My wife and I made a few Faerie Doors for some family and friends as Christmas gifts last year.

As the story goes, if Faeries build a door into or in your home it will be filled with love and happiness. I guess we were like the old cobbler’s Elves and just helped the Faeries along a bit.

Here is the Southwestern style door that we made my wife’s sister. We also made one of these ones for ourselves.

The doors are small (why would they need to be big?!) at about 8″ high and 7″ wide.

This one is finished in adobe and has leather hinges, a cool rug, cantina lights and cactus.

For easy access in and out of your home the Faeries usually ‘build’ their doors at the base of a wall like seen here:

Continue reading 'Faerie Doors For Family And Friends'

Last night’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was focused on the highlight of the year – our upcoming ’2009 Nova Woodturners Guild Competition’! This was an informative session that explained the rules and regulations, how to fill out the entry forms, how to package our work, how to label it, the judging process and more. This was our regular monthly meeting, held tonight because of a storm on Monday.

There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in both the Face Plate and Spindle Turning categories. Awards will be given to these winners as well as prizes drawn for all participants. In addition, there will be the People’s Choice award with the coveted Warman Castle Memorial Trophy as the award.

This award is in memory of Warman Castle, a long time woodturner and Guild member who passed away a few years ago. Warman was not only a great turner but also a great teacher. This became clear as a couple of members shared humorous anecdotes about him. It was really nice hearing these heartwarming stories because they gave a connection to the Guild’s past as well as history and meaning to this award. As a newer Guild member I can now understand why this is such a ‘coveted’ award.

The 2009 Nova Woodturners Guild Competition will be held at our local Lee Valley store with our turnings on display from January 27th and culminating on February 7th with the Award Presentation.

Continue reading 'Upcoming Competition At The NWG'

This issue of Woodworking Tips and Tidbits includes tips on scrollsawing patterns, measuring wheels accurately, a cure for swelling biscuits, ladder safety and another use for candle wax! Read on:

1. You can make reusable patterns for scrollsawing by using plastic stencil material that you get from a sewing supplies store. Cut a piece of this material the size of your project and glue it to the piece using a spray adhesive. Then glue your paper pattern to the top of the stencil material with the adhesive. Next, cut out the pattern with your scrollsaw and peel off the paper pattern and stencil material. The next time just place the stencil pattern on your wood and trace around it.

2. Rub the sides of your rolls of painter’s tape with candle wax to ensure that the edges don’t stick to your project.

3. To measure the true height of caster wheels clamp it in your workbench vise and then just measure the distance between the jaws.

4. If your plate-jointer biscuits have swollen due to moisture simply pop them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds just before using them. This will shrink them back to their compressed size.

5. To ensure that a ladder is at a safe angle check it by placing your toes against the ladder rails and stretching out your arms so they are parallel to the ground. If your palms can rest on top of a rung, the ladder is at a safe angle.

These are just a few tips that I picked up lately. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Got a woodworking tip that you want to share? Let me know and I’ll add it in a future issue of Tips and Tidbits!

Back to the shop…

With a couple of members bringing in their latest projects and a great introduction to a bunch of new tools, this month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was a great way to start the year off right! The meeting was held in our home base, a local Home Depot.

Our guest speaker was our own AWA member Graham McCulloch who brought in and reviewed about a dozen new tools for us. Tools included a variety of hammers, a Milwaukee 12-volt drill/driver, a Milwaukee reciprocating saw, the Dremel Multi-Max multi-purpose tool, the A-Line-It Deluxe alignment system, Dremel’s 75th Anniversary Motor Tool Kit, the DeWalt DC608 18v cordless Brad Nailer and the Norton Multi-Oilstone.

Graham has over 60 years experience as a woodworker and has written four top selling books on woodworking including the recently released, “The Woodworker’s Illustrated Encyclopedia“. He has had feature articles in Canadian Woodworking and Canadian Contractor magazines and you can find some of his shop tips in the Family Handyman magazine. As well, Graham writes a weekly online article called Short Cuts where he reviews new tools and books. (Sign up for his newsletter, it’s an invaluable resource!)

This was a great presentation with Graham giving us his experienced, and professional, insight into these tools. He focused on what features and benefits each tool offered, or what it didn’t offer, to the home woodworker. Thanks, Graham!

For Show and Tell a couple of members brought in some examples of their fine woodworking. Here are a couple of photos:

Continue reading 'It’s Tool Time At The AWA!'