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I’ve been looking for a local saw mill that will sell me a veneer-grade red or white Oak log for green wood chair making. After doing a little bit of searching, I happened upon the Amana Shops. The Amana Shops is the online store for the Amana Colonies a popular tourist destination in eastern Iowa.

Buying hardwood (especially exotics) online has become more and more popular in the last few years. Finding a good source for cocobolo, paudauk, and even spalted maple or black cherry, often means making a patient, diligent search until you find an importer or saw mill that specializes in these products. I’ll guarantee one thing, you won’t find Bubinga or Purpleheart at the local big box. So going online to find what you’re looking for definitely has its place.

Sometimes though, it can be hard to find good, reputable suppliers who are willing to work with you. That’s why I’m glad I’ve found the Amana Shops. They’ve been real easy to work with.

I’ve lived less than 100 miles from the Amana Colonies for most of my life and I didn’t realize the Amana Shops even existed until I ran across them while searching for local hardwood suppliers at Woodfinder.

Note: I’m listing serveral other sources for online hardwood suppliers below. (Links to all of these suppliers and more can be found at Woodfinder. Be sure to mention them if you end up buying from one of these suppliers.)

Amana Forestry

Larry Gnewikow, forestry manager for Amana, is a graduate of Iowa State University and has worked for the last 25 years overseeing the growth and development of Iowa’s largest privately-owned forest. Larry has put me onto some good pricing for white oak logs and after visiting their website (and with Larry), I’ve also found out a little more about their hardwood for sale.

Larry says they regularly work with buyers who have special needs and they’re now able to ship hardwoods to anywhere in the country. They currently list red oak, quartersawn white oak, cherry, locust, and spalted soft maple harvested and kiln-dried from their own forests. They also offer Iowa-grown walnut for sale. The prices are reasonable, and for simplicity’s sake, they offer 7 and 10 board foot bundles with maximum lengths of around 32″. But, Larry says they’ll work with anyone who has specific requirements or needs larger quantities.

Being one of the few green wood chair makers in Iowa, it’s been a slow process finding the right supplier for oak logs. But now, thanks to Woodfinder and Amana Shops, I’ve found several good online sources for hardwood lumber should I ever have the need.

Woodworkers Source

Collector’s Specialty

Talarico Hardwoods

Irion Lumber Company

Homecraft Veneer

Hearne Hardwoods

I was on “cool stuff” overload by the time I finally made it to the General & General International booth at IWF 2006 in Atlanta. So I have to admit, at first I didn’t pay too much attention to what I feel now is one of the coolest new products for the home woodworker at IWF.

I’m talking about the “Hoverpad,” which will be available soon from General. The Hoverpad is General’s solution to the problems faced by those of us who need to maximize our shop space by moving tools around from time to time. Since I do my woodworking at home in a 380 sq. ft. shop, this little dandy may just be the answer to my prayers.

The Hoverpad moves your heaviest tools around on a cushion of compressed air. It’s made out of a durable plastic with a rubber base that is only about an inch thick. You’ll need a compressor with a capacity of about 100/in. at 5CFM. The inventor, Arra David, came up with the idea and patented it when he realized that he had something good for industry and home shop users alike.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Hoverpad, be sure to check out the video at the Brentwood Machinery & Tools website.

The folks at General couldn’t tell me when the Hoverpad will be available. It will come in two sizes, priced at around $170 and $250. But, the Hoverpad is now available through Brentwood Machinery in Brentwood, New Hamphire. Supplies are limited though. I’ll let you know as soon as I know if the Woodsmith Store will be selling this product.

Note: Sizes and pricing at Brentwood may be different than those quoted by General.

