John Morris

How the heck did you figure this one out Peter!

Thanks guys, appreciate the support as always. I know it's fun to have names and pictures, it gives us that warm and fuzzy when we can put a face names and history to the cause, this is the first time we have ever done it this way, I am treading new ground just like the rest of ya. Again, for confirmation feel free to contact our Forum Hosts and Admins who know the families details and faces, they cannot give you all anymore information than we already have but they can at least confirm the family is with us, and they need our help, our payback! Cheers guys!

Will, this is a fund raiser for our Adopted Family, all you have to do is go to the Donate button and contribute the amount you desire, and you'll be entered to the random draw for the machinery and tools, good luck!

Introduction Every year The Patriot Woodworker's adopt a Wounded Warrior or Gold Star family for Christmas. We do this through a great veterans support organization named Operation Ward 57. The Patriot Woodworker's submit an application 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 giveaway for this cause. We use 100 percent of your contributions to purchase gifts for the kids, and a Christmas dinner for the family and to fund related project expenses such as shipping fees for gifts. Our Mission We need your help to accumulate funds for our Wounded Warrior adopted family, who has given much to our nation in physical and emotional sacrifice and much more in family sacrifice. The Wounded Warrior Family This year we have a unique situation for our adopted family. The family we are supporting is to remain anonymous. Hardships and conditions the family have and are undergoing prevent us from disclosing the identity of the family, so out of respect for the family we agreed to not share any images of the family, nor any personal information. In doing so would "out" the family and cause more hardship to them. Our adopted family has already gone through enough by serving our nation and paying a great price. What we can share is: The father and husband served our nation in the US Army. He is now on 100 percent disability with varying issues from PTSD to physical injuries including Terminal Brain Injuries. Though many call Dad the hero of the family, the family themselves will call Mom the hero, as is typically the case when you have a caregiver situation as this family does. They are blessed with four beautiful children as follows. Boy in his late teens Boy pre-teen Boy pre-teen Girl toddler Your Comfort We understand the inferences that "Anonymous" implies, some folks may be a bit skeptical to contribute to an anonymous cause. So to help alleviate your concerns, I would like to encourage you to contact any of our forum hosts or admins for your general questions regarding the family. Our Forum Hosts and Admins are completely familiar with the family, they have seen the family, and they understand the history of the family, so they will be able to confirm to you the validity of this cause. Please keep in mind, under no circumstances will our Forum Hosts or Admins be able to disclose any more information than what has already been disclosed here, you will only be able to have confirmation that our Adopted Family is indeed with us, and needs your help. Please contact our Forum Hosts or Admins with your concerns by clicking on their names at our "Staff" page. https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/staff/ Rules Sorry, only Residents of the US and Canada may participate. Outside countries may contribute but you will not be entered into the system for receiving items due to shipping costs. If you are in an outside country, and do contribute, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. All are welcome to participate, members, forum hosts, admins and non-members. (John Morris (Founder) and family may not participate). Please allow 1 to 3 weeks for delivery of prizes, most of the time prizes are sent out immediately. You may contribute as much funding as you like to earn entries into our random draw. Your contributions will be accepted up to December 20th 12pm Eastern Time, at which time project will close and item recipients will be chosen. 4 names will be randomly drawn by Random Picker software, and items will be awarded in the order of names drawn, starting with the Laguna Bandsaw, then the Easy Wood Tools, then the Woodriver hand planes. An apology I apologize for the current method of contributing funding to this project as cumbersome as it is, our usual way, and very easy way we've used in the past had to be eliminated due to current "Raffle" laws governing our state of California, so I had to create this work around. This will be the last year I perform this event from my home state of California due to restrictions. For next years Christmas Family event, we will have a Patriot Woodworker host this event from their home state that allows such fund raising activity. We will not quit, we'll just find away around it! Our Veteran and Gold Star families need us! To contribute to our Adopted Family please click on "Donate" button This year, the items our sponsors have donated can be seen in the image below, these are some great prizes folks! You can donate only 2 dollars with multiple entry bargains, and your odds of receiving a sponsored item are very high given our typical turnout. To view the entry fees, and to purchase your entries please click on the Donate button above! A full accountability of the proceeds will be reported on at the end of the project so you know your hard earned money was used for our Adopted Family. Item links Laguna 14|12 Bandsaw for one recipient Easy Wood Tools Mini Hollowers for one recipient Woodriver Standard Block Plane with Adjustable Mouth for one recipient Woodriver No.4 Bench Plane for one recipient 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. Remember this is not charity, this is not a hand out, this is payback! Thank you sponsors! We also need to thank our sponsors Woodcraft Supply, Laguna Tools, and Easy Wood Tools for their generous support and for donating those wonderful items for the raffle! For without them, we would not have a community, nor would we be able to perform the work we do. Thank you guys! Prior Years Projects Adopt a Wounded Warrior Family for the Holidays 2015 Adopt a Wounded Warrior Family for the Holidays 2016 Adopt a Gold Star Family for the Holidays 2017 Adopt a Wounded Warrior Family for the Holidays 2018

