Installing miter keys in a keyed miter box

Please view this in youtube to build up my watching hours. More box making tips and tricks can be found in my books and on my youtube channel: youtube.com/MrDougStowe

Making a bandsawn box

Please view this on youtube to build up my viewing hours.

practice

Today I'm  practicing, by making small bandsawn boxes as shown. The secret of bandsawn boxes is to have something in mind before you start cutting a block of wood into little pieces and then putting them back together with glue. For someone who wants to do woodworking that goes quick and offers near immediate results, bandsawn boxes can be a good project. These are small, but larger ones can be made.

They can be simple or more ornate, they can be textured and painted with milk paints. They are fun.

One of the founders of Home Depot, one of the world's largest suppliers of do-it-yourself supplies has decided that Americans would prefer to be fat and lazy. So who does he think shops in his stores each day? Folks like you and me who want to make stuff and make stuff happen for the world and the American economy.

Make, fix and create. Happy New Years! Need a resolution? Make something before the year is out. You've plenty of time before the next holiday season.

YouTube: Shawn Graham

Shawn Graham on his youtube channel gave a nice shout out to my books and youtube videos at the tail end of this video. His presentation on the use of chisels and the use of alcohol to ease chiseling endgrain is  one that woodworkers will find useful. You've about 362 making days before the next Christmas... plenty of time to get started and to get good at what you make.

Make, fix and create... assist others in learning lifewise.

building life

"Let the youth once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar, and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him." --John Ruskin, "Time and Tide", 1883

This link is to an article from the New York Times editorial board.

 

It is important to make certain the table saw fence is in alignment with the miter gauge slots. If the fence is out of alignment it can cause burning on some woods like cherry, or cause a rougher cut. In my new book, Designing Boxes, careful alignment of the fence will be the first step in making a table saw sled for box making.

Make, fix and create... assist others in learning lifewise.

Amazon goes nuts...

I checked pricing on two of my books on Amazon and learned that they've jacked the price up over the suggested retail. I don't know the reasons for it as most publishers find Amazon's strategies to be inexplicable. In the meantime, LeeValley.com has my Guide to Woodworking with Kids, Making Classic Toys that Teach, and my new book The Wisdom of our Hands available for immediate shipping. These are the links:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/111950-the-guide-to-woodworking-with-kids

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/75487-making-classic-toys-that-teach

and https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/114136-the-wisdom-of-our-hands-crafting-a-life

There are times when Amazon offers the best price and times when you'll want to ignore them and choose to shop elsewhere. In this case Amazon is hurting my sales by pushing the prices up to their benefit, but not mine.