In what has to be a record, Neil Buchan made a secret-compartment pencil holder hours after I posted the video! Can you guess he made it for his daughter?

*****

Ty Lam, from Boston, is just getting started on woodworking but starting out big. Check out some of his work. This is a really beautiful table made out of 2x4s and scrap marble. He even had a go at my candle holder.

*****

If you do any woodworking, you will make picture frames. And as soon as you start, requests for more will never end! Les Cain has been cranking out lots of versions of my simple picture frame. Those are his grandkids, CJ and Hope. 

*****

Mere Minutes

Dave Rutan sent me a shop-made clamp. Its very clever and looks pretty simple to make. Plus, you can make is with scrap lumber...a lot cheaper than buying clamps. (Seen how much clamps are lately? Ouch.) Dave was also kind enough to write up instructions on how to make your own!

Here are a couple of PDFs:

How to make the bar clamp

An improved spinner for the clamp

*****

Wanted to share this quick video from Johnny and Joe, who entered my video contest. (That a 1950s Craftsman bandsaw they showed in their video entry. Pretty cool.) But mostly, kids like these are further indication that the future is not a bleak as some of us old guys want to believe. Thanks gentlemen.

Read More..

Stephan Passon is 20 years old and lives in Germany. Hes been working wood and metal for 11 years. Here are a couple of vises he uses often. This one for his CNC mill:

In this age of planned obsolescence, its nice to know that tools can function for generations just as they were intended. This vise is from Stephans grandfather and is 100 years old.

*****
Matthew Dean Wilson built his own vise. Clever design. Maybe someone will be using it in 100 years.

*****

Store-bought clamps are just way too expensive. Shaun Harmer built his own clamp for 10 bucks. Its a cool design and something I really want to try. To operate it, you move the sliding jaw near the work piece, drop the bolt into a hole and tighten the knob. Then you turn the threaded rod to tighten the jaw. Great idea.

Read More..

Math clamps Its science!

But before that, I wanted to show off this bench made by Dan, in Wheeling, West Virginia. For his beefy version, he used some old 4x4s he had lying around. Best part?

"If a tornado comes we can all hang on the bench. Its not going anywhere!!"

Ha! Definitely looks sturdy. Thanks Dan!

*****

Heres a really cool idea from Brian over at GarageWoodworks.com. He calls it a Bernoulli Spiral Shell Clamp. I remember my first lesson in the golden ratio, Phi, and Fibonacci, a little over a year ago when I made a Fibonacci Gauge. (Which I still find very useful.)
It seems Bernoulli is another name associated with some sort of math that I really cant comprehend, yet find incredibly fascinating. 

Whatever the math and science involved, check out these clamps which are supremely clever and quite useful.

*****Reminder. Win Kreg stuff in the Mere Mortals video contest! Video entries due by Sunday.

Read More..