Honestly, it feels like the tool I've used most during the last couple of weeks is my rice cooker. I don't think a day or two passes without pulling out this bad boy and making some comfort food.
I might be getting rusty with my other tools, though...
Someone called me with their "emergency" and needed a 24" circle cut from plywood. Sure, no problem - I had the plywood in stock, and told them they could drop payment through my mail slot in the door, and I'd cut it and have it ready in a day or so.
Hands free woodworking - just like the big pizza chains!
Imagine my dismay when the depth stop on my plunge router slipped, and I cut a partial circle in my bench top while cutting their circle.
It's a good thing that sacrificial top is easily replaced, but it still pissed me off.
All is not lost, though - I've actually started building furniture for myself again. I'm getting rusty in the shop, and that's not acceptable, so I pulled our a few old sketchbooks and thumbed through them, trying to decide what to build.
Some of these pieces have been rolling around my brain for years, with never enough time to make them.
I guess that time is now.
Years ago, I used to wear a lot of neck ties; I have a really nice collection of them.
Over the years, I collected some really amazing ties - hand-painted ones with woodworking motifs such as C-clamp designs, or saw blades or whatever I could find. I don't wear them anymore, but I just can't bear together rid of them.
So I've been staring at the box of ties for years. Then I remembered this prototype door I made years ago, at a woodworking class held at Anderson Ranch.
The class was taught by Roseanne Somerson, but the first couple of days, Gail Fredell stepped in to teach it, too. If you know anything about woodworking in America, you'll recognize these two names... bad-ass woodworkers, both!
In the class, we generally focused on design and textures, and then were cut loose in the shop, to actually make something. I designed these two doors for the front of a tie cabinet that I had in my mind, and then... these doors hung on a wall in my studio for 17 years.
You read that right. Seventeen years.
I told that to a friend the other day and he was shocked that someone could have a design rolling around in their head that long.
I have another design in my brain that is older than that, so if this shutdown lasts much longer, I wouldn't be surprised if I start working on that one!
I bought a unit of Sassafras a while back, with the intention of finishing the bedroom set that I started in 2013 or so. The pile has dwindled down to half its size.
It's the classic case of the cobbler's children walking around in worn out shoes - my stuff always gets put on the back burner. So - with a stack of wood and all the time in the world, I finally started these doors.
The "tie" seemed the trickiest part, and I decided to make those parts from a contrasting wood - in this case, some very nice Mahogany I had in the shop.
A few tricky cuts later and I had the start of the doors. The older prototype of the doors utilized half-lap joints like this one,
but that joinery seemed clunky to me, so I decided to use Festool Domino joinery instead.
That added a new complexity to the design - how to cut the dados for the door panels.
Stay tuned to see how I solved that one!
It feels great to finally be starting on this cabinet, and let's face it... it's about time!
1 comment:
Too cool, for as much as I want to see this shutdown come to an end. I now sort of want it to hang on long enough to see your next couple of projects completed.
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