Rockler was the proud sponsor of the Winter 2010 LumberJocks' Woodworking Awards, and the winners were announced today! LJ had a record-breaking 151 entrants for this season's challenge which was "Yin Yang, The Dark and the Light". The idea was to create a project that used color (dark and light) "to convey how contrasts work together to make the whole". Imagine 151 variations on this theme! Completing and submitting an entry for this contest was a huge accomplishment, and we congratulate all the entrants on their efforts!

The voting was done by the LumberJocks themselves. Anyone who had ever posted a project on the site was eligible to vote, and the four top vote-getters won prizes from Rockler.

First prize, by a fairly wide margin, went to LumberJock owenusa. His project, and the inspiration and story behind it will warm your heart. We won't attempt to re-tell the story of the "Earthquake Box" that won the LJ contest, save that it represents the earthquake that happened in Haiti, and what is happening in Haiti post-quake. You need to click over to LumberJocks and read it in the artist's own words. It's an inspiring story, a fabulous concept, and a truly inspired piece of work. Our hearty congratulations to owenusa on a well-deserved win!

Second place went to LumberJock Rj for his sensational piece "Yin Yang Display Table". Rj really got into the spirit of the assignment, explaining how the very bottom body and legs is the Yin section of the project ("Yin [being] dark, passive, downward, etc.") and the lighter round maple face being the Yang ("Yang [being] bright, active, upward, hot, expanding, and strong"). The Yin and Yang hold the gorgeous red maple table top. Beautiful job!

The third place winner is a whimsical box called "Eye Candy". Its creator is LumberJock Andy, who explains how he had been keeping exotic cutoffs, waiting for inspiration, which he found in the fun atmosphere of Disney World! And it is a fun piece - incredibly detailed and fanciful!

LumberJack Sam Shakouri took fourth place with his "Twisted Doughnut". For an explanation of how this amazing piece was made, Sam directs you to his website, where his bio reads "Sam is a prolific woodturner who enjoys exploring the unusual." That would be an understatement! Apparently he is best known for turning a soccer ball! His "Twisted Doughnut" is made of 144 pieces of walnut and 144 pieces of silver ash.

Four very talented woodworkers! As Martin Sojka, founder of LumberJocks, told us today, "LumberJocks proved once again that they are the most creative group of woodworkers on the Internet with the record-breaking 151 entries in the Yin-Yang category." We agree that LJ is a great site for showing off your woodworking creativity! And the LJ community is awesome in its support and encouragement for fellow woodworkers.

Well done, LumberJocks! Congratulations from Rockler!

Editor's note: Our guest blogger today is Barbara Howell: woodworker, business owner, and author of the 2009 book ''Splinters: The Pain, The Passion, The Point''.

Hands come in all sizes and shapes!

But if you are a woodworker there have probably been times you wished your hands could do more. Good grip is a major requirement. For me, as a woman, when I had to take over my husband's thriving woodworking business after an illness struck him, I was dumbfounded by my own physical handicap — small hands.

The type of woodworking I was doing required me to use a Radial Arm Saw to cut through several strips of plywood at a single time, and hope they would all line up properly after the fact. Unfortunately, because of the size and lack of grip in my hands these pieces would continually slide somewhat out of my control and leave me with crooked and unusable pieces of shelving for the display cases I made.

Thankfully, after sharing my problem with a fellow woodworker, he suggested that I purchase a small quick grip clamp, to hold my pieces steady. So, I found the smallest one I could — an Irwin Quick Grip. It worked!

As you can see, once the quick grip clamp is attached to the pieces, I can now easily hold the wood in place while the clamp does all the "hard work" for me. Thus, saving my hands from the constant strain of attempting to manhandle the pieces into submission.

I found this small, simple tool gave me the gift of grip! Regardless of your gender or your abilities, never underestimate the power of using a tool to solve a difficult problem.

About Barbara Howell:
Barbara Howell is the owner of Southern Ladies Showcases, a woodworking business specializing in custom, hand-crafted display cases with locations in Tennessee and Oklahoma. Most recently, Howell has began penning her tales of woodworking and her book, "Splinters: The Pain, The Passion, The Point" shares her stories of life as a woodworker. More information about Barbara and her book can be found at www.SplintersBook.com

The router table is the ideal way to rout parts to shape using a template. A flush trimming bit, the proper template and you are off! But getting the cut started can be a bit tricky. As the bit begins to cut the wood, the cutting edge wants to pull the bit into the stock. The bearing will keep the bit from cutting too deep, but until contact is made, there is real risk of tearout and dangerous kickback.

[More]

Ah, Pinewood Derby time. That magical time of year when you and your child spend hours in your workshop turning a plain block of wood and four plastic wheels into a lean, mean, racing machine.

    

[More]

Editor's note: This month, Rockler Woodworking and Hardware is pleased to introduce the Pock-It Hole Clamp™, a versatile new method of clamping pocket hole joints for properly aligned, tight fitting results when using pocket screws. We had Ralph Bagnall try out a couple in the shop, and here are his thoughts on the new clamps.

[More]

Staff Sergeant Frank Hendrickson, a Marine currently based in Afghanistan, has come up with some new uses for Rockler's Bench Cookies - in the metal shop and in the composite shop!

SSgt. Hendrickson wrote us saying, "I think that your Bench Cookies, although made for woodworking, would work on our composites that we work on. It would definitely take away the need for a second pair of hands to hold the piece of gear while the other grinds away at it."

[More]

In a world of whizz-bang gadgets and high tech tools, a recent thread on a woodworking forum reminded me that sometimes we need to stop, rewind and get back to the basics. The poster was lamenting that he had no idea how to drive a screw. This may seem silly, but it really is an honest question.

As a cabinet maker I use high tech, square drive, self drilling screws with nibs under the head that help them sink without dimpling the plywood. Just drive it and move on to the next.

But as a builder of reproduction furniture, I often need to assemble hardwood pieces using (gasp!) old fashioned, flat head wood screws, like this one holding the top of a small, two drawer table.

[More]

There are two more videos available in our series on Rockler Router Bits.

Take a look and see what the Reversible Sash and Door Assembly Router Bit and the 45° Lock Miter Router Bit can do for you! We'd love your feedback on these short clips. Are they helpful in understanding the bit, the setup, the potential? Anything else you'd like to see? Leave your comments below.

[More]

Today I'd like to share a great review for the Deluxe Sewing Center Plan. The review is not unusual - this is a great piece of furniture, and the plan (and our lift mechanism that goes with it) regularly get good reviews.

This week, however, Curtis Vixie of Susanville, California sent in a review that included some really fabulous pictures of the sewing center he built from the plan. (There are even more images if you click through to the review).

[More]

In Ralph's post last week on his woodworking resolutions for the New Year, we invited you, our readers, to tell us your own goals for the coming year. There were many great responses, and we've chosen our "top ten" to share with you (in no particular order). Some of the resolutions are uber-ambitious; some are quite simple. They're all interesting, and might give you some ideas for your own woodworking goals in 2010. You can read all of the comments here).

This list is the ten most common themes from our readers' woodworking resolutions.

[More]