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Friday, March 28, 2014

Woodworking and Art come together for Charity



In a previous post I talked about the awesome woodworking community and how woodworkers go out of their way to help other woodworkers.  Well that desire to help others doesn't stop with just other woodworkers.  One of the more popular YouTube woodworkers is Steve Ramsey from Woodworking for Mere Mortals.  Lately he has been auctioning off his weekly projects to the Make-A-Wish Foundation where 100% of the proceeds go to the charity.  Well this week he did a little something extra and teamed up with another YouTuber, Xiaonan Sun of ThePortraitArt YouTube Channel.  Xiaonan creates these unbelievable works of art via time-lapse video.  So this week Xiaonan created a beautiful picture of a child staring at a candle and Steve built a equally beautiful custom frame for it.  Please check out their videos and please share.  When you share you will be helping great people who are putting out great videos for a great cause.

Click here for Steve's Video

Click here for Xiaonan's Video

Click here the eBay Listing

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Edge Jointing without the Jointer

So one of the cool things about woodworking tools is that there is a special tool for almost every activity involved in working with wood.  Unfortunately that also means it can get very expense, very quickly.  So what we have to do is find ways to combine task with tools we already have.  At this point a jointer clearly falls into my "like to have bucket".  But it does serve a important purpose in the shop.  It allows you to create perfect straight edges to your boards for glue ups.  So while the tool is a "like to have" the task it performs is a "must have".  So what's a new woodworker to do?  Here are two VERY simple ways to turn either your router or table saw into a jointer!

Using a router as an edge-jointer by Steve Ramsey from Woodworking for Mere Mortals

and

Simple Jig to turn your table saw into a jointer by Izzy Swan from Think Wood Works

Thanks guys for helping us save a little money....now I can look into that planer. ;-)

Thursday, March 20, 2014

2 quick finishing tips

In any woodworking project it simply comes down to 4 steps


  1. Design/Plan
  2. Cut
  3. Assembly
  4. Finish


Everyone enjoys or doesn't enjoy as much particular steps.  Personally my least favorite is the finishing portion of the project.  I think it's just cause you put so much work into the first 3 steps that if you don't do the last one well it could ruin all your hard work.  Well here are 2 quick yet effective tips to help anyone close the deal and wrap up that project.


How to apply a fast and easy wood finish by Steve Ramsey over at Woodworking for Mere Mortals

Easy Wood Finish Rustic Style! by Izzy Swan (the Jig Master!....that's my name for him)




Friday, March 14, 2014

Homemade Dust Collection for your Circular Saw

When I think about the workshop I will build this spring Dust Collection is the one thing that keeps me up at night.  Like most of us, our workshops are not as big as we would like.  Mine will be in the garage sharing space with my wife's car and our other garage junk.  So keeping a shared small workplace clean and organized has to be a priority.  I plan on doing a lot of talking, planning and building around dust collection and this simple yet amazing project from Jay Bates just moved to the top of my to do list.



Check the video out over at JaysCustomCreations.com

Adding Dust Collection To A Circular Saw

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Easy way to dress up some wood from Woodworking for Mere Mortals!

I really enjoy Steve Ramsey's YouTube Channel Woodworking for Mere Mortals.  He has a great passion, awesome sense of humor and something I think something that gets over looked but he has a true joy of woodworking.  He never over complicates things or takes himself too seriously.  I eagerly wait for his weekly Friday videos cause I learn something new from each and every one of his videos.  To be honest it was his call to action in his video blog Mere Minutes that prompted me to start this blog.

Check out his super quick tip video on how to add a graphic to any wood project 

How to transfer an inkjet photo to wood

And check out his website and channel as he has over 6 years of free woodworking videos and plans out there.

www.woodworkingformeremortals.com

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Modified French Cleat idea from Father Thomas at Monkwerks.org

The French Cleat system is an easy and flexible way to hang virtually anything on a wall.  While it has been mostly used in hanging cabinets it can be used to hang shelves, pictures or racks for tool storage.  It's generally a 3 to 4 inch wide (3/4 inch to 1 inch thick) piece of wood or plywood cut at a 45 degree angle.  One piece gets securely mounted to the wall while the other piece of wood gets mounted to whatever it is you need to hang.  Put the two together and you get a very secure connection.  Lately they have been a ton of french cleat tool storage videos on YouTube but as Father Thomas from MonkWerks.org points out there are some issues when using the system for racks/shelf tool storage.  But like any good woodworker he doesn't just point out the issue he provides a great workaround tip.  

Check out his article & video: MonkWerks: French Cleat Clamp Rack




Thanks for the tip Father Thomas!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Congratulations to Steve Carmichael from the Carmichael Workshop!

