The Joinery section starts on Page 63.

Enjoy...

  FREE Download from Google Books.

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Clock update

Ive been in the shop today working on next weeks video. Very distracted watching the 49ers-Saints game. San Francisco always seems to capitalize on lucky plays and turnovers, but I suspect New Orleans will pull this one out.
Working on a cutting board for next week. Yeah, I know, yawn. I hope to bring something new to the myriad of cutting board videos. Plus I really need one.
About the clock...

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Router table top and fence

Really happy with the way this fence turned out. Its got a lot of weight to it, is square, and moves pretty smoothly. I found the clamping system in a great book called Woodworking With The Router

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Top 5 woodworking safety tips

Show me your blood!

Oops! Well, at least I can Tweet this!

There is an ugly trend among online woodworkers that is not just distasteful, but a good way to frighten away new woodworkers. I call it woodworking porn. For some reason, woodworkers seem to get off on posting graphic photos and videos of woodworking injuries they have sustained. The bloodier the better, it has become a macabre badge of honor. No doubt, the first slo-mo video of a guy losing a finger will go viral.
Of course, these Tweets, Facebook and YouTube posts are usually couched as a vague "safety" lesson: "Guys! I got lucky this time...I wasnt being careful. Dont let this happen to you!" Check it out! Heres a gross photo to freak you out! By the way, stop trying to convince yourself that any bloody misfortune is lucky. Its not.
When a woodworker flaunts his injuries, what is the lesson for a newbie? Better forget about woodworking. Danger lurks around every power tool. Just looking at a tool the wrong way can spell disaster. If experienced woodworkers - who endlessly drone on and on about safety - do stupid things, what hope is there for a newcomer?
And the hobby dwindles even further.
In this age of paranoia and fear, some common sense:1) Accidents happen. Thats why theyre called accidents. Seasoned veterans injure themselves from time to time. If you are a reasonably intelligent human, your instincts will tell you that a spinning saw blade is something to be cautious around. If I tell you to "be careful" will it avert an accident? No. Instead:
2) Be smart. But you dont need me to nag you about it.
3) Nagging turns people off. In fact, it often has a reverse effect and makes people complacent. "Safety First" no longer has any meaning because we hear it all the time. Complacency is dangerous. Mindless mantras are even more dangerous.
4) Respect yourself. No, not your tools, yourself. Tools rarely attack or injure without a person somehow involved. Respect your brain and your body.
5) Never approach woodworking from a position of fear. Fear causes people to make poor or irrational decisions. If there is a tool or procedure in the shop you fear, stop to figure out why and learn how to overcome that fear, or do the safest thing: dont use that tool or perform that procedure.The safest thing you can do is nothingPeople who never use woodworking tools are less likely to suffer woodworking injuries than those of us who use woodworking tools. (I think there was a study done on that.)
Personal safety is important to me, but not my highest concern. Thankfully, creating a finished woodworking project is my number one concern in the shop. If it werent, Id spend my days tucked safely on my couch and youd never see any pallet videos.
I get  minor scrapes and cuts now and then but I will not exploit them. Ill gain viewers and readers the old fashioned way: by creating engaging video content. Of course, Im not above writing a provocative article to attract attention. Or peddling stylish shop wear.
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Redwood hanging planters

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 1:24 PM

Here are a couple of hanging planters I made using two redwood boards. My local lumberyard sells six foot "fence boards" in a couple different widths. I used one 8 inch wide board for each of these planters. The great thing about those boards is that they are pretty cheap. Each one cost a little over $6.00.
I can tell you this, it was a lot of repetitive cutting! I guess the key is just to work out some sort of assembly line and keep organized.

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Make a wooden piggy bank

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 9:12 PM

Last week I got an email from Janae Myers, suggesting I make a piggy bank. I liked the idea so much that I decided to focus my attention on designing and building one. Its really very simple to make, but with plenty of opportunities to offer your own artistic flair.
The construction is similar to a bandsaw box, with the sides glued on to a hollowed-out center. Using the entry point from the bandsaw makes for a great coin slot, albeit perpendicular to the direction coin slots normally run, I think.
To plug the bottom, I used a plastic grommet I picked up at the hardware store. Its the same one I used in my skull and crossbones candy dispenser. You could also use a cork.
The biggest decision I had to make when designing this, was how to deal with the pigs head. Traditional piggy banks look more like real pigs and have the head facing forward. I played around with various ways of doing this, but they all looked odd since my components are all essentially two-dimensional. By placing his head and face on the side, it compensates for this and gives it more of an appearance of a round, not flat head.
Its important to round over all the edges to make him as as soft and cuddly as wood can possibly be.
Free plansHere are the templates I designed. You can print them all out on single sheets of paper. Use spray adhesive to affix them to the wood.

• WWMM Piggy Bank (pdf)

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Promo video

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 11:40 AM

I recently shot a video for eReplacementParts.com and thought you might like to see it. They are also offering up a nice prize from DeWalt to one of my viewers. More details on that soon!

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Build a router lift

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 6:09 AM

When I set out to make my router table, I decided early on that I wanted to include a router lift. It makes it easy to raise and lower the router without having to reach underneath, and bits can be changed from the top of the table.

