We all survived Veneer & Cabinetwork!

Last week was the official launch of our Veneer & Cabinetwork, third-level woodworking course! After weeks of building and rebuilding the veneer wall cabinet in order to organize lessons and procedures for the class, we were excited to open the doors on Monday morning to welcome back our eight, lottery-winning alumni. A huge applause goes out to these gents for pioneering the course and persevering through such a complex and challenging project with us. The week was jam-packed and a new experience for all, but there's nothing quite like a Saturday afternoon with a shop full of new and beautiful veneer cabinets ready to find their way home.

The week started with the basic cabinet carcase layout and joinery. As I said in my last post, we had prepped a pre-milled pack of walnut parts for each student during the weeks prior. Students returning to us for a third time are expected to know how to mill and square parts with relative ease, so to save the time, we do some of the dirty work for them. This is in no way a paint-by-number type of course so the parts they received were roughly sized and without any assigned placement in their project. The first task for students was to tackle the layout. They had to consider the grain patterns and color tones of the walnut parts as they decided where each rail, stile, and mullion would live within the cabinet's carcase. Which faces would look best and should be presented toward the front? Which pieces match best to serve as stiles for the cabinet doors? Are there any knots or flaws that should be hidden toward the inside or back of the cabinet? When all elements were considered, students then labeled their parts and moved onto plows (to accept the panels) and joinery. The complexity of the mortise and tenon joints in a project like this one required the bulk of Monday to machine cut, hand cut, and hand fit but, the sides, doors, and face frames came together.

Next, it was onto playing with veneer! Starting with long sheets of highly figured cherry veneer, Jeff cut sets of rough lengths for each student to flip through, book match, and assign to their door, side, and back cabinet panels. The students quickly learned that keeping the stacks of veneer numbered and in order is key to achieving book matching perfection. The goal was to book match the veneer so it looked cohesive all the way around the cabinet while also using matching sets to glue to the inside and outside of each panel so that it appears as the same solid piece of wood through to the inside of the cabinet. Using their assembled door and side framework as guides, they chose which portions of the veneer sheets they wished to see on their panels. From there, they carefully measured, marked, and cut the veneer to fit the MDF substrates for each part.

For the back panel, we needed to join two pieces of veneer together in order to cover it's entire width. To do this, we used a jig which clamped the two sheets of veneer stacked, flat, and tight with only 1/16" of their soon-to-be-joined edges protruding. With a trim router and a fluted pattern-cutting bit, students were able to cut a pair of smooth, straight edges that would create a perfect seam when they were glued to the substrate. When the edges were jointed, we broke out the veneer tape! The veneer pieces were held together tightly as short strips of damp veneer tape were applied like stitches down the length of the joint. The final step was adding one long length of tape down the entire seam to keep everything in place for glue up.

For gluing veneer, we use Titebond Veneer Glue and apply it with small foam rollers to ensure an even spread of glue over the surface of the substrate. One side of the 1/4" MDF substrate was coated with the veneer glue and then the veneer sheet was applied. The opposite side of the substrate was coated in glue, and then the other sheet of veneer for that panel was applied. In between each panel set (veneer-substrate-veneer), we placed a piece of lightly waxed melamine to keep the panels from being glued to one another. When each student's complete stack of door and side panel sets was glued up, they used painters tape in each corner to hold the entire bundle from shifting too much during it's move to the press.

There is more than one way to press veneer and, as is the Lohr School of Woodworking way, we introduced students to more than one method. The first approach we took was bar clamp presses we had made here in the shop. We like this system because it can be recreated by students in their home shops relatively easily as it's just pairs of 3" thick hardwood boards with bar clamps slid through at either end. The clamps are held vertically while a piece of 3/4" plywood (bigger than the size of the panels we were gluing up) was placed between the hardwood clamping boards to create a platform. The stack of panel sets sits on the 3/4" plywood platform while another sheet of thick plywood is placed on top. These two pieces of heavy plywood serve as a caul to disperse the pressure of the clamping boards evenly across the entire surface(s) of the panel sets. By tightening the bar clamps, the top hardwood clamping boards lowered onto the stack and we were able to put immense pressure across the stack.

