Etsy Finds

Etsy Folks

Since Etsy is my main vessel of sales I often find some really cool stuff when I'm perusing.   So, without further adieu I thought I'd share some cool things I've found: 

These are Geometric Triangle Earrings from the Swedish-based shop Linnwarme.  I thought they were pretty cool given that they look like the Triforce from Zelda and anything from Zelda is amazing.

The maker of this shop, KandJWoodCrafts, is a frequent on a woodworking board I frequent and he's a phenomenal craftsman.  Check out his shop for some absolutely gorgeous finds.

Lastly, some Chicago Fan Coasters are an awesome compliment to our Magnetic Bottle Openers.  Check 'em out!

Sorry to keep this post so short but sales have been trickling in at a fast pace!  We've had orders from Australia, the UK, Israel, Sweden, Canada, and not to mention the 20+ sales that have come stateside!  Business is looking good for us here at ole' WoodEyes!

Cranking Things to 11

"Cranking Things to 11"

A few weeks ago I e-mailed the chief editor of Good Beer Hunting to see if he'd be interested in perhaps trying out one of my "Captivators".  I fired off the e-mail and didn't think much more of it until last night.  Sitting in my inbox, nestled between two Amazon orders, was a response from Michael Kiser himself: 

"Hey Nick — 

Super cool. I've def seen this around. Would love to get a hold of one for my studio here in Chicago. 

Any chance we could do a custom one? If you can make one that's black or 80% grey, and uses my "Aim True, Pour Liberal' artwork, I'd be happy to continuously push it over Instagram, Twitter and such in perpetuity for a good cause. And if this is something you think you could produce in a significant quantity, maybe we could see about including it in my shop!"

This is pretty huge for me considering that my e-mail to him was off a whim that perhaps on the off chance that my request didn't get tossed in the spam folder he might respond.  The fact that he not only responded but also asked for a request is high praise (at least to us here at WoodEyes Woodworks).

So now the machination of my mind is turning as I try to plan out a custom order for Good Beer Hunting.   I'm thinking the base could either be a stained, charcoal-ish oak but I'm going to really push to try and get some Wenge:

Wenge is typically found in the Congo and super hard.  Like "let's make flooring out of this stuff so people can trample over it day-in and day-out" hard.   It's also got some pretty noxious dust so I'll make sure to wear the respirator.  Can't be breaking out in dermatitis halfway through a big build...though woodworking with swelled up sausage fingers might be a fun challenge. So I doubt there will be any durability issues when it comes to cracking open a beer.  The inlays I'm thinking could be a real nice either creamy maple or grayish maple.  Something to attract the eye from the almost black base.  

I'll probably take some detailed photos of this build.   This could be a big event in the short history of WoodEyes Woodworks. 

Oh, and one other thing.  I promised last time to go a bit further into the milling process and I fully intend to do so.   Yesterday I stopped at the shop and finished up a few orders.  I snapped a picture of the jointer blades so that you can see just how dangerous woodworking can be: 

Reminds me of the sand worm's mouth from Dune:

Anywho, until next time folks!

Tootles,

Nick

Making Sawdust

3.1.14

"Making Sawdust"

At this stage in the game our Etsy shop is generating right around 3-4 sales a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  Generally though, for the ~4ish weeks we've been open we've gotten 16 sales.  Fortunately for us things are paced well enough that we can both fill the orders and fine-tune the manufacturing process.   

Long story short, we have to make the two pieces of rough wood on the left look like a product we're proud to sell.   We get all of our lumber roughsawn, which is just a fancy way of saying "not square".   I usually purchase the wood and let it sit in the shop for a week or so, but since the lumberyard is literally five miles from the shop the wood is pretty well acclimated to the humidity of my shop.  Still, a week or so doesn't hurt anybody and I haven't had any problems with this process yet.  

The milling process consists of squaring up one face and edge of the wood with a jointer.   If you don't know what a jointer is it looks something like this: 

Beneath that big, flat red thing are a series of blades that spin incredibly fast.  The whole point of the machine is to take a rough piece of wood and run it through the infeed table (on the right in the picture) so that the blades shave off the necessary amount of wood and when it reaches the outfeed table (on the left) it's square.  Of course, this is all in theory.  These things have to be tweaked and fiddled with and if having your fingers only a few feet away from a spinning blade of death isn't enough you have to calibrate these things more than NASA space shuttles.    Anyways, after we square a face and square an edge we head over to the planer and run in through (good face down on the bed) so that we get a nice parallel surface.   

The planer doesn't square a face, it just makes the face parallel to whichever side is face down.   So if you're throwing in some crappy wood that's all cupped and twisted all the planer will do is make the other side parallel to these cups and twists.  Some people might like this.  Tim Burton, for one, would probably enjoy wood that looks straight out of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".   Also, planers create a lot of finely shaved sawdust.  If anyone has any pet gerbils and have been spending cash on those bags of noodly-looking sawdust STOP.  I have plenty I'd be happy to give to you.  Upcycling is the future, people. 

