I have spent more time the last few days in front of the computer than in the shop. I am currently learning SketchUp to use for my design work and presentations. (I have owned the pro version for 2 years.)

I have been watching the many online video tutorials for SketchUp, and I like the Missing Manual series of books, so I have the one for SketchUp.

There is a lot to absorb and I dived right in.

A Timely Offer for a Life Preserver

Well, I may have dived right in and I can’t say that I was sinking, but I can’t claim I was swimming either. I seemed to be in that moment where you can’t decide if you are making it or not.

I had a generous offer for help from DaveR and I took him up on it yesterday. He spent quite a bit of time in an online meeting to help me sort things out. He really knows what he is doing and I can say he is a true “guru” of SketchUp. He is also good at communicating the knowledge.

I had a good time with Dave helping clarify some things for me, but I had a great time with some of the personal chat time that we shared, where I got to know him better.

He is a busy guy with a family, a job, providing SketchUp rendering on a professional level, and his work has even been published. I have not received special attention as he has helped many others and you will find him on various forums sharing freely.

Although he is very knowledgeable and skilled in SketchUp, my greatest admiration for him is in his generosity to share that knowledge.

Hall of Fame

While DaveR is not the first person to help me along in my skills, he is among the group of generous individuals
that spurs me on to share so freely with others. He is in my Hall of Fame and it is because of people like him that I came up with my personal motto of “Share the Love ~ Share the Knowledge.”

Thanks Dave!

DaveR Shares the Love & Shares the Knowledge

Cutting small pieces of trim or moulding accurately on the compound miter saw can be challenging and a bit dangerous. The compound miter saw (known as the chopsaw in the trades and hereafter) has a large opening in the table for the blade and, most often, the plastic insert in the table drops down slightly from the level of the surrounding table. This is characteristic on my Hitachi, DeWalt, and Makita chopsaws. (I am a contractor so I sport 3 chopsaws.)

This provides poor support when cutting small pieces of trim or moulding and this situation creates a safety issue. Poorly supported pieces may be sucked into the blade and drag fingers into it or at least go flying around the shop, ricocheting like a bullet. A zero clearance table surface is the solution and is very simple to make.

It is important to understand that this table is a consumable item and new ones will need to be made regularly and perhaps specific for each job. This is not like making an auxiliary table for the drill press that will last for years.

The table surface can be 1/2” or 3/4” plywood. Since you are cutting small pieces, the table does not need to be too big. It needs to be big enough that you will not cut through the far edge of it easily which would cut it clean apart, but small enough that you can still read the miter gauge on the saw. It looks like I have cut clean through mine but I have not.

If you are primarily making 45° cuts, almost every saw has a stop that allows it to pretty much snap into location if you are running a little blind from the zero clearance table.

The fence should be tall enough to provide support for the full height of your particular trim. This provides back support for a clean cut the full height of your trim or moulding piece.

I keep the auxiliary table in place by attaching with screws from the backside of the chopsaw fence through predrilled factory holes.

You may notice that I have a laser on my chopsaw and it is very accurate. But I find that the saw blade’s own path on the sacrificial table and fence provides the best indication of where to position the piece for my intended cut.

Making the Cut

When performing a cut, hold the piece firmly and, very importantly, adjust your feed rate to provide the most controlled action. Advancing the cut too quickly raises the chances that the small piece can be grabbed out of control. The best thing to do is let the blade be the guide by appling just enough pressure to let the blade advance at it’s own rate.

Installing a premium blade for detailed cutting will provide the best results and aid in making cuts more safely. It is the same principle that a sharp knife or chisel is safer to use than a dull one.

When cutting stock I prefer to mark for a cut, cut close to it, then creep up on the final cut. This provides me with the best results for a clean and accurate cut.

A Cautionary Statement

Cutting small pieces tends to place your appendages closer to the blade consistently more than general cutting and this ramps up the risk factor. The zero clearance table helps control small pieces and reduce the risks associated with this type of work.

Use extreme caution and common sense. If it does not feel safe, then that alone will raise your personal risk.

Share the Love~Share the Knowledge

I was looking at a job tonight and a family member of the potential client stopped by. I kind of know the family and the visitor as well.

I recognized the lady but could not remember her name. I said “Oh HI! I haven’t seen you for a while. Oh and you’re having another kid?”

“Nope.”

This is not good when you are trying to sell a job.

Share the Love~Share the Embarrassment

While creating some detail mouldings for cabinet doors and drawers, I realized this would be a great opportunity to share how I handle these smaller pieces.

Simple But Safe

The methods that I use are very simple but create safe handling in a small production setting.

My work table is not a traditional style woodworking bench, it has a solid laminate top without bench dog holes. I like the clean solid surface for the type of work that I do.

This would appear to leave me with a lack of any methods for holding my work, especially small pieces. But I have some simple methods for holding my work that are quite effective.

