We’ve all been there. A few years ago I lost an old “family” Aunt back in New Jersey. She was a girl friend of my mother and I knew her all of my life. “Aunt”  Marge and “Uncle” Harry loved to cruise the world and teach crafts on the ships in exchange for passage, room and board. Not a bad way to spend your retirement years. Harry died back in 1990 and Marge passed away just a few years ago.

As she had no family to speak of, I was asked to help clear out the house. The house was like a time warp. It was always 1955 when you walked in and sat down. It was comfortable feeling. The house smelled old with oriental rugs and things hung on the wall that when you finally removed them the wallpaper still looked new under it.

It was hard packing up all these fond memories. When the main level of the house was cleared, it was time to go into the garage, up those old pull down stairs, you know the type, and climb up into the world of all forgotten things. There I found steamer trunks from the 1920’s along with lamps, books and other items that have collected dust over the years since it was probably put there when they moved into the house in 1952. Slowly things were lowered down and an isle was cleared.

Way back in the corner under a sheet I found this old Lane cedar chest, still giving out that wonderful aromatic smell that us woodworkers love so much.

When I opened it, hoping to find a lost treasure or a map to some mysterious location where I could find one, it was empty except for and old parchment “instruction” sheet explaining the virtues of female moth eggs. I started to read it, laughed and then decided it was time to put it in my truck and bring it home. The chest, after all, was the real treasure all unto itself. I had to refinish this piece!

I wish I could have shown you a picture of the “before” condition but that was before we started this “blog” thing. I was amazed to find that under the “dirt”, there was a beautiful inlay design on the lid and on the front corner, accent pieces.

So, summer came and I tackled this job with loving care thinking of my Aunt and Uncle with every pass of sandpaper and brush stroke of polyurethane. I used Murphy Oil Soap to first clean the old chest and then used Citristrip Stripper/Wash to remove the old finish, or what was left of it. The wood was really in great shape. After touching up the inlays, I selected a satin polyurethane finish and gave it 3 loving coats.

The chest now sits proudly at the foot of one of our guest beds. I wish that old Aunt Marge could see what I had accomplished. I wonder what she used to put in it. I open the chest and it is empty, or maybe not. It is full of wonderful memories of my childhood and Aunt Marge and Uncle Harry. 

Anyone out there have any idea how old this chest is?

Por Richard Morita*

Apesar da grande evolução da Odontologia Estética e no desenvolvimento das resinas para a restauração dentária ainda há casos que pode ser mais indicado o uso de restaurações em amálgamas metálicas.

Paciente com dificuldade de higienização dentária, com atividade de cárie elevada e grande acúmulo de placa bacteriana nos dentes deve preferir restaurações em amálgama ou a confecção de coroas ao invés de colocar uma restauração estética de resina composta importada de última geração que irá durar muito pouco tempo na boca.  Má oclusão também é um fator limitante na utilização de restaurações em resina.

Se você estiver lendo esse artigo e estiver na dúvida se troca aquelas velhas restaurações prateadas por uma “obturação branquinha” você terá ter em mente que para manter a longevidade das restaurações estéticas  você terá que mudar os hábitos de higienização oral e controle da placa bacteriana, você terá que passar a frequentar seu dentista mais vezes para controle periódico e profilaxia da cavidade bucal.

Lembre-se também que em grandes cavidades causadas por cárie dentária e fratura dentária pode ser necessário o tratamento de canal do dente e ainda a indicação da confecção de uma coroa protética total ou parcial (onlay, inlay de porcelana, por exemplo).

Mudança na alimentação também será necessária,  muitos não dão importância a isso e depois queixam do dentista que colocou aquela resina no dente que não durou um ano: alimentos ácidos (sucos, refrigerantes) e também aqueles  ricos em açúcares não deverão fazer parte da rotina na sua dieta.

*Dr. Richard Morita – cirurgião dentista – Clínico Geral – CROSP 87.828

Flower earing gold translucid enamel, spilla gold and silver, spilla inlay copper/silver/gold, bracelet silver/topazio

Rings: silver/enamel

Would you like a desktop calendar for November? Well wood you? I mean, would you? Okay, enough punning around. Here’s a new 1680X1050 woodylicious wallpaper just for you, chipmunk.

Dark

Light

I have the most awesome guitar ever. Period. You have to see to understand.

So, that beauty is the Ibanez AEL40SE RVV. RVV is the color code, meaning
something like ‘Red Vintage Violin’. You can also get it in RLV. Which is
light-colored-wood-color-ish. No idea what it stands for.

Look at it, ain’t it gorgeous? Metallic coating, 20″ spinners, 0 to 60 mph in
2.53 seconds… Or not.

