I think I figured it out. Go back up to the top of this page and read the header title by my spokeshave logo:

“The Renaissance Woodworker; So Many Projects…So Little Time, Welcome to Woodworking A-D-D”

I adopted this tag line more than 2 years ago when I started this blog because I was fascinated by all styles and methods of construction. I would like to think that my tastes have become more focused lately and there is no doubt that I have a special place in my heart for period styles of the 18th century. However, I still love Arts & Crafts, Asian, Mid Century Modern, Danish, etc, etc. I have gravitated to a hand tool approach but I still get as excited as the next guy by a roaring planer and precision table saw cut. This is my cross to bear: woodworking attention deficit disorder.

This is why I am so slow. Too many balls in the air and projects in the shop.

This rather lengthy prelude is a way of leading into the introduction of yet another project in my shop. Right now I have my Queen Anne Side Table sitting patiently off in a corner waiting for me to spray on some Shellac. I am building a checkerboard style banding to inlay into a Walnut 2 drawer hall table as well as preparing stringing for the drawer fronts. Once that is done I will apply Shellac at the same time at the side table. I have 2 Adirondack chairs built and awaiting finish that I salvaged from my picnic table that collapsed under the February snows and a patio table under construction from that same Redwood. On the lumber rack I have close to 100 board feet of Pennsylvania Cherry and curly Cherry acclimating for The Wood Whisperer Guild summer chest of drawers build. Related to that project I have milled up 3″ square blocks of Poplar to practice ball & claw foot carving and have 6 of those blanks laying about in various stages of completion. All of this within the confines of my 340 square foot shop.

So I think I should add another project to that don’t you? My wife has a need for a small book shelf for her voice studio at work. This is where she teaches her private voice lessons and rather than running back and forth to her office every time she needs a piece of music she wants a place to store them right in the small studio. It cannot be anymore than 34″ high so it can fit under a windowtherefore I am making it with 1:1 proportions. Knowing that I have many other projects underway, she insisted that it need not be complex but still be pretty. I know that the kids who filter through her studio are parented by some of the wealthy elite in Baltimore and those parents often make appearances. Also this book shelf will be clearly visible to all who pass by on the way to the main theater. In other words I am building something that will essentially be sitting in a gallery frequented by people who can afford custom furniture. This is a great opportunity to build something small and simple thus giving me a lot of opportunity to embellish it with some fine points and lines so as to impress the passersby.

I will go into more detail on this build in future posts but I’ll tease you now with the template I have formed for the bottom feet and lower apron trim.

French Foot and front apron will be trimmed with a 1/4\

This French foot sweeps nicely into the trim where the change in radius of the curve punctuates the transition and sweeps elegantly across the whole piece in an elliptical shape. This is derived from Hepplewhite’s design book and some of his chests of drawers therein. It will be fun to see it come together using some modern techniques, time saving measures, and cost saving lumber.

So, the upshot of all of this is I will do my best to keep the cameras rolling and will report to all of my fragrant and beautiful readers. However, I really think I need to move some of this stuff to the completed column or I won’t have any place to step in the shop. Stay tuned to this Bat channel for more on what I am calling my Hepplewhite Low Bookcase.

Feet rough cut and ready to carve

A case could be made for each as to which is the best tool for the job. Without a deadline and a yearning to understand how it used to be done you could say the turning saw is the best tool for the job. If you are on the clock then the band saw method is definitely the best tool. Ultimately I think you need to figure out what you personally enjoy about your woodworking and decide from there. I enjoy working with old tools to see how they work but I’m not a big fan of drudgery. Cutting one of these feet was enough for me to get my fix and continuing to do so with the turning saw would have become tedious. What I am really looking forward to is the carving aspect of these feet and I am anxious to get there quickly so in this case I think the band saw was really the best tool for the job.

What’s my point? Woodworking is subjective and we each derive our joy from it in different ways. The best tool for the job is the tool that makes you smile the most. ’nuff said!

Now who can guess which foot was cut by hand?

In my non-stop effort to be difficult, I am ratcheting things up a notch and building a 4 drawer chest based on the designs of Major John Dunlap and Lieutenant Samuel Dunlap of New Hampshire. The Dunlaps are part of a legacy of immigration that took lowland Scots who emigrated to the Ulster area of Northern Ireland and then eventually on to New Hampshire and Maine in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This nomadic existence was mostly driven by religious persecution since these people were mostly Presbyterian living among predominantly Catholic societies. In fact, once settled in New Hampshire primarily, some of this persecution continued as it was assumed these Scots-Irish were Catholic based upon their nationalistic origins. It seems that the Scots-Irish spent more time declaring what they were not than defining who they were. This checkered past yields the name Scots-Irish and the designs from this group are endearing, whimsical, idiosyncratic, and just plain weird. It is interesting because the towns of Antrim, and Londonderry are not so far from the major style hub of Boston that dictated most of the furniture details in New England. The Dunlaps worked primarily during the Rococo or Chippendale period so being in New England we would expect detailed, asymmetric carvings, massive structures with lower centers of gravity and powerful ambiance like this Highboy built in Boston around 1750. I took this pictures at the Winterthur Museum by the way.

In contrast the Dunlap cabinetry style adds an element of whimsy with unique and elaborate carvings unlike anything we see coming out of New England at the time. In some ways the ornamentation hearkens back to a Baroque style. Basket woven galleries and almost Celtic derived scrollwork adorn the tops and bottoms of the cases. A signature flowered ogee molding is seen as a punctuation mark between elements and upon closer examination seems to be a minimalist version of architectural egg and dart moldings. Deep lower cases are prevalent that seem to embrace the Chippendale massiveness but take it one step further. With the deeper lower cases came more elaborate scrollwork as well. This piece is somewhat iconic of this style and includes much of what I just mentioned.

Here is another example taken from Paul Rulli’s website. Notice the somewhat disproportionate upper and lower cases.

A Paul Rulli Dunlap reproduction

Here is a close look at the iconic basket weave and Peacock fan typically seen on Dunlap pieces. You will also see the flower ogee molding above and below the top gallery.

Paul Rulli's fine carving work on the Dunlap reproduction

I will be curious to hear some of your thoughts on this piece. It is certainly different and in my opinion somewhat ugly. I think the offensive nature of it is what really attracted me and stirred me into further research. In many ways this style has grown on me and I believe when taken in moderation it can yield some amazing pieces. I think some of the most constructive design exercises can be done when you force yourself to play in areas that you don’t like. So if we take away some of the disproportions of the above piece, mellow down the carvings a little, and apply the chest of drawer form to it we end up with this piece which will be the subject of my next Guild build.

This chest was mostly likely built by Lt. Samual Dunlap around 1795 and you will see that the proportions are more pleasing but the stubby feet keep that extreme low center of gravity to the piece. The distinctive flowered ogee molding is present as well. I think some of the reasons for this overall mellowing of the style is that period in which this was constructed. The idiosyncratic Dunlap style was really one for the American Revolution generations and as we move into the 19th century, this began to lessen.

So I see many challenges ahead during this build. For one the integral bead detail on the case and drawer blades will be a test since each joint will have to be mitered to keep a continuous flowing line throughout. This will be my first attempt at ball and claw feet as well and I am already gearing up for that by doing some practice pieces in Poplar. The chest will be done in Cherry and if possible curly Cherry for the drawer fronts. So stay tuned for updates here as I start out on my next project.

By the way, I highly recommend the book “The Dunlap Cabinetmakers” for a much more detailed look into this style of furniture.

I had a lot of fun building this piece entirely by hand and it was very satisfying to put my skills to the test this way. Now for the next project, I think I am ready to plug my thickness planer back in and probably my bandsaw too!

Enjoy!

Enjoy the show!

Turn it into this with some resawing, crosscutting, joinery, etc…

How can you not want to be a woodworker?

Happy Memorial Day to my American friends, now let’s go get into our shops!

Small projects can be a lot of fun. You get to use up some of that scrap that you have been hoarding for years, and you get an opportunity to try some new techniques without being overwhelmed by size and scope. Doll furniture can be even more fun because it is like building a prototype of a real piece.

So this very important customer had some big ideas and was very specific about them. After some impromptu napkin sketching, we had determined what kind of table we needed and how the garden would look.

