Tue, 25 April 2006 Hey everyone thanks for checking out another show. Unlike the previous episodes this one is not about a tool or group of tools. It's time to start talking about designing and building our pieces. So to get things started I talk a little bit about where to get inspiration for your projects. Where are great places to look to find project ideas that are appealing to you the woodworker or to the people you're building for? Often times we're building out of necessity, a need in the house, a need in the shop or just a need in the soul (OK that's a little too deep even for me). Inspiration comes from everywhere, so don't be afraid to look around and spend a little more time taking in the details. Is there an era of furniture you're fond of? Be inspired to reproduce a piece that's caught your eye at some time, after all 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' not to mention that many of our non-woodworking family and friends will be awe struck at your accomplishments. To help me get my points across, without to many tangents, I'm going to use the designing and eventual construction of my son Aiden's Dresser as an example. I found a design I thought was appealing in a popular catalog for kids' furniture. The proportions were right and the design appealed to the style of furniture my wife and I like. Once the basic proportions were established, height, width and depth the rest was all up to me. Using established furniture dimensions from manufacturers is a great way to get started down the road to your own style. There are design rules that can also help with getting dimensions that are appealing to the human eye also. The golden rectangle is one of the golden rules of furniture design it's all about proportions that compliment each other, one that I use in almost every piece is the ratio of 1:1.6, either multiply or divide it. Here's an example Aiden's dresser will be approximately 48 inches high, when I divide 48 by 1.6 I begin to get dimensions that fall into this golden rectangle rule. I repeatedly divide each answer again by 1.6 until I find a dimension that works for what I'm trying to achieve. The funny thing is I can't explain it, but this rule hasn't failed me yet. I take liberties with it, rounding up or down for simplicity or even taking a larger number and dividing it into half. But even by doing so, I still get dimensions that compliment each other. I'll make sure to search for the articles where I found this idea and others so you can understand them better. But give it a try. Hey check out the links area, I added a new link to a website for sharing our works with each other, www.lumberjocks.com check it out if you get the time. Comments[2] |
Wed, 19 April 2006 Hey everyone thanks for checking out the show again, I really appreciate it. This episode is the continuation of the hand tool talk. We talk about the last three categories of hand tools I think no shop should be without. Chisels, hand saws and edged tools such as hand planes. When it comes to chisels the best all around type to get are the bevel edged chisels. They are truly the workhorses of the chisel family. Once a sharp edge is established bevel edged chisels can do light paring cuts to heavier mortising cuts. Of course depending on what punishment you put them through will determine how often they need sharpening. There are a variety of hand saws but perhaps the most useful in my shop is a nice sharp crosscut saw. One of the benefits of using a hand saw is that you can bring the tool to the wood which in many situations is a lot easier and safer than trying to balance it on a table saw or miter saw stand. Not to mention that with a little practice you may actually find that your cuts may be just as accurate and quick as the cuts from a power tool. When choosing a saw you may want to consider whether you would prefer a Western style or Japanese style tooth setup. Japanese style saws are becoming more popular today because of how easy they are to cut with. The main difference between the styles is in the direction of the cutting action. Western saws cut by pushing away from the user while Japanese saws cut on the pull stroke. When it comes to edged tools it's easy to become addicted to them. In this day and age of power everything tools, the old fashioned muscle powered tools seem useless, but in fact once you discover how to set them up and use them properly you'll be amazed at how easy they are to use and to some degree how they can make you a better woodworker. Older hand planes and spokeshaves can be found at antique stores, flea markets, etc. they may take a little elbow grease to set up, but trust me, once you do you'll enjoy them over and over. Remember don't be fooled by the numbering system used to identify the planes. Most manufacturers, old and new, use the old Stanley tools numbering system. The numbers don't indicate the order of use, but rather the size of the tools. No. 8 - No. 6 are the largest and are used for leveling surfaces. No. 5's are the real workhorses of the hand planes and are often referred to as 'Jack' planes. The Jack planes are used for mostly rougher dimensioning or prepping a surface for the larger No. 8 - No. 6 to joint. No. 4 or smaller are the final planes to touch the woods surface. These are actually the ones that would be used prior to finishing a piece. Today though you can easily get away with using a No. 4 to prep a surface and then go straight to your finer grit sand papers. The one problem most amateur woodworkers face when it comes to either chisels or hand planes tends to be the assumption that they are sharpened and ready to go from the moment they're out of the package. This is not true no matter what the manufacturer tells you. Take the time to flatten the back of the blade and learn how to put a sharp edge on the tool. There are great articles out there will walk you through it and trust me once you learn you'll love using them every time. A good place to look for such an article is in Popular Woodworking's special issue from January 2006 all about Hand tools in the modern workshop. Christopher Schwartz's article about sharpening is in there, this is the same article that gave me the confidence to try and I haven't looked back since. Also if you're really interested in learning more about hand tools in the wood shop check out Andy Rae's book "Choosing and Using Hand Tools" by Lark Press. His book played a major role in putting the last two episodes together. Again, thanks for listening and send me any comments. Don't forget you're welcome to send pictures to add to the gallery, of any of your projects. Until next time, Straight grains and Sharp blades. Matt Comments[0] |
Sun, 9 April 2006 Hey everyone thanks for checking out another episode. There appears to be a few more listeners then previously so for those of you who are new to the show welcome. This episode is the first of two, covering the often overlooked but equally important hand tools. A great resource for any and all questions about hand tools is the book "Choosing & Using Hand Tools" by Andy Rae the publisher is Lark Books. Andy does a great job of categorizing the tools according to their use and then also introduces some tools you may not have known existed or were just curious about in general and didn't know who to ask or where. For this episode and the next, I've borrowed from Andy's book and layed out the tool categories the same. So in episode 11, I cover the first five categories of tools that play a vital role in everybodies shop. 1) Striking tools - hammers and the like 2) Boring tools - drills and drill bits 3) Pulling, prying and twisting tools - pliers, cat paws and screwdrivers 4) Layout tools - tape measures, squares, etc. 5) Scraping tools - files, rasps, scrapers The next episode will cover Hand saws, Chisels and Hand planes. As I mentioned you can get to the shownotes easier now by going to www.mattsbasementworkshop.com . Two more new features to the shownotes includes a link to Flickr.com to see pictures related to the show and also links to popular woodworking magazines and their featured articles. I'm planning on making the featured articles segment a regular part of the blog so check it out periodically. If you're interested, you're welcome to send photos of your projects so that we can post them on Flickr and put together our own photo gallery for each of us to show off. Just send me an email with the photo as a .jpg file and a comment to post along with it. I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone. Straight Grains and Sharp Blades, Matt Comments[0] |
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