The Problem

When routing a profile on the stock, if it is not held in place it will drift away from the router bit. It needs to be stopped on the ends and on the opposite side of the workpiece from the cut.

We need to keep the workpiece clear of obstacles. The router fence needs to stay off of the table edge and if you are using a router with a guide bearing, the bearing may need to have clearance from the table surface.

Here you can see how the piece migrates away from the router and the router fence will end up riding against the table.

The Solution

The solution is simple. I use stop blocks that have 90° cutouts in them to capture the corners of the work piece. These are clamped to the table with enough space to easily place and remove the workpiece.

The rules are simple, the stop has to be lower than the stock you are holding and it has to allow clearance for a router fence to enter and exit the ends. It is also important to realize that the stock is wide enough to safely remain on the table and the small profile will be removed from the stock at the tablesaw.

The stops do not need to clamp tight against the workpiece, they only need to act as a stop on both ends (hence the name.) You can leave a gap of 1/8” for ease of changing out the pieces and this is important when you have several pieces to work as in a small production run.

For this particular project I had stacks of short and long pieces to rout. I ran all of the short ones and then moved the stop to allow for holding the longer pieces.

You may wonder why I did not set up the router table. This could be done but I had to do a lot of climb cutting due to the difficult grain. Climb cutting is easier for me to do while holdinging a router on the workpiece rather than holding the workpiece on the router table. This worked best for this situation.

Other Uses

After routing the profile I needed to do a bit of sanding to clean up the profile. I used a stop placed at one end to hold the workpiece for sanding. This avoids the need to clamp the piece and possibly even move the clamp for access to work the full length of the profile.

I had several pieces to sand so this made sanding, changing sides, and swapping out workpieces a quick exercise.

I hope this gives you some ideas for working in your shop.

Share the Love~Share the Knowledge

Outside was a cool but sunny autumn day here in Billings, MT. The double doors face south and I had them open. I started scraping the veneer panel glue joints and all you could hear was shhhhhhck, shhhhhhck, shhhhhck.

The veneer panels are made of curly maple and the card scraper handled it with ease. I seemed to achieve that moment of nirvana. No power tools. No stereo. Just me, the panels, and a card scraper producing angel hair curls. It seemed that everything in the universe lined up and I was working in that sweet zone that woodworkers dream of.

Of all the very cool tools that I own, the card scraper is absolutely my favorite tool in the shop. I even use it more than my hand planes. It is such a simple and efficient tool to use. I marvel over the results of this simple tool every time I use it.

I use the most simple method for sharpening the card scraper and I love sharing it because I know how frustrating it can be to figure out.

I know many have seen the video, but I have to post it again for those that may have not seen it yet. I just want others to enjoy using the card scraper like I do.

One more thing before I go, notice how naked the back of my hand and wrists are in the first picture. I recently sharpened all of my chisels. I LOVE sharp chisels!

Share the Love~Share the Knowledge

This version is actually 9 seconds shorter but I have added a handful of still images for close-ups to show more detail. This gives added value to the video as it provides greater visual information.

This video is not about the how-to for constructing the bench. It really is about the design and thought process for creating it. I cover many of the design elements and things that I had to consider for practical construction.

Most often there is much shared on the how-to but not enough concerning the design and thought process for creating a project. There are principles shared in this video that can be applied to the design and construction of other types of furniture.

I hope that the information will help others in designing their furniture project.

Share the Love~Share the Knowledge

The space-time continuum changes when you add the grandkids factor to the intended work progress equation, but that is OK. Rita and I had a couple of the grandsons for the weekend and they spent some time in the shop with me.

I went out to the shop Saturday morning with the 2 boys in tow (ages 3 and 4) and thought that I would finish my organizational efforts in just a few hours – silly me. It took me all morning just to install the ceiling mounted hanger and sort the extension cords.

This turned out to be a great place to store the cords. I did not hang it from the truss because it was not in the right location. I put cross bracing in the attic and hung it exactly where needed.

After installing the hanger and storing the extension cords I decided it was futile to juggle shop work and my duties as a grandpa. So I devoted the rest of my afternoon to the kids and helping them explore their woodworking skills.

I have an idea they may set up tent in the studio furniture camp based on these abstract pieces that they constructed. You could just see the gears turning in their head as they contemplated the construction of their projects. Notice the hard hat that one of them wore for safety.

Clamp Storage

Sunday was quite productive. Rita did some things with the kids and so that freed me up to get the reorganization done.

Figuring out a system to hang various styles of clamps can be a tough one. The various styles and brands of clamps all require a different method for storage. I knew that I wanted to protect my new wall so I started by screwing five 2×6 studs horizontally to the wall.

This turned out to be a good decision. The clamp collection may change over time and the method of hanging them may change but it can all be done on this foundation of 2×6’s.

