Splinter Stitches

Last week, disaster struck [[dramatic drums and organ play]]. Well, not really, but I did manage to get a 2" shard of plywood lodged in the depths of the palm of my hand that required a hand surgeon to remove.

It all began as a normal Friday. We are working on putting together a live edge desk that Jeff has been designing over the past couple of weeks. I was in charge of shaping and drilling the holes into the supports that will attach the legs to the live edge walnut slab desktop. Because we exercise such consistent safety precautions here at Lohr Woodworking, I got through milling the rough material, cutting it all to size, and routering the edges (top and bottom) all unscathed. Naturally, no machinery, sharp tools, or handling of heavy material was necessary for me to wound myself.

I was setting up the famous Jeff Lohr router jig that conveniently uses wedges and a back fence to hold wood stable and properly-placed for easy routering of more than one piece at once and accurately without any hassle. Now, I will say that again; I was setting up the router jig (which requires little-to-no effort) when I decided to brush off some dust with my hand. I must have harvested the perfect circumstances for my hand to catch on the edge of the plywood base of the jig at just the right angle and speed for a 2" splinter/shard/wooden needle to slip into my palm and break off inside.

Off to Urgent Care we went, because tweezers and sewing pins were not going to cut it this time. As you can tell from the picture, there was one tiny entrance point but the actual length of the wood was buried so deep under my skin that it was really difficult to see where it stopped and started. The kind doctors at Urgent Care gave me an x-ray (which turned up nothing because it was wood and not metal or dense bone tissue). Then, they numbed me up, sliced me open, and did their best to hunt the wood piece(s) down and take it out. After looking for it for an hour or so with no luck, they decided it best to send me to a specialist. I am incredibly thankful to The Philadelphia Hand Center staff for staying late on their Friday afternoon to take me immediately. Dr. Sweet did an amazing job with the impromptu mini-surgery she did to finally separate me and the plywood. Scalpels, surgical binocular loupes, more numbing agent, stitches- the whole nine yards were required for this splinter removal.

Watching her pull a 2" shard of plywood from my hand was both relieving and nauseating. Five stitches and five hours later, I was wrapped up and on my way home. With a little TLC, limited right hand use for the week, and stitch-removal on Friday morning, I will be good as new. Jeff is mad at me for not saving the extracted wooden shard but, equally as grateful that the worker's comp/insurance is getting some exercise. A huge thanks to you, Jeff, for driving me all over creation to get my hand repaired and ensuring that everything was in order all the while.

Because safety is always the first priority at our shop, Rob has already eliminated any possible safety/splinter risks posed by the existing jig by making a new one (even though this accident was 110% my own doing and really not that fault of the jig). This Lohr-original jig is something that is used in the shop more-than-regularly. The swinging door stops can be adjusted or removed to create mortises with ease. The base alone can hold similar sized pieces together for any quick-and-easy routering. It is a work of genius that has been featured in Wood Magazine and has been a crucial shop aid for well over 10 years, so although the older edition is now retired, students can look forward to learning to work with the latest model.

Moral of the story, folks: Use a dust brush. It's not like we have a lack of them around the shop so it was my own thoughtlessness (paired with some seriously perfect circumstances) that lead to my own disaster. I can take solace in the fact that all the safety measures and precautions that we take at the shop every day continue to protect me from any major harm.

With my very first set of stitches, and a much more intimate relationship with plywood, I think it's safe to start to consider myself a real woodworker.

Happy Pi Day to all!

In honor of Pi Day, I am here to share my most recent circle-based project with you!

On March 13th, it is only proper to take some time to recognize the beauty of circles. I got this apprenticeship with a lesson-based interview that had Jeff & Rob "discover" Pi using some yarn and several circular objects. The fact that no matter the size of the circle, the ratio between it's circumference and diameter will always be the same (3.14, of course) is such an amazing mathematical concept.

