Cicip Working

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=David_Chett]David Chett
Whether you find yourself as a seasoned wood worker and just starting out, theres always the question of where to buy wood for woodworking projects. The more familiar stores such as Lowes or Home Depot carry lumber that is most commonly used but fails to carry most varieties often sought to be used. If this is the case, you can always look online for lumber liquidators also. While this is a good and positive source, you also have to deal with the added cost of shipping fees.
Before you decide to go out into the world of lumber purchasing, you need to understand a few things about the different types of wood. You will find (2) two main categories of wood; Softwoods and Hardwoods. When considering the softwoods categories, understand that this type of wood is generally used by construction industries with the purpose of framing and interior trimming. A few examples of softwoods include your cedar, redwoods, fir, and pines.
The hardwood is the more durable of the two and is often the preferred choice when building furniture, cabinets and flooring. In the hardwood category youll find maples, birches, mahogany, cherry, oak, and walnut. Also, when consider hardwood and softwood; understand that these direct terms do not refer to the hardness of the wood. Hardwood trees have broad leaves and are deciduous. These types of trees usually lose their leaves in the winter. Softwoods keep their leaves year around and are evergreens.
The reason hardwood is preferred for furniture is because they offer a large range of textures and colors than the softwoods do. Hardwood has two types of classifications which are domestic (U.S. grown) and exotic (Trees from around the world.) Youll also want to consider the grade of the wood when deciding where to buy wood for woodworking. The grade is a rating that refers to the number of the defects found in the wood. If youre interested in building furniture building, look for either first or second grade wood. The defects in these grades are not very noticeable. In case you find yourself needing to purchase your lumber from the internet, below is a list that has been compiled and put together. It contains the best lumber companies that we have found:
Woodcraft Supply: This company is one of the oldest and also largest suppliers of wood and woodworking supplies in the U.S. Woodcraft Supply currently has more than (70) seventy retail stores in major areas and distributes approximately 2 million catalogs each year. This company, also establish in 1928 has never been in danger of being shut down. It also offers a good selection of domestic and exotic hardwoods as well as stock pieces and veneers for your projects.
Rockler: This Company actually began as a mail order business in 1954. In 1978, it started to open retail stores. Today, there are (30) thirty Rockley Woodworking and Hardware Stores located throughout the U.S. It also stocks many varieties of wood to help with your projects.
Woodworkers Source: Established in 1978, this family-run business has (3) three retail locations in Arizona. It currently offers more than 100 options of wood to choose from and youll also find valuable information for any product youre considering. If that isnt enough, they also offer phone support.
Frank Paxton Lumber Company- This Company, established in 1914, offers a huge supply of wood for both domestic and exotic options. They have retail stores in Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Kansas City, and San Antonio and do a lot of work with businesses.
Visit my website at [http://www.answersforwoodworking.com]Answers for Woodworking for helpful tips and information on Woodworking
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Where-to-Buy-Wood-for-Woodworking---Your-Local-Shops-Arent-Always-the-Answer&id=6658838] Where to Buy Wood for Woodworking - Your Local Shops Arent Always the Answer

Hi Everyone,
It is absolutely beautiful outside today and Im going to treat myself to an hour or two in the wood shop a little later today.

But for the meantime good news. First: I got a set of pin jaws for the 4 jaw wood chuck for the lathe. This all means that Ill be able to create small diameter turnings a little easier. Here is a photo:


I am really jazzed about this!!


And I got a new shipment of turning blanks this afternoon and one of the blanks is going to be the next Blue House bowl. This year Ill be making the bowl out of a solid block of Indian rosewood.  Here are a couple of photos of the blank:



This bowl will be approximately 11-11 3/4 inches in diameter and about 4 inches high. It will make a great salad bowl or fruit bowl for some lucky guy or gal. I will keep you informed as to its progress over the coming months and let you know when you can purchase a raffle ticket. So join me on the journey and lets make a great bowl for a great cause.

See ya later,
VW

Frank Smith is having an "End of the World" sale.
Prices are discounted by up to 50%.
Dont wait! Sale ends December 21 2012!

Thats Trevor down there on the end of the table .... about 30 away ... Click the picture to enlarge it and see him smiling away down there. Hes allowed to smile as this table has been pretty much his baby. He is our CNC man, and I dont think we could build these tables without one. I mean, how would I even make a template for the 1020" (85 foot) radius edge of the table? Beats me .... Below is the assembled top of the 26 x 9 table we have been working on. I have described it in a couple of previous posts here and here ... check them out for the full story ... Let me know what you think
Here we are (again) working on the table. Thats Steve Holman (on the table) below of Holman Studios and his assistant Kevin helping us get it together ...
Were still on the temporary base here, and Steve is working on the real base in his shop just down the road ... Were planning to assemble the whole thing, granite and all, at least once here in my garage before we ship it all to New Jersey, along with its smaller (8x 20) cousin that we started work on yesterday.
Yesterday, we assembled the temporary base for the 20 table in the adjoining bay of my garage and Trevor started cutting the mdf parts for that project ... If I built these all the time, we would definitely need a MUCH bigger shop.
This one is only five four foot wide pieces, but it still takes up half the shop ...
Yesterday, Herb Johnson of Johnson Marble and Granite, of Proctor, Vermont came to get the first five granite templates. Thats his shop above. Herb has done much stone work for me in the past including the marble vanity top in this post, and all of the marble tops on this page here.
Hell do the 10 end pieces with the miters and their neighbors and see how they fit with the rest of the templates and then finish up with the six center pieces. He claims Ive done the hard part by making the templates .... Glad to hear that ....

