Here's a followup to a couple of interesting requests!

A very sweet young woman wrote to me the other day, asking if I could save some plane shavings. 

You know - the kind of thing shavings that come from hand planing wood.

 So Denny and I grabbed a couple of planes and some a few pine boards, and went to work. She picked up a box full of shavings that afternoon, and lo and behold! She 

sent this picture of her handiwork a few weeks later. I love the creativity that people possess!

 Another wildly creative (and ambitious!) fellow wandered in, asking if I would straighten out some boards that he'd recycled from various shipping pallets. Honestly, when he brought the boards in (and there were a TON of them!) - I thought he'd gone off the deep end! 

But - a job is a job, right? 

We ripped them into parallel strips, trimmed the ends,  and gave them a thorough sanding. A few weeks later, he sent us this shot - a wall in his den, paneled with the reclaimed lumber. He still needs to fill in a few gaps he has, but what a terrific job he did!

Seeing this almost makes me want to rip apart some pallets and get started....

Well, almost. I'm not that motivated!

The Summer of Chair Making

 Chair making seems to be the benchmark by which all woodworkers are judged: if you can build sturdy, comfortable (and attractive!) chairs, you can call yourself a woodworker in its truest sense. 

Seems like I've passed that test, as I've been on a chair making tear lately. Here are some examples of the latest work coming out of my shop - a set of six walnut chairs that I call - cowboy inspired. 

The clients requested rustic elegance - live edges and knots to be included, with pegged joinery and rusty upholstery tacks. (Notice the diamond shaped pegs I used - yes, every joint was reinforced with 1/4" white oak pegs.

 I built four side chairs, and these two arm chairs. They chose a gorgeous leather from Tandy (I didn't even know they still existed!) and the upholsterer did an amazing job putting it all together. 

Meet one of my favorite buddies....

Did you ever meet someone and think to yourself - he is such a nice guy, I just wish him all the luck in the world? Like - you're just rooting for someone's success?

That's how I feel about my buddy Braxton. 

He started off as a student a few years ago, but as I've gotten to know him, he's just blossomed into a full-blown friend as well. Stay at home dad, bicycler-extraordinaire, and kick-ass woodworker. Maybe even better - a hysterical yet informative videographer. 



Add them all together and I'm really proud to call him a pal.

His company is Timber Manufacturing, here's a link. 

He builds some amazing pieces, like that slab bench above, and this bench below. 

Check out this cash register counter for a U-Bottle-It store in Henderson. Braxton was recently featured in an online profile by Lane Brothers Woodshop, and it's a pretty interesting scoop on his life. Here's a link.

(Thanks for the plug in the article, B!)

Check out this wall unit and 13' long steel-framed white oak bar top that he built for Khoury's Fine Wine and Spirits. 

Our woodworking community here never fails to amaze me, and over the years, we've forged some really great friendships here. About a year ago, Braxton met Zac Higgins at one of our Sin City Woodworker meetings - and a solid friendship was cemented. The two of them both have very informative YouTube channels, and an awesome following. In fact, they recently  collaborated on two videos - you need to check these out! 

Here's Braxton's side of the story - 

and flipping it over - here's Zac's take. 

Their YouTube channels dedicated to both quality woodworking, but they also add a fun element embedded in their work. C'mon, who else uses elbow macaroni or Captain Crunch in their castings, to produce cool stuff on the lathe?  

I hope you'll subscribe to both of their channels, and maybe even drop them a line if you have some cool stuff to share. Seriously, you couldn't meet two more awesome guys sharing their passions. 

My first garden

If you get sick of reading about my garden, you may want to quit reading this post! 

The funny thing is - I didn't realize I was a gardener for a long time, but then my mom reminded me of this school project when I was nine years old. 

It was Catholic school, in Inglewood - we had to start a plant from a seed. My teacher ended up calling my mom, begging her to take the plant that I had started home. It had gotten too big. 

I guess that was the start of my gardening career. 

This zucchini was bigger than me!

Well that was then, and this is now.

The gardening club that I started this past spring was such a success, I can't wait to do it next year. In fact, a few people have asked me to add their name to the list. For just a few dollars to buy some packs of seeds, we all started plants. And then traded with each other. It was amazing to see all the plants that showed up from everyone's labors, we had hundreds and hundreds of them. 

Alas, my 2015 garden has reached the end of its life. Once the squash bugs and horn worms show up, it's all over. I pulled everything out last weekend. 

