don’t take the time to do the project well. What I end up with is usually something serviceable, but often not of the quality of work I aspire to.

They say that acknowledging a problem is the first step in resolving the problem. If that’s the case, then I am at the door and ready to start on the path to learn to work wood rather than hash at it.

I have power tools, no hand tools. While I probably will want to involve myself with using hand tools down the road, I think I should concentrate on learning to fine-tune and use the tools I have before I try to install yet another skill set

So. I finally made a zero clearance throat plate for my tablesaw, after having had it for over two years. I have yet to actually TUNE the saw, though my cuts are pretty good. I still have the fence that came with the Jet saw, which I got before they went to the Beysermeyer fence. I built the cabinet that housed the saw and router together, andit’s serviceable. I need to build a fence for the router table portion.

So the next project is benches for the back porch. My wife doesn’t want anything too frilly – something to sit on, and she doesn’t want a back to these. I’ve come up with an initial design, something sturday and easily made out of 2×4s. And while it’s relatively easy, I want them to look good too.

My plan? Work slowly. Take my time. Breathe deep when I feel like I need to rush through the project, and try to learn from it.

Meanwhile, I come to LJs for inspiration. The chance to see what CAN be done with wood.

So, I’m finishing up the bottom of a 6 panel box and I’m reminded that I need to repair the bottom portion of the attic stair. The wood has split on the bottom third of the sides, and it makes the two sections very loose.

So, looking at the ladder and saying to myself, “How hard can it be?”, I start designing on the fly.

Those of you who are trying to wave me off, flag me down, or signal to stay on base … too late.

So I measure. I re measure, then I start making cuts. Then I set up the dado blades. Then I measure the angle. But I measure it wrong. So I see this REALLY steep angle and yet I figure I’ve measured and remeasured the angle, but I DIN’T REALLY measure the angle, I just thought I had. I get through the first cut and … WOW! THAT’S THE WRONG ANGLE!

More calculations, more calculations, scratching of bald head, more calculations!. Oh! It’s THAT angle.

Re cut a piece of board, cut a scrap piece to make sure I’m at the right angle (wait! Didn’t I learn to do that a long time ago? I’ve got scrap, why not use it?), and this time both pieces come out just like they’re supposed to.

Now it’s measure measure measure measure Hey! Look! A piece of scrap! I’ll use that to measure the depth and width of the dado! dado dado dado turn off saw.

It fits fine. Depth is good. Width is good. Life is good. Let’s go ahead and cut those dados.

Measure measure measure measure set up angle good good good measure and start cutting the dados.

At this point, one of the things that those of you who HAVE buiilt ladders before will know is that you have to be careful to MIRROR the dados, not PARALLELL them. In this case, not only do I parallell them, but I parallell them on the wrong side of the wood.

measure measure measure cut measure get the dados mirrored. There’s a little difference in one of the steps so I use a little utching and get the step in place. drill screw drill screw drill drill drill screw…. and I’m ready to put the finishing screw in the last step and I notice that the red oak has split right down the middle of the squared end that is supposed to receive the hardware to join the bottom part of the ladder to the top.

8’ piece of red oak – $15. extra 4’ piece of red oak – scrap. Time spent learning the valuable lesson of not desigining on the fly and paying attention to what you’re doing – 2 hours.

There was frustration, but I look at this as a learning experience.

I’ll probably go get some white pine and try this again in a day or so. For now, a nice swim and a glass of 15 year old scotch help put things in perspective.

There’s a healthy mixture in lumberjocks from what I can tell; hobbiests, professionals, and professional hobbiests. The income range is nicely mixed as well (from hand-crafters to minimal power tools to seemingly gluttonous overloads ;-)), so that we all get a chance to see what someone else can do with a handsaw, a couple of planes, some sandpaper, finish and … oh yeah, wood.

I’m absolutely certain that I’m not the only one that turns green from time to time; mostly when looking at other people’s projects (any time I feel like I’m REALLY getting somewhere with my woodworking, I go take a look at the chess-table (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8919) to remember where I’m at. It’s a lesson in humility, much like looking at so many projects that pass across the board.

Now one of the things we’re taught is that envy is bad, but I think that a very little bit of it is good (sort of like tabasco in tuna, but that’s another post). If I can look at a thing, admire it, and wish that I could build it, the chance is strong that, over time, and with practice, I can. I’ve seen several pieces that are actually making me desirous for a couple of hand-planing tools. Satisfaction wouldn’t do that. Desire does.

I look at the turnings, the cutting board designs, the workshops, and there’s some small part of me that wants all of those things, but there’s a larger part of me that has to be real and say either “wait”, or “it’s just a shiny”. I envy those of you who “seem” to put these things together in seconds (Yeah, I read where you say it took hundreds of hours, but it’s sort of like Norm and David Marks, all I see is the Reader’s Digest condensed version, and that didn’t seem to take very long at all ;-), even though the rational part of me realizes that these things took time, mistakes, and sometimes irritation to get it all right.

I’m also very glad that I found a board like this, where I can look at the results of others practicing their craft, and hope to continue my execution of this hobby of ours.

Thank you all.

It starts off with the idea, and then as I get into the design aspect and taking my time to make sure I’ve got it close to right. Somewhere in-between making the shopping list of materials and the first cut of wood the impatience bug bites. While I still suffer the occasional dragging of feet because I’m afraid I’ll mess things up after a certain point, that is becoming less of an issue while my desire to have the project finished has increased.

It might be the difference between hand tools vs. power tools, or maybe I’ve gotten the wrong impression from watching woodworking TV shows. Heck, Norm can build a Shaker-style reproduction display case in 30 minutes, and David Marks can put together a piece of art in the same amount of time. Why can’t I? ;-)

In any case, it can lead to errors in the production, and it’s the reason I’m examining it.

I like the idea that my time in the workshop should be done when I’m relaxing, not working off frustration; I have music for the latter (There’s nothing like a set of four jigs (musical) played at lightning speed to boil away frustration quickly). I don’t know about the rest of you, but my work-to-cleanup ratio FEELS like 2:3, though even the cleanup is satisfying in the end because there’s that sense of accomplishment.

So. I’ve decided to try to bring patience into my workshop. I may even make a sign. I’ve got a six-panel box to build for my mother’s christmas gift along with a few other things I’d like to do between now and then, so let’s see if I can practice the patience I seek.

Sometime yesterday I figured that I was just ignurnt about vacation-time, which a lot of people use to get away from doing things. Yet, here I was, straightening up the workshop, working on jigs, fixing up kitchen spaces … some people call it work.

So why do I feel rested? I put it down to doing things I wanted to do, and not being rushed to do them. No real deadlines other than the ones I set. And one of those things is working with wood.

So far, everything I’ve built, from flute rack to benches (another project I’ll post soon), are things I’ve either seen and tried to copy the design, or things I’ve designed from scratch. And I like it. I like the feeling of accomplishment, and I don’t get too caught up in the mistakes (router too fast, drill tear-out, finish not quite right).

Then today I finally looked up vacation, and one of the definitions is time spent doing something you don’t normally have time for. Well I did that for two weeks, read books, worked with wood, practiced music.

So maybe I’m not so ignurnt about vacation-time after all.