Finally done! (sort of.)

So, yesterday was the final day of installation, and the piece does look nice, now that it's finally in place. It was a little weird, getting it all wrapped up like that, but there it is.

I still have a few small kinks to work out, though. I made wooden pins to hold the bifold doors in the track, and they're a bit undersized, so the doors rattle a little bit, which is a drag. And I need to patch up the crapet around the base of the thing. Some of it was cut by me, some of it was cut around the old built in. It's a minor detail, but it's still something to attend to.

Then last night I got an email. They love it, it's beautiful, but they want to make some minor (well, I hope they're minor) adjstments. Apprently the drawers can't open when the closet doors are open, and while the original idea was to get enough vertical room for two tiers of clothes, the pitched ceiling means that the clothes are too close to the door.

So, it's gone from done, to almost done. More when it's really done...

Paying my dues

So, I got rolling on my current project about a month ago. It's a built in job, with a cabinet, chest of drawers, and a tall enough closet to house 2 rods, for hanging 2 tiers of shirts.

I underestimated the scope of the job, and underbid it accordingly. Apparently everyone else saw this but me. Go figure... live and learn.

Anyway, I'll post pictures and notes on the project soon. On coming out of it, my two favorite tools have been my Japanese chisels, and a set of edge trimming accessories for my Festool routers. The chisels impressed me more than I had reason to hope for. I used one chisel to chop out dovetails on a full set of drawers, and it's still incredibly sharp. And the edge trimming stuff was an unsung hero for a lot of little details. Definite time savers...

As I exit the project (there's a little more to do, but not that much) I'm in a good place. I'm bummed that I underbid the job, but it was definitely a learning experience. I'm glad that I learned as much as I did about my tools. And I'm feeling pretty encouraged. It's the first real paying job since we opened up the new shop, and it's good to be working.

And, since I'm in a better place, I sat down last night and wrote a couple of short sections for a book that I've been meaning to write for a couple of years now, dealing with the reconciliation of going to a school that focused on traditional craftsmanship, while working in woodworking retail stores, selling widgets, gizmos, and a little bit of my soul. We'll see how it plays out, but I think I'm off to a good start. (again...?)

Lastly, I hear from my webmaster person that I've been getting more attention than I realized. I'm not web savvy, I just write this stuff and send it out into the void. But I guess some of you have been reading, which is very cool. Thanks for tuning in, I hope I'm turning out enough good work to keep you interested and entertained. Hopefully as my business gets more stabilized, the blog will, too.

One Month Later...

So, it's been a busy month, all things considered. Many smaller details are finally being tended to, like doors to the machine room, random carts, and the like. We found an affordable drum sander for (narrow) table tops and similar things, and work is being done, which is a step in the right direction.

This week I have been working on a built-in project for my first official client since the new shop came into being, and that's good news. It's been a busy week, all things considered, and the work has done my head some good. Tonight I sat down in a quiet space, and let my mind run for a while, and I figured out a few things. And all things considered, I'm in a pretty good space right now... which is progress.

Another recent development is that I've started to build things for fun again. I had some spare time a couple of weeks ago, and I built a stool, just as an experiment. I didn't spend a lot of time drawing, I spent some time planning, and basically just went through the shop working, and accomplishing a fair amount. In the end, I realized I should have planned more of it than I did, because the stool didn't go together very well, and it had a few design flaws, resulting in legs breaking during assembly. So, as a stool, it was actually a failure. But as an experiment, it was a success. I learned a few things, had some fun, and realized that the process felt more like sketching than building, and it felt more like a creative process than it did like work. It was a small moment, but it really woke something up in me.

At the same time, I was doing a lot of drafting for potential projects, including the current one, and it was work... but it wasn't unpleasant. The drawings we had to do at school were work: 'Here, make a copy of this... then a copy of this... then this, this, this... And when you're done with all that, we'll give you some more.' No creativity, just grunt work. Important work, but boring. This time around I was figuring out what I was trying to make, and drawing to help it manifest... which is a much different experience. And I had fun drawing, for the first time in years.

