So I was approached to design a bench that the Lexington Woodworker's Guild would build and donate to the Lexington Community Center. The design is really an extended chair. The idea for the middle legs was stolen from the conoid chair that I built last year. A half dozen of us built it over the winter last year in the Woodworker's Guild shop, a real fun project.
Bench for the Lexington Community Center #sammaloof
tiny little frame saw
I have a half dozen different metal frame coping saws but they are really inadequate, for the most part, because the blades can't be tightened enough to keep them straight. So I made one in the same way that you might make a much larger frame saw. It is about 7in. x 7in.
From Slovenia
One of the great things about having a website is that occasionally I hear from some amazing people. One of these people, from the other side of the globe, is Bogdan Jeric, a woodcarver extraordinaire from Slovenia. For all the internets dangers and faults, the fact that I could be in touch with such a craftsman from so far away is a tremendous plus to me. Check out his website (hot link below), apparently galerija means gallery in slovak.
A walk in the park
A number of people have wondered at how I work wood. I installed millwork commercially for 35 years. Whether it was Bloomingdale’s store or Boston College the job was working with a chop saw, a skilsaw and a drill. For the last 20 years, most of the time, there was a table saw there too (the little Makita portable- I learned how to cope complex curved crown molding on it).
I cope cut laminated counter tops by climb cutting (backwards so it wouldn’t chip the laminate) with a skil saw, with an undercut because there was no backsplash.
I installed all the 18” deep oak window sills scribed to within 1/32” in an entire building with a Bosch jigsaw holding it upside down, with the blade towards me.
I learned to cut tile with a diamond wheel, a grinder, and a wet sponge.
I spent my working life removing wood from a piece held with one hand with an exposed moving blade in the other on a set of plastic sawhorses, and I was pretty good at it.
I’m not unusual, most finish carpenters are good at it.
What this means is, a grinder with a carbide wheel or sandpaper is like a creative walk in the park to me