For real now, it is awesome. Semi-acoustic, cutaway, a narrow neck,
vine fret-inlay and an embedded tuner! I didn’t know that when I bought it,
but I am pleasantly suprised. 

It sounds as sweet as it looks, and it looks as sweet as it sounds. That
makes sense. The matter of the center of the subject of the point is that it
looks amazing and sounds amazing and is amazing.

I just wanted to share that.

Any problem you can’t solve with a guitar is either unsolvable or not a problem.

Have a musical day (:

On the second day of the Alternate Wood Show, I had an opportunity to use the Festool OF1400 for the handheld routing I was doing – cutting inlays using the Whiteside Inlay Kit. After a brief familiarisation (thanks btw!), I started experiencing why owners of the OF1400 like it so much. It was loaned by Ideal Tools, and they were lucky to get it back at the end of the day!

Festool OF1400

From the trigger on the handle that doesn’t require you to reposition your hand after turning the router on (and it can be locked in the on position), to the front knob that also locks the plunge height, the micro-adjustable plunge stop, the ratchet mechanism on the collet, the low centre of gravity, dust extraction and so forth.  It was a very pleasant router to use, particularly hand-held.

The Festool collet concept is rather interesting.  I can only describe it to be like using a ratchet drive for a socket set.  You engage the spindle lock whichever direction you want to operate (tighten or loosen), then operate the collet with a spanner, ratcheting back and forth.  Unlike the Triton, you don’t need to be at full extension to engage the spindle lock, but that does then require it to be a 2 handed operation, reaching under the table to do so (if the router was table mounted that is).  The bit change itself can be done above the table.  Shame that Festool don’t take it just a little further, and allow you to remotely operate the spindle lock.  It would then become ideal for use in a router lift.

The micro-adjustable plunge stop made for easy repeat operations.  Once I determined the height I wanted to bit to operate at, I was firstly able to fine-tune that height without starting the whole process over, and importantly, I could dial in and out a known height difference, which was particularly useful for the inlays.  When inlaying, the cavity, or recess needs to be as close as possible to the thickness of the inlay, whereas when routing the inlay you want additional plunge depth to ensure you are cutting all the way through and into the backing board.  With the micro-adjuster, I was dialing that difference in and out in no time, and accurately every single time.

Festool may be well known for having a high price-point, but you sure do get to see where that money has been invested.

Seemed a successful day, plenty of people, lots of deceased sausages.

Made some progress on a surround for a poker table (wasn’t rushing, leaving something to do tomorrow).  Adding a 95mm wide wooden edge, with an inlay in the centre of each (poker inlay using the Woodpecker template).

Poker Inlays

The inlays are MDF which have had a special coating – look quite spectacular.  Still, these inlays represent the 3rd, 4th and 5th times I’ve ever done an inlay.

There was also plenty of interest in the Walko workbench I took along, and in the dominos I was cutting with the Festool.

The Protool UniverS SSP 200 is there as well – that is one interesting looking saw! And one hell of a depth of cut.  Easier to tell in the flesh, but it is in essence a circular saw that has a chainsaw blade instead.  Other than the rather unusual blade, it would be able to be used in a similar fashion to a normal handheld circular saw.

Protool UniverS SSP 200

The Torque Workcentre is there as well – the upgraded version of the router master (which means it now has movement on both the X and Y axis).

Torque Workcentre

I haven’t taken any photos at the show as yet – will do so tomorrow.

A review of a WCS Custom Guitar at the luthier’s request.

This guitar, which is hand made, features incredible wood inlays and an impeccable finish.

Gear used: Swart AST and DigiTech JamMan

Today’s LOSR (c) – some swell remaining, 3-4 but mixed up and lumpy, combined with the high tide… less than perfect, but still fun.  Mostly locals out.  A couple nice boil barrels to be had, or almost had?

With the Fall season slowly coming closer, the fall collections are quickly coming into stores around Cairo.

Style-Treasure’s New Arrivals @ www.style-treasure.com

1) CC Skye’s hot L.A. jewelry seen on many celebs including Nicole Richie, Rihanna, Fergie and many more has arrived.  I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new collection, and now its here!!  The gold plated mesh cuff has already sold out, so be quick and get your hands on one of these fabulous accessories.

CC Skye Leather Laced Mesh Bracelet

CC Skye Gold Chain & Leather Inlay Cuff

2) C by Cynthia, a Lebanese leather goods designer found at Beymen, is also now available an online order away!  The collection available comprises of small twist top clutches with a long gold link chain making it easily worn as a messenger.

C by Cynthia Blue Lizard Print Clutch

C by Cynthia Black Croc Leather Clutch

3) Taka wear, Turkish lightweight kaftans inspired by traditional oriental attire.  Takawear is perfect for Ramadan outings or as beach cover-ups for your upcoming Eid vacation.  The label quickly became a fashion favorite of many Hollywood celebrities with a bohemian hippiesque style such as Mischa Barton.  Also two of the cutest pieces are sold out, so get your hands on one of the whimsical kaftans QUICK!

