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  Final Debrief Once again I'd like to thank all those who participated and all those who sent positive thoughts and prayers to this wonderful project we held, and we will hold once again this year in 10 short months.   Many of you did not win any prizes, but please keep in mind, the grand prize was helping the Akins Family to have a wonderful memorable Christmas. So we all won in that regard! Thank you to all who participated!   To view our project please visit this link Operation Ward 57 Adopt-a-Family for the Holidays Project 2016 Raffle River hosted our raffle, you can see the total contributions by you, our supporters at Raffle River Patriot Woodworker Portal   Total Raffle Proceeds and Expenditures   Gross $1159.00 Service fees $43.86 Cashiers check fee $5.00 USPS fee $8.95 Gifts $306.02 Check to Akins $700.00 Check to Akins Disbursement to occur 01-23-17 $95.17 Balance $0.00   Fees Definitions Gross - Total contributions by you, our generous contributors Service fees - Fees charged by raffle system per transaction, for example, a $50.00 raffle ticket purchase had a $1.75 service fee attached. A $5.00 raffle ticket purchase had a $0.55 service fee attached. USPS fee - Cost to send cashiers check to the Akin family, "Express Service". Gifts - The amount that was spent per Operation Ward 57 Guidelines on the children. A maximum of $100.00 is allowed per child. Check to Akins - The amount of the check that was sent to the Akins for their additional holiday expenses. (They purchased more items for the kids, they had a wonderful meal, and they used the funds to offset the costs of their automobile trip to Texas to visit their parents, Jessica Akins mother and father. Without this disbursement, the trip would have been complicated to make. Check to Akins - The remainder of the funds in the coffers to be sent to the Akins on January 23, 2017. (The Patriot Woodworker community will update this debrief topic with a copy of the last check.) Balance - Account clear and closed.   Gifts and Disbursements Numbers and addresses cleared out for privacy       Letter to Akins Please see attached (below) Word Doc letter that accompanied the check for $700.00 to the Akins.   Last email from Akins to all of you Thank you again for all the stuff, we are so incredibly appreciative of all The Patriot Woodworkers did to help us. We had a rough trip and your generosity made it easier on us! Alexander absolutely loves his desk, and Xavier really loves his new superhero toys! My husband, Thomas, wants to get in touch with you all as well, because he has been making wood projects, and is thinking about making them to sell, as he is very talented. His email is thomasakin25@gmail.com if you don't mind contacting him. Thank you so much again. I will send you some pictures of Alexander with his desk and Amelia when we replace the clothes with larger sizes for her. We, unfortunately, did not get pictures of Xavier Christmas, but hopefully we can get some soon and will share with you. Happy new year! The Akins   In closing Dear friends, this was a wonderful and memorable project we undertook, and it was a mission well executed with all your help. The Akins had a wonderful Christmas thanks to all of you. We have made this a tradition here on The Patriot Woodworker, and we will hold this event again in 10 months.   We'd like to also thank our sponsors, for without their contributions and help, this project would not have been possible. Thank you to all who participated, and thank you to all for your interest in our Operation Ward 57 and The Patriot Woodworker Adopt-a-Family for the Holidays project.     If anyone has any further questions regarding this project, you can contact John Morris by Private Message or email at administrator@thepatriotwoodworker.com   Letter to Akins with Check1.docx

Thought some of you might be interested in carving tools. Most, if not all, of these were made in the USA, but you'll find no makers name on any of them. Necessity being the mother of invention, all these tools were made from re-purposed steel, using whatever methods were available to soften, work, and anneal the steel. There may well have been a blacksmith or two among them.... you see, these tools were forged in several POW camps, from Omaha, Arizona, and one or two other places, roughly between 1944 and 1949. My dad was allowed to bring them back to Germany with him, and continued to use them for another 35 years. John