The last entry for this chair. I finished the chair last weekend and I am finally getting some images up of weaving the Woof, the Warp is done which is the back to front, and the Woof is the side to side. In image below the chair is upside down and we start the weave at the back chair post. About 3" is left wild to tuck under the Woof strands and a tack is set, and we start by wrapping it up and over the topside of the chair. Once the bottom is secured in place we just simply take the whole role and tuck it under every other Warp piece to create a checkerboard pattern. It's really that easy. My last chair I did I calculated the amount of tape I would need for the Woof and cut the roll down to minimize the size of the roll and make it easier to push it through the Warp. But this time I got lazy, I just wanted to get going and see some progress. As you can see the first Woof is woven at the back of the seat. Now it's just an "over and under" job till the chair is done. Once I completed about a quarter of the Woof, the big roll started to get difficult to push through as the space was getting tighter so I did some calculations and unraveled off the roll what I would need to complete the Woof. The size of the roll is now cut in half, and it looks like I have enough for a matching foot stool too. As I weave the Woof in, I also use my shuttle as a tool to push the Woof in place as I go. Not too hard of a push, this is not a loom where tightness of strands of thread are desired, if you push too hard you can compact the fabric tape and it becomes skinny. It's coming along. Over and under, over and under. It's gets to the point where even the small roll becomes hard to push through the Warp, so now I have to switch to my home made shuttle. The tape is wrapped through the slot in the shuttle, then I use some scotch tape to secure the fabric tape onto itself. The shuttle is a joy to use, specially after dealing with pushing and pulling that roll through. As is in Shaker tradition, a little note is created, and tucked into the chair seat for a future generation to discover when they have to replace the old and worn tattered seat fabric. The idea is they will undo the old fabric, and find this little note that is something of a brief time capsule. Imagine a hundred years or so into the future how neat it would be to find something from the original builder and some fun facts about the time period in which the builder made the chair. Folks, while reading my time capsule letter, please don't make anything political out of it, it's not. I understand our current president invokes emotions of all types, it's a fact that he is President, and thus that fact is entered on paper in my time capsule note. I respect the office and commander in chief regardless who is in office, why? Because the people voted that person in, and I hold in high regard and respect the will and power of the people. Nuff said about that. The note is then tucked into the last remaining cavity area of the chair before I close it up with the final Woofs. Then the final few passes are made. Oh no! Wha Hoppened! My calculation was wrong for the amount I needed to finish the chair when I cut the roll down. So, as is done frequently in this work, the tape has to be sewn to another in order to extend the length and finish the seat. Fortunately Mom taught me how to sew a little bit when I was a just a little kid. While my sewing skills are lacking these days, I did remember how to secure two pieces of fabric together and loop the thread into a secure knot. It doesn't have to be pretty, just strong. The fabric tape is cut back to a point that the mend will be under a Warp. There we go, all secured. The mend is on the bottom of the chair, and under a Warp. For the last few passes, the shuttle can no longer be used and a screwdriver is used to push the Woof through the Warp. The image below is the bottom of the chair, at the last pass, and the tape is tacked to the bottom side rung, and the remainder of the tape is simply tucked under the rest of the seat. The last thing I did for my chair was to wax it. Preferably I like to wax the chair before I weave the seat in, as to not accidentally get any wax on the seat fabric. But the day I started to weave the seat, our local hardware store was closed and I had to get some #0000 wool, I struck out, but wanting to get the job done, I modified the steps and weaved the seat first, and I figured I'll just have to be very careful with the seat when I wax the chair. The final touch of many wood projects should be the wax. If you are not applying wax, you are missing out on the upper level of finishing. Firstly, for me anyway it gives me time to reflect on the project, and I enjoy touching every part of what I created, I really love this part of the project, the final rub down. It's relaxing, it smells good, and the result is a silky smooth feel for anyone who touches the work. And most importantly, if you are using a fine abrasive with the wax, such as #0000 wool, you are also getting rid of any dust nibs, and the finish is evened out. Even with a wipe on finish like I use on my chairs, streaks and blemishes can be left behind and if you rake light across the work surface, it's very obvious. The wax levels all that out, it brings a very even sheen to the entire project. For this chair I used a neutral color wax, since the wood species I used is light, I used a light wax. For darker woods, cherry, walnut etc, I will use a dark wax such as Liberons Black Bison. I have used Johnsons Paste in the past, and I found it to be temperamental, and at times destructive to the finish, it dries too hard and too quickly, and buffing it off the surface is time consuming and sometimes leaves streaks. So I switched to the very soft pasty waxes such as Liberons and Howard. Howard I found at the local big box, Liberons I have to order online. I probably don't have to go into detail to wax a finish, that is why I have not, just put a liberal amount on the wool, wipe with the grain, and in a few minutes buff off with a soft cotton fabric or your choice of softness type fabric. So that's it folks, the seat is done, the chair is done, and yesterday my kids took some glamour shots of the the chair and I'll get those posted later. Last item, as you can figure out, while weaving the chair seat, the chair has to be flipped over and over and over many times, it's not very efficient, and there is more chance for damage to the chair by accidentally bumping it on something or a scratch. The Shakers figured this out a long time ago, and came up with a way to mount the chair in a bench vise, and the chair rotates as you weave the seat in. There is a really wonderful image of a very old Shaker woman using one of these, if I can find it I'll post it up here. Here is an image of the bench vise. Before I weave my next chair seat, I'll make on of these. Attached to this post is the PDF plan provided by the fine folks of Woodworkers Journal. Shaker-Weaving-Vice-Drawings.pdf