For the back panels, to ensure the veneer would be pressed flat across the larger substrate surfaces, we took to the vacuum press. As before, each panel set was separated with a lightly waxed melamine sheet (to prevent gluing unwanted things together) and the top melamine piece was sanded to have rounded edges. With a big, heavy, flat piece of melamine coated particle board underneath, the back panel sets were placed into the vacuum bag. The vacuum sucks out all of the atmospheric pressure and air from the bag thus pressing the veneer to the substrates with no chance of bubbles or bumps. Both veneer presses were left for an hour or two to let the glue tack and set before the pressure was removed.

As the week pressed on (see what I did there? Veneer press, time pressing on... no, you're right, that was a bad one), we tackled some more joinery within the cabinet carcase and how to glue it all together. Then, we attached the face frame to the carcase with carefully planned biscuit placement. We mitered and glued some decorative molding for the top of the cabinet and used another set of jigs to make sawtooth shelf supports. The hard parts peaked again toward the end of the week when it was time to hang the doors. The students used their trim routers and some careful layout to cut hinge mortises into the face frame and door edges. When the mortises were successfully cut to fit their hinges perfectly, extreme care was taken to plan how they were to create an even reveal all the way around each door. In some cases, it was just a slight trim here and there using the table saw. In other cases, students took to the router to cut a clean, straight edge at an angle to make a top/bottom edge parallel to the face frame. And, just when they thought it was over, it was time to do the same for the drawers! The runners had to be carefully attached inside the cabinet to hang the drawers in such a way that the reveal around the edges of the drawer front was the same. This is the part when every woodworker smiles to themselves as they know how painstaking it is to tend to the finest, finishing touches of a project like this. Frustrating and time-consuming as it may be, it's the attention to detail that makes or breaks the cabinet you've been working on for 40 hours.



Good news for you, recent grads, Rob & I took the afternoon yesterday to finish up the last little details on our cabinet. Shaping the pulls, drilling their clearance holes, cleaning up the sawtooth shelf supports, drilling the holes for the bullet catches, attaching the top molding, sanding everything down once more, breaking all edges, and applying the boiled linseed oil only took us around 3 hours to do. So, fear not, we are living proof that you can finish it up in little time! Take a few hours, crank some tunes, break out the course guide, and finish up your seriously stunningly-figured cabinet if for no other reason than so you can brag to your friends and impress your family.

After six long, busy days, all eight gentlemen had a nearly-complete veneer wall cabinet sitting proudly upon their bench. Pat yourselves on the back, men, you did a phenomenal job! We were, and continue to be, thoroughly impressed by your ability to keep up with the pace, face any challenges that arose, catch on to techniques, and persevere with laughs and smiles. And now, we're preparing to welcome our very last class of the year- Advanced Joinery 201 folks, we're gettin' ready for ya'!

Get excited, Veneer & Cabinetwork is almost here!

Veneer & Cabinetwork, our brand new third-level advanced course, launches it's very first run in November and we have been prepping like mad men (and woman)!

Using walnut that was cut and dried by yours truly, the Lohr Woodworking team, we have been hard at work to turn rough boards into pre-milled packs that students will to turn into beautiful cabinets. In order for our students to get the project complete in just 6 days, we take on some of the dirty work of milling and squaring up the basic parts ahead of time so students can focus their attentions on the finer details. In this case, they'll need their class days to construct cabinet carcase joinery, make doors and drawers, and veneer!

The cabinet is a complex project with many parts of similar dimensions so, Rob crafted a clever color-coding system to help us maintain some degree of organization throughout the process. With stiles, rails, and drawer parts galore, it would be all too easy to lose track of our count so the system worked well.

Our process starts with lots of rough walnut boards which are cut to rough lengths (an inch oversize) which are then working-faced on the jointer and milled to thickness via a [no exaggeration] 4 hour planer run. From there, we rip the pieces to their varied widths and, the last stage is to cut them to exact length. The ripping and cutting-to-length parts of the process are where my anxiety sets in because we have everything down to it's nearly finished size and the last thing an apprentice wants to do is cut 44 pieces of milled wood to the wrong length; Trust me when I say, it wouldn't have been the first time.

