The Nicked Finger

The Nicked Finger is Moving

2010-11-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

The Nicked Finger Blog is moving over to Wordpress. To keep up with the goings on please resubscribe over at http://thenickedfinger.wordpress.com/

They call it labor day for a reason...

2010-09-06T15:55:00.002-04:00

I finished the kitchen cabinets on schedule and my brother and sister-in-law came up this weekend and attacked the project with gusto...

First the sheet rock came down, and then most of the wall studs came out.

Then the carpet and the kitchen floor had to be cut back to the subfloor level so cabinets could sit down where they needed to be.

Once the final dimensions were figured out, the end post to support the overhead beam went in place (the beam was pocket screwed into the ceiling joists).

At the end of the first day, the beam was all done, and the cabinets were sitting in place.

At the end of the second day the cabinets were permanently set (the were screwed together and pocked screwed into the floor), and the temporary counter top was installed.

And finally around 1:00pm today (day three) the three massive drawers were installed (they were built on day 2), and the sliding trash bin was also installed.

Everybody is now tired, including Reba the Wonder Dog, and Grace the cat.

It's Time for a Cabinet Meeting

2010-08-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

The great cabinet build started in earnest on Thursday. Before any cabinets got built, however, I had to wait for a little help to show up to cut the full sheets of plywood down. While waiting I gave the shop a pretty good cleaning and even managed to organize my sheet good pile.

I even manged to measure and label all of the partial sheets with their size, including thickness.

With the layout of my shop, cleaning up this space was very important in order to have a clear path for feeding the plywood over my table saw.

As it turned out, after much initial frustration of not getting consistent sized cuts off my table saw, I found my rip fence was loose when locked down and was moving as much as 1/8" during the cut of the big sheets. Once I figured what was happening and snugged the fence adjustment down, I ended up with my cuts being a full 3/8" narrower than I had planed. It's not the end of the world though as long as they are all ripped to the same exact size.

Using the tablesaw, bandsaw, and mitre saw, my wife and I (she came home early to help) got all the pieces cut, assembly line style, for all 4 cabinets.

Here is the first:

This will be the only cabinet with an exposed end and will eventually hold the trash can for the kitchen.

When we stopped working that night we had the first cabinet's twin also done:

The second cabinet will have one door and a sliding shelf. These cabinets are both 15" wide.

Saturday we went into my wife's office and painted all the walls to freshen the place up, but I did get out into the shop around 4:00 and put together the last cabinet in the row (skipping the 3rd cabinet because it is the biggest at 36" wide and I was working by myself).

This cabinet will up with two doors opening into a 28 1/2" space with one or two sliding shelves (I'm thinking about putting a "false bottom" shelf in for easy access.

That just leaves the last big cabinet that is going to have 3 drawers in it (a 12" deep, a 9" deep, and a 6" deep). Right now it is sitting in parts waiting it's turn (maybe tomorrow).

As with any new project, the opportunity presents itself to add a new tool to the arsenal, and surprisingly enough my wife grabbed this little gem off the shelf at the Big Blue Box Store and threw it in the cart while I was getting some more pocket screws.

As funny as it sound, I think I might prefer the Multi-Mark to my regular adjustable square (I'm not big fan of the way a regular square tightens down I guess). I just wish this came with a12" ruler instead of the 6".

That's all for now.

One Project Down, Another Project Ready To Go

2010-08-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

Finally finished the face frames on the built-in bookcases, and they are now done except for painting (and my lovely wife is going to take care of that).

Here is the "finished" product that still needs some "finish".

Now on to new and (gasp) even bigger things. We are going to take a wall out of the Kitchen and open it up to the dining room, and where the wall was, we're going to put in a new set of Cabinets with a built in breakfast bar. The run of cabinets is going to be 8' long.

We started out with a hand sketch:

I then took this to Sketchup and rendered some views:

Did I mention I have to have these cabinets done by Friday? No? Thank goodness for the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig! I really just need to get the cabinet(s) into this stage shown below. I'm going to build in 4 pieces and bring them into the house one at a time.

Maybe I will be able to post a quick update each day this week to show progress.

A journey of a 1000 books begins with a single shelf...sort of.

2010-08-13T10:56:00.000-04:00

It has been unusually hot and humid here for the past few weeks with a couple breaks in the weather recently. The small air conditioner in my shop does an admirable job of keeping things bearable, but only if I give it a 2 hour head start to get things under control. This means really no work on the really hot days after I get home from my day job.

I have been working, slowly, on a new set of built in bookshelves in our home office. I had some nice simple plans in one of the many books I have collected over the years.

The plan has a 2 sets of shelves on the left side of the door and one set on the right (the door not being in the middle of the wall). Construction starts with a 2x4 frame for each side.

I screwed the top and bottom plates directly into the ceiling joists and sub-floor accordingly. The vertical pieces were secured using 2 1/2" pocket screws. I used my Kreg Mini to make all the holes and cut a spacer to help make sure they were in the proper position.

