Author Archives: pashley1916

It all begins with an idea; then a plan is drawn up. So it goes with starting a business, so it goes with woodworking.

For many woodworkers, plans are purchased in a book or online. Some guys even go without plans, just feeling it out as they go; sometimes that works….a lot of times it doesn’t. Personally, I like to draw up my own plans, with my own ideas of projects. As in the shop, you need to the right tools to accomplish drawings that are accurate. Trimble has a free product, called “SketchUp” that is perfect for this task, available on both PC and Mac. Google formerly put it out.

Not only can you accurately design your own project, you can also “render” it photo realistically. Meaning, you can turn that drawing into a picture that looks like it’s an actual physical object. There are a couple of profound benefits from doing this:

• You can “build” the object before actually taking the time and money to build it, and make tweaks as necessary to get the look you had envisioned.
• Easily try different contrasting woods, and see how well they go together.
• If you are decent with Photoshop, you can take that rendering and inset it into a picture. This would be helpful if presenting an idea to a client. Perhaps they want an armoire – you could show them very much what it would look like in their own home!
• There are also thousands and thousands of already made models of – virtually anything – available for free at the Sketchup 3D Warehouse. I’ve used this for props. Lets say you’re sketching out a kitchen island, for example; you could go to the 3D Warehouse and import flowers, dishes, etc, right into your model.

Mahogany Table rendering by Dave Richards

So what’s the downside to SketchUp (hereby referred to as “SU”)? Well, the learning curve, primarily. I had to attack it twice before I finally got handy with it. I still don’t know everything there is to know, but I know enough to accomplish almost all I’ll ever do. If I get stuck, I can always check Google’s help desk for SU, or go to a user community forum, such as Sketchucation. There are also plenty of good “how-to” videos on YouTube. You might want to what I did, and get “Google Sketchup 7 for Dummies”. Obviously, if you a computer geek, and I am somewhat, then it will go easier for you. Is it tricky to learn? Yes. Is it worth it? I say yes, very much so.

I should point out that the “rendering” part is done in another program, called Kerkythea. Basically, you draw up your project in SU, and render (turn it into a photorealistic picture) in Kerkythea. There’s a bit of a learning curve on that one too, but there are also tutorials for that. And no one says you have to dive into the rendering either – I often just print out sheets from SU to take down to the shop, and off I go; but if you really want to get a very good feel for what that project will look like finished, rendering can really give you a very good idea.

I made the point, in my previous ShopNotes post, that a large part of what makes a person very successful – really, in any endeavor  – is the ability to generate original ideas that are good. You’re not going to be hugely successful just re-doing what someone else has already done; you must be original to really stand out and be really succesful.

I am trying to be more and more original in my woodworking; I get these little lightbulbs going off for an idea for this design, or that design, and it seems to be a very good idea – however, getting it from that initial vague idea to a finished product is very difficult – at least for me – and I’m a very creative person.

For instance, I’m trying to design a new mantle clock, in the Mission/Craftsman/Arts and Crafts style. It’s been very difficult, because you have to retain the hallmark style of this genre – straight lines, few curves – yet try to do something different as well, instead of the usual horizontal or vertical rectangular shape. Your only options with the dial face is either round, square, or if you dare, rectangular. I want this to be a mainline product, so I want construction to be pretty simple, and have a basic shape that I can them just ornament differently for different styles.

It’s making me a bit crazy.

I’ve looked around – a lot – for inspiration, and have found very little.

Then, there is trying to create a new piece entirely, in terms of a new piece of furniture, or for what I’m thinking, a table-top piece. It’s something people can use to remember others by; a kind of altar / photo holder. It would be something very different, and have sentimental emotion tied to it, which is never a bad thing for a product you’ve been trying to sell. That idea has been in the slow cooker in the back burner of my mind for a couple of years now. I’ve tried working it up in Sketchup, and free lance building a little prototype, but it’s just not there yet. It’s like a new stew I’m trying to create, but don’t have all the right spices for. I know it’s out there, somewhere in the land of dreams, and I’m trying to grab a hold of it, but it remains elusive.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
-Albert Einstein

The Beatles

Being a world-class woodworker and a superstar musician have quite a bit in common – not that I’m either, just from my observations.

Why do some musicians – I’m thinking the Beatles and Bach – make it to the top, and have a permanence, and others don’t? Along the same lines, why do some woodworkers make it to the top – Maloof, Stickley and Krenov – and others don’t? What pattern are they following? I think I’ve identified some components:

• They are technically proficient. Great woodworkers and musicians have mastered the technical aspects of their profession, be that a piano or a dovetail.

• They are the pioneers. Who was the second man to step onto the moon? Name a famous Beatles tribute band. Exactly. The original – the person that does something really different – is the one that gets noticed, and usually, famous. Copying does nothing. I can copy a Krenov cabinet, but so what – thousands of other woodworkers can too.

• They have original ideas. The Beatles could play well, true – but so could other bands. Technically, they weren’t outstanding – none of the lads had formal instruction. Yet, they were outstanding. Why? Because of their songs. They wrote their own material and played it. Likewise, Maloof had his rocker, Stickley his simple designs and Krenov his cabinet. Notbody did like them (or as well as them) before they came along.

Sam Maloof

• They get noticed. Music is a performing art, so of course, they get noticed. They also have the benefit of easily being recorded and replayed for ever. We woodworkers have a harder time of it; we have to go to juried shows, or shows in which large scale buyers show up to get noticed (not including ads we take out, of course).