So the squash bed went from this 

to this.

 When these bitches show up, you're done. 

Oh, don't worry, the fall vegetables are going in soon. 

Here's a slideshow recap of the 2015 garden... Enjoy!

Keep Better Records

Do you remember a while back, when I wrote about a military flag display box that I built?  It started like this, 

and progressed like this. 

I always love it when customers get back in touch with me, and send me photos of a piece I built, after it is gifted to someone. Here's what came via email today. 

It's filled with patches, medals, coins, mission flags - a great way to commemorate a long career.

It's also really interesting to see how all the awards and memorabilia fit into this case, and awesome to think that this will be around to pass down to another generation. 

You know what I wish? I had kept better records. At one point, I was probably built 30-40 pieces of furniture a year, but over time - I've just lost track of what I've done. I couldn't even venture a guess as to the number of things I've built. 

So - to all new woodworkers out there - keep better records. It'll help you when giving future bids to customers, and it's just nice to be able to look back on your body of work and see the progress you've made. 

The Summer of ChairMaking

So I saw this headline today - 

July was hottest month on record globally

And I couldn't agree more. 

While most of the summer was gorgeous, the last couple of weeks have simply been brutal. So when I think back on this summer, I will remember two things - 

1) building chairs
2) building chairs in this #$%ing heat. 

Like I said  - it's been brutal. 

I just finished a set of six Walnut dining chairs - how stupid of me to not get some decent pictures of them!  My client asked me to design something that would go with their amazing table. 

Here are a few progress pics, but like I said - I took no decent pictures. I hate it when that happens.  I made two wide arm chairs, and four side chairs - all with sculpted backs and amazing inlay details. 

If I'm lucky, I'll get a few shots of them when they come back from the upholsterer. 

With those six chairs finished and out of the shop, I turned my attention to more chairs!

I'm finishing up the final two chairs for my dining room set - and if you know anything about me, you know I get bored building the same thing, over and over. So I decided to build six chairs in Ash, but using three different designs for the chairs. I can handle building two of anything, but six or eight?.... it's a challenge for me to stay that focused. 

Here are the previous two designs... these low back chairs, with curved back rails.  

They feature a multi-sided legs, to match the dining table legs. 

Sweet. 

And these slat-back chairs, which are taller, and a bit more formal. 

So these are the final two chairs, and frankly - I'll be happy when I can take a break from chairs for a while. This was the original design I had in mind - drawn with my simple sketching program.

I scooped the seats, using the jig that Lupe made for the shop. It's a terrific way to get perfect results. Here are some progress pics, 

and the two perfectly matched seats. 

 I decided to use a joint that I've been admiring - a dovetailed leg joint. Easy to cut on the tablesaw  - just tilt the blade to the desired angle,

 and cut both sides. 

Then clean out the middle. To clean out that last little center part, 

you'll have to either tilt the blade back to 90, or it has to be done with a chisel.

This is gorgeous and strong, and I like the contrast of grains on the seat. 

The leg was made with that same blade setup - just rip the piece to create the dovetail, and then re-glue the leg back together. 

 Since the blade creates 1/8" of waste with each cut, I had to glue in 1/8" spacers to compensate for the wood. Sounds complicated, but it isn't. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of this step. 

 So the seat is notched, legs made - time to step back and admire everything so far.

 I love the fine grain of the Ash, but notice - I sliced the boards and turned the edge grain up. I like the finer grain of this, rather than face grain, FYI.  

This board has been saved for legs, and it's finally time to cut it up and create! 

The chair is finally starting to take shape! But there are a few details that need attention. 

The back uprights need to be tapered - they look heavy and clunky to my eyes. 

I cut the backs and clamped them in place, to see how they looked. 

Sweet. Just what I envisioned. 

They need to be shaped, so I drew a curve and headed to the bandsaw.  

This is easy work on the Laguna, with a fat ripping blade in it. 

Perfectly sanded to the line I drew.

I added stretchers to the legs; I know how hard I can be on chairs, often tipping them up on two legs, or sliding them across my uneven tiled floors.

 I don't want any of these joints breaking. And finally - everything is cut and shaped and ready for final sanding. 

Well, except for one thing... I plan on inlaying a design in the back rails, and that's going to take a bit more work. I have some cool designs in mind, and with the new CNC that we're getting at the shop, it should be easy to accommodate anything I can envision.

Stay tuned....