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....

Ammo-crate Wine box

My favorite commissions are the ones where my customers give me a green light to create - so when I received a request to make an ammo-crate inspired wine box, I got pretty excited. What's not to love? These photo samples he sent me were really great!

Denny and I planned a trip to the local Army surplus store - you gotta love a store that greets you with a bomb. 

This giant shoe pointed the way to the ammo cases, where we found more hardware than we could ever imagine.

 We even found some amazing accessories - like this bullet corkscrew and bottle opener. 

 Building the case itself was easy - one of the best ways to spend an afternoon goofing off on the shop. 

 And here's the final creation.

Complete with the inspection card!

There's even a little secret stash underneath the bottle area.

Considering some of the pieces I've been struggling with lately, building something like this was just what the doctor ordered!

Math Incompetency

One thing is for sure–  you have to be good in math to be an accurate woodworker. I have the uncanny ability to be able to look at a board and estimate its length or width within a quarter inch or so. I don't know how I do it, but it's probably in my DNA by now.

But some people suck at math. So when the friend sent me a link to these photos, I had a good laugh at some other's math incompetency.

Can't figure out how to add a tip in?

Not everyone will get this obscurity.

Jay-Z could make this into a song. Oh wait....

It's the confused dead stare that gives it away.

This is awesome!

More awesomeness!

Love this one!

I know about ten people who would answer this question exactly like this!

Bingo!

Bosch throws down the gauntlet

There's a shit-storm brewing in the woodworking world, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Anyone who works with wood knows that SawStop developed the first tablesaw with flesh-detection technology. Their products have, without a doubt, saved many fingers. 

A high school woodshop teacher once told me that every time a kid cuts off a finger at his school, the school district simply cuts a check for $50,000 to the family, to avoid all lawsuits. Spending $5000 on a saw (or much less, depending on which model is purchased) seems like a bargain to me.  And I know the bone-head things that kids do in woodshops, so it's not surprising that this could happen a couple of times a year in any given classroom.

When Steve Gass, owner and inventor of SawStop's technology first developed his product, he offered it to license it to every saw company out there, but they declined his offer. The general consensus was that consumers wouldn't want to pay for that technology. So he started building his owns saws, and surrounded himself with patents, protecting his idea.  As an attorney, Steve knew that protecting himself from patent infringement was key. 

How many of us have thought up an idea, only to see an infomercial about it on TV a few years later, and thought to ourselves - I shoulda patented that idea!

But - Steve's heavy-handedness turned off a lot of people - not just tool manufacturers, but consumers, as well. He lobbied for federal regulations that would force the other tool companies to adopt his technology. (That lawsuit was eventually dismissed.) He's been a huge spokesman for mandated safety regulations, all geared toward furthering his domination in the flesh detection field. 

At first glance - flesh detection isn't a bad thing. Think of students across the world, doing stupid things on tablesaws. Hell, I've done stupid things on saws. But it's the way that Steve has bullied the rest of the tool makers our there that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. 

You're either about safety. Or you're about profits. Which is it?

So when Bosch developed their latest REAXX tablesaw, competing with SawStop's technology, the gauntlet was thrown.  

Bosch uses a completely different method for stopping their blade - based on air-bag technology, a market in which Bosch has long been a big player. So adapting their air bags to stop a blade isn't an idea that is that far outside of the scope of their products. 

Still - would they have come up with that idea if Steve hadn't thought of it first? I kind of doubt it. And if that's the case, they don't want me on that jury. 

So - where do I stand? 

I'm a huge fan of SawStop. I like their tools, they are excellent in just about every way imaginable. I like their tech support - Darren has bailed me out so many times, he's on speed dial in my phone. Upper management has always been great to my students - sending us demo blades and cartridges to sample. (Thanks Patty!)  From the bottom to the top, I couldn't be happier with their service and products. And this is huge - everyone in the company just seems happy. You know how you can talk to a customer service agent and just can tell that they are miserable in their job? You never see this at Sawstop, these people like what they're doing. That's a big deal to me. Even the people that answer the phone are nice, not bitchy, as I often experience when calling some of my other vendors. 