But, we made it through and the student packs are compiled and awaiting student hands! As we spend the coming weeks fine tuning the course structure and lessons, we are excited to embark on this new class adventure with a group of stellar Lohr Woodworking School alumni. Next week, we will be moving the Allen's Frontier live edge dining table onto some carts we've made so it can travel to it's new home in California. Look forward to a blog post documenting our surely-entertaining days moving and packing the massive slab for it's journey! Until next time kids, practice shop safety and enjoy the onset of the fall!

The Latest Generation of Advanced Joinery Grads

A big ol' congrats to the Advanced Joinery graduates that completed their second level course with us today! Outside, the north east was battling weather ranging from perfection to flooded disasters, while inside these eight woodworkers we crafting their own stunning walnut and cherry accessory tables. Patrick, Perry. Allen, Matt, Dave, Anneliese, Ed, and Brian can all go home today proud to know how to make drawers, floating shelves, drawer pulls, breadboard end table tops, and much more about intricate joinery. Way to go, kids, way to go!

Over the past few weeks, the Lohr Woodworking staff has been working hard to save the walls of the ramp bank leading to the upper floor of the sawmill. Over time, the compression of the stone and weight of the elements have stressed the walls enough that they were nearing collapse. Luckily, with Jeff's ability to design a fix for anything, Trixie the tractor and her giant auger, and some giant pressure-treated beams and boards, we have made significant strides to keep it upright. Check back next week for the full story on the design and work that went into this mission!

Designing a Third Level Woodworking Course!

Great news for JD Lohr School of Woodworking alumni: We are working hard on designing a brand new, third level advanced woodworking course!

By popular demand, we have started the plans, design, and prototypes for the wall cabinet that will be the project for students who return to the shop for a third level course. This project will step up the skill and technique levels from the Advanced Joinery course. In it's roughest planning stages, we know the course will include but not be limited to veneering, frame and panel construction, door making, and a different style of drawer construction.

This third level course will be open only to the alumni of our Advanced Joinery course so, if you haven't taken our first or second level course yet, don't miss the opportunity. Practical Woodworking, our introduction course, is perfect for all skill and experience levels to learn safe and practical methods for woodworking via building a red oak hall table. Advanced Joinery kicks things up a few notches as students get their hands dirty with dovetail joinery, floating shelf construction, Greene & Greene style breadboard ends, and drawer construction. And now, we are excited to challenge students even more with a whole new set of skills built into a new class!

We hope to have the new course organized and prepared to launch before the end of this year but, I will keep you updated on that news as it unfolds. We are excited and hope our alumni are too! Keep your eye out for more updates on this class as we perfect the design and curriculum.

Practical Woodworking & Rob's Evergrowing Stardome

The new year was kicked off with the 'weekend warrior' edition of our Practical Woodworking course! What better way to start 2014 than with a group of wonderful woodworking students sharing the shop with us for two long weekends?

Keith, Brad, Esther, Cait, Carol, Bob, Dave, and Steve, Steve, and Steve were a perfect crew to host. Each student was eager to learn and successfully created their own unique red oak hall table. As usual, it was 6 days filled with practical woodworking skills, safety, tools, machines, joinery, jigs, and technique. Most of these students were virtual beginners to the craft and they all did a beautiful job.

We want to congratulate the first Practical Woodworking graduates of 2014 and thank them for, not only being pleasant company, but having an unwavering interest and dedication to learning and practicing the skills. Any and all of the ten of you are welcome back to the shop any time! We wish you the best of luck in all your future woodworking endeavors. These alumni, along with all others, are welcome and encouraged to send along any photos of future projects for us to share on our Alumni Furniture Gallery!

And, Rob has proven himself worthy of fame yet again. Not only was he featured in Woodcraft Magazine TWICE in the past few months but, now he is an alumni face of Northamton Community College on billboards around the Lehigh Valley area! Rocking plaid (as usual) and armed with a caliper, he is advertised as a notable NCC Grad with the title of Furniture Craftsman. If you are in or around the Lehigh Valley area, keep your eyes out for our superstar Lohr Woodworking team member.

Lohr School of Woodworking Alumni Furniture Gallery!

I've been lucky to have spent the day going through our collection of alumni furniture photos so that we can put them up on our new website in a slideshow gallery to share.  These are pieces that students have made after their time with us here in the shop.  I must say that this is an amazing collection of work in all different styles and we can't be more proud to say that these individuals are our students. The furniture in this gallery represents countless hours of our students' work.  Woodworking and furniture making/design is a labor of passion for many students and some have even branched out to start their own businesses! It's been a pleasure to put all of these photos in one place.

