"Coming Soon" My New Shop

Yes finally, I found a place to work at again. Its been four years and five months since I have had a actually shop to express myself in and do some honest to goodness woodworking in and man am I looking forward to it. Right now I am waiting on some electric work to be finished up, so I can start moving in and you could say I got shop fever. I know I should be studying for school and I have three papers to write, and a project to work on, but all could bring myself to do today was look at old woodworking magazines and think about all the projects I need to build, not only for the shop and home, but I already have people wanting me to give them prices on some work for their houses, that I hope is a good omen. I am going into this with the hope of that at lease I can make enough money the pay the rent, beside that what I hope is to use this space to finally explore wood as an art form. I want to do a lot of craving, sculpting, some painting, and stain glass. maybe even keep exploring this screen printing which has been cool, and I would love to find I way to incorporate screen printing into woodworking somehow. I also plan on doing a video podcast soon, it is what I am studying in college and doing a video podcast would be great experience for me as long as I can do a good job with it. So any feedback or ideas you have like always, feel free to contact me. You can find me on twitter, facebook, and google plus, or leave a comment here and have a great day.   

Joey

Advice for Beginners

One of the biggest setbacks for a beginners in art, craft, or woodworking for many is that their abilities don't match their expectations, for most this isn't a matter of talent, but a lack of experience in the technical techniques that is needed to achieve their goals. This happened to me the first time I tried oil painting, what I saw in my head was a long way from what I painted on the canvas and it wasn't that I didn't have the talent or the skills I just lacked the knowledge of the process.

 I'm a professional woodworker and the first thing I learned was the basics then I started learning more advance techniques then with confidence I started to experiment, a lot, and with that I developed my own style. When I tried to start oil painting I skipped learning the basics and was so disappointed in my results that ended up just putting it all away with the feeling that painting just wasn't for me.

Well now, I am a student at Wilmington College as a art major, and one of the things that I have noticed is that many of these younger student go though the same thing that I did with oil painting, with some of the different medias they are trying working in, they forget that they are there to learn the technique and instead they get wrapped up into the expectation of their finished pieces of work, which is easy to do. They need to remember that these beginning pieces are just a byproducts of learning the techniques of the process. Many just need to take some time to try do the work a different way and to feel the freedom to experiment while not being afraid make mistakes, however it being a class, the emphases is always on the finish piece, and not the how it got there or if we were willing to take chances along the way. What I noticed is many of the students keep doing the techniques that they felt comfortable with, so they didn't risk any mistakes and while there pieces came out good, some could be been much better, but as with all students we always have that grade to worry about and our senior portfolios to fill.

I think for beginners its important just to do a lot of work, do a large body of work that will help to develop your style and teach you more then any class or book. If your a beginning artist, crafter, or woodworker  learn the basics then color out side the box when you get the chance, take them chances, experiment with your work, yeah you will make mistakes and sometime you will do work that is total junk, but them are the ones you are going to learn the most from, but more than anything else have fun with it, don't take your failures to serous and when one does go bad look at it to see what  can I learn from it, that failure is a great learning opportunity and then go try something else.

The Furniture at The Cincinnati Art Museum

Over Spring Break from school I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum to see the Cincinnati exhibit, mostly to see the woodworking and carving that was on display. Cincinnati was home of some great carvers and some well known furniture builders during the 19th century. I thought I would share some of the pictures with everyone so enjoy and if you are ever in Cincinnati the Art Museum is well worth a visit. 

Learning to be a Student Again

Hello woodworkers, no I have not given up woodworking, I have just been busy pursuing my education. I decided to go back to school at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio a private Quaker college where I am studying for a dual degree in Fine Arts, and Media Productions. yes friends I do plan on using this in my online woodworking hobby. What I am hoping to do is to get into producing online content for applications like ibook or working for a magazine. I am hoping that there will be a need for people who know SketchUp, video, photography and how to write, so they can produce manuals for products like Ikea bookshelves or Cannon cameras in iBook. Content that is straight forward and easy to follow with SketchUp models, art work, pictures, easy to follow writing, and videos of professionals assembling or using the products. Theses books can be downloaded from ibook and and will give the user a better experiences. 