The 2×6’s are attached with heavy screws to bear the weight of the clamps which is quite substantial. The dimensional lumber not only provides a structural base for clamp storage, but also provides much needed stand-off from the wall.

I really like the clamps that Rockler sells. They sell a pipe clamp kit and and aluminum clamp that have feet which stand the clamp off of the table. This provides clearance for the handle to turn and also provides for a convenient method of hanging the clamps.

I also used 2×6 material as a baseboard trim. This will provide the wall with solid protection from the mobile bases. I screwed the material to the wall for easy replacement in the future. The 2×6 seems to be the perfect height to provide optimum protection from the mobile equipment.

A Bit of Help

I did not do all of the work by myself. When Rita returned with the grandkids, the oldest one came out to the shop to lend a hand with the organization effort.

A Final Look

I did not get the TV mounted on the wall and there is a list of 50 other things that I could do to create better organization and storage but I need to get back to work. This project did not cost very much because I had quite a bit of the material on hand but it cost me a week’s worth of my time. This effort should pay back big dividends in greater efficiency and smoother workflow.

The clamps were originally piled in the corner and a set of doors that were never used now is a solid wall providing much needed storage.

Everybody’s shop setup and needs are different, but I hope that sharing this organization effort helps give you some ideas for your shop.

Get out in the shop and DO something.

I want to share a link to a couple of news articles that came out today in my local newspaper. The stories cover a couple of guys that I have met and one I have come to know.

First is Scott Morrison and he makes a living selling the Maloof style rockers. He lives in Columbus, MT a small town west of Billings.

The link is to the local paper here in Billings, Montana.

http://billingsgazette.com/business/article_003d75da-b5f5-11de-95f6-001cc4c03286.html

There are a couple of short videos as part of the online article that you may find interesting.

You may recognize his work as it has been published in magazines many times.

His website is http://finewoodworker.com

He has recently released a 4 disc instructional video on how to make the Maloof style rockers. He asked me to take a look at it for feedback and I hope to get a review out on it soon. It is very thorough from what I can see so far but I do not want get into detail here.

There is also a second related article on Robert Erickson. I have had a couple of good conversations with him at the furniture shows. He does incredible work and I think you will recognize it too.

Here is a link to Robert Erickson’s site: http://www.ericksonwoodworking.com/index.html

It’s always great to meet or know guys of this caliber. They have had a tremendous influence on me.

Well, back to the shop!

I only have a few things left on the list for this round of shop organization.

I need to get the clamps hanging on the wall. At the moment they are just laying on the floor. Before this started they were standing, piled in a corner. It was difficult to access them or pull them out individually, but I cannot neglect them for one more day on the floor. This has been their temporary home while I finished the wall.

I also need to hang the extension cords. I have a lot of these because of my remodeling work. I am running out of room on the shelves and the wall so I bought a ceiling mounted hanger and will place it above the ladder storage area.

I should also get the TV mounted on the wall. You will notice that it sits on the shaper. When I use the shaper it gets moved to the bench and so it goes back and forth as necessary.

Some Much More To Do

There are a lot of other things that I will need to do but I cannot afford the time. This has taken longer than I thought and I have projects to get done. I still have been taking calls, doing bids, and working on the shop all at the same time, this is the life of self-employment.

I do not do well with trying to work my business during the day and then work on the shop or house at night and on weekends. I have to fit these projects in my schedule and give them full attention as I would any other job.

Out of Touch

One thing that did surprise me is how long it takes to organize and go through things in storage or stuff that has gathered in the corner over time.

Remodeling is always a good time to go through and cull out the unused and unwanted items. On a remodeling project it is the client’s job to organize their items, move out for me, and move back in. It is just my job to do the construction from design to finish. I seemed to have lost track of how much time it takes to do the client’s job.

Current Status

Here is a shot of the end wall where I tore out the door. I will be hanging the clamps below the window.

The materials stacked in this corner have been organized. The sheetgoods are stacked in the corner and the stock material belongs to pending projects.

Once the projects are done then I will shelve or burn anything left over. One way or another, nothing goes to waste.

I will need to take another couple of days and pull everything off the unfinished wall, finish the electrical, and sheet it. I know that I will need to use plywood on this wall, placing sheetrock on this wall would be disastrous because it takes a beating.

There are other things on the shop improvement list but they will have to wait. When I work on the shop I have to work on the house. It is hard to justify to the wife why I am putting more time and money in the shop compared to the house.

Remember this: When Momma’s happy – Everybody’s Happy. If your wife sees what you can do to the house when you have a proper shop set-up, you will have her blessing to work on the shop.

Well, time to get back in the shop.

What Have You Done For Your Wife Lately?

But this is what we look like today. The forecast is for a high of 25°F and tonight it is predicted to hit 9°F. The wind is blowing pretty good too.

I am definitely not ready for this.

Dang.

Take me somewhere that I can leave the shop doors open and the dogs can come and go while I work on my projects. Take me back to summer.