Hand Tools

This morning, I received an email from someone who noticed that images from my blog had been grabbed to create scam posts by a nefarious eBay seller. I happen to know where this bowl is sitting happily, and it is … Continue reading →

OK, so way back in July, I started on this project.  Then knee problems made it more complicated to get in the shop.  Over the second half of last year, I gradually got most of it finished.  And finally 6 months later it's complete.

The wood is reclaimed red alder.  The main carcass is about 5" x 8".  The sides, top and bottom were 3/8" thick, the dividers 1/4".  Drawer parts were 1/4" or slightly less thick.  Here's the build in pictures and captions, with a little prose thrown in as needed.

The four sides arranged

First corner tails cut ...

... and assembled with the tailboard

Dadoes for drawer dividers laid out.  You can see on this board some screw holes - the price of using reclaimed wood.  All screw holes were on the inside, back or bottom, so will remain unseen.

Grooves to house the back are done

Carcass dry-assembled

Using the mini router plane to level the dadoes

The main carcass dry-fitted with dividers

The drawer sides were made from poplar, with a 1/8" ply bottom.  Each drawer had a single dovetail at each corner, and the bottom was glued on to the underside.  Later, a red alder front was glued to the drawer box and a handle was added.

A drawer box coming together

Two drawers with bottoms being glued on (one in the end vise, one in the back corner of the bench using weights as a clamp), another drawer's parts being sized and made ready for dovetailing

Drawer dovetailed

Three fitted

Experiments with handles.  I'm going to write a separate post about making these.

Now for the feet: making a template

On a 1/2" x 1/2" blank, cutting close to the line ...

... and finishing with flat chisel, incannel gouge and file

After mitering the ends, gluing two together to create a foot

Gluing on a foot.  Note the air-release holes in the back. Without those, when you close one drawer, others get pushed open.

Four feet in place

The piece is finished with shellac, followed by a coat of wax.  The following pics don't show it well, but it got a nice luster and reflects light nicely.

The finished product

Another view

This is going to my 2 1/2 YO granddaughter.  She might not appreciate it just yet, but hopefully later she'll have some jewelry or other treasures to put in it.

Now let us briefly go through some machine options for the classic mortise and tenon. However, the discussion on this post is that we can move on to more practical construction. For the mortice, the router takes over. The welcomed speed and accuracy make the whole job easier and more accurate. My changes of systems […]

 Enjoying making planes lately.

I enjoyed making the hollow so much, I decided to make a pair of snipe planes. The business part of a snipe is a fine point, so it needs to be tough. English planes are traditionally 'boxed' with....box. The boxing is secured into a dado with hide glue. 

I am using hide glue from a bottle, a) because it's such a tiny amount needed and b) because it's here and I have no glue pot set up.

I had an appointment at the VA this AM and I have another one tomorrow in the AM. I had asked while I was at the VA if I could get tomorrow's MRI done today but there were no cancellations. In the PM I had to take my wife for her last colonoscopy. Because she will be older than 75 for her next one, she (me too) won't have endure the day before prep. Needless to say not much shop time neither today. 

came last night

Finally got all my slots filled with 21 gauge pin nails. I've had this nailer for several years and I've found that 5/8" nails are used the most followed by 3/4". Came last night and opening the containers was a (@^%)Q_)@#^%&)_)@*%*_ PITA. It took me several minutes to separate the two halves. On the bright side at least I had the strength to do that.

still good and square

The corners were surprisingly pretty much flush. Thinking of painting this frame with black milk paint.

day late

The current memory in my desktop is 12G and I bought 24G to replace it. When I saw the cost of the 4G sticks I didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. Back when I did computer repair etc, a stick of memory (name brand) was about 70-80 dollars a stick. Generic sticks were roughly half what name brand was.

last one

Three sides glued, nailed, and clamped. Last one going in before lunch and then off to take my wife to her medical appointment.

big happy face on

The movement spat on the Bam Bim for the 3rd hour. The time is working even though it isn't correct. It is keeping the correct 'time' when compared to my shop clock.

hmm......

Booted up the computer and it recognized that the memory had been changed. Ran a quick diagnostic on the memory. That was enough to imprint the memory into the BIOS. More importantly the computer recognized and tested all 24G without any hiccups. 

first memory test

The CPU on this computer has 4 cores and although it is over 15 years old, it is more than adequate for my needs. I like to run both memory tests as I have had pass on the first test and hiccups/errors on the 2nd one. This test reads/writes/reads all 24G into memory on all four cores.

2nd memory test

The first test takes less than 10 minutes while the second can take well over an hour. I let this run while I my wife to her appointment.

done

At least the woodworking is almost done. I still have to make and apply the beading moldings to the inside and outside edges. Teetering on the edge about whether or not to complete this. Is it worth the expense to have Maria do her thing on the frame? I do have one spot in the boneyard where I could hang it.

look what I found

I forgot that I had this. I bought this 20 years ago(?) and used it mostly to cope and stick rails and stiles. Just eyeballed it and didn't try to turn it on to see if it would power on.

1/4" collet

Lucky again that I found this box that had some accessories for the router in it. There is a 3/8" collet for this too but I have yet to come across a 3/8" shank router bit.

hmm......

These are where the handles go and they are MIA. They weren't in the accessories box. I doubt that after all these years that I'll find them anywhere in the shop. A quick look see on the part websites weren't encouraging. Three of them said to call for availability and pricing. That usually means I'll have to take out a second mortgage to buy them. By the way the screw that secures them is no longer available on any of the sites. 

accidental woodworker 

The centipede was happy, quite,

Until a toad in fun

Said, “Pray, which leg goes after which?”

This worked his mind to such a pitch,

He lay distracted in a ditch,

Considering how to run.

-Katherine Craster

The magic happens on the morning of the second day.

I have noticed a certain pattern in my woodcraft classes. Regardless of the subject, the first day is a bit of a hot mess.  I like to think I am offering solid instruction and good tips, but there is so much for students to keep in mind–how to present the blade safely and effectively, how to control the bevel, and what shapes and designs to pursue–that they are on overload. From a brain science perspective, their logical, prefrontal cortex is simultaneously juggling instructions and directing the body’s actions.  Students internal dialogue in a turning class might be something like: “Bend your knees, place your tool on the rest, grasp the flute with the left hand while the right hand holds the handle against the body for stability, now present the gouge with the flute closed and “find the bevel,” then twist the flute open about 20°, adjust the tool handle 20° toward your body and the cut will start, drop the handle for more sheer and less scrape, remember to float the bevel and not press too hard into the surface, quiet your upper body, picture the curve you want to create, transfer weight from your right leg to your left leg slowly in a movement that looks similar to Tai Chi, and off you go.”  There is a lot to think about, and it is exhausting. 