After we've got our wood square and parallel it's off to the tablesaw.  This is where the fun starts.  We rip our walnut and thin strips of maple for the inlays.  I use a Grr-ripper to ensure my fingers stay in tact.  Seriously, if you rip narrow inlays (inlays is just a fancy word for those small strips of wood between the walnut) you NEED to get a Grr-Ripper:

Gives you a peace of mind to know that you're not going to be toting a cooler full of sausage fingers to the ER.  

Now that our wood is cut it's time for the glue-up.  At this point the wood is looking pretty good so with an ample amount of clamps (which you can never have enough of, by the way) it's time to glue these things together.  

What a lovely sight to behold.  Things are beginning to take shape now.  A thin bead of glue and enough force and these things won't break even if you throw them against a wall (which we at WoodEyes don't recommend).   After they dry it's time to sand the faces with 80 grit to get rid of the glue that's dried.  Dried glue + planer blades don't mix well.    When the sides are glue-free it's another trip through the planer and then a chamfering of the edges.  Chamfer is just a fancy term for a 45-degree angle at two perpendicular points:  

Then it's time to use a Forstner bit (1/2" & 1") to route out the holes for the magnet.  We use JB Weld to get these magnets in.  DO NOT USE HOT GLUE.  IT WILL WEAKEN THE MAGNET.  

We usually dry-fit the magnets to make sure they're flush and then set them aside.  If we put the magnets in before we finish these pieces we've found that they have a tendency to just be a major pain in the butt.  Screws start flying off the shelves onto the magnets.  The mounts start sticking to one another.  It's chaos and pandemonium.  So we usually save the actual gluing of the magnets for last.  It preserves everyone's sanity that way.

With the holes routed we sand 80-120-220 and then start our finishing.  First it's a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil followed by a coat of clear shellac before a final sanding of 2000 grit automotive sandpaper.  

The linseed oil really brings out the espresso look of the walnut and makes for a rich, handsome result.  The pieces on the right are eagerly awaiting their Linseed Oil / Shellac bath but already you can tell how well these pieces take the finish.   Once the 2000 grit is applied these pieces are phenomenal to behold.  

The over-enthusiastic seal of approval when all things are done.  A job well done. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this.  As things progress I'm sure I'll spend more time on each step.  This was just the rough-and-dirty look at how we make these mounts to both meet our high standards but also keep an efficient flow of production.  

Until next time.

Tootles,

Nick

Our Island of Misfit Toys

Meeting the Crew

Well, here we are.  Smash the proverbial bottle of champagne against the hull because WoodEyes Woodworks is on its maiden voyage in the blogosphere.   It's been a long time coming.  Many-a frustrating evenings trying to figure out which format to use.  Finally, at the behest of my better half, I decided on blogging through Blogger.  Let's see how it goes.   You can check out our shop and its wares here at WoodEyes Woodworks.  Snoop around, see if you find something that tickles your fancy.

Now, it wouldn't be a proper maiden voyage without meeting the crew.  Rest assured, we're not going to break out in some uncomfortable shandy like they would in a Disney movie but I think an introduction is pertinent nonetheless.  So, without further adieu I'm proud to present the finest bunch of human beings I know of: 

That's me, Nick.  I'm the captain of this ship and it's looking like smooth sailing ahead (knock on wood (no pun intended)).  I've got close to half a decade of woodworking experience which I suppose isn't all that bad considering I'm only 26, but I'm not nearly jaded enough to think I'm the master of the entire woodworking domain.    I typically oversee the big picture stuff as well as get my hands dirty when orders need to be filled.  You'll find me sawing wood, milling lumber, and routing chamfers just as much as you'd see me crunching numbers, calculating profit, and updating the SEO.  It's time-consuming, but most things we love are and I wouldn't have it any other way.

This fine looking couple is my brother-in-law, Blake, and my sister Amy.  For the more astute readers you've probably figured out they're married to one another.  Blake assists in the day-to-day fabrication and Amy typically does whatever she feels like.  Occasionally she'll step into the shop to supervise production.  More often than not, she's slamming social media with our creations as Blake and I pour our blood, sweat, and tears into making the bottle openers.  Regardless, the two of them are an important part of the process and one that we couldn't do without.

The lovely lady on the right is my fiancee, Kristen.  Chances are that if you've seen a picture of our work well, she's taken said picture.    Here's a sample of her well-trained eye:

Forgive the wrist / hand model.  I don't know what it is about my wrist but I feel it's like the wrist version of cankles.  Oh well,  forgive my digression.  Anywho, Kristen's eye for photography is invaluable to WoodEyes Woodworks and without her photographic prowess our products wouldn't look half as good as they do.  She's also the unequivocal love of my life and we're eagerly looking forward to our upcoming wedding.

And finally, the shop.  She's a beaut, ain't she?   This is where the rubber meets the road, where the hammer meets the nail.   These are the tools of our craft and most weekends you can find me and Blake putzing around in here.  It ain't the fanciest of shops but it does its job true enough and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else than in there making sawdust.

I think that about wraps up this first introductory blog post.  If you picked up what I'm putting down then please, stay a while.  I'll update regularly with production photos and the like.   

Tootles,

Nick