Thank you to those alumni students that shared their photos with us and if any of you have any finished work that you'd like included, send us pictures!

Feel encouraged to admire the JD Lohr School of Woodworking Alumni Furniture Gallery here

Practical Woodworking & Gift Certificates!

A short entry for your Saturday evening:

A huge congratulations to Nancy, the Steves, the Matts, Brian, John, Jim, Mehmet (who came to us all the way from Istanbul), and Gary for being the newest Practical Woodworking graduates! After a week of seemingly overwhelming amounts of information and even more hard work, we have ten students (each still with 10 fingers) who should be nothing short of extremely proud of, and confident in, their woodworking skills. They started the week having their brains filled with wood theory and characteristics and, just a few days later, they have filled the shop with 10 beautiful red oak tables that will stand the test of time. We are lucky to have had the chance to spend the week with these wonderful people and we are hopeful they go on to create (and share) all the wooden masterpieces they can dream up!

In other news, we are happy to introduce JD Lohr School of Woodworking gift certificates in time for the holiday season! Are you a woodworker who has been taught by youtube videos and trial and error? Are you the spouse, parent, sibling, or friend of a woodworker that you are fairly certain runs the risk of losing fingers or limbs every time they head out to the shop? Practical Woodworking is a course built for these folks! What better gift that to give them the gift of a week on a farm learning practical, safe, and repeatable woodworking techniques and practices from a master?

Zero-experience through advanced woodworkers are welcome and encouraged to enroll. Students of all skill levels will walk away from the course with a guaranteed wealth of new information.

Please feel free to learn more about the gift certificates in our online school store!


Until next week, ladies and gentlemen. Check back for an update in the near future about the happenings of the Bigleaf Maple live edge coffee table as we start finishing the top and begin design/construction of it's base! Exciting!

Advanced Joinery Class of August 2013!

Although my absence for a week may have suggested otherwise, we have not had a dull moment here at The Lohr School of Woodworking! Last week we were graced with the presence of 8 eager and animated gentlemen as they tackled the Advanced Joinery class.

Ted, Buzz, Mike, Steve, Stephen, Chris, Randy, and Randy aka Arkansas were dedicated and quite amusing as they learned the more detailed and intricate techniques necessary to complete the project for this course. The more intricate details I refer to include drawer construction, mortise and tenon joinery, dovetail (hand and machine cut) joinery, buttons, floating shelves, Green & Greene style breadboard ends, and so on.

All students are required to complete the Practical Woodworking course at our school prior to enrolling in the Advanced Joinery class. Because of this requirement, when these gentlemen walked through our shop door last week, it was their second stay with us. It seems that having spent 6 long and busy days with us during the Practical Woods class in the past causes students to walk through our door excited, comfortable, and prepared for round 2. The comradery was instantaneous and carried on throughout the entirety of week. Even though I haven't assumed any formal teaching role in the advanced course yet, and hadn't had the good fortune of meeting most of these men before last week, I still felt like I was hanging out with 8 close friends by the end of the week.

As you can see, the sanding pavilion was in full swing thanks to the weather treating us so well as the students learned and created some stunning walnut and cherry side tables. The men made jokes as they got their hands on countless additional Jeffry Lohr original jigs paired with the usual machines; bandsaw, mortiser, routers, and tablesaws. This time around, however, students get their hands on far more hand tools and operations than the Practical Woodworking course requires. The gentlemen had to fine tune their hand saw, marking knife, chisel and mallet, and detailed sanding and gluing skills. All the while though, Rob and Jeff were there to remind us that most any question can be answered with the Jeff Lohr mantra, "All things will be revealed."

One of the more interesting (and often frustrating) operations in woodworking is learning to deal with dovetails. The joinery is undeniably beautiful and strong but, the jigs aren't always willing to be easy on the user. After the bulk of one day of the course being dedicating to hand-cutting dovetails, the students move onto the routers. Jeff does a thorough job explaining jig types and how to adjust them in order to provide fitted and proper dovetails but, that doesn't eliminate the fact that each student needs to adjust those jigs when they sit down to being their drawer joinery. Luckily, we had a shop full of students like Steve (pictured left) and his constant enthusiasm to bring light to even the most challenging tasks.