On that first day, students practice what psychologists call “explicit monitoring.”  When you are first learning a physical task, the prefrontal cortex watches closely and tries to direct the action.  This logical “commentator” part of the brain does its best to perform this new task, but its direction is often clumsy, herky-jerky, and almost always late.  It is a bit like asking the brain to tell the hands to lift the legs in order to walk. Or if you are learning to play the drums, by the time the “commentator” side of their brain says “now!” and the hand moves to strike the drum, the moment has passed, and the sound comes late.  All of this takes a lot of energy. By some estimates, the caloric demands of a hard-working brain are as much as 20% of the body’s total glucose stores.

With practice, tasks shift from the prefrontal cortex to the cerebellum, which is the portion of the brain that controls learned motor skills.  This is the “doer” part of the brain, which we access when we ride a bike or press a car brake when the light turns red.  It allows us to act automatically, smoothly, effortlessly, without conscious thinking. Once the cerebellum can perform a task, we have achieved “muscle memory,” allowing us to move fluidly and instinctually, like an athlete playing a game or an artist creating a gestural drawing, and freeing up space for the prefrontal cortex to think about other things. 

Obviously, it takes time to shift knowledge from the prefrontal cortex “commentator” to the cerebellum “doer” (to my students’ great distress).  That said, there are teaching practices that can accelerate this transfer.  Here are a few:

Slow-Burn Repetition: Engaging the cerebellum involves establishing neural pathways, and nothing does this like repetition, especially slow, mindful repetition.  When you increase the time under tension, muscles establish more neuromuscular connections, activating more muscle fibers and teaching the brain greater coordination.   Like learning scales on a guitar, careful and deliberate practice is the key.  In a multi-day carving class, have students practice knife grasps on practice sticks, being mindful of feeling the bevel, skewing and drawing the blade across the wood, thinking about what muscle groups are being engaged, making micro adjustments to the grip and posture. 

Visualization: Ask students to visualize themselves performing the task before they actually perform it.  When learning a new skill, visualization on its own is nearly as effective as actually doing that task in developing neuromuscular pathways.  One great strategy is to ask students to visualize an action right before they perform the action.  Be sure that students visualize the steps in the process, not just the final result. That said, being able to imagine the shape you want to create is an important part of creating sculptural forms, and drawing those shapes is an invaluable part of visualization.

Compression: When teaching a complex skillset, it is a good idea to find ways to help students reduce those skills to a manageable size.  

• First, select the most important ideas to teach and avoid the temptation to cram everything into the first few hours of class.  I have seen some pretty spectacular craftspeople make the classic new-teacher mistake of talking for half of a day about everything that students need to know while the class gazes longingly at the tools, or worse, glazes over. Instead, first teach just enough to get them safely started, especially the gross motor skills and the big movements, and let them at it. Once students have the basics down, you can then make the fine adjustments to their technique.  Trying to impart the subtleties of a craft to a student who has not yet experienced the basic movements is a bit like trying to hang ornaments on a Christmas tree that is still lying on the ground.  

• Second, help students make associations to related ideas.  I begin every class by asking students about their experience with woodworking and other forms of handwork.  If I know that a student has an understanding of casework, I might reference how skewing a hand plane or a draw knife is similar to how we skew a sloyd knife.  

• Third, “scaffold” your instruction by teaching skills in a sequence that builds on the ones already learned. For example, in a carving class, I teach knife grasps in an order that builds on the grasps already learned. 

• Fourth, “chunk” ideas into small patterns that are memorable.  For example, when I teach turning, I talk about the “ABCDs” of taking a cut: Anchor, Bevel, Cut, Dance.  

• Finally, name the skill when a competency is performed.  My students often remark on how excited I get when they do something right.  What they might not recognize is that I am both reinforcing the behavior and helping them recognize what they are doing correctly as they are doing it.  “Yes!” I exclaim.  “Nice push cut!” 

Recall.  We learn when we are asked to recall and synthesize information, putting ideas into our own words and integrating them into our existing mental framework.  The more often we recall information, the deeper the lesson nests in our brains.  In a classroom setting, teachers might use the Socratic method, habitual journaling, or regular quizzes to achieve this.  In a workshop setting, craft educators may teach a series of steps and then ask someone to summarize back what they are going to do.  Or when a student is about to perform a task, I might ask the student to describe what steps they are about to take.  Often, more experienced students will offer guidance to other, newer students in class.  I encourage this, as teaching is one of the best ways to recall and synthesize what you know (just make sure they are giving good advice!)  Finally, I provide my students with extensive notes on everything that we discuss in class, so that they have something to review once they get home.

Rest.  We learn through bursts of intense effort followed by rest.  When we rest, even for just twenty seconds, our brain plays back the lesson at ten to twenty times the speed at which we learned it, compiling information and beating paths across our neurons.  Like exercise, the benefits of hard work are only realized after a period of rest and recovery.  This learning cadence is called the ultradian cycle–learn, rest, learn, rest.  For the craft educator, habituating regular breaks is super important, but it can be hard for students to take a break, especially if they are really invested.  If you explain your process to them, set a timer (say every 90 minutes) to announce the start of a break period, and force them to put their tools down, stretch and hydrate, walk around to admire each other’s progress, for maybe 10 or 20 minutes, your students will see great benefits.  Not only will their brains process more, but they will also see their own work with fresh eyes or in a new light, and even build community and connection with their classmates, which makes for a better experience for everyone.  

Finally, related to rest is the importance of sleep.  I don’t mind teaching quick, one-day classes, but the benefits of sleeping on a lesson are really obvious.  When we sleep, our brain replays what we have learned that day, building pathways across our consciousness and internalizing lessons.  It is while we dream that ideas are transferred from the prefrontal cortex to the cerebellum, and when we wake, our muscles remember.  (Fun fact: some studies show that when we sleep, we are actually replaying what we learned in reverse.  Bonkers!)

If I do my job right, on the morning of the second class day, something truly special happens.  Students enter the class, stare blankly at their projects, and exclaim, “I have forgotten everything!” I assure them that it will all come back, offer a few prompts about where to start, and they pick up their tools and begin again.  

And then the room goes silent. 

They might ask for a few reminders here and there, but for the most part, the students are “flowing” through their tasks.  They are simply doing.  It makes me want to hold my breath, afraid of breaking the spell, not wanting to be the toad in the Centipede's Dilemma.

