Episode- The Schimmel

I had recently quit smoking (thank you, thank you), but it was affecting my camerawork.  So much so, in fact, that the video for this episode was all but unwatchable-- I couldn't hold still for a moment, and I was getting ill trying to edit the mess. My solution? Take what still pictures I could from the video and make a slide show, which is what I present to you here.

The Story: A friend is driving by and sees a dilapidated piece of furniture sticking out of somebody's trash. She wasn't sure if it was salvageable, but figured she could use it as a feature piece in a boutique or antique store, so brought it to me for 'freshening up'.

Not really my bailiwick, I thought to myself, being the entrenched doorhanger I was. But if my recent experiences with Pete have taught me anything, it's to never turn down an opportunity to film something, even if it fails (more on failed projects in the future). 

Bench Dogs Quickie- Rubec's Cube

No, It's not a misspelling (mispelling?) of Rubik's cube. It's an entirely different puzzle... and not mine, either. I saw it on the interwebs and thought it was cute, so I built it. Once I built it I had trouble putting it together, so left it be for awhile until a friend's young child assembled it in no time! So I copied the outcome and filmed it. Rubec, by the way, is just an anagram of Bruce.

Episode- Beach Dogs

You must be thinking-- "he's posted two videos already, and nothing about woodworking... what gives?" Fair enough. The real deal is that I was supposed to post 'The Schimmel' episode in this spot, but I clicked the wrong button! So instead, please enjoy 'Beach Dogs'-- what happens when two hardworking contractor-types take a day off, but can't really stop working.

Bench Dogs Quickie- How To Fix a Cheap-Ass Lighter

This was not the Bench Dogs' first video, but it most certainly was one of the silliest. Remember, we're all about the recycling and the reusing and the reducing, and here's a way to get more life out of our most precious among first inventions-- fire.

First Look At The Bench Dogs 'Pound'

Well, here's one side of my shop, the north wall with my Craftsman radial arm saw and Delta chop saw, as well as the Nonamé grinder and drill bit sharpener. You can see all of my additional small machinery on the upper shelves, and behind it all is a lumber rack.  Beneath the Craftsman is an air compressor in a (not really) soundproof box. Remember, this whole thing started as a repository for rarely used and retired tools, so it's far from where I'd like it to be. Are You Listening, Festool Donation Center?

Welcome To Our Inception!

Bruce here:

This blog has been a long time in coming... woodworking has been a passion of mine for most of my life, and now I can share it with others-- how cool is that?

About me:

Born & raised in New York City; finished high school in an artist community in New Hope PA; College in Upstate New York, Industrial Arts Major (which trains people to become Driver Ed teachers); Grad school in Illinois majoring in Industrial Technology (which trains people to train people in Industrial Technology); one year as a high school metalwork/woodwork teacher in Philadelphia; and up to now, I owned a series of reasonably successful woodworking-related businesses: Aberdeen Handyman, B I Friedman Contracting,  Loftworks and BIF, to name a few. 

The one that stuck is Doorhanger, a company which, oddly enough, specializes in hanging doors. This is not to be confused with the OTHER Doorhanger, which is a paper advertisement that is distributed throughout neighborhoods a la door knob: door hangers, get it? Things that hang on doors! And they got the web address first. Oh, pooh. That's why my website is Doorhangerdotcom.com. Yup, two dotcoms. 

Recently, my buddy Pete (who is a closet filmmaker) bought a little digital video camera about the size of a pack of cigarettes that has an hour of recording time, with very good video quality and sound, runs on a pair of AA batteries and has a USB port that flips out so you can plug right into the computer without a cable... and our newest venture, Bench Dogs, was born.

So what is Bench Dogs? First, a little back story. As a contractor, one tends to build up a sizable warehouse of hardware store bric-a-brac-- rare and hardly used tools,  300 half-bags of fasteners, 1000 linear feet of 2x4 (nothing over 2 feet long), et cetera.

 Well, without getting personal, I haven't owned a home in awhile, so instead of renting a three bedroom for myself, my kid and my JUNK, I opted to get a two bedroom and an offsite storage space in the basement of a mini-mall. 

The Good:  Over the years, the room (14'x15', 210 sf) has morphed from a catch basin into a reasonably usable wood shop, with 9 operable machine stations, a heavy multi-use 4'x4' bench and dozens of hand tools and small machine tools in easy reach.

The Bad: Well you already know the first-- it's 210 square feet small, So nothing over 8 feet, ever. It also has open shelving without doors- a very cluttered look. And it's packed-- no room for expansion.

The Ugly: It has no windows, no ventilation and the ceiling height is 6'6"!

Oh yeah... Bench Dogs...

One day Pete shows me his camera when we were in the 'shop'. We filmed his project (I think it was routing the words in a huge sign), and the light bulbs lit over both of our heads simultaneously. His was "Let's do more videos!"  Mine was, "Let's get lunch!"

Now we have over a dozen short videos incorporating our love of woodworking, creative problem solving and an eye towards Green thinking, (hopefully) all wrapped up with humor and insight. Well, that's our aim, anyway.

And of course, there's lunch.