This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a one day hand-cut dovetails class with Erie Conover at his shop in Ohio.
The class was excellent, and I met some interesting people. I will take more classes from Ernie in the future. He has a great classroom/shop with a teacher’s bench for him and 8 full benches for the students (one each). Lots of natural light. A great environment.
His website is here: http://www.conoverworkshops.com/
I will post more later about the class, but one of the side-items that I took away from the class is that I REALLY liked using a workbench with a tool tray after-all (or hamster run as Chris Schwarz calls it). I’ve never worked for any period of time on a bench with a tray, and I had no intention of building one into my workbench project…but now I am reconsidering. Having a place to put my tools where they will not roll onto the floor was very nice.
If I do install one in the bench, it will have a removable bottom. At the end of only one day of class at Ernie’s, mine was full of shavings. So, Chris was right…but it may be worth it anyway.
By the way, Ernie let slip that he is in the final stages of writing a book on dovetails (including the history of their use and styles). He says that it may be out by late 2008 or early 2009.
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About mattsanf
Matthew Sanfilippo is currently Executive Director of PSII (Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator) and the CenSCIR (Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure), Associate Director of ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
Prior to CMU, Matthew was Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, a large engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed a technology consulting division for Baker including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality (VR), visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services.
Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on Information Security, Supply Chain, Network and Mobility Solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies after investment.
Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, a Boston-based engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up division that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is current board member and past Chairman of the Board for the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania, a board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), and a former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also a former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
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