Next 1/2" plywood was installed on the 2 exposed ends (near the door) and to make the bottom shelf and the top "cap" of each unit. Also we painted the wall behind the shelves a deep chocolate brown.

Next, 1/2" plywood was run up the insides of the units at set lengths and 3/4" plywood was installed horizontally across to make the shelves.

Finally (so far) some 3/4" poplar was cut and installed to begin the face frame.

Hopefully on Sunday I will be able to cut and install the rest of the face frame across all the shelves, then the whole this is going to be painted white.

Sorry the photo's aren't so great, but the room is not big enough to get far enough away from the shelves to get the whole thing in frame....

Don't put my heart on a shelf ... or in a box

2010-07-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

All has been pretty quite on the blogging front for the last few weeks. I've been working on a little project for my wife's birthday (I won't say which birthday) and she is one of the few people who read my blog so I had to keep mum about what I was really doing.

So without further ado, my first bandsaw type box ... happy birthday honey.

My Review of Work Sharp 3000

2010-07-13T08:22:00.001-04:00

Originally submitted at Woodcraft

You can monitor stock removal from above with the Work Sharp's "see-through" wheel while a large port provides access from underneath.

Easy Perfect Edge ... given time.

By The Nicked Finger from Loudon, NH on 7/13/2010

Pros: Lightweight, Easy to use

Cons: Slower than Expected

Best Uses: At Home, Gifts, Contract Jobs

Describe Yourself: Avid Do-It-Yourselfer

Primary use: Personal

This tool works wonders on putting a sharp edge on things. However if you are going to change the PRIMARY BEVEL angle on anything, it's gonna take a little while.

(legalese)

Plane and Simple

2010-05-28T09:56:00.000-04:00

A few months back a member of my extended family (on my wife's side) decided to sell their house and move south. In the basement of the house was a collection of old tools from a grandfather who had passed away, and I bought the whole kitten-caboodle for $100.00 (see This Post from January).

Well, hidden in that lot was a little filthy dirty block plane that I didn't really pay much attention to. However I recently bought a set of dremel cleaning bits and decided to clean up some of this older stuff.

After really looking at this for first time I noted some unusual things about this block plane. It has a lateral adjuster for the blade, the blade depth wheel is oriented horizontally:

And little tiny knob up front has some kind of adjuster I have never seen on a plane before:

I disassembled the plane, blew the dust out, and took every piece of the plane to my drill press that has a brass wire cleaning wheel installed in it right this second (I got it at the Big Blue store for $0.70). After about 15 minutes I had everything de-gunked and pretty much rust free.

Imagine my surprise when I got enough gunk off of the cap iron to see the engraving stating this was a vintage Stanley Sweet Heart block plane. I'm not sure exactly what the model is, I am pretty sure it is not a #102.

I'm also pretty sure it still works.

Going, going, gone....

2010-05-24T13:51:00.000-04:00

Sunday I went to my first auction. My wife spied an article in the local paper about an estate auction being held nearby and part of the estate was a wood working shop!

The auctions started at 10:00, and I didn't get there until nearly 9:45, so I didn't have as much chance to walk around and scope things out as I would have liked.

I got a little electric sharpener (by craftsman) for $10.00. This will be good enough to hollow grind a set of junkie bench chisels, but I don't want to use it on my good chisels or my plane blades.

I got a set of clamp edge guides for $30. Two 4', One 3' and Two 2'

I also got a 3/4 HP single stage dust collector (woodtek) for $40, and a 1 HP single stage dust collector (relaint) for $45.00.

I got outbid on a 6"x4" craftsman disk / belt sander, several different types of clamps, and 2 different oscillating spindle sanders.

Now I just need some hose fittings for the Dust collection (I'm going to put the 3/4 HP on my Bandsaw full time and move the 1HP around as I need it) and I'll be in business.

The 2 hour project

2010-05-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

After working 1/2 a day on Saturday, I cam home and installing the top the Bedroom Built in. One more step in finishing this and its a big one. Now everything looks finished (except for the handles, and the big gouge I took out of the wall installing the top) and adding the two bookcases to each end are just "add ons".

House chores ate up the morning on Sunday, but I did get out the shop in the afternoon. Due to a set of missing car keys I was left to work with whatever I had on hand in the shop and I remembered something the LOML had asked me for, and I had a piece of poplar handy that looked like it would fit the bill. Two hours later the project was completed:

This is a wall mount magazine rack for the bathroom (seems someone is tired of my reading materials congregating on the back of the toilet).

Should be able to get this stained and installed by the weekend (which is good, cause it's time get the Camper ready for our trip to Dover for the NASCAR race). I even managed to use my new Bandsaw to shape the scooped cut-outs.

New Tool - Part 2 - The Tax Return

2010-04-16T13:00:00.000-04:00

At the end of last year I was kind of hoping that our tax return would be enough to let me buy a new big ticket tool for my workshop (I define "big ticket" as over $200.00). I knew I wanted to that tool to be a bandsaw, the question was really WHICH bandsaw to get.