Takawear Black Embroidered Kaftan

Takawear Creme Flower Printed Kaftan

Log On to style-treasure.com!

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Sticker tersebut sangat cocok untuk ditempelkan pada Fretboard Gitar sebagai penanda gitar.Jika anda berminat langsung hubungi saya di (021) 93075845 dengan Bapak Dickson Hojaya.

Last year, I compiled a very popular list of 80 Photoshop Text effects. Since then, a lot of new and spectacular text effects tutorials have been created. Not much more to add to this statement. Just take a look at this new roundup of 30 Awesome Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials.

Flowery Text Effect

Papercraft Text Effect

Colorful Glowing Text Effect

Smoke Text Effect

Ironman Text Effect

Flaming Meteor Text Effect

Star Wars Text Effect

Layered Glowing Text Effect

6 Quick Text Effects From Scratch

Spectacular 3D Text Effect

3D Grass Text Effect

Dramatic Fire Text Effect

Soft Stylized 3D Type

Candy Coated Text Effect

Realistic Chrome and Glossy Plastic Text Effect

Shaded text effect

Stylish Retro Text Effect

Dream Design 3D Text Effect

Suspended Text Effect

Text Inside Text Effect

Neon Text Effect

Super Cool Frilly Bits Text Effect

Text in Stitches

Wood Inlay Text Effect

License Plate Text Effect

Hell Text Effects

Watercolor Text Effect

Patches Text Effect

Cracky Text Effect

Starcraft 2 Text Effect

Episode 53 Contrast Timber Inlays using a router.  As originally detailed here, this kit is available from Professional Woodworkers Supplies, and includes Woodpeckers templates and a Whiteside spiral solid carbide router bit.

The bench used in the video (and as seen pictured here as well) is the WALKO Contractors Workbench, soon to be imported and sold by Ideal Tools

Rockler in the US have just bought out an interesting concept for pen turners – inlay kits for pen turners.

They are specifically for Sierra pen kits, (and not for novice pen turners).

Laser Cut Pen Kits

The Jigsaw Puzzle

There’s one there that looks to be a representation of an historic Stars and Stripes – be interesting if there were kits for flags of other countries – perhaps in time!

Stars and Stripes

There are some rather intricate kits, where every component is shaped specifically (such as the one above, and the flame pen below) Click each image to be taken directly to the Rockler page for that item.

Flame Pen

And others which look more traditionally like a segmented pen kit (still with some laser cut aspects)

Star of David

And of course, there is always the obligatory fishing one!

Fishing

And just out of interest, Rockler has a new Customer Project Page which is featuring my Toyhouse Kitchen Furniture

Pavan continues with his experiences of shooting for Swarathma’s album inlay. Interestingly, this time he speaks of Angels in Saris and Demons on Doorways…

Page 10: “Demon Face”
Shot on: 7th November 2008
Location: Pandavapura Taluk, Mysore
Camera: Nikon D70

As I went searching for bullock carts around Mysore, I found this cart on which rode two kids. When I hailed them and asked them to stop the cart, they obliged. They asked what I was shooting for I told them this was for a music album, but I could see they didn’t understand what I meant, but they were really happy that I was shooting their bullock cart!

They told me that they would take me to the artist who does this kind of work and in fact he was the only guy who painted the carts and lorries in Pandavapura. As I went near his studio, I spotted this demon poster pasted at the entrance. Of course, there is no way you can miss it. I felt that this would be apt for the song “Bolo Kya Hai”

Page 14: “Angel in a Sari”
Shot on: 5th November 2008
Location: Mysore Palace Area
Camera: Nikon D70

Nowadays there is very little graffiti done on the Tongas (horse drawn carriage) in Mysore. Perhaps there is just too little income from it for the painter and Tonga wallah alike. A few of the them shared their thoughts about how their colleagues were swapping their Tongas for Auto rickshaws for their bread and butter. It is really sad to see these Tongas disappearing. I don’t think the coming generation would be able to see and experience the thrill of the clip clop of hooves down a village street.

After I came back near the Palace looking around for good Tongas, I found a few parked. This one particular Tonga had nothing much on it except a few drawings of these lovely Angels. The character itself drove me crazy. Usually our interpretations of angels are drawn from the fairy tales. But this one was better than those, a middle aged lady clad in a Saree and a matching blouse with wings!! It was like one of the characters that have been drawn straight from any typical middle class families, where we come from. I just couldn’t help shoot this picture – and there couldn’t be a better image to thank all the people that made the album possible.