So, recently I have been at work to construct a live edge clock with a face whose hours are marked with the different phases of the moon. Starting by cutting walnut plugs and gluing them into a maple piece, I then used the plug cutter to cut off-center thus leaving different slivers of the white wrapped around the darker walnut. Then, I did the same thing in the inverse; maple plugs into a solid walnut piece. I placed one 1/16" thick piece of wood between the fence and the edge of the piece (and added another 1/16" thick piece for the next moon and so on) as I was cutting the moons from so that each phase was increasing in size by the same amount.

After I had all the phases cut, I drew out the placement of the hours using a 30-60-90 triangle and circle stencil. I was sure to consider the length of the clock hands while doing so. Next, came the jig making.

I constructed a jig that was nothing more than a piece of MDF (to ensure flatness below the piece on the drill press table) with a short piece of a dowel stuck into it at 90 degrees. I then drilled a hole through the center of the face of the clock and used the dowel as a pivot point. I clamped the jig down to the drill press so that the forstner bit was set up to cut perfectly into one of my marked hour-moon layouts. From there, I could just spin the entire piece around to each marked 30 degree increment and be sure that each circle would be exactly the same distance from the center of the clock.  I love circles!

Finally, I glued my moon phase plugs into their new holes and sanded them down. Naturally, as this was my first attempt, some of my phases aren't the ideal size or perfectly placed during glue up but, overall, I'm pleased with the result. Now that I have the process down and have ironed out many of the snags, I am eager to start work on the next (and better) moon phases clock face!

Happy Pi Day to all and have a glorious, woodworking-filled weekend!

We have a new home on the Internet!

After months of working hard to build the new JD Lohr School of Woodworking website last year, it only made sense that we devote the first few months of the new year to a new furniture site as well, right? The wait is over, folks! Built in-house (like all things Lohr-related), are proud to announce that the Lohr Woodworking Studio now has a new, updated website to pair with that of our woodworking school!

The new www.lohrwoodworkingstudio.com is completely loaded with (but not limited to) information about us (the makers), the history of Lohr Woodworking, photos and descriptions of all of our handcrafted studio and live edge furniture, as well as how to commission a piece of your own! Because both the woodworking school and our furniture-making studio are active, essential parts of Lohr Woodworking, Inc. and all that we love to do every day, we are excited to provide customers, visitors, future students, and alumni with these two sites to explore. We hope that they offer the chance to gain some insight into who we are and what we're about. We are grateful to all of those students, clients, and visitors who have spent time with us and hope that those who haven't will be able to use our new internet location(s) to develop an idea of what lives and grows within the walls of our woodshop in Schwenksville.

Take a few minutes to peruse the new internet home of the Lohr Woodworking Studio and let us know what you think! We do have some additions in mind for the near future but, couldn't wait for the site launch any longer. And, be sure to keep your eye out for regular updates as well as additional custom furniture pieces as they are created and built.

Snow calls for firewood

The apprentice learns more new tricks! To say the least, it's been quite a winter in Pennsylvania this year. As a result, we have been using up firewood like crazy. We heat the shop via a fire barrel stove that needs to be fed regularly to keep the climate inside this big building comfortable enough to work every day. After weeks with temperatures between -10 and 15 degrees, the dried firewood supply has dwindled.

On the first day that snow wasn't actually falling from the sky last week, we took to the yard and turned logs into tinder. Jeff manned the tractor, delivering big logs to areas of hard, snow-free ground. Rob fired up the chainsaw and cut the logs down to reasonable lengths. And, thus, I was left to chop. Swinging a giant (well, 'giant' for a girl who is 5' 4" on a good day) maul over my head and managing to land in a place that splits a log in half is not something I would have anticipated to be part of my skill set; but, consider it added to the resume, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did I actually manage so split firewood, I didn't even break my wrist(s). Score!

As the winter seems to have no sympathy and we are forced to welcome another 4" of snow today, there is least somewhat warmth within the walls of the shop (and my upper body strength is increasingly more impressive). Rob is still hard at work perfecting the design and techniques to build the small wall cabinet that will compose our soon-to-be third level course so keep your eye out for updates on that. In the meanwhile, enroll in Practical Woodworking and/or Advanced Joinery in 2014 so you can join us for the new course when it's launched!

Until next time, I hope that everyone in the local areas is staying warm and safe in this horrendous winter.

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