Woodworking

Indie writers often discuss length…because it matters. The question is “How long should my novel be?” It isn’t just about how long it takes the story, but how to present the story to the readers.  One needs to consider writing/publishing throughput. Basically, maximizing your profits by considering the possible revenue stream of a given work. If you write one book at 200K words, you could have released four 50K episodes in a serial. You would have four works to use in your marketing, free days, and four different covers to catch people’s attention. Also, readers prefer buying books by an indie who writes serials more than one-offs. The nature of the industry, as it is now, is that our upper limits on price point are in the $5.99 range. The higher prices are really only able to be commanded by well known best sellers. It is much better to have four books, each priced at $5.99 and then put on sale for $.99 to generate sales, than one for that price where the reader gets the whole story and has no reason to come back. And now for some math…you would still get $1.40 (4 x .35) for selling the four novels. Plus, the people that didn’t get in on the sale, but bought the book because of the post sale bump, would then be earning the writer $16.80 (4 x $4.20). When the day comes that the epic series is talked about in WOW chat rooms across the interweb, then you’ll be able to command the $9.99 per book and earn ($7.00 x 4). The road to success regardless of how it is defined (selling lots of books, getting lots of readers, or making lots of money) requires getting in front of many people to find a core group of loyal readers. This is easier with multiple books. [Editor's Note: If you thought to yourself, I don't want money or millions of readers. I'm an artist. I just want to write brilliant literature. Well, when you die and go to heaven and they look over the pile pretentious crap you call literature, St. Peters will look you in the eye and say, "You go to hell...Hemingway is there, you can hang out with him.) I digress... As an authoropenur, the marketing strategy is as important as the quality of the work. To paraphrase an old saying, “If an author writes a book, leaves it in the woods, and nobody reads it, does he still get to wear a cardigan and condescend?” Something to think about when you’re banging out that epic.

It was a very busy and productive day in the woodshop today. As you may know… I’m a mother of four wonderful… and busy children. They all had different things going on. It’s nice to be able to go out to the shop and work on something and be able to walk away… leaving everything where it is… and come back to it. Or just have the kids hang out and talk to me while I work. Well… I have had this kitchen chair that’s been broken for over a year now. I didn’t want to throw it away so it’s been sitting in the laundry room collecting dust… and junk for quite a while. Today… I decided I was going to fix it. So I grabbed it an took it out to the shop. The brace (don’t know the technical term) was broken (four kids… wonder how that happened). Here’s what it looked like. It’s not a great pic. But you can maybe see that the brace is split and breaking off. You’d think it would be easy to remove. But there are bolts attaching it to the leg. Screws into the side supports and then it is also nailed into the side supports. And the screws were stripped. I finally got it off and still in good enough shape to take some measurements so that I can make a new piece. Here’s the tricky part…. those bolts… THey require large holes. Well i don’t have a drill press. And I don’t have the right kind of bits for my drill…. SIDE NOTE>>>> what are those dang bits called??? ... Anyhow… I don’t have those bits to for my hand drill to make those holes either. So… I improvised. I have some other bits… (which I used to know what they were called, but the name escapes me because I have no idea what the ones mentioned above are and i’m frustrated)... but I have some bits to pre drill the hole and to countersink the screw. So… I got the biggest ones of those out that I had and started drilling away. It took a little longer… but I was able to get the holes I needed. That bit was on fire when I tried to take it out. Then… I had tried to use my Kreg pocket hole jig for the screws. But at the angle I had… I couldn’t get my drill in there to get the screws in. But I finally got them in. It’s strong as all the rest of the legs. So.. now after over a year… my chair is finally fixed. Now I wont have to go buy a new set of chairs so that I can have all my chairs mataching :) Then of course I started another project. A doll bunk bed for my stepdaughter. She picked the plans out. It was easier… and harder at the same time. I NEED MORE CLAMPS!!! Here it is clamped up. I actually only have the hardboard to cut for the mattress to sit on and it’s done. I’ll be posting it in the projects gallery when I get it done. Again… this is made from pallet wood. And those dang big bar clamps…. I love the price I got them for and that they are available for me to use… but they are just too heavy for a project like this. They are my least favorite to use. I posted this project on my facebook page. A lady friend that I have saw my post and asked my address. Her late husband had some long quick release clamps and the next thing I know she was at my house bringing me the clamps. Now I have two more longer clamps. WOOHOO!!! It was very productive. And the only reason I’m not out there right now… is that I finally had to come in and do some laundry. LOL! Hope you all are having a great weekend! Thanks for letting me share! :)

