Jeff's Josh Finn Workbench Update

I'm a sucker for benches. Frankly I can't think of a better reason to showcase a fellow +Modern Woodworkers Association  member.

+Jeff Branch is a member of the Atlanta Chapter. He's been a member of the MWA from the beginning and he's been a contributing member of the overall online woodworking community for much longer. You can catch all of Jeff's posts at woodfever.net. He's a big advocate of SketchUp and sell's his well crafted plans on his site and at Sawtooth Ideas.

Jeff's Josh Finn Bench

The bench that Jeff uses and has recently posted about is his Josh Finn inspired bench. It's made of two (2) beams (built as torsion boxes) that rest on specially made saw horses. I could go into the design more here, but you owe it to Jeff to read about it right at the source.

What I find so cool about the bench are two (2) things. First, I'm a sucker for torsion boxes. I think this bench makes great use of them to provide a wide and very usefully variety of clamping scenarios. Second, I think the Roubo's have become a bit too dominant lately. While they are a great bench, so are many other designs. Jeff's definitively non-Roubo bench helps illustrate this point.

Yet, as you'll see by reading Jeff's post, he's currently reading The Workbench Design Book and may be falling under it's design spell.

What do you ladies and gentleman, you woodworkers, use for a bench? Please share.

Bill's Chinese Stool Build - Part 1

Bill Akins has been with our Atlanta chapter since day one and makes it out to every event.  He is a great supporter and I am excited to post part 1 of Bill's chinese stool build.  After, watching the compilation video to The Anarchist Tool Chest, Bill just had to try his skills at the 3 legged stool shown.  I had a chance to take a seat at one of the stools this weekend and can tell you that he did a great job.  

Here is part 1 of the video series, enjoy.

Kicking back on the stool

Kenny's Shooting Board

One of my favorite things to post is projects that members of our group have built.  Last month at our Atlanta meeting Kenny Boatwright questioned me about creating accurate miters.  There are many techniques that can be used to get the results he was looking for but y suggestion was using a shooting board.  Kenny e-mailed me over the weekend to share pictures of his shooting board that he has built since the meeting. 

The design was based off of the shooting board that built a few months ago and can be seen here High Rock Woodworking: Shooting a Shooting Board.   Kenny also added a few great attachments base on David Charlesworth, David's books and videos can be found at his site David Charlesworth.  The project turned out great and he is now looking for a plane to use with it.  The only suggestion that I mentioned to Kenny was to add block on the downward 45 attachment to be used as a rest to keep the board square. 

To me this is what we are about helping each other by sharing our knowledge with woodworkers new to the craft and in the process learn ourselves.  To be a part of Modern Woodworkers Association just e-mail me or one of our other administrators on our contacts page and we will be more than glad to answer any questions. 

Have a project you want to share? Send us a picture and we will post it for the rest of the group to see.

Great job Kenny and thank you for sharing!  Keep up the good work....

Chris

Bill's Purpleheart Plane

Below is a post that one of our Atlanta members Bill Akins posted to Lumber Jocks.  This was Bills first shop made hand plane and it turned out great, I am honored to post it on here and Bill should be proud.  

As part of being a member of MWA I want each person to be able to share your own woodworking and projects.  This is just as much about the online friendships as it is at group meetings.  So if you have something you would like to share just send me an e-mail and I will be glad to post it.  

This is my first home made hand plane. A couple of weeks ago our group of Georgia woodworkers met for breakfast and then went over to Woodcraft. Chris Adkins of http://www.highrockwoodworking.com/ brought his set of planes that he had made. I was so impressed I bought a block of purpleheart and a Hock 1 1/2” blade and chipbreaker set. Using some plans from the internet I made this plane. It is 11 3/4” long by 2 3/8” wide. This is the first time I have worked with purpleheart and Hock blades. After sanding to 400 grit, I finished the plane with a very generous coat of BLO. After letting that soak in awhile I wiped it down and then used EEE polish followed by 2 coats of Renaisance wax. Other than scorching the end grain a bit I am pleased with the finish. I am going to have to get use to wooden planes but I think it has a permanent home in my shop. I hope to make jointer and block planes to go with it.
Also our little group decided to set regular dates to get together, coverse about wood working and general fellowship.