New lumber from old pine

Written on March 17, 2010 at 5:38 pm, by Bob Wilson

It’s not often you get a peek at local history from a woodworker’s perspective. Bloomfield United Methodist Church, a small country church built south of Des Moines, was expanding for the first time since the original building went up in 1869. That meant tearing out part of one wall and cutting away a couple dozen pine planks about 14′ long. These were so old, they didn’t even have the lumber dealer stamp I’ve seen on some old barn timbers. So, for a small donation to the church, project editor Kevin Boyle and I brushed the snow off and hauled them back to the shop for a closer look. Part of what we found were some good lessons on reclaiming lumber. Read more

Spring Forward

Written on March 15, 2010 at 6:23 pm, by Jim Heavey

The Woodworking Shows went east again this last week. The venue was in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Situated about an hour south of Dulles Airport, the drive down on Thursday took me through some very hilly and beautiful terrain. This almost idyllic countryside belies the history of the area. Read more

TOOL NEWS: Grizzly Industrial now shipping to Canada

Written on March 10, 2010 at 3:47 pm, by Bob Hunter

Grizzly Industrial, manufacturer of woodworking and metalworking machinery, is now shipping products via UPS to Canada. Freight costs vary depending on the weight and size of the machines being shipped, and brokerage fees start at $10. Any border-imposed duties must be paid for by the customer.

“We’ve had incredible demand from Canadians over the years,” says Shiraz Balolia, president
of Grizzly. “The way we have it set up, the customer just needs to place their order. UPS will then contact the customer to
arrange for the duties, if they even apply, when the machine arrives. It’s very easy.”

For more information, contact Grizzly at 800-523-4777 or online at grizzly.com.

Take A Ride On The Reading

Written on March 8, 2010 at 12:04 pm, by Jim Heavey

The Woodworking Show moved to Reading, Pennsylvania this last weekend. I flew into the airport in Philadelphia even though it’s about 60 miles east of the venue. The airfare is cheaper and there are more flights to Philly as well as the ability to fly home on Sunday evening. It also afforded the ability to visit one of the more historical cities in this country’s beginning. Read more

WOOD publisher Mark Hagen travels to the equator

Written on March 5, 2010 at 3:18 pm, by Marlen Kemmet

Last month 19 men, including WOOD magazine’s publisher Mark Hagen, below, went on a week-long mission trip to Rancho Alto, Ecuador (just outside Quito).  There, they took on construction projects including tiling floors, laying cinder block walls, re-roofing a “snack hut”, and building tables and shelves. Surprisingly, none of these men are in construction for their normal day jobs. Once in Ecuador, they laid down their stethoscopes, laptops, cell phones, and briefcases to pick up nail guns, miter saws and trowels.

 The group was asked to refurbish the hut, below, to make it usable for the local school. The old tin roof had to be removed, walls raised and a new roof added.

New supports for the roof are being installed, below. A big thank you to Mike Napoli of DeWalt (light shirt) who provided some awesome tools!

Shown below is the finished hut.  The group even had time to make a few picnic tables.

 Only one member of the mission trip had the “curiosity” to try the local delicacy, grilled guinea pig, below.

Several member of the group helped build a second story addition to the adult learning center shown below.

Here, Mark takes a break and is surrounded by his new found friends.

Rancho Alto, below, is about 10,500 feet above sea level and is surrounded by snow-capped peaks.

Many homes in the region, like that shown below, do not have running water.

The children of Ecuador are bright and inquisitive.

Local dancers, like that shown below, put on several shows for the group, including at a festival on the last night.

A Bird In The Hand

Written on March 1, 2010 at 9:20 pm, by Jim Heavey

The Woodworking Shows traveled to the Detroit area this weekend just a short drive from Detroit Metro Airport in Taylor, Michigan. The exhibit hall shares space with a giant permanent public market in the Gibraltar Trade Center. Woodworkers found a place where they could find not only the newest in tools and accessories but  could also get a tattoo, body piercing, and an area rug all while dining on a hot dog and sampling mini donuts.  In spite of all those temptations, we had what the attendees really wanted. Read more

The Garden State of New Jersey

Written on February 22, 2010 at 4:18 pm, by Jim Heavey

The Woodworking Shows split this week and I was on my way to Somerset, New Jersey. This is a venue I’ve been to many times so you’d think I should remember how to get there. Read more

An accidental discovery

Written on February 17, 2010 at 8:00 am, by Bob Wilson

That cliché about how nobody expects to have an accident couldn’t be more true than in a woodworking shop. Here’s your cautionary tale of the day: I was changing bits on the router table shown here. The switch works by pulling the red handle up and to the right, and the idea behind mounting it on the front edge of the router table was that you could bump it off in an emergency.  I thought, what could be safer? Unplugging it to change bits would be overkill, right?

Then one late afternoon, I wanted to chuck a round-over bit. Like dozens of times before, I raised the collet close to the top of the table and fished the wrenches from the router bit cabinet. Leaning over the table from the front, I turned ever so slightly to the right and got the surprise of my life as the router magically turned itself on with the wrenches only a half-inch away. Thank goodness the soft-start feature on this router gave me the split second I needed to back away from the bit.

The mystery took about 10 seconds to solve. The fly on my jeans had caught on the switch and pulled it on as I leaned against the table edge. (Please, no jokes that end with “…or were you just glad to see me.”) The moral: Nothing slices fingers faster than a shortcut. Now I take the extra five seconds to pull the plug on this router before I reach for the wrenches.

The Spirit of St. Louis

Written on February 15, 2010 at 7:00 pm, by Jim Heavey

Many of us older woodworkers, when we hear  “The Spirit of St. Louis”, conger up thoughts of Jimmy Stuart’s movie portrayal of Charles Lindberg’s historic flight or maybe we think about the airplane itself. But on my most recent trip there for the Woodworking Shows, I found a few more things that could also define that spirit. Read more

Wax on, wax off

Written on February 12, 2010 at 5:14 pm, by Bob Wilson

After its time in front of the camera for issue 180, the Mission bookcase was moved to our display area—props and all. Unfortunately, those props included two maroon candles with nothing between the wax and the wood. Sure enough, the wax from the candle fused with the lacquer finish.

Kevin Boyle, our senior design editor, suggested lacquer thinner, but I didn’t want a reputation as the guy who ruined a perfectly good bookcase by scrubbing off the finish. In the past, I’ve used mineral spirits to remove any wax you couldn’t pop off with a plastic scraper. That’s because mineral spirits will soften wax but its doesn’t damage lacquer. This time, though, a spirits-soaked rag didn’t budge the wax. So I took Kevin’s advice and tried wiping lacquer thinner only on the areas discolored by the wax. After a couple minutes, the wax (and a little of the lacquer finish) wiped off enough to call it good. That left a few pale areas in the Varathane Early American stain, but nothing that couldn’t be touched up. A quick shot of aerosol lacquer to even up the sheen and our bookcase was as good as new. If you ever wonder why you’d want to finish with anything but polyurethane, imagine what would have been involved in removing that wax-damaged finish.