Nothing Severed Yet

Portable humidor in walnut and cocobolo (Plans!)

It's done! Eleven pages of careful detail explaining how YOU can make a portable humidor just like the one pictured below. The 4 megabyte PDF file has detailed instructions, including diagrams and photos. It's a straightforward project and the results are fantastic.

Download the plans in Adobe Acrobat format here.

I'm also trying something a little different. I've included the source materials that I used to make this: the publisher file with the layout, the text in plain .txt format, all the pictures in full resolution in a giant 20 MB zip file, and even the 3d image file I used to render the images (you need this software to read it). If you want, you "remix" this any way you choose--translate it to ancient greek, fix my typos, or use the pictures as a background for an adult-oriented woodworking site. I have no idea why anyone would want to do this, but there you have it. See the second page of the plans for the details of how this works--it's licensed with a Creative Commons license that allows all this and more.

One more thing--if you do make one, post a comment or send me a picture! I'll thank you for it.

Oh, and here are all the links from page 11 in a click-friendly format:

Nothing Severed Yet, the woodworking weblog
www.nothingseveredyet.com

How to bookmatch small pieces on your tablesaw
http://tinyurl.com/bdsmm

How to apply the lacquer finish
http://tinyurl.com/ahmql

Considerations on working with cocobolo
http://tinyurl.com/8uqjd

Techniques for gluing everything together
http://tinyurl.com/a8ztv
and
http://tinyurl.com/cu3zy

Recommended Sources

Walnut
http://tinyurl.com/8r57h

Cocobolo
http://tinyurl.com/8czqx

Spanish cedar
http://tinyurl.com/dtupv

Cigars
http://www.jrcigars.com

Humidifier
http://tinyurl.com/6aouc

Really nice hinges from Brusso
http://tinyurl.com/afskn

And the Winner Is...

Congradulations go out to Rob Chatlin who was the winner of the Jack Rabbit Deluxe Set generously provided by Jack Rabbit Tools as part of our review.

Once Rob got the chance to run the Jack Rabbit through it's paces he dropped me an email with these comments:

"Drilling the pilot holes and countersinks is fast once the adjustments are made for the given situation, and switching to the screw driver couldn't be easier. My thanks again to Nothing Severed Yet."

The free tool reviews keep coming so check back often for your chance to win.

It's still standing

Brian, one of our contributing editors, has started It's Still Standing, a weblog documenting his kitchen remodel. He's still at stage 2, which comes after the second mortgage and before the nervous breakdown. It makes for some pretty good reading. Check it out--you'll thank me for it.

The New Best of Fine Woodworking

Taunton Press, the publisher of Fine Woodworking Magazine, was kind enough to supply me with one of their recent publications for review. Taunton has always managed to bring a deep sense of quality to everything they produce, and their recently released The New Best of Fine Woodworking series of books is no exception. Each book is filled with excellent articles and covers a specific woodworking topic ranging from finishing, to router techniques, to shop layout. If your new to woodworking you'll find a treasure trove of information from a variety of top woodworkers.

These books are a collection of selected articles published in Fine Woodworking over the last decade, and that may lead some to believe that if you have or read the magazines the books won't add much. However, I found that having all these articles grouped together by subject made it a joy to explore a topic. For instance, spending an evening with the volume on finishing gave me several alternatives on how to finish an upcoming cabinet, and, by combining tidbits from different articles, I was able to pick up several tips and details to make me feel comfortable with trying a new finish.

In each book I did find one or two editing errors, usually involving a mismatched image or caption, but these were minor and none interfered with understanding the article. I did appreciate that Taunton took the time to mark price estimates and/or brands that might be out of date.

This series of books is a great way for a new woodworker to gain a trove of information. For the old dog looking to learn a new trick, it's great to be able to thumb through one volume with a variety of alternatives and viewpoints on a topic. I've never been disapointed with Taunton's offerings. You can check out their full range of woodworking books, DVDs, and magazines on their website.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com

Woodworking show: first post!

