He’s been running his woodworking business ever since, and is still operating out of a three-stall heated garage – one-third of which is currently taken up with his son’s Volkswagen restoration project.  (For a brief time following the Ronald Reagan-era air traffic controllers strike, Mike considered being an air traffic controller – but didn’t make it all the way through the screening process).

His woodworking, and his business, grew out of experiences in high school shop classes, college summer jobs in house construction and, as for many woodworkers, an inability to afford good furniture early in his marriage.

“I’ve always been a handy guy,” he said. “When we were newlyweds, we couldn’t afford the furniture we wanted, so we’d go and look at furniture and then I’d come home and make exact replicas. Then the neighbors found out I could do woodworking, and it rippled out.”

Some of his early projects were creating shipping crates for a company Mike had previously worked for, which created 6 feet high by 16 feet long food pictures for grocery stores. It was hard to find containers to ship those in, so Mike made custom size crates, “hundreds and hundreds of these for that company. It was my bread and butter for years.”

These days, he’s branched out into a little bit of everything – whatever people ask him to make. “I don’t make stuff on spec,” he said. “I talk to clients and tell ‘em to flip through magazines or look online. The more information you can put into my head, the more likely it is I’m going to be able to make what you wanted. I tell clients, ‘If you can think of it, I can make it.’”

His current workload extends six months out; the last three projects have been bathroom vanities. Those projects were made of paint-grade lumber, like pine or yellow poplar, but even when working with woods like yellow poplar, Mike said, he’ll sometimes find pieces with interesting colors. He’ll save those pieces of wood and make small boxes from them.

For the most part, Mike works with fairly common domestic woods: oak, maple, cherry, walnut. “Because oak is so common around here [in Minnesota], I really don’t care to work with oak that much, but I still do. My favorite is cherry,” he said.

One of his most memorable projects was made of cherry, from a board his dad had given him which originally came from his sister’s place in Indiana. It was used to create a box for the ashes of a client’s husband. The woman and her mother came to Mike seeking something more personal than the commercially available containers and, after he finished the project, they both gave him a hug. “They were both crying, but I think they were happy,” he said.

That, and a Rangeley rowboat he built based on a chapter from Building Classic Small Craft by John Gardner are probably Mike’s most memorable projects. The Rangeley was fashioned after a type of boat originally manufactured in Maine during the late 1800s and early 1900s for a fisherman and his guide. Mike said the lines for the boat he made were slightly different from the historical model, because he incorporated lines from around 1908, just when outboard motors were coming into play.

The boat is made with lapstrake construction, with 4,000 copper rivets, every one of which Mike put in by hand. “It turned out beautiful,” Mike said. “It was a learning process, but it still turned out pretty dingdang nice.”

He has also made nine kayaks with kits from Pygmy Boats. Mike is on Pygmy’s builder’s list and says other people making boats from those kits have called to ask him questions, since he has so much experience, or to ask him to build a boat for them. “The book says it will take you 70 to 90 hours to build one, but I can do one now in about 30 to 40 hours, because I’ve done so many. I tell people that if you can tie your own shoes, you can make one of these boats.”

Mike enjoys doing inlay, and has included that feature on all nine of the kayaks he’s made. He’s also a kayaker himself.

“If I had my druthers, if I could, I would love to make wooden boats for a living,” Mike said, but, “Some projects you do just for the money, and some for fun. ”

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-Bill Wells
Olympia, Washington

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Its integrated LED control panel provides a convenient snapshot of the status of the power, the belt speed and the sanding depth. The digital readout can be conveniently set to display material height in either inches or millimeters, and it can be zeroed-out at any point to accurately measure sanding depth. Separate indicators show when the conveyor belt is moving and when the sanding drum is rotating.

The machine’s 5-in.-dia., 22-in.-long drum will sand the entire face of workpieces up to that length with each pass, or, it can flatten panels or boards up to 44-in. wide in two passes by flipping the board end for end from one pass to the next. Maximum workpiece thickness is 4-in.

The Feed Logic system continuously monitors the load on the drum motor and automatically regulates the speed of the conveyor motor to maintain the highest feed rate without overload. When the Feed Logic control is active, the words will flash on the display panel and the conveyor belt speed will self-adjust.

Another distinguishing feature of the PM2244 Drum Sander is the Parallelism Fine Adjust. This feature allows the table to be adjusted relative to the drum carriage and eliminates the need to adjust the entire drum carriage. The drum carriage of the PM2244 Sander is constructed of cast iron for maximum strength and consistent performance. The steel hood has a 4-in. dust port to collect sawdust at its source, which helps prevent excess dust from escaping.

The drum sander’s conveyor system is built for strength and safety. Its precision-flattened, reinforced-steel conveyor bed is equipped with a no-give power feed belt to ensure a flat sanding surface. Included infeed/outfeed tables provide 37-1/2 in. of support when running longer work pieces. The conveyor speed is infinitely variable from 0 to 10 feet per minute. An emergency stop provides quick shut-off of the conveyor and sanding drum. Indicators on the LED panel blink until both conveyor and drum have come to a full stop.