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Apart from all of this, I've been trying, for a while, to figure out the whole "small business" thing. And finally, through one of those rare twists of fate, I ran across a guy who does business consulting work for artists and other creative types. Our first meeting lasted an hour and a half, felt like half an hour, and was really eye opening. He said a lot that I'll bring up later as it becomes relevant. But in the context of this post, the thing that comes to mind was what he said when I mentioned a business plan. He said I don't need one, because I don't have a business yet. Until I figure out who I want to sell to, and what I want to sell to them, I don't have a business. Once I figure that part out, I can work up a business plan, and that will help me find my way forward from there, but in the meantime, I have a shop, and some work to do. That's a good start, and it works for me, and it's reassuring, in an odd way, to know all that.

One of the things I heard from a few people about this blog (and I probably mentioned this earlier) is that it was very detailed, and not always very accessible. (Or not usually.) One of the reasons for that, I think, is that I was still not entirely on board. I've been through school, crashed and burned one shop to the ground, and I'm still not entirely convinced that I know where this is going. But having work puts a new spin on it, and it's put some wind in my sails. And I've realized that until recently, I was working away, blindly hoping that somehow, it would start to come together. I had plenty to write about, but no real theme or direction or motive. I can imagine that reading a transcript of that would be pretty challenging, so hopefully things will start to get better. I can't promise that I won't gush once in a while over something that I thought was cool... let me rephrase. I can't promise that I won't gush over something obscure, but relevant to me, that I thought was cool. But I'll try not to do it too often.

Anyway, it's late, and I still have to go to bed, so I'll wrap this up.

Tnight, and in recent days, I've found myself in a functional shop, doing paying work. And as I've been working, I noticed just how much I've learned over these past 6 years. I still have a long way to go, but there's a budding optimism that's been sorely lacking for a while now. It needs care and feeding, to be sure, but it's there.

And that's enough progress to keep me happy for now.

I'm a believer

So, I went into the shop on Saturday with a box of new goodies. New guides, and a very new blade from Laguna.

I've read about Laguna's guides, and how accurate and simple they are. And they are simple... and they seem to do a damn fine job, with very little fussing. I was impressed. Move along...

The next thing I installed was the Laguna "resaw king" blade. It's the most over the top band saw blade I've ever seen. Instead of being made out of one single strip of metal, with milled teeth that are set very widely, it's got carbide teeth, and the blade material itsel is much thinner than normal. Out of the package it felt and looked different. But that alone really didn't adequately prepare me for what happened.

Most band saw cuts are pretty ragged and rough, and it's expected that there will be some smoothing and so forth afterwards, either with the jointer and planer, or with a very large pile of very coarse sandpaper. But the cuts I got from this blade were smoother than anything I've ever seen come out of the planer. And really, they may not have even needed sanding. I mean, very smooth... ridiculously smooth.

Combined with the new guides, the saw was cutting very straight and square. (As compared to most band saws, which drift a little in one direction or another.) So, I squared up the fence, and gave it a whirl. I started cutting thin pieces, and finally would down by cutting some very, very thin pieces, that are essentially like veneer... and they're thin enough for light to get through.

No, the blade is NOT cheap, by any means. But I do think it's a justfiable expense. The new setup cuts smoothly and squarely enough that it will save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent jointing, planing, and/or sanding, on every single operation. That's a lot of time saved.

Woodworking versus 'artist in wood' and other artsy-fartsy pretensions...

So, I just got off the phone with a potential client. His family homestead barn came down, and he salvaged some of the boards and timbers from the thing. Wanting to keep them alive and useful, he's trying to find a project that will allow him to put the wood to good use. In my mind, I think this is a really cool project on his part, because I think it would be a really good thing to be able to take a part of something in one's history, and make a lasting object out of it, if for no other reason than so that you (in this case, I'm using the rhetorical 'you,'... for some reason, I'm very much feeling my english major background right now.) ... so that you can look at the object, and know that part of your past has been recaptured, and kept in a way that is still useful.