I googled, I did searches on You Tube, I visited manufacturers websites, I posted questions in woodworking forums. I created a comparison chart of 15 different band saws from 10 different manufacturers, comparing resaw capacity, table size, horsepower, price, etc...

Imagine my surprise when after all my research I ended up concluding that the Sears Craftsman 14" bandsaw (for me) was going to be the best bang for the buck.

The bandsaw, in the box, weighs in at 223lbs. Its a good 30 feet, uphill, over soft ground, from where I can park my truck to the front door of my shop... ugh. I did finally get it in the shop, get it up on a table (which was really the hardest part), and then spent about 4 hours over 3 nights putting it together.

And because my lovely wife lets me do this crazy woodworking thing that I love so much, I just had to make something for her:

New Tool - Part 1 - The Birthday

2010-04-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

Well I just had my birthday and my lovely wife went out and picked me up a little something.

I just put my old Relaint drill press up on Craigs List and hopefully it will find itself a nice new home.

Knob & Stain, the final pieces to the table.

2010-04-02T13:43:00.001-04:00

Not much to say here. Got the knob installed, gave the table 2 coats of Watco Danish Oil (Cherry), and I think its pretty much all done. Might give it one more coat over the weekend.

Shaker table construction completed.

2010-03-29T13:22:00.000-04:00

Saturday late afternoon I got the chance to run out and glue up the top to the Shaker Table and let it sit overnight in the clamps. Sunday I got to spend most of the day in the shop and got the bottom and top rails installed, cut the top down to its final size, and began to sand the be-Jesus out of it.

Got it down to 220 grit, installed the top (somewhere during the day I also installed the drawer stop in the back), and now, except for the drawer pull, construction is done.

This project had a lot of firsts for me. First Mortise and Tennon, first dovetail, first tapered legs, first COMPLETED project that started with rough wood.

All in all very satisfying.

Shaker, rattle, I'm on a roll

2010-03-15T11:20:00.000-04:00

Got to spend quite a bit of time the shop this weekend and made a bit a progress on both of the pending projects.

The Woodworkers Fighting Cancer Shaker Table Build

Over the weekend I managed to get the aprons for the table cut, and the tennons made. Following the advise of The Wood Whisperer I custome fit each tennon to its respective mortise. Did a dry assembly, and finally got the carcass of the table glued up (in two stages).

I will have to do a little "evening" where one of the aprons meets one of the legs (I've got a 1/16th ridge where the apron ended up proud of the leg), but otherwise I'm pretty happy with how this is coming together.

I think the next thing on this table is going to be the top.

A counter top you can count on.

2010-03-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

Got to spend quite a bit of time the shop this weekend and made a bit a progress on both of the pending projects.

The Cherry Counter Top for the Built-In

I got out my Kreg Mini and set about drilling 20 pocket holes in the center board of the counter top (10 on each side). I got the Mini free when I ordered on of the Kreg clamps I got, and this thing is a joy to use on big pieces like this and I don't have to take my regular Kreg apart.

These pieces are so long I ended up using biscuits and pocket holes to put it together (the biscuits where really to help keep the pieces aligned over the whole 10' length).

Finally got out the glue and every clamp that I own that would open to 18"...

The I flipped the whole mess over and ran the 20 pocket screws home. This worked really well as the pocket screws actually got some squeeze out from the places the clamps alone did not.

I even managed to get back to the piece about 45 minutes after the glue up to scrape away the squeeze out while it was in the "booger" stage.

Up next for this is a cutting to final size, and then lots and lots of sanding. If I can "bump" into one of my neighbors down the street, he has a 20" planer and maybe I can him to let me make a few passes over the top of this; it would sure make this last step much easier....

Hot Knife, meet Butter

2010-03-03T13:48:00.000-05:00

March is here and by end of the month I hope to have the top of the built-in together and installed, and of course the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer shaker table build (feel free to check it out and maybe make a small donation if you are so inclined).

Last weekend I finished jointing and planeing the faces of the Cherry for top of the built-in. All finished it ended up just over 1" thick, so that will make a nice top. I still need to cut and joint the edges and I actually think I'll end up using my trusty circular saw and a nice straight edge to get them close as the boards are really rough along the edges right now varying buy as much as 3/4" on each side. I think I can save myself a lot effort on the jointer buy smoothing it out with the circular saw first.

While I had everything set up for the Cherry, I went ahead and surfaced 3 sides of the 1 1/2 inch piece of birch I had selected for the legs of the Shaker Table. After busting my hump working on 10' long pieces of cherry all day, this 6' piece of birch was a real pleasure to work with.

I finally called it quits Sunday afternoon and went in to dinner with my wife and mother (who comes over every Sunday for dinner). A bit later that evening I went out to the shop to put some 18v batteries away that were left in the house after the previous 36 hours without power and saw that birch sitting there all clean and squared up... I thought I would just take a second and layout the legs on the board with a pencil, just to make sure they would all fit fine. Well, 30 minutes later I ended up with 4 legs all cut out.