As I said, comradery was not missing from this bunch of guys. When glue up day finally arrived, a strong desire for perfection was not lacking so teamwork was essential. In order for the tables to function as intended (drawers that open and close, shelves that float perfectly between legs, and breadboard ends that hold everything in place), all things needed to be level, square, and aligned. Just as they did throughout the week, the gentlemen showed full dedication and soon enough the room was filled with assembled tables. In six very busy, rather intense days of instruction and work, there were 8 beautiful tables ready to find their way home.

A huge thanks to the Advanced Joinery Class of August 2013! Although the week demanded a lot and was fast-paced at times, you all wore a smile and delivered in production. I am happy to have had the chance to spend the week with all of you gents and I hope to see some photos of finished tables in the coming weeks! A special thanks to Chris & his thoughtful daughter for making the staff some fantastic (and incredibly appropriate) t-shirts! We'll wear them with pride.

And, as a final note, I will mention that Rob will grace the cover of Woodcraft Magazine on October 1st's issue AND we are working on the construction of a new website so keep checking back with us to see it's official launch!

Lohr Woodworking hosts VFES Summer L.I.F.E. Camp!

This week we are excited and happy to welcome a stellar group of students from the VFES Summer L.I.F.E. Camp!

In honor of the quickly passing summer, we have been busy in the shop making folding red oak lawn chairs. The chairs will be finished with linseed oil and assembled with hardware that won't rust from outside use. Each of the four students is working hard to make their own chair to take home as they work together through the new woodworking techniques and processes; And what a fantastic job they've done!

 Each day begins with a demonstration of the tasks to be carried out that day. Jeff, Rob, and I worked for the past few weeks to prepare jigs and organize lessons with the most efficient techniques to finish the four chairs in just five days. For the first time, I tried my hand at making jigs and, so far [knock on wood], they have been successful!

Josh, Waimond, Tim, and Marybeth have been 
 quick to learn and seemingly excited to see their work coming along so well in just a couple of short days!

Early this week, the students started with red oak boards milled-to-thickness. They were responsible for tracing the leg shape templates and taking to the band and jig saws to cut out those shapes. From there, we used the router, files, and sanding blocks to fine tune the shape and break the edges.

On Day 2, students were given 16 milled slats. They had to choose 7 to serve as the chair seat and 9 to create the back. When they had their seats and backs labeled as such, they took to the drill press jigs to drill four clearance holes in each slat. In the meantime, they were beveling the ends of the slats, countersinking drilled holes with a brace and bit, and sanding all their parts to perfection.

By Wednesday, the students were ahead of the curve. They honed their sanding skills and moved on to the first stage of assembly. They attached a strut between the set of back legs and a shorter strut between the seat legs. This required some careful center-marking and clamp work but, they didn't miss a beat! After their U-shaped bases were screwed together, they moved on to counter-sinking the four pilot holes in each slat as well as using the scroll saw to cut a hand-hold curve into their top chair slat.




With a few moments to spare before the rain began on Wednesday afternoon, Jeff and Rob took us outside to learn about the physics that we use in woodworking!

Starting with a demonstration about levers, Jeff stood on one end of a board balanced like a seesaw and had students try and lift his weight from the opposite end. Each time, he shifted the placement of the board to differing points along the fulcrum to show how the weight distribution changes how difficult it is to lift the load.

The second lesson addressed pulleys.  Jeff started by having the three boys of the class lift his weight using the rope attached to a single pulley hung from the beam of the sawmill.  The boys got him up off the ground but it was a challenge that took every ounce of their strength.  Next, he had the one girl in the class lift his weight using the rope passing through a four sheave block and tackle which enabled her to lift Jeff high off the ground with ease. He explained how a single pulley set up simply does the work of one man but when four pulleys are employed in conjunction with one another, it allows a single man to do the work of four men. It was a great way for students to see how we use these physics methods to move big logs and boards around the saw mill regularly.

