February 8, 2012

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / 2009 / Archives for May 2009

A sewing table in walnut

May 22, 2009 By

Sometimes I have an opportunity to become a hero to Sandy (my wife). This was one of those cases.

drawboring-1If you follow my blog, you will recall that a while back I made a table base, then a second one, for a small conference table for a client. The second base became part of that table; it included drawboring, to pull the tenons tight into the mortises in the legs (photo on the right – click on the image to enlarge). This photo shows the pin in the leg, prior to final sanding and finishing.

Fast-forward to last week:

Sandy wanted a new table for her sewing room. I had some black walnut left over from a previous project. Result: A brand-new sewing table. Dimensions: 7 feet long, 30 inches wide. With an offset top, the result is perfect to accept a new sewing cabinet under the overhang. I already have a design in mind; but I need time to make that cabinet. And, with outdoor activities such as mowing 5+ acres, it proves to be a difficult task at best to work some projects for the home front, especially when a client’s projects are also in the wings.

sewing-table-in-place

..

With several other machines in the sewing room, Sandy welcomes the new table. In fact, she had needed it for a long time, as she started acquiring vintage machines a while back – all are in good working order!  The photo on the left will give you an idea of the room layout, and why she needed this new table. The new table is on the right.

.

The final three photos show the table legs (walnut), the oak aprons in more detail, and the table top in perspective:

sewing-table-front-perspective

sewing-table-walnut-oak-legs sewing-table-top-perspective

Related posts:

The full-size table is ready for sanding
The full-size table: Gluing up the top
The full-size table: The beginning
My entry in the Lumberjocks Winter 2009 Woodworking Awards

.

Filed Under: Blog

Slideshow: The Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool event at Popular Woodworking magazine, in Cincinnati

May 21, 2009 By

Download the slide show in Quicktime format

Sandy and I had an opportunity to take a mini-vacation. We slipped away to Cincinnati over the weekend, to attend the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at the Popular Woodworking magazine offices. On the way back we stopped in Hannibal, MO, on the banks of the Mississippi River, and played tourists for an entire morning.

I converted a group of photos I snapped into a slide show, and then created a short video from that slide show.

The show starts with one of two pairs of geese, and their babies, in front of the parking lot of F&W Media, the parent company to Popular Woodworking and Woodworking magazines. This was an amazing sight I had to share, as they allowed me to get very close. I was afraid one of the two parents would attack, so I gave them enough room. In our area this would be a very rare happening, as geese are much more shy, and guard their territory well.

I hope readers don’t mind me posting this, and think it is a duplicate of the wonderful post by Bob Lang, Senior Editor, Popular Woodworking. Please consider this as the unofficial record of the event, and Bob’s  THE OFFICIAL record (this is the link to his slide show). My thanks to everyone at Popular Woodworking for your hospitality!

It was great to see and meet so many fellow woodworkers and hand tool manufacturers in one place over two days. I congratulate the folks at Popular Woodworking and Lie-Nielsen for putting together this event – Sandy and I enjoyed it immensely! I had a chance to meet Thomas Lie-Nielsen, and to chat with Deneb, Linda, and Mandy. You will see them in action in the slide show.

It was also great to visit at length with the other manufacturers at the event: Ron Hock, blade maker; Jameel Abraham, of Benchcrafted fame; Ron Brese, maker of exquisite infill planes; Bob Zajicek, maker of superb layout tools, and sponsor of my blog; Kevin Drake, of Glen-Drake Toolworks; and John Economaki, of Bridge City Tools.

Of course, it was great to see Christopher Schwarz, Bob Lang, and Megan Fitzpatrick hard at work, too. Make sure to see all the bling on the window by the workbench where The Schwarz hangs out. You can’t miss the reflections from the flash. And Bob Lang was quite busy fitting tenons into mortises the entire weekend, when he was not taking photographs of others at the Event.

Did you have a chance to attend the event? If you did, let me know what you found interesting. I, for one, hope it can happen somewhere in the Midwest, as driving 1,600 miles or more over the weekend was a challenge. But we did get some needed rest in Hannibal, MO, on the return trip.

.

Filed Under: Blog, Cincinnati, Dovetails, Popular Woodworking, Shows, Video Tagged With: , , ,

Shipping a new prayer kneeler, and losing sleep

May 19, 2009 By

start-cratingI was busy part of last week crating a new prayer kneeler (Prie Dieu) for DS, in Colorado. The best part: After fretting for several days, DS called me, to let me know the kneeler arrived in excellent condition. I learned from his wonderful e-mail message that he called me earlier today, to let me know how pleased he was. I was on my way home, after attending the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Cincinnati, and missed his phone call.

It seems every time I ship to a client, the same thing happens to me. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night, and wonder about the condition of the shipment. But (several days later) I can relax, when I learn: 1) My client received the product in good condition, and 2) He or she likes it very much.

upright-front-openIt would be an understatement to say I was relieved to learn that DS received his prayer kneeler. I was not only delighted he liked it, but also relieved it arrived in perfect condition! Thank-you, DS!

On the left I show the latest kneeler, just prior to shipping. The color is quite faithful to the real-life color. Sometimes red oak is a little light on the color, and I mentioned this to DS; he also thought he would like to add a little color. After several trials, and using the turbine spray system, I achieved a very subtle, reddish color, which worked wonderfully; and the garnet shellac enhanced the chatoyance in a way I had never observed in red oak.

I documented the build of this special Prie Dieu in these four pages of photos in my Photo Gallery.

I wonder if I am the only one who:

  1. Frets when shipping something to a client.
  2. Loses sleep until the product is received by the client.

Let me know in the Comments if you just can’t relax when you ship something to a client; if you don’t worry at all, I would love to learn what I need to do, to be able to relax.

Filed Under: Blog, Kneeler, Prie Dieu

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin