Great Tool for Sanding Maloof Inspired Rocker Laminations

Some of my hobbies include playing guitar, dobro and own several other string instruments. Recently, I was surfing a supply and tool site for luthiers called Stew-Mac. I saw a tool called "The Luthier's Friend." It was designed to sand small strips of binding or wood that are used to build guitars. It is a vertically mounted drum sander, fence attachment for the drill press.

Just like the rest of you guys, I don't have enough room. My 16-32 Performax drum sander takes up valuable floor space in my shop and costs $900. As a chair maker its only use has been sanding lamination's for rocker sleds. Maybe the Luthiers Friend (it hangs on a peg hook) could sand the few laminations that needed drum sanding and free up some floor space for assembly and carving. After Googling the name of the tool I found some info about the designer and gave him a call.

Ken Picou is a fine woodworker, tool maker and designer (http://www.bigtimebait.com/) in Austin, Texas. Ken sent me one to put through the paces.

The Luthier's Friend is a friend to anyone who needs to quickly sand thin strips of wood like my laminations. The operator simply sets the fence to reveal the desired thickness between the fence and the sanding drum. Don't take a big bite(just like the Performax drum sander) and pass the laminations through the opening. The base of the unit provides zero clearance with the bottom edge of the sanding drum (which is also outfitted with a roller guide on the bottom and is called a Roto-Sander). A great little dust control shroud picks up that pesky stuff. Way to go Ken you have a tool that does what it was designed to do. Save money over buying the big drum sander, and valuable space (did I mention it hangs on a peg hook).

The Roto-Sander can be used to duplicate the rocker's back legs from a template without the dangers of router table duplication with a two inch bit. Ouch!

It is available from Highland Woodworking.

New Patterns and Topographical Carving Studies Help you Build Your Maloof Inspired Rocker

I get a thrill out of seeing the chairs built by my friends. As a life long teacher I never tire of helping others achieve success.

Recently, I have been able to open some new pages on my website (www.charlesbrockchairmaker.com) in Chuck's Studio (named after my brother Quido) that I hope are just the beginning of new ways to utilize the technology available today to teach fine woodworking.

Last summer I was thinking about ways to update the design opportunities once a customer had acquired my instructional bundle. One of my goals was to offer a fairly open design that could be changed with alternative arm, leg spindle and headrest designs that would not alter the original rocker geometry. Woodworkers could build several different models with the same basic joinery and concepts. In other words, keeping it fresh. When my DVD bundle was introduced I had no idea how busy I was going to be with sales and woodworker support, new classes and such. Now I have finally gotten the new arm pattern tested and posted for your use.

Download the pdf onto a SD card, thumb drive or disk. Take it to a business that does wide format printing from a pdf and you have a new arm profile.

The newest item in Chuck's Studio (for member's only) is the first Topographical Carving Study (or TCS as we call it in the trade) Ha!Ha! What is this? I hear you say. It is a tool to help you see the contours of the rocker. It works just like a topographical map in concept (someone will email me and disagree I am sure) The white lines (applied with chalk on a perfectly good rocker) follow the chair's contours with a few notes written in for good measure. Actually the lines demonstrate applied current technology.

I hope you enjoy these new features and that these new tools have utility for you!

Group Rocker Build On Saw Mill Creek Forum

I have enjoyed reading the group build taking place on Saw Mill Creek Woodworker's Forum. It started on November 4, 2009 with a new post by a woodworker wanting to know if anyone new about the Maloof Inspired Rocker bundle and gave my web address. Since then a host of interested woodworkers have started their chairs utilizing the bundle and great support from each other. Every woodworker has a collection of different experiences abilities and shop tools available but they have a common dream. The mutual support helps with work-arounds, questions about how-to's, should I's and what do I do nows. They can also post pictures which you know are worth a thousand words. Check it out! http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=124002

Seven Day Build Your Maloof Inspired Rocker with Charles Brock Class

On January 12th, five fine woodworkers who journeyed from across the U.S. came to Maloof Inspired Rocker School with Charles Brock at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta. It was total immersion in band sawing, joining, routing, rasping, drilling, bending, gluing and scraping walnut stock into the parts of their dream rocker. Students rotated through stations while my assistant Mark McGowan and I gave whole group and individual instruction on each step of rocker construction.

