Kaleo’s Workshop

So I know that it has been a few days since the last post. It has been a very long week and I am looking forward to the long weekend as well. I actually picked up a side job this week making some windows and window shashes. This should prove to be interesting.

As for the box series, I am working on the editing for the first episode this afternoon. I hope to get it out Sunday or early Monday. I have not yet decided if I will have a couple of 10-20 minute long videos or break them up and release them faster. We shall see. So be on the look out for the next episode of Kaleo’s Workshop.

So I spent the entire day on Saturday in the shop. When I say the whole day I mean for about 9am to about 8pm in the shop. I have been trying to finish up a coffee table that I am making for my brother in laws frame shop. They are having a big city wide open day on Saturday next week. And he asked me to have a few items to display. So I got this table together and one coat of finish on the top.

So this entire table is made from 2 inch wide by 1 inch thick stock. Making it pretty heavy, but plenty sturdy. The base has a taper going in towards the middle. The table is made from the white oak that I salvaged from the old work bench in the shop. The top has an outer frame that has a single runner down the middle. Then the cross pieces are half lapped jointed to each other. The cross pieces are a half inch short from the sides. This was done on purpose to give the table just that little sense of “hmmm can you do that?” I decided to put 4 contrasting boards of Brazilian Cherry in the middle. Also just to break up the white oak.

So that is that, I went to bed last night and spent the day today with the family. It started to rain here in Virginia pretty hard around 4pm. It hasn’t stopped yet and it is almost 11pm. So as my family and I packed up and were getting ready to go back to Maryland, we went through the shop to get out. And what did I see, the shop was flooded. FLOODED I tell you, my unisaw was almost floating away. So I spent the next 3 hours just getting the water out of the shop, using the shop vac and a small sump pump. But like I said it’s still raining, so the water is still flowing. I made a temporary damn with all the saw dust that I have made over the last few weeks. But I’ll be back down there in a couple of hours to make sure that at least the water doesn’t make it into the basement. We’ll see…

I recently had an exciting opportunity to do my first review. I was sent a copy of Hendrik Varju’s Jointer and Planer Secrets. He states that this is “Private Woodworking Instruction in a Box”, to which I have to completely agree with. It’s like having a private woodworking teacher.

This video is very thorough in every aspect, especially if you are new or just in the beginning stages of your woodworking hobby. Hendrik covers in fine detail how you dimension your lumber. Also things like the theory behind how the jointer and planer work, understanding wood movement and which way the grain should be facing as you plane and joint.

As an added bonus to this set, there is an entire section on edge gluing. With excellent explanations and demonstrations on proper edge gluing techniques, there will be no excuses why your next glue up should be difficult. He also has extra footage covering topics like, “How long will it take” and “Getting advice when buying tools”.

If you are looking for some 1 on 1 training with a master craftsman, but don’t have the time or the money to go to a school or to a private shop, then this video is for you. It gives you the best of both worlds, private instruction for a minimal price. Now be forewarned that this DVD is a 2-disc set, with a total of 4 hours and 38 minutes of video. But believe me that you will learn a ton and be a better woodworker for it.

This DVD can be found and bought at Passion for Wood website. I will be giving away the copy that I have to one of you, but I haven’t quite figured out how I plan to do that yet. But look forward to it by the end of the week.

So I am no longer a Festool Virgin. I have to say that it feels good too! Now I know a lot of people out there have strong feelings one way or the other about Festool. But I got my hands on a Domino and one of the many R.O. sanders while I was in Tasmania, I’ve never looked back.

So I bought a few thing pre price hike. I ended up with the Domino 750, the Rotex 150 and the Midi Vac. I also had to get the box o’ domino’s and an assortment of sandpaper. Now I just need to get the rest of the shop set up so I can use them.

You might have noticed that I added a Workshop Store page. I am setting up an Amazon store. But for now it’s just a widget that sends you to Amazon. I thought I would put all those type of adds on there own page. Because I didn’t want to clutter up the main pages. Those spaces are saved for advertisers or sponsors. (please pray for sponsors lol) So if you go to Amazon often, go through the store and help a brotha out…

So I was checking out some timber dealers in Australia today. I went to The Australian Wood Review Magazine looking for a list of timber yards. And I found my Wrapped Hall Table, it was a huge surprise. I entered and was accepted into their Studio Furniture Exhibition early this year. But couldn’t afford to ship my table up to the show. So to be on their website is pretty cool, well at least I think so.

