Oh dovetail, my dovetail

I recently recited this original poem at the annual CFC talent show. I share it here in all its corny glory for your enjoyment.

Oh dovetail my dovetail, you're so strenghthy and good
you're my absolute favorite, to cut in to wood
I'll cut out the tails, and then on to the pins
for the other way round, 'tis a capital sin

The tails are all cut, but some are not square
I'll fix them right up, with a chisel I'll pare
they're now mostly square, I’ll call good enough
This dovetail joint thing, who said it's so tough

When sawing the pins, the line do preserve
good golly I'm sunk, my saw it did swerve
the line is all gone, it's a major mishap
perhaps now some sawdust, to fill in the gap

This is taking too long, to Lie Nielsen I go (1)
to by lots of tools, to banish the slow
these tools are not ready? I'm so mad I'll spit
don't give me that line, they're only a kit (2)

I've finished the thing, it's time to glue up
dry clamping's for kids, I never screw up
I'm only half clamped, there's tons to do yet
but it's 8 minutes later, and the glue it has set

I need the persuader, to get this joint sweet
ten mallet whacks later, both sides of it meet
but a fissure has formed, some call it a crack
of course the solution, is to paint the thing black!

Oh dovetail my dovetail, your depths have I plumbed
you've kicked my behind, and you’ve made me look dumb
I've struggled the struggle, I've seen highs and lows
but next time for sure, I'll use dominoes

<<A few notes that might clarify things for the non-CFC crowd>>
(1) The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship is just down the road from Lie-Neilsen Toolworks.
(2) Peter Korn has a saying that when you buy a tool it's not really a tool but more of tool kit--it must be tuned up before it's a tool

Machine tuning weekend community class

This past weekend (Feb 2 & 3), we ran our first weekend long, Machine Setup, Maintenance, Repair and Tuning class here at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. We packed a lot into 2 days and managed to cover most aspects of setting up and tuning the major machines found in most shops (table saw, bandsaw, jointer, and planer) as well as presented a few nice jigs for aiding in setups.

Below are a few pictures from the class.

Calibrating the knife height on the jointer

Wayne turning the carbide
teeth on the 12in jointer

Gary changing the jointer knives

Andrea setting the knives on the 8in jointer