Driving Screws into MDF

I often use medium-density fiberboard (MDF) for my shop jigs and fixtures. There are many things I like about MDF. It's stable, heavy, and costs about half as much as cabinet-grade plywood. One thing I don't like about MDF is its tendency to split along the edge of a workpiece. But, luckily, there are a couple of things you can do to avoid this problem. MDF tends to split most often when drilling and screwing in its edge, especially when using a tapered woodscrew. It acts like a wedge to drive the workpiece apart. So I've gotten into the habit of using a straight-shanked screw.
However, a straight-shanked screw isn't a cure-all. Even when using a pilot hole and the right screw, MDF can still split out. So one final precaution is to support the sides by clamping an ordinary handscrew across the workpiece, see the photo. It makes it almost impossible to split the MDF.
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Space Invaders Cutting Board

Space Invaders is a video arcade game that came out in the late 70's. The two-dimensional invaders dropped down from the top of the screen. The player moved a laser cannon horizontally across the bottom of the screen firing up at the aliens, and thus saving the world. What makes this iconic and worthy of cutting board memorialization is that it was one of the first games of its kind and greatly influenced the games that followed.
The pixel art of the Space Invaders works especially well in a cutting board made up of blocks of wood (end-grain up).
From the catalog: "This cutting board is hand-made in the U.S.A. Each cube of walnut and hard-maple lovingly glued to its brothers, then sanded and polished to a shiny finish. Because they're made by hand, there's an extremely limited supply, so make sure you get one before they're all gone!" ThinkGeek.com has info and lots more photos.

Of course you could shamelessly rip off the idea and build your own. And you might check out a Legos catalog for more ideas, and you might find something more appropriate to your generation.

[Thanks to BoingBoing.]

Bamboo Everywhere

I really like the look of bamboo, and it's a good thing because it's turning up everywhere. It's been around forever it seems as furniture. Perhaps the difference now is that it's being cut into strips, laminated, and sold as flooring and just about anything that requires a flat panel. Here are a couple of examples.

Dell's brand new Studio Hybrid mini computer is available in many colorful "sleeves." The exception is the sleeve made of bamboo. It's getting the featured center spot in the group photos. It sort of makes me want one, even though I just got a new laptop.

Apparently the Hybrid is very nice inside too. Review at the Cult of Mac blog.

Or, how about a bamboo sink. Yup, a sink made of laminated bamboo. Read more about the Stone Forest Moso Vessel here on ThisNext's blog. Do a search for bamboo at ThisNext, and you'll get a sense of the range of bamboo products available.

I've never used bamboo in the shop. I'm going to have to give it a try. Besides its great looks, bamboo is very hard, and it grows VERY fast. A wood for the future.

Nutty Device

One thing I've noticed about woodworkers is their curiosity about how things work. It's probably why so many woodworkers are also interested in tools and machinery. If you're in this category, you'll enjoy watching the video of 70 year old Del Short's new wooden machine, produced by Art Maddox.

It's all gears and sprockets and linkage, made of many kinds of woods. It doesn't do much, but that's not the point. You'll find the story and lots of other interesting stuff at the Automata/Automation Blog.

[Thanks Jim/WoodworkersWorkshop]

Why Woodworking?

"Why do you like woodworking?" This is a question I hear a lot, and I'm sure you get it, too. In response, I usually mumble something about how I like to work with my hands, or like the smell of wood, or the atmosphere in my shop. But I've never really been very happy with my answer. Well, guess what? There are actual, clinically verifiable reasons why you and I like woodworking, according to University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and explained in his book, "Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience." See if these "elements of enjoyment" describe your woodworking "optimal" experience.
1) You like woodworking because it's a challenging task. It's not simple enough to get boring, and it's not complicated enough to create anxiety.
2) Merging of action and awareness. You're just in their doing it. You're not conscious of yourself standing in your shop "woodworking." You are simply a part of the process and the woodworking happens.
3) Clear goals. You know exactly what you want to build, how you want it to look. How many other things are this clear cut in your life?
4) Immediate feedback. You look at what you're doing and you know that it's right (or wrong), the joint fits or it doesn't.
5) High degree of concentration. You're absolutely into it. Most things that would distract you go unnoticed.
6) Altered sense of time. I'm not really aware of how much time has passed until my wife comes down to my shop and says, "Are you EVER coming up to dinner?"
There are other elements of optimal experience, and you don't have to experience all of them to enjoy woodworking. And this sort of analysis can explain why you find happiness in other activities besides woodworking. But when I read this, I recognized something that I think applies to most woodworkers. So the next time someone asks you why you like woodworking, you can say, "There are several reasons I like woodworking, six of them to be exact. First, it's a challenging task..."

New Pergola from Workbench

A couple of years ago, Workbench magazine offered plans for a Sun-Filtering Pergola, a decorative grid that covers a deck or patio. It's been a popular plan at PlansNOW too. So I was happy to see them offer a variation on the pergola concept in the current issue. It's called the Eyebrow Pergola. It looks terrific, and it's not difficult to build. No special tools or skills required. This one's worth checking out.
You can find the August, 2008 issue of Workbench on the newsstand for the next couple of weeks. Or, the plan alone is available at PlansNOW.com.

Another Chuck Key Keeper

The July issue of Woodsmith magazine has a short tip from a reader for making a drill press chuck key keeper. I'm not generally impressed by this sort of quickie tip. BUT this one is pretty cool, and it works really well.

The key keeper is just an inexpensive white plastic cable clamp from a hardware store. One end is screwed to the drill press. The barrel of the key fits neatly in the clamp.

I promise this will be the only chuck key holder tip you'll see in this blog.

From Log to Bowl

There's something mesmerizing about woodturning. I can watch people turn wood all day. Here's a series of short videos by Joe Fisher that shows the process of starting with a log and ending with a cherry bowl.

Joe is, among other things, one of the moderators at WoodNet.net, riding herd over WoodNet's Woodturning Forum. He's also responsible for the beautiful cherry bowl in the photo, although it's not the one turned in the videos. That one was offered up for ritual sacrifice -- the value of which is known only to practitioners wearing strange hats and brandishing sharp tools.

See more of Joe's work at his website.

Guess I'm Not Much of a Designer

The shelving unit in the photo is called Stagger Shelves from a company called Brave Space. I don't know how crazy I am about the design, but a better photo with the unit mounted on a wall and properly propped might help.

It reminds me of a time when I was moving and I dropped a large bookshelf off the back of the truck. Amazing, it looked just like the Stagger Shelves with the back broken off and some other bits missing. And stupid me, I threw it out!

[Thanks to ThisNext]

Workbench Height

Does your back start to ache after you've been working at your bench for a while? Have you ever tried to hand plane a board and decided it was just too much work? The height of the work surface of your workbench can make a difference. It should be the right height to fit you and the way you work.

On most benches, the working surface is somewhere between 33" and 36" high. If you're average height (between 5'9" and 6'0"), that's usually a comfortable height. But even a change of 1" up or down can make a big difference in how easy it is to work at the bench. We've used a lot of methods to determine the best height for a bench. But one simple method seems to give the best results. Just measure the distance from the floor to the crease on the inside of your wrist. Adjust the length of the legs on your workbench so the height of the work surface matches your wrist crease measurement. If you're 5'10" or taller, you may find a wrist crease measurement of 35" to 37". This may seem too high for a bench -- especially considering the old standards. But those standards were developed and valid when the general population was shorter than it is today.

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BTW: The bench in the photo is the Woodsmith Workbench. PlansNOW.com has details.