Mike’s Digital Laboratory

Careers are important, but having a hobby as a creative outlet may even be more so, you never know they can even lead to a second career.  This will never pay the rent but in my case I’m happy to show some of my work at the upcoming RWS Showcase: April 2, 2011 at CP Rochester. Probably the most satisfying part of all this is that the pieces I create are all original designs and functional works of art that will be given to others to enjoy.

(And oh by the way don’t you love how artists come up with sexy sounding descriptions for what’s really just funny looking furniture. 

From DVICE: Marbelous furniture

The line between the grown up and kiddie tables blur with Netherlands-based designer Tineke Beunders’ Marbelous. It has grooves cut into the tabletop, legs and supports that’ll have marbles rolling all the way down to the floor. The best part? You could also sneak your vegetables: olives, sprouts, peas — just toss them into the trenches at the sides and pray the dog is nearby.

Ok, I don’t know about you but at our house marble runs rule. So what could be better? Build them right into the furniture. Righteous!

So if your a weekend warrior like me whenever you go to paint or stain something there is always some extra. So you cap the bottle can or whatever and if your lucky you’ll need it again before it goes bad. Except I’m rarely lucky, it just doesn’t keep. One trick I found that really works is a product called “Bloxygen“. When I’m all done and about to close that can and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to open it again until the next time Venus goes into retrograde, I squirt a little of this in the can and close the lid. The “heavier than air” gas (CO) sinks to the bottom and covers the surface of your paint or stain and blocks any oxygen from getting to work on your precious investment. (Oxidation is what makes it go bad). This stuff works, really. But to a degree, nothing keeps forever and even the bloxygen strategy fails after a point.

So now I just read an article in fine woodworking magazine on making your own varnish with a Varnish/Tung oil blend. I can see this as part of a strategy for longer lasting materials. Mix up just what I need. Possibly add a little japan drier, use it, it’ll be no good after a few days if I use drying agents like “Japan Drier” but maybe , just maybe the base stock of pure tung oil and whatever else I use as ingredients, with the Bloxygen, will keep a little loner as separate ingredients, than a can of of pre-mixed varnish that has driers in it (which is a ticking time bomb waiting to turn into a mass of gel.)

The next piece of the strategy I’m thinking about is this whole color business. Stains, Japan colors, artist paints, they all have a limited shelf life. It’s the binders in these that go bad, ( I think?) Ah but what about just the pigments. Honest to goodness pigments all by their lonesome. I’m talking about crushed up rocks and stuff. Course we want the good stuff, I’m not going into my backyard to grind my own. (Yes, I tried that once with walnut husks, which aren’t really rocks, and technically I ended up with a dye, not pigment, but hey you get the idea, cool experiment but what a mess)

So in my thinking it’s an easy stretch to take a simple recipe like Roland Johnson’s (Read his article)

• 5 parts Tung oil
• 5 part varnish (Perhaps the Pratt and Lambert 38 he recommends, you decide)
• 2 parts Japan Drier (really optional in my opinion)
• 2- 3 parts Turpentine (Smelly stuff! I’m going to try mineral spirits, if you don’t mind)

And if I need color, I’ll add crushed up rocks! Oh I mean pigment. The pigment stored in it’s pure form should keep longer. Just add what I need and no more to the homemade oil blend, which then becomes… stain, ta da. Of course now I have to go learn how to do this.. So after thinking about this I decided that this is all speculation on my part so I better do a little web surfing to learn more. I found a few interesting links and I think there is potential here.

• Making Your Own Oil Stain By Sal Marino
• Homemade and Alternative Stains and Colorant by Jim McNamara
• Make-your-own stains and glazes – Forum thread from woodweb
• Sinopia – Source for Pigments (San Francisco)
• Kama Pigments -Source for Pigments (Canada)

This handmade box took me over a year to complete with various stops and starts along the way. It is made of Cherry, Maple and Cocobolo inlay. All the joinery was done by hand. This box started as an exercise in building an 18th century replica during a class taught by Tom Meiller during the winter of 2007. The frame for the lid was shaped using one of Tom’s antique molding planes. Using one of these is an incredible experience and I’m gald I got the chance to try. All the joints are reinforced with either splines or dovetails.

The lid uses special “butterfly” inserts to reinforce the miter joints. These are small hand cut double dovetail shaped pieces of cocobolo that were inlayed after the miter joints were glued up.The course was offered by the Rochester Woodworkers Society where you can also see some of Tom’s Work. Last week I gave the box to my daughter Melanie as a much belated Bat Mitzvah present. (She’s 14 now, so I’m oh so late on this.) Didn’t matter. She loved it.

Thanks Greg for your Thoughts on Dovetails. Spending an obsessive hour surfing on the web wondering if some day I should buy the Akeda Dovetail Jig or the Leigh Jig I stumbled upon this reminder that hand cut dove tails and other hand tool operations, while sometimes it take a little longer, It doesn’t usually take longer than  a factor of 2x. Maybe a little longer than using a power toll. but I agree maybe about a third longer is a good estimate. But then that’s why I do woodworking anyway, to spend the time and enjoy the process. So no, I don’t think I’ll buy either and save the $500.00 or so… Yeah! obsessive moment passes with no money spent. Nice.

So, What can you watch on GlueTube? How about an interview with Jimmy Carter. Or how about this this interview with Gary Rogowski . Is it me or is video on the web getting better. Perhaps my ISP has increased the available bandwidth. But more and more I find I am enjoying video’s on the web. Additionally the contextual nature of the web makes this so much better than traditional “TV”. Hey I can blog this. Try that with the show you just watched on the “tube”.

Here’s a list of woodworking bookmarks I put together for the December Furniture Makers SIG of the Rochester Woodworkers Society. I volunteered to show these after we suck down some spaghetti. Our December meeting is at a local restaurant and will be a bit festive, that is about as festive as woodworkers can get.