After reading this comment: “I so enjoy reading A.J.’s and David’s blogs that when David’s blog did not appear a couple of weeks ago I actually worried that he had quit writing, or that something terrible had happened. Was he in a car accident? Was he ill? Or just on vacation?” (more…)

I was working on a vacuum chuck system for my lathe that involved a lot of mounting and removing things from the spindle. My lathe has a spindle lock but it does not lock out the electricals. So it’s easy to forget that the spindle is locked and turn on the machine. I have done this on more than one occasion, but this particular time, I did not get the switch turned off quickly enough and a breaker popped. (more…)

Over the years I have often enjoyed the opportunity to make my own tools. Mostly, I have tackled the standard stuff like marking gauges, bow saw frames and hand planes. I used to make a lot of hand planes and at a certain point, I started making my own icons and caps out of 0-1 tool steel. (more…)

In 1985, I designed a signature chair. I had resisted the temptation to emulate designs that others had created and came up with a totally unique design that was based on a totally unique construction method. (more…)

When I first began making furniture, I called my workspace a shop. I grew up in a shop. I always thought of a place that contained tools and in which work was done as a shop. Studios were what photographers and painters had. (more…)

I don’t know… maybe I’m just slow or something, but the other day when I heard some people on an NPR newscast saying that the recession had been “over” since some time last year, I almost drove off the road! (more…)

Most of us understand the difference between a buyer’s market and a seller’s market. When times are flush, the demand for goods and services rise. People have plenty of money and they are happy to part with it in order to acquire whatever it is that they want. (more…)

There’s a saying that is often heard whenever business is discussed: “It’s all in the details.” (more…)

Reading A.J.’s post last week about how hot it is where he lives hit me as a bit ironic. The East Coast is having the hottest year on record and there they are complaining about heat in the 90s. I’m laughing because living in the Central Valley of California, we think of any temperature that can be expressed using only two digits as “barely warm.” (more…)

Is it just me or are auction sites (one in particular) designed by devious minds with unquestionable Machiavellian leanings? (more…)