No if look close at the model of the table you will notice the legs are tapered (on two sides). Most people would probably cut this taper on a band saw, however I do not currently own a band saw (30 days to my birthday!), so I had to come up with another way to do it. Interestingly enough I found an old copy of HANDY (the magazine) while cleaning the house on Saturday, and while leafing through it before I filed it away one of their articles had a section on building a quick tapering jig for your table saw. Armed with this information I went out Monday night and threw one together out of scrap I had laying around the shop.

Here it is "loaded" with one of the legs:

And a close up showing how the Jig leaves the first 6" of the leg square and then beings to taper the rest.

Last night I went out and actually ran the legs through the table saw to cut the tapers. This was a little nerve wracking at first as this is one of the steps that you can really destroy a piece on, but things worked out great and the saw tore through the legs like, well, a hot knife through butter. Here is a shot of one the legs after tapering.

Next up is cutting the mortises (or as my wife calls them the holey things) that the sides of the table will fit into (with tenons).

The Phantom Woodworking Show

2010-02-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

Saturday my wife and I got up early (for us, on a Saturday) and hit the road to drive down to Marlborough, Massachusetts to attend a woodworking show I had found online a few weeks ago. We made the 86 miles drive in bright sunshine and good spirits, arriving at our destination 10 minutes before the show was scheduled to start that day (the website advertising a 3 day event, Fri - Sun).

Imagine our surprise to show up and find an empty ... nay, a desolately deserted ... parking lot (I mean this was just a tumble-weed away from spooky). The event center was associated with a hotel set in the same complex so we drove up to the hotel and found out, sure enough, no woodworking show. The hotel told us the show had moved to Connecticut this year and we were the 5th person they had turned away so far.

I later sent an e-mail to the publishers of the website and they responded with an appology, wanting to know how I had come across that page as it was just a test page. My responce: "google". They did get my address and are supposed to sending me tickets to the "Big E", witch is a big show in Boston every January.

Not to be denied my woodworking fix, I grabbed my GPS unit and pulled up the address for the local Rockler store. That worked out kind of nice as I had not been there before (I have a Rockler and a Woodcraft within an hour of my house). So we got to roam around the Rockler for a while and walked out happy, but poorer. At least I got some change.

But I got some neat stuff:

Life's a Birch... with Cherry on top.

2010-02-16T16:22:00.000-05:00

Monday my beautiful wife and I went to Goose Bay Lumber to pick out lumber for the top of the built in. I wanted something a little thicker than you find at a big box store, so we were looking for 6/4 material (that's 1 1/2" thick to you lay folk).

We ended up with 3 nice pieces of Cherry all 10 feet long, 2 pieces about 7 inches wide and one 4" (25 board feet). Here is it stacked up on the work bench:

Here's a nice shot of some the grain showing on one of the pieces:

While were there I also wanted to find some wood for a shaker table project I am doing for the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer march build-along. For everyone who signs up and completes the project, money will be raised for the American Cancer Society.

Here is a sketch-up of the table:

I had originally thought to make this out of white birch (the New Hampshire state tree), but found white birch to unsuitable for such a thing (or so the guy at goose bay told me), and ended up buying 13 Board Feet of Yellow Birch instead.

The large piece is going to make up the top, back and sides of the table and it has a "flame" pattern in it (costing me another 1.05 per board foot of that particular piece):

Now in my minds eye I see an inlay in the top of the table. Nothing too fancy, really just a square frame of darker wood to give the piece a little extra pop. To that end I did buy a nice piece of Ebony, 2 1/4" wide and 24" long (another $10):

Hopefully I have the guts and talent to pull the inlay off. I know HOW to do it, but the chances of screwing up my nice "Flame" top are not insignificant!

Putting up a Fasle Front can be a good thing....

2010-02-08T14:46:00.003-05:00

I'm real sore today, but that should be expected as I spent almost 4 hours on my knees yesterday (no, get your mind out of the gutter). I finally got all the drawer fronts finished with a final coat of stain and poly and it was time to install them.

For those who may have forgotten, this is what we started with way back when:

Then we progressed to this:

And now finally we are here:

And this final step turned into a bigger job than I anticipated.

The tale of two Kitchens

2010-02-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

One Kitchen is a soothing, well laid out, modern, cullinary workshop, and the other kitchen is the one we actually have.

Step one in the transformation happened this weekend.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

3, 2, 1, .... 0 Clearance

2010-01-27T13:21:00.000-05:00

I've had a zero clearance insert sitting around my shop forever (a few years anyway) that I never go installed into my table saw. While working on the raised drawer fronts it became quickly apparent that I was going to have to do SOMETHING to keep the short end of the small drawers from falling into the blade opening of my standard insert while they were being cut, so I finally bit the bullet and figured out how to get the inset put in:

Of course now I'm kicking myself for not doing this earlier (like when I was doing the simple kitchen cabinet). I'm going to have to find a couple more of these so I can make one for my Dado Set.

