Traditional Framing in Tibet

I'm always fascinated by the framing of wooden structures, whether large or small. I recently found this website that has a photo gallery of vernacular architecture in Tibet.

Most of the photos show amazing, colorful interior cabinetry and exterior details. But this photo especially caught my eye. It's the framing for an exterior wall of a house in Dawu/Daofu. No wonder wooden structures can last hundreds of years.

Click on the image for a larger view, and check out the joinery.

Wood Grain Patterns

HunterGatherer is a design, illustration, animation and production studio in New York. They've applied a wood grain finish to lots of things where wood grain wood not be expected. From the goincase website:

Todd St. John and collaborator Gary Benzel created the woodgrain pattern and have applied it to products ranging from furniture to skateboard decks. The signature design has been reintroduced for Curated by Arkitip, ornamenting two of our own signature products: the MacBook Sleeve and iPhone Slider Case.

Click on the photo for a larger view. There's also an interesting video of how these guys work as well as other photos. Neat.

[Thanks Boing Boing]

Wood and Brass iPod

Another in our irregular series of posts on what to do with those hardwood cut-offs you hate to throw away: Make a wooden iPod. Josh D did just that using "Australian red cedar, Camphor Laurel for the clickwheel, brass plates, brass screws and the guts from the first iPod i ever had."

His Flickr photostream shows many angles of the finished iPod as well as the individual pieces he fashioned with his Dremel tool. Definitely worth a look.

[Thanks BoingBoing Gadgets]

PlansNOW on Facebook

Aha! You've been wondering where I've been the past couple of weeks. Well, now you know (sort of). I created a Facebook Page for PlansNOW.com--my day job where we sell woodworking project plans and technique articles as pdf downloads. Facebook facilitates making pages to promote small businesses like PlansNOW as well as big guns like Starbucks and Lowes. As a Facebook user, you can become a Fan of products and organizations you like. PlansNOW has almost 1200 Fans.

If you'd like to see what these folks are looking at, click here. Each day I post one update, and it's different from what I post on Twitter. You can see us on Twitter here, or just look to the right side of this page the see the three most recent Tweets.

I have no idea if these social media websites will be money makers for PlansNOW, but it's nice to have additional contact with so many woodworkers. Facebook is especially nice because it makes commenting so easy. I hope you'll try it.

Wooden Cars

The folks over at Woodworker's Auction website spotted this beauty on a trip to Las Vegas. It's an all wood version of a Ferrari F50. As they point out, the sign says there are ten different woods used in the model, though pine seems to be the one used most.

Click image for larger view. Lots more photos here.

[Thanks @RocklerDave]

Perfect Miters on a Deck Rail

While installing the handrail on a newly constructed deck, I found that the 45° miters I had so carefully cut didn't fit tightly together. As it turned out, a small variation in the deck meant that the boards came together at an angle slightly less than 90°.
Rather than guess at the angle and recut the boards on my miter saw, I clamped the boards into position and used a circular saw to cut across the joint. This created matching angles — and a perfect-fitting miter joint. Note: This technique works well with a hand saw too.

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