The more, the merrier....

It's not that often that I finish an order this quickly. But it's crunch time at Studio:Wood It Is, and things are about to get a little crazy. 

At last week's Sin City Woodworkers meeting, I formally announced that I have been hired by CSN, another local college here, to get their Continuing Ed Woodworking program up and running again. CSN has one of the oldest community based programs in town, and I'm really excited to add them to my schedule. They will bring in a whole new group of woodworkers to the shop - and as with all creative endeavors - the more, the merrier!

So the shop is going to be much busier than before, and it's time to clear some things from my workload. Let's finish up this table base extension...

Once the glue had dried on that blank I'd laminated into a column, I fastened it to a faceplate and loaded it into the lathe. Thanks to the digital angle cube, the joints were perfect - tight as could be.

 I had decided to mount that transition piece to the bottom of this blank, you can see it here, on the left. 

It's amazing to me that I get paid to have so much fun! Turning this column was a joy - the wood (mahogany) is a perfect density to cut,

 and the chips were piling up.

 The shape was starting to emerge, and only about half of this form was even going to show, so I didn't have to do very much cutting on this piece. All I really needed to do was true it up and sand it. 

And - viola! It's finished, and awaiting stain.

 I've started using the stopwatch on my iPhone when working on orders - it allows me to keep track of my time, and honestly - it's invaluable for making me a better estimator when quoting future orders. In this case, I had told my client it would take about three hours to complete this piece. I started the stopwatch when I initially started cutting and gluing this blank together, and then restarted it when I resumed work on it, the next day.

At the very end of this project, here's what my clock showed...

I love it when things work out the way they're intended to work! I'm still learning about all the cool apps that the iPhone has available, that help me in the woodshop. (My current favorite is a fractions calculator called Fraction Plus.) 

If you have any cool apps that mesh well with woodworking, let me know! Meanwhile, you know where to find me!