The tiny shop make-over

I've been working to declutter the shop in preparation to start some new projects. Here's what the shop looks like right now (it's quite a mess). I've been selling things on ebay and craigslist to make room for a used shopsmith that I'm planning to pick up this weekend up in Eugene.

Michael Fortune working with students on chair design

 

Michael fortune working with students on design
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

This past week (and the one coming up), I'm assisting in the 2 week Michael Fortune chair design class here at the CFC. Michael is wonderful teacher who clearly loves sharing with students.

 

As the class assistant I am absorbing a lot of great stuff  watching him work with students on their designs, models and mock-ups.

Workshop Bldg. at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship

Here I am again at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship--this time not as a student but as an assistant in the summer workshops. I'll be here until mid-June working in the various classes offered during that time.

It's already the middle of the second week and I've been helping Peter Korn and Craig Satterlee with the 2 week Basic Woodworking course.

The 12 students in the course are done with practice joints in poplar and have moved on to the final project of their own design (within reason--they only have about a week in which to build them) in the wood of their choice.

Right about now (10:20pm on Wednesday) the dedicated (or overly ambitious in project scope) are still in the shop working on dovetails. To the left is Barrie who came all the way from Wales to take the course. He's deviated a bit from the proposed bench project and instead is building a little bookcase with dovetailed corners.

When I left the workshop building around 9pm he was hard at work chopping out the waste of his tail boards. This was shot with a very wide angle lens so that giant chisel in the foreground that looks longer than Barrie's arm is a distortion (it's about the same size as the one he is holding).

This past weekend, David Upfill-Brown and I went fly fishing on the St George river. He has a canoe so we paddled up the river a couple of miles and fished along the way. We caught (and released) a few really nice smallmouth bass and a pickerel. We also saw 5 or 6 beaver (a first for me), bald eagles, blue heron, and too much beauty to recount in text. The day was perfect at about 70 degrees with very little wind and few bugs of the human biting persuasion.

Center for Furniture Craftsmanship summer workshop assistant

Just heard from Peter Korn! This summer I'll be in Rockport, Maine working as an assistant in the summer workshops at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship! I can't wait to get back to CFC (read about my time in the 9 month course 07/08) and I hope to blog about the experience of being a summer assistant.

Between now and then, I'll continue volunteering at the Ashland High School woodshop 2-3 days a week. There are a number of really talented students producing some great work in the class. One student is making a very nice hand-cut dovetailed box. He's been working on it for a few months now and it's looking great.

I'll get some pictures of it next week and post them here.


Going on in my much reduced shop: Still setting things up post move. The new shop space is a tiny 1 car garage that also contains quite a bit of camping and other gear.  I'll post some pictures of it soon (did I mention it's really small?). I've been working primarily with hand tools--including hand ripping with a panel saw. It's been fun, but it definitely slows down the pace of work. Although it has given me quite a bit of time to tryout Lie-Nielsen's new panel saws. Here's a mini-review:

Review of Lie-Nielsen Panel Saws
After using the crosscut (12ppi) and rip version (7ppi) of these new saws from Lie-Nielsen for about 6 months, I feel I have a fair understanding of how well they perform--in a word: They are FANTASTIC. Both saws track well and cut fast. They came from LN ready to work and have held their sharpness well working in domestic hardwoods.

In use, I've ripped several 80 inch long 1/4 inch edge strips for cabinets out of red oak and had just a few minutes of work with a handplane to get the cut line up to finish quality. The tote fits nicely in my hand and the saws are light enough to use for extended periods of time. My only complaint, and it's really more of a product request, is that they would make a full size version of each saw. I've pulled the rip saw out of the kerf several times while I adjusted to its length.

sketches from my nature journal (moleskine)

A sketch of the IOOF building in Ashland Oregon. From my nature journal.

Helping out tomorrow's woodworkers

For the last couple of months, I've been volunteering 2-3 half-days a week at the Ashland High School woodshop. I've learned a lot working with the kids and I'm amazed at what they can get done in just 90 minutes 2-3 times a week.

Of course they aren't all superstars churning out amazing work--some of them are just in woodshop because it's a great place to coast and an easy A. Hey, I remembering being that kid--although I coasted in technical theater production, not woodshop.

It's sad to find out that most high schools no longer have a woodshop program and of those that do, many face the budget axe in the near future. I guess it's hard to justify woodshop when there is no woodshop section on the No child Left Behind tests.

Anyway, it's been fun working in the high school shop. I only hope it's around for future generations of students.

The last lunch

 

Last day of school
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

Just unloaded a few photos from the camera and thought I'd post them to the blog. Here's one of our class at our last lunch. We're eating leftovers from our graduation dinner the night before.

 

And now with a bit of perspective I ask myself would I do it again? Yes, without question. The time for me in Maine was exactly what I needed--I don't know if I'll become a designer/maker of furniture as my sole source of income, but I hope it will definitely be a big part of the rest of my life.

A note to the guys in my class:
Thank you for all of your support and encouragement. Your work was inspiring and your wit and energy made the class what it was--great.

A note to the CFC staff and instructors:
You guys are fantastic. Everything about the school is top notch and the love of teaching this stuff shows in how well the school is run.

And then you're done...

Nine months gone in a flash.

A bitter-sweet parting of ways.

A long drive ahead.

Would I do it again? No thought required--a definite yes.

See you back in Ashland.

9 Days to go

Wow, it's gone by so quickly. Counting today, there are only 9 days of school left and then it's time to head home.