So a year and a half ago I inherited via a chain of uncles my grandpa’s 1947 unisaw, lathe and a delta shaper. I took the shaper apart, cleaned it all up and built a mobile cart and drawers for it. I added new fences and a larger table to it as well as some dust collection. a year later and the motor went and died on me. I had never really used it for anything and frankly it kind of scared me. I checked the capacitor and the centrifugal switch and the problem was beyond my capabilities. Since the motor was a 3450 rpm I couldn’t find an easy replacement. I already have a nice router table so I put this up on craigslist. No bites. I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. The cart was cut down in height for a new 14” bandsaw but the cute little cast iron table was staring at me. I said they, that would make a cute heavy little portable router table. I turned it over and tried to figure a way to mount the router base to the underside of the table but the cast iron ribs get in the way and would not allow the router collet to rise nearly high enough. I decided to build a router lift. I thought about using a moving wedge to lift it which led me to the idea of using a bearing riding inside of and angled groove (see picture 2). The assembly which moves up and down (picture 4) slides up and down in dadoed rails. The side crank (picture 3) pushes/pulls the 3 sided box with the angled slots from side to side forcing the assembly up and down. It all moves surprisingly smoothly an I love the idea of the side crank. The whole unit with the heavy shaper fence on top weighs a good 50 pounds and stands about 14 inches high to the table top. The first picture is a little fuzzy but that is the whole unit sitting on my bench. Picture 5 and 6 show the original yet refurbished shaper before I really frankensteined it. Mind you, I have no real use for a 2nd shaper table and this was more of a proof in concept for me. It was quick and dirty construction but didn’t cost me a cent. I haven’t put it through a torture test but I don’t believe there will be any height creep simply because the upward/downward force would have to change into a lateral force (angular?), I just sprained my noggin. Thanks for looking.

I wasn’t sure where to post this question so please bear with me. Does anyone know a good source for 5” 8 hole adhesive sanding discs? Locally I can only find hook & loop 8 hole or adhesive without holes. Maybe they are phasing out the adhesive with holes? I found a few places online but the selection is limited. Any help is appreciated.

Made this with a couple broken sticks.

Lumberjunk had a piece of burl he posted about a couple weeks ago, and asked if anyone wanted to turn something out of it… i decided to volunteer, and he graciously sent the piece of burl my way. Well, it arrived, and today I turned a small bowl, trying to use as much of the burl as I could. Although this thing is small… it is beautiful. Thanks Lumberjunk for the opportunity to turn such a gorgeous piece of wood.

It seems a bit silly to consider a shaper as the first real piece of shop equipment, but this looks like it might be a deal. http://gainesville.craigslist.org/tls/3820652653.html The seller claims it needs to have $150 in parts to put it to rights, so there’s that, but a 3HP shaper for $150 (plus any needed parts) seems like it should be grabbed up. Funny thing, I live about 2 hours away from this, but I have a job in Gainesville which will require my presence within a few more days. I’m unfamiliar with the brand (Transpower), and have little enough experience with shapers to get taken by a smooth talker. Any thoughts? Jump on it? Run away?

Simple wall cabinet made from maple cherry and pine scraps I had in the shop. Painted with old time milk paint then sanded and dyed with russet amber dye and finished with a low gloss tung oil finish. The last two pics are what I call an 18th century dead bolt. The locking mechanism is engaged by turning the knob to the right. Just turn the knob to the left to open door.

Well I got the free woodtek 2hp dust collector today…I don’t know if I would say totally free since I did I’ve him $25 for holding it since he was receiving several monetary offers, but figured that was dirt cheap anyway. Time to go set it up….have I mentioned I love Craigslist!

I used some things I learned from Capt. Eddie Castelin to make this small finial out of walnut. I used his tip to turn a precise tenon diameter with a sharpened, open end wrench—it works like a charm. I then used a collet chuck to hold this small piece of walnut securely for turning. I had no plan for the final shape but I let it just emerge. It turned out looking like the Eiffel tower to me. I quickly turned an oak base to stick it in for a little display piece. Not sure what I’ll do with it now but the techniques I learned were really fun to put into practice and I want to thank Capt. Eddie for his sense of humor, his skill and his willingness to pass that knowledge on to anyone that wants it.Jon