Thorsen Side Table Challenge #1: Announcement

ta da

all things come to he who waits
patiently

well done Martin
and Karson and Michael and Mark

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

OK Karson now I know what was up your sleeve. Now I some how have to find time to get this project done. Thanks for the challenge!

-- " All Things At First Appear Difficult"

I’m off to find a $100.00 Pine board!

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Looks to me like the challenge has begun!!!!!! Now we will see the creative juices start to really flow!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

The time has come. I gotta go find that board…

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Challenge Time.

Lets the chips fall where they may.

Good Luck to ALL.

All LumberJocks. That means our carvers, our pyrographic artists, our flat board Jocks, our round board Jocks, our skill saw, jig saw, hand saw, chain saw, and even power saw Jocks.

Let the creative juice flow. Tell us how you thought of it, how you designed it, and how you built it.

Keep pictures to share. Share your joys and your sorrows.

Have Fun.

Karson

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

NICE!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

One more for your list Karson – the bandsaw.

-- Bandsaw Box Plans

Hmmmm. I wondering if I should buy some wood or start a pool to pick the winner.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

buy the wood
start building!!
go now
do not pass go…
just go

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Tony: You are correct because I sent an Email to Donna Menke to tell her that I was expecting a Bandsawed table and I forgot about you. Sorry.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I guess I’ll have to rummage around amongst all of my scrapwood, & see if I can find a Hunnert Dollar Board.
I might even have enough Barnwood to make a fancy table

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

the wheels are turning!!! Everyone is thinkin (except for Obi and Karson who have their tables half built already) hehehee

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Debbie: I changed course. I’m back at the beginning. I’ve been rummaging through the barn to find my ”Hunnert Dollar Board”. I may have found a couple of candidates after uloading about 300 BD ft of wood to select them.

File flat we said; they stay straight that way. But, to get to the bottom you have to move a lot of wood.

Of course I’ll finish the table that I’m ”half finished” you say because, the wood is all cut. It will be posted on the LJ site.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

it’s cut – isn’t that 1/2 done??? too funny.

maybe we need to attach a rotating machine to our piles of wood .. because everything we want is ALWAYS on the bottom.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

HUNNERD

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Of course it’s on the bottom. Not only is it Murphy’s Law, but that’s where the flattest boards are!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

We could always make the last items on our list first, so when we get to the top item it’s wood be uncovered.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Perhaps, but Murphy’s Law is recursive, washing your car to make it rain doesn’t work. ;)

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

The hunnerd dollar board was the last board purchased. The rest of you can use scraps, and stuff from the bottom of the pile if you wish. Me? I’m planning on selling these tables, so I’m going to make them nice. And if y’all remember the pictures of the shop, there was no bottom.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

There you go… poors guys don’t have a chance against the guys with the money. I’m gonna have to glue up all my scraps to get the wood for this one( Just Kidding!) Aged lumber is the best lumber…kind of like wine. The bottom board is the sweetest.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Well I have 12 aged $100 boards from a 110 year old house. 5/4×14in wide. Micro-grained. Hum, and they are on top of the pile….

Jimmy

-- Jimmy

Jimmy.. I think the wood is talking to you :)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Im going to use 2×4s

-- Phil, Chattanooga,TN

They may be Debbie. Now for removing the 100 yr old wallpaper….

Jimmy

-- Jimmy

that would be a different look for the table—pieces of wall paper still attached :)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I bet the belt sander would take that wallpaper off !

I will not be using a hunnerd dollar board, but will find something that works. I see a trip to Aura this week.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I hope I’m not the only member of the 30 and under club to throw their hat into the ring on this one. I ain’t skeered!!!

Good luck everyone.

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

I’m over 30 and I’m skeered!! :)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

JP.
You have one up on us then, you can at least run faster !!

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

hahaha that’s a good point Dick.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Glen has just posted nice write-up of our Challenge. Thanks Glen.

-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com

isn’t that WONDERFUL.
We are going to have so many members within the next few months that you will have to adjust the page size just to fit the ”123,456,333 members” into the frame

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

JP,

I’m… oh, crap.

I’m 33.

Nevermind.

(Wow, that was embarassing…)

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

HAHAHAHA , WAY TO GO ETHAN… A SENIOR MOMENT AT AGE 33

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I just realized that Debbie has a point. Nothing like a Nationally Publicized Challenge in a magazine like Popular Woodworking to boost membership. And you thought I was blowing smoke when I said 1000 by mid July.

One day I’ll earn a shirt.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

everyone needs to pitch in and get obi a t-shirt!!Ill thow in $1.00

-- Phil, Chattanooga,TN

You’ll get your shirt one day Obi. The Universe has spoken.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Glen: Thanks for the acknowledgement of our contest, and your and your magazine participation and support.