The benches needed to be part of the table
Garden would have planter boxes at the corners
Recessed beds between the planters to simulate an in ground garden

I knew that her American Girl doll was 18″ so with my sketch in hand I began to scale the table to fit the doll. After a few hours of work with saws and planes I had a cute little picnic table. The garden platform took a little more planning because of the need to create recessed flower beds. This is really a torsion box assembly with beautiful Vermont Cherry 2×2 blocks set in the corner with holes drilled to act as the planter boxes. One I had skinned both sides of the platform I was left with holes where the flower bed would go. I placed floral foam into the planters and the beds and provided plenty of pretty silk flowers so she could “plant” her garden. A little model railroad grass on the surface and all was ready.

It was a huge hit with the birthday girl and she immediately went work planting her garden. Once her doll was in place with a picnic she turned to me with a very serious look on her face and said, “I feel so lucky to have a one of a kind table. No one else will ever have this exact table.”

Isn’t it great that even kids today can appreciate hand made.

So I did it the hard way. There was no question that I would get the best color match doing it this way since I was essentially gluing up cutoffs from the original stock to make these 2 legs. The problem was that I only had thin strips about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick and would need anywhere from 6 to 10 laminations to make my 2.5″ square stock. This many laminations can be tough to get a good consistent grain pattern as well as add a lot of jointing and planing work (especially doing it by hand). Not to mention the difficulty of laminating so many pieces and keeping them in line so you don’t waste stock cleaning it up later.

In the end I feel I was able to get 2 good looking blanks with almost invisible glue lines. It helped that I used dark brown hide glue as well since it blended in with the Walnut very nicely. I knew that I would use these two legs at the back of the table so I wasn’t too concerned but I made sure to place the non laminated side forward when laying out for the turning. Once I have established the pommel and turned the lower portion of the leg, I stepped back to assess the look.

Laminated Leg Blank

I am really happy with this as the turning blended the different strips together and you have to look really hard to pick out the glue lines. Moreover the color is consistent and the grain all flows nicely together. So really my point here is going through this exercise reaped a lot of benefits for me: it gave me even more planing practice as I flattened each face, more glue up practice as I laminated all the blanks and kept them in line, and design practice as I worked to unify the grain and piece them together.

It would have been a lot faster to buy some new stock, but in the long run the payoff for doing it the hard way far outweighs the time difference.

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UPDATE:

Dana wrote me and brought to my attention a great article in Fine Woodworking by Will Neptune called “Engineering a Table with Drawers”. This is a much more detailed look at the construction methods that are common among all pieces of this form. In fact he leads out by saying “there is a Shaker table hidden in every table with drawers”. Membership to the Fine Woodworking site is required to read the full article but you can check it out here. Thanks for the tip Dana!

Using a rip saw I was able to cut just outside the sapwood transition line that was really at an angle to the actual edge of the board. Then following a parallel line on the opposite sapwood transition I was able to remove a board wide enough to get my wide aprons and my narrower front apron pieces that go around the drawer. If I had run it across the table saw I would have lost about 2″ of heartwood stock.

This entire exercise just reminded me how much freedom you have with hand tools to work with the grain of your raw lumber. A little hand plane work and I have flat and parallel edges and now the grain is parallel to the edge of the board too for a better flow and visual effect around the table. I think I give the impression of being a hand tool purist in this blog and maybe I’m heading that direction, I do still work with my power tools. I think my point is that when I can work the wood by hand, I pay a little more attention to the grain direction and “story” that the tree is trying to tell me.

It’s funny how a seemingly insignificant piece of furniture can play such a major role in the function of a room. You may not even notice it (unless you’re a woodworker) until it is gone and you suddenly have no place to set your keys or reach for a tissue. So by Thursday afternoon it was readily apparent that she was going to need something to replace the table, and preferably something that wouldn’t fall apart when a student leans on it.

Enter the fabulously talented woodworking husband of said teacher! My marching orders were to produce a small table that would sit in a corner and be around 25″ high. No drawer, no shelf, just a simple, square table top. It needed to be built and delivered by Monday ideally and built using only scrap laying about the shop. The finish would be black lacquer to match the piano already in the studio.

