Peter Brown's ShopTime

Even with the shear number of folks selling woodworking items on Ebay, I still have managed to sell more pens via Ebay in the past 2 months then I ever did from a year of being in a shop. Plus I get more for each item while it cost the end user less! All this because I don't have to split my sales with a shop, or deal with the possible product loss or poor product placement. Just when I thought Ebay was becoming irreverent, it goes and surprises me.

I love the colors on both of these, for different reasons. Yellowheart SOLD is just so happy. It's odd to see such a bright yellow in nature and I have trouble not being awed by it. CA finish. The second is a Redwood Burl. SOLD A beautiful pen, with loads of figure and a grain. CA finish.

I finally got my toggle clamps and digital angle gauge in the mail. The Wixey gauge eliminated all the fiddling and guess work. What a great tool! Soo... cut another 16" chunk of maple and started again down the box making road. Planning to 3/8 I then rebuilt my crosscut sled and tried to eliminate all the slop in it. I added my new Chinese toggle bolts and clamped a stop block at 3". Clamping before had been downright scary with a 3" side and 45 degree bevel. Not anymore. I wrapped a couple pieces of mdf in packing tape as my cauls for the 3/8 box sides. Result? Really nice and tight miters! (a bit of tear out, but I can fix that) Next weekend, on to the spline cutting jig!

The guy I sold my shells and hardware to, recently sent me pictures of his completed kit. He did an amazing job!! There was a small pang of regret when I saw them all decked out in their new black sparkle glory but the truth is, I would never have played them. Plus he did an outstanding job, and I wasn't fairing anywhere near as well as that! He should get a ton of use out of them now, and loads of pride to boot! Before: And after: close up on the snare: Here's a link to the Photostream with more shots. Well done Gabriel!