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.

You can get more useful tips like this from the editors of Woodsmith Magazine. They're free. Sign-up here.

They Don't Make 'em Like They Use To

This is an interesting video showing a techie getting a 1964 modem to work with a modern laptop and the internet. Two things:
1) The size of the modem--I tell the younger guys around here about the days when a modem was the size of a toaster. I'm not sure they believe me, but here it is.
2) The real reason I'm posting this video in this blog: the box the modem came in. It's a solid wooden box, dovetail joinery, brass hasp, leather handle, and a piano hinge.
Heck, I'd like on the these just for box.
[Thanks BoingBoing]

Sam Maloof Remembered

Furniture designer and builder Sam Maloof passed away a couple days ago at the age of 93. I had the pleasure to meet him in the mid-90's. I was an assistant editor at Woodsmith Magazine in Des Moines, Iowa. Maloof, along with several other woodworking luminaries, was in Des Moines to make a guest appearance at a woodworking show. Woodsmith publisher and editor Don Peschke invited them to a party in the garden at Woodsmith headquarters. It was a beautiful evening.

Sitting at one of the tables under a big awning, a couple assistant editors and myself found a rare moment when Maloof was alone. We had recently watched a documentary in which Maloof was carving a piece of walnut on a band saw with the blade guard removed and about 8" to 10" of blade exposed. So we asked him if he had ever been injured in the shop. He said yes, but only once. He said he'd been napping, and for some unknown reason awoke quickly and started back at the band saw where he had left off. That was when he buried the blade in his thumb. He showed us the scar.

But what I saw were the hands. His hands were big and strong and impressive. They were the hands of someone who worked with his hands every day. He was a designer/artisan. He was what we wanted to be on some level, if only we'd had the creativity and the skill to pull it off.

He was also very nice. We asked a few other dumb questions which he answered with candor and humor. Quite a guy.

I looked through several photos of Maloof for this post and chose the one above. You can see his hands.

You can read about his life and work in this LA Times obituary with lots of photos.

Good-bye Baby Food Jars

When I was growing up a half-century or so ago, my father and grandfather stored screws, nails and other small hardware items in used baby food jars. Maybe there are fewer babies, or they're just not eating out of little glass jars. But I don't see the migration of jars from kitchen to shop anymore. For safety reasons, that's probably a good thing, but what's taking their place? Surely the modern woodworker has just as many odds and ends to save, label, and inventory?
Talking to Ted Raife at Woodsmith Magazine, I learned of one replacement: plastic containers that once held a stack of blank computer CDs.

The deep, clear plastic lids of these containers simply lock to the base with a slight twist. So Ted removes the center post from the base and then screws the base to the underside of a shop cabinet. The lid can then be filled with whatever hardware items require organization and quickly stashed out of the way, but easily accessible when needed.
You can get woodworking shop tips like this delivered to your email box each by the editors of Woodsmith magazine. They're free. Here's the sign-up.

More Fun With Lasers

The Amazon Kindling--I should have thought of this. It's the result of a collaboration between the guys at Cockeyed.com and EvilMadScientist.com. (Click on image for a larger view.)

It's vaguely reminiscent of something that I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago. But I'm a sucker for goofy stuff.

[Thanks BoingBoingGadgets]