On Thursday, we finished up any last minute sanding before we starting in on finishing! The campers got a hands-on (or, more accurately, a hands-off) chemistry lesson. At Lohr Woodworking, we aim to keep all our furniture as natural as possible so we avoid the use of stains or paints. Instead, we enhance the natural grain colors and patterns of the wood with boiled linseed oil. It is easy to apply and works wonderfully so we decided it would be best for the campers to use on their chairs. One major concern when it comes to this type of oil is how to handle the dampened rags when the finishing process is done. The rags can spontaneously combust because "when linseed oil is exposed to air, it combines with the oxygen molecules. This chemical reaction creates heat. If the linseed oil is on a rag in a pile or ball, the heat can't escape and, as you can see from the photo of our experiment, can reach extreme heat within just a couple of hours. Instead of balling them up, we hang them to dry over the rungs of a ladder so that the heat being created can cool on all sides of the rag as it dries. After a few days, the reaction is complete and the rag becomes stiff- then they are safe to throw away with the normal garbage.

After the chemistry lesson, students took to finishing their chairs with the linseed oil! With the table tops covered in plastic and some sticks to elevate the pieces for drying, they did a great job wiping on the oil to cover every inch of surface. The colors and grain of the red oak popped just as beautifully as we had hoped!

On Friday, everything came together! With all the chair pieces linseed oiled and started to dry over night, on Friday morning, we were ready for assembly. Last week, the Lohr Woodworking staff made a few assembly jigs that needed a bit of explaining. The backs and seats had separate jigs for attaching the slats. As the legs sit in a bed-like jig, there are stops and guides for each slat to sit while the pilot holes are drilled. We drilled pilot holes because red oak is a hardwood so, nailing straight into it greatly increases the risk of bending nails. From there, the students used good ol' fashion hammer and nails to attach the 16 slats. The slats were held on with stainless steel trim nails so that when the chairs are inevitably left outside, the nails won't rust! The jigs held the u-shapes up off the table so that they don't rock or bounce as they were hammering the nails. I heard from more than one camper that "it was time for the fun part -- hammer and nails!"

After the nails were set and the slats fully attached, we had

students go back to set the nails below the surface of the wood. We wanted to make sure to avoid any future clothing snags on a nail sticking up above the surface.

To do this, each student used a drift. The tip of the drift was carefully held on top of the nail head and hit once or twice with a good hammer swing. Although frustrating at times, drifts do a good job of setting those nails properly.

Overall, assembly went quickly and smoothly. The chairs quickly turned from a pile of parts into foldable, usable lawn chairs! We are always excited for the final stages of assembly, not matter the project. You can't help but feel proud and fulfilled when all your hard work comes together into one functional, beautiful furniture piece. The campers were no exception to this feeling. They exceeded our expectations this week and hope that they are as proud as we are!

We were able to snap a goofy photo of the campers lounging in their chairs before they left. All the teachers and staff were such a wonderful part of the camp as well. We are grateful to parents, teachers, and campers alike for the chance to spend the week with such passionate and excited kids. We tackled a lot of tools, machines, techniques, and problem-solving together. Thanks to VFES Summer L.I.F.E. Camp for allowing us to create this course and thanks to EVERYONE else for such a fun week!

Practice Woodworking: July (heatwave) Edition

The summer of 2013 is filled to the brim with woodworking classes here at the Lohr School of Woodworking. Tomorrow will close out another Practical Woodworking course.

I must first commend our current practical woods students for being so brave and willing as they have managed to show up with smiles and motivated attitudes despite this unbearable north east heatwave. I am a Floridian girl and even I am dyin' from these temperatures so, good job guys, your dedication is admirable!

Jeff, Doug, Terry, Susan, Bill, Cate, Paul, Dan, Gwen, John, and Vince have done a wonderfully impressive job this week learning, listening, and executing new woodworking techniques. Furthermore, they have really become one as a class as they work together to implement their newly absorbed woodworking procedures! Each of them started the week with three rough, FAS, red oak boards and, today all eleven workbenches are graced with nearly completed hall tables.

We have been lucky enough to have the week to get to know the students and today is the day that they get the chance to add details that make their tables unique to them. I love to watch the creativity and personality shine through the pieces as they quickly approach completion.