A Memorial Page for Ernie Richardson   It is with great sadness that one of our own has passed away. Ernie Richardson passed on December 7th, 2016, just two days ago. He has been sparse here on The Patriot Woodworker the last few months, but I have been in contact with him via email and Facebook messaging. He never gave any indication that he was heading towards this life event, although he did seem a bit down, and just kind of not feeling well in spirit.   Ernie faced a lifetime of disability. Ernie Richardson was a good man, even with his disability challenges, he focused outward towards helping others, instead of focusing on his own challenges. He loved working in an organization called Bugles Across America and he was a bugler for funeral services of our veterans. Ernie also counted on his best friend Ruby, his service dog. Ernie loved that dog dearly.   Ernie loved coming on here and sharing his work and shop. He received a scroll saw he was very proud of. As a matter of fact we were very proud of that scroll saw too, our Patriot Woodworker's came together, and purchased that saw for Ernie. His shop was small, but he had a blast in it. Ernie loved to make pens for his friends and family and he gave them to veterans as well.   I will miss the fact that Ernie is not with us anymore, I wish I could be in contact more with many of our folks here in The Patriot Woodworker community, I wish I could live near many of you, to visit, and just drop in from time to time and say howdy, I wish I could have met Ernie in person, and let him know that I personally appreciated his huge efforts with our veterans, and his presence here. He sometimes felt like he was in the way around here, he felt at times like he was asking too many questions or he was being a burden on us because he sometimes had difficulty navigating the site. It could not have been further from the truth, we loved him here, and we jumped in when we could to give Ernie a hand up. Ernie, nor anyone is ever a burden here, never. I hope Ernie understood that.   Another thing about Ernie, he always regretted not serving our country, frequently he would remind us of that, but he always said, that he hoped by playing "Taps" for our fallen and naturally deceased veterans, that he could somehow make up for what he could not do in service. I remember many of us always shot back to Ernie "Hey sir, you're doing a grand thing by playing that bugle, don't ever feel like you did not do your part for our nation!"   Right now I have no doubt Ernie is blowing into that bugle in Heaven and playing side by side with the Angels. And he is standing at the gates, welcoming all our military souls as they cross in. I have one last thing to say, well done Ernie Richardson, well done sir!   We installed this memorial page for Ernie in our Veterans Forum, because he earned it!               Ernie's organization   Ernie's Gallery Reach out to our elderly, reach out to friends, reach out to our veterans, repair a fence for someone who cannot, be there for your neighbor.

Please congratulate the following winners for our Adopt a Family for Christmas Project Raffle! We are proud to announce the following!   Carl D Zimmerman II     Laguna Store Credit $500.00 value      Donna Jackson     Easy Wood Tools Mid-Size Trio of Tools $360.00 value           Brian McCorry     Rikon 9" Slow Speed Grinder  $140.00 value Kelly Churchill     Rikon 6" Buffer $100.00 value   Thank you all for your participation, we'll follow up with the Family Christmas details in another topic, including how your raffle funds were used for this family, and we will notify our supporters who donated these awesome prizes, and the awards should be shipped out very soon! Thank you all for a very successful raffle project, for a very deserving family!   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction Every year The Patriot Woodworker's adopt a wounded warriors family for Christmas. We do this through a great veterans support organization named Operation Ward 57. The Patriot Woodworker's apply to Ward 57 to be accepted to receive our family for Christmas, and each year we are chosen to participate. And each year, our sponsors donate wonderful items for us to raffle for this cause. We use 100 percent of the raffle proceeds to purchase gifts for the kids, and a Christmas dinner for the family.  CLICK HERE to view last years project. Click on the Raffle Ticket and support our adopted family!   This year, the items our sponsors have donated can be seen in the image below, these are some great prizes folks! The tickets are only 2 dollars with multiple ticket bargains, and your odds of winning are very high given our typical turnout. To view the ticket prices, and to purchase your tickets please click on the Raffle Ticket above! A full accountability of the proceeds will be reported on at the end of the raffle so you know your hard earned money was used to help make our family's Christmas a wonderful time for a very deserving family.   Rules Sorry, only Residents of the US and Canada may participate All are welcome to participate, members, forum hosts, admins (accept for yours truly nor my family members) and non-members Please allow 1 to 3 weeks for delivery of prizes, most of the time prizes are sent out immediately You may purchase as many raffle tickets as you like Raffle ends midnight December 19th 2016, names will be drawn one second after midnight 4 names will be randomly drawn by Raffle River, and prizes will be awarded in the order of names drawn, starting with Laguna, then the Rikon Buffer, then the Rikon Grinder, then the EWT Turning set of tools. You may also enter by mailing check or money order made out to The Patriot Woodworker and send too: The Patriot Woodworker - 977 Sussex Rd, San Jacinto, CA. 92583 You may win one of the following prizes!                           4 Winners will be randomly drawn by Raffle River   Mission  We need your help to accumulate funds for this family who has given much to our nation in physical and emotional sacrifice and much more in family sacrifice.  All proceeds from this raffle will be used to purchase gifts for Xavier, Alexander and little Amelia and to provide a Christmas dinner for the family.    The Family  This year we are proud to be supporting the Akin Family from Grass Valley, California.  They include Mr. Akin our wounded warrior, Mrs. Akin, his spouse, and Xavier, their 5 year old son, Alexander, their younger 2 year old son, and little Amelia, their new 2 month old baby girl.  The Akin Family Below History  Mr. Akin was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, he was riding in the gunner seat of a JERRV (Joint Engineering Rapid Response Vehicle) in a convoy, and the vehicle was hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) almost directly under where he was sitting. His team leader was wounded in his head resulting in a Terminal Brain Injury, but Mr. Akin sustained the brunt of the explosion force and shrapnel.  Joint Engineering Rapid Response Vehicle Mr. Akin spent his time recovering at a hospital in Fort Lewis, Washington, from a broken left femur, resulting in rod and screws being placed down his entire femur. His right foot and ankle were shattered, followed by a year and a half that included 5 surgeries, plates and screws, then eventually resulting in a below the knee amputation. He also fractured his tail bone, and received a head wound resulting an a Terminal Brain Injury.    In Closing Ok Patriot Woodworker's, it's time to muster and it's time to show everyone what we are all about! The purpose our woodworking community was created is for this reason, to help those who have served us, and paid the price.   We also need to thank our sponsors Woodcraft Supply, Laguna Tools, and Easy Wood Tools for their generous support! For without them, we would not have a community, nor would we be able to perform the work we do. Thank you guys!