After being out of the loop for the past three weeks I’m finally easing back into the world of donsbarn.com.  My first stretch of being out of circulation was sublime as the clan gathered to celebrate the Incarnation.  An extra special treat were the hours spent in my basement workshop with two of my little guys, repairing toys and explaining all the tools.  That tradition will continue for the rest of my life.

The second interruption was pretty ridiculous as I’ve been fighting Fauci Flu for the past two weeks, including a bizarre visit to a clinic that refused to offer any pharmaceutical response strategy other than some piddly cough drops.

Anyway, I recently reflected on the fact that two of my most faithful blog correspondents, PM and PM, have nearly the exact same name and they are a great source of things for me to look at.  This video came from that route and is immensely entertaining.

Looking forward to resuming a vigorous schedule of activities here in Shangri-la.

will it keep time?

I'm taking the clock movement hiccups one step at a time. Set the clock up to see if it will keep time. Yesterday I hadn't done that, I was just listening for the Bim Bam.

nada

It has been 20 minutes and the hands haven't moved. I don't have a warm and fuzzy with this movement.

movement #2

This one appears to be keeping time. I saw movement in the hands in less than 5 minutes.

hmm.......

Been about a half hour and the clock seems to agree. I left this as is to keep on trucking. After a couple of hours the time was working but no Bim Bam at all.

this is odd

There is no way to connect a battery on this side of the movement. But it shouldn't be necessary. The two C cells on the right drive the speaker and one AA battery is sufficient to run the time.

hmm......

The pendulum swinging arm is MIA. Couldn't find it anywhere in the shop. Noticed that the back of the movement case is not fully seated. Problem solved? No. A gear was rattling around in the case that I put back. 20 minutes later, still no movement in the hands and nothing out of the speaker.

picture frame time

Ripped the stiles and rails to a rough width. Make one edge flat and straight. After the other three were done, I ripped them to the final width.

one dry fitted picture frame

I doweled the frame together - 3 dowels at each corner. The frame is square with the diagonals less than a 16th off.

dry clamped and still square

I couldn't get a tape measure in diagonally because the clamps were in the way. This is my largest pinch rod and I only had 4 frog hairs left to extend. As an aside the diagonal is 47 5/16".

sigh

I was being careful but I was not double triple checking myself. Filled in the errant holes and I had to redrill one hole on the other three.

double triple checking it

The inside dimensions are 2" more than the size of the poster. I didn't fully think this all the way through. Eyeballing the size of the frame I can see I don't have a chance in hell of hanging this anywhere in the shop or the house. 

back frame stock

I got all the back frame stock out of the extra stiles and rails I ripped out. I had four extras that decided to perform stupid wood tricks. Fingers crossed that I'll be able use them. They are thin and I should be able to position/secure them as needed.

glued and cooking

Still square when checked with a square and the diagonals were dead on.

nope

I'm not happy with how this is coming out. Getting lots of tear out and the beading planes are constantly jamming. And this still isn't done. I still have to rip/plane them to the final width.

I broke down and bought a small portable router table top. My trim router should fit the predrilled plate. I have a 1/4" beading router bit to use. I looked on line for a smaller beading bit but I couldn't find one. 

accidental woodworker 

I have spent the last five years designing and then making pieces for a real family living in a real but quite ordinary family home. The average UK or European-sized home is more compact than those I came to know in the USA and Texas, and I chose this because globally, it was better to try for a more average size anyway. Whether people live in a cottage, a high-rise, in a single-wide mobile home, or an apartment, the ultimate goal was and is to teach and train other woodworkers how to make furniture solely using hand tool methods and embracing the whole of working with hand tools at that. I use a bandsaw for stock size reduction only. Not everyone in will be able to rip-cut 4" thick hardwood using a handsaw for many good reasons. I am using the house we bought quite publicly as a house to live in, but then also as a vehicle to showcase my made pieces in a real-life setting. The workspace I've used to make these pieces is the exact size of an average English single-car garage, so around nine feet wide by sixteen feet long with a headroom of around eight feet.

A bandsaw is my only freestanding machine. This blog post proves the efficacy of what I have taught others over three decades. It's not a powerful beast, just a sixteen inch version that costs around £1200 and takes only a small amount of floor space. The base measures

It was in November 2020 when I started designing and making the first prototype for the house we refer to as our Sellers' Home, which you can find under sellershome.com if you ever want to join us. All of the 40 or more pieces we have now made and filmed were made in a space the size of a single-car garage. The designs are my most recent designs and are original to this five-year program. Nothing is copied, and none of them were made prior to November 2020. By mid-March 2021, I had made four of the rocking chairs shown below; by then, I was truly settled on a thorough, practical design. I felt that anyone with some basic woodworking hand skills and no machines could make one for their family home.

When clamping is possible it my well be impractical so why not drive a screw and leave it there, tucked in beneath a tabletop that will never be seen. My act of pure practicality seemed sacreliges to the puritan woodworkers but I suspect that they, as always, were just looking for fault.

Five years goes very quickly when you're having fun, they say, but fun doesn't quite cut it alone. Yes, I have found tremendous enjoyment designing and making every piece, but what I have enjoyed the more is seeing the gallery of pieces made by those taking the instruction seriously and making their own from what we've been offering. Watching a rocking chair emerge from a stack of hand planed strips, knowing they were all hand planed square and true, becomes all the more remarkable when someone posts that they have made their first woodworking project as a result of watching your videos. As someone who has made such things throughout his woodworking life, I can tell you this. Nothing inspires me more than to see someone who just made their first baby cot or their dining table and do it using only hand tools. How about invigorating! How very rewarding, and what an adventure!

This rocker looks entirely different when it's painted into a solid like this. Two friends came for a visit shortly after I'd finished three of them in different woodsin different woods, and they said that they liked this spruce version painted over the oak and cherry ones.It's something of a luxury to have an empty room; this blank canvas was hiding beneath old carpet. Now the whole room became the blank canvass we needed for our first efforts. We'd decided to dedicate the whole house like this as a luxury goal to teach others my hand skills in the realest of ways we could think of.

My first piece in the five-year plan was a newly designed rocking chair with a three-part split seat. Even the pine version from two-by soft spruce studs I bought from the big box store, which I painted black on top and sanded through to a red base layer beneath, came out to be a working/living rocking chair and cost only a handful of two-by studs to test out every aspect of the design engineering and construction. That's the one above.

All of our western hardwoods are easy to work with ordinary hand tools. My workspace gets less as the projects come together in a single piece, but all the less when I make three or four of them in quick succession. But planks and beams of wood standing in shavings where I stand too have been my life for six decades now. I'd like another decade like this and without changing a thing.I have designed and made several rocking chairsdesigns through the years but I have never copied the work of another Many vintage rockers were actually working chairs used by people sitting to weave, spin, and work other hand crafts. Especially was this so in the USA, where people sat to work outdoors on their porches to get out of the heat indoors and then too the sunshine. In more recent years, rockers became more generously shaped as a luxury chair to relax in and were better suited for a more relaxed fit.