The drawer fronts are coming along. I'm doing them in sets of three.... the first night I put the 1st coat on one set of three. Last night I put a first coat on the 2nd set of 3 and the 2nd coat on the first set of three.

One coat:

Two Coats:

The built in face frame got 3 coats, so I have one more to go on the first set of three. Here is a "naked" board next to one with 2 coats:

So tonight, the 3rd set will get the 1st coat, the 2nd set will get the 2nd coat and the 1st set will get the 3rd coat....um right? Thankfully there are only 4 sets of 3 drawers each.

Raised Panel Drawer Fronts

2010-01-25T12:22:00.000-05:00

FINALLY, I'm starting to work on the next stage of the built in project. Spent several hours in the shop Sunday (no football for me) making up panels for the drawer fronts and cutting them down to final size.

All the drawers are 25 5/8" wide, the top row is 8" tall, middle row 11 1/8", and bottom row 15 5/8". 4 Drawer per row. They are going to get attached here:

So I took all the blanks, and cut a 1/16 groove 2" in from all 4 sides on the front. Then I set the table saw to a 7 degree tilt and "raised" the front of each drawer:

All in all, so far, things have gone pretty well, I've got 8 of the panels sanded down and have just the 4 big ones left. Hopefully tonight I can get some stain on them and we can start to worry about picking hardware out for the handles.

"Do you want to build me something?"

2010-01-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

I don't really remember what I was doing when my wife uttered those words to me, not that it really mattered, whatever is was it was dropped like a bad habbit and I followed after her to see what she wanted.

"I want a box with shelf to go here in between these two windows so I can get some of this stuff off the kitchen counter."

Out came the tape measure (there is one in the kitchen for just such an emergency). We looked and discussed overall dimensions and off the workshop I went, a happy little woodworker....

Ugh...I live in Norther New England and it was a not so pleasant 20 degrees out in the shop that early afternoon. I fired up the old woodstove, loaded it up good and came back and hour later ... now it was 40 degrees. At lease I could do some work without my hands hurting.

Cabinet grade plywood ... check! Kreg Pocket Hole Jig ... check! Iron On Edge Banding ... check! 1/4" Plywood for the back panel ... check! (OMG, I might not have to go to Home Depot or Lowes to do this!)

Three hours later (and the shop now at 65 degrees) the wipe on varnish was dry enough to bring the piece into the house.

I certainly wasn't super complicated, but it was a fun build, it looks pretty nice, and it was what she-who-must-be-pleased wanted.

I hope to hang it tonight.

I'm not normally a fan of old tools...

2010-01-07T15:42:00.002-05:00

That's right, I generally prefer the newer shiny tools. I like fighting with that clear plastic vacuum packaging that is nearly impossible to open. I like holding the instruction manual and thinking "how hard can this really be.....?"

Recently, however, I had an offer from an extended family member to purchase a large lot of tools that were in her basement (she had just sold her house is moving south). I went over and looked everything over and walked away $100.00 poorer, but loaded down with a bunch of old tools.

Included in the lot was a bunch (probably 20 or more) of files (of which I really had none), a pipe cutter (didn't have one of those either), for some strange reason 6 or 7 glass cutters, a centering punch (got one of those for Christmas a few days earlier but having a spare is fine), a very cool hand drill set-up with 30 or 40 bits ranging all the way up to 3/4" of an inch. 2 hand planes (one craftsman and one with no brand I could determine), and a few specialty planes that I'm really happy about:

There was Stanley #71 Router Plane (used to smooth out the bottom of dado's and grooves). The Internet says this plane goes for $32 - $72 dollars on e-bay.

There was also a Stanley No. 378 Rabbet Plane (used for - you guessed it - cleaning up Rabbets). The Internet says this plane goes for $60 - $150 dollars on e-bay.

And while these are both pretty dirty right now, they look to be in fine shape and once I clean them up, check the blades for sharpness, They will be nearly good as new.

So once you add in the nail punches, old screw drivers, "egg-beater" drills, chalk line and chalk, marking crayons, carcass saw, large hunk of paraffin wax, and other .... stuff, I think I ended up with a pretty good deal (did I mention the 3 1/2' long bow saw with the extra blade?).

Shop Funiture - Maybe the most fun thing to build

2010-01-04T20:18:00.000-05:00

Shop Furniture creates no pressure on the builder, you can try new stuff if you want. You can build for you the way you think it should be.

I designed this to fit my little router table because the router table USED to live on top of the wood stove, but that became impracticle when the snow started to fly.

The top is about 40" long and 18" wide. I inset a Kreg clamp plate in the center so I can slide the clamp in if I need it.

The "middle" shelf is also mounted on drawer slides for easy access of whatever lives in there (I think my dovetail jig will live here permanently).

It looks like I have enough room to put one more pull out shelf on top with 4" of clearance. It will make a good place to store all my router bits.

