At the Alabama Woodworkers Guild – April 8-10, 2016

In a few months I will be traveling to Maylene (just south of Birmingham), Alabama to present not one, but two workshops for the Alabama Woodworkers Guild.

The main event will be Saturday and Sunday when I will build a modified version of the Gustav Stickley #700 Bookcase. One of the reasons for making the piece slightly smaller is to keep the build manageable while including all the signature Gus Stickley/Harvey Ellis details such as through mortise and tenon joints in the case, the arched rails and the pyramid capitals and pull.

And to make things really interesting, the central joint in the door will be the mitered mullion joint I used in my reproduction of the Stickley #70 music cabinet. There is a close up photo of the joint on my home page, and you can find a blog post from my former life about the joint here. During the build I’ll be using a combination of hand and power tools and some of my favorite jigs.

The Alabama Woodworkers Guild has an amazing facility, and just as the University of Alabama serves as a model for how to run a successful college football program, the Guild is a great example of what woodworkers can do when they work together. They have a complete shop in an old school building available to their members,  and they get together on a regular basis to help out worthy causes.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GUILD

As I build this piece, cameras will show things up close, and I will be explaining what I’m doing and why I’m doing it this way instead of that way, answering questions and talking about alternatives. This kind of demonstration is an opportunity to see the way I approach a detailed project, and the tricks I use to make it look easy. Somewhere in the weekend will be an example of what happens when things go horribly wrong and how to recover from that.

Before the physical build, I’ll be giving an evening presentation on using SketchUp for woodworking on Friday, April 8. For this virtual build, my laptop will be hooked to a big screen and the audience will watch me work through a typical project from start to finish. Of course, I’ll be answering questions and accepting challenges from the crowd.

This is a guild event, but I’ve been told that both workshops will be open to the general public. For the details of how you can attend, you need to get in touch with Ray, the president of the guild.

Click here to e-mail Ray about this event or about the guild.

If you can’t make it to Alabama, I’m teaching a weekend workshop on SketchUp this April at Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Indiana. This class is almost full, so you shouldn’t mess around if you want to attend. Click Here to visit the MASW website.

In October I will be back at MASW for a week-long build of the full-size Stickley No. 700 bookcase. This class is also getting full, so Click Here to sign up at the MASW website.

— Bob Lang