To be continued…

Text and Pictures: Pavan Kumar | Edited by: Jishnu Dasgupta | Download complete album artwork

I’ve always wanted to do inlays, be that detail for boxes, or adding that something extra to other projects, but it always did seem to large a mountain to climb to work out how to do it, and more precisely, to get the templates just right to make it work.

There is a secret (not a very well kept one mind!), and it actually comes down to the template guide moreso than anything else.

In a collaboration with Woodpeckers and Whiteside (and Professional Woodworkers Supplies who are bringing them into Australia), there is a kit available which makes doing an inlay a breeze.  And I mean really, really easy.  This is my very first attempt to ever do an inlay in a contrasting coloured timber.

Poker Template Inlay

Now before I get into the “How”, lets have a look at the “What”, as in “What are we actually looking at here?”

On the right side, we have an inlay of a contrasting timber (which in this case happened to be approx 3mm thick), which is completely flush with the pine. Pretty clever eh, even if I did do it myself!

On the left, you can see a cut out, and that is simply because I used this test piece as the backing for cutting out the contrasting heart.  There is a video btw, and it will be on Stu’s Shed in a couple of days.

So that is the “What”, now the “How”

There are a few bits n pieces to this puzzle. Firstly, and most obviously, we need a template. This can be shop made, or commercially purchased. The one I am using for this is the Poker Inlay Template from Woodpeckers, which is 1/4″ thick phenolic, which means it is strong, and dimensionally stable through a significant temperature range (well beyond shed temp ranges!)

Poker Inlay Template

As you can see there are 2 of each pattern, and to give a rough idea of sizes, the smaller ones are approx 3″ high, and the larger 4″.

You don’t use both of the sizes for the male and female parts of the pattern – the template guide takes care of the sizing requirements.  You just have to choose if you want the smaller or larger design. There are other templates available from Woodpeckers – a butterfly template which is for butterfly key joinery

(which is both a mechanically strong, and decorative panel joinery method), and a circle template for ….. um….. circles! Particularly beneficial for both contrast inlays, as well as simply producing accurate, larger diameter holes.

Imagine, for example, making a computer desk, and using the circle template to not only cut the hole for the cables, but instead of using one of those commercial plastic caps,

you could, with a little thought, produce your own in timber – so much nicer!

Hmm – getting a bit sidetracked.  We still want to know the answer to the big question “HOW?”

Tempted to make you wait for the video……. oh, all right – here’s the short version.

Whiteside Inlay Kit

The kit comes with a 1/8″ diameter solid carbide spiral router bit (on the right) with a 1/4″ shank. Next to it is an alignment pin so you can accurately centre the template guide.

Finally, you have the template guide itself. It is a pretty standard size (unless you are using a Triton router for example, which uses the 50mm or so templates) so fits a number of routers.  If not, as was the case for me, it didn’t fit my router, until I added the Woodpeckers router base that is! Update – not exactly true – as revealed by Hugh, and further clarification in this post.

Woodpeckers Universal Adapter Plate

There might seem to be a LOT of holes in this phenolic plate, and in fact the one I have has even more! It is so the plate can fit almost any router, and definitely includes the Triton router.  I’ve added this to my 1400W router, and will probably leave it on permanently, so I can continue to use the different template guides. The centre hole is perfect for the brass guides.

Back to the template guide.  It is designed specifically to work with the 1/8″ router bit.  There is a brass disk in the earlier image.  When cutting out the cavity, this disk is fitted to the template guide. An O Ring inside the ring ensures it stays in place.

Next, this disk is removed, and the same template is used to cut out the contrasting timber.  That’s about it – a really simple evolution in the end, and a classy finish.

The Poker Inlay Template will be put to good use in an upcoming project, when I make a poker table. (If you couldn’t guess!!)

So as mentioned, there will be a video out in the next couple of days so keep an eye for that.

I hope everyone’s having a wonderful week!! I was honored to witness the marriage of Jennifer and Jason this Saturday, and am busy processing their photos for them. They’re turning out beautifully- I can’t wait to share my favorites with you in the next day or two!

In the mean time, check out a sample album from a new company I will be working with. These beautiful flush mount albums are as incredibly well assembled as those made by the other album companies I work with, PLUS there are such a variety of options for elegant and edgy cover customizations. Here I am showcasing a dual tone leather cover with a center metal cameo; it sits in seamlessly within the leather for a very refined custom look. I love the contrasty mod look of printing the image on meta. So cool!

(And here’s the icing on the cake… it comes with a lifetime guarantee!)

You can opt for a split binding (pictured below) or a full panoramic binding. This means you can either allow for the thin black line to show, or have the image go right across the binding to hide the black line.

Click on these examples to check them out, and of course don’t forget the matching stone “planet” fretmarkers on the “Space Nacho” a couple of posts down.

-Andrew

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