Highland Woodworking Blog

13 For 2013… New Years Resolutions From the Down To Earth Woodworker

For many years I had a hard time coming up with New Years Resolutions. Either I was smugly (and falsely) pleased with myself or as I get older I am discovering more and more opportunities for improvement. This year the problem was not in coming up with resolutions, but rather containing the size of the list. So here are some things I would like to do in 2013…

#1 – Read more… In 2012 I read only 43 books. In 2010 I read 52. The steadily declining number can only be attributed to alternate activities. So, let’s see, I am not going to spend less time in the shop. Oh! I know… I will cut down on TV.

#2 – Less TV… In order of insignificance, eliminate TV by genre. I have already given up all network programming. Next, no more news. I’m sure I will be happier. After that, I will wean myself from the oldies. I’ve seen every M*A*S*H show like a hundred times anyway… likewise for Seinfeld, Raymond, and Dick van Dyke. I will miss Antiques Roadshow though. I still miss Norm.

#3 – More Music… Music hath charms, you know, but all my music listening is done in the shop and my wife already says, “You might as well just live out there”…hmmmm… I’m getting project ideas. How about a convertible workbench/cot? Wait! Maybe a Murphy bed… tool storage when folded up, comfy bed when folded down. I’m getting jazzed…

#4 – Coffee… My second (or is it third? Fourth?) grand obsession is coffee. I have learned dozens of ways to make it, but have yet to figure out how to work coffee into a Wood News column. How to stain with coffee? How to remove a coffee stain? Build a barista station? A coffee-serving tray?

#5 – More Time Outdoors… What better way to spend time in the fresh air thanbuilding some outdoor projects? I would like a pergola… just love the name…pergola. A teak table by the grill would be great. A custom gate for the fence. Oh yeah, and build the fence. So many projects, so little time. I’ve got to give up something else…

#6 – Less Sleep… Edison, Napoleon, and Michelangelo got by on 4 hours a night. I’m going for 3.

#7 – Less Shopping… An inordinate amount of time is spent shopping for unimportant things like food, clothing, and toiletries. Eliminating these tasks will allow more time for tool shopping.

#8 – More Efficiency… More shop time by being more efficient. Learn to sand with both hands. Never lose anything, put my tools back as I use them, keep my wood organized, use story-sticks more.

#9 – Go Metric… Sixteenths and thirty-seconds, inches and feet… very inefficient. This is the year to finally make the big switcheroo to millimeters. At least I will learn to use my Festool equipment the right way!

#10 – Go Green… My truck gets only 6 kilometers per liter (wow, my mental metric makeover is working already!), so hunt for an electric truck. Of course it will not make it to the lumberyard and back on a single charge. I wonder if they will let me plug in and sleep over?

#11 – Recycle… I’m going to learn to make fireplace logs from sawdust and maybe make my own particle board. Use coffee grounds in the garden, wood chips for mulch, and make progressively smaller and smaller projects from progressively smaller leftover pieces of wood.

#12 – Be Patient… A low threshold of boredom has me thinking about the next project before I am halfway through the current project. I rush through applying the finish when I know it is just as important as the build (sometimes more important when there is a little flaw or two to hide).

#13 – Fall Down… North country lore has it that everyone falls down once every winter. I would like to get it out of the way early. The surprise of the fall is one of the things I like least. And I would like to fall someplace soft… fluffy snow over a bed of pine needles sounds nice. And somewhere isolated. No one to laugh at me, no one to hear me cry. I think I’ll go take a walk in the woods.

What are YOUR New Years Resolutions for 2013?

To read more woodworking resolutions for 2013, CLICK HERE

From the publishing schedules and tables of contents of the woodworking magazines it would seem we woodworkers are expected to slow down and shift gears in the summertime. We are expected to be gardening, golfing, fishing, or, if we build anything at all, it is supposed to be deck furniture, gazebos, or lawn games. Don’t despair, however, it’s summertime, and as DuBose Heyward wrote and George Gershwin set to music in 1933-34, the “livin’ is easy.”

Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high

Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry

No doubt there are plenty of summer distractions for us woodworkers. The lawn must be mowed, the garden tended, and the lure of the biking and hiking trails is strong. Golf clubs and fishing poles call our names and beg us for outings. But hang in there and “hush little baby, don’t you cry,” ’cause summertime can also be awesome shop time.

Sunshine & Air

Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis’ advice that “Sunshine is the best disinfectant” is often quoted but seldom followed in our nation’s capital. Here in the North Country where we seem locked in a multi-month state of constant cold, rainy, and overcast conditions, we have no evidence that the judge’s advice is true either. Yet, as best we can remember, sunshine is a wonderful disinfectant.

If you are lucky enough to have some sunshine this summer, fling open those shop windows and doors! Roll your equipment out and maybe do a little springtime cleaning. I read about one woodworker who opens the door on his shop when the weather gets warm and blasts it clean with a leaf blower. Your shop may not need disinfecting, but a little sunshine and fresh air won’t hurt!

For me, summer is a great time to do some equipment maintenance. Clean, lube, sharpen, and calibrate machinery. The things you can see in the bright sunshine may surprise you. Sort all the hardware and fasteners that have accumulated. A pleasant way to spend an hour or so is sorting screws while sitting on the deck sipping your favorite beverage. Have a driveway sale and clear out unused tools and gadgets. Need to strip a finish? It is so much more pleasant to do that nasty, smelly job outside. Want to run your belt sander over the top of your workbench? Let the wind take away the sawdust in the wide, open spaces. All those wood chips and sawdust you collected over the winter will make great compost or mulch, so get to work. Best of all, just let the sounds of summer envelope you as you quietly plane a board to perfect flatness.

Summer brings out the neighbors. Passersby may take a peek into your shop, and with a little luck, may be intrigued. Your summertime woodworking may start another soul down the path of this outstanding hobby.

Stock Up On Materials

Buying wood is almost always fun. Combing through the stacks, looking at boards, imagining the pieces and placement in your next masterpiece is all part of the excitement of woodworking. But for those of us in snow country, the wintertime buying experience is fraught with potential for turning a normally pleasurable experience into at best an ordeal, and at worst, a misadventure.

Clearly I remember the day last winter when I purchased some stunning black walnut. The looking and buying experience was great…the loading and unloading experience, not so much. By the time I kibitzed with the guys at the mill for an hour or so, spent an hour or so picking my boards, and drank coffee for another hour with my buddies, the weather had taken a turn.

I loaded long, wide 10/4 boards into my truck in 35MPH, 20 degree wind blowing thick snow. All the way home I faced the dual worries of (bad) slipping off the road and (worse) damaging my new boards. My stress was exacerbated when I got home and couldn’t get into my drive or unload my lumber until I shoveled what, by then, was a foot of snow. Boards that might normally take a couple of days to acclimate took several days just for the snow and ice to melt and to dry out. Summertime is a much better time to stock up on wood for all those winter projects that are noodling around in the back of your head; and with a little luck, you may even get a bargain since most other woodworkers are busy doing “summer stuff.”

Summertime can also be a great time for tool buying. Many people start to conduct and to shop garage and estate sales in earnest when the weather improves. Many retailers run promotional sales, since traditionally wintertime is shop time and the summer business is slow. Take advantage of the slow business season for your favorite supplier. In addition to that shiny new power tool, stock up on glue, finishing supplies, and sandpaper.

One of these mornings
You’re going to rise up singing
Then you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take to the sky

But till that morning
There’s a’nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by

Do Something BIG to Improve Your Shop

Constantly tweaking, rearranging, and generally “perfecting” your shop? Then summer is a great time to make major changes. Add a window, replace a door, or just go ahead and knock out that wall and add on – you know you have been wanting to!

A friend of mine is plumbing his walls for air and adding a central air compressor. Another is changing from portable dust collection to a big, more sophisticated central dust collection system with all its attendant pipes, blast gates, and fancy remote controls. One guy has pulled everything in his shop out into the driveway, covered it all with a big tarp, and is epoxy coating his concrete floor. Summertime is great shop expansion and rejuvenation time!

