Building nice wood

Wood Turnings, Web Sites and Low-Angle Block Planes

The first week of 2010 has come and gone and Im happy to say that the world didnt end. Whew~ Happy new year indeed!
Things around the wood shop have been as busy as ever with cut lists being assembled and designs coming out of the wood work. Im working on a few new commissions and have been ordering some wood and finalising my designs. Its been an exciting few weeks and I cant wait to start making some shavings!
In my last post I featured my new treadle lathe from CME Handworks Inc. in Palos Heights, IL. and Im delighted to say that Ive been turning away. Just with some practice cuts, getting the feel and the rhythm of the process Ive been walking around with a bit of a limp lately! The lathe is quite comfortable and no issues at all to report.
Ill post some new information on the lathe again in the coming weeks but wanted to let you know that Ive asked a close friend of mine from Cape Breton to write some articles on wood turning for me. My first official guest blogger is Mike Morrison and hes just finishing off his first article for you. Mike and I have been playing music together for almost 20 years (jumpins how time flies) and he too is a very accomplished craftsman. He builds custom furniture and turns beautiful wood projects so instead of me trying to fake my way through the learning curves of wood turning, Ive asked him to share some knowledge. When people search the internet looking for information on wood turning theyll no doubt stumble over here and I wanted to be able to present some viable and accurate information about getting started in wood turning. Ill share with you my own developments as I go but felt there should be content here from someone with experience in the field. I hate it when I visit wood working sites and watch some guy pretend to know what hes doing with a certain hand tool or technique. I dont ever want to be that guy so thats why Ive asked an experienced turner to share some thoughts.
Mikes first post should be up in a day or two so stay tuned for that.

In other wood shop news I just finished an article for Canadian Woodworking Magazine- I reviewed four low-angle block planes and if youre interested in finding out my thoughts on them youll have to pick up issue #65, the april/may issue. The four planes reviewed were the new Stanley SW 60 1/2, the Veritas low-angle block plane, the 60 1/2 by Lie Nielsen and the new DX60 by Veritas. It was fun test driving these tools and you may or may not be surprised at what I found.
Besides that, the new web site ( www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com ) is almost complete and will be launched very soon. There youll have access to all of my blogs with additional content from Made by Hand. Expanded galleries, full Sketch-up models and free down-loadable bench plans of all six projects will be available. Well also have a Readers Gallery where people can share pictures and thoughts of their own on the book projects.
Im looking forward to another busy year and I hope youll be a part of it to share and enjoy all of these things working wood.
Cheers!

The finished book stand.

I begin with an apology. Im sorry for not having posted since October 22. I try to post at least weekly. A number of personal and work projects have conspired against me lately to prevent my posting. Chief among them was the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 Build Challenge.

As I was entered in the Build Challenge, Ive spent every free moment over the last few weeks working on the book stand which I submitted as my entry. When I lost my build time on the final Friday and Saturday of the challenge I feared it may have all been for naught if I failed to complete my project. Thankfully Rick was nice enough to extend the deadline for all and I successfully submitted my project almost 4 hours before the it was due!

Here for you, my dear readers, is part I of my submission description.


As my entry to the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge I have constructed a book stand. The book stand is constructed from walnut and glass tile, assembled using Domino joinery and finished with 6 coats of de-waxed shellac.

Design Process
When I decided to enter the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge in late August I had already been asked by my mother (a second grade teacher) to make a book stand for the dictionary in her classroom. She had given me a print out of some book stand designs, a physical copy of the dictionary to be held on the stand and a request of a 60 degree display angle. On review of the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge rules and entry form I quickly abandoned the designs she had suggested and got to work on my own.

The Bell Forrest project pack & the glass tile laid out on my table saw.

My starting point was walnut. I had always wanted to work it and when I saw Bell Forrest Products labor day sale I ordered a 10 board feet project pack and hoped that would be enough (it ended up being almost twice what I needed). Another point I wanted to incorporate from the beginning was a secondary material. My initial though was copper, as I have experience working with sheet metal at work, and copper is such a beautiful metal and so easy to work with. My idea was to use copper sheet metal to veneer a piece of MDF which would act as the arm portion of the stand. Unfortunately, the build challenge rules forbid the use of MDF, so I began to track down some plywood to veneer with the copper. During this early stage of the design I was walking through Home Depot and was inspired by the glass tile on display. I bought some there on the spot and decided that rather than use copper to veneer the arm portion of the stand, I would use the glass tile as an inlay for the center section of the top where the spine of the dictionary rests.

The tile laid in position during a dry fit.

Incorporating the tile into the design was the inspiration for the top. I recessed the center tile section for the practical purposes of housing the tile and holding the dictionary spine and for the aesthetic purpose of allowing the side sections of the top to rise up and away from the center like wings. After some trial and error with the actual dictionary, I decided on 10 degrees as the appropriate angle for the wings. Once I had the top designed, I set to work constructing it. I had finished assembling the top before giving the base design any serious thought. Since I knew the top had to be held at a 60 degree angle, I started with that and cut the now walnut support arm at 60 degrees. I ripped it to width so that it matched the top. The base was the final component I designed. I made it slightly longer than the support arm to give it small lips in the front and rear. I determined the width of the base though a combination of what looked good to my eye and what was wide enough to support the top. In order to give the piece visual balance, I gave the bottom wings angled down at 10 degrees to mirror the angle of the upper wings.

More on the build in the next post. Until then check out my 2010 Build Challenge Photo Album.

What did you build this fall?