The Unplugged Woodshop » Made by Hand

Made by Hand

Tom Fidgen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:04:57 +0000

Highland Woodworking started out as Highland Hardware in 1978 and for over 30 years they’ve been ‘fanning the flames of interest and excitement in the craft of woodworking…’

In 1980, they began weekend woodworking seminars with names like Tage Frid, Sam Maloof, Roy Underhill and Michael Dunbar and in 2005 they launched Wood News Online, a monthly, electronic newsletter. I’m happy to let readers know that Made by Hand is now available at this historic wood working store and I welcome you to visit the Highland Woodworking web site to see all that they have to offer. Whether you’re a guitar builder or a wood turner, a hand tool enthusiast or a power tool junkie, Highland Woodworking has something for everyone. Cheers!

SHIPPING BEGINS….

Tom Fidgen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:25:00 +0000

My book shipment has arrived.

Now, if you’ll excuse me…
I must go lick the feather.
Wish me luck!

Book Box Winners

Tom Fidgen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:29:00 +0000

My book shipment has arrived in Ohio !! I should receive my copies by the end of the week (with any luck) and will be starting the shipping early next week. I’ll be contacting all of my pre-ordered customers this week with shipping prices and details.
I’ve just randomly selected the three winners of the custom book boxes- thanks again to everyone who has pre-ordered a copy.

The three winners are:

Kevin Kauffunger from Pittsburgh, PA.

Martin LaRoche from Gatineau, Quebec

and finally Eric Schenck from Rochester, NY.

Congratulations guys and thanks again everyone!!
Now I better get going and make those boxes…
Cheers.

Last Chance to Pre-Order

Tom Fidgen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:17:00 +0000

I can’t believe tomorrow is the 6th of November already. The main shipment of books should be in Ohio and I’ll be receiving my copies asap! I’ll be signing them and sending them off in the next two weeks. If you’d still like to pre-order your own signed copy, today and tomorrow is the cut off. You’ll still be able to order a signed copy after it’s in stores but shipping will unfortunately be more expensive. I’ve managed to get the shipping costs down to about a third of what it would be if I shipped them all from here in Toronto- this lower shipping rate will be my own time of packaging the books up and driving to the USA ! Again I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has already placed an order and I’m looking forward to hearing some feedback from you. The new site is still far from complete but should be feeling a little better in another week or two. I’ll keep you posted on the details and will also be announcing the winners of the ‘Book Boxes’
Cheers!

SKETCH-UP

Tom Fidgen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:40:00 +0000

This past week a fellow East Coaster has been putting together some Sketch-Up models for the book projects. They’ll all be available at my new website when the book is launched in November but I thought I’d show you some shots of the first project model here. It’s the Cabinetsmakers Toolchest.
These are only ’stills’ from the program but when you actually open the files in Sketch-up, you’ll be able to zoom into the pieces, rotate them and flip them over, change your perspective on each ’scene’ as well as ‘orbiting’ all around them to get a closer look. A really cool educational tool, they also have all of the dimensions and measurements for you.

If you don’t know Sketch-up it’s a free application from Google. Click the link to download! You’ll be able to look inside the pieces, see the joinery up close and really get personal with the designs. It should also answer any joinery questions when the time comes for you to build these pieces in your own wood shops.
A great tool, it seems that every time he sends me a new model I can’t help to think: “Man, I wish I had this while I was building them!”
I’m really looking forward to November…

Cheers!

(and thanks again Daniel)

Updates and Appreciation

Tom Fidgen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:41:00 +0000

I want to start off with a big THANK YOU to everybody that has pre-ordered a copy of Made by Hand:Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop; the response and positive feedback has really made my week and I wanted to say again how much I appreciate the support.
That said, I’ve been feeling like a bag of s**t for the past five days! Been battling a flu bug all week so the door production has been pretty slow. I did manage to get a good bit of the window mouldings completed yesterday and today. I must be getting the upper hand on the little buggars!

It’s funny, all through the building process I’d been sort of thinking that the ‘hard’ work was over with but as it turns out (and isn’t this always the way?) the window treatments have been more work than I planned. It’s not that they’re exceptionally difficult but there’s alot of them and they’re thin mouldings so working on them is a bit of a juggling act. I built myself a ’sticking board’ when I started the panel mouldings but it’s just a little too wide and too short for these ones. I should have made another for the smaller mouldings but instead I’ve been placing side batons and clamps to hold things in place…not ideal but it is working.Lots of jigging and fussing and cussing about! If I were feeling better this past week I would have made a new one but everything gets amplified when you’re trying to fight off a cold.
So I had hoped by this point tonight I’d be showing some pictures of all the door elements completed but it wasn’t in the cards. I do only have a few more pieces to finish so hopefully by weeks end. Then it’ll be on to the finishing and glue up.
Notice the order? Yup finish first…well most of it anyway. I’m going to pre finish the mouldings, the panels and all of the other ‘rick-rack’ before assembly. Less chance of runs and the like. Also, as far as the panels go I’ll definitely finish them so in the event they do somehow shrink and expand the 1/2″ I’ve allotted then you wouldn’t see any unfinished wood showing on the edges.
With that, I’m going to go make a cup of tea and sit down to listen to the last episode of Wood Talk online…Marc Spagnuolo (the Wood Whisperer) just informed me that they gave the blog a plug! Check it out here: http://thewoodwhisperer.com/wood-talk-online-59/

Tomorrow I’m going to be breaking out the ‘ol bow-saw…you can see the shape of the window sill decorative treatment in the shot above; should be fun!
Stay tuned.

