Due to the storm-related power outage at the Seminar last night we were all "left in the dark." At our seminars, we try to anticipate and answer your questions, but we know you sometimes may feel "left in the dark." Feel free to write your comments here and Joel or I will try to respond (Note my comments to Bob M.’s questions about Tung Oil and "Satin vs. Semi-Gloss finishes in the "Comments" section of the March 29th post.) Or you can always e-mail me directly at dhicks@augusthome.com.

With the tornado sirens going off and the lights blinking and then permanently shutting off last night, I appreciate the fact that people were very calm.. I heard from someone this morning that drove by the Woodsmith Store last night about 6:30 and said "The parking lot was packed and all the lights were off in the store. I’m wondering what you were all doing in there last night!!" Little did he know that we were still "talking woodworking" (I was answering audience questions. Eye contact not necessary!).

Speaking of answering questions, I wish I could answer them all, but finishing is a huge area. We are rescheduling the cancelled seminar for Tuesday April 4th at 6:30PM. The subject will once again be "Oils and Varnishes." I chose this because these are the easiest and most trouble-free finishes to apply. They give good durable results and many can be simply wiped on. Of course, I’ll present a few tips and tricks I have learned over the years. But, I probably won’t get into such topics as "Which spray gun to buy," "how to match stains," or "how to refinish furniture." Those will have to wait for another seminar. Trust me, simply covering Oils and Varnishes will fill the hour!

 So, bring your questions and hopefully the weather will be a little better — but you never can tell. Remember, this is Iowa. We could get a blizzard.

 -Doug Hicks

Just wanted to take one more opportunity to congratulate all the fine woodworkers for the Artistry in Wood Exhibit at the Woodsmith Store last weekend (3/25 & 3/26), especially the three award-winning projects built by Jerry Spencer, Walt Slaybaugh, and John Twedt. The exhibit was sponsored by the Des Moines Woodworkers Association. The Artistry in Wood exhibit was held for the first time in the seminar room at the store and there were lots of people staring in awe at all the fine projects from local woodworkers.

I went to a seminar at our office on Tuesday called Excel Basics. It was very  informative….if you knew a lot about Excel. Which I don’t. Since it was called "Basics," my hope was that it would start from the beginning! You know columns and rows and how to use them. Basic stuff. The instructor knew the product well, and assumed that everyone in the class did too. Boy, was he wrong. It should have been called "Tips and Techniques for Using Excel."

And that got me to thinking. How many of you feel the same way during (or after) one of our "basic" woodworking seminars at the Woodsmith Store? Are you missing anything because we assume you know more than you do? I wonder if you’ve had questions that didn’t get answered…and I also wonder if there is a better way of handling those questions?

So after the seminar is completed, I want you all to do me a favor. Okay? Get on your computer, come to this seminar blog post, and ask Doug a question about oils and varnishes. It could be any question, basic or not, that didn’t get answered to your satisfaction on Thursday night. Now, Doug’s seminar isn’t really about the basics of finishing with oils and varnishes, but that’s okay. This is just an experiment!

And, to make it a little more interesting, there’ll be something in it for three of you who post a question. I don’t know what that will be yet. But, I’ll think of something by next Thursday, April 6th.

That is the question.

If you’re thinking of building your own custom cabinet doors, whether it’s for a kitchen or bath remodel, don’t do it just to save money. You can get perfectly good manufactured cabinet doors, for a lot less than what it will cost to build your own.

But, if your goal is to get exactly what you want, then building a frame and raised panel door isn’t that hard. And you can get a pretty nice one with just a table saw, equipped with a standard blade for the grooves and a dado set for the stub tenons.

Or, if you want a strong, hassle-free way to build your own simple frame rails and stiles, pick up a rail and stile bit set for your router table. Once you have the set up completed, you can build dozens of doors in no time. The secret is to use a couple of test pieces to aid in the set up. But don’t throw the test pieces away once you’re done. As long as you’re using stock that is the exact same thickness as the original, you can use the test pieces to reset the rail and stile bits at any time in the future.

Finally, there are three sure-fire ways to make the raised panels. There are vertical- and horizontal-style bits for the router table. Or, you can make raised panels on a table saw as well.  Each does a good job, but I’ll show you which one I prefer to use at this Thursday’s seminar.

By the way, thanks for visiting my woodworking seminars blog. Here’s a bonus plan (Pages 1 & 2) (Pages 3 & 4) just for visiting.

Click to download a copy of Adobe Reader 7.0. 

