Posts from — April 2010

I was in Woodcraft the other day and picked up a couple of their pieces of cutoffs for use in my puzzles. We can usually use wood that others cannot due to the fact that our basic building block is a 3/4″ cube.

After I got home I got to thinking and measured the piece of walnut I picked up (5 X 11 X 3 1/4) and then computed the price per board foot that I had just paid. Turns out to be about $9.20. That seemed high to me, somehow didn’t seem like quite the bargain that I thought it was.

Now, mind you, I’ve not actually looked up the price of walnut, and didn’t really have a way to do that in the store, but it did spark a couple of thoughts.

* Would I have thought this was the same bargain if it had looked like a “normal” piece of wood? You know, a plank instead of a chunk. Does the chunk just look more impressive so it seems like there’s more wood there?

* If I were a developer for the iPhone (which will never happen, but that’s a different topic for a different aspect of my life) I might see the opportunity for an app. Enter measurements, compute board feet, do a local search for wood of the same size/type, see if it really is a bargain.

I’m not sure how many woodworkers have smart phones or would be interested in an app like that, but it does seem like it could be useful.

In my current puzzles the orientation of the grain really doesn’t matter. Well, in one puzzle it does play a role in the assembly, but you haven’t seen that one yet.

However, I have a couple of other items in mind that the grain does matter. Well, at least the difference between end and face grain. This is important because it matters on how I can most efficiently cut these out.

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

Cook's Pushstick

Stars Puzzle

In both of these items, the side that is facing up should be the face grain. However, I really don’t want to cut out a lot of individual pieces if I can help it.

For the Cook’s Pushstick (used to push a hot oven rack back into the oven using the end slot or pulling it out using the side hook) I can see drilling a hole in the end and then cutting a slot using the bandsaw or a dado set. Then setting the resulting stack on it’s side and slicing them off to the right thickness.

The same sort of issue with the puzzle pieces. You want face grain showing, not end grain. However, how thick can you usually get “exotic” woods? Especially without going over budget buying that sort of wood.

Thoughts from the more experienced among you will be greatly appreciated.

I thought I finally hit it on craigslist for some wood. Actually, I thought that twice.

The first time was a posting that I responded to less than 5 minutes after it was posted. People moved into a repo and there was a bunch of oak, maple, poplar, and others they just wanted to get rid of. No phone number, so i sent an email right away.

Someone had already responded to the post and was going to take it.

The other wood was excess 2x stuff and plywood that I was going to use to build a couple three workbenches out in the garage. Sent an email, got a response, set up a time. It’s about 25 miles from home and I got there 5 minutes after the agreed time.

She thought I was there for the bed – someone had just gotten the wood.

*sigh*

If I had known it was going to be a wasted trip I would have taken the car as it gets better mileage.

Score: craigslist: infinity me: 0

I’ve been watching the free listings on craigslist to see what I can pick up. I’ve found that I must have slow reflexes or something.

Last week I saw, within 30 minutes of the posting, a 14″ Ridgid band saw. I didn’t get a response from the owner, so I guess someone else saw it first.

I’ve also missed out on some wood. For some reason a lot of people are tearing up their old decks. I have some plans (that I’ll be modifying to suit) for a workbench. I plan on making at least two of them, making sure that the tops are the same level as my table saw (that will also go on a platform so it’s easier to reposition) so those workbenches can be used as infeed or outfeed tables as well. One of the two will be meant to put the drum sander on and the other for the planer.

So far, by the time I contact the folks with the decks, the wood is already gone.

Nothing to do but keep looking and keep trying, something will work out eventually.

Given that I anticipate having more time to spend on our puzzles now, yesterday I decided that I needed to get my work area in the garage in shape so I can go out and work without having to do a massive shuffle every time I want to get busy.

When you know that it’s going to add an hour on to your shop time just to shuffle things around between getting to your machines and then putting all that stuff back, it makes it hard to convince yourself that you can go out and work.

Now, however, while the state of affairs in the garage is not, by anyone’s definition, close to that state of entropy one could call organized (not even mine – and according to my wife I have a fairly relaxed definition of the word), it is possible to go out and work with only having to move a couple of things. And if it stays nice today those things will be going out in to the shed.

There’s a non-working lawnmower sitting out in the front yard with a “FREE, non-working” sign to go on it (and I’ll list it in the local Freecycle group as well), 2 very full trash cans and several bags of trash waiting pickup at the end of the drive, several things moved up into storage in the attic, and a grandson’s dresser in the house ready to be moved into the shed.

There’s an old pink and white dresser (most drawers missing, a chance to practice building some), a printer table, and an end table just to the left when you walk in the garage door that are being used for storage (they used to be in the middle of the floor.) The jointer is sitting in front of the workbench (which is next to the aforementioned storage), the table saw is in the middle of the floor and there’s a luggable (wheels are planned at some point) work surface with a couple of tools on it.

No, it’s not the ideal work area yet. It doesn’t come close to the organized shops that the professional woodworkers I’m acquainted with have set up – but it is much more conducive to getting out and working now.

At some point I plan on replacing the current storage with a couple of wheeled surfaces with storage underneath so I can have a better place to mount the drum sander and planer, but that will have to wait for employment to come my way again.

So, what have you done to improve your conditions?

Well, yesterday I had a bad day: I paid my taxes and I got fired.

After 20+ years (semi-amusingly it was 6 months to the day) they decided they didn’t need me any more. Now it’s off to find a new job. I might have a little breathing room here, so I’ll be getting some stuff done around the house and get my workspace out in the garage straightened out so I can start working on more puzzles (and other projects.)

So, wish me luck if you’ve a mind to and I’ll keep you all informed on how things are going.

Earlier today I posted on Twitter (over several tweets) a question about how to demonstrate a couple of things: what kind of wood and finishes we have along with what kind of puzzles we make.

Actually, to start with, I was just thinking about how to show the wood and the finishes. Then Adam (@AdamKingStudio, worth a follow) suggested that I combine them. That sounds good to me, but I do have a concern.

I wonder how confusing it might be to potential customers? Right now I have 6 different puzzles with 3 more being prototyped. So far we’ve used about 8 different woods with 3 different finishes.

So, you can have puzzle C with wood F and finish A.

I don’t know. I’ve still not made up my mind on how to do it. Especially since most all of the puzzles can also be made with 2 or 3 different kinds of wood. I think it would be beneficial for a customer to get a hands on and be able to see the woods next to each other.

I’ll definitely need so have samples of all the puzzles, that’s a given. I’m just tempted to have the samples all be in one wood and then have the wood samples in 3/4″ square sticks a few inches long.

Please share your thoughts and suggestions – I certainly appreciate all your help.

since I’ve posted anything. Part of that is not having much to say. Life has been “interesting” to say the least. The weather was not good for a while, family issues used a lot of time, work was insane – it just all conspired to make it easier to not work on the puzzles than to work on them.

Just a motivation issue on my part.

Then I made an offhand comment on Twitter about posting and found that at least one person reads what I write. That gave me at least a little motivation to come back here and write something. Not that there’s a lot of content here, but I’ll try to get better at keeping you all updated.