A sweet experience

North Las Vegas is experiencing a building boom! 

No complaints here - within a few miles of my shop, there are new restaurants, breweries, boutiques, and one of my favorites - doughnut shops! 

I did some work for Pink Box Donuts a while ago - they're a specialty doughnut boutique, and their interiors include giant rolling pins hanging from the ceiling. They asked me to make some handles for the rolling pins, and I was happy to oblige.

Seriously, if I were a baker, I would make one of these for my own kitchen!

I was making a hardware run the other afternoon and realized I was across the street from one of their stores, so I pulled in for a quick treat. 

Their exterior is so playful, 

and I love the door handles!

Racks of products line the front counter, and they have a few specialty donuts specific to Las Vegas, 

like this Raiders donut,

and this Golden Knight donut.

l'm not 100% down with this one, but I'm sure there are people who buy one and give it to their friends or co-workers. 

I'd be a little butt-hurt if I got one. 

But looking up over the counter, I saw what I was looking for - the giant rolling pins. 

It's always fun seeing your work around town, no matter how big, or how small. 

My 2023 AWFS wrap-up

 

Well, the 2023 AWFS show has wrapped up, and ... I have thoughts!

BTW - a few people asked - AWFS stands for the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers. 

This was the second time that it's been held at the new convention center, and I'll say this - the venue is amazing. From the parking, to the jumbo-tron, to the view of the city - this place doesn't disappoint. Oh - and the Tesla loop that will take you to your hotel... this place offers some pretty cool amenities. 

 Everything about this place is SO much better than the old location in the North and South Hall.

That said - the number of this year's vendors seemed a good bit smaller, with some of the major manufacturers absent. No Festool - REALLY?!? 

I spoke to a lot of disappointed attendees who really wished for more. It seems like the show really hasn't recovered from COVID and/or the economy. 

This year's show featured a Tool Tour - if you visited all of the booths that were featuring new tools, you won something - a shirt, or who knows what?! There were so many vendors giving out freebies that one more shirt was just - meh!

One of my absolutely favorite new products at the show was Powermatic's new surfaces for their tools - and this demo of spilled water on their tabletop stopped me in my track. 

This new surface felt like a combination of teflon and powder coating, and I'll tell you - I WANT THIS on my SawStop saw!

Just last week, I spent an hour or two sanding rust off of my cast iron tops, and that gets old. In this hot weather, just a simple sweaty handprint can rust in a few minutes.  

The Powermatic rep said that this upgrade for their cast iron tops would add about 10% to the cost of a machine... well worth it. 

 But I'm jumping ahead! This year, I was lucky enough to be asked to help judge the Fresh Wood furniture competition, which featured work by high school and post secondary students.  

We started judging these pieces a few months ago, rating 200+ pieces online, and narrowing it down to around 40 pieces that were actually on display at the show. 

One of my favorite parts was getting to know the other judges - including Brian Boggs, an amazing chair maker from North Carolina. Four of the five judges are actual builders, and their resumes and reputations were stellar.

We spent the day rating the pieces, getting into some pretty intense discussions about the BEST OF SHOW. 

In fact, in the end - we actually made a new category - I forget what we called it, but it was something like - "the judges nod" for a piece that didn't technically qualify for the best of show, but didn't deserve to be ignored. 

I guess we judges have some leeway! 

These pieces were simply amazing - from the designs,

 to the amazing bent laminations.  

We all loved this table, and felt like it was meant for production!

The handcut dovetails on this piece blew me away. 

And the inlays on this guitar...well, I can't believe this work was done by a high school student. 

The award ceremony on the last full day featured awards given to the various winners, as well as a catered affair afterward. 

By the way, this table, with a massive 20' bent lamination, won BEST OF SHOW. This fine woodworker actually won several awards for a few of the pieces that he entered, and I suspect we'll be seeing more from him in the future. 

Back to the show - if nothing else, the vendors really go out of their way to make their booths memorable. This CNC cut dinosaur was taller than me. Well, that isn't that hard! 

And this giant robot posed for a lot of photos over the four days. 

Even this giant saw blade, which appeared to be in 3D, was a great backdrop for a lot of bloggers and content creators.  

I gravitated over to the Bridge City booth, and splurged a little bit. Their tools are pretty high end, and often out of my budget.

 But this little mini plane caught my eye and of course, I had to have one. (Hey, it beats jewelry!)

 This is just a guess, but you're looking at a few thousand dollars worth of planes... you can understand why I bought the mini.  

 Speaking of BIG - this dust collector hose was the biggest one I've ever seen. It was attached to a HUGE automated CNC machine, when one sheet of plywood could be loaded in one end, and furniture parts pop out the other end. If you've never seen a machine like this cut parts before, you're missing out.  It's quite amazing. 

This automated lathe/CNC cutter made the most amazing table legs - from turning them, to carving them with great detail. 

Again - amazing. 

There was, of course, tons more to see - from lumber dealers to drawer companies, hardware suppliers, you name it, it was there. I am in awe of the team that pulls this convention together.

Once of the coolest parts of this conference are the classes that are offered, and I attended a lecture by Paul Downs, a friend and mentor. If you're interested in running your own cabinet shop, you won't find a better book that his - Boss Life.

You can find it on Amazon, and thank me later!

I also attended an amazing class in Wood Finishing. Seriously, the woman who gave the lecture was one of the most knowledgeable finishers I've ever spoken to - she had so many tips and tricks about lacquer that just today, I used some of her advice  today, when lacquering a piece I just finished. 