A first look Inside Made by Hand:

Tom Fidgen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:49:00 +0000

The following images are excerpts from my new book. The introduction as well as a sneak peak at three of the six ‘furniture project chapters’.
The book also features five more plans for workbench appliances; a shooting board, bench hook, miter hook, winding sticks and Krenov inspired saw horses. Take a look inside and see what you think. You’ll also get a free DVD that will walk you through all of the hand tools I used in these projects; from Lie Nielsen to Lee Valley we’ll take a close look at the more popular manufacturers on the market today and I’ll discuss the pros and cons of each. This will really help out the beginner who can sometimes feel overwhelmed when starting the journey into wood working.

I’m more than willing to help you out along the way when you start making these projects yourself through e-mail as well as my blog.

Thanks for reading and happy shavings!

Tom

128 Joints

Tom Fidgen — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:05:00 +0000

I just finished up another project for my book and wanted to share a bit of the details. The piece is a simple enough form, 2″ square legs with a kind of post and panel design for the sides. One door and six drawers make a total of 32 sticks to build the frame. Sounds straight forward enough right.? What lies within? A simple form like this can be quite deceiving to the untrained eye; here’s how. The 32 frame components require 128 joints; nothing crazy but a simple mortise and tenon sharing the width with a bridal joint…so far so good but if you stop to consider that each one of these joints requires up to 12 separate saw cuts, some chiseling and fine fitting that brings us to a neighborhood of 1536 scribe lines! Not so much the simple cabinet it appeared to be after all?

The hardest part for me when building a piece like this is keeping the pieces labeled and orientated properly. This is probably the most challenging piece from my book but for the reader and home woodworker who builds they’re own, I can promise you this; by the time it’s complete you’ll be a whole lot closer in perfecting your lay out, marking and sawing techniques!
Cheers.

Another One Down

Tom Fidgen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:56:00 +0000

Here’s a sneak peak at the latest project from my upcoming book. It’s a small book case with doors featuring through mortise and tenon joinery. I had some beautiful Flame Birch sitting on my shelf for the past few years and decided this was the time to use it. After sitting for more than two years in my wood shop back in Cape Breton air drying, to six more months here in my new shop in Toronto, I figured it would be good and dry. Stable is perhaps a better word to use…man, was I wrong. Sure the moisture content was low but stable it was not.

Once I cut into it and planed it the pieces for the doors and the top warped like a banana…Seeing as this was a limited stock I had and I figured I wouldn’t find any other Flame Birch locally I decided to use a few bits of Walnut from my off-cut pile. I’m very happy with the results however if this piece had of been for a client, it would have ended up in the firewood pile. I would have never taken the time to try fixing it. Seeing as it’s for demonstration purposes and was my prototype I took the extra steps and worked through these challenges. It changed the aesthetic of the piece which probably changed some of the design features as well. The sticks captured inside of the door frame as well as the desicion to use hand made paper for the panels…I’m happy I decided to keep going with it and make what I had work. I guess thats the point here, doing the best with what you have. So my Birch bookcase with Walnut top turned out to be a good thing .

Cheers!

Working wood…lots of it!

Tom Fidgen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Well it’s been an incredibly busy few months since the summer came and went. A few custom pieces of furniture designed and commissioned. The bulk of my time though has been spent on my book. Writing, designing, constructing its been an incredible journey thus far. I should apologise to my frequent readers for not keeping things up to date here. I’m usually good for a new blog every few days but lately it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day.

That said, I’m finally into the ‘project’ chapters and am very excited with the turn-out thus far. My hands, legs and shoulders are getting quite a work out, dimensioning a few hundred board feet of lumber all by hand! Good for the soul. The first project chapter is a small side table out of Ash which was a real pleasure to work with hand tools; the second is a bookcase with glass doors in Birch-Flame Birch. Now I don’t know if anyone out there has ever had the opportunity to work with a highly figured wood like this Birch but what I can say is this: if these trees don’t grow out of the Devils garden then I don’t know where they come from! Reversing grain every few inches, tear out occurring with my sharpest Smoothing planes….well, isn’t that just lovely.? Hey, gotta remember, it’s good for the soul;now if Robert Johnston can get things done how should I?
Stay tuned…

Pushing Ink…

Tom Fidgen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:34:00 +0000

I’ve been writing my Blog here since late February and can say I truly love to write almost as much as I enjoy wood working. Great.
Well it seems my key-board tap-tap-tapping is finally paying off…
I’ve just signed a contract with Popular Woodworking Books to write a full length book on building furniture using hand tools!
It will feature six new designs I’m working on, from a small side table to a full sideboard. All will feature different design elements complimenting hand cut joinery for hand tool users. Frame and Panel, Mortise and Tenon as well as dovetailing and other hand tool skills will be addressed.
My manuscript will be complete in the early new year with a release date just in time for the following Christmas.
If you enjoy my blogs here, it’ll be this times a thousand…Stay tuned for more…
Cheers!