Drawers are such an integral part of so many woodworking projects that they rate a seminar all their own. Chris Fitch has given this seminar before. He’ll have some good pointers on drawer joinery options, assembly tips, and a few ideas to make mounting drawers easy.

Don’t stay home for March Madness this Thursday, it will only frustrate you. I’m gearing up for another large crowd!

Note: For those of you with DSL or cable internet connections, here’s an option to reading the blog. Unlike the earlier vlog post by Doug, this version (which is linked to our server) does work equally well in both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.

I have tested it at home on my dial-up connection, and unfortunately slower connections do not work well with this technology.   

Last night (Thursday, March 9), Doug mentioned that there won’t be a break between the end of the Winter Seminars and the start of the Spring Seminars. Afterwards, there were a few questions of whether the season pass would work right through to the end of the spring season. Unfortunately, the answer is no.

The spring season passes should be available at the store within the next few days. Definitely, by next weeks seminar. We won’t be mailing out the schedule this spring, so keep an eye out for an updated schedule online and at the store next week.

Once again, we’ve based the seminars on your requests. You’ll learn a little about the lathe and cabinetmaking.  For techniques, we’re bringing back one of our most popular table saw basics seminars. And there’ll be four "all new" seminars that you’ll not want to miss. 

I just wanted to say a word about the last two seminars: Veneering with Jonathan Benson, and Trim Carpentry with Erich Lage. Both of them were great and extremely well attended. (Over 180 last night, and at least that many two weeks ago.) For someone who’s been working (and making a living) for quite a few years creating beautiful furniture, Jon has an amazing ability to make it seem simple. I’m hoping we can definitely have him back again next fall.

As for Erich, he’s one of those easy-going-kind-of-guys who never gets flustered. He was asked loads of questions and you could tell that he really knew what he was talking about. There were lots of comments afterwards about how informative (and enjoyable) Erich’s seminar was.

Good job, guys. 

The Artistry in Wood exhibit (hosted by the Des Moines Woodworkers Association), will be slightly different this year. For the first time, there are no entry fees, no official judges, or blue ribbons to be concerned with. No more winners. Definitely no losers! Just proud woodworkers.

To attract more entries this year, the club has made some changes from years past. Although the exhibit is open to all club members, three of the projects will be chosen for "People Choice" awards by the public. 

One other change to the exhibit is the location. This year the exhibit (which will run the weekend of March 25th and 26th) will be held in the seminar room at the Woodsmith Store. Among the members displaying their work are Bill Hopkins, Jerry Spencer, and Dave Grieve. Bill is retired from Meredith Corporation, where he worked as a photographer for Wood Magazine for many years. Bill’s work is truly inspiring and he’s won many awards at both the Iowa State Fair and the Artistry in Wood event.

Jerry started building furniture only five years ago with wood harvested from his family’s Century farm near Bagley. He’s retired from the computer industry and loves to build projects from Woodsmith plans.

Dave is the current president of the Des Moines club. He says "the trestle table is a modification of a Garry Knox Bennett design." He took a week-long class with Bennett last fall, then came back and applied a lot of what he’d learned before he forgot it. "The sofa table has Bennett’s influence also (the floating table top)," Dave explained. "But the rest was something I conjured up." Be sure to check out the Artistry in Wood show at the end of March.

Have you always wanted to try out a jig or tool before you buy it? On three Saturdays this winter you’ll have the opportunity to do just that under the guidance of an expert from the Woodsmith Store, Woodsmith, ShopNotes or Workbench magazines.

Just visit the store between 10:00am and 2:00pm and we’ll have everything set up. There’s no pre-registration required. And best of all, it’s FREE!

Bring in two dull or nicked tools (chisels, plane irons, or cabinet scrapers only) and we’ll help YOU sharpen them to a "razor edge" at today’s "Now YOU Try It" seminar.

Have you always wanted to try out a jig or tool before you buy it? On three Saturdays this winter you’ll have the opportunity to do just that under the guidance of an expert from the Woodsmith Store, Woodsmith, ShopNotes or Workbench magazines.

Just visit the store between 10:00am and 2:00pm and we’ll have everything set up. There’s no pre-registration required. And best of all, it’s FREE!

If you’ve always wondered how those fancy router dovetail jigs work? You’ll get the opportunity to try three different jigs to cut beautiful, strong dovetail joints at today’s "Now YOU Try It" seminar.

Presenter: Jonathan Benson — Master Furniture Designer, Builder and Author