See Seven Day Class Slideshow Click Here

Highland Woodworking's great staff supplied the class with two band saws which were constantly busy shaping the seats, arms, headrests, legs and seven spindles or "spokes" as one student called them. They each spent lots of bench time carving seven spindles into a matched set with rasps and spokeshaves. There was no log jam at the machines because you could always work on spindles.

Three Festool RAS 115s were used with Festool dust extractors to enable three student at a time to sculpt the contours of their seats without choking on the dust. Students also used Festool Dominos to align and strengthen the coopered seat joints.

Students took turns sawing the notches and dados in their seat to leg joints with a SawStop Table Saw. I said, "The SawStop technology allows safe table saw instruction in a class for the first time! Everybody should have this peace of mind!"

The goals of the class were met and everyone went home with their all parts fitted and shaped. It takes approximately 150 to 200 hours to build a rocker and each had completed the initial 70 hours. They shipped their rockers home knocked down ready to glue-up, shape, scrape and finish in their shop.

A dentist from Buffalo, NY said, "Charles and Mark made the experience more than fabulous. Their info and hospitality are winners. I have been to many dental technique courses--hands on-- and taught at many. This was like the very best of them I am very glad I partook in the course, and am recommending it to some of my woodworker friends."

I am offering another Build Your Maloof Inspired Rocker Class August 3-9. The class is limited to five students and he only has two openings left. The teacher student ratio is 5 to 2 so each student can get full benefit of the instruction as they build their own dream rocker. Contact me at rocknchairman@gmail.com to inquire.

Going Pro as a Woodworker Part 2 - Is It for You? The Thrill of It All

The life of a professional woodworker/ furniture maker is a dream to most 9 to 5'ers. Having been one for thirty years I knew what I wanted to do once I earned my retirement. There is not a day that I don't count my wonderful blessings personally and professionally.

Maslow's revered Hierarchy of Needs has a top level called self actualization. As a productive, professional woodworker I honestly feel I have arrived at this level. I am who I am supposed to be, doing what I do best for people who value my work. More people should be blessed to achieve this level of fulfilment. From the hymn ,"I was lost but now I'm found." I get to work with what I have to make one of God's most beautiful creations into something of form and function. The ideas flow when you work freely with your two hands and are fortunate enough to do it with a sense of trust and not desperation.

When you are confident about your craft and your personal story, I have found that people will listen and ask questions of you concerning every aspect of what you do. You have to mention to people what you do. Very few people make a living as a chair maker. When I am asked about my "job" or volunteer people usually want to know more or they want to tell you about a piece they have from Aunt Gerdie that needs repair, etc. The thrill is you are the rare person in most settings and people will want to connect with you. Connecting with people over something you are passionate about is a thrill.

There is also a sense of permanence in creating furniture for clients. I run into people all the time that I made a bed for in the eighties or have a table that I designed for them. When they still own it and value it you are a success. Well-made furniture transcends generations. Most of my pieces will have life after I am gone. I have wondered about the hands and spirit of previous furniture makers whose worked I have repaired. This connection with fellow furniture makers from other generations is another thrill.

For you to survive financially, the customer must view you as an artist. First you have to be confident that you are an artist. It is not done through calling yourself an artist. It is achieved by asking for and receiving a very good wage for your work. Sam Maloof called himself a "woodworker." Everyone else including his business partners supported him as an artist. The price of his work showed he was more than a woodworker. Your work shouldn't be priced as a starving artist. If it is you will starve. It's a thrill to be able to pay the bills with money made from creating something of value.

Giving each piece your best is the only way to success. I learned a lesson with my first rocker commission. I had asked for (with knees shaking) and received an artist's price for the rocker. I worked and sweated over every detail. My wife kept saying, "Why aren't you finished with that chair?" My answer was that it was not my best yet. When I finished and the customer picked it up they were over-joyed with my work. A few nights later, I heard a knock on my shop door. The customer identified himself and I opened up and was surprised to see him thinking surely something was wrong with the rocker. He said he and his wife just loved the rocker and felt like it was art worth even more than they paid. I received a 20% tip or bonus for the chair and the other chairs he ordered. The blessings from doing your best never stop. Actually your best is really something excellent.

Doing your best and being recognized for it is the thrill of it all!

Part 3 of Going Pro - Is It for You? Will deal with how do you advertise and build a market for your art.