Keep on Woodworking

Most of all, summertime is a great time to just keep on woodworking. Although now in late-June we still have the heat on where I live, at least in many parts of America you can work comfortably in your shop this time of year. The fresh air and summer breezes will likely help to oxygenate your creative brain cells, and new ideas will abound.

There are practical reasons to not take a summer hiatus, too. It seems that almost every year I belatedly give shop-crafted holiday gifts about a month late. Planning on giving a gift of your craftsmanship this winter? Start early (like now) and make sure you have plenty of time to get the project finished. One year I had to warn everyone to let their gifts sit for a while, preferably in the garage, before they used them – the finish wasn’t fully cured.

If summertime woodworking makes you feel guilty about all those outdoor projects languishing on the to-do list, don’t despair. You have always been creative enough to get a new tool purchase past your frugal spouse…you can probably figure out a way to justify hiring someone to clean the gutters, trim the bushes, or paint the house. How much do you love woodworking? If you figure paying the kid down the street a few bucks to mow your lawn is stimulating the economy and giving you more shop time, you are an avid woodworker. If the grass grows to the point the neighbor mows it for you, you are obsessed, and we are undoubtedly kindred spirits.

It’s summertime, and I think the magazines all have it wrong. Summertime is prime woodworking time!

Summertime Memories

Figure 1 – Sam Cooke

By the way, if the Porgy and Bess tune “Summertime” is conjuring pleasant memories, download a few versions of the song and give them a spin while you do something enjoyable in your shop. It seems almost everyone has recorded this song at one time or other (from Billie Holiday to Willie Nelson and Ella Fitzgerald to The Zombies), and almost any version is guaranteed to put you in a good woodworking mood.

Figure 2 – Janis Joplin

Need a recommendation? No music collection is complete without the Sam Cooke version, of course, but my current faves are alternating between the jazzy scat-infused Billy Stewart version (that man had soul and definitely felt the music!) and Janis Joplin’s bluesy, earthy, and dare I say it, sensual version. By the way, Janis’ version has some of the most raw and gutsy guitar work I ever heard on any Joplin song. I only wish I could have seen her perform it live.

Figure 3 – Billy Stewart

This article was originally published in The Down to Earth Woodworking column in the July 2011 edition of Wood News Online.

If the weather had been better, if I had planned (or executed) better, if the former owner had not been the quintessential “unhandy” man, if I had not been only 20% effective for a week or more with the flu, if, if, if…

As a buddy of mine used to say, “If a frog had a tail he wouldn’t bump his butt every time he hopped.” And if everything had gone right, I would have remodeled the house and the garage before time to move in, and I would be building furniture by now. But, frogs don’t have tails, and my remodeling project took longer than expected, and the garage had to wait.

What to do with all my equipment while the shop was under construction became the pressing dilemma. The answer, my friends, was blowing in the wind. Literally.

I remember the day well. I left about 5:30 AM for the unhandy house, ready for another full day of remodeling work, undoubtedly to be filled with additional surprises. The pressure was building. Every day the drop-dead date for being out of the old house was nearing, and every day it seemed new problems and fate was prolonging the project. It was cold, but then, when is it not in Wisconsin? I believe the temperature was around 7 degrees, the wind gusting bitterly from the Northeast. Bundled in about five layers of clothing, head bowed against the blowing snow, I headed into the coffee shop for a much needed start to the day. Another frigid patron was wrestling with the newspaper vending machine and a fortuitous gust of wind ripped papers from her hand and directly into my face. As I peeled them away and tried to smooth and return them to her, I spied an advertisement. It was just like in the movies, when the spotlight shines, the music swells, and enlightenment spikes like a smile – a moving and storage company advertisement and a picture of a storage pod.

Despite the cold and the caffeine deficit, I changed a dollar into quarters and overpaid for the local newspaper. Over coffee (finally) I read and re-read the ad, and wondered if an on-site storage pod could be the answer. I could put all my equipment in a great big weather-tight and secure box, move the pod to the new house, store it in my own driveway, and move the machines into the shop when the garage conversion was complete.

Online, I checked out various companies that offer pod-type storage. All seemed similar, but the namesake Pods Enterprises seemed to be the originator, or at least had co-opted that position through marketing. Pod’s online quote system was slick and professional. By the end of the workday I had made the decision and formulated the plan, and had an appointment to have a Pod delivered.

