Craftsy was here & Rob is a star again

In May, we had the pleasure of hosting three awesome members of the Craftsy crew here at the shop for a few days. Their mission? To film a course designed and taught by Rob to share with the woodworkers of the internet. Craftsy is a site designed to offer online courses taught by experts to learn crafts at your own pace, in your own space, and on your own time. So, with the wonders of modern technology, you can now learn all about making doors and finishing wood from Rob on your tablet in your basement shop at home. Woah.

Jared, Nathan, and Tony brought bright lights, cameras, and an overall feel of Hollywood from Denver to our dusty, farm shop in Pennsylvania... it was awesome! We got to see the fancy camera swoop-ins, hear the snap of the slate, watch live editing, and all the other fancy movie-making magic. The roosters didn't care about the sound sensitivity factor so the background noise is filled with authentic shop/farm activity.

For three days, Rob taught lessons on how to make doors for fine furniture and cabinets; Suitably, the course is titled Doors for Cabinetry & Fine Furniture. A couple of weeks later, Rob was off to shoot an additional course called Flawless Finishing. Meanwhile, I was dubbed "Rob's Assistant" for the week which means I am taking it upon myself to claim a small degree of fame by association (and because I was lucky to be featured as 'glue up partner' in one of the lessons).

In the Doors for Cabinetry & Fine Furniture course, Rob covers everything you will need to make doors for your furniture/cabinets. He discusses choosing the right materials, designing doors, proper joinery terminology and execution, hardware installation, and, of course, actually making and assembling doors! He covers raised-panel doors as well as flat panels and discusses how to resaw pieces so that it's easy to create those panels with bookmatched grain patterns. The course is broken up into digestible lessons complete with downloadable course materials that include materials lists and jig plans.

Flawless Finishing is all about the Lohr Woodworking approach to finishing any type of wood with a smooth, perfect-sheen finish. Rob flew out to Denver to shoot this one. Wait, did I mention that it's free? Oh yeah, kids, it's a free for all mini-lesson. Get it while it's hot! Rob teaches four lessons (totaling about an hour and a half) covering the process we use to ensure natural, stunning color that is then protected by a smooth, durable finish. He walks you through the step-by-step procedure we use ourselves at the shop for all of our furniture. He covers various finish application methods and rub out materials to provide surfaces that will resist ringing when wet as well as feel smooth and soft to the touch. 

For those who have taken classes with us, you know how much we care about the craft and harbor a love for teaching others about it. Now, we're so happy the internet world is getting a chance to learn something from us too. Even better, you can trust the instructor on the other side of your computer screen instead of crossing your fingers that the guy on YouTube knows what he's talking about.

Well done Rob, well done. And a big thanks to Craftsy for coming to hang out, but moreso for making such wonderful productions to help eager woodworkers learn a thing or two from home.

Now, readers, go enroll! Learn to make doors! And then finish them!

Back to Building

On this beautiful Tuesday, we return to the shop and back to the grind.

As my previous entry states, last week we had the pleasure of hosting eleven wonderful students for another Practical Woodworking class. We are proud and grateful to all of them for being such great overall humans during the course. Congratulations to our most recent Lohr School of Woodworking graduates and you should all be proud of all that you learned and created this past week!

Now, what the "grind" entails is quickly approaching the completion of the Zelli Bar!

Here, we see Rob making his sternest bartender face as we carried out the final fitting of the bar faces' live edge detail. Each live edge piece of walnut was resawn and cut/sanded/fine-tuned to fit perfectly with the others to create a seamless frame. The live pieces that meet at the corner are formed from a bookmatch so they are essentially mirrored around that angle. The rest were chosen based on their natural shapes and colors.

After the pieces were confirmed to be fitted together properly, it was time to glue up! Face gluing requires an abundance of evenly distributed pressure to ensure that all pieces are attached completely and as flat as possible. As you can see, our evenly-distributed, abundant pressure was tackled with a variety of clamps... and a whole lot of them!

The long pieces of wood stretching across the length of the bar were elevated in the middle (via wedges) to make sure that there was even and heavy pressure pushing onto the live edge framing around the outer edges of the bar face. Using F-clamps, C-clamps, and bar clamps we made sure that every inch of the live edge board faces were held tight against the bar face while the glue dried.