I need to make a couple doors to close this up (keep the dust of everthing inside). I also have some wiping varnish left over from the Vanity that can give this a quick coat of.

Christmas Misson Accomplished

2009-12-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

It might have helped that there was $20.00 in the drawer....

Vanity Finished and What did YOU get for Christmas?

2009-12-28T11:41:00.000-05:00

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even in the workshop, cause the Vanity was finally done.

As it turns out our Christmas with the neighbors (and the little girl who is getting this piece) has been postponed a little bit (maybe tonight). We are very happy with the end result, just hope she is.

So for Christmas I had a cool list of stuff I thought Santa might like to bring me, and Santa did very well indeed:

I got an Incra Mitre Gage for my Table Saw

I got the Porter Cable Dove Tail Jig that I asked for.

I got a Dust Deputy mini Cyclone for my Shop Vac.

And in my Quest to own everything that Kreg makes I got a couple extra mounting plates for one of my clamps and the Material Support attachement for the Jig.

I cleaned the shop last night (got to use the Dust Deputy) set up the Incra and mounted the DoveTail Jig to a piece of ply.

Maybe I can finish the rolling work stand on Thursday, and then get back to drawer front for the built in.

It begins to take shape, 2 days until delivery...

2009-12-23T12:51:00.000-05:00

Thanks to The Wood Whisperer and his advice on finishing, the base of the vanity is all put together and I think it looks great!

The mirror support got a final coat of varnish just this morning, and I set the actual mirror:

I had to set the mirror this morning so we can perhaps join the mirror to the base tonight! There is still the matter of trim around the mirror (we are planning to use sea-grass from my wifes baskets making stuff), and if you notice in the picture of the mirror, we might be using two of the old legs we didn't like as accents on both sides of the mirror.

Two and a half days till it must be delivered...

2009-12-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

The vanity is coming along. This has been a real collaberation between me and my wife and we have both worked on every piece of this unit.

I went out this morning and took a photo of the vanity as it sits with its first coat of varnish on it.

We used a dark walnut stain, which is a real departure for the look we both normally like, but is starting to look really nice.

Tonight I hope to hit this with some 000 steel wool and then wipe on a final coat of Varnish. The I want to give a quick waxing.

We did find some new legs for the unit and also found a use for couple of the old legs.

We new we wanted to include a mirror on this vanity (18"x22" oval mirror with a beveled edge.... $35.00). But the trick was to find a way to mount in onto the vanity itself. This is what we finally decided on.:

So close, but still so far away. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and MAYBE Wednesday night I can mate the mirror to the top of the vanity.

We were going to make a matching stool, but I don't see how we are going to have the time before Christmas eve....

From Concept to Funiture....Almost

2009-12-14T10:33:00.000-05:00

Our neighbor mentioned to my wife that her 9 year old daughter really needed a little vanity to start putting her girlie stuff, and seeing as its Christmas, and seeing as how I have this niftly wood shop, wouldn't it be nice if we could build something for her.

I went out to the shop Saturday late afternoon and put the top together (birch ply with poplar edging), and Saturday night my wife and sat down and sketched up some ideas:

We spent most of the day Sunday out in the shop with the woodstove going, and at the end of the day we ended up here:

The legs we bought a Lowes, and we are not happy with how they are working out, so we need to find or build something else. Christmas is fash approaching!

Long time ... no post

2009-11-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

Well, cancer treatment followed by vacation / recupration has caused a big gap in posts, but I'm back home now and slowly starting to get back in the shop.

I did get my new router base from Woodcraft, and found that it was too big for the dadomax jig (I'll explain in a later video), but I figured out a way to solve this problem and ordered some nylon set screws from smallparts.com.

Everything is together and I made a test cut with the dadomax and it works good (once I fine tune it according to instuctions it will work great).

On vacation we went camping and the wheels on my camper have been in desperate need of some attention for a few seasons now. Here are the left side tires when we go to the campground:

So I got out a wire brush, scrubbed them down, and painted them with some white rustoleum:

Then I walked around for two days saying "Boy don't those tires look nice!"

Before I left for vacation I did make it into the shop to do some work on the drawer fronts for the built in. So here is a new editions of "The Nicked Finger":

New Tool Snafu

2009-09-23T11:46:00.000-04:00

Well, my new DadoMax jig did show up on Monday, but I'm nearly through a 2 week long preparation for my next cancer treatment and my energy is low. I did look at the stuff on Monday and thought: "Hey, there really ought to be some instructions in here..."

It was too late to call Woodline, so I had to wait till Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, I called and talked to Wayne Suttor (Now I think I'm spelling it right) and he immediately knew I was calling looking for instructions (that he told me how to download off of their web page).

After looking the instructions over I went out to try to use my nice new tool and discovered I was missing a piece to my router base plate! I've had to order another one (from woodcraft) and it will be in proably early next week.

