A friend in need...

There are so many times I'm working in the shop and I need and extra set of hands. It might be to lift something heavy, or to help me cut a giant board - whatever. A friend to help is always a treat. 

So I loved this video of one friend helping another! I literally laughed out loud - this German Shepherd is one smart boy!

Going big...

My friend Julie from Prince Edward Island commented on the last blogpost here, after I had written about the large table and set of chairs that was used as a horse shelter. She mentioned a huge dresser in High Point, North Carolina, so (of course!) I had to check it out.

There are actually two huge dressers there. I love the socks sticking out of the front of this one! 

This bad-boy is over 80 feet tall!

You can read about them here. 

High Point used to be the "Home Furnishings Capital of the World," though I'm not sure it is still considered that today. Many of the furniture factories have closed, and manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries with cheaper labor. 

There's a terrific book about that - Factory Man, discussing one man's journey to China, to discover just how furniture can be imported into this country so inexpensively. Here's a link - it's sitting on my nightstand right now.

In fact, the subject of this book, John Bassett III, will be lecturing here in town next week - I can't wait to attend!

So Julie's mention of the dresser in High Point started me thinking about large scale work.  Not all of them are furniture, but they're pretty great.  Just a quick Google search brought up some amazing images. 

Not sure what's up with the nuts, but I'd put one of these sculptures in my yard any day! 

I've always wanted to find the time to drive across the country, checking out silly tourist traps along the way. 

Here is one of my favorites pieces, in front of The Longaberger Company in Newark, Ohio, maker of some of the coolest handcrafted wooden baskets out there. 

Their baskets are insanely awesome - in fact, Stella even owns one. She was given a huge picnic basket (not as big as the one in the photo) by a friend and it serves as her toy box. It's huge!

Speaking of Ohio,I used to live near this silly tourist trap - the world's largest Cuckoo Clock.

It was literally on the way to my lumberyard in Amish country, in the back of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I'd often stop and get a piece of pie, and pay the 50¢ they wanted for admission to see it. You haven't lived until you've seen that five minutes of ridiculousness - a three-foot-tall couple on tracks dancing the polka to Bavarian music played by a five-piece robot oompa band. 

Think of the animated characters at Disneyland, only way older, with way less technology. 

Back to Julie - she's a great woodworker and does some fabulous posts about projects she's building. Check out her before-and-after picture of this dresser, after she turned it into a bathroom vanity.  Here's a link to Julie's blog.

Way cool. 

Building BIG

This image has been floating around the internet for a while, and I wondered about the story behind it. I love this giant dining room set. 

Let's face it - that's one HUGE set of table and chairs! Reminds me of this:

With a little poking around, I managed to find this on SNOPES. 

REAL PHOTOGRAPH; INACCURATE DESCRIPTION

The farmer made this giant table and chairs after being refused permission to build a shelter for his horses! No permission was required for the giant furniture! 

image: http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/graphics/horseshelter.jpg

Origins:   Photographs of these horses standing in a meadow beneath an outsized table and chairs have been circulating on the Internet since 2003, typically accompanied by the claim that the unusually large furniture was constructed by a farmer as a way of working around a local ordinance that prohibited him from building a shelter for the animals. Although the photographs are real, the claim about the giant furnishings' having originated as a way of skirting the law is a bit of fiction: the structures were built to serve the dual purpose of providing some shelter for the equines and serving as a visual advertisement for their owner's business. 

When Time magazine featured a photograph of this tableau in June 2003, it was captioned thusly:

Three horses try to hide from the rain under an oversized table and chair in a pasture near Doellstaedt, eastern Germany. The huge garden furniture was installed by a local wood merchant to promote his products.

Likewise, several photographs of the same scene which were snapped by an Associated Press photographer in July 2004 bore similar captions:

Two horses stand under a gigantic table and chair during intense rainfalls in Doellstaedt near Erfurt, eastern Germany, on Wednesday, July 24, 2002. Timber merchant Jens Braun built the unusual furniture as a shelter for his horses.

Several additional pictures of the giant-sized pieces of furniture (with and without horses) and an overhead aerial view of the structures can be seen here. 

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/horseshelter.asp#lvDS59mP7FdwpsUb.99

Las Vegas, a woodworking mecca?

How in the world did it get to be the middle of July already?

We just wrapped up a very cool Advanced Cutting Board class. This isn't your typical "let's route a profile on a board and call it art" class - this is a "hardwoods on steroids" kind of class. 

