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Supporting Our Service Members
We proudly stand with all United States service members in Operation Epic Fury and those deployed around the world. Your sacrifice, courage, and dedication are deeply respected and never forgotten.

General

Featured Entries

Retirement

I had enough time working at the fire dept to draw a small pension when I turned 55. Being 41 at that time something kept telling me to go and do something else with the rest of my life... My wife was an RN but not working so she could raise the kids so I knew she could go back to work if my ventures went bad.   I want to build a nice,big go-cart track. WHAT, say that again. There aren't any go-cart tracks around here, how do you know you could make any money was my kids questions
Smallpatch

How I got this started

Where to start is to determine just what do you want to use the bench for. At the time for me it was flatwork and planing. I looked at many plans and decided on parts of several. Not sure where each part came from but the contributing plans were in Wood Magazine, Shop Notes and Popular Mechanics.   I started with the vices. Both are Lee Valley and maybe even paid full price. They are both front vices but one is mounted on the end. Next is to decide on the wood. I wanted White Oak and i
Gerald

Seam Rippers For My Sister And Mom

My Mom is 91 (this past Monday) and she still sews and makes clothes. I noticed she had an the same seam ripper for years so I thought I'd make her a new one for Christmas- but it turned out to be a birthday gift. However when making one it's just as easy to make two so the other one will be for my sister for Christmas.    I bought the kits from Craft Supplies because I needed some other stuff that I can only find at their site. Making the rippers is pretty straight forward, especially
lew
  • lew

Lets talk Photography

Here is a topic that may not come up often enough. I am not a professional and do tend to point and shoot, but there are some basics we can all benefit from.   Lets start with equipment. A good camera helps, but there lots of them. I like SLR's and have been using them since the early 80's. Now using DSLR. There are plenty of compact cameras out there that will work also. Important is being able to change settings from A,to T to P,or portrait or macro and capability to
Gerald
  • Gerald

The Big Night

The last blog post we left off with the completion of the "appreciation awards" for our veterans who work for our school district. This blog we'll check in and see what took place the night of the Big Night. Our girls and the club members really worked hard to make this a wonderful event for our school district employee veterans. On the invitations the veterans were encouraged to arrive in full dress uniform, and many did! It was a wonderful sight. Below are a couple images of some of the vetera
John Morris

#4 Other Inside Out Turnings

These were all done with one inch square six inch long configurations.  So this     broken apart, turned and glued.  Looks like this.     Turned to just round, looks like this.     Shaped and finish applied.  Anything that fits through the window can be hung inside for added effect.  Some beads are hung in this one.     Two smaller ornaments made from one glue up.        
HandyDan

#3 Ornament With Cross for Windows

Next is how to make an ornament with a cross for the windows.  Here is the blank mounted in the lathe.     Here it is turned just round where the window will be and the cross upright length, one and a half inches, is marked out.     Everything turned away now will open the window double the depth of cut.  The upright of the cross is going to be a quarter inch wide so a groove one eighth deep needs to be cut the length of the upright.      
HandyDan

#2 Getting Started

Mount the blank in the lathe and turn it just round in the area the window is to appear.       With it turned just round there will be no windows when turned back to finish as shown here.       Anything turned away from here on will open the window.  This was put back in the lathe and small grooves cut into it to show result.  Notice how any cut made is automatically doubled.        
HandyDan

#1 How Deep to Cut

Inside out turning starts with a glue up of four sticks cut perfectly square and glued together to make a square twice the size of the cut pieces.      There are limits to how deep a cut can be made and not have the turning ruined because the cut was too deep.  One inch square pieces will be glued up to create a two inch blank in this case.  When the blank is mounted in the lathe the first order of business is to turn the area where the window is to appear to the max diameter
HandyDan

