June Meeting featuring Denny's Tool Cabinet

Time to Start, About 30 Members in Attendance 

On one of the warmest days of the year so far we had a good turnout for this month's meeting.  As is our custom, we began with the round robin introductions and due to the heat decided it was better to amplify our voices then to turn off the swampers and their low hum.  Several new faces in the crowd -- Welcome!  Not a lot of business to attend to this month but your all reminded about the AWFS convention/show that will be in town this July 22nd. - 25th.  Unfortunately the general consensus seems to be that the seminars and classes are lacking this year but for the $25.00 admission you get the chance to see all of the newest tools and gadgets in the woodworking industry plus have a chance to spend some cash and acquire them!  The other business item is in regards to the Christmas Project.  This will be a toy and there is no limit on the amount or type of material you use.  After the members vote on them they can either be given to your own kids, grandkid, nieces, nephews, etc. or donated to a charity of your choice.

Show & Tell and Other Items Brought Up

     Ed, who seems to be on the hunt and receiving end of many antique planes told us about a #6C Baily Jointer Plane he currently has his eye on.  According to his own description it's a pretty well rusted piece that I believe is spending its time in a neighbors yard but Ed would like to get it anyway!  I did a quick Ebay check and there are a number of them listed currently.

     Another item of interest was brought up regarding an On-Line clearance sale that Lee Valley will be having.  The dates are June 22nd. through the 26th.  Here is a LINK to that information.  Beth highly recommended their brad point drill bits; who knows that may be one of their clearance items!

     Tim brought in a heavy duty card scraper that he began using for his guitars but has found it to be great for working on his rocking chairs as well.  It's by Stuart MacDonald and although he's primarily a luthier, this LINK to his site should prove to be interesting too.  There is a video dealing with the card scraper too.

Bridge City Tool Works Crowning Plane

Ted brought in a Lie-Nielsen spokeshave and antique brass plumb bob that he recently acquired.  He also shared this specialized tool he was given as a gift by a long time client of his.  It's a Bridge City Tool Works crowning plane and highly specialized.  This is the same company I've given a link to for the Kerfmaker tool that Jamie shared with us.  Pretty impressive company and definitely a maker of high quality, specialized tools.  Among the other things Ted does to keep busy in the shop is wood turning.  This Walnut and Ash bowl is an example of his recent work.

Ted's Walnut & Ash Bowl

                                                                                                   

Bridge City Kerfmaker

Here is a LINK to Bridge City.  There is a video explaining how to use the Kerfmaker that's pretty impressive.

John's Ash & Curly Maple Bowl

John has been bitten hard by the woodturning bug and brought it a beautiful example of one he recently completed with Jimmy Clewes.  The lid is Curly Maple which is finished with dyes and multiple coats of lacquer.  On the bottom he used an interesting technique of "scorching" where he torched it on the lathe and then wire brushed it to remove some of the softer wood leaving a very cool, textured finish behind.  Reminded me of the 60's and 70's when we'd torch Redwood to create a reclaimed appearance then heat nails, screws, etc. and burn them into the wood to add to the antique look.  That stuff never turned out as nicely as John's bowl!

 

Denny LaRocca's Beautiful Cherry & Maple Tool Cabinet

Featured 

         Presentation: 

Denny's Tool Cabinet

Denny LaRocca is known to all of us as Jamie's shop assistant.  Here's an example of some of the work that he does as well, a tool cabinet designed to hold his ever growing collection of tools.  By his own admission, he admits to sometimes buying tools on a whim only to have them gather dust somewhere in his work area -- unopened!  He blames the recent Lie-Nielsen tool event at Jamie's shop as being the catalyst for this project.  After spending more on Lie-Nielsens fine tools than he should have he decided that rather than have them laying around carelessly in his shop it was time to build a proper cabinet.  

He began by sketching out some of his own ideas but then Jamie handed him a book called The Toolbox Book by Jim Tolpin, here's a LINK to it from Amazon.  The basis for his cabinet can be found on page 101.  It features machine cut dovetails and through mortise and tenon joinery.  Denny modified those plans to suit his own requirements.  One interesting thing he changed was the traditional use of through mortise and tenon joinery.  Almost seems like a "no duh" concept seeing how he works in Jamie's shop but rather than hand cut those tenons he used the Festool Domino joiner.  Check out the link if you've never sent this amazing tool in action.  

Domino Tenon

It uses a piece of wood similar to the biscuit you may be familiar with: 

If you checked the cabinet out closely you can see the ends of them on the front rail.  Not only is this a strong way to assemble the case, it also adds a nice decorative element.  