What's on your work bench? This is the official topic for images and friendly chatter regarding that all important surface, the personal statement of your shop, the steadfast friend we can always count on, the space of your shop that nobody knows better than you, we are talking about the almighty "Work Bench".   Submit your images now! That's right, don't clean it up, don't be embarrassed, the messier the better, or if there is nothing on it at all, that is fine too. If you have not touched your bench in years, and you have taken a break from woodworking and have boxes piled on it, we want that image too! All images are welcome.   Spirit of Topic This is a Hit-n-Run topic, as you walk past your bench, whip out your camera or smart phone, and snap a shot, load it up here. No need for text explanations if you don't want too. To kick this off, walk out in your shop and snap a picture of your bench surface now, and lets get this topic rolling.   This will be an ongoing topic, for you to share images of your bench top today, and every day.   Types of benches Some of us have small benches, some of us have big benches, some of us use a space in our dining room, some may have a picnic table they use for a bench, and some of us may have a bench of all benches, the traditional joiners bench, or a beautiful full cabinet shakers bench. No matter what you call your work surface, no matter what your work surface looks like, we want to see images of your bench!   Thank you in advance to the participants!

As the title states - I was at home, running a little late for work that day and became even later when I saw what was happening on the TV. Shortly after getting to work, is when the first tower collapsed. I went home early that day and watched all of the news updates getting madder and madder.   I get choked up every time I think about all of those people working in the towers and all of those who RAN INTO the towers to help.   My prayers go out to all of those affected (that day and after) by what happened.

To keep from having a cut from one drawer to the next I used a scroll saw instead of a band saw. Sure it takes a few minutes longer but the box body ends up on solid piece for the drawers and therefore seasonal changes and moisture doesn't affect the drawers near as bad. Did I say it might take a few minutes longer but hey if you got your name on it!!!  I cut all the pieces out for four different boxes while camped at an rv park in Colo one summer. The better I cut these pieces, like on the lines and not all over the pattern the tighter it would all glue up and hey you got your name on it so try to make it as close  fitting as possible. I drilled four holes and using these four guide pins I aligned all ten pieces of the body counting the back piece. I used welding rods for drawer pulls on three of the boxes. If you don't do a good job of cutting and gluing all these pieces together and don't forget each drawer has the same amount of pieces as the body, you can spend your vacation and two or three others sanding.