Steve Carmichael from the Carmichael Workshop attended the Woodworking show in Atlanta this weekend.  He submitted his Wooden Sandwich made from a 2x4 into the "Other" category and won second place!

Steve has one of the best YouTube channels around not only cause he provides great instructions but I like that he uses different tools for different woodworking projects.  He will do projects on the scroll saw, the band saw or the lathe.  One thing I really appreciate is Steve takes us with him as he does his projects so if he makes a mistake (we all do) or has to make a change in the design we see that and observe how he makes the corrections/changes. 

Check out his website -> www.thecarmichaelworkshop.com
2x4 Footlong Wooden Sandwich -> YouTube: Wooden Sandwich
One of the best bandsaw projects I have found ->YouTube: Bandsaw Vase project


Friday, March 7, 2014

The Woodworking Community...truly an Amazing Group

One of the best things about woodworking and DIYers is the community.  There is such an overwhelming amount of sharing and helping it blows my mind.  Woodworkers are so overly helpful whether it’s helping you figure something out or explaining a technique or sharing experiences with tools it is amazing.  I actually have a personal theory on it.

1.  Anyone doing woodworking or into DIY has a strong passion for it, it's not a something you "do on the side" or "do every now and then".  This is something that gets inside of you and really fires you up.  And when you are excited and see other people take an interest in the same thing well it goes super nova pretty quickly.

2.  Most people aren't born with a knowledge base on how to build or fix something.  So most of us have learned from others and can remember when we knew nothing.  So when we are placed in a position to help someone else and pass knowledge on we remember what it was like to be in his or her shoes.

3.  Generally woodworking is a solitary activity.  Half the time you have a respirator, ear protection and safely goggles on so you couldn't talk or hear someone else if they were in the shop with you.  So doing all that work alone will eventually make you want to get out to interact with others.

Who would want to talk to this?!?


Here are two videos of two different woodworkers that I learn from and follow on YouTube.  They both were in need of some tool upgrades and without asking woodworkers got together to get them the tools.  I honestly love the emotion these guys display.

Welcome to the woodworking community!  Once you are in…you will never want to leave.

First Video is from Steve Ramsey’s videoblog  

Second Video is from Laney Shaughnessy






Article about my first real woodworking project

I had the opportunity to write an article for one of my favorite woodworkers Jay Bates over at Jay's Custom Creations about what I learned during my first real woodworking project which was a play table for my kids.  I got the plans from a DIYer Ana White (ana-white.com).  She has TONS of free plans and instructions.  

So please head over to the Jay's site to check out the article to see how I built the table and chairs below as well as some great newbies woodworking learnings.

Click here for "What I Learned From My First Real Woodworking Project" article





Wednesday, March 5, 2014

How the Journey began

Hello Everyone,

My name is Adam and I am a NEW woodworker.  I recently found the passion for woodworking out of necessity.  The short story is my son needed a small bookshelf for his room.  The one my wife wanted was one of those kiddy canvas sling jobs....with shipping it was going to cost me $110!  It was a few sticks with canvas sewed on it for a $110...I could not justify that so while on a business trip, in a corporate office I saw a simple design for a on the wall book shelf.  I thought to myself "I could build that!" even though I have NEVER built anything from scratch before.  So I came home, bought a circular saw, some nails and a 2x4 foot piece of 3/4 inch plywood.  2 weeks later, a failed "test" piece (which just means I screwed up the first one I tried) and a lot of specific internet research I built 2 boxes with a missing top.




To be honest I am damn proud of those shelves and even though it should have taken me an afternoon I am happy with the results.  But now I am obsessed!  What did I do next?  Googled "working with wood"...I am almost ashamed to admit this but I was not even aware of the term "woodworking".  I am a New Yorker who sells software, has 2 young kids loves technology and video games.  Woodworking was a world I simply never crossed paths with.  So after a little searching...wow...I found this awesome world of woodworking and more importantly the woodworking community in general.  There are a group of people who are on the internet who are out there suppling FREE content to push us to learn, grow and inspire us make anything we want.

A FEW of my favorites are:

Jay Bates - jayscustomcreations.com
Steve Ramsey - woodworkingformeremortals.com
Izzy Swan - thinkwoodworks.net
Frank Howarth - frankmakes.com
David Picciuto - drunkenwoodworker.com
John Heisz - ibuildit.ca

And there are many, many more!

What do I hope to do with this blog?  Simply to share my journey into this excited, creative world.  The one thing that all these individuals have is experience and what I hope to bring to the table is sharing how my inexperience will grow as I learn from others and most importantly from doing.

I hope you jump on cause it's going to be a fun ride!