Tool Holder Designs

     During the construction process, Denny came up with a number of different ways to hold his tools securely in the cabinet.  Shown at left are some that didn't make it into the final project but were critiqued by Jamie and others in classes --- that is, if you can call a calloused "that sucks" a critique!  Designs that made it into the cabinet are shown in the picture essay below but many included magnets and shaped wooden forms to hold the tools in place.  As Denny acquires more tools there is enough free space in the cabinet to accommodate them.

With a project like this, one where you spend time working on it as you can it's difficult to calculate the amount of hours you spend.  Conservatively, Denny guesses at about 100-150 hours.  The doors hinge on continuous piano hinges and are held shut with magnets.  The finish is Watco oil.  

     He elected to have Cimarron Drawers do the dovetail work on these with wood he supplied to ensure a nice flow of the grain all the way across the cabinet.  Larger drawers have small, finger jointed drawers inside of them for better organization:

Note the exposed Domino tenon  on the rail between the drawers

Here are some of the detailed photos of the various tool holders:

Chisel Holder

Marking Gauges and Lay-Out Tools

Various Squares

As part of his tool kit, Denny showed off his shop made mallet.  It's filled with shot but an interesting feature is the unequal curved shape by the head.  The purpose of this is so that when he chokes up on the handle for better control, his thumb fits nicely into the shorter radius -- smart idea!

Denny's shop made mallet 

June Meeting 2015: Wednesday the 17th.

Summer is upon us here in Las Vegas with a vengeance and if you're like me, the garage shops many of us have isn't the best place to be after noon time.  Well, remember that tomorrow night is our monthly meeting at WoodItIs Studio, located at 2267 Gowan Road.  As always visitors are welcome and you'll want to bring your own seating as that is somewhat limited.  With the heat we've had lately a fan might be in order too!

The meeting will start at the usual time of 7:00 pm with round robin introductions, a discussion of any business, and show and tell by our members of their latest projects and accomplishments in their wood work.  We try to limit those to about 5 minutes so the featured presenter has ample time.

We all know Denny as Jamie's assistant abut did you know that he has been working on a beautiful cabinet to house his tool collection?  Many woodworkers have a goal of creating their own traditionally styled cabinet to house their tools; it's the ultimate statement of your woodworking abilities.  The sad truth though is that many, myself included, go about it in a piecemeal fashion.  We build a little cabinet for our router bits, another for the planes, yet another for the tool we found at a garage sale ---- you know how that goes.  The next thing you know you have a bunch of unrelated cabinets lining your shop and are somewhat disorganized.

Denny LaRocca was inspired by a design from Taunton Press by Greg Radley.  I did a quick search for him and although I couldn't find the exact book there were many references to other cabinets built using his design, hopefully Denny will have the book when he does his demonstration.  His cabinet is made of Cherry and Maple and incorporates traditional joinery techniques such as dovetails, finger joints, wedged tenons, plus many customized tool holders to house his collection.

If you're thinking that you too should have a centralized place to store all of your tools you're sure to be inspired by Denny's work.  The picture looks awesome, up close and personal it's sure to be spectacular!

As always the meeting starts at 7:00 pm, call Jamie at the studio @ 702-631-1870 if you have any questions.  See you then -- John

Thanks to Samuel Rushton for creating this cool video for our group!

THANKS!

I appreciate all of you that sent me emails to let me know the Hardware Blog was finally in your hands and in-box.  My guess is that with all of the links the "Internet Police" suspected spamming.  I've also played around with the background of the newsletter to expand the text area.  You know what?  It's much easier to solve a problem with wood construction than it is with computer related things, that was pretty frustrating!
I may go to simply sending out a link to the blog rather than the entire contents of it.
But, once again:

John

Email Check

Good morning all, if you were at the last meeting you may recall Jamie saying she's having troubles sending bulk emails --- Guess what?  Add me to that list.

After working on our hardware list with all of the links Cox won't send it.  I'm wondering if its because of all the links so sending this out to see if I can mail a blog without links.

You don't need to do anything at your end, I just want to see if the links are the problem.

