Gorilla Glue at Work
The demos were in full swing on day 2 right from the start. Dovetails continued to be cut for my shelf projects on the cherry, and were a great conversation starter for folks passing by the Gorilla booth. I was really pleased to hear how many people were familiar with the Gorilla Glue products, especially the type 2 PVA wood glue, perfect for the dovetails. It was interesting to see how many people haven't tried to cut dovetails by hand on a regular basis. I have yet to cut a dovetail on a router jig, nor do I plan on purchasing one in the near future. Granted, they are great time saving products, that produce a really tight joint, I like the minor irregularities you can find on one cut by hand. Plus, the activity of marking, chopping and pairing to a near-perfect fit always makes me feel more connected with the functional part of a drawer, or the visible joinery on a case piece.
Speaking of Visible Joinery...
One of my all time favorite furniture craftsman/designer/authors, Thomas Moser stopped by the booth before an afternoon booksigning and key note address. I couldn't resist the chance of getting photo with him while I was there. I was struk by how down-to-earth he and his wife Mary were. After reading his book "Artistry in Wood", I can now see how their unique and endearing dialogue with each other (that I witnessed) was the product of an incredible marriage and life-long partnership and trust of each other. I thanked him profusely for a chance to speak with him. This photo is now framed in my workshop, visible when I walk in through the door.
Glue, Glue and More Glue
I came with plenty of glue-ups on my purple heart shelves, using the traditional polyurethane glue for the slighly oily tropical woods. I brought six end-grain cutting boards along as well that required a variety of glue-ups with the PVA wood glue. People were really impressed with the 5-10 minute open time, but even more so with the 20 minute clamp time. Thanks for the folks who came back 20 minutes later to see me remove the clamps.
Epoxy Film Work
Popular Woodworking, the host of the event also came around the marketplace and filmed each of the exhibitors for a short 60-90 second piece. I gave a quick demo of the 20 minute clamp time claim (which worked perfectly), along with a demo of the 5 minute epoxy product mixed with sawdust to fill knot holes and minor imperfections in wood. This was a big hit with visitors to the booth as well. A video should be available over the next week or so to see how it's done.
Lie-Nielsen Schooling
Finally, in true Lie-Nielsen form, Daneb Puchalski offered to help smooth out one of the cutting board surfaces along the end-grain. Daneb, who is probably 50% more human than myself, made childs play out of the maple/walnut/bubinga end grain with massive, smooth passes using their No. 62 toothed blade in a low-angle jack plane. This reduces the friction of blade to wood, and produces spaghetti-like shavings. He then finished the surface with an enormous No. 8 Jointer plane that produced perfect cross-section shavings of the cutting board's three species of wood. And yes, the glue joint held together even at 2/1000ths of an inch! Thanks again Daneb! Enjoy the hats and glue. ;)
Recapping the Event and an Added Bonus
Next post, I'll share with everyone my overall thoughts on the event along with an added surprise following the event this week.