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I’ve been spending some time lately over at Chris Schwarz’s Popular Woodworking Blog and was inspired by a couple things I saw. Much of Chris’s content is centered around the Roubo workbench and in particular the dovetailed tennon that attaches the top to the base. This was the first thing that caught my interest. I knew I wanted to try to incorporate this joint in one of my projects. The other posts that attracted me were the ones dedicated to Megan Fitzpatrick’s LVL workbench. Coincidentally, I had a large piece of a 12 inch LVL beam left over from the construction of our house. I came up with this small hall bench to incorporate the two themes.
I think the edge grain laminations look really cool, but I veneered some walnut on the face surfaces to cover up the ugly pine cathedrals. The LVL was surprisingly easy to work with the saws, jointer, and planer, but cleaning the mortises for the Roubo joint was murder on my chisels. I had to re-hone twice just to finish. Overall the design was rather simple, but I think it turned out well and I got the urge to try this joint out of my system!
The last several weeks I have been working on getting ready for my first local art show which is coming up next weekend. This is an annual event where local artists display and sell there work. I made it a personal goal to be part of this show this year and worked really hard to get here. I’m a little nervous about opening myself up to the public scrutiny, but also about having to stand there all day and interact with people since I’m a bit of a social leper. What can I say, I’m an engineer.
In order to get ready, I had to do some minor touch ups on some completed pieces and print out some write ups about each piece and a price list, so that’s what I’ve been doing most of the day today. A couple weeks ago I spent a few hours and made these two business card holders out of some scrap walnut and spalted maple.
I also decided to make a couple pedestals to elevate my dining chair and end table pieces. These were pretty quick, just MDF and some paint!
So I think I’m as ready as I can be at this point. Hopefully I’ll sell something and have a little more tool money.
Aaron M. Wells 