Thanks -- John

Hardware Suppliers from our Members

First off, I'd like to thank those of you that brought information about local and internet sources for the group.  Those members were:

• Lupe Nielsen
• Jamie Yocono
• Rich Dougherty
• Ken Martin
• Ron Seipel
• Jerald Welsh
• John Eugster

I hope I didn't forget someone, if I did my apologies in advance and let me know so I can add you to this listing.  I've been trying to figure out the best way to organize this so it'll be a help as we pursue our passion with woodworking.  I've decided to make it a separate blog so that, if you'd like; you can bookmark it somewhere in your computer and have it available when needed rather than trying to search through all of the Sin City Woodworkers Blogs.  There's no particular order to the way I've listed them and check out addresses and phone numbers before you visit -- I guess that's my disclaimer, I'll be as accurate in relaying the information from the meeting to you as I can.  Most of them are specific to hardware items but there are also sources for tools, casters, machine parts, project parts, and so on.  Some have websites you can research as well.

Local Sources

1. Woodworkers Emporium  5461 Arville Street  702-871-0722
2. Wurth/Lewis & Company  6125 S Valley View Blvd  800-472-7755
3. McFadden Dale  5580 S. Decatur Blvd #114  702-251-8059
4. Meads Hardware  4438 E. Lake Mead Blvd  702-452-1560
5. Commercial Hardware  3725 W. Russell Rd  702-736-0007
6. Nevada Bolt  2625 E. Craig Rd  702-649-4759
7. Source Four (bearings & casters)  4436 N. Lawrence St  702-734-8848
8. Nevada Packaging Solutions (packing materials for shipping)  7440 S. Dean Martin Drive  702-795-7455

Internet Sources

Again, these are not in any particular order but I will begin with the most diverse sources and list the more specialized ones at the end.  I will annotate the best I can from the notes I took during the meeting and my own experience.  Links are included if possible as well, it'll be obvious since the listing will be underlined and in blue.

• Lee Valley Hardware   Note that this is the link for their woodworking section, they have additional sections for gardening, hardware, and gifts (Veritas tools, cabinet knobs & pulls, project supplies, finishing, etc.)
• Rockler Hardware and Rockler Pro  I've given both sites for Rockler (hardware, tools, shop supplies, etc.) but let me clarify and you can investigate which one to use.  Rockler Pro is designed for business and schools and you need to set up an account.  As Jamie mentioned, they don't seem to check whether or not you're a legitimate business.  From my experience, the Pro side of Rockler is less expensive for most items but you cannot use any internet discounts, shipping, or special promotions on that site.  Woodworkers Emporium is a Rockler distributor with a pretty limited inventory.  You can call them (702-871-0722) with the part number from the Rockler catalog to see if they may have it in stock.
• Woodworkers Supply  Sometimes called Woodworkers Supply of New Mexico or Wyoming but same outfit (tools, hardware, supplies, etc.)
• Woodcraft  (tools, hardware, project supplies, shop supplies, etc.)
• Constantine's  This is a company that has been around for a long time  (inlays, hardware, finishing supplies, caning, hand tools, resins, etc.)
• Small Box Hardware  Located in Canada but no problems with shipping (latches, clasps, hinges, etc. available in finishes such as brass, black, nickel, and antique  they specialize in binder parts too)
• House of Antique Hardware  and VanDykes Restorers  (mostly large scale hardware for the house but also cabinet knobs, hinges, refrigerator hardware and nameplates, etc.)
• Architecturals.net   (antique hardware, clavos, radio parts, bathroom fixtures, caning, etc.)
• Cherry Tree Toys  (toy parts, wheels, axles, plans, figures, hinges, etc.  Plus many other wood related items)
• Klockit  (clock movements, faces, hands, plans, plus weather station instruments and more)
• Horton Brasses  (Arguably the finest quality brass hinges and hardware you can find -- and the prices reflect that!)
• Meisel Hardware  (hardware, project parts and plans, toys and birdhouse plans)
• McMaster-Carr  A huge (1320 page) source of virtually everything -- including the kitchen sink! (over-night shipping standard from California, check out website to see catalog)
• Micro-Mark  (small tool specialists and hardware)
• PaperMart   (if you do any shipping, good source for boxes and packing materials)

     If you've searched the web you know that we've only "scratched the surface" with the above listings.  These were ones that our members shared and have used in the past.  Someone gave me a paper from Woodworkers Journal that listed many other specialized hardware and project parts resources.  Unfortunately,  I was unable to open it but it; probably because you need a subscription to access that info.  That reminded me though; most of the magazines will list suppliers and resources in their print and on-line subscriptions.  

 

     Last but certainly not least, how do we work with all of these hardware items?  Jamie brought out this particular book from Taunton press.  I use this and I'm willing to be that many of you do too.  I checked and it is available from Taunton Press as a PDF instant download for $13.99.   It may be my personal bias but I much prefer having a hard cover that I can take out to the shop rather than having to search through a PDF file then print it out.  I checked on Ebay as well and currently there are two hardcover books listed (one at $8.00, the other at $20.00).