Holding the title of smallest and most agile in the shop, it's my duty to crawl into any small and awkward spaces necessary to get the job done. I've learned to hold this title with honor as it has been part of my role in countless situations since I was young.

Thus, when it was glue clean-up time, equipped with a flashlight and a toothbrush, I crawled beneath the bench and carefully removed any squeeze-out. Because we are dealing with cherry veneer on this project, it is important to be scarce with water usage to avoid any chance of mold growth.

After the glue was left to dry for 24 hours, we unclamped and jumped right into finishing. As per usual, we used boiled linseed oil to bring out the natural colors and grain patterns in this piece. From the photo, you can see that there is a radical difference between the oiled walnut and cherry portions. Granted, a photograph doesn't do it justice but, these woods are beautiful when their colors are deepened and accented. Better yet, as the cherry ages, deepens, and reddens with time, the pairing of the dark walnut and the deep reds will be even more stunning than they already are!

The oiled bar sat untouched for the week during class thus allowing it the perfect amount of time necessary for the oil to dry.

Starting today and continuing over the course of the week, we will be spraying and brushing on layers of clear lacquer finish. With all the small additions and details done both inside and out, this bar is quickly approaching it's finish line. I am more than excited to see and share the completed project!

Moves on the Zelli Bar

Since my last Zelli Bar update, we have prepped and held a couple of courses in the shop so, I understand if you were under the impression that work on the bar had slowed or, worse, halted. No need to fear though, progress has continued on the finest beverage making, pouring, and serving surface structure around these parts.

After days of detailed work to perfect the live edge walnut top of the bar, the three parts that compose it were cut to size, fit together, and sanded. The last photos I showed of the masterpiece that is this bar top looked something like the one to the left. The difference though is that this bar top is ready to be finished! The three parts are detached and laid out to be sprayed down with a Waterlox tung oil finish (Gym Finish/gloss).


As we did with the brown oak wall installation, we used the pressure gun to evenly and cleanly spray the finish onto each piece; and, by "we" I mean Rob in this instance.

The gun sprays an evenly pressed fan of the finish onto the flat surfaces nicely. Beyond that, the gun allows for the finish to be applied to every nook, cranny, and crevasse. Because the piece is live edge, the natural form of the slab has been virtually unchanged so there are small curves, knots, and voids that we need to make sure get covered in finish.

As of this moment, the top has received two coats of the Waterlox finish. In between the coats, I took to the surfaces with 220 grit sandpaper and then some steel wool. This smooths and evens out the layer of finish before the next coat. From what I hear via the grapevine, there will be three coats total for this top portion(s) of the bar.

Keeping in mind that the walnut slabs were coated in boiled linseed oil two weeks ago, the oil has had ample time to dry completed. The combination of the oil and the finish have really made the colors of the walnut jump right out. The array of natural colors and interesting grain patterns are enhanced so perfectly without being tainted with any stain or tint.

Even with the reflection of light from the finish in the photo to the right, you can still see how the once dull-ish, flat browns found in rough walnut are completely brought to life.

Beyond oiling and finishing the walnut top, work has been forging forward on the base of the L-shaped bar. Cherry veneered sheets are being used for the skeleton of the base and will be accented with resawn live edge walnut pieces across the outward facing faces.

Included in the inner workings of the bar will be a sink, space for a beer/keg cooler, space for a trashcan, and shelving for glasses and mugs. As you can see, the carcass of the base has been constructed over the past couple of days.

Today, focuses have extended into making the framing for the aforementioned spaces inside the bar. Solid cherry was used for the rails and held together by mortise and tenon joints. To the left you'll see the framing of the left-hand side portion of the inner/under bar. At the bottom, we have left space for a toe kick (another new woodworking term to add to my internal dictionary)!

Things are coming together and I am more than eager to see the finished product. There is much work to be done yet but, this project is especially fascinating for me to watch and assist with because of it's (necessary) thorough planning and intricate design/construction. I look forward to the coming days/weeks as I get the chance to watch this massively beautiful piece come together bit by bit.