New Blog Exchange Group.

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Ever get snail mail spam? Tired of it? Well. . .

Not sure what to do to get off their dang mailing lists?
I've tried writing deceased across the front, this works sometimes. However one miscreant sold my address to a funeral home..LOL

So here is a link to some great advice...

This will get you removed from their mailing lists!

Pay backs are great! Don't ya think?

Ever need to calculate Board feet?

Calculate board feet the easy way. Just enter the dimensions of your lumber and the board foot calculator will do the rest.
No board foot conversion tables.

Tips on Calculating Board Feet:

- Board feet is a unit of wood volume measuring 144 cubic inches.
- The formula to calculate board feet is:
Board Feet = (length * width * thickness) / 144
- Hardwood lumber thickness is measured rough sawn. If you purchase 4/4 boards surfaced on both sides expect to see actual measurements closer to 13/16 rather than a full inch.
-If your lumber is already surfaced, calculate board feet on the rough thickness.

This great resource site also has links to:

Free plans.
Hand Tool Reviews.
Power Tool Reviews.
Wood working Q & A's.

and more.

Hope you find this site helpful..I did!

Had to share this......

Please read the entire post prior to passing judgement....


Sign in the Window

"WE WOULD RATHER DO BUSINESS WITH 1000 AL QAEDA TERRORISTS THAN WITH ONE SINGLE AMERICAN"

This sign was prominently displayed in the window of a business in Philadelphia. You are probably outraged at the thought of such an inflammatory statement. One would think that anti-hate groups from all across the country would be marching on this business... and that the National Guard might have to be called to keep the angry crowds back.

But, perhaps in these stressful times one might be tempted to let the proprietors simply make their statement... We are a society which holds Freedom of Speech as perhaps our greatest liberty, and after all, it is just a sign.

You may ask what kind of business would dare post such a sign?




Answer: A Funeral Home
(Who said morticians had no sense of humor?)

Looking for a great resource.

Look no further, this site has great hints, tips, patterns.

The Online Resource for Scroll Saw Enthusiasts
Welcome to Scroll Saw Workshop! Whether you are a beginner or expert scroller, this site is your leading online resource for inspiration and instruction, including:

* Tips and Techniques
* Free Scroll Saw Patterns
* Scroll Saw Books
* Product Reviews
* Scroll Saw Message Boards
* Photo Galleries
* Contests

Ever needed an outline for your home state?

Well this is a very useful site.

Click the link above...

I find myself coming to this site all the time to get US state outlines for silhouettes.
State flags, state songs, state birds, nicknames, there is a wealth of information on this site.
Each state is listed along with a complete outline for the entire US. Printable versions available too for re-sizing...
Great resource. Check it out!

I hope you find it helpful.

Do you have a favorite site for patterns, hints, tips?
C'mon share the wealth.

I don't usually read forwarded e-mails . . .However

Rarely do I get forwards in my inbox that are worth reading much less posting, but I thought this one was great.

Disclaimer....some profanity

Remember the book - "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"? Well,
here is a true life example from the University of Phoenix. An English
Professor assigned his students to a joint writing exercise that quickly
degraded - check it out...


"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The
process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to
his or her immediate right.


As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a
short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send
another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then
add another paragraph to the story and send it back also sending another
copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on,
back and forth.


Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the
story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the
e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The
story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."


The following was actually turned in by two of my English students:


Rebecca (last name deleted), and Gary (last name deleted).


THE STORY:
(First paragraph by Rebecca)
-----------------------------------------------
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now
reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he
liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind
off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about
him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.


(Second paragraph by Gary)
--------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about
than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with
whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to
Geostation 17", he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar
orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could
sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a
hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him
flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.


(Rebecca)
---------------------------------------------------------
He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt
one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its
pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,"
Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously
excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her
youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no
newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of
innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one
lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.


(Gary)
---------------------------------------------------------
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands
of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mother ship launched the first
of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks that
pushed the unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress
had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who
were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the
passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth,
carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to
stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium
fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his
top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the
coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized
poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President
slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm
going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"


(Rebecca)
---------------------------------------------------------
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My
writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semiliterate adolescent.


(Gary)
---------------------------------------------------------
Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at
writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh shall I have
chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F***ING TEA??? Oh no,
I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels."


Rebecca)
---------------------------------------------------------
A**hole.


(Gary)
---------------------------------------------------------
B****.


(Rebecca)
---------------------------------------------------------
Get screwed.


(Gary)
---------------------------------------------------------
Eat sh**.


(Rebecca)
---------------------------------------------------------
SCREW YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!!


(Gary) ----------------------------------------------------------
GO DRINK SOME TEA - *****.

***********************************************

(TEACHER) A+ - I really liked this one. Only group to get an A.

Perhaps you are into carving

Here is an excellent site for carvers, experienced to novice...Great Ideas and some free patterns to get you started..

Here is an example for beginners on the style of writing and excellent information available..
Introductory Primer to Carving
By L. S. Irish

Of all the art forms available to craftsmen, wood carving may well be one of the oldest developed skill in man's history. Carved designs and accents have appeared in furniture design, the building components of our homes and places of worship, the household items that we use everyday, and of course as simply beautiful decorative sculptures.

For a beginning carftperson, wood carving offers several advantages as a new hobby. First, the initial investment to learn craving is very minimal. With just a few Tools that create unique strokes and a small Selection of Woods, the new woodworker can well be on their way to completing their first project.

Second, this is a hobby that does not require a special place or area in which to work. Many of the carving designs that are presented within these pages have been created during the evening hours in the family room.

A third advantage to wood carving is that it is a quiet and comforting craft. If you are starting your new hobby using basic hand tools, there is no overpowering noise from power tools and saws. The wood that you work with has a warm and gentle feel to your hands as you create your design. Many woods even have a light pleasant aroma as you work with the carving blank.