• They are passionate. They love what they do; they think about it just about all the time. They make time for it. Someone that isn’t usually passionate won’t excel in their field.

So there you have some reasons why some people excel in a field, while others flounder. Yes, you could get some guys together, and they can sound a lot like the Beatles; you can find a guy to make you a Krenov cabinet – but what’s hard to find is someone with the passion to excel, who can dream up new things, and be technically proficient enough to carry out their vision.

I have cobbled together a rather nice PDF detailing the way I do my mission style finishes, and I thought I’d share it with you! You can print it out and take it to the shop with you. I think you’ll find it easy and not expensive, and will give you consistent results. For the PDF, click here: Simple Mission Finish

Finishing. No, I don’t mean finishing the project, as in completing it, but rather applying stains or topcoats. It’s an interesting part of the project, because it can really make or break a project. Poorly, done, it can make an otherwise great project look amateurish, and just really ruin the beauty of the wood. Done well, it just sets the piece off wonderfully.  Common problems are blotchiness (think cherry), drips and sags, orange peel, dust – and glue squeeze outs, where the now-dried glue prevents any stain or dye from penetrating, and sticking out like a sore thumb. Sure, you can try to sand it down, but then you’ll you’ll probably leave a depression, because you have to sand quite deep, as the glue seeps into the pores quite a bit. Ugh.

I remember on my first big project, a mission coffee table, re-sanding the entire table three times because I screwed up the finish as many times, and I had to get it right; on the fourth try, I did. What a pain to sand into all those tight corners and tight spaces!

Finishing can be such a tough part of the job that there are actually guys out there that specialize in finishing, as in, they will professionally finish your piece for you. It’s really it’s own separate field, just as project design is. The type of wood must be taken into account, as well as the type of look you want – do you want to highlight the ray fleck in that quarter-sawn white oak, or play it down? Does your piece require a tough topcoat, or will a moderately hard one do? How do you get that glass smooth feel? And so many more issues.

As I’ve written in an earlier blog post (“Mistakes are Just Forced Opportunities”), mistakes can actually force you to be creative; however, when it comes to finishing, mistakes can be very costly – in terms of time. Stripping down a whole project can take hours, not to mention the good possibility of damaging it with sanding mistakes. It’s frustrating to have your project come out great up to this point, and a poor finish just make it look awful.

So I’d like to share a tip or two that hopefully will help you make that next project’s finish look great – and done only once!

Most people will complete a project, then finish it. With some projects, that’s fine – if you are painting it, for instance. However, if you run into a problem, such as drips or sags – found, of course, after the stain has dried – then all you can do is try to strip that particular portion of the project and re-stain or dye it;  good luck with that.

Here’s an angle you may have never considered – finish the parts before assembly. There’s several good reasons why:

• Easily strip and re-finish. Some time ago, I had a project that had ten ship-lapped boards on the back. I had applied the stain – carefully I thought – only to find that the stain had dripped down under a board, and onto another set of boards, hidden to me at the time. I found it the next day, after it had dried. Ugh. Tried removing it with solvent, but it looked blotchy; sanding was an option, but getting into the tight corners was almost impossible. The only solution was to remove the ship-lapped boards, make new ones, finish them and re-install them; looked much better. Had I finished them before installing them, and found a run (or other flaw), I could have easily seen and remedied it. 

• Prevent glue squeeze out issues. Even being very careful, squeeze outs can occur, and they are a bear to clean up – even when fresh. You want to get a good amount of glue on the joint – and certainly not starve the joint of glue for the sake of preventing glue squeeze out. The solution is prevention all together. Usually, I use a paste wax finish on my projects now; it gives the piece a very smooth, buttery feel, and a nice sheen. The bonus? Glue, if squeeze out should occur, will simply pull right off the wax once it hardens. No need for a chisel or sand paper – maybe a little spackle knife, but that’s all. In lieu of wax, I use blue painter’s tape right at the edge of the joint where the pieces intersect, to catch any glue; this works very well. The painter’s tape leaves no residue either.

• Much easier sanding. Some guys will put the whole piece together, then sand. That’s often a mistake, as tight spaces make it nearly impossible to sand the whole board consistently. Sanding and finishing before assembly eliminates this problem.

• Try out new finishes safely. Ok, I’m guilty of this – trying out that new stain or finishing technique – on the finished, assembled project, and not liking it! Can you hear me, cherry? Instead, take a scrap piece from the lumber you used on this project, and try out that new stain. Maybe you’ll have to adjust the final grit of sandpaper, whether to use a sealcoat, or other issues, but try it out more safely.

Now some of you might object to finishing before you assemble, because you fear damaging the finish when you do assemble it. That’s a valid point. Also, you have make sure you don’t finish parts of the project that will be glued, as the glue won’t stick obviously on dyes, stains or topcoats. You simply have to mask off those portions to be glued, and be careful when you use clamps, perhaps using a soft, sanded wood block as a cushion on each end of the clamp jaws; speaking of which – some Jorgensen clamps (as i recall) have orange colored pads on their clamps that will actually ooze an oil out when clamped to your wood – meaning, you’ll have to sand it out. If your pieces to be clamped are finished, this shouldn’t be an issue.

So next time you have a project, try finishing it before assembly; I think you’ll appreciate the benefits.

I just viewed a blog post over at CustomMade.com, a venue thru which I do a great deal of my work through (see my blog post about that here), concerning taking better photos of your work, an issue near and dear to my heart, and I’d thought I’d pass it along.

I’ll be doing a piece on that as well, with more detailed a practical info, in the future!