My second opinion is that if you're smart enough to come up with this technology, then it would be wise to protect yourself inside out and upside down. That's what Steve Gass did. Wouldn't you? 

If any of us were smart enough to invent something great, wouldn't we do our absolute best to protect it? People are always out there trying to steal ideas. It's just the heavy-handed way that Steve went about it that turns people off. I get that. Still - as an entrepreneur and small business owner, I would probably do exactly what he did. It's called Business Survival 101. 

Still curious what people think? Check out this article, and read the comments at the end. There are some serious haters out there.  (For the record - I think haters ought to do us all a favor and just disappear - their negativity dissolves my capacity to hear anything important that they think they're saying to me.) 

So - where do YOU  stand? 

AWFS show - Day Two

From 500 feet away, you can hear the drone of machinery inside the convention hall. Walk-in the doors and it's almost deafening, especially if you're walking in near one of the big pieces of machinery. 

BTW - in my last blog, I posted pics of the furniture entered in the FreshWood student competition. Want to see who won in the various categories? 

Click here.

 The show felt a bit different this year (I know, I say that every time!) but it seems a bit more focused on HUGE pieces of equipment, rather that individual tool manufacturers. Many of the prominent tool companies were nowhere to be seen - like Jet, Delta, Powermatic, Porter Cable, Kreg and more. 

Conversely - the large players in the game were all there. With automated equipment that performed tasks such as panel optimization, CNC milling, and material handling, as shown in the video below. Those things are interesting to watch, but small shops like mine aren't ever going to invest in any of that.  

There were a few highlights and cool things to explore, though. Like this booth on live-edge slabs. I loved their tabletop display. 

And their slabs were top-notch.  There's a lumberyard that sells slabs, but if I had the need, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase something from this company. 

I'm not sure why - but you can always bet on two things with SuperMax, maker of panel sanding equipment. They always have a great looking booth, and a bunch of people not really interested in talking to the the average Joe. I milled around for ten minutes a few different times, and the salespeople seemed more interested in talking to each about what they did last night in their hotel than approaching a customer to see if someone had questions. 

Oh well....

I've been buying replacement table slides from Osborn Wood Products for years, and they had an interesting new item - kitchen island legs with power threaded up into the leg. Great idea - that's what this show is all about - finding the newest and coolest things to add into your work. 

This impressive replica 1919 Crescent bandsaw was built by  seven students at Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska and entered into the 2015 Fresh Wood student woodworking competition. Since it didn't fit the "furniture and furnishings" criteria, it was rejected. Thats' when Rikon Tools stepped up and offered to display  it in their booth. 

Very cool on everyone's part!

CNCs were big at the show  and there was a huge variety of choices - from the ever popular ShopBot,

 to C.R. Onsrud's massive 3-D router that was carving wine goblets all day long. Here's a terrific video about some of their tools.

Western Dovetail had a very nice telescoping display of their dovetailed boxes - this thing would telescope up with maybe a dozen different sized boxes towering up toward the ceiling. Damn, my video didn't come out!

The AWFS  bookstore is always an interesting place to browse, or run into old friends. 

Lupe said she counted four wooden bikes at the show, but I think I only saw three. I did, however, see one guy riding around the convention floor on a bike, so who knows.. maybe he scored some swag and was heading home with his new bike. 

Kayleen McCabe and I had a few minutes to chat - she's headed to LA to work on Ellen DeGeneres' upcoming Design Challenge, season 2, which started filming today. Love that show, and Kaleen has the perfect personality to get people inspired! She's going to be an assistant carpenter, helping the furniture makers create their masterpieces. In three days. Wow. 

Check out her site.

The AWFS Assistant Education Director, Adria Torrez, graciously let all of my students to attend the show for free - even last minute enrollees who should have registered months earlier. Adria has been so helpful over the years, and she does a terrific job of bridging upcoming woodworkers together with major manufacturers and players in the wood scene. So - many thanks to her and all of her hard work. The show reflects her energy and dedication!

All in all - I'd give this year's show a "B" grade. The classes offered weren't that inspiring, and I would have liked to see a few more tool companies be represented, like Delta and Porter Cable. But still - this convention is THE place to be, if you want to see cutting edge technology, or just soak up the wood vibe. 

Count me in in 2017.