this was originally posted by me on the Wood Mag forum, had over 74,000 views in 6 years, so i'd say it was well received.  with some minor edits:   How to make a cutting board.  Finished size will be 13"x15"x1-15/16".   1. Start with rough lumber, 1”x8”x6 foot walnut, 1”x4”x6 foot maple   DSC_2331.jpg   2. Cut to 24” long pieces   DSC_2332.jpg   3. Plane to consistent thickness, about 7/8” in this case   DSC_2333.jpg   4. Rip to desired widths, 1-1/2” for walnut, 3/4" for maple, plus two walnut pieces at 3/8”   DSC_2334.jpg   5. Arrange pieces in desired pattern   DSC_2335.jpg   6. Glue up and wait a day   DSC_2336.jpg   7. Plane flat, to about 3/4” thick   DSC_2337.jpg   8. Cross cut to desired board thickness, in this case 1-15/16” (to minimize waste)   DSC_2339.jpg   9. Arrange in pleasing pattern   DSC_2340.jpg 10. Glue up and wait a day   DSC_2342.jpg   DSC_2343.jpg   11. Wipe excess glue off with warm water and sponge   DSC_2345.jpg   12. Sand, sand, sand, from 50 grit up to 120 grit   DSC_2348.jpg   13. Rout out side grooves for picking and holding   DSC_2350.jpg   14. Sand off corners   DSC_2353.jpg   15. Rout drainage groove on one side   DSC_2355.jpg   16. More sanding   17. Rout edges with roundover bit   DSC_2357.jpg   18. Apply brand   DSC_2358.jpg   19. More sanding up to 220 grit   20. Apply finish, 2 coats of Butcher Block oil, let each coat dry for a day, sand 220 grit before applying next coat.   DSC_2363.jpg   21. Sand 220 grit one more time, apply beeswax/mineral oil finish   DSC_2365.jpg   22. Done, ready to use after curing for 3 days   DSC_2370.jpg   DSC_2371.jpg   DSC_2373.jpg   Use and enjoy, reapply mineral oil or beeswax/mineral oil finish as needed (when water does not bead, time to reapply finish).  

Hi there I thought I would share my progress on my woodshop. I have been working on the shop and have relocated most of the machines from storage and into the shop. I have a long way to go but thought others might enjoy seeing the progress so far. Since a picture is worth a thousand words I thought I would post a video. Is that worth more?? Enjoy!!    

Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworker's! This is your official Monday wake up call and all around nosy inquiry regarding your activities over the weekend and what you may have planned for the week ahead. We like to see what you have built, working on, or are ready to launch into. So go ahead and show us your work, and tell us what's in the oven. Even if your shop was or is dead for the time being, we'd also like to know just overall how the heck are ya. How's life, how's family, how are you?   Updates on current happenings As many of you know our winners have been chosen for the Homes for Our Troops raffle fundraiser and the prizes have already shipped, and our lucky recipients have already reported receiving them. I'd like to thank all the participants who donated to Homes for Our Troops in exchange for raffle entries, we raised over $1100.00 with more than 550 ticket purchases. These funds were donated directly to Homes for Our Troops, as usual with these fund raisers, we do not handle any of the transactions, nor the funds, all donations are entered directly to Homes for Our Troops. We only provide the excitement! Wiki progress Also, our Patriot Woodwiki is coming to be a reality soon. I have been working feverishly on article creation templates for our editors and collaborators (you) to make it easy to populate a blank page, with pre-made templates of information. All you need to do is provide the content!  If you'd like to see our wiki in progress, please click on the navigation tab above titled "Wiki". There are some research projects I started already to spur activity when we do open our wiki.   New members And of course, we'd like to welcome once again all our new members here to The Patriot Woodworker, we are happy to have you aboard, and we are excited to share, learn, teach, and work through this wonderful experience called woodworking!   Have a wonderful week ahead folks, and don't forget to let us know what you been working on!   Eye Candy Image of the week By Andy Dingley (scanner) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons  