The Original Request

My sister's Pastor asked if I could make a communion table for their church. In the past, I've made a lectern/pulpit and a kitchen work table. This seemed like it should be an uncomplicated build.   The pastor supplied me with his original thoughts and an image-   He picked this particular image for it's size/proportions, however, the "arts and craft" style was not his first choice. That style didn't really fit with their church's other furnishings. He said he didn't re
lew
  • lew

Cherry Entertainment Center

Cherry Entertainment Towers Posted 8/25/2007 11:36 PM CDT Had been encouraged by the wife to build these for some time now. Spent maybe a year checking other designs an making plans. Tracking my time and will give it when finish.     The towers are 6 ft tall X 22 inch wide and 24 inch deep.Caucus began with making raised panels for the sides. The sizes basically echo the interior. The pan
Gerald

Making name tags using inkscape

I've mentioned that to take advantage of the potential of one of these little laser engravers  there are some software programs to know. One of these is an open source program called "inkscape". To someone who has never used it, inkscape can be intimidating as there are so many menus, options, controls, etc. etc. With a little effort it all starts to make sense and a person begins to understand what is going on. This is a little step-by-step to create a name tag file that can be used with a cnc
Steve Krumanaker

Turned Kitchen Scoops

So I'm down to making gifts for the nurses at my doctor's office. I rarely visit the office for a "Sick Call" but I do take care of their computers. It's always an inconvenience for the nurses when I have to interrupt their routines, so I try and make up for it by making each of them a little something every year.    My sister gave me this idea a couple of years ago when she gifted me a turned scoop and I've been meaning to make some ever since. I had some walnut and maple boards left
lew
  • lew

Seam Rippers For My Sister And Mom

My Mom is 91 (this past Monday) and she still sews and makes clothes. I noticed she had an the same seam ripper for years so I thought I'd make her a new one for Christmas- but it turned out to be a birthday gift. However when making one it's just as easy to make two so the other one will be for my sister for Christmas.    I bought the kits from Craft Supplies because I needed some other stuff that I can only find at their site. Making the rippers is pretty straight forward, especially
lew
  • lew

Getting to know what's possible

While it may not seem so at first glance, a laser engraver is much like a table saw, a lathe, or even a router. Now that you have it, what can you do with it? Not much as it's a "core" tool. With a table saw, an add on might be a dado set, or molding heads. A special sled or jig. A lathe is very dependent on other tools to prep stock. Different operations on a lathe require different accessories.  A hollow vessel requires completely different tools than a spindle. Of course, a router or shaper m
Steve Krumanaker

Kitchen Micro Plane For My Brother and Sister-In-Law

Since my brother and his wife retired, they are spending more time experimenting with various cuisines. I though I'd get them a micro-plane/grater for the kitchen. Rather than just buy the completed item, I ordered the planer/grater and made the handle. In the past, I sent them various kitchen/serving utensils so this handle would reflect the previous designs.   The biggest disappointment, with this particular grater, was that the handle was designed to be permanently attached to the g
lew
  • lew

Optical Illusion Cutting Board For Mr. Ostrasky

I started senior high school in 1961. Somehow, fate steered me into the vocational program of building construction. My teacher was Mr. Lester Ostrasky. Most of us have had that one teacher that we never forget. The one that had the greatest influence on our lives- Mr. Ostrasky is that teacher. Starting in my sophomore year, I gave him a Christmas present and have done so every year since. After the Navy and a few years at the Letterkenny Army Depot, I started my teaching career at the new Vocat
lew
  • lew

The Software....

After assembling the machine it's time to install the software. I have to say before I get into that, assembling the machine is well within the scope of most any wood workers ability. It's kind of like Lincoln logs. If a person takes it in small steps and doesn't look at the overall picture, it's not too daunting. Like my brother's wife always says, "it's hard by the yard, but it's a cinch by the inch" she is right.   Now, what can I say about the software? A lot, and not much. It's im
Steve Krumanaker

Pulling the trigger

Thought hard about this segment and came up with all sorts of reasons and justifications for even wanting a laser engraver. The honest truth is, I've just always liked gadgets. Never mind I intend to use it for embellishing some of my turnings if and when I figure out how to use it. There are some youtube videos with turners using small machines to make “signature disks” they let into the bottoms of their bowls or vessels. The machines cost about $90.00 and do a surprisingly good job. The d
Steve Krumanaker

You just never know.