My time constraints immediately eliminated the visions of cabriole legs and Queen Anne cyma curved aprons. I am a notoriously slow woodworker so I needed to scale back my design. I decided upon something from the Stickley catalog because the straight forward lines and sturdy construction would fit the bill both aesthetically and functionally. The Stickley number 603 Tabouret would fit the bill nicely.

The size and stock requirements would allow me to build it with only the scrap laying about and it would fit into a corner well. I liked the crossed stretcher and uniform design that allows you to place it any which way and it will always be facing front. My wife is not keen on the round top and with some quick mocking up in SketchUp I was able to render this same design with a square top. That got the seal of approval and I was off to the races.

I did an inventory of my stock in the shop and knowing that this piece would be painted I wasn’t ready to “sacrifice” my good hardwood. I came up with a piece of 2×12 construction lumber and a big hunk (5×4.5×36) of Kiri that I got for a song many months ago. For long time readers this is the same piece that I used to make my Tansu box in June of 2009. Knowing what raw material I had on hand it was time to consider where construction compromises needed to be made. Since I was only using scrap I would need to do some resawing and panel glue ups to get the dimensions I needed. I hoped to save the time added in milling by attaching the lower stretcher with an integral tenon instead of the through tenon that Stickley so loved. Not having to fuss over a clean exit of the tenon and then clean up/chamfering the exposed end would cut an hour out of the build easy.

I considered attaching the top stretchers with pocket hole screws but since I was building the piece out of softwood I was not convinced that the pocket screws would hold up over the years. Instead I stuck with the traditional half blind dovetails into the top of the leg posts. No one will see these dovetails so they don’t have to be show quality and using softwood allows for some compression space when fitting the joint. In reality these joints came out really pretty and it was almost a shame to hide them under the top.

The top was glued up from two pieces in probably one of the cleanest panel glue ups I have ever done so there was very little surfacing to be done once it came out of the clamps. It is attached through elongated screw holes from the top stretchers to compensate for seasonal movement.

From rough lumber to a sanded piece, I only spent about 5 hours. I kept to my promise of table saw and power jointer abstinence as well, but don’t think that really added any build time since I roughed the pieces out on the bandsaw while cutting down that big hunk of Kiri. I usually do my joinery by hand anyway.

This was a whirlwind build from concept to finish and it taught me a lot about how I work and what decisions I make along the way. What compromises do you make in a design due to time and money constraints? How do you deliver a quality product on a tight delivery schedule while not sacrificing your style? I don’t have a picture of the finished piece yet because by the time the finish was applied it was dark outside and I really can’t get a black lacquered piece to show up well in my shop lighting. I’ll take some pics when it reaches it’s final home and post them.

The design is simple enough that even our most novice members can challenge themselves to build their first furniture piece. On the other end for the more advanced members the simplicity of the design allows for a lot of variation and personal embellishment. In my case I want to satisfy my Queen Anne tastes by adding a little southern 18th century charm to it and model the table after a piece in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. More on this later and I will of course share my build process. That is not what this post is about as you may have guessed by the title.

One of our number, Duane, has been fighting with pancreatic cancer for a while now. You may remember Duane from Marc’s steamer trunk build where he helped Duane build an heirloom by creating a video series. Unfortunately, Duane’s cancer is not ready to give up it’s fight and it has taken a strong hold on him lately. He is really excited about this group build but has concerns about being strong enough to complete it. Marc and Nicole, being the incredible people that they are, flew out to Ohio to visit Duane and do some one on one coaching to give Duane his head start on the project.

That was not enough and Marc has dedicated our March build to Duane and for every guild member that completes this project, Marc and Nicole are going to personally donate $5 to the American Cancer Society. In addition, being the savvy business people they are, this dynamic duo has gotten a few companies to agree to match this amount too. All of the guild members are encouraged to donate as well and we of course welcome the general public to donate. I have been in touch with Marc and he is working on getting a donation page up on his free site. I’ll let you know when that is up and link to it as well. Stay tuned, in the meantime…

Now I have recommended that everyone join the guild in the past because of the value it can bring to your woodworking, but now there is a higher calling. Why not join up, learn a lot, make some great friends, build a beautiful piece of furniture, and contribute to a great cause. I make no secret of the fact that I am an affiliate for the guild and if you click the link at the top of this page and join the guild, I will donate 100% of my affiliate fees back to the American Cancer Society for the duration of this project.