I know that there has been a lot of discussion among the LumberJocks about their plans. (but, that could be just blowing smoke to throw everyone off).

The competition is alive and well, and starting to make dust.

If you want to enter the competition, that would be OK. We’d like to see your interpretation.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Hey Rentman,
Do you think Obi’s worth a 532 Dollar T-shirt ???

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

I think Martin is smiling ear-to-ear again at the thought of that income!!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

A bit of information on the table challenge.

There are 2 PDF files that make up the total plans. One is the magazine article, and the other is the cutouts layout.

I found that you need to increase the print area 160 percent to get it full size. Of course it won’t print on 8 X 11 paper.

I took it to Staples and they reprinted mine on legal paper.

Hope this helps someone.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Yes, that is helpful to know you can get it on legal.

Thanks, Karson.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

I printed on my computer and had them increase it. The apron piece size is 12.25 by 5.75 and they had to move my copy around on their machine to get it to print the entire sheet.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

JImmy… I bet the interest you’ve accrued on your hunnerd dollar boards’ll make em worth a pretty penny (guessing approx 7 percent interest)

My boards may be just as old, if I go the FREE route. Or I may drop $100 (tax deductable if I put it in the Library auction) See if I can’t get all that money back for books and ? for the kids.

Ethan… right there with ya! nothing to be embarrased about (except for forgetting how non-descript our ages are) not 18 (vote), 21 (drink), 26 (cheaper insurance!!!) Not even a prime number. ;)

If Obi gets a 532 dollar shirt, be impervious to coffee stains and never wrinkle. Plus it would help with sanding and help point out the next Hunnerd Dollar board. That, or he can have one for everyday of the week (or every color of wood to help hide the sawdust)

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Great Posting Martin, looks like a lot of fun. Count me in, I’ve been wanting to get a PW subscription, it is amazing that Glen is wanting to support this Challenge so strongly, a good reason to subscribe, even if a lumberjock doesn’t participate in the Thorsen Challenge.

Great idea Karson & Obi, thanks for the hard work Martin!

Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

This is such a great contest for everyone all around!

At first I was shocked that they’d be willing to offer up so many free subscriptions, but to convert some of us to regular subscribers, and of course an extra 500 pairs of eyeballs sounds really good to the ad sales dept!

Funny the work we’ll do for a free magazine, where it would be so much cheaper to just fill out the reply card. We lumberjocks are a funny bunch.
Committed, or perhaps we should be?

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Nah !! Just a bunch of tightwads!!

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

My original comment to Karson to do this table was just because I wanted to do it. I didn’t expect this to turn into a world-wide challenge.

Karson, I had no problems printing the copy of the cut list. Acrobat reader asked me if I wanted to print the page and I said yes. Printed it out rather nicely.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Obi:

I have IE 7 on my machine and one of the changes that they made was to get all of a screen page on a paper page. Under IE 6 it quite often lost the end of lines when printing.

Now they drop to a smaller font to get all of the info printed on a line.

It maybe for that reason that my page was smaller than a IE6 page is.

id you use IE or Fox?

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I was using acrobat reader. I never save from a website.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Obi When I printed the page I got a printout that each box was 5/8 of an inch, and the total printed area was 8 1/8”. It is suppose to be 13 inches long.

What did you get

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

My mistake… I printed the third page of the Article. For all the fancy stuff I do it as I go along. I don’t want a replica I want my version of the table. My aprons are going to be different and my shelf is going to be different. Oh and my selection of wood is different and my size is different.

I didn’t want to get sued by Green and Green or Popular Woodworking for copyright laws or something stupid and get sued for royalties, so I decided that I’m going to turn it into a chair instead. With a stool that reclines.

I don’t think I’m even going to enter the contest

I’m not good enough

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

obi you started this hole thing you got to enter

-- Phil, Chattanooga,TN

That’s Awesome Obi ;) (laughing)

Earlier back in the last string about this project Karson? suggested we make ANYTHING and call it a G&G side table.

Obi can make his recliner, I’ll make a screwdriver, or a box. Debbie can make hers out of leather. Philly will make a nice G&G plane….

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

No, Phil. I have to build two tables, I don’t have to enter anything …. I’m the Obi-man.

And are you kidding? For an opportunity to have my work as posted in Popular Woodworking Magazine?

I’d make several just for one to make it.

That’s like my validation.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Atta Boy Obi !!

The contest would be a failure without your entry.

Besides that, I’m planning on beating you. LOL

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

I just did a search and stumbled over this

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Here is a picture of the original table from the Thorsen House.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Thanks for those links. GORGEOUS stuff! Inspirations galore!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

That is one serious desk, Obi. I took a look for a few and had to leave the site to come back later. I should be inspired but it was a little intimidating in comparison to the table. :-/

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Caliper… THAT is the bar in which I desire to achieve. Did you see the price? Over $10,000.00 and I’m sure the Greene Brothers would be proud to call it one of their own.