I know so many people who keep random bits and scraps of things, but in no structured, useful, or meaningful order. So I think it would be really great for this guy to be able to say "Yes, I made this out of wood that I salvaged from my family's old barn." I get that, it gives me the warm fuzzies, and that's really cool.

And I could hear it in his voice as we were talking, because it was clear that he wanted to be able to build the thing, but didn't have all the equipment, and might not have all of the skills necessary to finish the job. So I told him that my goal was to give him what he wanted... a finished project that had as much of himself as he was able to put into it, and that I would help him get as far as he wanted to with that goal in mind.

"That's really great... I had no idea," he said "if that was going to be ok with you, or how much of it you really wanted to be able to finish yourself."

I think that's one of the distinguishing characteristics between work as a woodworker, versus work as a custom furniture builder. I know, and have talked to, many woodworkers who either wouldn't take the job, or would want to finish it up themselves, to show off their own capabilities. I'm not so filled with my own self-importance on that score. My goal, as I continue to see it, is to help people realize the vision they have in their mind, and to get the thing they have in their mind to be realized... not just to sell my own work. So I think this project is going to be really cool.

Obviously, I'll post pictures as the thing unfolds.

Small stuff.

So, I've been reasonably busy with small projects.

One project is a pair of platforms for someone who wanted their cat to be able to look into their window and let them know she wanted to come in... but I call them plant stands, because cat stands just sounds a bit perverse. And that cat doesn't seem to like me very much anyway.

Still, it was a good excuse to play with the bandsaw, and practice fancy joinery, as seen in the photo. Chris and Don wanted to know what the inspiration was, and I honestly don't know, but it's clear that I've spent way too much time reading about timber framing, and Japanese joinery.

The other project is a bookcase that I'm still in the middle of, and wishing I'd chosen a more stable wood. It's going to be a painted bookcase, so I went with poplar, but the wood has been cranky, and it's been trying to twist on me. Last thing I need is a twisted bookcase, so we'll see how it turns out. I'll post pictures once it's looking better. Part of the problem is probably being caused by the fact that I resawed the boards out of a larger plank, and I should have known, looking at the grain, that this part of the tree had been a little stressed out over the course of its life, so it was bound to be a little odd inside. Still, I think it's working out so far. And the good news is that the resawing part went well, thanks to the little rolling table I made a few weeks ago.

Lastly, I decided recently that while shop efficiencies generally dictate the use of machines to get things done, I really want to keep my hand tool skills well honed, so I've started doing night-time "after hours" projects. The first project is basically a regression for me. It's a small (12"x12"x18") chest of drawers, modeled after a small tool chest that I built years ago in a workshop at North Bennet. I started it on Wednesday night, and by Thursday night I got the dovetails for the carcase finished, and the dadoes for drawer dividers cut. So I was able to do the glue-up on Thursday night. This box is from the wonkiest of the poplar left over from the bookcase job, (hence the pile of clamps in the picture, to hold it all straight and square during the glue up) and it's really just an over-wrought exercise in cutting dovetails. Still, it'll keep me out of trouble for a few more days, and be one more thing to put up in the portfolio, so it's not a completely wasted effort. And, it'll be a place to put stuff. You know, stuff? Then it's on to chair building experiments and tables... so stay tuned.

The falcons are back!

Chris looked up from the bench this afternoon and said "Is that the falcon?"

I looked over to the roof peak where Harvey (or whoever the other one is) would normally perch, and sure enough, there was a peregrine falcon sitting there. And then we noticed that the other one was perched on a ledge on our building. We grabbed binoculars (I've had them in the shop for a while, becuase of the falcons) and went to go look at the birds. We opened a grimy window to get a better look, and these birds are incredible. I'm pretty happy to see that they're either back, or still here, becuase we haven't seen them in a while.

Later on in the afternoon, we got to see one of them fighting with a crow. We have massive numbers of crows in the area. They settle on the rooftop of the adjacent building in the evenings, in numbers that bring terrifying, Stephen-King-esque visions. to mind. So seeing one of them hunted by a peregrine was pretty cool. There were also a couple of close fly-bys, right in front of our window... so I expect there will be more stories of peregrine glee in the future.