I’m on spring break this week, so I am catching up on my art work. I am also preparing my images for my screen printing classes which has been a great class, now I can make my own company T-shirts. I have noticed one thing watching some of the other students in class that I also noticed in some woodworker classes I have taken. Students take classes to learn how to do a technique, but somewhere long the way they get so wrap up in their project that they get tunnel vision where the whole class becomes about that piece of work instead of learning as much about how to do the techniques needed to do that project. For me any art piece or woodworking piece I make in a class is a by-product of the class, a by-product of learning the process and I try not to get to focused on it, but instead put all that energy into learning as much as I can. I do that by talking to other students and helping them when I can and excepting their help and advice. I ask them about their mistakes and try the make note of them so I don’t repeat them and I tell them about mine and how I fixed them. I also started making better notes with pictures that I keep in Everynote, a program that I have came to love. This has made me a better student this year and I am sure that in the long run will improve my work whether its art or woodworking.

Joey

Thanks Bessey for The 12 Days of Christmas

I don't  often about companies unless it's a product that I use in my work or have used in my years on the job a trust and I'm doing a review, to many tool companies try to lure us to add their tools to our tool boxes and workflow with fancy adds or gimmick like big give always or big flashy adds. This Christmas Bessey did something on Facebook that I thought was a very nice jester to their customers, they did their 12 Days of Christmas, where each day they ask a question on their Facebook page and if you commented on their post you received a small give of one of the clamps or one of their metal cutting snips. Now some might say its a gimmick, Ok maybe it is, but I think it is a great way to honor and give back to their customers besides being a great way to introduce themselves and products to new customers like I have been using Bessey clamps for years, but I didn't know they sold metal working tools. 

I have many clamps, its what happens when one works wood for thirty years but as the saying goes "you can never have enough clamps" and the same goes for me. Over the years I have have change not only the project I build but the style I build them now. I build more instruments now, I do more carving, and I use more hand tools in my work flow, all making me be as creative with my clamping as I am with my project and Bessey has already thought of most of these solutions for me, thank you Bessey. 

More than any thing else I just wanted to say Thanks to Bessey in a time where we hear a lot about corporate greed it's nice to see a company giving back to the people that buy their products. I know it will a factor in my future clamp purchases, if Bessey have what I need even if it is a little more $ I will more than likely go with the Bessey clamps. So again Thank You Bessey and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I hope you have a most prospers New Year.

Sleepdog Woodworks    

How I Wood Do It "The 1/2 Lap Joint"

This is the first of a monthly feature we are calling "How I Wood Do It" each month a few of us bloggers will be posting how we would do a different technique in our shops. Hopefully this will give you, our readers a different point of reference on a simple techniques. Well lets get to it shall we. 

The Half Lap Joint

The half lap? Really how often is the wood joint really used in every day woodworking?  It is a strong basic joint, that is fairly fast and easy to make, and is one of the first most people learn in classes.

It is used in everyday woodworking! Well, I worked in a shop in the 80s that build pine face framed cabinet and the owner swore by half lap joint to assemble the face frames, so I learn to cut them quickly and accurate, we had many heated debates in the shop over this joint compared to using the mortise and tenon as well as some other joints for the same application. We really wasn't set up to to cut mortises in the shop and didn't want to invest in any more tooling and we could do the half lap quickly with the tools we had. Since then I have used this Half Lap Joint for a lot of projects since it is a strong easy joint.

This is how I cut the Half Lap Joint.

If I have to cut a lot half laps, I like to do it on a table saw either using a single, or a dado blade. I like the table saw better, because if you screw up and the wood happens to lift up off the table top the blade cuts into the waste material and can't cut into the material that is the joint and you won't ruin the cut by cutting into it. If you did this on a sliding miter saw or radial arm saw and the wood lifted up it would cut though the waste and into the joint itself. 

If I just have a single joint or two to cut, I use a making gauge and a hand saw to cut out the waste and clean and fit the joint with a shoulder plane. Some times if I have more than a couple or if I am in a hurry I will use my band saw to replace the hand saw part of the operation, but the rest is the same.

• I first make sure the sides and face are planed flat and square and put a X on my reference face and edge.

• Then I  find center with my marking gauge.

Setting the marking gage for center

•  I do this by marking a dot from each side then by trusting my eye to judge center I readjusting my gauge to the center then checking it from each side again and repeating again if needed, the more you practice this the better you will get at doing it in just a couple of try's. 

Checking the right side

Checking from the left side

• I then mark three lines on both boards, one on each side and the end the board, and then square a line the width of my boards from the end. marking from my references face which I always layout from I also mark the waste on my reference side.

