Events
I had the opportunity to take part in the Northeast Wisconsin Woodworkers Guild spring show again this year. I had a table and demonstrated making scrollsaw bowls and promoted the site. I took this video on the morning of the second day before the doors opened to the public. If you didn’t make it to the show I hope to see you there next year.
Tom Iovino came up with the idea for “Get Woodworking Week”. As I thought about it, it got me pondering the idea I had a few weeks ago. At that time I started and need to continue to follow my plan.
Everyone’s schedule is busy these days. Myself, I work full time, I am going back to school, I help coach my daughters basketball team, I help with my wife’s business when she needs it, I am a board member and webmaster for NE Wisconsin Woodworkers Guild, trying to do the blogging / podcasting thing, and there’s a ton of other stuff that I’m not thinking of right now too. Finding time to get in the shop is not always an easy task.
For a long time I would work my butt off all week with the hope I would get “ahead” on stuff enough to get a whole day in the shop on the weekend. But, somehow, even if I got ahead enough to get that days of worth of time (which rarely happened anyway) it was never used for woodworking. The weekends always fill up if there is time open. Either something comes up or a relative or friends finds out I have time and fill it for me.
So, last week I started just walking down stairs to the shop whenever there was time. There are times I would have no more than 5 minutes and times I got a couple hours in the shop. In the course of 5 days I finished up my mini router table base, designed and built a saw till (still working on the drawer), sharpened my chisels, practiced my dovetails, cleaned up and organized the shop, turned two pens, installed a bork splitter in my table saw, and finished up a few projects that have been waiting way too long. Instead of waiting until I had “all the time I need in the shop” just taking the time I can get I did more in one week than I could do in a couple of weekends in a row. Even if I did get the illusive full days in the shop.
During one week of committing myself to just get my “arsch” in the shop and do anything I have time for, I feel better and more confident in the shop when I go down there. There is no substitute for using the tools to get better at the skills we use as woodworkers. Even though I have made an uncountable number of cuts with my tablesaw using it almost every day makes things go much smoother. And having limited time gets me to use it safer and more efficiently. Cutting a board to a line with a hand saw or planning an edge at 90 takes practice. The more often I do these tasks the more confident I am that the results will be dead on. Because of my time to unwind in the shop and do the woodworking I enjoy, I feel better and more relaxed too. I am defiantly going to keep up my new shop time no schedule, schedule.
So, if you have 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days, take the time and sharpen, cut, plane, sand, carve, turn, and finish as much and as often as you can. You will be happier in your shop and no matter if you just started woodworking or have been making sawdust for a life time, you will increase and improve you skills.
It boils down to exactly what Tom stated with this week … GET WOODWORKING !!!
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On this episode of the podcast Matt Vanderlist, host and creator of Matt’s Basement Workshop podcast and The Spoken Wood podcast and I discuss the new theme and talk about Woodworking in America …
I took a visit to the Midwest Scrollsaw Trade Show in Richland Center Wisconsin. I had a chance to speak with Shannon Flowers the Editorial Manager of Magazines for Fox Chapel Publishing. I also got to look at some amazing work, and pick up a few things for myself.
I’m registered for WIA, the room reservations are made, and vacation is all submitted and approved. After a lot of back and forth and thinking I think I have the seminars I am going to try and attend figured out too. Well, I have it figured out for now anyway. I think i even have time to gt to the Market Place figured in there this time …
Friday, September 30 2011
9:00 am – 11:00 am – Understand Wood; Understand Joinery
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Liquid Joinery
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm – 12 Rules for Traditional Tool Chests
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm – Cheating at Dovetails
Separate Paid Event 6:30pm Molly Malone’s Irish Pub “Through 17th-century Eyes” with Peter Follansbee
Saturday, October 1 2011
9:00 am – 10:00 am – Shh! Secret Compartments and Their Utilitarian Uses
11:30 am – 1:30 pm – The Joinery Challenge – By Power
4:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Tenons & Sliding Dovetails with Routers and Jigs
Separate Paid Event 6:30pm “Living on Handwork” with Ron Herman
Sunday, October 2 2011
9:00 am – 10:30 am – Joinery 101
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Combination Planes
A full list of Class Descriptions at WIA
Entire Schedule of Seminars
List of exhibitors that will be at the Conference
I just received my confirmation email, for my registration to the Woodworking in America Conference in Cincinnati Ohio September 30 through October 2 2011. WooHoo !!!!
I have attended the past two Woodworking in America Conferences and can’t wait for September to get here.
This time I didn’t have to select the classes at registration like previous years. Good thing too, … it’s going to be hard to decide. There are some incredible presentations again. The conference is bigger then ever and even more seminars to choose from this time. I also have to try and schedule some time to visit the amazing marketplace.
As I make my decisions I will be posting what I plan on attending while I am there.
Go register !!!!
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As a member of the North East Wisconsin Woodworkers Guild I had
the opportunity to take a tour of Oshkosh Designs in Winnebago Wisconsin.
On the tour, led by owner, Brenda Kubasta, we learned that, Oshkosh
Designs manufactures medallions, floor decor, commercial flooring, and parquet
wood flooring. And from what I saw, they do an excellent job at all of it. In some
cases they integrate different combinations of contrasting woods, stone,
marble, leather, and metals into their designs. Oshkosh Designs also promotes
their product as more than just floor inlay. Their display area includes examples
of their products used as stair risers, treads, chair rails, ceilings,
backsplashes and a lot more.
We were informed that the company started in 1991 doing historic
home restoration and hardwood floor designs. They quickly included making
flooring for new home construction as well.
The company has implemented laser and water jet technology for
cutting out their intricate designs. Seeing those machines along with a variety
of saws, sanders, extra-large vacuum presses, and stacks of very high grade
lumber, makes a group of wood junkies like us drool. The dust collection system
has to be top notch; because it was cleaner than any of us can keep our shops.
The finishing sprayers and ovens where quite impressive, especially considering
they run on a rather restricted schedule.
Medallions and other custom inlays are shipped with a
template and an installation kit including a router bit. The templates also
protect the designs during shipping.
They now have an Outlet store for products the “don’t fit their
standard”. On most of the things in the store it was hard if not impossible to
find the imperfection. The store will be open on Saturdays 9AM to Noon starting
June 4th, 2011.
The tour, the people, the equipment, and the designs were
all a very enjoyable and impressive experience.
You can see some of the pictures I snapped along the tour
below.
You can find out more about the guild at http://newwg.org/
And Oshkosh Designs at their website http://www.oshkoshdesigns.com/
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