gluing and clamping legs together

I have glued and clamped the leg and apron assembly for a cherry hall table and will sand and attach the top tomorrow.

Make, fix and create...

Viking chest class

With two days of Viking chest class complete at ESSA (essa-art.org), students have their chests assembled, sanded and stained while they work for two days with Dale Custer in the forging studio to make the hardware consisting of hinges, hasp and handles.

Students have learned a lot and done great work. On Saturday I'll be at studio stroll to discuss the project, and do a quick demonstration. On Sunday I'll be with the class to finish up.

Make, fix and create...

Loose tenons

I'm continuing to make a cherry hall table and am using "loose" tenons to form the joints between parts. A "loose" tenon is not actually loose when fully assembled but is formed separately, allowing me to form mortises in both parts and the tenons glued in place to join both parts. It forms a strong, lasting joint.

As you can see in the photographs, this technique allows parts to be cut to exact length and then joined with less complicated measuring and cutting involved than a convention tenon that's cut and shaped at the ends of the stock. The loose tenon stock is milled to exact size, then rounded at the edges on the router table and after being cut in lengths will be glued in place.

Make, fix and create...

Cherry tabletop

With white oak tables complete I've had so much fun that I'm making one from cherry. The top is shaped using a saber saw, and plane after two wide boards were planed and glued to dimension. Next come the legs. 

This one will also be for sale.

People need to be informed of the value of having tools. We are transformed by them. Each is an expression of power to shape and express. 

We're not powerless consumers but makers and crafters. We'll not look to Wall Street for the redemption of the middle class, but  to ourselves and each other..

Make, fix and create...

Finished but for additional coats

Work for sale. Deliverable within Northwest Arkansas.  

I have finished the hall table and need to move it out of house and home to make room for another, as I enjoy making them. Contact me if you're interested in owning work of this nature. All solid wood but for the screw clips attaching the single board top.

Other works of useful integrity are available.

Make, fix and create...

Ready to attach the top

I have nearly completed the hall table as shown.

A reader said that he'd read my book "Wisdom of Our Hands" and as a beginning woodworker wondered which of my box making books might come next. I mentioned "Basic Box Making" by Taunton Press because the DVD done in association with it is offered free on my YouTube channel here:  https://youtu.be/8xlz9ekl3JE

In fact, you could do as some of my friends have done and watch one by one, through whole playlists including small cabinets and rustic furniture. Then enjoy the contents working with projects for kids. My friends left the channel on, even when their attentions were drawn away, just to build the hours. Thanks!

Make, fix and create... 

a quick tutorial

Form finger joints, but unlike a conventional finger joint, index the stock from both sides, stopping in the middle. 

Use a marking gauge to place an index mark for removal of the finger that will impede the completion of the joint. 

Then use a chisel to remove it, chiseling in on the marking gauge line from both sides. 

The joint will fit together as shown. In order for this technique to work, the parts must be rip sawn to the same width.

Make, fix and create...

upside down

Turned upside down I can measure the trial assembled hall table for the last step before adding the lower stretcher. I'll form tenons on the ends of the stock before final assembly and the leg units are permanently glued. 

Now that I've glued the legs to the aprons and added the lower support stretcher, the next steps will be to make a finger jointed drawer, maple drawer slides, a drawer front and finish.

Make, fix and create...

Assembly

I am in the process of gluing and assembling components of a hall table. Shown is the drawer support and apron assembly that will allow me to make a trial assembly of the whole table and to take accurate measurements of the lower tenoned support that runs left to right. 

What you witness are my own attempt of authenticity... Applying my time in pursuit of my ideals.

Make,  fix and create...

routed aprons ...IRL

I've routed the aprons for a hall table and am ready now for sanding, then assembly. I used a sign maker's router bit with a tiny bearing to be able to closely follow the sawn profile. https://amzn.to/3HONkev

Make, fix and create...
 

In Real Life

Being out of touch with internet slang I had to go to google to learn the acronym IRL means "in real life." Fortunately I'm not far from ideal life or being "in" it, as I have my woodshop and tools to turn to, and I have little use for what they're selling. Most of that will be useless, broken or in the landfill because of diminishing interest in a matter of months. So paying for it will not fit your needs or mine despite how attractive and addictive it appears. 

Take this lesson to heart. The things you make exist as skills in your own heart, hands and mind and nearly all else is some corporation trying to take advantage of you and your resources.

Today I have planed the stock for the table aprons and begin forming tenons on the table saw. The first step is to cut the shoulders of the tenons using the table saw sled as shown. The stop block makes certain that each cut is the same distance from the end of the stock. This is not AI. It's real life, and join me in some. It's infinitely rewarding.

Make, fix and create...

Tapered and marked for mortises

I have tapered and marked the legs for mortises. Cutting mortises will be the next step, and as they are done in pairs, left and right, the marking is a careful task.

I have continued to read Mike Rose's book, Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker, https://amzn.to/47szxo9 and it should be noted that in addition to this book, Rose was a noted authority on writing. And for some, the urge to write emerges when one has something to say. Looking at a blank paper in sixth grade while the teacher stands over you expecting you to perform won't do.

We do not all mature at the same pace and many have discovered their inclination to write when they've matured enough to have something meaningful to say. While the teacher stands there putting the pressure on, relax.

Make, fix and create...

Keeping busy

Keeping busy in the woodshop is part of my physical therapy from having had a stroke on December 1, 2024. 

I work for a while and then go back to sit and rest... Then go back to work until I feel tired. 

The white oak was harvested here on our small wood lot  and stored in my barn to dry. I had to cut it down to 14 3/4 in. to pass through the planer, then shaped it, routed the edges and sanded to 120 grit.

Next come legs, aprons, mortise and tenon joints and a drawer. It is all slightly larger than the hall table I made last week and will fit nicely in an office or home. The wood is particularly lovely. Wide, free of defects and lovely.

There are those who do not experience the creative joy that making entails. Surely we can have the machine and imported labor do things for us, and be diminished by it.

Or we can make other choices.

Make, fix and create...

Making a sycamore sculpture

Make, fix and create...

A reason for woodworking in school

A reason for woodworking:

In the early days of manual arts Uno Cygnaeus in Finland sought a means of extending the Kindergarten method into the upper grades in his creation of folk schools. How-to was clear in that Froebel's distinction between "gifts" and "occupations" should be informing us in the decisions we make about education today. 

The gifts, including sets of blocks and other creative devises were used by the children then put back in their boxes unchanged. The idea of the gift was to change the understanding in the heart and mind of the child, to incite curiosity about learning, and observation of life.  

Occupations were the materials that were changed and no longer available to the box from which they came. Woodworking and other crafts were the occupations Cygnaeus had in mind. We should adopt that same understanding of technology. Kids can learn from their devices, but if they don't do anything tangible as a result of learning, then their learning is what educators once called, "one-sided". What goes in, must come out, and not only through testing but through the making of beautiful and useful things.

The occupations were to give children creative, transforming power through which they, too, were transformed.  The distinction between Froebel's gifts and occupations was based on the recognition that education was not just what went into the child in the form of lessons and information, but must  also be  balanced by what comes out of the child in the form of tangible expression, in which each child discovered ways in which they could participate directly in community life.

Make, fix and create...