Come on, everybody’s doing it. Let me sum up by quoting our Guild master Marc in an email he sent earlier today.

This isn’t just about woodworking as a task, its about woodworking as a
lifestyle, and woodworking as a Community. I want people to be inspired
by what we are doing, and perhaps even donate to the cause themselves.

God bless you Marc and Nicole, and hang in there Duane we’re all praying for you.

Reality check, it’s 2010. Aren’t we supposed to make contact with aliens this year in orbit around Jupiter or something? So when another 4x5x3″ mortise presents itself, I break out my router, pattern bit, and a template. Yes, I am very confident that I can chop that by hand and make it pretty and square and to depth with my lovely chisels. I have chopped enough mortises to say that I can do it, but I have also chopped enough to say that I don’t want to do it.

I’m putting the finishing touches on the sliding leg vise for my Roubo bench and it is time to inlay the vise nut into the sliding chop. I cut the nut down so it is only 5″ long but it is still a huge mortise and one that requires utmost precision so I don’t compromise the strength of the chop. Woo hoo for power tools!!! Turn on the dust collector, turn up the music, don the respirator and hearing protection and let’s chew up some wood.

10 minutes later and I have made a mortise that would make the Grand Canyon proud. I even used pocket holes and a powered drill to make the template. If it makes the galoots out there feel better, I squared up the corners with a beautiful 1.5″ paring chisel.

So before anyone starts calling me a purist, let me also say that I like my TiVo, read a fair amount of Science Fiction, and cannot live without my iPhone. Hooray 21st century conveniences!

…now where did I put my laser marking gauge…

This episode came out longer than I had planned as I really try to keep them under 30 minutes. However, I find that oftentimes woodworking shows can be frustrating by telling you how to do something without actually showing it so I decided to keep in all of my footage of cutting the tongue and groove joints by hand. So I apologize for the 200+ MB download (even after compression) but I hope you will enjoy the show.

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I hope you enjoy it!

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I am plagued with this all the time. I did a podcast many months ago on organizing yourself when working on multiple projects. In that episode I was talking about combining like tasks with like tasks like doing all your milling at the same time, etc. Lately I have been building task lists for my projects. I have had a list for my Roubo bench stuck to the wall of my shop for the better part of a year which is great since I dip in and out of the bench so often that it helps me to remember where I left off.

Lately though I have been frustrated with my progress on a few projects because I can’t seem to get even a single task on my list completed. For example, on my Roubo list was the item, “leg vise”.

It seems I have been working on that task for several weekends now and have not been able to gain the satisfaction of crossing it off. It is such a little thing but the act of crossing something off a list gives us OCD types a real warm fuzzy feeling. I think the problem here is not that I work slow it is that there are so many little parts within that one task. I’ll break it down and I think you will see that this applies to just about everything you make.

Workbench Leg Vise

Mill chop stock true and square
Cut chop to final size
Layout for hole for vise screw
Drill hole for vise screw
Layout for internal garter mortise
Cut garter mortise
Cut garter stock to approximate stock
Fit garter into mortise
Mill parallel guide stock
Drill parallel guide pin holes
Finish guide with decorate profile, chamfers, etc
Layout through mortise for parallel guide in chop
Cut through mortise
Flare outer mortise walls to allow for wedges
Cut tenon on parallel guide
Fit tenon
Cut wedge stock
Install wedges and glue up parallel guide
Drill peg holes
Hammer in pegs
Layout chop taper
Cut taper
Layout chop bevel
Cut bevels
Finish plane/sand
Install chop and go to work

This list doesn’t even include installing the vise nut into the leg but you can see that all of these steps go into the single line item of “leg vise” on my list. If you really want to be picky you can break down the above steps even further. Think about all the step included in cutting a tenon. Layout, cut shoulder, cut cheek, smooth and fit, possibly undercut shoulder, etc, etc. Now careful on this slippery slope because you will quickly get into list building and no woodworking. I think the point it clear. If you feel like you are getting no where, don’t get discouraged; but rather, sit down and break down what you have to do. Each one of these tasks can be done with minimal shop time and you feel like you are getting somewhere when you leave the shop after crossing off 1 or 2 of these items.

