Stuff I learned from Charles Neil

I'm playing a bit of catch-up :)

Awhile back, I assisted Charles Neil while he taught a series of classes down in Tucson, Arizona.  Was a great chance to get to meet him in person as he doesn't make it out this way too often.  I say assisted because about all I could lend a hand doing was being the gopher.

If you've ever watched his videos (YouTube, DVDs, or his guild), you know he has a hundred ways to accomplish the same thing depending on your tooling and mood.  I respect that a lot since all too often in woodworking there's a preponderance of "only" ways to accomplish anything.  If anything, learning 12 ways to make a certain joint comes in handy when you have to correct something undoubtedly caused by your tape measure being a half inch short. ahem...

The first day was a woodworking show held at the Tucson Woodcraft.  Days two and three were the real classes.

Anybody who has watched Charles knows he's a finishing guy; all throughout a build, he's focused on preparing anything he can to simplify and improve the finishing stage.  He had a good overview class of various finishes followed by a small spraying workshop complete with Apollo and Earlex spray systems.

On the subject of finishes, one of the excellent take-aways was the use of General Finishes Enduro-Var to stabilize punky spalted Maple.  He had a very punky board with large soft pithy areas.  A quick coat of Enduro-Var (which dries very quickly) and the pithy part was solid enough to work.  He talked about a bowl he turned back home that was nearly falling apart.  A soak in Enduro-Var and he was able to finish turning without loads of CA glue.  I've used the stuff on a few small shop projects since the class and I can tell you it's tough!

The spraying class was a lot of fun for everybody; most people have questions about certain spray problems or don't have a sprayer yet and want to see how it feels.  We had a booth setup where they could spray exotic corrugated cellulose (ahem, cardboard).  What was fantastic for the participants was explaining a problem they get and having Charles reset the gun so it produced that problem.  It was then easy to make the adjustments right there and try again.  I think he's taught this class a time or three.

Another interesting take-away: of the Earlex sprayers, only the 5500 is truly capable of spraying water-based finishes.  The others can do it, with difficulty.  Any bit of crud in the lines or a thicker finish and you'll likely start having problems that you'll think are your technique (since the day before it shot okay).  Worth the extra dollars for the 5500.

Another class was on scooping a seat.  There are lots of popular videos that show scooping with an angle grinder and a shaping disc like a Holey Galahad or Kutzall.  That's slow and also tricky to get the depth correct everywhere.  He uses a technique with a dado blade to do the bulk of the removal and to set a consistent 'bottom' (for your bottom...).  The back angle that makes the center of the seat deeper is accomplished with a shim block on the seat blank.  Once you have 90% of the waste removed with the dado stack, pull out the Holey Galahad to shape what remains (frankly, I'd use the RAS-115 so I don't look like Fozzi Bear when done... yes, I was the hose-monkey who held the DC hose near the grinder and I looked like that when we were done; it was a hazing incident, I'm certain!!)

He's made a video of this now that you can see here:



Coincidentally, a friend of mine (hi, Brian!) is making a lot of Maloof-inspired chairs right now.  I mentioned this class to him and how well it worked so he found the video.  From what he said, it was much easier than other methods, faster, and cleaner.  Worth a try.

This posting is too serious, so we need a funny story.  Day 2 ends and it's time for dinner.  Everybody says the Silver Saddle is a great steak house so we decide to let the other gopher lead the way thanks to GPS.  To protect the guilty, we'll call this gopher Donald.  He types in Silver Saddle and the top two entries are both Silver Saddle.  I say it's the second one cuz it's Silver Saddle Grill; Donald punches the first one "oh, it sometimes has duplicate entries".  Well, true, both entries were 5.3 miles from Woodcraft.  We drive there.  We're getting close and it's in a residential neighborhood.  Then we're by a used tire yard with hubcaps.  Then, there it is, the Silver Saddle... strip club!  Awesome!  Wait, why is Donald going around apologizing to the other cars?  I mean if he needs cash or something...

Meanwhile, back at the Silver Saddle Grill, I'll assure you our waitress was prettier than any at the other place.

One class was on turning flame finials, both concave and convex.  There weren't a lot of takers for this class so Donald and I got a long private class on doing them and a lot of other ideas.  I had never turned before so this was an interesting start!  Donald said I couldn't get into turning because Festool doesn't make a lathe yet.  I didn't get the joke...

We did a class on steam bending and had a long discussion after the class.  Charles was intrigued with the Mesquite in the store since it isn't a wood you see back in Virginia.  The Tucson store was loaded with it.  What was intriguing is that nobody had tried bending it, but he's convinced it would bend well given the grain structure.  Certainly it would make for a beautiful continuous-back chair if it would bend.  It's on my list to try when I make a steaming box; air-dried woods typically bend better than kiln-dried and it's easy to get air-dried Mesquite here.

Funny story part deux: the store got the wrong type of PVC for the steamer so it was melting and collapsing everywhere before the class while pre-heating.  Just wanting to make it last through the class, Charles asked for some duct tape and was given a big new roll.  His eyes got big and told me, "with a whole roll, I can make a car!"  I believe it.

Last class was on cutting compound tenons on the table saw.  The jig is featured on his chairmaking DVD as well as the latest "Tables" series in his guild.  We built it before class in no time at all.  It's both ridiculously simple and ridiculously effective.  Clever.  You'll see it in use on a project video early next year.

All in all, it was an excellent 3 days of woodworking education.  Since I follow his guild and have many of his DVDs, I knew a lot of the content already.  The gems above (and the location of the other Silver Saddle) will definitely get used in future projects.

Thanks for the great weekend, Charles!