I just went to The Woodworking Shows yesterday. No, that's not a typo. You don't go to the woodworking show, you go to The Woodworking Shows. Don't believe me? See for yourself. In any case, all the rest of the contributing editors either went or are going, so you may see a few more posts about the whole affair before we're through.

In any case, the show was a hoot. Now I go to a lot of shows; it's a part of my job. Generally they are a pain. The goal is to find something that passes for being interesting on the show floor, while spending as little time as possible listening to inane sales pitches for things you don't care about and wouldn't take for free let alone pay money for, all the while dodging card-swiper-snipers who try to swipe your visitor's badge. It's a game where the losers are deluged by junkmail forever.

The woodworking show, though... it ain't like that. First off, everyone's trying to sell you something. But not sell you on the idea of something, actually sell you something! Imagine going to Rockler where every tool had someone, often the inventor, standing right next to it. They've got a full powered setup, and would like to do nothing more than take 15 minutes to show you exactly how the thing works--even try it yourself in some cases. But it's not just the usual array of stuff; in addition to the usual tools, you get laser woodworking straight out of star wars, electronic sub-mil precision digital height gauges, and magical pocket hammers that make it completely impossible to smash your thumb.

As if this wasn't enough, they do hour-long workshops all day long. While the presenters are technically sponsored by various companies, they do a lot more than shill products for their corporate masters. The Kreg demonstrator went beyond pocket-hole joinery to talk about and demonstrate biscuits, dowels, and other joinery types. The Jet tool guy talked about general power tool buying techniques. These "classlets" were worthwhile in and of themselves.

For me, the high point was talking to the guy who invented my Incra router jig, then getting a personal demonstration of a half-dozen joints that I've been messing around with. He showed me a trick that will literally cut my finger-joint-making time by 4--that is, you can cut all four boards at once. I've always loved my Incra, but this was the bee's knees.

Check out the calendar and drop by one near you--you'll thank me for it.

It's clamptastic

Penn State Industries is having a pretty good sale on clamps. For comparison, Jorgergengerhansonson (or however you spell it) clamps on Amazon are more than twice as much. I've placed many orders with PSI and always been pleased, so take this opportunity to stock up and remember to tell them that Nothing Severed Yet sent you.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com

There's Black and There's Black

I've been working on a design for a contemporary wall case and decided I wanted a light, figured wood for the body with a black wood for the top and bottom. I have some curly maple that will be great for the light wood, but I wasn't so sure about the black wood. Ebony is notoriously temperamental when it comes to working it and has a nasty reputation for suddenly splitting long after you believe all danger is past. One alterative I'd recently read about involved treating walnut with a somewhat caustic chemical to blacken it - possible but not real appealing. Then I recalled reading that India ink worked well to blacken almost any wood.

After a bit of Googling around I'd found out that India ink is simply super fine carbon in a solvent and a binder. Solvents and binders are no big deal, and you and I are made of lots of carbon, so it passes the safety test. Another bonus is that carbon, being an element, simply won't fade and is as black as black gets. So off to the art store...

They only had the little 2oz bottle, but I figured it would do to experiment with even if I used it all up. Found some scrap birch ply and a foam brush an a pair of dish washing gloves (it may not be dangerous but apparently it stains like anything) and was ready to go. Probably take a few coats to get real black... a bit on the tip of the brush... let's see what happens... Dang! That's black! Wow! It couldn't have taken more that a few drops to turn a 4 inch square jet black.

It has a nice texture that doesn't look painted and the grain looks unchanged. Just a few minutes after applying the ink it looked dry so I tried really scrubbing at it to see if I could smear it. With a bit of work I could create a slight smudge (visible at the top of the image) but it seemed stable. I tried a quick coat of an oil/varnish mix to see if the ink would stay in place while top coating and had no problem whatsoever. You can see in the image that it held all the small detail where the foam brush left some hair lines at the transition with no bleeding. It actually held so well it makes me wonder if I could use India ink to monogram box tops and such.... something to try another day.
For now though, I do believe I've found my ebony substitute.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com