May 2015 Meeting

Getting Started --- Did you notice the Graphic?

     With about 32 members, several of whom were first timers, the meeting began with our customary round robin introductions.  As usual there were some funny moments with the theme starting out with military and grandkids -- guess you had to be there!  The focus of this months meeting was hardware and there was a lot of participation and information shared.  I'm in the process of writing that up as a separate blog so you can bookmark it for reference but it'll take some time trying to get all of the links for you.

Business Portion

     Just in case you haven't made your plans yet for the upcoming AWFS which will be held July 22-26 here is a LINK to it.  It's held here every other year and is the largest trade show of its kind.  Since we live here it be a shame not to invest $25.00 to see the latest tools and related items in woodworking.  Jamie is able to get a limited number of people into the show as students for no charge so check with her if that interests you.

     Jamie sends out hundreds of emails monthly and (can you believe it!) is using AOL.  She has put out an SOS for anyone that is familiar with MailChimp to please contact her and help her get started with this program.

     Lie-Nielsen is coming back to Wood It Is for another outstanding show of their tools.  They are interested in having any local tool makers participate during their time here.  If you're aware of any local, wood related tool makers contact Jamie at the studio.

     Last of all, it has finally been decided that the end of the year contest will focus on toys this year.  After discussion and a show of hands that was the consensus of the group.  We'll work out the details soon, this will give us all plenty of time to participate.  At the end of the contest toys can either be donated to charity or given to your own  kids/grandkids.

Show & Tell Portion

Lamp with Inlaid Design

This very interesting turned lamp was brought in by Beth.  Seems as if turning is getting to be a very popular aspect of our members and many of them are taking classes with Jimmy Clewes.  What makes this lamp so interesting is a technique she used to inlay wood into the blank.  Then as she began turning the form, the inlay was exposed in this cool pattern.

Ed brought in two different turned items, one was this lidded box made out of some Peach tree harvested from a neighbors yard.  The other piece is a laminated and segmented bowl.

Peach Tree Lidded Box

Laminated & Segmented Bowl

John also has been working with turnings and seems to have the Lathe Bug too!  He shared these greenwood turnings with us made of Peppertree.  He also showed a huge handle for one of his lathe tools that he made from curly Maple.  It was finished with black, red, and yellow spirit stain.

Live edge and greenwood turnings 

Ken showed us a few items this week starting with the Incra jig designed to make wooden hinges.  Here is a LINK to it from Rockler.  Along with the jig he brought in a box where he used that jig to make the hinges.

What you see sitting on top of the box is a trick he shared with us!  That is a bottle of air that is available at any office supply used to blow the dust from your keyboard.  He discovered that it does the exact same thing that Bloxygen does for one third the price!  If you're not familiar with that product it is used to preserve your finishes during storage.  It's creates a seal between the finish and the empty space of the can preventing oxidation/evaporation/contamination!

     Allen brought in a stand he made for computer tablets and probably readers as well.  His son had created a program that created as much interest as the woodwork did!  It showed the Sin City Woodworkers logo being cut out of a piece of wood, pretty neat!  His son wrote the program for it.

Finally, Jamie who we know does more than her share of fantastic work, brought out a chair which will be one of a set of eight.  Since she claims to get bored doing the same thing over and over she has decided to make four different styles so she has eight similar but somewhat different chairs to go with her table.  The wood is Ash.  She used the technique Lupe showed many meetings ago where the table saw is used to sculpt the seat.

Jamie's Chair

     By the way, we kidded Ed a bit regarding his discovery of the YouTube video's and finding a wealth of information there.  Many of you may not be aware of it but Lupe has uploaded a number of video's to the Sin City Woodworker channel on YouTube.  If you go to YouTube and do a search you'll find them.  It's a good way to refresh your memory or learn about events from previous meetings.  My computer savvy isn't' the greatest but here is a LINK to one of the video's she did last April.  I went to YouTube and put in Sin City Woodworkers and all of them come up but that may occur because I've subscribed to the channel.  They may also be listed under Nielsen Magic or Lupe Nielsen.  In any case, it's a good resource to see what has been done in the past.
     As I mentioned at the beginning, the Hardware Blog is in progress and I'll get it to you as soon as it's done.  Here's to all of you having a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day as we celebrate our great country.  Remember the men and women that fought and sacrificed so we can enjoy the abundance and freedom of living in the USA!