You can bet I kept her contact info! 

The best thing about the show is the opportunity to rub elbows with all the makers and suppliers. It's amazing how much you can learn with just a few classes, or with speaking to the actual people who design things like drawer glides or cup hinges. It's entirely inspiring.  If you've never attended... well, you should consider it.

I'm already looking forward to the 2025 show!

My mitzvah for the summer

 

Since the AWFS Show ended last week, I've been playing catch-up with all the jobs piling up in the shop! Seems like everyone wants some new furniture these days!

One commitment I wanted to finish up was a donation I promised to LightHouse Charities - a non profit located just a few blocks from my shop. 

I'd stopped by to speak with them, and they'd mentioned that an opportunity to sell bread from their bakery has popped up. Even though it's blazing hot right now, they hope to sell some baked good at Gilcrease Orchards, a gem of a "pick your own fruit and veggies" nursery up in the northwest part of town. 

So they'd asked for some sort of tabletop rack for selling their goodies. 

You know - it takes a village - I never turn down a donation, so when Ken at Legacy Woodworking asked if I wanted some plywood cutoffs from a job that they had built, I picked them up. 

That was a while ago - and I stared at that stack for a long time, wondering what I would do with all of it. Sure, a few friends would ask for a board or two, but I still had a ton, even after giving much of it away. 

So it was a natural conclusion that I would build the bread rack from it - baltic birch plywood is a high quality plywood, beautiful and often used in food service displays. 

I started by making three shelves, in different widths. Since I had 3/4" and 1/4" plywood - I made the exterior frames from the thicker stock. Then I made the slats for the bottom out of the thinner stock. 

Once they were made, I had to decide on the "framework" that would told them all together. So I laid them out and played with some various design ideas. 

Nothing was really hitting me right, and then it dawned on me! A solid side would allow a stringer connection to the shelves, and also allow for a little artwork, if necessary. So I cut some sides, and clamped it all together, to see how it looked.

I love it when a plan comes together in my brain!

I purchased some special connectors 

from one of my favorite hardware suppliers - McMaster-Carr. I swear - they have the best assortment and quickest shipping out there. And reasonable shipping charges, which is pretty important, too. 

Within a day, I had the connectors I needed.  

Finally - I lasered some signage for the rack. It's screwed in place, so if they want to change the rack to sell something different, they can remove it, they can. 

They make a variety of items for sale, and I suspect this won't be the last rack I'll build for them.

 Luckily - I have more plywood! 

Castle Craft to the rescue

My current project has proven challenging, but mostly because I'm working with some unfamiliar guidelines that have to be observed. The urn I'm building is heading to Italy soon, to be put into a vault that won't be opened for 99 years. So it needs to stand up to humidity, time, temperature fluctuations and more. 

After a ton of research, I've built the base with virtually no glue. All of the joints are pinned with dowels, so that even when the glue disintegrates, the dowels will keep everything together. 

All of the joinery is locked together, 

incorporated with lips, so that when the wood shrinks or swells, no gaps will allow the contents to escape.  

Like I said - it's been a challenge. 

But the lid has been even trickier. I wanted to incorporate a curve into the lid, 

and again - not using any glue makes this a tough build. I experimented with doweling a lid together, with angles cut into the 4 pieces.

 But scrapped that idea. 

I've said it before - it takes a village.

  So I reached out to Rick at Castle Craft, and he suggested cutting the curve on a solid piece on his CNC.  

It's virtually - the exact opposite of the base that I employed on the box. 

I'm not sure if this video will load, but here's the CNC machining that curve. 

He came up with a simple plan for curving the lid, and frankly - I was happy to not have to pull out my hand planes and create that curve by hand. 

Like I said - this project has been challenging, but maybe I have a good excuse... 

I have a busy couple of weeks coming up, so this may have to be shelved for a while. Between the AWFS show in about 10 days, and helping out at a friend's cabinet shop, I'll barely be putting in any time in my own shop. 

Maybe that's a good thing!

Stay cool, everyone

Cedar of Lebanon - aroma of the gods

They say that our sense of smell is one of the most accurate senses we possess. Certain smells can transport us back to various times in our past. I can remember the smell of beef stew in my mom's kitchen,  or - this is going WAY back - I can remember the aroma from our neighbor baking cookies, with cinnamon and nutmeg wafting through the apartment we lived in. I might have been 3 or 4 years old.

Not to mention coffee... if I smell it across the house, it almost instantly perks me up!

Bacon? Forgetaboutit!

So close your eyes for a second and imagine the sweetest smelling wood you can imagine. Have you ever walked into a room where someone has just cut some pine, or sassafras, where the room is fragrant with the aroma of freshly sawn wood? 

That's what my shop has smelled like all week. 

I'm working on an urn that will eventually end up in Italy, in a mausoleum wall. I'm not sure of the logistics and laws, but it's my understanding it will stay sealed for 99 years, at which time it may be removed or rehoused. So this container needs to last. And not deteriorate too badly.

According to tradition that my client has researched, the urn should be made from Cedar of Lebanon, which is the source of the aroma wafting from my shop. 

I'm not sure how to describe it, and even less certain where to find it. He located a slab in Northern California, and had it resawn and brought it to my shop, where it has been stored, drying slowly.

And here's some guidance of what he wants built. 

Early Dynastic Coffin by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum 

I'll be building a more contemporary version of this in the next week or two, along with a crate in which this urn will travel. So - two boxes out of this lovely wood. 

Close your eyes and imagine the aroma... it's pretty amazing.