Wow, Ron, that is a work of art, that is a family heirloom, and that is just the most danged coolest Christmas tree I have ever seen. I love that!

I suppose I could have Steve, but really I just wanted my ol Stanley back. I like the way the Stanley sits flat on the work, and it's what I've used for eons, one of those things that didn't take much for me to go back to my old trusty. I was a framer in the late 80's and we all used Stanley Powerlock back in the day, and I just stuck with it. I've tried differing tape measure gadgetry over the years and seem to come back to my ol silver.

Most wonderful tip! Thanks a million Dan!

That away Gene! You know, I don't really use em anymore either. Story sticks and such for me mostly. But when I did a lot of sheet work, and flat work, always had one clipped to my pocket.

Also because of the height of the tape off the surface with the red one, the hook would come off the edge frequently, very frequently.

I had a tape similar to that Milwakee, "Had" is the operative word here, I round filed it a month later (threw it in the can). What I hated about it, was that the metal hook sat flush with the bottom of the housing, as you see in the Milwaukee, the hooks position means you have to pull the tape out each time to use it, meaning you must have two hands to use this tape. I know it sounds trivial, but I like to just set my tape on the surface, let the hook rest over the edge and pull it back, it's a one hand operation like that,as it is with the Stanley below. I guess the red tape design is supposed to protect the hook perhaps? Because after long use, the Stanley hook can start to bend back. But I'd rather purchase a Stanley now and then with the convenience of the exposed hook, rather than purchase the red tape that pisses me off all the time. Just my own little gripe about the red tape and others like it, other users may not care.

Reading Geralds blog on photography got me onto this. Although Gerald is able to use household items and rolled paper to create fantastic images, I opted to purchase a kit, I'm lazy like that.