Monday, September 2, 2013

Life after grad school

Now that my M.Arch degree is finished I've been switching gears.  Instead of long hours in front of the computer or at the desk sketching, I'm spending most of my time in my shop.  I'm building 13 doors right now.  Of course I'm also sending out job applications here and there, but I had this contract lined up before school was even over so I haven't been rushing around looking for other work.

The doors I'm building at the moment are made of beautiful, vertical grain Doug Fir.  It's great stuff and has very tight rings if a bit chippy.  I've also had the chance to design a house (it's in the permitting process now) and get back to fly fishing some.

While this isn't a terribly informative update I thought I'd post anyway just to keep the blog going and to share some pictures.



The mortise and tenon joint from the doors I'm building.


Sometimes you just need a big saw.  This is my 18" Rockler radial arm crosscutting a 30" panel.


My Wadkin shaper sporting an Amana insert cutter to give a nice clean 1/2" groove for the panels.


My Millbury tenoner in action.  It beats setting up a table saw tenoning jig.

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Stile, rail and panel assembly system showing the full 2 1/2" tenon.


A 36" door easily fits through my 43" Powermatic wide belt sander!


A nice pile of doors ready to have the edges sanded and then hung in jambs.


I need to do more of this.  Priorities!