Good day Patriot Woodworkers,  Since we have had a wonderful influx of woodworkers join us as of late, I thought we would talk about our Privacy Policy for a minute. You can click on the preceding link to view the actual privacy policy, but I would also like to talk about a tradition that we are very proud of here on The Patriot Woodworker. Our tradition The Patriot Woodworker Woodworking Community holds your privacy in the highest regard. Please see a list of the things we will never do. We will never ever, sell or share your email addresses to third party scaly-wags known as email spammers or anyone for that matter. We will never ever, sell or share your email addresses to our sponsors (we love them by the way, but they do not have access to your information) We will never ever use your email addresses or any of your private information for anything. We will never ever snoop, go undercover, or access your profile account without your permission (for technical support only).   The Patriot Woodworker Woodworking Community also wants to ensure you have a pleasurable experience here, this is what we will do. We will send you the occasional email newsletter from time to time. Rarely is the newsletter a solicitation to purchase anything. Yet just a heads up on what is going on in your woodworking community, and with the veterans organizations we support. There is a link at the footer of every newsletter for you to opt-out of the newsletters. We will present you with promotions within our forum from time to time that are released by our sponsors at Woodcraft, Easy Wood Tools and Laguna Tools and General Finishes. And last but not least. We will patrol our community, always on the look out for scammers, dirt bags, thieves, and spammers who may come here from time to time to get you, our highly valued members to purchase something from their own website, or to get our members to click on a link that may take them to an unsecured area.   In closing Lastly, we realize if you have a negative experience on The Patriot Woodworker, you are more than likely to leave us, we strive every day to make you happy, and we strive to make you feel welcome. Thank you for being here, we are very proud of what we have here and the causes we support. And we are always just a shout away if you ever need our help with anything related to using your online woodworking community.   You may contact any of our Administrators for any questions, concerns, or suggestions!   Administrators Ron Dudelston John Moody John Morris  

I didn't want to take away from Ron's ornament thread so I started this one.  I make and give away about 60 ornaments each year.  This years ornaments have a plastic insert which is what Ron was showing some of.  My inserts are pieces cut from the tall shiny tubes that were once part of some trophies I took apart.  A few years ago I made finials for some glass bulbs that are sold everywhere for Christmas trees.  The tops are large because they had to go over the tube that are on top of those bulbs.  John said he wanted to see pictures when I said I have used something other than wood in ornaments. So here they are.          

I used some spalted Apple, yellow hart and Paduk to make this one. I am not good enough to hollow it out, but neither was the spalted Apple. I was worried that it would not hold up when I was turning it. My wife said this was a keeper. My daughter took one look and said, "Dad, I love this one" my wife nodded and I gave it to her.

Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworkers and Guests! Get your motors started, and your machinery and hand tools cranking! It's time for a wonderful new week of woodworking, or working, family, life and friends. I love Mondays, it signifies for me anyway a new week ahead, a clean pallet to work with, a way to use what I learned in life the week before.   I am sorry about this short Monday topic, usually I have some great information for you but I kind of arose late this morning, and I need to head on out to my day job, still need to fix breakfast to go and my lunch, mama and the kids are still sleeping, one more hour before they awake for school. But for now I'd like to take a moment and welcome all our new woodworkers who have recently signed in with our community, it truly is a wonderful thing to have all this new talent here, differing perspectives, and wonderful work. So welcome new folks, we are glad you are here!   Also, I'd like to encourage everyone to head on over to the Raffle Winners topic and congratulate them and thank our sponsors for their wonderful donations of tools for this raffle. The raffle was a success thanks to you all. We raised over $1,100.00 for Homes for Our Troops who build specially adaptive homes for our disabled veterans from the OEF and OIF campaigns. They are doing a wonderful job, and your donations help!   So the ultimate question I always ask during this topic every Monday, is, what do you have on your week ahead plate! What are you doing in your woodshop's, or just life in general? Anything you feel like you want to discuss or share here please feel free.   Have a wonderful week ahead folks, and once again, welcome to all!   Signing Off With Your Monday Eye Candy Image

Can't say much more, I know a lot of us "met" over there. They just announced they are closing the doors. My own opinion is that they did a lot of things that led to the demise of what was the first forum I had joined, but that's just my opinion.

Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworkers! Well here we go again, another wonderful week ahead of us with time that is wide open for some of us to get the things done in our shops that need to be done. Please tell us what you have been up to lately in your shop, what you accomplished over the weekend, did you learn any new techniques in woodworking? Do you care to share a tried and true finishing schedule, or can you show us a process in your shop for executing that perfect miter joint? Whatever you have, we want to read and see it!   Homes for Our Troops Fund Raiser is Falling Short Yep it's true, our HFOT fundraiser is falling way short of our goals. Considering the big ticket items up for grabs in our raffle, we have had very little participation. So I'd like to ask anyone who reads this, please get the word out by sharing this topic, or this link at HFOT Fundraiser. Our sponsors Woodcraft, Easy Wood Tools, Laguna Tools, and Bessey Tools have donated some great prizes, and they should be bringing in much more than what we've seen.   So please, share away, if you have a Facebook page, please share the link above, if you have any type of social media, please share the link above, and heck, if you have not by now, please consider donating to this great cause in exchange for your raffle entries!   All proceeds go directly to Homes for Our Troops, we do not handle a single penny.   Thank you all for being here and please be safe in all you do!