So first I thought I would tell everyone about the new feature on the blog. If you have listened to the latest episode of Wood Talk Online you’ll here a new feature called “Tips from the Workshop”. So I thought that I would post those little tips on the sidebar of the blog for all to hear and hopefully see soon.

Next is the unveiling of my new logo for the blog:

So what do you all think? I wanted something simple and clean looking, I think that I achieved that. But let me know what you all think?By the way this is not by any means an April Fools Joke, but have a good one anyways.

Today I had the cool opportunity to spend most of the day at my brother in laws Picture Frame shop, Frame Craft in Warrenton, Virginia. Man was it good fun to be there. I got to spend the morning making about 6 picture frames and use the coolest saw. This was a dual miter saw, so it cut both miters at once. You just set the stop to whatever length that you need and step on a foot pedal and 2 really big blades come down and cut 2 perfect 45 degree joints. Then you take the pieces over to a sweet nailer that pushes a special nail in from the back that holds the frame together.

That was the part that I loved, but after all that came the actual matt layout and cutting. Then there was the glass cutting and fitting everything in the frame. Putting on the back paper and attaching the hardware. All in all there is some much more to framing a picture than I could have ever imagined. I reckon that I will be back up there soon to help out some more, just because it was so much fun.

If you live anywhere near Warrenton, VA and need something framed check out Frame Craft, look them up in the phone book. I hope to help them make a sweet website soon. Until then you’ll just have to take my work for it.

So it’s been a few days and thing are returning to normal again. But I have to say that being back in northern VA for a week reminds me exactly why I left in the first place. So much traffic and to many people make for not a nice place to be.

So let me tell you all about the trip a little bit. We spent the last week in the Seattle area. I say area lightly because we were about a 2 hour drive out of the city, but only a hour ferry ride out. That was really cool to get on a ferry and ride into the city, but I digress. I had a couple of good opportunities up there. I had a chance to get to visit a great gallery in Seattle, Northwest Fine Woodworking.

I have been to a few galleries both here and in Australia. This gallery blew them all out of the water. It was very nicely laid out and had some amazing work in there. Everything that you could imagine was in there, beds, dressers, tables of all sorts, tansu chests, rockers, chairs and little boxes and bowls. The shop manager was really nice and answered all my questions about how to show at the gallery and what he thought sold the best. ( he told me that anything under about 3500$ sold pretty well, especially sofa, hall and coffee tables.)I also got the chance to talk to an owner of a small custom furniture and cabinetry shop, Bob from Saturn Designs I was interested in a possible job there when I finally get my act together and move out to the great north west. But it was good to talk to a guy that was doing it. He expressed his feelings on guys that come out of woodworking schools. He said that it tells him 2 things. First, that you are very dedicated to the craft. To go and spend time learning and developing skills shows that dedication. Second, it tells him that you are most likely very slow at making stuff, which I agreed with.  I’ll talk more on both of those subjects in the next episode of This Week in Wood. Anyways everyone, thanks for sticking around over these last few weeks. I’ve almost got the Sam Maloof Video ready, and I am filming some good stuff for the beginning of my shop set up. So stay tuned. Keep those questions and emails coming.

Man you would think in a place like Seattle I would be able to connect to the Internet better. Well I guess if I was actually in Seattle then yes. But I am in a beautiful place out in the middle of no where. I am actually posting this through my iPhone. But I get back to DC tomorrow night. After that there will be a video from the Sam Maloof show and a review of a beautiful gallery that I went. And hopefully much more fun. I also will be able to catch up on all those emails. I thank you all for you patience, talk to you guys more on Wednesday.

Here a little video that was taken during my recent trip to Marc Spagnulolo’s shop. It was a lot of fun being able to talk and chat with him and his wife. I hope you enjoy the little video. There’s more to come next week, so stay tuned.