Going Pro as a Woodworker: Part 1 - Is it for you? The Dark Side

I was traveling before six in the morning recently, on my way to do a personal appearance as a woodworker. There was a big chance that I would hit snow driving north in the early hours. Why was I up and about at that time, driving into who knows what? As dawn broke I saw other people, grim faced, headed to work. This caused me to think about some of the other jobs to which I had trudged, day after day, five days a week. Who do I have to answer to now? What makes me do this? Is it worthwhile?

On 11 AM on Christmas Day past, celebration was interrupted with loading a rocker into an SUV to make a delivery to a local bank president's family. I had worked nonstop for two to three weeks to finish the rocker as a Christmas present from a father to a daughter's family. Everybody else was Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, cooking Christmas goodies, but I was in the shop with rasps, scrapers and sandpaper in hand. The muscle memory is easy when you are constantly moving your hand and arm back and forth, back and forth, forth and back, on and on. Why? Why? Why? When I finish this rocker, fortunately I get to craft another one and do this all over again!

My hands have grown gloves. They are rough. They are a purple-lish brown all the time from the walnut. I've got a scar running across my palm and an index finger that always feels like it has an electrical current running through it as a reminder of what can happen while working half asleep.

It's all about your point of view at the time. You have to be able see the big picture, understand what motivates you, knowing that nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice, and that the possibility to achieve only comes when we complete the drill. You also have to work hard at the task at hand, be it sanding, measuring, coming up with a work around, paying the bills, working on the website or planning to connect with someone with enough money and interest to pay you to build one.

Sounds like a great life! Huh? It is not for everybody. I am not an overnight success with the DVD bundle. A good friend explained it to me recently. "You learned your trade one success and one failure at a time for thirty years building furniture. You worked your plan to finish raising a family as a full-time educator while you worked nights building furniture commissions for clients. You retired from one career at the same time you finished the DVD, book and pattern bundle to go with teaching sculptured rocker making at Highland Woodworking. You paid your dues many times over. You finished the drill!"

Sam Maloof told hundreds of woodworkers and want-to-be pros at his workshops that with all his talent, making a living was hard. He said the mailman would eagerly celebrate with him with the coming of a check and despair at delivering the bills. If you have mouths to feed it all becomes real very fast. You have to have support. Meaning there has got to be someone willing to carry your water while you work your plan.

Can you finish the drill? The next post will explain why finishing the drill can be worth it to you!

Part 2 - Is it for You? The Thrill of it All!

The Maloof Inspired Rocker Russian Style

Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat" describes the world's new reality. The computer and the Internet have made it possible for people to connect via virtual bridges of interest anywhere on the globe.

Woodworkers of the world unite! Before my Maloof Inspired Rocker bundle became available with the DVD through Highland Woodworking, I sold a small booklet and the full-size patterns on my website http://www.charlesbrockchairmaker.com/. Each morning I would open my email and see if I had any new purchases from my PayPal account. There had been many sales to Canada and even Sweden, but one morning as I wiped my eyes I saw a name written in Russian. Vladimir Parfenov eagerly agreed to pay the cost of the extra shipping to get the package to Moscow, Russia. To me this was very special!

I was a middle school student during the Cold War. We lived in fear of nuclear Holocaust. Neighbors built fall-out shelters and we practiced getting under our desks at school in case of a blast. This was kind of funny to me because the desktop was wood and I figured would only accelerate our destruction. The Cuban Missile Crisis worsened our fears to the point that twelve or thirteen year old boys were talking about "the end" rather than girls and Mickey Mantle.

Now I am sixty years old and I have connected with Vladimir in Russia and he anxiously wants to build my rocker. He told me he was a beginning carpenter and was very motivated to achieve. His emails are either translated through software or he speaks and writes some English. On the fourth of July, he emailed me saying" Happy Independence Day!" This was a great moment for me. I learned that the world (as Thomas Friedman said) is virtually flat. People can connect and unite to build those bridges through common interest threads like woodworking. Vladimir and myself are probably more alike than different. How alike I may never know.

Yesterday I received the Vladimir's pictures of his finished chair and thanked me for my help.

Read the next issue of Highland Woodworking's WoodNews eMagazine to learn of Vladimir's story. I have asked him for pictures of his shop, tools and to find out about his experiences as a woodworker. The opportunity to see how a Russian woodworker pursues their love of the art will be I hope enlightening.

I was thrilled to have my rocker patterns reach around the globe, but best of all to have an opportunity to make a friend in Russia. Woodworkers and the Internet have helped us join hands and be "Comrades" after all this time.