The level collection I purchased has several levels from different time periods. One of the ways to tell when you are looking at old Wooden Level or for that matter any old Stanley tool, it is good to check the Trademark.   Bob Kaune has a web page I keep bookmarked on my iPhone, iPad and Computer that is very handy to tell right off the time frame a wooden level or plane. Here is a link to his page Stanley Trademarks.   So I thought I would share a few of the ones I got with common Trademarks. These all have what is known as the "V" Trademark   It has been documented that this trademark was in use on Stanley tools from 1912 to 1918, That puts these right in the area of being or about to be 100 years old. For a wooden level to survive the 100 years and still have the original vials intact says something about them.   There were four in the group that I got with the "V" Trademark.   The two larger levels have brass caps on the ends and for the most part are in very good condition. The second one from the back is missing a brass cover over the vial port.     Another thing to notice is the No 3 and the No 03. If the level had a single number then it is an adjustable level so that is something should happen, you can adjust the vials to put them back to level. If the level has a "0" in front of the number, then the level is non adjustable.   I am very fortunate that all of the vials on these are original and in working order. This group is all made of Cherry.   So there you have the "V" Trademark levels from Stanley made between 1912 and 1918,   More Levels from Patriot Picking to follow...

I wrote not to throw pieces away and the two pictured together are the ones I didn't throw away. They started out as an experiment with soft junk wood. They were one piece and I was not pleased with what I had. I cut them in two and started turning. Added stain on one and a piece of pine on the other. They aren't too bad, but I wish I would have used god wood.   I just finished the one pictured by itself. It is more traditional and refined. I had to invent some tricks to do it, but I got her done 

A couple of months ago I cut some angled pieces of Cedar to check my saw accuracy. I made a project out of some of the wood and nearly tossed the rest. I did a glue up to check the angles, they came out nice and set them aside. Today I decided to make a little box for my granddaughter out of them. It has 6 sides that are 4" and I made a fancy lid for a little girl. 

A picker friend of mine ran across a lady who's husband had passed away. Her husband was a Stanley tool collector. When he saw the stuff he had he thought of me. So at this point I am going to just give you a sample of some of the stuff I got so far. I'm having to purchase it as I can. I was able to pick through the levels and get the ones I wanted.   I will show you a closer view and break them out in groups.   More picking to come.

This week about all I have done in the shop is make a mess. I have been working on the addition and taking things in and out and just laying them wherever I could.   You can read about Part 4 of the expansion here.   I did manage to work into the week some cutting boards.    I ran two large, two medium and two smalls with this patch. I will cut out another batch over the weekend to have for First Friday next week.   As always, we here at TPW love to see and hear about your projects. Share with us your plans for this weekend in your shop or with your family.    

Just read an unbelievable article on veteran suicides. 22 commit suicide each day. But suicide rates among Vietnam veterans are the highest of any particular group, according to John Draper, project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. A very sad situation. There is treatment now for PTSD, Not back then, they didn't even recognize it as a problem. I think all Viet Nam (Korea too) vets suffered from it to some degree. I know how it has effected most of my fellow vets and my life. 

