Get Woodworking...Again

It's "Get Woodworking Week", the brainchild of Tom Iovino over at Tom's Workbench which is one of the most consistently updated woodworking blogs on the internet.  Tom came up with the idea at the Woodworking in America conference in 2011, and bloggers from around the country have responded to the challenge of getting folks interested in woodworking.  Tom is herding the cats and providing links over on his site, so be sure to check out all the great content being posted this week.

Once again I've been away from this blog and the workshop for too long.  With a new baby in the house, shop time has been very scarce.  I was able to get into the shop a few weeks ago and it was such a big deal that I took a picture of my newest project.  Behold, a stick that I made.  Out of walnut, of course.

Only took me an hour to make that stick.  Felt good!

Even this very quick session got me excited again, and I've been trying to get into the shop every day even if it's just for a few minutes.  During my day job, I don’t get any opportunity to get “hands on”.  Like many other woodworkers, I spend my day clicking and typing at my PC.  I find that some time in the shop is very therapeutic and gives me something to look forward to.  Frankly, I like to use my hands and I just get a little antsy if it’s been too long since I picked up a tool.  You can bet that I'll keep it up now that I'm back in the shop.

I could get all philosophical about the value of work and the connection between physical labor and societal value in the modern world, but I am never able to find the words and others do it much better than me.  If you are interested in this sort of thing, try reading Matthew Crawford’s book Shop Class as Soulcraft or Christopher Schwarz’s recent instant classic The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.

Back to woodworking, you might be thinking to yourself “I don’t know how.” Hey, me either.  Nobody taught me this stuff when I was a kid, and quite frankly I’m still not a very experienced woodworker.  As far as I’m concerned, I’m still a beginner.  I’ve cut dovetails exactly once, and I had someone talking me through it the whole time.  But woodworking isn’t some mysterious black art that can only be learned in secret back rooms under hardware stores.  All you need is some curiosity and the willingness to make a few mistakes along the way.

You won't be alone, trust me. Somehow you found this blog post, so you’ve already discovered that there is a very active online woodworking community.  I’ve had the good fortune to meet many woodworkers online and in person over the past few years.  It may sound corny, but I know that every single one of them would be willing to answer a question from a new woodworker.  Many would even show up in person and help out if they were close enough.  If you don’t have a woodworking mentor in your offline life, try visiting a forum or comment on a few blogs and test the waters.  My “home” forum is www.woodtalkonline.com and I’ve found it to be very welcoming to newcomers, and all ranges of experience.  Another new resource is the Modern Woodworkers Association which has local chapters springing up across the country.  The Atlanta chapter meets once a month, so come and say howdy.

You don't need a bunch of fancy tools to get started either.  A pretty simple kit will get you a long way down the road to woodworking.  In fact, I'd recommend that you should wait to buy tools only as you need them.  Many of the "must have" tools that I bought early on are now collecting dust in the shop...Um, but not in the way that a dust collector would collect dust, you know?  Because it's a dust collector?  Anyway, I now buy tools only as I need them.  Except for that chisel Chris Adkins talked me into in November.

So if you've ever thought about giving woodworking a try, this is the week for you.  Get Woodworking!

Not the Brightest Idea I Ever Had

I did something yesterday that worked just fine, but was a little risky.  I got scolded when my wife found out about it, and that says "blog post" to me.

For almost two years, my drill press has been sitting on the ground.  It's a full size drill press with a short column, that's meant to be mounted on a stand.  It's way too heavy to be considered a bench-top tool, since there's no way anybody could move this thing alone.

Floor level is not ergonomically correct

I have a bunch of drill press tasks coming up, and I'm getting tired of crouching down to use the drill press anyway.  I've also had an extra sheet of nice Baltic Birch plywood kicking around the shop for a while, earmarked for a drill press stand.

To those who know me as an uber-geek, here is proof that I don't model everything in SketchUp:  my rough sketch for the drill press stand.  I suppose I lose some points for blogging about it, but surely I am still ahead in the accounting.

Very technical plans

After a very quick session with the table saw, I glued and screwed the cabinet together.  Here is a shot just before I added a 1/2" plywood back.  It's upside down, and those  of you with eagle eyes will notice that I reinforced the top to prevent sagging from the heavy drill press.