I can remember like it was yesterday. I was spending the night at my best friend's house, Ken and I did that just about every weekend, camping out or hunting, or whatever. For several years we did just about everything together. This particular evening we were in his bedroom, he was showing me the Ham Radio receiver he'd just made from a radio shack kit. I was looking at his Edmund Scientific catalog and he said something about a new invention called a laser. It had to be 1963 or four or maybe a
Steve Krumanaker

Retirement

I had enough time working at the fire dept to draw a small pension when I turned 55. Being 41 at that time something kept telling me to go and do something else with the rest of my life... My wife was an RN but not working so she could raise the kids so I knew she could go back to work if my ventures went bad.   I want to build a nice,big go-cart track. WHAT, say that again. There aren't any go-cart tracks around here, how do you know you could make any money was my kids questions
Smallpatch
Photo Blog

Lets talk Photography 2- Lighting

Lighting is a subject that takes a backseat for most people as it becomes " this is what I have to work with". Even in this case it can be managed. Preferred is to have one light source with reflectors to fill in the shadows. The color temperature of the light source must be balanced and for this you can use the WB on your camera or use a grayscale card to set it based on the light you use. What this does is eliminate or strongly dilute the colors that the camera sees but your eye does not. Fluo
Gerald

Lets talk Photography

Here is a topic that may not come up often enough. I am not a professional and do tend to point and shoot, but there are some basics we can all benefit from.   Lets start with equipment. A good camera helps, but there lots of them. I like SLR's and have been using them since the early 80's. Now using DSLR. There are plenty of compact cameras out there that will work also. Important is being able to change settings from A,to T to P,or portrait or macro and capability to
Gerald
  • Gerald

The Big Night

The last blog post we left off with the completion of the "appreciation awards" for our veterans who work for our school district. This blog we'll check in and see what took place the night of the Big Night. Our girls and the club members really worked hard to make this a wonderful event for our school district employee veterans. On the invitations the veterans were encouraged to arrive in full dress uniform, and many did! It was a wonderful sight. Below are a couple images of some of the vetera
John Morris

And Finally...

And Finally: The last bit of machining was to create the two lower shelves. The minister wanted to keep the “maple” look for the shelves but hard maple is a little expensive so we went with soft maple.     Planed everything to ¾” and used biscuits to help with alignment during glue up. I made these shelves full width during the glue-ups     A card scraper brought everything smooth.   I sized the shelves using the same procedures as t
lew
  • lew

Part 5:

Part 5:   As “Norm” used to say- “We’re gaining on it now.”   Time for the first dry fit to make sure all the mortice and tenons fit together.     Had to futz with a few of the tenons but overall everything went together nicely. You can see why I’m limited to the size of my projects. This is the only assembly space available- add clamps around a piece and things really get tight.   There were still a few more things left to do with the apron and
lew
  • lew

Part 4:

Part 4:   With the legs finished, it was time to create the aprons, shelf supports, and stretchers. These were all made from 1” thick poplar. The apron was 5” wide and the remaining pieces were 3” wide. The tenons were all done on the table saw. First establishing the shoulders-             I have an old Delta tenoning jig that makes quick work of making the tenon cheek cuts. However, the length of the long aprons and shelf supports
lew
  • lew

Part 3:

Part 3: The work space in my shop is so small that I needed to build this project in stages. With the top finished, it was time to move on to the legs of the base. The entire base frame is made from poplar and the minister is going to paint it white. His specs were for full 4” x 4” legs. I suppose I could have gotten 16/4 poplar boards but those pieces would have been so large and heavy that I don’t think I could have manhandled them through the milling processes. I started with 5/4 boards
lew
  • lew

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