My garage space at the house is 14 feet long by 11 feet wide, with an eight-foot headroom. My available space for moving around is roughly four feet by 10 feet with pinch points. In this space, I have now made over 60 pieces ranging in size from coaster sets to a king-sized, solid oak bed. Currently, the number of handmade pieces for the Sellers' home series stands at 40.

On the other side of that black floor line is the footprint of my single-car garage. Nothing is ever made on this side of that demarcation line. This side of the line is for cameras only to look through that invisible wall.

I refer to people following my work online in what might seem to be a possessive way, but it's not at all. My audience represents a body of work reaching out to those who simply want or prefer to adopt hand tool woodworking as their progressive way forward. In my hands-on classes they became my students; it was simply a way of identifying. The 'my audience' term differentiated between those who choose hand ways of working their wood and those who don't. It's mainly a category, you see. My audience simply means the hand tool woodworkers, but that does not mean they don't or can't use other means and methods if it pleases them. It simply means that if they are watching me to learn 98% of anything, then they will be looking for hand tools in my hands and not me pushing wood into a machine; that's all. They'll never see me pick up a power router or use a tablesaw, a chop saw, a planer thicknesser, or a mortise machine; those days are long gone for me, and that is because, yes, I needed to prove something to my audience. For them to believe that they could actually do as I do or aspire to do so, they had to see me both working and then, too, the result of it, but they also had to see that I was no more gifted than anyone else would be if they worked diligently to establish skill by as much rote practice as they could muster the time for. I hope that the term "my audience" or "my following" is appropriate without being in any way possessive or even demeaning. It's just my way of addressing what has become so very different in our new age. There can be no doubt that I have already lived the best years of my life and even that I have "had a good innings" thus far. The reality of a lived life, as in my case, has stemmed from an ambition to leave a legacy and to do so in more of a philanthropic way that would bring meaning to others in the same way it did for me. Hence the name of my UK school of woodworking was 'The New Legacy School of Woodworking.'

My candle box class covers box making in a day and a half of the six-day class. I came up with this project as a means of teaching how to use the hand plane, the #4 Bailey pattern Stanley, and dovetailing the corners of a plain box in 1990. All the roundovers are completed with that Stanley plane.Part two in the class covers shelf making and how to cut two types of housing dado, along with the first four mortise and tenon joints, arching with stop cuts and a chisel followed by a spokeshave and so on.The final part of the course is table making so this piece can be scaled for any other table typs with four legs. It comprises eight mortise and tenon joints which provides a thorough understanding of the M&T joint plus planing and shaping with a variety of other tools. M&T is the most used joint of any kind in the world.

The recognition of luxury woodworking came through pure hard work and long days in the saddle. Hand tool woodworking is ten times harder and more demanding than machining wood; of that there can be no doubt. But people choose machine woodworking over hand tools for the wrong reasons. Usually, they misunderstand that developing skills takes a little time but that it should not be a prohibitive belief. In six days my students, the ones who came with zero knowledge of hand tools, took away a dovetailed lidded box with recessed hinging and bullnosed edges, a wall shelf with either three or five shelves fully recessed and mortise and tenoned, and an occasional table in solid oak with shaped legs, and mortise and tenoned joinery. I'm not too sure whether any one of them ever believed that they could actually do it, but I did.

Even the over anxious soon settled around my workbench for demonstrations they could walk away from and say to themselves, "I think could do that." In this demonstration, I sharpened a tenon saw before showing the students how to sharpen their edge tools and expected them to sharpen the tools on the bench whenever they wanted to.

Month on month and year on year, 15 or so students arrived every week and took their place at a bench or around mine. Within the hour they were making their first dovetail joints with surgically sharp hand tools, and their eyes were aglow with excitement and self-belief.

What do a California judge, a Texas obstetrician, and a Dallas Episcopalian priest have in common? They all came to learn chairmaking with me back in 2008. But the most important point here is to see that these men had no prior experience beyond my week-long foundational course, and that is primarily what woodworkingmasterclasses.com replaced, along with our sister site, commonwoodworking.com. None of these men were in any way manual workers per se. I say this to say that we may have been led to believe that the more academic were not likely to be good at manual crafts. I have found that to be far from true.

The Judge . . .The Priest . . .The obstetrician

But that was quite the luxury. I had to reach a wider audience, a greater following to pass on my skills to, and I had to write all the more not to be swallowed up by the fake-makes on social media. My craft of hand tool woodworking had been dealt a tremendous blow over several decades, and the craft of real handwork was dying out unchallenged. With no next-generation cohort entering the world to carry the baton, we would soon lose our future skilled makers...and we have!

Magazines dedicated to woodworking rarely promoted hand tool methods at that time. That was because their main income stream was from the big machine makers, who then spent masses on advertising on their pages and so hogged the limelight as the progressive way most of the time. Their high-demand output was therefore for a working knowledge of machines, not hand tools. Or at least that was the editor's interpretation of it. When the editor of Fine Woodworking at that time told me he didn't want "anything philosophical" in submitted articles, I realised just how much magazine editors controlled the rhetoric of writers and that what they wanted was my expertise in hand tool woodworking but not any ideals I might want to express. I felt it best to not write for magazines and start blogging. Magazine editors just wanted new wallpaper every few weeks. Best move ever, but the best and most accommodating editor I knew was the editor of the now defunct magazine called simply Woodwork. John Levine encouraged me month after month and took every article I wrote. I was sorry to see that one go, and though it was bought out or taken over by another magazine with the promise that it would continue as before, I could see the writing on the wall, and after a couple of issues, it was scrapped.

Cherry is highly regarded as a furniture wood in the USA. When you work it, it peels like soap whether you use a plane, a spokeshave, or a chisel. Though it is a western hardwood that I am using here, there is nothing hard about it all. The other beauty in it is the change that takes place over the months. The colour goes from a light hue to a deep, rich redness.

By April 9th, a new coffee table emerged quite quickly from some rough-sawn planks and piles of shavings by my feet. This piece had a secret drawer that swung out sideways from one of the aprons in an arch. I wanted something for remotes and such. I think it was a clever point not only in the idea but also in the construction too. I kept continuity of grain throughout the five pieces so that nothing exposed this hidden feature of my design.

