Turned my first pen.

After the November meeting of the CWC, I went to the local WoodCraft store and turned my first pen. They have an event called Turn for the Troops. You can come in and turn as many pens as you like and they will be shipped off to soldiers overseas. You also have the option to buy the pen for $9. I elected to buy my first.

I made several mistakes with this pen but they are hardly noticeable unless you really study the pen. Lessons learned.

When I was at the Kelly Mehler school of Woodworking earlier in the year, I was allowed to raid the scrap bins. I got plenty of cherry and cedar and a small piece of walnut and another of white oak. Enough to practice turning pens for a while.

Hopefully I can be turning pens soon. I just need to acquire a few more tools.

Sawbench Class

Chris Schwarz of Popular Woodworking was going to be making a DVD about making a sawbench. He decided to do it in a class format and opened the Popular Woodworking shop up to 10 people to attend. I managed to be one of the lucky few. I must say I really learned a lot. Before the class I couldn't tell the difference between a rip and a crosscut saw.

Thankfully Chris is a generous teacher, we got to use any hand saws and planes we needed in the shop.

During the class, Chris had a contest, several actually, but the first was to cut a 5/8 tenon 2 inches long. WHAT?!?! I've never cut a tenon in my life! I was feeling extremely anxious. I don't know how many beginners were in the class but the guy standing next to me and the guy behind me both had prior woodworking experience in cabinet shops. Before I even had mine started, the guy next to me had his laid out and was starting to cut.

I managed to work out a tenon and didn't have a shoulder plane to trim it with and was still too nervous to ask so I picked up a bevel up jack plane that was on the bench and used it.

Chris asked us all to write our birthdays on the blocks and Megan went into the other room to judge them. When he came out and asked whose birthday was Dec 2, my jaw dropped open and I was completely speechless. .625 is the decimal equivalent for 5/8 and I was the only one to hit it right on the money in at least one spot. That won me a poster of Roubo plate 11. At it's thickest, my tenon was .648 so I wasn't the most consistent. Someone else got that prize.

On the first day, we got the legs cut and attached to the top. Day two was spent cutting the half lap joints on the stretchers and trimming the sawbench to the proper height.

New router lift.

The UPS man/woman/person left a present on my doorstep today. I got a Jessem Mast-R-Lift™.

I'm going to be making a router table and it just so happened that Jessem was having a blow out sale on the Mast-R-Lift™ to make way for the Mast-R-Lift II™.

Normal price was $329.99 but I got it for $129.99. I guess now I have good reason to get started on the router table.

Blanket Chest class Day 6.

The final day came and the morning was spent assessing what items I still had left to do. AAAARRRGGGHHHH! I felt so behind. but then so did most of the others.

After a quick lesson on laying out the mortises for the hinges we got to work.

I then got the mortises cut on the top and got the top attached.

I started work on my base but didn't finish. neither did anyone else. One person who didn't attend the Saturday class managed to cut some pins backwards and made a Z instead of a U shape out of his base boards.



Having gone to the Saturday class, I had the advantage of making this mistake on a scrap piece of poplar. So maybe out of nervousness and maybe just learning from my mistakes, I checked and double checked when I went to cut my pins.

Everyone left with an incomplete blanket chest, but everyone also left with the confidence that we could finish our projects on our own.

I can't wait for the schedule to come out for next year. I want to take some more hand tool classes.

I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Blanket Chest class Day 5.

Day 5 was spent cutting the cedar bottom to final size and putting a rabbet around all 4 sides to fit in the groove around the bottom of the chest.

I then filled any gaps with some wedges and got my top cut to size.

Assembly was a group project. I didn't manage to get any pictures of my own assembly as I was too busy, so here's a picture of one of the other 6.




I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Blanket Chest class Day 4.

Day 4 rolls around and I'm starting to check fit for my case. This is when the depression sets in. They never seem to fit, so more checking and more trimming.

That night we all went out to dinner at Jean Farris. A winery that was about 30 minutes away from the school.

For an appetizer, I had a cup of the best french onion soup I've ever had. Then I had Halibut with Julienne zucchini and purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes. I don't remember what the sauce was called but it had vanilla in it.

Then for dessert, I had some creme brulee. It was good, but not spectacular.



I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Blanket Chest class Day 3.

It feels like I'm moving fast. Day three and I have two sets of tails complete and I'm working on cutting the tail boards. I used a coping saw for removing the waste between the pins. It saved some time, but I'm still a little nervous about getting too close to the line and going over.

I got my pins all cut and we cut the grooves for our bottoms.

I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Blanket Chest class Day 2.

One of the people in the class is into camping and rafting. He's pretty good at campfire cooking, so he came in a little early today, started a campfire in Kelly's driveway and baked a blueberry cobbler in a dutch oven. It was a great way to start off the day.


I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Blanket Chest class Day 1.

Day 1 of class was surprisingly productive. We planed and cut our boards to dimension and started cutting the tails. I managed to get one set of tails cut and chiseled out.

I should have blogged or kept a journal during the class, Trying to figure out the individual days isn't as easy even just a week later.

I know I woke up at 5 am and drove to Berea that morning. I made pretty good time and managed to have some breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to class.

After taking the dovetail class on the previous Saturday, I was pretty confident in cutting my first full set of tails. They weren't as great as I would have liked, but not bad for a beginner.

I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

Dovetail Class

I went to a class on making hand cut dovetails last Saturday. Followed by a 6 day class on making a blanket chest with hand cut dovetails.

It was at the Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking in Berea, KY.




In addition to learning a lot, I had a lot of fun. I've never really made anything of any significance to call myself a woodworker yet. So this is a nice way to get started.

We used some small poplar blanks and started with making just one tail, then two and then 3. For the 1 and two tail boards, we chiseled away the waste and for the pins on the 3 tail board, we learned how to use a coping saw or a fret saw to clear most of the waste away and then used a chisel to clean it up.

We had just enough time at the end of the day to get a demonstration of cutting half-blind dovetails and I got started, but didn't manage to finish them in class.




I have some more pictures from the class on my flickr feed.

My first project.

So if I'm going to write a blog about woodworking I guess I actually have to make some stuff.

I guess this could be considered my first solo woodworking project. I made 3 or 4 of these bookshelves for a friend's wife who is a schoolteacher. These were made to fit underneath the chalkboard ledge and the shelves are large enough for some of the rather large books for kindergarten age kids.

Joinery was done with a router, consisting of a rabbet at the top of the sides for the top shelf to sit in, and a dado for the middle and bottom shelf.

Then held together with glue and brads. We did attach a 1/4 inch sheet of plywood for a back with some glue and brads also and it was trimmed with the router and a flush cutting bit. I never did see a fully finished product. I just put them together, then they were taken to the friend's house where they were painted and eventually placed in a classroom.