Posted by Jay Amstutz at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We will be keeping an eye out for new product news coming from the show. A few good ways to keep up with it include twitter.com #IBS2011, already a few pages of comments, twitpics and product links. Also we just started to see videos popping up a few hours on the NAHB – IBS Youtube page, see first “Tools of the Trade” video below. Also some of our tool blogging friends were there this week including www.charlesandhudson.com and www.homeconstructionimprovement.com, we will be watching close to see what comes from those sites in the next few days.

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You may have seen our post some time ago about the Columbus Idea Foundry, a community work shop with all the goodies for welding, woodworking, CNC and now a shiny new laser cutter. There is some real exciting stuff happening over at the shop since we moved to a much larger facility but more on that shortly. In the mean time check out the 1st project Paul did on the laser cutter. For the full details on the build from design to finish check out this article. 

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here in Ohio most of our homes have basements, depending on when the home was built this could be poured concrete, cinder block or like one of the homes I grew up in, a foundation made of stones. Yes rocks mortared together, which actually was very dry for a 100+ year old home. Unfortunately some basements do not hold up that well and many of us want to use that space to build our ultimate Man Caves. Before you go dropping $10K on plasmas & pool tables you are going to want to be sure the basement is watertight and mildew free.

Continue reading "Concrete Saw for Basement Waterproofing / Foundation Repair" »

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At first I thought this website was all about tricked out garages that cost more than $100,000 to build, which also would have been a cool website. However that is not the case for www.100kgarages.com  which is actually a site dedicated to the small fabricators across the country.

The idea is that a network of small and medium size fab shops all connected together would allow any crazy eyed individual within the network to have the capacity of a large manufacturing plant at their finger tips. For instance if you prototyped a product (you don’t even need your own equipment, checkout www.columbusideafoundry.com in Central Ohio) and wanted to sell a million of that product through a website, you could load the plans on the network and those from all over with capacity could manufacturer the product. This helps the person who needs manufacturing capability and also those with down time, to utilize their equipment and make a few extra bucks.

So far the network is centered around the Shopbot CNC router machines which makes sense but could, in the future, be applied to CNC Mills, Laser Cutters, Water-Jet, etc. There are endless possibilities to the technology and as it develops, new possibilities will continue to arise. The website www.ponoko.com brings everything together with material suppliers, creative folks and even buyers.     

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category: Yin Yang – the dark and the light. Where would one be without the other? Create a project that uses color dark & light (wood, stains, etc.) to convey how contrasts work together to make the whole. When you post your project describe the Yin Yang effect that you created.

Submit your project between January 1st – 31^st

Vote on all the projects between February 1^st -7^th

Prizes include Bench Cookies for top 11 spots and for 1^st place an additional $400 gift card, all from Rockler

Continue reading "LumberJocks.com Winter Woodworking Awards – Yin Yang" »

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the weekend I helped build this kitchen island with a buddy. He took it over to another friends paint shop to get hit with a few coats of white (not the top counter piece obviously). It was a pretty simple build with locking casters on the bottom to move the cart around, would also make a nice workshop cart. I snapped a few pictures just for fun.

Update - Back from the automotive paint booth and a great hookup from a granite guy and presto.

Posted by Jay Amstutz at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)