Drill press stand - almost complete

Now, here is the not bright part.  I wanted to put the drill press on the new stand, but I couldn't lift it alone.  It would have been tough even with two people honestly.  So I went out to my truck and got a couple ratcheting tie-down straps.  A few minutes later and I had the drill press positioned under a convenient 2x4 in the ceiling, ready to hoist.

Hoping my wife doesn't see this

It was slow going because the straps would only tighten about 8 inches at a time.  I would raise the drill press with the first one, then switch to the second strap and then back again.  It was a little nerve-wracking. After a couple of minutes of clicky-clicky ratcheting, I had the drill press high enough off the floor to slide the new stand underneath.  After I started breathing again, I remembered to take a picture.

Whew!  Made it!

All's well that ends well, or at least that's what I told my wife.  I will be adding some casters eventually, and likely some drawers inside the cabinet.  For now, I am just happy to be up off the floor.

Have you ever pushed the limits of foolishness?  Tell us about it!

That is one sexy box!

Not what you may have expected, but I got home from a work trip on Friday to find this waiting for me courtesy of the UPS guy.

Inside that, the exitment just keeps getting better!

Finally, this is what was inside. 

Excuse me now, I have to go play in the shop.  I'm grinning like a little kid with an ice cream cone.

Behold the Power of The Schwarz!

Oh, how nefarious the woodworking world can be!  What you are about to read is a tale filled with intrigue, secrecy, arbitrage, and data analysis.  What else do you need?  Hollywood, I will be expecting your call.

A couple weeks ago, Chris Schwarz blogged about his Stanley #80 scraper plane.  As usual, it was a thoughtful and instructive post that described the advantages of these simple tools.  It was nice reading for a Monday.

A nice Stanley #80 scraper plane

What only a lucky few knew, however, is that "The Schwarz" had previously set up a little experiment in arbitrage, woodworking style.  In the final session on the final day of Woodworking in America, Chris offered a bonus to the group.  He said that you could buy the #80's for $20 all day long on eBay, at least until he blogs about them.  Those in the room had one week to corner the market on these tools and then the public would hear about them via the blog, likely sending prices into the stratosphere.

Shall we see how the power of the Schwarz may be used for evil instead of for good?  The following chart takes a look at sales prices on eBay for the past month or so.  Each bubble is a single sale.  The total delivered price is along the left axis, and time marches out along the bottom axis.  The bubble size indicates how many bids the auction had - more bids get larger bubbles.

Click for larger version

As you can see from the chart, things were cruising along steadily in "The Good Old Days".  Average shipped price for a #80 was about $26, and things were good.  Then on October 3rd Schwarz made his speech at WIA, and the sharks smelled blood in the water.  I only have data up until the 5th because I forgot to check and eBay cleans house after 21 days, but even in the 3 days after WIA the average shipped price went up to almost $38.  After his blog post on October 11, Schwarz generated enough demand to drive the average shipped price up again to $41.51, a 60% increase over "The Good Old Days"!

Do you need further proof of the power of the Schwarz?  From 9/22 to 10/5 there were another 12 auctions that had zero bids and therefore did not end in a sale.  Buyers weren't interested in these planes, so these listings were not included above.  Since Chris made his blog post on Oct 11 there have been no unsold scraper planes on eBay.  All auctions have ended successfully in a sale, including the gem pictured below with the absurdly optimistic description "has light rust" which sold for $24.95 shipped.



Click for larger version



What does this teach us?  Chris has the Mojo, baby.  One comment from him is enough to send literally tens and tens of people into a buying spree.  Oh, and I have too much time on my hands. On a related note, I will be starting a new hedge fund soon trading under the ticker symbol SWRZ.  Operators are standing by!

 

Care to comment?  You would be among a select few who take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity!

 

Footnote:  In case you are as into data geekery as I am, here is the fine print on the methodology:

• I used the search term "Stanley scraper 80" to bring up closed auctions on eBay.
• I only included auctions for a single tool, no bundles were allowed.
• Only sales were counted, so auctions with no bids were excluded.
• The price reported is the shipped price of the tool, including final bid price plus shipping cost.  I did look at the results without shipping costs and the conclusions were the same.
• Only sellers in the US were included.
• A few tools were sold without blades, and I kept these in the data.
• A single bid typically means the "buy it now" feature was used.