I enjoy seeing some basic hand tools surrounding my work, knowing that when I lift them to task, they will always obey the muscle and sinew I use to connect them to my goal. The idea was an experiment, but not the making methodology. Decades of handwork make my outcome predictable.

Even now that the years have aged and coloured the cherry pieces in the living room nicely, when the drawer is closed, you can barely see its outline, and it fits perfectly flush with no discernible difference between the drawer front and the rest of the apron.

The blank canvas was near magic for me. Each design came together as a freedom of expression, and yet the traditions of my craft were indeed insistent in my designing. By that I mean that mostly I wanted the proven longevity traditional joinery gave to my designs, while at the same time I could use a screw through a dovetail that would never be seen if I wanted to. Yes, it would increase the strength of resistance that comes through such a fastening, but that was not the reason for its inclusion. I used it as an immediate 'clamp,' and, if I can conjugate the verb, the clamping with permanent pull power too. Even though it will be hidden from sight, there is an attractive quality to it.

Newly installed, the colour is as yet undeveloped. In six months it will be transformed altogether. Much warmer and richer.

The tri-part seat construction was to facilitate the reality that a 24" wide piece of solid cherry within a frame would want to both expand and shrink according to seasonal atmospheric moisture changes. When I now sit in the chair, I am glad that I thought to accommodate the possibility; the wooden seat expanded by a total of 12 mm, which is half an inch in old money, and the gaps have all remained closed up for five years to date.

Cherry is one of the most manageable hardwoods to work with hand tools, and it planes up to a pristine finish readily. That was good; making all of the pieces in cherry was a lot of handwork and fitness training too.

In May, I had bought in more rough-sawn cherry for bookshelves. Buying rough sawn gives you an extra quarter inch of thickness, and if you work with hand tools, cut judiciously, you can get a good inch of thickness if you want or need to. Yes, it took some planing, by hand, that is, but it was so needed for my health exercise, and I enjoyed it very much too.

Prototyping from two-by-four studs (the one on the right) is the least expensive way to work up a design style. It planes well, and you could, if you wanted to, make a bookshelf that would be perfectly sturdy and serviceable to sell or give to family or friends later.

The luxury of prototyping results in a solid design, but of course it's not possible for everyone to make two with a home for only one. My first one came from pine studs, some might consider low-grade material or, in some worlds, trash wood, but I have never seen any wood as a trash wood. Here in the UK, we favour spruce for studwork, which is more stable than southern yellow pine, which crawls all over the place once the steel bands are snapped off.

The room is now softening gently as complementary pieces begin to take their place in the whole. Five or six more pieces will come together before the year's end. See how the rocking chair has changed colour and is waiting for the coffee table to catch up.

By now you will better understand my world. The luxury of hard and diligent work became affordable for me because I chose my time would not be spent digitally more than a couple of hours a day. By nine in the morning I had worked for two hours writing every day. Then I put my computer away and didn't touch it again unless it was essential. My phone, too, is not much of an entity. If I am in a cafe with a friend, my personal rule is no digital devices. That's for me. I am totally in the presence of my company. It might surprise you that with this as a personal rule, rarely will my company pull out their phone either...and guess what? We spend the whole hour talking with each other. It's always nice!

Height, depth, and width determine how much space can be taken up in the making of any piece. That's the benefit of prototypes, but, of course, scale drawings will do the same two-dimensionally, and usually that is where I begin.

It's mid June 2021 when I think of this. To be honest with you. I don't even know how to turn one on, nor do I know how to change channels. It's 1986 since I last watched TV or switched one on. But even so, I accept they are still central to most homes, even if it is only for the big events. But I was interested in creating a TV stand for my audience, though. The only game I ever played on a computer, which was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum in or about 1984, was a game called Thro' The Wall. After ten minutes I was done with the boredom of it and never returned.

Oak and cherry combine nicely to give a tambour look to my design. Each frame is mortise and tenoned at the corners to ensure longe the work longevity.

The very sizable drawer makes a wonderful toy drawer for my granddaughter, but it works equally well for family blankets to watch TV on colder nights. The blank canvas allows me to invest in different joinery.

Most of my joinery will never be seen again once the lid (cabinet top) gets anchored on with turnbuttons, the pulling power of a hidden dovetail or two will never be known beyond this image, but the secure feeling I get from knowing it's there, unseen, doing its job, is very satisfying.

Life in woodworking is always about composition of one kind or another and then composing the whole in a way that delivers a sense of completeness. My living room only needs small pieces now: a wall shelf, some coasters, one or two other casual tables.

Whereas the oak will remain the same colour, the cherry will darken two times before it settles to contrast within the frames. Watching my granddaughter dip in and out for her toys is always an enjoyable moment. It's a huge drawer, so I used metal runners to make it easy for her.

I'm at the end of July with the above piece, still 2021. It's an exceptionally sad time for my family. We are about to fly to Dallas and on to Waco to be with my son and his wife and family. We had a sudden death this month, a young soul lost to us. As I look through my history of photographs, it's a loss that hits me most days and enough to remind me that life is very fragile. The deep questions in life rarely get answered fully enough for us to rest. Making, for me, reflects the physical as much as a drawing or written text, the photograph, and the video our minds play back to us as we go through our day. I hold to the fond memories, the smiles and laughter, the scrapes and tumbles that make for living.

These coasters came from scraps I'd kept back to use for things like these coasters, but then, too, some other pieces. I used this style for clocks and cupboard fronts in other Sellers' home pieces.

The coasters are still working fine; not much to go wrong with them. I like the clean, striped look emulating tambour and then the multicolored diversity of mixed woods and grains like this. Offcuts, or what we called thinnings, work great for small pieces like this too.

Go for round, octagonal, or square with this strip-wood look; they all work well. I even made some from strips of the same wood and used the grain for contrast, and they looked good too.

Here, last but not least for this post, is the wall shelf replicating the tambour used in the television stand below it. This method of closing in with narrow strips of otherwise useless offcuts that have almost no use is an unusual and remarkable solution. I just started keeping the rippings with this in mind, but of course you can create rippings from solid wood too. I like the the overall look it creates, and it really takes very little effort to create the strips, whether from waste offcuts or solid pieces from a wider board.

I used only ten common hand tools (which most of you will likely own already) to make this uncomplicated wall shelf unit. Any wood will work but cherry, oak, or darker woods like walnut are great woods to work with.I used only ten common hand tools (which most of you will likely own already) to make this uncomplicated wall shelf unit. Any wood will work, but cherry, oak, or darker woods like walnut are great woods to work with.

This next cluster of tables came together in November. I made more than this, some in cherry and some in oak. They are corner fillers, armchair companions, plant elevators, and such. Just handy sports in any house or office, really.