All of my stuff up until now (well most of it) has now been re-classified as … “firewood”.

This PW-LJ table challenge is the best thing for me, and although I have no intentions of winning, I WILL get another year of PW.

GREAT JOB ON THE HOMEWORK KARSON !!! I’M IMPRESSED.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Agreed, Obi. It is a good standard to which one can aspire. What makes that guy any better than me other than he DID it and I’m talking about doing. Or, rather, being a weenie about it. Thanks for the perspective.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Want perspective??? They are only sticks. Cut, sanded, glued, doweled, and finished. Piece of cake.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I’d like to see a piece of cake made out of sticks…. oh wait… I guess you could use sticks of butter…. how do you sand and glue butter?

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

After this contest there’ll be so many Greene, & Greene tables out there, the market will be flooded.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

I bet another challenge is in the wings as well. Maybe an Arts & Craft style chest of some kind?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

that’s a great idea Bill
not only giving the LJ’s something to get “giddy” about but also challenging people to take their skills to a new level.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I cut 8 sticks and then I cut 4 more sticks and then I cut two sticks

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I got the wood for the table today. Now all I need is some free time. That’s easier said than done. My girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy if I started this table before I finished her wine cabinet.

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

All you have to do is cut four legs and put them to the side… wait a few days and cut the boards for the table top and set them to the side… wait a few days and when she isn’t looking, glue them together and set it aside… wait a few days and then cut the aprons and set them aside… etc…

If your girlfriend/wife/significant other isn’t in the shop with you all the time, plan your cuts and glue ups when she isn’t there and let them sit over night.

Act like she’s the boss and you’re trying to get out of the job your supposed to be doing so you can play solitaire on the company computer.

Sometimes I think I have to teach all of you all the tricks I’ve learned over the years.

Sheesh.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Well then Obi, how come you don’t have time to finish yours?

Hoping all is well in the selling front.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Who said my table only had four legs??? Thanks for the “sneaky” advice. Maybe… just maybe… with lots of practice… I’ll be as sneaky as Obi. :)

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

I haven’t built much as I am still learning, but hey, why not.

Welcome to the challenge! and to Lumberjocks!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Interesting JP…a Thorsen Table with more than 4 legs…hmm.. Maybe you can make a dining room table and call it the Thorsen interpretation? haha

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Silly me, I instantly thought of three legs… or maybe two… with Greene & Greene feet

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Karson, I don’t remember saying I couldn’t finish it (but maybe I’m getting old and forgot), but maybe I’m just saying that, so that you guys won’t know what hit you, til just before the final day, and then BANG! there’s Obi’s table.

I think I said “I don’t think I’m even going to enter the contest, I’m not good enough”

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Hay Obi:

Be careful, maybe the server will be down and you won’t get to post it. It would be a shame for me to win by default, because you weren’t in the contest.

You remember, It was just you and I for a while.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Well Karson, after the coffee table, I’ve decided it’s only me. I’ve proven to myself that i can do good enough to compete, but I don’t have to compete with others when I’m my hardest critic. As long as I am pleased with the results, then it’s all good.

I also need to make sure I don’t get all prideful and huffy… it’s bad enough that i look as good as I do… HAW-HAW-HAW !!

Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble… (Sing-along ever-body)

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Well I guess I’ll try to build this table to my standards.

-- robert heisler

Hmmmm… that gives me an idea, Obi. How about a Lumberjocks calendar? Do you think you look good enough to make the cover? Oh wait… you’d have to wear a LJ shirt for the photos…. I guess you’re out. Tell you what…if we can make this calendar idea a reality then I’ll buy you a shirt. What do you think?

-- JP, Shelbyville, KY

I’m in for participating in the LJ calendar. Martin will have to ge a bunch of dates down for contests. etc.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Hey Karson, how did you find the original? I’d really like to look at some of Greene & Greene’s originals.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Glad you suggested the LJ shirts, I was afraid we’d be doing one of those Au naturale calendars ;~)

Oh! Ethan could wear his kilt!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Obi I think it was at a Cal university web site Look for the Thorsen House in google.

It’s here

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Man, that was quite a tour….I’m going to turn into Greene & Greene… Now there’s an addiction.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I’d do that, Scott. Wouldn’t even need a dare, either.

Oh, did you mean my Campbell tartan kilt? Or my Workman’s Utilikilt (it has enough pockets to hold a whole 6-pack of Guinness bottles!)?

I could always just use the picture of me with David Marks.

On the other hand… maybe I’d use the picture of me with Frank Klausz I’ll have taken THIS NEXT WEEKEND!

That’s right, folks, no ice-on-the-wings excuses THIS time! And, once again, I was invited to join a few of the other guild members and Frank for dinner tomorrow night. Can’t wait!

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/