Clean Workshop = Oxymoron?

Last week, just before the start of the long weekend, Kevin and I gave the workshop a thorough cleaning.

What started as a simple sweeping of floors and emptying of garbage cans soon snowballed into using the ShopVac to vacuum dust out of all kinds of nooks and crannies.

Three hours later the shop looked magnificent, although in all honesty I don't think we got it clean enough to ever grace the pages of Fine Woodworking magazine.

That got me to thinking that having a clean shop and having one that produces actual furniture might be two totally different things. After all, as any woodworker knows you often have to do little more than think about using a woodworking tool in order for it to start making a mess.





Every time the latest issue of Fine Woodworking comes out I find myself feeling just a little inadequate at how the shops featured in the magazine look perfectly organized and pristine to the point of rivalling the surgical cleanliness of an operating room.

I am well aware that these are photos are prepped and staged for marketing purposes but, still, I can't help but wonder why MY shop can't look like this all the time. In practical terms the only way to achieve this would be to never use the tools at all, which defeats the whole purpose of having a workshop in the first place. Hence, the oxymoron.

For now I'll just look forward to walking into a clean shop in the morning, so we can start messing it up all over again.

Fine Woodworking Magazine - My Collection Nears Completion

A favorite Christmas gift I received this year was some back issues of Fine Woodworking Magazine to help fill some holes in my collection.

Fine Woodworking has been published by Taunton Press continuously since 1975, but admittedly I've been less than diligent in keeping my copies organized and up-to-date over the years.

Thanks to Santa I am now just a few issues away from getting things completed. Of course the inaugural issue (always the toughest to find) is one of the ones I need.

Between Ebay, Google and Kijiji I'm sure the remaining copies will surface in due time.

Andiroba Humidor

The design of the Andiroba Humidor came about in the late 1990s as I formulated humidor ideas uniquely different from the conventional box designs that were becoming prevalent in the marketplace at the time.


The humidor as shown was sculpted from a wood called Block Mottled Tangare, with the exterior made as two interlocking half shells that pivot/swing open to reveal the cabinet interior.


The cabinet interior features adjustable wood shelves for box storage, a louvered double wall backpanel for air circulation, a concealed central humidification system, and 7 individually sculpted drawers for storage of individual cigars.


Note the undulating shapes on each of the individual drawer faces. Although the drawer boxes were crafted from Spanish Cedar the drawer faces were made of Block Mottled Tangare to match the cabinet exterior.


The Andiroba Humidor is currently entered into a design competition called "Show Us Your Drawers" at Fine Woodworking Magazine.

Please check out the attached link and click "Thumbs Up" if you think it's cool.