Delta Sun Farm

I would like to introduce you to my new neighbors Mike and Caitlin. Mike made a hoop back chair with me here during Christmas. They are starting up a CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) which will supply the locals with organic produce, fresh eggs and pork.

They have a beautiful 13 acres to plant and raise their pigs and chickens.

Here is Mike tilling up the fresh ground. This week we are building a greenhouse so they can start their seeds for next spring. I am looking forward to see this process. I have always wanted to learn organic gardening from a pro. Check out their blog and join the CSA if you live nearby.

Logan's First Dovetails

My son Logan came to me a while back wanting to make a lap desk so he could have a place to read, do homework, or draw, write, etc.. I told him what was involved and how you had to dovetail the box together. He picked out a piece he found in a shaker furniture book. After I cut out everything and set up to dovetail the sides I decided to get Logan involved and before I new it he was chopping away and with great success.

I don't know who was happier, me or him!
I'll post the completed piece later. It turned out nice and he uses it every day.
The stairs and loft came together fast and has proven very useful. I now have the band saw upstairs hooked to a shop vac. I ran lights and plugs everywhere and have another shop vac hooked to the lathe downstairs. All I have to do when sanding on the lathe is hit the switch and all the dust is sucked away and the noise is upstairs. Notice the brace has been cut away going up the stairs. I guess people watch their feet when climbing stairs because everyone seemed to smack there head on it so it had to go.
About a year ago I ordered bench vises from "Benchcrafted" and a couple weeks ago I finally started building the bench. I reduced the length to 6 feet from the plans. I walk around the bench a lot when carving seats and 8 feet seemed too long. I think it went really well and this bench should not dance around when I carve tough seat blanks (elm).
I still need to wipe on some oil finish and make some dogs. The vises are very strong and seat blanks do not slip in the face vise. I have several classes coming up and look forward to breaking her in right.

The Next Steps

I have been wanting to finish the loft on the other side of the shop for some time. The other loft has an attic pull down and has proven very difficult to carry things up or down so a real set of stairs is a must. This is the last empty corner big enough for the steps. No windows and just enough room over the back door. I had to move the library but there will be plenty of room upstairs later for it.

I dusted off the old chain mortiser to create the pockets for the floor joist. 3 x 6 beams of red oak (from the same log as the other side loft) worked great for the floor. It's always fun working with the timber frame tools. It's such a simple way to build and very strong. Notice the strong checking that has occured since raising the frame back in 2009. They claim this does not affect strength.

Here is a shot of all the floor joist mortised in place. I connected the two lofts with a walk way so I don't have to use the attic stairs ever again.

The stairs are all red oak from a tree I cut last spring. The stairs work great but watch your head on that brace on your way up. Soon I will complete the railings and flooring up stairs. I might put the band saw up there along with a place to paint chairs and of coarse a lot of storage. I have almost doubled the size of the shop. Now I need to get back to making some chairs.

Half the Size Twice the Fun

I have been toying around lately with the idea of small size chairs. I decided on a sack back at 50% of adult size. My kid size chairs are 2/3rds the size of adult so this makes this chair too small for human use. Great for dolls maybe or just art to sit on a table or hang from the ceiling. The chair is scaled exactly from an adult size. Every measurement is divided by 2. The joinery is all the same except I used straight tenons instead of tapered tenons. I even used the same tools on each process including the turnings. It is a great exercise for detail work and using hand tools. The top of the spindles are wedged at 3/16ths of an inch. No room for sloppy joinery here. The steam bending was easy and only took 25 minutes in the steamer. Overall I like the result and look forward to trying several different styles. I will take these to the spring TACA craft fair in Nashville to see if they sale. Those fancy dolls need somewhere to rest.

Recently I had Matt here for a Comb Back rocker class. This is the first time I have ever had a student complete the chair of this degree of difficulty in 5 days. This is the first windsor he has built which he completed for his wife who is due their first child in November. Very impressive even if he had stayed late but done in 8 hour days. Matt, you are going to be a great dad.

Road Trip

Once again I have been procrastinating with the blog. Busy? Yes. But I really have no good excuse but being so focused on other things.

Speaking of focus, Jake Wiens stopped by the shop to shed some light on photographing chairs. We used the youth high chair as a specimen. Below are two examples of his work. He gave me some good pointers on how to use a cheap flash and poster boards positioned above the chair to bounce light in the right places. He took these photos which brought out the detail better than I normally get. Jake works as a professional videographer and photographer for promotional programs out of California. Good job Jake.