Independent feed and drive motors allow maximum sanding control. The 1-3/4 HP, single-phase, 115V, TEFC sanding drum motor develops 1,720 RPM and draws 14 amps. The PM2244 has a closed stand that provides storage space for abrasives, and integrated, locking casters make it easier to move the 328-lb. machine around the shop.

Powermatic’s PM2244 Drum Sander is available now and sells for $2,499.99. The company covers it with a 5-year warranty.

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– Tony Oliver

View the Slideshow Below:

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-A.J. Hamler
Williamstown, West Virginia

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The tabletop will sit on six legs, tied together in groups of two; then all six boards tied together. The top will sit on the six legs and not be fastened securely, but with metal clips so the tabletop can move somewhat side to side.

What is the best way to glue the top boards together? Are the dowels needed, or would biscuits be better? Do I need the 1″ wide boards fastened under the top three boards for added strength so they don’t separate? – Warren Kirk

Tim Inman: This is a question that really stretches my abstract thinking cells. My vision of your table based on your description may be quite different than your vision, I’m afraid. So, let me just address some of your construction issues. First, this will be a huge, heavy table. Dowels are usually my last choice for joining. They do not add much strength and are generally a pain to handle. I much prefer biscuits because not only will they help align the edges at least as well as dowels will, but they also offer much more strength to the glue line than dowels can. Unless your wood is not flat, I would think a frequency of 6 to 8 inches would be overkill – by a factor of three. Finally, because of the way wood works, fastening a batten board going cross grain will only help to destroy the integrity of your joinery after a period of time. In other words, they will not prevent the wood from separating, they will cause it. A picture or drawings of your proposal would really help us give you better answers relative to the design of the table.

Chris Marshall: Dowels would be a tricky proposition on a tabletop glue-up as long as yours will be, Warren. If you go that route, be sure to use a clamp-on style doweling jig like the one shown in the top photo. Rockler sells it, as do other sources (click here). The dowels have to be perfectly aligned across the joint so the boards will come together correctly with their faces flush, and a jig like this will make sure of it. If you try to just lay them out and drill the holes without a good jig, you’ll regret it – especially over a 10-ft. length. At least a few will be mismatched, and those will prevent alignment of all of them rather than assisting it.

Biscuits definitely offer more forgiveness, because the slots are slightly longer than necessary. You’d have some wiggle room. Normally, I don’t use any alignment aids for edge-gluing panels, but on a table as long as yours will be, I’d go with biscuits. And you’ll need LOTS of pipe or bar clamps, so round those up ahead of time.

I’d skip the battens underneath for the reason Tim suggests. The glue joints will be strong enough to hold the boards together. The bigger issue is keeping the panel flat across and along its faces. I’d probably design my table with conventional aprons between the legs, then attach the tabletop to the aprons with shop-made wood buttons (see below). The tongues of these fit into grooves in the aprons. They can allow for cross-grain wood movement, provided the grooves are deep enough and the tongues don’t bottom out in the grooves seasonally.

Good luck with your table!

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“I hate to tell you this, but I am also proud of it.  Due to a video I picked up from your magazine, made by Carter Tools, I got my woodworking gifts done last August.  The video taught me some band saw tricks that I found amazing.  I put them to use and produced my first really nice band saw boxes.  I was amazed just how easy it was and how nice they came out.

“So, my being done early is your fault.  I have to admit I already had the device for the band saw but did not really know how useful it is and just how to use it.  I do now, so I may be turning out more boxes.  I just will not use the same wood again.  I had a large piece of cypress wood that was given to me several years ago.  I was able to make both boxes from the same block of wood.  That will be the only time I will use cypress.  It was one of the most difficult woods I have used due to its oils.

“Here’s to your getting all your projects finished on time and with minimal interruptions: the most important key to having an enjoyable experience.” – Bob Hoyle

“Like you, I treasure making the Christmas gifts for my grandchildren. I have six this year, so I will be busy and have actually already started. Here is the list: Balance Beam; Dragon’s Lair; Stuffed Animal Zoo; Pirate Ship; Pit Box Toy Box; Marble Maze; and a family carving for my daughter-in-law. Nothing like making the Christmas gifts! Thanks for the great articles and news items!” – Michael King

And some, like Rob, may be feeling slightly behind. – Editor

“I feel your pain, brother! I mentioned to my wife – months ago, like last summer – that instead of the little dish she tosses them into she could keep better track of her numerous ear-things by hanging them neatly on an earring chest. It was just a throwaway comment, you know; spoken then forgotten. This past weekend she dug out her holiday jewelry and I received a little hint from her in the form of all her ‘singleton’ earrings lined up on my dresser. I’ve gotta get busy in my little unheated shop now while we still get warm-ish afternoons, or the only thing hanging neatly will be me!” – Phil Gilstrap

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