This table design lends itself to a range of alternative tops going from round to elliptical and square to octagonal simply by adapting the leg frames and elongating one stretcher or the other.

We have five more spaces to create for at the end of 2021. I may dip back into this room later, but for now, it's ready for Christmas celebrations 2021.

I will close by saying this work has been 98% hand tool woodworking. Just so that you know it can be done and that you will more than likely be equal to it.

I have spent the last five years designing and then making pieces for a real family living in a real but quite ordinary family home. The average UK or European-sized home is more compact than those I came to know in the USA and Texas, and I chose this because globally, it was better to...

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 I strolled today for the first time in weeks. When I got sick I started filling the pie hole non stop. I wasn't walking and I think from when I got sick till today, I walked maybe twice? Paying the price now as I have piled on 42 pounds. T shirts are getting tighter along with my jeans and pants. Went back on the diet wagon monday and it is tough to do. Especially after eating whatever and as much as I could. After the eye opening cost of pants/jeans I bought at LL Bean, I can't afford to get a new wardrobe.

not impressed

These are a lot smaller but they feel flimsy. The bars are thick but the tabs that get the screws are thin and bend when a gentle breeze blows over them. I didn't have a warm and fuzzy with these.

new frame coming

I'll squeeze this in while I make the clock.

hmm.....

I had enough numbers for a clock. Thinking of using these on the upcoming clock build.

clock face templates

Made these two several years ago. They are a great help with positioning the numbers.

setting the iffy lid stays

First step is to attach the hinges.

nope

Played with the lid stay on the workbench and I thought I had figured it out. This is as far as the lid will close. All I got from this was three more holes to fill in.

this sucks

The stays came with no instructions or templates. This didn't come out the way I thought it would. Nor did it come out the same way I had played with it on the workbench.

poorly made

I had to flatten one of the tabs that bent when I screwed it to the lid. After I took it off I tried to turn the same tab and it popped off. All the hinge points and the tabs are peened in place. I easily pulled the hinge bars apart along with the other tab. These are garbage. I saved the bars and tossed the tabs into the shitcan.

shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't

I should have gone with a chain stay from the git go. I had a chain snap on me when I lost control of the lid and it fell back. It works and fingers crossed it will stand the test of time.

sigh....

I filled in the wrong holes These two are for the hinges, not the (@%)*)@%*_*@)*%$ lid stay. 

hmm.....

Thinking of making the clock from cherry. This is the cherry I had in my scraps stash. I think I can build the clock I want without having to glue up anything.

a test

I had one rough sawn board that I flattened one face and squared an edge to it. I was curious to see if this would be too strenuous for me to do. It wasn't. I didn't feel fatigued nor do I get winded. After seeing the grain pattern I am thinking of using this board for the sides.

Most of the cherry is 7/8 thick or a few frog hairs thicker then that. For the clock I'm thinking of doing, this is too thick. I'm leaning in the direction of 5/8" or a wee bit less than that. 

1/2" thick cherry

 I forgot I had this and after eyeballing it, I think it is too thin. 3/4 looks too thick so 5/8" thick stock is ringing the bell for me.

test time

This is a quick jig so I can figure out the pendulum swing.

got it

The swing is about 5 1/2 to 6 inches right to left. I need this in order to set the inside width of the clock case.

The movement is not a bim bam, it plays two different tunes. Both count out the hours after playing the music. However, I could barely hear either tune even with my hearing aids turned up. There is no way anyone could hear the music or the hour count once it is in a clock case.

hmm.....

Something is amiss in Disneyland. I couldn't get either one of these two movements to spit anything out of the speaker. Both will play music or do bim bam. Neither one of them seemed to want to play nice. I let them go for an hour and heard nada. I had a wicked headache here and I killed the lights. I'll play some more with this in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

2025 was not a banner year for my woodworking.  I did very close to nothing in the second half of the year due to knee problems and ensuing knee replacement surgery.  I've been getting back to it lately, albeit slowly.  Hopefully 2026 will be a better year.  That said, here's what I got done in 2025.

Projects

This year started out with a (sort of) Shaker handled step stool.  It was a great project from a joinery standpoint, with dovetails on the front corner and multiple through mortise and tenons at the rear.

Shaker step stool with heart-shaped handle for the wife

In May, I made a picnic caddy for my sister.  This was my take on a similar item we saw at a restaurant, and it came out great.  It's got dovetailed corners, dividers in dadoes, and a bottom fitted into grooves in the sides and ends.

Picnic caddy

Also in May, I made a Paul Sellers project: a woven seat stool.  This also went to my sister.  This was an easy project, but I really wanted to try a seat weaving pattern I had not done before.  The weave isn't perfect, but it's good enough.

Easy woodworking, but tedious weaving

In July I made a quick cutting board to replace the plastic one we had been using for years.  This maple board has been very handy.

Another easy and quick project

Finally, I'm just finishing this project now, but it was mostly made in July through December of 2025.  It's a miniature chest of drawers that I hope my 2 1/2 YO granddaughter will use as a box for jewelry or treasures.  It's made of red alder, which I think is a very attractive wood.

Shellac yet to come

Tool Making or Rehab

In January, I made a new iron for my homemade extra-course scrub plane.  The old iron I had found at a garage sale, but it turned out not to be good tool steel.  The new one is from a piece of O-1 steel and I shaped it, hardened and tempered it, flattened the back and sharpened it.  It's thinner steel than the old iron, so I had to modify the wedge to accommodate the change.

Shaping the bevel with a file

In February and March, I was focused on threading small diameter wood.  I had done larger diameters, typically 1-2", a few years ago, but I was interested in trying diameters of 1/2" and 3/8".  It was a big time sink, but eventually I had success with a homemade "machine" that could cut the inner and outer threads for these sizes.  This was helped immensely by a YT video from Paul Hamler.

Overhead view of threading machine clamped in vise

Eventually it allowed me to make this thumb screw for  a marking gauge shown below

That walnut thumb screw was the finishing touch on a marking gauge I made in March.  I really love this gauge.  I knifed and marked 1/8" graduations on one side of the beam.

A walnut beauty

The impetus for the marking gauge was an old Worth marking gauge that I had been given years ago.  The mortise in the fence had gotten too big for the beam, and the wooden thumb screw to hold the beam in place was no longer holding.  So I made a new fence and wood/metal thumb screw and the gauge is a user tool again.

The old (right) and the new

Odd contrast in woods, but it works great now

I found this snipes bill plane at a tool show, but the body was bent and the boxing was warped.  I managed to get it into better working condition.

The front showing the profile

I can't recall where I found this old screwdriver.  It's got "POLAND HITEST" stamped on it.  But I cleaned it up and now I have a big honkin' screwdriver in the kit.

