Today marks the first of what I hope to be many of what the woodworking community is calling, "Get Woodworking Week". Tom, over at Toms Workbench has been been thinking about pulling this concept together for quite a while and I'm thrilled that he was able to get it coordinated.Basically what it boils down to is doing anything and everything to introduce your craft to someone new, expand your current skill set or to just get out into the shop and do something...
So with that in mind I've taken a small commission from the wife and thought it a perfect match for this week. As we were shopping for a missing wire clamp at the local hardware store yesterday she asked if I could make her a bobbin holder rather than buying the $5 plastic POS the store was selling. Absolutely I said to myself. So after buttoning up a few other tasks I drug her out to the shop and pointed her at the lumber rack and said choooooose (ala Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). She immediately jumped at several pieces of purple heart I had in the mix, but then after a few more questions began to question her choice (not that purple heart is a bad one at that), but after a few more questions I began to get a feel for what she was looking for. It was then that I remembered two cut offs that I have been carrying around of Ambrosia Maple (Acer saccharum). She picked them up and gave me a quizzical look as if I had lost my mind. So I quickly scrapped a smooth spot (oh how I wish my new Roubo bench was built) and gave it swipe with some mineral spirits to give her a view of the true nature of the wood and the result was immediate...YES...that's the piece. So after a few more questions and some discussion about secondary woods etc I had her narrowed down to a few choices.
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Bobbin Box Begins[/caption]
The finial decision was figured American Cherry (Prunus serotina), Black Walnut (Juglans Nigra)and the Ambrosia Maple.
I have to admit that I was fairly excited and extremely nervous about this. This after all would be the new flagship of our new shop...the first piece to be produced since disaster shop changed everything.
It took a few minutes to get back into the swing of things but I got the cherry blanks squared up and then with a re-saw pass on the band saw I had the sides. A few passes through the thickness sander and I was ready to move on...
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Bobbin Box Sides[/caption]
So what's next? tops and bottoms my boy...tops and bottoms, but for that you'll have to come back tomorrow.