Yet, the most important feature of this art form is that you will never run out of ideas as to what to carve next. Wood carving is done in every style of design, from the simple repeative patterns of chip carving to the extremely intrigue dimensional detail of a duck decoy sculpture. There is no limit as to what to do with you carving once it is complete. From furniture accents to picture frames, jewelry boxes to blanket chests, even key chain ornaments to large room dividers, there is always a place and a use for your new work. And you will never run out of people who want one of your pieces of art. Friends and family will be delighted to be the recipient of your next carving piece.

This is a small primer that might help you get start exploring the delights of wood carving. There are two main divisions in carving projects, first is three dimension work or carving in the round. Second is the flat work that is done as accent panels, box sides, or even pictures to be hung on your wall. Work that is done in the flat is called Relief Carving. Here the design is carved down into the wood blank giving an impression of three dimensional work. These primer pages are devoted to relief style carving.

With relief carving the pattern or design that you wish to carve is traced onto the wood blank. Transferring the Pattern is done with either carbon paper or by blackening the back of the pattern page with pencil lead. The pattern is taped into position of the board and a pencil or ink pen is used to trace over the lines. For multiple pattern use you can create a Pounce Pattern which allows easy repetition of the design.

Once the design is in place, you, of course, begin to remove the excess wood to create the layers of work. The Stop Cut is a basic stroke in relief carving. This cut outlines the edges of one area where it intersects another and prevents splintering of the wood.

Relief carving can be either Low Relief where the carved intersection is visible to the eye and the dimension has a shallow look or it can be High Relief where the design is cut in the round in place on the background of the board. The Background of either of these techniques is removed to create a raised design look.

Where Low and High Relief style carvings used the original surface of the wood to become the design level, there are several techniques that use the carved line to establish the pattern. Incised Carving is the simplest form of wood carving. Here the pattern is traced upon the wood blank and with even careful strokes just the outline of the pattern is carved into the wood. The incised style of carving shows it's greatest possibilities in the Wood Cut Block. This wonderful carving work allowed for the first time, during the Renaissance, artwork to be printed onto paper. The artist could now create one very detailed work yet be able to make multiple copies.


Intaglio Carving takes this idea one step further by carving the design work down into the wood blank making a negative of the pattern. The design is carved in full dimensional detail but it is carved deep into the wood, as compared to low relief where the pattern looks as if it is above the wood surface. Intaglio has been a favorite of furniture makers over the years as it allow the furniture element to be completely prepared for insertion into the carcass and then can accept Carving Accents without disturbing any joinery work.

Of the three main negative techniques, Chip Carving is the most popular and has become an artform in itself. Through the use of a basic triangular unit, intrigue designs can be created the delight the eye. Our page border for this primer displays the most basic of chip carving pattern work.

In all art forms Mistakes Sometimes Happen. No matter how careful you are, no matter how much time you take on each carving stroke, sometime, somewhere, you will make a mistake. The knife will slip or the grain will pull your stroke off the pattern line or a high area will get broken. Just because a mistake has been made does not mean that the project needs to be scraped, there are several options for correcting miscuts in your carving.

We hope that as you explore the information throughout this primer that you to will become "hooked" on the wonderful hobby of wood carving. There are so many possibilities when you work with wood carving that this art will give you many years of pleasure and rewards.

After browsing through the Carving Primer stop by "Classic Carving Patterns" by L. S. Irish, our book featuring traditional carving designs for your next project. Then slip over to Online Design Packets for carving ideas that you can download today and be carving tonight.

Bandsaw re-sawing

I found this article very helpful and wanted to share with you.
If you want the entire article, just follow the link. Has great how to pictures and a wealth of information on re-sawing..


Bandsaw Resawing
By George Vondriska

Cut logs into lumber, make thin boards from thick and cut your own veneer.

Perhaps you want to cut 3/4-in.-thick material down to 3/8 in., or make veneer from that one precious figured board. Or maybe you want to get useful lumber from a gorgeous piece of wood in your firewood pile. The technique that makes this possible is resawing.

Although it just plain baffles some woodworkers, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be surprised at what you can do, even on a small bandsaw. Here’s what you need to make it all happen: blade selection, shop-made jigs, setup and cutting tips.

Why Resaw?
One big reason: money. If you want thin stock for small boxes or drawers, it’s a lot cheaper to make your own than to buy it. Some wood dealers actually make thin stock by planing down 4/4 material, so it ends up being more expensive to buy less wood!

With wood prices going through the roof, making veneer can stretch your woodworking dollars. Slicing veneer on your bandsaw can change one bd. ft. of precious, expensive wood into six sq. ft. of veneer.

You can also transform those dusty chunks of apple or crotch wood out in your garage into free lumber by resawing. You could make a project entirely from a tree felled in your own yard. Resawing gives you access to the marvelous possibilities of free or cheap local logs.

Joke for the day!

Father O'Malley rose from his bed. It was a fine spring day in his new Texas mission parish. He walked to the window of his bedroom to get a deep breath of the beautiful day outside. He then noticed there was a jackass lying dead in the middle of his front lawn.
He promptly called the local police station.

"Good morning. This is Sergeant Flaherty. How might I help you?"

"And the best of the day to yerself. This is Father O'Malley at St.Brigid's. There's a jackass lying dead in me front lawn. Would ye be so kind as to send a couple o' yer lads to take care of the matter?"

Sergeant Flaherty, considering himself to be quite a wit, replied with a smirk, "Well now father, it was always my impression that you people took care of last rites!"

There was dead silence on the line for a long moment.

Father O'Malley then replied: "Aye, that's certainly true, but we are also obliged to notify the next of kin .