POLAND HITEST screwdriver with wooden scales

For some years now, I've used a makeshift small router plane that utilized a 1/8" chisel as the cutter.  But I always wanted something better.  In June, I made a better small router, using modified Allen wrenches as the cutters.  It has come in handy, and it works well.

The small router

Miscellaneous

In January, I made a spreadsheet that would help me calculate radius, given an arc width and desired bulge of the arc.  This was helpful when looking at the camber of the scrub plane iron.  But the spreadsheet can also be used when figuring out an arc at the bottom edge of a table apron or a rail component of whatever furniture you want a curved rail on.

A simple little spreadsheet

Well, that's it.  I hope 2026 will be a better year for projects.  My knee is doing much better now, but my leg gets tired quickly and I'm just not used to being on my feet for long periods.  Hopefully that's nothing that more shop time won't cure.  To all who read this, I hope you have a healthy and productive year!

 

 The plan in the AM was to start a new project. That didn't last long as I jumped down the computer rabbet hole head first with a jet pack assist. Spent most of the day running around with my head up my arse. I needed a DVi double male monitor connector and nada. I went to Wally World where they didn't have any legacy monitor cables. From there I went to Staples which had what I wanted but I would have to order it on line.

 Made a detour to the local LL Bean store to exchange a xmas gift. Unfortunately LL Bean had liquidated the present and it was no longer available. I got a gift card and bought a pair of jeans and chinos. I can't believe the prices for the pants - both cost $69 and change.

I bit the bullet after dinner and headed out to Best Buy which is on Rte 2. At least it wasn't a parking lot but I caught every _)@*&)#&%_)Q@*)% red light going there and coming home. Best Buy followed Staples - they had the cable but I would have to order it online.

nonsensical work

This top edge had a rabbet that I planed off with the scrub plane. I then squared it off with the 5 1/2. Why? Because I wanted to do something that didn't matter and make a pile of shavings. 

new project

It is going to be a clock. I can't remember what this clock movement speaker spits out. Knowing me it is most likely a bim bam counting out the hours. It doesn't matter because next to boxes, I like making clocks. It has been a long time since I've made one.

starting from square one

The tech at the computer store said he couldn't clone my drive. The pins were too iffy so I'll be starting from ground zero with a fresh OS install. Hoping that Firefox saved my bookmarks but I doubt it. I'm not lucky that way. This is where the saga with the DVi cable commenced.

considered a legacy connector

I had some monitor cables and surprisingly enough, my wife had more than I did. The downside was none of them worked. We didn't have any DVi cables with a double DVi connector. The connector to the left I thought was a HDMI connector but none my HDMI connectors would fit. And I  had a DVi to HDMI cable too.

I should have been slapped upside my head. I forgot that the desktop computer upstairs had a double DVi cable. Duh. The laptop connector to the upstairs monitor is HDMI to HDMI, there is no DVi connector on the laptop.

hmm......

 The monitor kept saying there was a fan failure. The fan failure was the bird cage one which cools the memory sticks. The failure was being caused by the power cable. Routed the cable so that is wasn't in the way of the fan blade rotation. After that the fan failure messages disappeared.

ran diagnostics

This was a good sign. I wanted to make sure I hadn't broke something with all the work I did installing/removing the fans and the hard drives.

don't have a warm and fuzzy

This is a Linux OS USB installer stick. I played around with trying to get the the OS installed and nada. I kept seeing error messages while installing it. Once I did get it installed in compatibility mode it froze. I had problems with this installer with the shop computer.

it passed

I ran the memory test from the USB stick which is more comprehensive than the memory test on the computer diagnostics. It passed with flying colors. I bought another USB installer from ETSY with the latest Linux mint version. I should have it either saturday or monday. 

I'll get back to the regularly scheduled channel of woodworking in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

Author Note: I drafted this post several years ago but am just now getting around to publishing it. Although I don’t make a lot of spoons anymore, I still want to share this handy technique that I’ve used over the years to fix little voids, not only in spoons but also in furniture.

If you have ever found yourself carving a spoon, and you’ve gotten down to making the final, finishing cuts only to realize that there are a couple bug holes or a bit of tear-out that’s just too deep to carve past, you know that sinking feeling that you’ll just have to toss this almost-finished utensil in the burn pile and start over. 

Or will you? 

Not all flaws are fixable, but there is a way to safely and effectively fill in some small flaws and save that nearly-finished spoon from the burn-pile. It’s a common trick that I picked up from a wood turner. 

All you need is bit of very fine-grained fill material and regular CA glue (superglue). Here’s how it works: 

First, find a good fill material. You have lots of options, and some of them are probably lying around your shop already. If you want a relatively invisible fill, try using sawdust from the species you’re working. Use a fine-toothed saw or even coarse sandpaper to produce the dust. The finer the better. You can also use organic substances, such as fine coffee grounds. I have also successfully used crushed stone–you can get many different kinds on the internet. Again, get the finest grains available. I especially enjoy using brightly colored materials that turn the flaw into a decorative feature. Just be careful, as some powdered materials (like metals) can be hazardous to work with. 

Second, use the right bonding agent. It’s just regular superglue. The thinner the better–not the gel kind.

Now for the technique. For a fairly shallow void or crack, fill it with the fill material, and mound the material up over it just a little. Flood the whole area with superglue. Let it dry completely. You can speed it up with heat from a hairdryer or heat gun. Then scrape or sand it level. You can put your finish right over it, though you should be aware that the superglue can affect how some finishes penetrate, so don’t over-saturate the surface with the superglue. You need just enough to saturate the fill material completely.

For projects with a lot of holes to fill, as on the tabletop above, I made myself a little fill-kit. The bag of sawdust is for filling in the bottom of deep holes so I don’t have to use as much of the nicer, expensive fill except at the very top. The green powder is crushed malachite stone. (Again, exercise caution in use, as it can be toxic in its powdered state.) The baby spoon is for putting the fill in precisely the right place, and the old toothbrush is for moving it around and making sure every corner of each gap is filled in before applying the superglue.

For deep voids, you may need to use a couple layers of fill. For little cracks, use the point of a knife to spread the crack a bit to allow more of the fill to enter. Then apply the superglue. With a bit of practice, you’ll figure out what works in different situations. If you need to fill a crack or void that runs into an edge, use masking tape to shore up the fill while it dries.

Once the superglue is hard and dry, I scrape the fill level with a card scraper. You can also sand it level, but it will take a lot longer. The whole process takes just a couple minutes. It really is that easy.

But how well do these fills hold up in everyday use?

