It’s time once again for the Lumberjocks Summer 2009 Awards so get out your tools, get your toolbelt strapped on and get your wood ready! This is one fun project competition, open to all and it’s free to enter!

This year’s theme is a Garden Bench, one of summer’s great resting places. Build a garden bench for your backyard or patio and show off your creation to the Lumberjock community!

Not only can you be the envy of your buddies when they see the fantastic work that you have done there’s a whole slew of prizes up for grabs too! Check these out:

1st place – Picture Frame Bit Set and Build-A-Box Package by Eagle America
2nd place – Archive DVDs by Fine Woodworking
3rd place – Stock Electric Branding Iron by Custom Branding Iron
4th place – SkilSaw by Skil
5th place – Home Run Pak and Maple Marking Gauge by Major League Woodworking
6th place – BowlSaw by Steussy Creations
7th place – $75 Certificate by Lee Valley
8th place – Lit-ion Power Cutter by Skil
9th place – Lit-ion Screwdriver by Skil
10th place – $25 Certificate by Lee Valley

There’s also a random draw from all entries with a fantastic set of DVD’s from Passion for Wood so you get a chance to win just for entering!

Contest runs from July 1st to the 31st with voting between August 1st and 7th.

Click here for more information.

So get out into the shop and get working on your Garden Bench!

Back to the shop…

Here’s a few woodworking tips related to clamping, setting workbench heights and one for getting accurate chopsaw cuts. Read on:

1. Have a project that needs a lot of small clamps? Use clothespins! They don’t have much clamping power but you can use a lot of them. They come in handy for a lot of situations.

2. When setting the proper height for a lathe use different thicknesses of plywood on the floor or under the lathe and try each height for a while to determine the most comfortable position to use.

3. Consider the height of rubber fatigue mats in your calculations for work bench and lathe heights. These mats really reduce back and leg strain but can add 1/2″ or more to your height.

4. You can ‘sneak up’ on a cut using your chop saw by butting the end of the workpiece against the body of the blade (not the teeth), while the blade in NOT running. Then hold the piece in position, and raise the blade. Now power up the saw and make the cut to remove just a sliver of material.

5. When clamping something on an angle and the clamp slips try using a folded piece of sandpaper between the clamp face and workpiece to give the clamp some grip.

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…

The fourth and final plate of my Incredible Plate Day is a plate (actually it’s sort of a bowl!) made of Ash that is a lot more robust than the other three. It is also around 7″ in diameter and 1″ high. It too was finished with the Beall Buff System.

This piece of Ash was just on the nigh side of spalting so the grain has a much deeper color to it, almost orange.

This plate, or bowl, is the fourite of all four plates among friends and family. When asked why each of them answered it was the size, the thickness, the weight.

Here is a view of the side showing just how thick it is:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 4'

This third plate in my Incredible Plate Day series was one that was done for shear fun. It’s a very ‘plain jane’ piece, about 7″ round like the others but it is a lot thinner. Although I didn’t get it as thin as I wanted I noticed that after it was finished that light shines through the very bottom! A couple of more passes with the scraper would have like punched it out.

This plate also had a few wormholes and it was finished with the Beall Buff System.

The top of the plate is not as thin as the bottom. It developed a flutter when I was doing the outside edge. It seemed like this was caused by the predominant grain variation of the Ash. I’ll have to try it again sometime.

Here’s a photo showing a side view:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 3'