One Good Turn Deserves Another

I have been having much fun turning all the parts for the upcoming chair class at Kelly Mehler's school in Berea. For those who have not been to his school I can't tell you how much fun the experience can be. I highly incourage all who like working with there hands to attend. Peter Galbert will be instructing the c-arm class next week and I am thankful that they are letting me tag along to help.

I have had many visitors to the new shop lately and it has been messy and sometimes difficult to navigate in and out of the shop. This past weekend reached the mid 60's so naturally I had to work outside. So I started building the front porch. It is basically a deck that later on I will cover with a roof to protect the front of the shop from all that western sun. My front door is taking a beating and the paint is peeling off with great speed. When the weather actually improves for real I will put on the hardy plank siding along with a rear porch (not covered). Since the cold has returned I will focus on a new work bench geared toward chair making ( more on that later) and other indoor shop duties to make things flow better.

But for now I will get back to spinning out miles of maple ribbons from my lathe. Tommorow, arms, arms, and more arms!

Moving In

Below is pictures of sanding the shop floor with the industrial belt sander. 36 grit through 100 grit and it was ready for satin polyurethane. I hate using poly but it is a durable finish. Below is after the first coat. I had to leave a path to the wood stove to keep the shop warm while the floor was drying. The second coat turned out much better.

I have not posted in some time. It has been very busy with finishing the floor of the shop and now slowly moving equipment, tools, cabinets, and building new cabinets for a sharpening station. As well as my own shop floor I refinished all the hardwood floors in my grandmother's house in Nashville. She passed away over Thanksgiving and we are getting her house ready to sell. It's sad to see her home so empty that was so full of life for over 4 decades. Her house seems so small now. You can see the finished floor in her dining room below.

I got a visit from Curtis Buchanan and his wife the other day. He dropped off some things for the class I'll be helping Peter Galbert with in Berea next month. We talked about a table I'll be building for him and his family. He also brought some walnut boards to make the trestle table. I'll post some pictures as I get started on this later this spring. It was good to talk to Curtis. It was cool to show him the shop that he inspired me to build. Here is the shop as it looks right now. This will no doubt be the cleanest this shop will ever be. My first job for the new shop will be turning all the legs, arms, and stretchers for the chair class at Kelly Mehler's. Pete asked me if I could do this to help free up some of his time. I hope I can meet his level of craftmanship. I look forward to getting all the practice. I'll post on the progress next time.