Lots of liftsI looked at a lot of different lifts. If you are ambitious, I highly recommend Matthaias Wandels incredible tilting lift over at Woodgears.ca. Put simply, Mathhias is a genius. He puts a lot of work into his plans are they incredibly detailed and accurate. For $14, its worth it.
On the other end of the home-made spectrum, Weekend Workshop on You Tube made an intriguing router lift using a car jack!

I decided to go in between these two and built a lift that was featured in issue 121 of Shop Notes magazine. It is a pretty simple concept, but was definitely a challenge to my skills. Thats the kind of project I like. It works really well.
Shop NotesI wanted to provide a link to the plan.
I contacted Shop Notes and strangely, they have no way to buy the plan online or even to buy the issue it was in! Uh, it was this year...January, 2012. Really old skool.
They have a lot of great projects and it seems to me like they are really missing the boat on this one. Even the Shop Notes web site is pretty lame. Cmon Shop Notes! Heres an opportunity to make some extra money.
So if you dont get Shop Notes and are interested in the plan, poke around a little. There are people selling back issues.

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Get organized! Canned goods dispenser

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 3:58 AM

Junk monthAll this month I will be featuring storage and organization projects. If you have anything youd like to share, let me know!
January is a perfect time to start anew and spend some time organizing stuff. It is actually one of the more popular resolutions. And unlike "drop 30 pounds", organizing is easy to dive into and the rewards are much quicker!

Heres a project my wife has been wanting me to make for some time. We have a shelf on which we store canned food and it is always a mess. Somehow the cans always manage to intermingle, making it difficult to find what we are looking for.
I spent a lot of time getting back into SketchUp: I havent used it in a while. (Its one of my resolutions!) So while I cant say its the best plan in the world, it should help you to build this. I hope to really improve this year. If you want to make the dispenser to fit into a smaller space, just eliminate a couple of the dividers and scale it back.
Sketchup filePDF file.

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Back to business! And a whole heap of mallets

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 12:56 AM

Hi guys, I am back from my week off and feel fairly rejuvenated. The biggest problem with returning from a vacation is trying to catch up on all the email and messages that have piled up over the week!
I was thrilled to discover how many of you busy bees have been making mallets. So lets dive in.
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Wes Woods in Idaho made his using oak from an old pallet and added black walnut wedges.

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Carmen Salamone had the great idea to fill the head of his mallet with pennies. I think Ill try that next time!

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Heres Denny Scharringas take using birdseye maple, ipe, and mahogany.

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Ron Ward made a mallet without the help of a table saw, but it came out great. I especially like the head shape.

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James Everett raided his scrap pile and put some red oak, purple heart, and walnut to use.

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Bill Wilson checked in with his walnut and padauk mallet. He used lead weights from black powder bullets for the head.

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Mere Minutes

I am making a door harp for Fridays video. Plus a little of what I did on my summer break.

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Dowel center finding jig and some Christmas woodworking ideas

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 7:39 PM

Heres a quick little jig that Bill Wilson (the Cajone king) made for centering dowel holes on the edge of a board. Just two dowels and a hole all lined up. Place the dowels on each side of an edge and drill through the center hole. Voilà!

And since its gift-building season, Bill also sent over a picture of a project he built. The snow is flour.

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Heres another gift idea...a slit drum. Dave Hecker says his biggest woodworking challenge is getting wood into his basement...it has to go through the house to get there! Slit drums are fun projects.

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Kenneth Hockenberry posted this most incredible video over on Facebook today. (If youre not signed up the the Mere Mortals Facebook page, check it out. Lots of really cool discussions, sometimes about wood, sometimes about football on Sundays. Plus, if you arent there, we talk about you behind your back.) 

At any rate, there is so much that is cool about this video, I wont spoil anything before you watch.

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Viewers like you!

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 6:51 AM

Wanted to catch up on some recent viewer projects.
Michael Davis and his wife made this really creative trivet with cherry and included holly splines. He used some leftover tiles and added a horseshoe!

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Kevin Facemire says his wife has been asking for a new stepstool for two years! It pays to be patient. Kevin used redwood for the steps, and a redwood spline to join the pine sides

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Jeremy Greiner took a shot at my garden bench. Looks great painted white. He described the process over on Lumberjocks.

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Haye Galama from Holland made a spinning top that works the same way as my recent toy top. It was a good chance for him to try out his brand new lathe!

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Benjamin Zupan?i? sent over a bunch of photos hes has made from his shop in Slovenia. This one, a flower table or plant stand really caught my eye. My first thought was making something similar to this using some of that free bamboo I picked up a few weeks ago.

Bill Wilson is always busy coming up with creative woodworking projects. Heres his version of my clock from early this year. he made this out of canary wood and gave it to his churchs pastor. I love the octagonal shape. 

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All woodworkers should take time once in a while to make an heirloom project. Bill Pryor made this copy of his brother-in-laws 1964 Kenworth log truck that he used for 30 years. Its made with bubinga and maple and took Bill about three months to build. This is a stunner.

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Shop cabinet

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 10:33 PM

Heres a simple shop cabinet I built to store small cut-offs. Those pieces of wood that I save for all sorts of reasons. I used 3/4" plywood for most of the cabinet. Easily adaptable for any storage use.

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