Kaleo’s Workshop

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So if you could draft 5 woodworkers to fill out your fantasy woodworking team, who would they be and why?

The links that I promise you during the show:

Jared Rusten
BDDW
Aussie Rules
The Man’s Game
The Man’s Team

First of all I’m trying out a new application for the iPhone. It allows me to blog on the go. I hope it’s as cool as it sounds.

But for some reason feedburner has temporarly lost all the email subscribers. So if you normally get an email update, but haven’t for a couple of days that is why. I hope it all gets cleared up soon.

Ever had a woodworking crisis?  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a person to call, to help you through you time of need.  Well sit back and enjoy.

Here are the links to the blogs that I talk about in the show:

Tom Fidgen

A woodworking life

Update: Apparently I saved the file wrong, so there are 5 bonus minutes at the end of the show this week. So if you listen intently you will hear absolutely nothing in those 5 bonus minutes.

if you have the time please fill out the new viewer and listener survey: it’s all anonymous, thanks

So for those of you that are on Twitter you know that recently I had absolutely no desire to go into the shop. I kept telling myself all day, SELF: you need to go into the shop and get some stuff done. I’m still in the middle of making the box for the podcast. I’m trying to make a few stands for some pottery to be displayed on. Just recently I had a friend of a friend find out that design and make furniture. So I think that there might be a few projects coming my way.

But even with all the stuff that I could and should be doing in the shop, I had no desire to go down there. Have any of you ever had this experience? I mean I love it when I am down there. And because I know that I will love it when I get down there, I usually make myself go. Well I learned my lesson while at school. There were just some days that I felt like not doing anything. And those were the days that I should have stayed home.

One such time was at the end of a long day. It was crunch time, a project was coming due at the end of the week. We were all putting is some really long days. One night I was taking the clamps off the project. I had glued corner blocks onto some construction paper and then onto the carcass. This was to be able to clamp the miter corners. Well the clamps came off and the piece was looking good. It was about 10 pm and something told me “that’s enough for the day”. But I wanted to get the corner blocks off and get all the construction paper off as well. So I proceed to pop off the blocks, and thought I’ll sand off the paper. I started to sand a quickly figured out that it was going to take forever to do it this way. So I grabbed one of my chisels and proceeded to pair away the paper. Oh did I mention that this was a veneered piece. Well needless to say, my eyes grew tired and my hands and my brain weren’t communicating. The chisel got away from me and I took out a nice chunk of veneer.

Now I did end up being able to fix it, so that it didn’t look that bad. But of course to me I will always see that flaw first whenever I see that piece.

The lesson is follow your gut. I have found that those time when you do not feel like being in the shop are the times that you shouldn’t be in there. Things just go wrong, you might mess something up that you have spent hours and hours doing. Or worse yet, you might not be thinking straight and end up hurting yourself. So if you don’t feel like it, then take a break and watch some cartoons with your kids. If you don’t have kids, then just watch the cartoons anyways, I just use my kids as an excuse.

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This week I talk about some of the sweet tools that I had the chance to work with this week.  They are the following:

Lie-Nielsen small brass spokeshave
Fein Multimaster ToolRigid Oscillating Spindle Sander
Zem Hearing Protection

So over the 4th of July weekend, I got to spent a little more time in the shop. Although the time that I got to spent wasn’t just my own time. At the moment at work I am making a huge curved floor molding to go around a oval shaped cut out of the floor. So over the weekend I had to joint and edge glue some 12 inch wide Red Oak boards. Yes I know it seemed like a waste to me also to make this molding out of such wide stock. But I had to cut out the initial curve and then glue on the off cut to the back to be able to mark out and cut out the same curve only 4 1/2 inches wide. So that’s how a spent a couple of hours in the shop.

But I also spent some time cleaning and arranging tools. The first thing that I noticed was the my very simple and cheap router table was sagging. So I took the router out and braced the table flat again. But this has lead me to believe that I need to make a real router table. So that will be soon. ( my brother in law has a craftsmen bench top router table that I can use if I am in a pinch.)Then I mounted my planer onto a rolling cabinet that I had and leveled it to the extension wing to the UniSaw. The other big thing that you will notice is the huge snap on tool chest in the shop. That also belongs to the brother in law. But man does it look sweet in the shop. My one experiment last weekend was trying to rig up some poor mans dust collection. At the moment I have access to 4 shop vacs. I guess I should say 3 because my Festool Midi vac, does not qualify as a cheap shop vac. So I hooked on up to the planer and that worked beautifully. I hooked another up to the miter saw and that worked beautifully also. Then I tried to hook one up to the jointer. Let’s just say that blue is a miracle worker in the shop, but it has ti’s limits. And one of those limits is attaching a shop vac hose to the DC port of a jointer. Did I mention that this was a poor mans attempt at dust collection. I am saving up for a decent hopefully used and nicely priced something soon. But until then I’m stuck “jerry-rigging” and blue taping stuff together.By the way there will be a new episode of This Week in Wood, hot and fresh by Monday morning. So look forward to that Monday at work, I know I will!!!

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So here’s the latest update to the box making series. In this part we discuss veneers. Where they come from, how they are made, how to prepare them and how to get them ready.So I said that I would post the recipe for the flatten solution. Now there are many different ways to do this. The way that I do it is this: 4 parts water to 2 parts glycerin. Now many people add alcohol, this is believe to help the solution penetrate the wood deeper. Also they add a little bit of Plastic Resin Glue. This I do not know why they do. But you can also buy this solution pre-made at Rockler or at Woodcraft. I hope this helps, also thanks to everyone for using my Amazon link and the Google Ads and Search. I truly appreciate it.

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So the folks over at Popular Woodworking have just opened up registration for Woodworking in America.  So head over there and take a look at all the presenters and exhibitors.  Register today to get your spot and be there at the show.   Also send in your votes on who I should interview.

Woodworking in America

So I haven’t had a lot of time in the shop this last week.  In fact I haven’t been home much at all this last week.  Now that it is summer my son Kai is taking swimming lessons in Maryland by my mother in laws home.  So the family has been staying up there all last week and this week as well.

But I did get a chance to head over to my local WoodCraft store.  That was a blast, because it’s been over 2 years since I’ve walked into one of those.  I went to get a few things for the box.  I bought a new metric and imperial 6 inch rulers.  They make a really nice one.  I also got some pretty nice zebrawood veneer for the top and bottom of the box.  Also a small 1/8 inch piece of zebrawood for the splines in the box.

So hopefully this weekend I’ll get into the shop and do some veneering.  Also I plan to make a simple spline cutting jig.  So I hope to get some good video of all this.

If you have the time please fill out the new viewer and listener survey: it’s all anonymous, thanks

So I haven’t had as much time in the shop as I like in the last couple of weeks. But in this episode we do some basic things. Cutting a groove for our base in the box. Fitting it all together and a few other tips.Thanks for the continued support by using our Amazon link and the Google ads and searches. We really appreciate everything that you guys do for us.

if you have the time please fill out the new viewer and listener survey: it’s all anonymous, thanks