Good Monday Morning Patriot Woodworker's!!! Well, what have yall been up to this past weekend? Did you get some time in the shop? Did you go somewhere special? Or, if it was hot enough in your area, you may have just felt like staying in your home with the air conditioner cranked up and watch some great movies or read a good book!   The later was us, my family and I kind of just closed up our home and took it easy, cranked the air conditioner to 78 degrees and hung out with each other, while it was not woodworking related, my son and I had a marathon model building day on Saturday. Our son was building a Stearman WWII PT-27 flight trainer. And I was building a F-14D Tomcat as seen in the image below, we had a dinner table full of model stuff!     After working all week long at my day job, outdoors in 104 plus degree weather, I was ready to just call our weekend a shut-in. We did however go for a few bicycle rides locally while the sun was setting, although it was still in the high 90's around that time! But we had to get outside.   Charles Nicholls Our Forum Host Charles is finally out of the hospital, for some great news! He is still hurting a tad, and unable to get back to his wood turning as full speed, but he is managing some pen turnings. It's great to have ya back Charles!   The Patriot Woodwiki status I know I know! It's been forever since we had this brilliant idea to fire up a wiki for our forum and community, and you have all heard, "it's almost ready" many many times. The wiki software is a different animal, challenging and time consuming and it's just taken a lot longer to get under control than I had estimated. But we are closer than ever! I worked on some more user templates for research article creation this weekend, and I started another seed page for folks to edit and collaborate on. You can view the seed page at Easy Wood Tools. I created a new category called "Merchants" for our researchers and editors to share their subjects regarding the retailers and merchants in the woodworking trades, arts and crafts arena.   The MWTCA What's It Don't forget folks, we still need your help to figure out what the heck these implements are! Remember, when you correctly name the implements, you'll be awarded a 1 year membership to MWTCA. Click on the following links. June What's ItJuly What's It   Cool Image of the Week     So that's if for now folks, have a wonderful Patriot Woodworker week ahead! We wish you the best in life, and be safe in your shops and remember, safety first! If your woodworking operation feels uncomfortable, then it's unsafe!  

Not sure what it is like in your part of the country, but here we are having severe heat. Yesterday the heat index was 110 and what really makes it bad is the humidity is about 85%. So you walk outside and you are soaked. I will be working on finished some cutting boards that I glued up in the final glue up yesterday. These are all large end grain boards.   I got in a sheet of Cherry Ply and the rope trim arrived yesterday for a night stand I am working on. I probably won't get it going this weekend but it will be at the top of the list for next week.   For the most part I will be out in the heat for a while and in the cool for a while trying to balance it out. I will be working on getting the framing up for the shop expansion. I put down one sill board late yesterday and found out the concrete guy didn't get things as square as he should have. Took me a bit to get this first sill board down and square. I'll move to the other end today and get that wall up and work back to this one so I don't have to go around or through the wall to work on the others.   So this is my agenda for the weekend, what is on your Patriot Woodworker agenda? All of us here at TPW love to see your projects and we are interest in your woodworking. So I'm looking forward to hearing for all of you.    

Last winter we had new siding put on the house. The shrubs were here when we moved in and were over 50 years old. They were pretty ragged looking so we decided to remove them. I like to make something lasting from things we have removed so I salvaged a bases of one of the shrubs- the one at the corner of the house-   After trimming it up, I had -       Mounting it on a face plate for initial turning-     Then on to the lathe-   Next, shape it-   Typically, I create a recess in the bottom of a turning which will later become part of the foot. The blank was pretty small so I went with a tenon-   Once I was satisfied with the outside shape, I removed the face plate and mounted the chuck and added the blank.     I always wanted to experiment with a turning that was not "whole". The dark area was definitely deep enough that it was going to open up as I hollowed the piece.   Next, I set the depth for the inside hollow-   Hogging out the inside of the turning-   As we all know, the best laid plans of mice etc. etc.- an emergency! (Well not really but when the Mrs. calls). It was obvious I wasn't going to get back to this turning today. Because the blank was fresh cut and quite wet, I was afraid it would split/warp before I could get back to it. I packed the turning in shavings and encapsulated the entire thing in a plastic bag.   Three days later.   Opened the bag and removed the shavings-   I felt pretty good as the blank had not warped or split. Finished the inside. Checking the wall thickness as I went.   As expected, the side of the turning opened up. However, light touches and sharp tools allowed for turning without incident.     A little final shaping and on to the sanding. The outside was sanded using the Woodcraft 3" wavy system-   I sanded it thru 4000 grit-   The inside sanding started with a sanding ball made using instructions from Mr. David Reed Smith's site.    Then finished up thru the grits by hand.   The final step was to remove the chuck tenon.   I used my shop made Longworth chuck to hold the turning-   Then turned away the majority of the tenon leaving only a small nub   The "extension" on the tail stock live center provides more working room and reduces the likelihood of the tools hitting the metal center point.   Finally, turn off the little nub and sand-   This is what I found hiding inside the piece of shrub               The turning is about 5" tall and 6" in diameter at the top. The wall thickness is a little more than I usually make it- slightly less than 1/4" but i wasn't too sure how thin I could go with the side being partially open. Thought about several different possible finishes. Ended up using a couple of layers of Johnson's paste wax.   Thanks for looking!