Another New Tool

2009-09-15T16:33:00.000-04:00

Recently I saw a video shot by Woodworker's Journal at the 2009 AWFS Fair showing Wayne Suitor (I'm probably spelling his name wrong) from Woodline USA giving a sneak peak at their new DadoMax Router Jig.

Here it is:

Well, the DadoMax was not yet available, but I called woodline and actually spoke to Wayne and he put my name a list of people who inquired about it (I was #3 of what turned out to be about 200). Well he called me TODAY and the DadoMax is now here. Maybe mine will show up in the mail by the weekend!!!

Good bye, good luck, and thanks for all the fish...

2009-09-11T12:37:00.001-04:00

I would bet that nearly all high school students, who are sucessful (in both school and life), can look back and pick out at least one teacher who "made a difference" for them. For me that teacher was Mr. Horne. I had Mr. Horne EVERY YEAR from 7th Grade through 12th Grade.

7th Grade Math
8th Grade Math
Algebra I
Algebra II
Geometry
Advance Math (or Pre-Calc)

I'm good at math, but I wonder if I was good at math and was in his class, or because I was in his class I'm good at math. Truthfully other students who took his class weren't so good at math....

Mr. Horne was a lot like me (or am I a lot like him, because of my 6 years sitting in the 2nd row?). He had a dry sense of humor, he was quirky, he liked computers....

I do understand that what I am today it NOT totally due to his infullence, but I understand I would not be what I am today if I had Mr. Frazier for math (he taught the "normal" math classes).

I did go back to my highschool once, probably about 5 or 6 years after I graduated to do some computer work for the school (Apple II computers at that time) and went and found his classroom. I was crushed when he didn't remember me right off.... oh well, human is human.

In retrospect, I would bet Mr. Horne was gay, but at the time he came across more as just being asexual.

Mr. Horne passed away on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. He was 72 years old (which means he was 42 when I had him for my first class - gods I'm older than that now! How did that happen?)

Now all I can say is thank you, job well done, and good luck on whereever you next journey takes you.

Warmest Regards Mr. Horne
Kerry (rember me ... one of the kids you used to take the UNH and we would steal computer time from their main frame....)

Drawer Fronts and Flat Wood

2009-09-09T11:32:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday I cut my drawer fronts all to Length (25 3/8") and drilled pocket holes in 8 of the pieces in preparation for putting 16 of the pieces togehter in pairs to make 8 panels I could cut to size for the bottom 8 drawers (my stock is wide enough for the top drawers).

Last night (Tuesday) I went in to glue up the panels and found that over the long weekend the pieces I had cut had all cupped, so none of them were flat. Luckly, I now have a 10" Jointer / Planer and I spend the evening flattening one face and one edge of all the pieces. Tonight I hope to run them all through the planer and get them truely flat, then I can finally glue them up.

I only hope jointing and planeing them will not make them so thin the pocket holes I drilled for 3/4" stock will still work.

I love a new tool!

2009-09-02T16:34:00.001-04:00

About the only thing missing from my shop was a thickness planer and decent jointer. I saw a video review of the RIKON 12" Combo Jointer / Planer and thought it would be a great idea for my shop (and its rapidly vanishing floor space) to get a combo set-up. That way I would get rid of the old (nearly broken) 4" jointer I have and replace it with a combo.

Now the RIKON is supposed to be about $1600.00 and that was a lot of money for me drop on any tool (combination or not). I did some web surfing and found another video review of the JET 10" combo Jointer / Planer -- and the good news is that it was on $399.00 at Woodcraft.

Well - long story short - it turned out to be cheaper by about $30.00 for me to buy it at Amazon.com and pay $419.00 for it - free shipping.

Yesterday was the big day, and the box was dropped of by ABF. I moved back into the shop and put the beasty together.

And here it is:

Hand Cut Dovetails - Why?

2009-08-31T10:51:00.000-04:00

I have started attempting to cut some dovetails by hand. No one has shown me how, though I've watched it being done on The Rough Cut Show. My wife wanted to know why I was doing dovetails... what for?

Well I guess, in my mind, being able to do hand cut dovetails is a milestone skill for woodworking. It would make me feel good knowing I can do it.

Here are some pictures that show I really can't do it ... yet.

This end pin is actually pretty good:

This one is OK.

This one is not so good (and neither is the picture).

And this is just aweful. I don't know what happened here, but hey, that's why you practice.

It's not health care, it's Simon Says...

2008-02-05T14:09:00.000-05:00

Now I do understand that Simon Says isn't exactly the correct metaphor to use here, but it makes for catchy reading. I went to see one of my (currently 5) doctors as "we" fight "my" cancer. After stuffing a camera up my nose and down my throat (I'm pretty sure he went far enough to check out my colon for goodness sake) he finds a Granulanoma in my voice box and prescribes for me some kind of generic Prilosec, 40mg, 2xday.

I rushed right over to my local pharmacist (well, 2 days later) and proudly hand her my prescription form (which was actually hand written, haven't seen that in a long time). Cue the dramatic interlude music....my insurance company won't approve that drug. How about this other one instead? "Sure" I say. Well another drug means I have to call the doctor's office back and he has to re-prescribe it.