Our friends at The Woodworking Channel are running a poll on their website. It asks what woodworking magazine you read the most. The choices are listed as follows:

American Router
American Woodturner
American Woodworker
Fine Woodworking
Furniture & Cabinetmaking
Popular Woodworking
Wood Magazine
Woodcarving
Woodcraft Magazine
Woodturning
Woodwork
Woodworker’s Journal
and Other

Several of the ones that are listed are specialty magazines (American Router and American Woodturner), focusing on a single aspect of our hobby, such as turning or routing. Three of the magazines — Furniture and Cabinetmaking, Woodturning, and Woodcarving — are published in the UK and may be hard (or expensive) to get here in the US. I didn’t even know they existed until just recently. (And I’ve been subscribing to anywhere from 4 to 10 woodworking magazines since about 1995.)

Woodwork is good magazine that appeals to woodworkers who have an artistic bent, and Woodcraft Magazine, even though it’s only been around for a couple of years, is starting to gain some readers.

The rest of them (American Woodworker, Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, Wood Magazine, and Woodworker’s Journal) are all fine magazines, and I subscribe to all except one.

A few magazines not on the list include Woodshop News, Woodworking and Popular Mechanics. Woodshop News, from Sounding Publications, is a great source of information for consumers, as well as the professional trade. I don’t subscribe, but I always look at it when I’m at the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines. Woodworking, a no-ads limited circulation publication from Popular Woodworking, has started to gain a real foothold with woodworkers interested in hand tools and learning about craftsmanship. Finally, Popular Mechanics has included at least one woodworking article in every issue for many, many years. And every November, they dedicate the entire issue to woodworking. Some of my favorite plans for Arts & Crafts furniture come from PM.

But most odd of all is the absence of any of the woodworking magazines from August Home Publishing. That’s because two of the top four woodworking magazines are Woodsmith and Workbench. According to the last published figures from ABC (Audit Bureau Circulation, 2006)* that I know of, Workbench is number two and Woodsmith is number four. Then there’s ShopNotes. Although its subscription base is smaller than its sister publications, ShopNotes is a one-of-a-kind magazine for woodworkers who are looking at solutions for building shop jigs and storage projects for the shop.

I don’t have the capability to do a poll here, but I’m interested in your comments or feelings. What is your favorite woodworking magazine?

(* According to ABC, Wood Magazine is first in paid subscribers and American Woodworker is #3.)

If you were to sit down and try to redesign any tool so that it’s exactly what you’d want as a woodworker, what tool would it be?

Two of the first tools to come to my mind are the drill press and a contractor’s-style table saw. Most drill presses are made for the metalworker first and foremost. Features that a woodworker would find beneficial are an after-thought, if they’re thought of at all. And the contractor’s table saw, with its motor sticking out the back, is the price you paid for an affordable saw that supposedly is light enough to lug around to the job site.

But, a few manufacturer’s are starting to come around to offer tools with wood shop features. I’m talking in particular about the Powermatic® 2800 VS Drill Press, and the Jet® Pro-Shop line of contractor style table saws. I got a quick look at both of these new tools at IWF — 2006 in Atlanta last week, and are they impressive.

The Powermatic 2800 VS Drill Press has so many features that are great for woodworkers it’s hard to list them all. But I’ll try!

* Single handle variable speed adjustment (with a digital readout)
* A 5/8″ keyless chuck
* Twin LED lights
* And, a new dual laser guide system.

These are all welcome features that provide ease of use and accuracy that is rare on a standard drill press.Best of all is the extra-large table (it has dual extension wings to provide additional support for long work pieces). The table also tilts 90° and has a positive stop at 0°. Its large adjustment handle makes lowering and raising the table quick and easy.But that isn’t all, twin T-slot grooves for a miter gauge, hold-downs or shop-made jigs are milled right into the table top and an adjustable split fence with dust collection port is included.Finally, it doesn’t matter if you’re right or left-handed, because the feed handles can be mounted on either side of the drill press. Whew, that’s a lot of great features!

One of the more impressive new tools I saw at IWF is the Jet Pro-Shop Contractor Style Table Saw.