The waste marked with an X

Both sides laid out

• I saw down the waste side of the line, and then crosscut across following my squared lines until the piece falls out

Starting the rip

Following the line down to the crosscut

Following the line

Defining the line

Finishing the cut

• I then use a shoulder plane to clean up and adjust the lap joint till it fits.

Adjusting with a plane

Easier to plane when they are clamped side by side

• My power tools solution since is to use my band saw. again I make sure the sides are planed straight and all the layout is the same as using a handsaw

Crosscutting on the bandsaw

Ripping on the bandsaw

Ripping the the 2nd lap on the bandsaw

•  I carefully cut the crosscut till I get down to my layout line then I rip it on the waste side till the scrape falls out then I clean and fit it with a shoulder plane. if I had more than a few to do I would set up a fence for this part with the waste side toward the fence.

Checking the fit

Clamped together @ 90 degrees

Another view

Next Month we will be doing "Mortises" 

Below are some of the other Blogger and Podcaster that will be joining in this monthly feature next month will be the official start and not ever person on this list will be able to participate each month, but hopefully enough will that we will get a wide variety of experience and insights that we will all learn something. As other bloggers join in I will add links to their sites so you can just post though to them right and each bloggers will do the same making it easy to find all the postings. If you are a blogger or a podcaster and you would like to participate let me and I will give you the details.

Oldwolf Workshop Studio
Sandal-woodsblog
Tomsworkbench
Sawdustislife
Thewoodninja
Penultimatewoodshop
Scottmorton
Flairwoodworks
Ravinheart
Americancraftsmanworkshop

My First Woodworking In America

This year was my first Woodworking In America, and I thought I would share a few thoughts with everyone. I went as a volunteer this year to run a camera for Ron Herman's first two sessions classes, which worked out good for me because that as two of the classes I wanted to attend. The classes was combination planes and shooting boards. both subject Ron is very knowledgeable in. I had some technical problems like when I first got in the class room there was no camera and when I went out to see if I could find out where I could get one someone just drop a camera off back in the class without even giving me a few minutes of instruction in the operation of the camera or telling me if they wanted me to record the class. so I got everything working and faked it until I made it, all the while trying my best to to stay out of Ron's way and using the camera when it was needed. I wish there would of been more chance for hands on, but I can see where the amount of people who attend and time we had how it would be a problem.

The classes where interesting and informative, but they where short and kind of like a condense lecture that went over mostly material that we have gotten from the magazines over the years. Now I am not saying they wasn't interesting and they there wasn't nothing to learn, because that not true it's just there was small nuggets of information about lots of different things to learn there. If you where going to just learn something like say, how to improve cutting dovetails while you might get some great tips I think you would come away disappointed overall and would better off spending your money on a class at Chuck Benders school. Now if you when there wanting expand your ideas about woodworking in general, and meet some great guys, see wonderful tools and have just a fun filled weekend talking, eating, and drinking woodworking, then you surly won't be disappointed as I wasn't.

Like I said the classes where interesting and informative, but the market place was where all the action was. there where some wonderful tools that honestly as a tradesman I could never afford to own, but they where fun to play with. The toolmaker where great to talk and are a wealth of information. There was a mix of power tools and hand tools I even saw some air nailers and the neatest air brush by Grex. Getting a chance to talk to guys like Chris Wong who makes top escapement hollow and round planes, and Shannon at the Hand Tool School, and of course the guys at Lee Valley was a treat for me and my wife.

The hand tool Olympics had to be funniest spot on the floor, the guys and girls that works that event not only are friendly and helpful they have a great sense of humor. I really have to say I haven laugh as much that weekend as I did standing around ribbing the other bloggers as they cut their dovetails. I even stepped up and cut the first hand cut dovetail I have cut in twenty five years, and to be honest I have been rethinking using my router and start cutting them by hand. maybe? but the point is if I wouldn't of tried them there I would even be considering it now.

The best thing about Woodworking In America  for me was the people. This was the first time I have had a chance to meet most of the bloggers that I talk to on google, twitter or face-book and read their blog's everday.  I had a chance to meet and talk face to face with these guy, to laugh and drink with them, and now I feel like I made some friends that will last a life time even if I never see them again in person.

Will I go back? well I all ready started a coin jar and I'm saving for WIA12, and even if I don't get to go back as a volunteer I will find a way to get there somehow.