Tommy doing his thing at the Woodworking Shows
Tommy Mac will be joining the Woodworking Shows in St Louis, Missouri, this weekend, February 10 – 12.
To be held in the Gateway Center Hall in Collinsville, IL, the show will feature an all-star roster of accomplished woodworkers, including Tommy!
Look for him on Saturday from 10:00am – 6:00pm at the Woodcraft Booth.
Show times are as follows:
Friday: 10-6
Saturday: 10-6
Sunday: 10-4
See you in St. Louis!
Tommy and the WoodExpo gang at last year's event. Don't miss WoodExpo 2012!
Entries must be built between April 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012 and at least one in-process photo must accompany the submittal.
All accepted submissions will be notified by February 6.
See all the Rules and Eligibility requirements for the contest.
As a reminder to all you non-competing woodworkers, WoodExpo 2012 will be held February 23 – 26 as part of the New England Home Show at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center.
Check out the WoodExpo 2012 page for all the info you need.
Hope to see you there! And get those submissions in!
Is your New Year’s Resolution to finally outfit your shop with the proper woodworking gear? Tommy and Eli have teamed up to show you the way. Check out the video below, first posted in Frank Byers’ blog over on the Woodcraft page. If you like any of what you see, cruise over to Frank’s page for closer look at the individual tools.
Happy New Year!
The shop might be his second home, but the garden is his third!
We caught up with Tommy just before the Holiday to learn a little more about the potting station project, his road trip and his gardening skills.
1) The potting station doesn’t seem that daunting at first glance. What aspects of the project were a bigger challenge than you expected?
Tommy: Nothing really. That’s kind of why I built it. It’s actually a really easy project. Anyone can do it. And you can rip and cut all the pieces for the project from the same sized stock. All you need are those nine or ten 1 x 10s.
2) On your trip to the Massachusetts Horticulture Association, curator David Fiske showed you some of the necessary elements to a potting station. Were there any that surprised you?
Tommy: Not particularly, actually. It’s a pretty straight forward project. It’s a couple of benches and a couple of shelves. What’s cool about the project are the other potential uses for it. If you don’t want to use it as a potting station, you can use it as a BBQ station, which is what Al [D'Attanasio] does. He has it next to gas grill and hooks it up with all his BBQ accessories and equipment. It could be a serving station or something for an outdoor kitchen.
3) Do you spend any time in the garden? Have any favorite plants?
Tommy: Well, me and Rachel just bought the new house and I do have a bit of green thumb, so we’ll be putting in tomatoes and stuff this spring. Favorite plant? I guess you could say my favorite flowers are roses. They’re difficult to grow, but I like them. And I eat tomatoes all the time. Potatoes and tomatoes, five times a week!
We hope all you woodworkers out there have a very Happy Holidays!
See you 2012!
Tommy checks out the finished product.
The project also gives Tommy a chance to dig deeper into veneers, something he admits he’d like to do more of. When we talked to Tommy about the project, he had some interesting things to say about both metal working and veneers.
1) At first glance, metal and wood are two totally different mediums. Did you notice any places where woodworking skills would help in metalworking?
Tommy: They’re pretty much the same. You need to cut the material methodically, metal or wood. I was interested to know that metal behaves kind of the same way, it moves with heat. In many ways they’re basically the same thing. Of course metal is much tougher and you need bigger machines to work with it. But overall it felt like it was the same skill set. Instead of carving, you’re welding.
2) What was the most challenging aspect of the table project?
Tommy: Making the veneer look like it was not difficult to do. Basically reading the grain direction and making sure that the pieces were put together seamlessly.
3) Wood veneers can be made from a number of different species of wood and can come in a number of different colors and stains. When you choose a veneer is it strictly aesthetics or is there more that comes into play?
Tommy: For me it’s all about how it looks. It’s all aesthetics. When you work with solid wood, you kind of make do with what you have. With veneers, it’s really up to you. It’s not something I’ve really had the chance to dive into, so I was excited to do a project with it.
Have a great Thanksgiving everybody and be sure to tune into Episode 9, which airs this Saturday, November 25.