This table saw has a couple of features more commonly found on cabinet (or hybrid) style table saws. First, is the enclosed cabinet with a 4″ dust port for improved dust collection. The stand makes assembly of this saw significantly easier than a regular contractor’s-style table saw.The Pro-Shop saw has a new Pro-Shop fence with extruded aluminum side boards with T-slots and either 30″ or 50″ rails. The saw below is shown with steel wings, but cast iron wings are also available. A large paddle-style switch is also a nice safety feature on this saw. Once again, you can turn to Workbench Magazine for reviews and much more on these new tools and lots of others in future issues.

Every Thursday night this fall you can learn from the experts at the Woodsmith Store and Woodsmith, ShopNotes, and Workbench magazines. We’ll walk you through the basics of woodworking, tool techniques, safety, terminology, and everything you need to know to build great projects in your home shop. Reference handouts are provided. All questions are welcome.

Click here for more details including a calendar, seminar topics, and how to sign up!     

Come visit The Annual Woodsmith Store “Tent Sale” Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 23 through the 25th. It’s a yearly tradition of great savings, free seminars, and a lot of fun!

This year’s event will take place inside the Woodsmith Store. All your favorite woodworking vendors and suppliers will be on hand along with factory reps and personnel. Super one-time only deals will be available from different manufacturers. Be the first to see the new tools and latest woodworking gadgets for 2007.

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I probably would have started woodworking a lot earlier in life if my experience in 9th-grade shop class hadn’t been so abysmal. I don’t remember what I tried to build during the class, I just remember that I didn’t finish it.

That’s not to say that the class was a total waste. I did learn a few things. My shop teacher was a stickler for safety, so I’ve always paid close attention to that. But, the one thing we didn’t have available back then was good dust collection or air clearners. Consequently, I breathed a lot of sawdust into my lungs before I began to see the benefits to wearing a dust mask.

I suspect there are a lot of things we all wish our shop teacher’s had taught us during those woodworking shop classes. Doug Hicks has come up with a few of his own and in November, he’ll be teaching a seminar at the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines on this very topic.

Doug is more than qualified to teach the seminar. Early in his career, he was a shop teacher in Illinois and New Hampshire. Here are a few examples of things he wished he’d learned while in high school (and tried to teach in all his classes):

• How to set a hand plane
• How to properly drill screw holes
• How to use test pieces
• How to sneak up on a cut
• How not to use pencil lines
• How to sand “across” the grain.

So that begs the question — Do you have any high school stories about things you wish you’d learned in woodworking shop class? If you do, send them to me using the comment section below. Or email them directly to Doug Hicks. Then later on, I’ll have a follow up after his class on all the tips we’ve come up with.

Note: The Fall Seminars at the Woodsmith Store begin this September 28th with “How to Get Started in Woodworking,” and run through December 14th with “Cabinetmaking 101: The Basics of Designing and Building Cabinets.” They’re every Thursday at 6:30pm (except on Thanksgiving). A full schedule of the classes will be posted in the calendar soon at WoodworkingSeminars.com.

For all of you out-of-towners, I know this doesn’t leave a lot of extra time to make it to Des Moines, but if you live within let’s say a 200-mile radius of the Woodsmith Store, you might be interested in the following:

The store, located Hickman Road at 104th in Clive, is going to try something a little different this summer to help reduce this season’s excess inventory. They’re going to have an Inventory Reduction Tool and Garden Auction on Saturday, July 22nd. The sales starts promptly at 11:00am and will end at 2:00pm. Conducting the auction will be Daugherty Auction Services of Adel.

Pictures of several items up for auction are on the Daugherty Auction web page, of course many items aren’t shown. Some of the stuff woodworkers will find included in the auction are floor models of new woodworking tools, as well as books, woodworking plans, hardware and project kits. Even some store fixtures and a fork lift will be included.

Gardeners can expect to find some great items too. Pallet lots of trees, shrubs, perennials, and landscaping supplies will be on auction from the Garden Center.

This is a one-time only event to clear out inventory to make room for the new 2007 products. The auction will be held at the Woodsmith Store which is located on Hickman Road at 104th Street in Clive, Iowa, just east of Living History Farms. Take exit #125 off I35/80 and go east one mile.