Facelift

Finally, a chance to blog about a few of the many things I have been doing lately. First and foremost I am glad to show the new color of the shop "olive grey" from Porter Paints. I am sure my neigbors are pleased to be rid of the big yellow shop. The Hardie plank siding says to paint within 90 days to prevent voiding the warranty. Oh well, 90 days, 2 years, what's the difference? At least I gott'er done. I also added the front porch roof which gave the best atmosphere inside the shop thus far. I wish I had done this a long time ago. There is still lots of loose ends to tie up but I'm headed in the right direction.

Another project that had been lying around was this monster red oak log someone brought me to cut. (thanks Todd). Wow, the picture does not do it justice but this was the biggest log to date that I have sawn on the mill. 44'' at the base tapering to 36''. I wish this had been butternut.

Last weekend was the TACA craft fair in Nashville. I finished a rocker for the show. I had the chance to use Pete Galbert's method to rout the rocker slots in the legs. The up spiral bit although expensive(and noisey) worked very well.

As you can see below the joint is flawless and cleaner than the ones I use to cut by hand. I made the cut in one pass and the bit did fine. Not bad for hard maple. The chair, which uses a parabola rocker design, was a big hit at the show. People seemed to think that the chair was very comfortable.I received several orders.

Logan has been doing well at guitar practice. His teacher, Kevin at Sam Ash Music, is quite amazing with anything with strings. He has great patience with Logan and has taught him things that I never could. I get to sit through his practices and the biggest key that Kevin pushes is repeating the rif over and over. Logan has learned Sweet Child of Mine, Black Dog, and Stairway to Heaven. I guess my versions of John Denver were not enough for Logan. Anyway, what fun it is.