09 August 2013 Hits: 4761
“Brand Loyalty & Memories of My Dad” Now there are lots of options for woodworking.
All my dad's tools had a bright red Craftsman label on them. Sears succeeded in branding their tools with me before branding was cool.
My dad always bought his tools from Sears. I have great memories of trips to the "big city" so we could get him a new tool. He was the kind of guy who went to the store with a purpose. We walked into the tool department, he picked up what he came for, paid with cash of course, and then we were on our way home. It was back in the day if your Craftsman tool broke you could take it back and get a new one absolutely free. Hmmm what happened to those days of service and quality? Gone with the knowledgeable sales person, I guess.
02 August 2013 Hits: 4838
"New Storage Shed" A Place for all the items from the garage.
The day finally arrived for shed delivery, and I was very excited. I had to work though, and Jules was left to deal with the delivery, "no big deal those guys just put the prefab thing together, right?" Sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to. I had worked on leveling the space the weekend prior, and I thought I had it pretty good. I didn't get out the level and really square it all up – it was a shed surely they could finish up a little leveling if it wasn't perfect. Turns out -- I was wrong.
26 July 2013 Hits: 4780
“Find your own perfect" Only you know what's acceptable for your projects.
Maybe I have old eyes or just bad eyes, but I can't distinguish between the marks of a 64th of an inch. I have a ruler marked to 1/64th, and I've tried countless times to use it, but frankly I can never tell exactly where one tiny mark ends and the next begins. Some will disagree with me, but if you can't distinguish it with 20/20 vision (corrected or otherwise) then it is very unlikely anyone looking at your project will ever even suspect. I've watched some woodworking shows where guys will put on magnifying goggles to read a precision ruler. I admire those guys; I have to admit I was very intimidated by them when I first started learning advanced techniques. I felt I could never achieve that level of perfection. The truth is I haven't achieved it, nor do I ever expect to. It is best to learn from those guys, watch their skills and techniques but do not be intimidated by them -- find your own comfort level and improve upon it as your skills improve.
19 July 2013 Hits: 4942
"Frog Shop Make-Over Part 2" Building a new shop starts by cleaning out the old one.
The first part of the Operation was the purge. This part was not well planned, because frankly I didn't know it was going to happen until I had about of a third of the items pulled out of the garage. I went out to work on some redwood furniture on a Saturday morning – not unlike many Saturday morning before it. I looked around and just couldn't stand it anymore. I had to step over a pile of lumber to get to the band saw, four bicycles consumed four different sections of my work space, and shelves of camping gear and old hobby items were spread across the back wall eating into precious tool storage space. I had to move the jointer to use the router table and the drill press set in the middle of my workbench. I was done!