Maybe you are the type of person who doesn’t need this level of organization, or just doesn’t make lists to keep on track. I still think this post contains something to think about. All of these steps take time and time is money if you are a professional so being able to gauge how long it will take you to build something is your life blood. So next time you feel like you are making no progress and have a customer, spouse, conscience, etc hounding you for results take some time to plan your build so you can really estimate how long it will take and build in some milestones. Remember though, whether you are a hobby woodworker or a professional, don’t forget to have fun. These milestones keep you on track but they should not be a burly bald man with a dog collar beating on a drum in the stern of your shop shouting, “stroke, stroke!”

This week I add the dust frame and back panel to the chest carcase and then move on to dovetailing all 5 drawers. I hope you enjoy this episode and don’t hesitate to hit me with questions or suggestions on how I can improve.

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Not sure how many parts this build will work out to but enjoy.

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4 years ago, she had specialty note cards printed up with her school’s mascot on it to gift to all her teaching colleagues. She enlisted me to make pens to go with those cards. Then it was desk clocks, then wooden bowls full of cookies. Every year the bar gets raised just a little and the pressure is on to come up with a new idea.

This year the fine folks at Craft Supplies came through by offering fondue forks project parts. My wife makes amazing Pound Cake so the light bulb went up and ta da!!!

8 pound cakes, a chocolate fondue recipe, and of course 32 hand turned fondue forks made from beautiful woods. Take that last’s year gift!!

…now about next year, I was thinking about a chocolate fountain…

I know, I know cheesy title but I couldn’t resist. Besides it will be interesting to see what kind of spam those keywords will spawn. For my long time readers, you will remember that I am often commissioned to build projects for a local church where my mother-in-law is a teacher. From build it yourself stools, to church piggy banks and 1st century fishing vessels, these have been some of my most entertaining projects. There has been a lot of talk lately about projects making a bucket list and the one I just finished may just help me to earn a spot in that great cabinetmaker’s shop in the sky.

Don’t avert your eyes, don’t worry the lid is firmly in place. In the church’s recent study of Moses and the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept they decided to recreate the Tabernacle so that the children could walk through it and learn about the old testament first hand. When I got the call, “can you build the Ark of the Covenant” I think I finally understand how Noah felt when he got his carpentry commission.

I knew the piece was to be painted gold but I wanted to embellish it somehow so I decided to break out the carving chisels and give this carving thing another try. Certainly the carvings can use some work, but it was a great experience to try some relief carving. I pulled a lot of the designs out of Hepplewhite and Sheraton’s design books and obviously I was heavily inspired by Stephen Spielberg and his Art Deco rendering in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

The box is made of poplar and the corner posts are hard maple (not fun to carve). The angels on the top are from Basswood and were mostly band sawn to shape. I cleaned up the lines and added some more details using gouges and a v tool.

Needless to say it was a huge hit at the church and I now I can impress all of my co-workers when they ask that inevitable Monday question, “what did you do this weekend?”

“I built the Ark of the Covenant, how about you?”

Stay tuned to the blog for real time video and audio updates coming to you from Valley Forge and the Woodworking in America Hand Tools and Techniques conference. I will be posting full episodes with my editorial take on each seminar I attended as well as audioboo updates (you can subscribe via iTunes here for those) that will be posted here on the site as well as broadcast out via Twitter.

In addition I will try to capture some video from my iPhone that will be uploaded to YouTube and you will be able to view those clips through the YouTube widget on the home page. New posted will also be announced on Twitter so if you are not following @renaissanceWW then maybe you should

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So call the Guiness Book people because I cut the largest mortise I have ever seen in this episode!

Enjoy the show…

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Now that I have made this case for our civilized nature let me dispell all of that with a little Tim Allen grunting and testoterone filled gloating….

I cut one big as##$# mortise today! You could fit a bunt cake in there (sorry couldn’t think of something else that would fit in there and my wife is watching the food network in the background)

And when I fit the nut into the mortise I felt the air escaping around it in the most perfect piston fit I have ever achieved. OOOhh hoo ahhh arght! (ape grunting noises)

Just thought I would share my ape like regression with you all.

Cue Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (2001 Theme)