Throughout the week, students see demos covering every concept, machine, tool, technique, strategy, and jig design we can cram into the week. Although the weather has been rather warm, we did stick to the status quo of making the messiest, dustiest tasks into outdoor activities. Here, Rob is demonstrating how to use the router sled/table. In this demo, he explains the jig's assembly, design, and use. As we use it as a method for milling one face of a board too wide to fit through the jointer or planer, it is safe for you to assume that the router throws a lot of dust and chips around as it levels the face's surface. Luckily, in the summertime, the mimosa tree is in full bloom so we were able to teach, learn, and mill board faces under the shade of a beautiful and delicious-smelling tree.

The latest and greatest addition to the shop was fueled by Jeff's efforts to contribute as little was we can to the ever-growing landfills. As we are located on the farm with it's own functioning ecosystem and work with all natural, earth-grown wood, we do our best to make environmentally-friendly decisions with our trash and material reuse.

A fancy new water cooler will limit the number of plastic water bottles we go through here at the shop (especially in the height of the summer). The idea is to have one reusable bottle for each student/staff to last the week instead of 2-5 throwaway bottles per person per day. Perk number one of this handy machine: the water is always ice cold without having to restock the refrigerator. So, welcome to the shop, new water cooler. We look forward to your convenience and ice-cold hydration services.

All in all, last week was yet another wonderful week spent with ambitious and motivated aspiring woodworkers. We were pleased to host the eleven of you and hope to see you return to the shop in the future!


Another week begins here at Lohr Woodworking so look out for an update or two about our next summer adventures.

Days 4 & 5 of Practical Woodworking

Another Practical Woodworking class comes to a close today but not before they learned all about routers and sanding (and today, finishing)! As I mentioned in my last update, Rob holds a "Router University" on Day 4 of the class. This is when the details of the table begin to take on the shape, design, and uniqueness of it's maker. He tells them how to use the plunge router to add detail to the edges of table tops and how  to create templates and cut out designs from the edge of the skirt boards or into the face of the skirt boards. It's amazing all the things that this one tool can really accomplish.

We teach students to use batten strips, a nail, and clamped sanding blocks to create a natural and symmetrical curve wherever it is desired. For the table made in this class, curves are commonly cut along the bottom edge of skirt boards. After the curve is traced, they use the band saw to cut out the curve and then go on to the sanders and block planes to smooth it out. It's just one of the many detail options we introduce to students for their skirt boards. We also have a router table with a beading bit as well as the option to draw your own design to trace and cut out!

Cooped with router day is sanding day. I find that sanding day is a day of relief for students as they have fitted their mortises and tenons, assembled their tables without glue, and are pleased to see the project coming together. From there, they can take to the sanding pavilion. Here, they get the run down on sanding machines, paper, and technique. Then, they are turned lose to tackle one of the final stages of their table completion. We use random orbit sanders and four stages of sanding with 80, 120, 180, and 220 grit paper for a nice, smooth surface ready for finish.

Another detail that is introduced during the 4th and 5th days is leg treatment. Naturally, another set of Jeff original jigs comes into play to cut tapered legs or to router subtle rectangular detail near the feet of the legs. We also introduce the option of using the beading bit on the router table to add a bead to the corners of the legs. Here, you can see Andrew using Jeff's leg-tapering jig on the table saw.

As the final demos begin in the shop as I type, I am proud to know that by the afternoon today, we will have a room full of nearly finished tables and eleven new, happy Lohr School of Woodworking graduates! I will do my best to capture some photos of the tables and their new, fancy looks so you can see what Lohr students are capable of! For now, we are onto the last 8 hours of table construction, gluing, and finishing.

And, on this chilly Friday, I bring you Joie, the ever-entertaining shop dog. She is here to wish our students a very smooth and accomplished final day here at the school. She says, "You guys learned all about the basics of practical woodworking for furniture building in just 6 days?!" Yes, Joie, they did and they did it amazingly well!

For the rest, she is here to wish you a lovely weekend and say, "We haven't seen you at the shop yet. You want to learn about woodworking? Didn't you know that our school is the perfect environment for any type of learner/level of experience?" And on that note, I will return to the group to enjoy our last day of class.

Current students, you have done a wonderful job and we hope you return to the shop in the future! Future students, I hope these entries give you an idea of what to expect and heightens your excitement for your class to begin. Potential students, we hope to see your name on our roster some day soon. And, to the rest, thank you for reading and look out for a new post early next week!