Ive recieved some pictures from the owner of the project in Northville! If you recall, the arched trim on the Wall of Troy was to have mirrors installed inside. Well, it is complete, and here are the pics!

Will and I are making some progress on the half round tables. Hes not yet made any of these from start to finish and I havent made one personally for quite a long time so were both kind of feeling our way here through whats next and how to go about it. Click the pictures to enlarge them...These posts will be helpful next time ...
Trevor routed a full size template in mdf from our cad drawing and we placed the male section of our glue up forms on the template on the inside of the apron curves. We than struck our angles on the form in pencil and moved the forms to the chop saw where we cut the angles on the bordered aprons.
Next we used parts of the female glue up forms to set up the multirouter to cut the mortises for the loose tenons we use for the joinery. The loose tenons allow us to adjust our angles slightly if necessary for the final fit up.
We clamped the back legs and then checked the fits. next step was to stain and paint and move those parts to the finish room before the final glue up. You can see the haunched loose tenons in the photo below.

While those parts were being finished, Will cut and glued up the pieces to make the inlay blocks (the very last photo in that post) in the drawing above. They were ripped on the tablesaw on an 8 degree angle, cut to length and glued up in the simple jig below.
After the center block was sanding to 3/8ths, Will added the 1/1th" plus shop made walnut veneers for the top and bottom and glued them on in the veneer bag.
The finished inlay blanks are below. theyl be sliced into 1/16th inch strips and inset in to a routed groove sometime in the next post.
We got a nice wide plank from Irion Lumber to make the 20" wide one piece tops and Trevor cut them to shape on the cnc. Hopefully our nex inlay bit will come tomorrow and we can inlay the tops, but in the meantime, will will dovetail the drawers and fit up the drawer fronts .. All for now .. Thanks for sticking with me ...

Ive been making some adjustments to the maple desks top, and while a fresh coat of stain is drying on that, I decided to turn my attention to the upcoming project - the arched entry door.
I made a paper template of the existing door during my visit to the home in Minster. I decided the very first thing I need to do is make a copy of the template! A lot of people forget this step, and if your only template gets screwed up, well...
I traced it onto a piece of 3/8" plywood, and cut it out on the bandsaw. This reminded me of an article I read about construction in ancient Rome and how they figured out arches. You can read the article by clicking here.

Were working away pretty steadily on the house restoration project . We finished construction of the wall hung tv cabinet this week; were just waiting for approval of the finish color samples. I think were running slightly ahead of the construction schedule which is always nice. The cabinet below has its challenges though it looks simple now that its done. Its a mix of cherry and curly maple with some small moldings in cherry or walnut around the door panels. The door and end panels are resawn solid curly maple so we like to do the first coat of stain (which is pretty much always the same) before we glue them up. Then we typically get the finished color and first coat of finish on the whole door before we apply the moldings. This process prevents a part of the panel that might be unfinished from showing later as the wood moves from season to season ...

Looks simple ... but, theres actually no real much structure to the cabinet so we had to hang it as its going to hang on the wall to be sure that the doors will hang true.

When we went to the site this week, we took a pattern. There is a channel cut through to the wall behind the cabinet to accomodate the cable box, which is deeper than the cabinet .. We explored the wall behind and found there are two studs that have to be cut and headed off ... not surre about the ebox shown below ... Id like to get that in there somewhere ..

This shows the cut through to the wall and the tv mounting bracket. It a Sanus; a nice one. Very shallow and well made

This picture shows the French hook hanging system ... Two cleats on the cabinet; two on the wall.

The electrician gave us this box on Wednesday and hoped we could get it in the cabinet behind to the tv ... hmmmmm

We finished installing the moldings and painted the front door .. The paint seemed too shiny for an old door to us. The shinier the finish, the better the UV protection, but the more you see each and every pimple and defect ... We turned the final coat over to the painters and it will probably be a compromise satin finish ...

Part of our scope of work is to refresh/refinish the fireplace surround (which Jim has already done), and install a new lighted cabinet in place of the wooodbox/shelf thing thats there now ...

Trevor, exploring the lighting

Figured out .. This stuff is nice. The plastic tracks are easy to install and hold the lights securely. Its easy to cut and join once you study it for a minute ..

Rough wired and installed ..needs a top molding and some final paint

We also made a pair of 3" thick, well insulated, pine doors for the utility room. Sam made the hinges, floor bolts and a nice thumb latch ...

Inside latch details

Fixed door bolts

2" thick pine frames covered with 3/4" t&g pine outside, the spaces filled with 2" foam and 1/4" Baltic bircg glued and screwed to the inside

We also installed a small cabinet in the library under the stairs that go to the attic ...

The roof framing is done!

Next, it was time to begin the sheathing.  I sheathed & sheathed, until I ran out of sheathing . . .