Oh sure, there are some amazing cutting board plans/projects out there. Like this and these.  Those are beautiful too. But we like to come up with some unique ones, so that your friends or family will ask - how the hell did you make that!?! 

(Or better yet - can I buy that?)

The one that we call a Confetti board kind of boggles the mind. No pattern, no repetition, just hundreds of pieces of wood. 
 

We should hold a contest to see who can guess the number of pieces of wood in that   board!

This one is a particularly beautiful creation. You can't believe how nicely she sanded this! 

We also played around a bit with bent lamination, making curved boards. 

Kate said her curved board  reminded her of this Berlin sculpture. 

I've been on a break all week, but working hard to wrap up a couple of commissions,  like this chair, one in a set of six. 

I'm also enjoying all that this summer has to offer  - Lupe's eggplant that went from this

 to this!

 And the amazing nectarines - from the tree 

to the kitchen 

to the oven.

Of course, Stella helps out a great deal.

We're even enjoying some rain!

  The upcoming AWFS show is about 12 days away, and of course, I'll be blogging from the Convention Center, posting info about new tools and woodworking gear. I'm attending a Bessey Clamp meet and greet, as well as a lecture given by John Bassett, III. I have his book on my nightstand right now, and it's fascinating!  Check this out:  

 AWFS Presents Special Guest Speaker, John Bassett, III

Portrayed in the New York Times bestseller, “Factory Man,” by Beth Macy

 AWFS welcomes industry veteran John Bassett, III, to share his personal story of waging — and winning! — a battle against China’s dumping of cheap furniture into the American market, saving hundreds of domestic jobs and demonstrating the strength and resiliency of American business . Come and learn from this third-generation furniture manufacturer and enjoy his dynamic and astonishing tale.

My buddy Jimmy Clewes will be participating as well!

Curious About Woodturning?
Booth 5717 • Daily Demonstrations at 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) will be offering live lathe-turning demonstrations all through the show. Stop by to watch and learn more about this dynamic and rewarding craft. Featured demonstrator Jimmy Clewes, an internationally-recognized instructor and woodturning expert, will be demonstrating innovative and exciting turning techniques. AAW is also a host of the Turning to the Future student exhibition.

Like I said - Las Vegas is turning into a woodworking mecca!

mecca

A place that attracts many vistors. The centre of culture and activity in urban spaces. 

 I hope your summer is as enjoyable as ours! 

Making a good router table better...

Every year, I try to upgrade at least one tool in the shop. I mean - are we ever completely satisfied with everything in our workspace? So this year, I knew my router table situation needed an overall. After much research, I ended up with this beast from MLCS - it is heavy and quite durable, perfect for holding up in the worst of situations. Which often happens in my shop!

And... it came with free shipping, and a discount "Spring Sale!" coupon - hard to argue with that! 

But as you will often find - when a tool seems perfect, there are often a few shortcomings as well. 

The handles that lock the fence in place might be one of the worst engineered aspects of this router table! 

My hands are pretty small, and even I can't fit them into that tight spot, to loosen them. 

Who engineered this mess? 

Well, that's where woodworking buddies come to the rescue! My buddy John has a new addiction - lathe turning. 

He's been studying with Jimmy Clewes and making amazing pieces.

John stopped by the shop, and I asked him about new handles for the router table. He took a few measurements, and BAM!

New LONGER handles! 

Here are the old ones, barely peeking above the fence, 

and here are John's new handles - with MUCH easier access for everyone's paws... 

These handles have a threaded rod running completely though them, with a T-nut at the top, so that they can't strip out. Thanks so much John! 

In the week we've been using these, they have made adjusting that fence SO much easier. They make all the difference in the world! 

(Note to MLCS... contact John immediately for some advice and to place an order...)

Next - the inserts for the MLCS table were kind of lame, and needed an upgrade. The table only came with two sizes.

Depending on the bit installed, the gap around the insert was just a little too wide for my safety comfort zone.

So - again - it's one of those situations of "I know a guy who knows a guy...." 

and we had some new inserts made. Six, to be exact - in just about every size imaginable.  

Now our bits have perfectly sized openings - how great is that? 

But the bigger question is - why doesn't MLCS just do the right thing and make longer handles, and better inserts?

Regardless - thanks to John and to Chief's Job Shop for the custom parts. They're perfect!