An hour later the pharmacy calls me and says my insurance company won't approve the prescription because it’s written for 2xday and they only want me to take it 1xday.... who the heck are these people! Do they even know WHY I'm taking the drug? How can they know I'm only supposed to take it 1xday?

Because I'm a big $$ patient I have nurse case manager with my insurance company. I call her (and I'm in a pissy mood now cause they are screwing with me again) and when she calls me back and I explain to her what's going on she tells me I need to get the prescription PRE-APPROVED by the insurance company because my DOCTOR wants me to take it 2xday which more than the normal dosage....

Here is the kicker, PREAPPROVALS have to be submitted by my Primary Care Doctor, and he is NOT the doctor (remember I have 5 now) that prescribed the drug in the first place. So I have to call his office and explain what going on to one of the admin people there. They submit a request to my insurance company and 2 (business) days later (today, 4 days after I submitted the request to my doctor’s office, now 7 days after I got the prescription) they say Yes, I can get the medicine I was prescribed.

Now my Primary Care Doctor NEVER SAW ME, he doesn't know WHY I need the pills 2xday, he probably doesn't even know I was prescribed the pills because his office people took care of it. I don't understand why I had to ASK the insurance company before I could submit the prescription, you would think the mere act of the pharmacist submitting it would be enough of an ask. It’s just another hoop, another level of paper work, another thing adding to the cost of health care. Remember the insurance company never got any more information for the PREAPPROVAL then for the initial request from the pharmacy...

Simon Says you may NOW get your prescription filled...

What a load of crap.

Hey, this is a nice place...but...

2008-01-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

So on Wednesday my wife and I drive up to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover New Hampshire so I go see my Radiation Oncologist (my what a nice way to spend the day). This was my first time meeting this guy, and the appointment went very well (I get to "go radioactive" on the 14th).

While we were sitting in the waiting room of the Radiation Oncology unit I looked and noted that is was by far the nicest the waiting room I had ever been in. I mean nice chairs, a library, tables with puzzles set out on them, a place to get a freeking chair massage!

Then I realized, hey stupid, this is the CANCER unit. Hey that reminds me, I have CANCER.

Jeez, so much for the nice waiting room making me feel better.

So what am I crying about anyway?

2008-01-03T16:03:00.000-05:00

What was so bad with 2007 you might ask? Well, let's see, in fairly chronological order:

In January we put my wife's father into a nursing home for 100 days of rehabilitation, with (we thought) the understanding that if he could manage to get himself in and out of bed, on and off the toilet, and feed himself a couple times a day, he could come back to our house (where he has been for 6 years). Otherwise he would need to stay.
The day after he was settled in his 2nd Nursing Home (the first one was so bad we moved him after one day) Jack, my beautiful, smart, loyal, best friend, 5 1/2 year old German Shepard died from bone cancer, the day before he was scheduled to have one of his hind legs amputated at the hip.
I spent February and March doing the little puppet dance for medicaid, trying to get my wife's father approved so he could stay in the nursing home if needed.
In April, He came back to the house, even thought he could do none of things we said he would need to do to come home. So the duties of taking care of him (and he weighs in at nearly 300 lbs) fell to me and my wife.
On a nice note: In May, my wife and I got to sit in on an interview and a Q&A session with Hillary Clinton. PLEASE don't go all political on me. We would have gone to see any candidate they just happened to call us for Hillary (who did a pretty nice job with the interview and the crowd Q&A).
June was spent in a mad dash trying to hire a new Web Developer to work in my department. The HR people "didn't have time" to do any of this and after 3 interviews it became apparent that I would not get the job filled before the end of the month / fiscal year.
July comes and the Web Position is pushed back in the next budget until the 1st of the year.
August (things really go bad here) My wife loses her job after over 12 years of service in a way filled with such injustice and moral cowardice on the employers part it still makes me see red (did I mention I word at the same place?).
They day they kick my wife out of the building they tell me to leave on my planned sabbatical early. After every 7 years of completed service at the place I work you get 3 months off paid. I was looking forward to the time to rebuild my wood working shop, and had spent several weekends before emptying and knocking down the old one.
The middle of August I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer, and had Surgery on the 24th of September (and emergency surgery on the 25th).
We did spend 2 nice weeks at Myrtle Beach, SC in October.
I needed to have another surgery, and after fighting with he insurance company finally go it approved at the place every doctor I saw said I needed to go and had the surgery on the 26th of November. (Oh yeah, I am now on Medical leave as my Sabbatical days have run out).
My Uncle (who I liked very much) died while having his own cancer surgery on the same day I was going under the knife.
Two days later my father died at home suddenly (while I was still in the hospital).

Those are just the highlights... Other stuff happened (broken showers, brother in law becoming homeless again and moving into the house, On a good note we did get a new puppy in July).

So, 2007, kiss my ass. 2008, lets see if we can even out the karma balances this year.