This past 9 months has been jammed packed with woodworking and learning all things wood. In fact, I would have to say that for me, it's been too much. It seems almost every student was behind on almost every project. I think there were only a handful of projects that were 100% done when they were supposed to be done. And that's with many students working nights and weekends.

For me, this past 3 weeks has really been a time to catch my breath and relax. I know I'm supposed to working on a 'final' project and I have been, sort of... but man, I'm cooked. I have been working on a couple of boxes and built a wall cabinet for Jim and Misty (my friends/landlords)--but I'm having a hard time keeping the motivation up.

On another note... I met my cousin Herb Smith on Sunday. He's my dad's cousin (not sure what that makes us) and I grew up hearing about him from my Grandmother (his aunt). He's built 6 wooden schooners (all 40ft or larger) and sailed 2 of them around the world. He wrote 2 books about those trips. His current boat, the Eastwind is in Boothbay Harbor and is two masted 68ft schooner. The 2 hour sail was fantastic! and Doris and and Herb are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

I should probably get back into the shop (I'm in the CFC library avoiding work as I write this). Oh, and hi Brycen.

Tall cabinet detail

 

Tall cabinet detail
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

Here's a shot of the the drawer in the tall cabinet. I had it photographed on Saturday along with the demi-lune table. All of these shots will go into my furniture making portfolio.

 

This week in the shop we are all furiously working on our chairs--which are supposed to be done on Friday. I think mine will be 95% there so I'm not too worried about it. Although I seem to remember saying that about each project so far and missing the mark.

Also, this Friday the 9 month students are have the opening to our show in the Messeler gallery. My demi-lune will be in the show.

-mj

Demi-lune in better light

 

Demi-lune
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

After months of delay, here is the final professionally done portfolio picture of the demi-lune table. There are a number of detail shots out on flickr. Let me know what you think.

 

Thanks- mj

It's done!

 

Demi-lune playing surface
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

After a fair amount of delay, here for your viewing pleasure... the demi-lune gate-leg card table.

 

The last few days before the show were very busy! I spent a lot of time on the finishing (French polish). I also mortised in the hinges and applied the suede to the playing surfaces.

Here you see the card table with the top 1/2 opened to show the playing surface details.

I'll post more photos soon of the booth and such. Of course you can always hop on over to my flickr account to see them there.

Detail of leg banding on the demilune table

We're in the last week of our multiples project here at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and I've been alternating working on my multiples (carved wooden spoons) and finishing the demilune table.

On the spoons... for me, I've pretty much determined that unless I can automate/mechanize much of the carving or get much better/faster at carving, the spoons are not going to be a profitable item for me to make. As it stands it takes me about 40 minutes to make one spoon with a materials cost of about $1.50. Now I don't know about you, but I don't often spend $30-40 on wooden spoons so I'm thinking that the most I could charge for them is around $20-25.

With the lesson of shop rates still fresh in my ears, the spoons just aren't going to cut it as a multiple for me. Oh well, I still like making them--I guess they'll just be gifts.

 

detail of leg banding
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

On the demilune front:
Here is a nice shot of the banding that wraps around each of the table legs about 5 inches above the ground. The table itself is finaly coming together... both tops are now veneered top and bottom and now just need the ultra-suede playing surface applied.

 

That will involve routing a slot around the short grain edging and I'm a bit worried about break out. I may apply a bit of hide glue to the surface of short grained edging to help prevent that. I recently read that hide glue doesn't inhibit the absorption of finishes and if that's true, it could be a huge benefit--I'll try it and let you know.

I keep saying "I hope to have it finished by x-date" so I'll just say it's still coming along and leave it at that.

Oh, BTW I used the vacuum press I made to press the veneer on the 2nd top and I'm happy to say it worked perfectly. I'll post some pictures of it soon. I just added up the cost of the system at $370 (without the price of the bag) which is quite a savings over commercial systems. I'm happy I built it and look forward to working with it for years to come.

How to add banding to a table apron

 

Skew block plane and marking gauge
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

I thought I would post a brief description of the method I used to add the banding to the bottom of the demilune table.

 

What I didn't do:
I was considering using the router and making a curved jig to fit the table curve, but the thought of that much power at 10-14k RPM made me a bit nervous--any little glitch would quickly remove wood that I'd rather have still attached to the table apron.

Another approach I considered was using the shaper--but that would have required too much time making a jig--since I wasn't planning on making a dozen of these tables, I didn't want to invest the time making a single use jig.

So I settled on a handtool approach that worked wonderfully. Using a Tite-Mark marking gauge, I scored a line around the bottom of the apron that matched the width of the banding I was going to use.

I then set the fence on a Lie Nielsen skew block plane to cut to that line and after that it was a trouble/stress free process of planing down to the depth I wanted. It was actually kind of meditative and I was never worried about things going wrong.

If you are ever searching for a method of adding banding to a project, I would highly recommend you give this one a try.

And still more work on the demilune...

The last bits of the demilune table are coming together. I've just started to apply the inlay to the legs. Here you can see that the holly is going to contrast nicely with walnut.

The top veneer has been glued down.

Still to do:

• Veneer the playing surface side of the primary and secondary tops


• Scratch the bead and cove into the edge of the tops


• Hinge and attach the tops


• Finish the inlay on the legs


• Apply the lower bands to the table legs


• Glue the legs to the apron

I hope to have it all wrapped up by the end of the weekend--but the toboggan races are this weekend and we're competing!

 

-mj