Recently I went to Jonesboro to meet Curtis Buchanan to shop the log yard for sugar maple. He was so kind to give of his time like this. He knows how to find the really good stuff and it's only 20 minutes from his shop. We found 2 perfect logs and one slightly stained but still very straight for turning stock. I love the shot of his shop in the background. It looks as if it grew there.
This is what I brought home. You can see the flared out stump end sections I cut off. I give these to bowl turners.
Below you can see how Curtis lays out the log to split with the froe. No doubt this is the best way to follow the grain but I use another method using the saw mill. I don't think Curtis likes my process but let me plead my case.
First I cut the log into two 6 or 7 foot lengths and mount on the mill. Then simply measure and level the piths with shims on each end of the log. This method only works this well with really straight logs so only buy the best.
I saw the boards into heavy 8/4 or 9/4 thickness.
Then I chop saw the boards to length according to what I need ( legs, arms, stretchers. etc.) and carefully follow the grain with a straight edge to band saw the individual turning blanks. Don't forget to seal the end grain or you will find yourself in "Checkville".
Then simply round them all and stack to air dry. You can see the grain running true through the piece. Are they all a 100% perfect? No but those who don't make the chair will create lots of heat. Sometimes I get blanks at the butt end of the log with flare-out and cross grain but I still end up with hundreds of turning blanks really fast. If I didn't have to supply so many chair classes then I would just rive them like I do the oak for bending and spindles. But I have hundreds of turnings to complete so this will be my method. Sorry Curtis.

A Simple Turning Exercise

Here is a basic stool you can make in a couple days. Very simple and all done on the lathe. Face plate and bowl turners should love this.

I start with a 1 3/4 to 1 7/8 inch thick bandsawn blank that is usually around 11-12 inches in diameter. My Oneway 1224 lathe only allows me to turn 12'' in diameter. I find that anything bigger starts to get in the way of the back of my legs while sitting. You can see the profile below. I also find not to dish out the seat too deep. There is not a front or back and dished out too deep is uncomfortable. I think this one is only 5/8'' deep, heavily rounded on the edges and chamfered below to give a delicate appearance.

The layout after turning the seat could not be more simple. Draw a line on the bottom centered and following the grain. Draw the second line centered and perpindicular to the first. These are the sight lines. I usually find 14 degrees to work well on these stools.

After drilling the leg holes with a straight 5/8'' bit I taper them with the 6 degree reamer. Below you can see the bamboo style leg I used for this stool but use your imagination to create any style you want. Remember to add 2'' to the length of your leg blank to whatever seat height you want. After drying the leg tenons and stretchers assemble just like any other windsor chair undercarriage. I love these stools for shop use at the bench or while sitting to fine tune another chair. It helps to have a few at different heights but mostly I use 24'' and 18''. They are also wonderful to play around with paint finishes since they are so fast to make. They make wonderful gifts as well. Have fun!

Lately I have been busy with gardening and Logan's baseball games. I think we are 2 and 3 right now. I also managed to lock up our computer loading pictures and have now been reduced to using this slower lap top so the blog has suffered.

Below you can see the progress of the corn. I hope I can keep the deer away. Last year they totaly mangled my second crop.

Here is a shot of the second garden with potatoes, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and watermelon. The sunflowers popped up from last year. This garden keeps my mind clear from too much time in the shop. Well, time to harvest some cucumbers for some fine sower dill pickles.

Big Boy

Every once in a while I'll get lucky finding great wood. This old walnut tree gave up the battle after a storm several weeks ago. The tree from a distance looked small and so I drove past it without too much notice. One day I decided to actually get out and look at the tree. It was a monster. It was also lying in a creek and very hard to get to.

Owning a sawmill keeps me constantly hunting for trees and allows me to take advantage of fallen trees that nobody else seems to want. It also allows me to meet new people one of which has the big Holland you see below. Johnny Watson was very kind to extract this tree to the bank of the creek so I could pull the mill next to it. In exchange I will saw a white oak for Johnny that he owns which is over 150 years old.

As you can see the sap line in this walnut was very small. The log was about 3 feet in diameter and had a 10' clear section. It also had lots of figured crotches that were some of the longest I have ever cut.

Bob and Pete were there to help unload the 22 inch wide boards as I cut them. I could see them drooling over the stuff even though they were worn out from lifting these things. This tree tested all of us but in the end I think we won. It will be hard to wait a year for these boards to dry. The tree provided well over 1000 bd ft of prime stuff.

Recently I had Anthony Watts here at the shop learning to build a settee. He is coming over several weekends around his work schedule to get it done. You can see below Anthony smiling while legging up the undercarriage. I must be doing something right.
Anthony is doing a fantastic job and seemed to really like the laser drilling method. All of his stretchers measured evenly either side of center and look perfect. He will return soon to finish the settee. I think this will be a birthday present for his wife. Happy birthday Betsy!