Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! Here we go again, off to a new week, a new start and a new week to make sawdust, create works of art, wrap up honey do lists, and if your like me, make firewood!

For our family the hustle and bustle of the Holidays and the following weeks are just winding down now, since our two oldest daughters both had birthdays in two weeks consecutively and both the birthdays were party worthy because of the important year, our youngest daughter turned 15, a very big birthday for the culture my wife is from, and our oldest girl turned 18. Now that the parties are over, and our home is back to a dull roar I'll be able to get back in the shop and start up on some of my projects.

Meanwhile I have been getting my woodworking fix by vicariously living through others and their artistry. One of those being a group of folks who make Windsor chairs. It's a relatively small community of chair makers and they are wonderful folks, they have a great appreciation for quiet shops, full of hand tools and tradition, and they are a very helpful community willing to jump in and help anyone make their Windsor chair.

Here are a couple links to some of the makers I have been visiting:

Ellia Bizzarri

Curtis Buchanan

Jock Jones

_{Arrow Back Arm Chair by Jock Jones}

My head is wrapping around the idea of a quiet shop as I have begun the mental process of coming to terms of a quiet shop and what it means to run on human power, and the Windsor chair among many other projects are well suited to the quiet suburban shop of today. In addition to the Shaker Round Box projects I posted about a few weeks ago, I think the Windsor chair would make a great addition to the inventory of hand made projects to have in an inventory for market. They just seem to go together so well.

 

So, what is on your week's agenda folks! It can't all be work, I know we have some retirees here as well who are able to continue their woodworking through the week. Not me, I still have quite a few years before I am in that camp, so for now I'll sign off and head out the door to work, and leave this community in the wonderful hands of those who are able to visit throughout the day. Cheers!

Edited February 1, 20169 yr by John Morris
repaired images

I have not been doing any woodworking since before Christmas as we have been bouncing around with other things. In January we had the memorial service for my wife's Dad out in Yuma, AZ. He passed back in July but the family decided to wait until his birthday in January to have it. Tamia and I managed to get out and do a number of things locally together just to enjoy each other's company. This past week we moved out daughter from one bedroom in our home to the bedroom next to her. This was for 2 reasons with the first reason is that she hopes to move out on her own this year and she is a notorious for putting things off so she could sort through all of her "stuff". The second reason was to  paint her old room and then turn that room into a guest room and move the 2 twin beds that we have in another bedroom so that we can get the exercise equipment unburied and able to be used again. So I got the bedroom all cleaned up and painted a nice neutral grey as opposed to the bright blue and green that my daughter and her mom painted when we moved in back in 2001. All I have to do now is put up new baseboards and crown which I hope to get done this week. Over this past weekend I installed 2 new ceiling fans in our family room which makes things much brighter and gives us more air circulation. I do have a bunch of Maple boards sitting in my garage waiting for me to make a couple of custom cutting boards for a friend at church. I told him I would not be able to get to them until February as we had to deal with all the Christmas stuff and the memorial service first. So once I get the base and crown done I will get on those.

 

Bedroom Before & After

 

 

 

 

Ceiling Fans

Wow, Allen, you've been busy!

For me, I'm getting ready to head off to the millworks. Need to get enough maple and poplar to build a table for my sister's minister-

 

Busy indeed Allen! We just put those exact fans into our kids bedrooms, nice clean design and a great price too. 

Lew, that's a right handsome piece of furniture. When does the actual construction take place?

Counting the days to retirement. 39 days and I get to join that faturnity of retired old men. 

 

Hooe to to finish a cedar chest this week and start on another batch of cutting boards. 

10 minutes ago, John Moody said:

Counting the days to retirement. 39 days and I get to join that faturnity of retired old men. 

 

Hooe to to finish a cedar chest this week and start on another batch of cutting boards. 

Yeeeeeehaw!!!!!!!!! Congratulations John! I bet this has gotta be the longest 39 days of your life! I am completely happy for you John, and what is so exciting is you have your health and many years of woodworking and family left in you, I am very so very happy for you John.

Trust me, John Moody, once you retire you'll be as busy if not busier than before, just without the drive to work. You'll already be at work.

5 hours ago, Courtland said:

Lew, that's a right handsome piece of furniture. When does the actual construction take place?

 

Probably in about a week. Allowing the wood to acclimate in the basement for a while.

I been milling out 1" thick maple to make this base. There'll be a top piece too that will be narrower to leave an edge.  The drawing is just for gross dimensions the trim and molding is not shown.

 

Harry, you are absolutely right.  John Moody, who you calling old?  Fred Wilson will get you for that.

3 hours ago, Cliff said:

I been milling out 1" thick maple to make this base. There'll be a top piece too that will be narrower to leave an edge.  The drawing is just for gross dimensions the trim and molding is not shown.

Hey Cliff, I not that up on drafting programs outside of the engineering industry, what program are you using here to render that drawing?

19 hours ago, John Morris said:

Hey Cliff, I not that up on drafting programs outside of the engineering industry, what program are you using here to render that drawing?

Turbocad.  I have Ver 16   It's engineering software.

 The image is just a screen shot using snipping tool

Edited February 2, 20169 yr by Cliff

Nice Cliff! Turbo Cad, ya it says engineering, but there is engineering, then there's "Engineering". The industry determines the software not the other way around. But I digress, yes Turbo Cad would be classified as design software, doing the little bit of investigating I did just now it would not be well suited for civil engineering but it looks like it excels in widget design and product design. I know you've probably been asked this a million times before, but have you tried Sketchup for this type of stuff? I have played a little with Sketchup and like it's ease of use, small learning curve, and it can render awesome looking widget and products as we use for woodworking. I just have not had the time to sit down and learn it effectively. I can make a box with Sketchup!

 

This looks pretty cool Cliff, https://www.turbocad.com/turbocad-windows/plugins/turbocad-furniture-maker-v16.html

Looks like TC has some handy plugins. Very interesting.

I have 2 small projects to finish up (end table and try to make a small vessel) before I start packing the shop up. I mentioned this before, at age 68 I find we are moving. Not far (12 miles) but the new place doesn't have a shop building and I'll have to try and get that put up, this summer I hope. But for now I'm packing the house, then will start packing the shop. We won't be moving until April at the earliest (bad enough to move, I refuse to do in it in the winter months) so i have a little time...but frankly, it still sucks to move.....and this will have to be the last time.

On 2/2/2016 at 6:17 PM, John Morris said:

 it would not be well suited for civil engineering but it looks like it excels in widget design and product design.

 

 

 

Yah true.  When I think the world engineering; I think mechanical.    Chem Electrical and Civil are not my areas.

 

 

Quote

I know you've probably been asked this a million times before, but have you tried Sketchup for this type of stuff?

 

Yah  A long time ago.  I didn't like  it then. I came up on CAD KEY which was driven under the table by AutoDesk  trick of letting every engineering student  pirate their software  get stuck on their screwy command menus and forced a whole industry  into a default preference.   I ended up getting a coy of TC and just learned to like it.

 

 

Furniture maker was a pricey add on last time I looked.