I fretted over details…could the delivery guy put the Pod close enough to the garage? Could he set it straight? Would the slope of the driveway cause an issue? Would the 16 by 8 foot Pod be big enough? Would it really be dry inside and secure? How high was the Pod off the ground? Were there ways to secure my equipment for the move?

The helpful customer service representative at Pods patiently answered my questions, and the delivery driver was as professional, caring, and proud of his company as anyone could be. He set the Pod just four feet from the garage door, perfectly square to the entrance, and walked me through the use of the door, the lock, and what to do when I was ready to have the Pod moved.

The next Saturday a friend had volunteered to help pack the Pod. I had already spent the better part of the night before prepping the equipment for its hopefully short hibernation and relocation. Most drawers were emptied and the items packed. Doors and drawers were secured with shrink-wrap plastic. Delicate sections of the equipment were further protected with Styrofoam or bubble-wrap, and then each machine was covered with a moving blanket or two. The padded moving blankets were secured with additional shrink-wrap.

I hacked together a low ramp of 3/4 inch plywood and scrap dimensional lumber to smooth the rolling of equipment from my garage to the four-inch floor height of the Pod. I also purchased a number of 4 X 8 sheets of 2-inch thick Styrofoam insulation to be used as packing protection, a few inexpensive plastic drop cloths, and a few additional moving blankets.

In Wisconsin we plan for the worst possible weather, and the reality is usually worse, so I also rigged some heavy plastic above the Pod door and attached it to the front of the garage roof, forming a type of temporary roof over the short span between garage and Pod. I also rigged temporary plastic walls between the Pod and garage, essentially forming a plastic “hallway.” This turned out to be a good move. Saturday ushered in a rainstorm of epic proportions. Cold, fierce rain driven by gusting winds and a bone-chilling temperature of 38 degrees dampened our enthusiasm for “Pod-packing,” but we soldiered on.

My rolling lumber rack was the first item loaded. We partially emptied it, rolled it into the Pod, and then reloaded it. It was the item I had guessed to be the heaviest and most unwieldy, but the makeshift ramp held, so we were off to the races.

My workbench is the only large item in the shop not on wheels. We carried the beast, a few inches at a time, and nestled it into the Pod, opposite the eight-foot long lumber rack. The Pod unit has convenient tie-off points throughout. We used webbed straps and rope to secure the lumber rack and workbench and a couple of blocks of wood screwed to the wooden floor as insurance. Boxed items were packed in, under, and around the workbench and lumber rack, and within an hour, half the Pod was packed.

Before loading the machinery, we lined the Pod walls with the two-inch Styrofoam insulation. Like a make-it-up-as-you-go-along jigsaw puzzle, we put each machine into the Pod, secured it, and braced it with additional Styrofoam. When everything was loaded, we sealed the Pod inside its door, floor-to-ceiling, with 4-mil thick plastic (in case there was any water leakage around the door), closed the door, and added a padlock.

On the appointed moving day, the Pods driver arrived precisely on time. The moment he raised the Pod into the air and began to load it on the truck, my heart raced, but I was comforted by his professionalism and care. By his control gauges, he told me the Pod had 5,700 pounds inside. Not the heaviest load he ever carried, but well above average. He followed me to the new house, and in what seemed like only minutes, he had unloaded the Pod and placed it, just as carefully, at the entrance to my new garage/shop.

Shop equipment resting peacefully, waiting for its new home.

I was tempted, of course, to open the Pod and examine the contents, but I resisted. My rationale was simple…if anything was damaged, it might be weeks or longer before I could unload the Pod and really assess the situation, and in the meantime I would simply fret and obsess. Better that I not know. That lasted about ten days, and finally on a day without rain, I opened the door to find that everything was just as we had left it. Whew!

Now every day, I look at the Pod and it provides motivation to get the garage converted to the new Down To Earth Woodworking shop. If you are ever facing a move, or simply want to clear out your shop for some renovation or remodeling, consider using a pod storage unit.

This article first appeared in the Down to Earth Woodworker column in the June edition of Wood News.