I’ve stress-tested them in my own kitchen, and I’ve found they are very durable, even on the business end of a spoon or spatula.

These glues are typically good up to about 230F, and since boiling water doesn’t get any hotter than 212F, you’re not likely to soften the glues in any kind of water-based dish. (If you’re plunging wooden spoons into boiling oil, which can get a lot hotter than water… well, please stop. You’re going to catch something on fire.)

If you really need a glue that will outlast the wood, there’s always the original JB Weld, which is good up to about 500F. The only drawback is the ugly gray color, but you can tint it with lampblack. Use a bit of soot scraped off any smooth surface that’s been near an open flame. You can use a candle flame to blacken the blade of an old butter knife if you like. Mix the soot into the epoxy, and it should turn nice and black. 

I need to emphasize that there are limits to the size/type of flaws that you can fix using this technique. It’s best for filling in small gaps–little cracks or shallow voids that would otherwise get bits of food stuck in them. It’s ideal for filling in a bug hole or two, or for filling a wide but shallow gap. But it won’t increase the structural integrity of the utensil, so make sure the utensil is good and sturdy without the fill. I don’t think I would use this technique to try to fix end-checking in the bowl of a spoon, which is the most common kind of flaw you’ll see in a wooden spoon. Not all flaws are worth trying to fix. 

But once you start using this technique on wooden spoons, I think you’ll find it very effective. And you might find it useful on other woodworking projects, too. 

I’ve just finished two tall shrink pots. Each represents an experiment with texture and pattern, respectively, and I plan on making a small example of each to take along to my classes at Pete Galbert’s later this year. Meanwhile, both … Continue reading →

 Finally got the bookcase done and it is going to daughter #2 later on this month. Until then I'll have to find a hole for it in shop or the boneyard. I also need to point out that this wasn't the last project for 2025. It was the 2nd to last one but either way it is done and oohs and aahs were long and satisfying.

ready to hang

Waxed both doors and buffed them. Cleaned the glass of shellac by scraping them with a razor blade followed up by glass cleaner.

essential

This is what is called a radio man ratchet screwdriver. It is incredibly awkward trying to hold the door in place and start screwing in the screws with a hand screwdriver. This ratchet screwdriver is light and the perfect size for initially driving the screw home. Made hanging the doors a wee bit easier. The only headache I had with it was it like to roll away right onto the deck

helping hand

Sawed a shallow rabbet in a scrap of pine. I will use it hold the door latch at the proper height.

the latch

I don't remember how I installed this the last time but makes sense to me. This way the latch stays square and in place while I mark for the screws.

glad I did

I didn't wan to make any errant holes in the door so I decided to first do it on a scrap of pine. It would have been too low if I hadn't tried it this way first.

done

I had looked at this with the two parts reversed and it took up about the same amount of real estate. The part that is attached to the door rolls up over the part on the shelf and drops down and locks the door.

not perfect but....

Still having nightmares about this left door. However, the right door closes up against without it having a a door latch.

first glamour pic

I'm calling this done but it still needs a latch/catch for the right hand door. The doesn't lay flat on the left door. At this point I decided a putting in a magnetic catch. I got one from my neighborhood ACE hardware.

glamour pic #2

If I make another one of these it will be wider. That is the only quibble I have with this. 

glamour pic #3

This is a big project that is going to eat up a lot of shop real estate until it goes bye bye.

side/back glamour pic

Next to cherry, pine is my favorite wood. I just wish it was a wee bit harder to take the dings from building it.

it's possible

Glamour pic #4 of the back isn't horrible. It could be shown as is. The only defect is the top left edge of the panel. It is chipped and torn out a bit.

 

hmm.......

I think I have enough width on the top door stop to mount the magnetic catch.

less than $2

This surprised coming from ACE. I find most of their offerings to be a wee bit high. But they are convenient being down the street from me. And it came with screws.

fans came

I forgot about these coming today. 

catch installed

The magnetic pull on this catch was higher then I expected it to be. I had to balance closing the top close to being able to open the door one handed. I pulled with for few and closed the gap some more.

done

New fans in and tested. A whole lot quieter - I could hear the old ones but not the new ones. The new fans turned silky smooth. Monday I'll try to find a computer shop to clone my drive. If I can't I'll install Linux Mint on the new SATA drive and start over again.

accidental woodworker 

Please join us in wishing Paul a happy 76th birthday!

Can you believe he is 76? We can't!

Thank you for all your support for him. He loves showing you all his work and has much planned for the year ahead.

- Paul's Family

Please join us in wishing Paul a happy 76th birthday! Can you believe he is 76? We can’t! Thank you for all your support for him. He loves showing you all his work and has much planned for the year ahead. – Paul’s Family

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came last night

All three came at the same time even though Amazon said two were coming on the 5th. I might buy another blue pigment, this one has shiny things in it. I want a flat blue color. I'll have to think on it for a while.

how to waste hours

We had an Epson ink jet as the main printer but it went south. After days of paper jams and ink jet headaches I tossed it. I bought this Canon 6030w because it supposedly is Linux ready. That ain't so boys and girls. The drivers supplied didn't work. I loaded and deleted them a bazillion times before I cried NO MAS.

On the Canon website, the drivers offered were garbage. They had none for this model laser printer - I loaded and tried the ones offered but none worked. After pissing away hours I gave up loading drivers. I have to add, that I needed the drivers to access the WiFi.

The printer came with a USB cable and that worked but it also gave me fits. I didn't have a free USB port on the laptop. Everyone one of them were taken for the keyboard, mouse, etc. I thought I had saved a USB hub but if I did I couldn't find where I hid it. So I ordered two of them from Amazon - insurance in case one won't work.

The printer worked with the USB cable with no problems. I use it 99% of the time to print out my sudoku and crossword puzzles. The added headache is the printer USB cable was short and I don't have anywhere to put it close to my desk (because no WiFi). Where I want to put it would require a 8 foot USB cable and I don't like using USB cables that long.

Needless to point out, the time line on the bookcase has slipped once again. I finished getting shellac on the doors before I started playing with the printer around 1000. I said NO MAS with that at 1408. Maybe tomorrow I'll ooh and aah along with letting out a long breath of relief.

why???????

I saw a half can of this on eBay for $250. I've had this can for a bazillion years. I don't use it much because the smell of it gives a headache. I'm using it to wax the door fronts - this knocks down the brush marks and smooths it out.

needs a 2nd application

About 90% of the doors got smoothed out. What didn't get smoothed sticks out too much IMO. I rubbed and shined the first coat and tomorrow I'll do a 2nd concentrating on the spots that are being a PITA.

accidental woodworker