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Charles R.
Jenkins
From reader Charles R. Jenkins:
Here is the picture of a little Queen Ann Dressing Table and Chair that I made for my Granddaughter. It is made from Walnut Wood with a Tung Oil Finish.
We’re always looking for more submissions, so click here to send in some of your own!
Matt Becker
Content Coordinator
It’s pre-dawn on Thanksgiving morning as I write this. The sun is just starting to color the eastern sky, and the house is still quiet. I’ve downed my first cup of coffee, and the cranial hard drive is coming up to speed. All in all, a very good time to reflect on things.
While I’m generally not one to wax poetic, I also don’t spend enough time thinking about the many good fortunes I have and actually verbalizing them. The simplest things are the easiest to overlook, especially in the frenetic pace we tend to live our lives.
So, here goes…a few personal reasons for thanks:
Call me crazy, but I just beat the beans out of a new tool, purchased with my own hard-earned allowance, just to prove a point: I think Rockler got the name of its new Bench Cookies™ totally wrong. They’re not cookies, guys. They’re hockey pucks in disguise.
But first, some back story…
A new version of an old friend. This jig is modeled after one that Rob used as a young man in his dad's shop.
Regardless of the situation, when the going gets tough there is nothing like a tried-and-true friend to get you where you want to go. Recently, I was building a pretty basic piece of woodworking for the print magazine. Building a project for a magazine is a little different than building for yourself in a couple of ways. First, rather than simply coming up with the simplest and fastest way to get the job done, I try to include techniques and tools that our readers will find interesting and useful. Secondly, when you are done with the project, about a quarter million people will have a chance to check out your work (and often share their opinion of said work). So, when it came to deciding just how to plow the dadoes for the Modular Bookcases in the December 2009 issue, I went back to basics and built a copy of a jig that hung on the wall of my dad’s cabinet shop “back in the day.”
Ryan's advice about loaning tools? Borrowers should pony up when they pick it up.
A big sawdusty thanks to all of you who left comments about the recent blog post “Got Rules for Your Tools?”. I think we woodworkers are a pretty organized, attention-to-details sort of bunch. So it came as no surprise that you folks would have some rules to live by in your shop. Still waiting to hear from some of you that don’t choose to keep the place spotless. Maybe us neatniks are missing something…
Aside from being a kick to read, your “rules” also had me nodding yes. No goofing off. Keep wet beverages off the table saw. Wear your shoes in the shop. Keep things sorted. Goggles on or you’re gone.
Yep. Check. Agreed. (Guess there’s some shop teacher genes in many of us.)
But, I’ve just got to call attention to a topic raised by Ryan, in his response:
Holiday projects are prime time for brushing up on some skills while churning out the seasonal cheer.
It’s official. Halloween is behind us and crops are coming out of the fields. Home Depot has the artificial Christmas tree display up right now, so the harbingers are all around us: December holiday season is right around the corner.
You know where I’m gonna take this, don’t you?
Who knew there were so many uses for pallets? You do, and the comments prove it.
What a nice response we’ve had from you folks to our recent blog post about turning skids into usable lumber (“Skid Row”). Looks like we tapped into a good topic here. Keep your comments and suggestions coming in, please!
I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus lately from the blog to get a big tool review ready for the January print issue of the magazine. And, aside from a lot of heavy lifting to hit that deadline, it’s added a third floor to my growing tower of skids outside the shop. Looks like it’s time to start cutting some of them up and figuring out what to build…
In that regard, I thought it might be fun to tally up all the many ways you have commented that you use skid lumber. Hopefully you’ll give the rest of us some good ideas for turning pallets into projects:
Like all industries, magazines have their award ceremonies – and one of them was held in our neck of the woods last night. Woodworker’s Journal went for the gold – and came home with it, from the 13th annual MMPA awards
This reader-submitted project showcases an inventive use of the space normally reserved for drawers:
Walnut end table with one drawer and four dinner trays. The trays are walnut and 1/4″ white Corian. – Kevin Sargent; Overland Park, KS
Do you have a project that you’d like to share? Click here to send it in!
Mounting the blank of dentil on-edge to a base allows gravity to take care of the excess finish and hold it while the piece dries. Brush the finish on liberally and don't worry about it.
By now you may have read my Dentil Picture Frame article that’s running in the fold-out portion of the December 2009 issue (page 23). But, I wasn’t able to tell you everything I wanted to about the project…our pages will only fit so much.
So, for those of you who may have one of these frames earmarked for the holiday project gift list, here’s a little trick I used for finishing the maple dentil. Before I ripped the larger blank into narrower strips, it seemed like a smart time to apply finish. That way, I knew I could avoid having to pull excess finish out of the recess where the dentil sets into the frame. It was definitely the right call here. (I try to dodge every finishing headache I can!)
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