Still, in the darkest of times, hope can come from unlikely sources. Earlier this year, neighboring Berea College — a top-ranked, four-year liberal arts school and one of eight federally recognized Work Colleges in the country — stepped forward and purchased the school from Mehler, renaming it “The Woodworking School at Pine Croft.” Next month, Pine Croft will receive its first class of students who will complete a two-drawer Shaker-inspired Side Table, under the tutelage of Kelly Mehler. Then, in August, a second project-based course (a Shaker-inspired Two Drawer Peg-Leg Stand) will be taught by Pine Croft’s new head of operations, Andy Glenn — a graduate of Boston’s North Bennet Street School.

While the pairing of a private woodworking school with an accredited college may seem unusual, “there’s a natural connection between the (two),” says Glenn. “Berea College has a 127-year tradition of supporting crafts training through its labor program.”

Since its founding in 1855, Berea College has had a work component to its educational experience. It admits only academically promising students with limited financial resources, primarily from Kentucky and Appalachia. Every student attends college tuition free, and those costs are covered by contributions from alumni and other donors as well as various grants. In exchange, students work 10 to 20 hours per week among the college’s 130 departments while pursuing their course of study. One of those departments is Craft, which comprises ceramics, broomcraft, weaving and woodcraft. Glenn runs the woodcraft program. It provides machine and hand-tool woodworking training in a production shop environment. The college sells student-built furniture as a revenue source to help offset tuition costs.

Glenn admits that his teaching role is unique. “In many ways, I’m a co-worker with the students — we are all working together to complete the projects that come through the shop … I work some at the bench, design our production pieces and custom work, continuously train our student crew and help maintain the flow of work through the shop.”

Aside from Glenn, five to seven other guest instructors will head up Pine Croft’s 2020 curriculum. That roster may also include Mehler who, Glenn says, is in full remission and doing well.

“Kelly’s been instrumental in his support and advice as we get the school up and running again,” Glenn says. “My hope is that he’ll teach whenever he’d like to and that he’ll be around as much as he’d like to be.”

At the time of this writing, only the two Shaker-project classes are slated for the remainder of 2019. Courses are tentatively scheduled to resume in April or May 2020 and will run through early autumn. A full schedule for next year should be available in mid-October, Glenn predicts, and registration for classes will begin at that time.

Initially, Pine Croft will be open seasonally and not year-round.

“Our plan for the first year or two will focus mostly on furniture and furniture-related skills. We’ll have classes that highlight regional designs and traditions as well as guest instructors who will bring their expertise from other regions,” Glenn says. “Kentucky has a strong furniture tradition, from works by the Shakers to distinctive Federal-style furniture to the chairmaking tradition of eastern Kentucky.”

Class sizes will be limited to 10 students or less. The school’s 2,400-square-foot building has a fully equipped machine room on the lower floor that can accommodate eight to nine students with no waiting. Eleven benches upstairs, illuminated by ample LED and south-facing window light, create a pleasant and spacious environment for hand- and power tool work and assembly.

Project lumber will come from the college’s private forests, whenever possible. “Our forests have a great variety of oaks, hickories and maples,” Glenn adds. “Our green woodworking classes will use local logs, and we’re working with the (Berea College) foresters on a stool project that uses ash from local stands before the emerald ash borer decimates available stock.”

Next year’s Pine Croft season will focus on public classes, but eventually Berea College students also will have access to the facility and its instructors. Glenn is excited about the prospects of both forms of educational outreach, as well as the opportunity to rub elbows with chair makers, studio furniture makers, woodturners and whomever else may come to Berea to teach at the school.

“Pine Croft is another way Berea College can support the greater crafts community as a whole,” Glenn says. “Berea College students will get to see working woodworking professionals, engage with class attendees and witness high-level craft — which I’m hoping will open their eyes as makers and provide new opportunities for them to grow as woodworkers.”

To learn more about The Woodworking School at Pine Croft, click here or call 859-985-3224.

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– Tracee Imai
Wexford, Pennsylvania

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To overcome that nuisance, I rub a little plain beeswax onto the baseplate, which reduces the friction considerably without leaving a residue on the wood. I’ve also tried paraffin wax for this purpose, but beeswax works much better.

– Father Chrysanthos
Etna, California

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With an overall load rating of 620 lbs., the Bora Tool PM-900 Kit includes four casters and sells for $89. It will be available later this month.

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Tim Inman: Paint pigments are basically ground dirt or glass. Non pigments are dyes. Dyes fade. Some dirt will fade, too, but not as much. Most paint pigments have non-fading ratings. If you use a paint outdoors, the pigmented stuff is what you want. Unfortunately, many coatings makers use both dyes and pigments in the same recipe. The upshot of this is that your colors will change over time as the dyes give out to the sun.

Chris Marshall: I’m not sure what the advantage of non-pigmented paint would be on an outdoor wood project. Pigments help to block the UV light that eventually causes wood to turn gray and degrade. They also help to give paint its color longevity, as Tim points out. If what you’re after is a semi-transparent color that allows some of the wood grain to show through, I’d opt for an exterior-rated oil-based stain, because it won’t peel off over time and become a refinishing hassle. If you decide to go with any form of paint, make sure that your treated lumber is suitably dry (below 12 percent moisture content) before you paint it. The pressure-treated lumber I see at home centers is often so saturated with water and chemicals that it literally feels wet; if you paint over damp wood like that, you’re compromising the paint’s bond to the wood. More than likely, it will peel when the wood dries out. Personally, I’d give those slats six months to a year of drying time first before painting. After all, with treated lumber, there’s no harm in waiting.

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I am sure this rain is enjoyed by your Minnesota mosquitoes. I have only been to your state one time. I was driving home from a trip to California and the west coast up into Washington and Mt. Rainier, way back in ’63. We had been to Duluth earlier in the day, and it was getting on toward darkness. We were looking for a place to spend the night. I would be sleeping in my sleeping bag on the ground, but my buddy Pete would be sleeping in the cab of my truck. He had seen a scorpion on the road in South Dakota on our way out to the coast, and he never slept out on the ground the whole rest of our trip. We were traveling through the lake country, and I found a lake with a campground after it had been dark for an hour or two.

I drove down to the campground close to water’s edge. The campers were all sealed in for the night. I observed that every tent or mobile camper was sealed tight. Outside, between those campers and our truck were millions of mosquitoes. Clouds of them. As we had approached the camp area, I had noticed a picnic site with a hand water pump on the hillside just above, about 100 yards up the slope. I beat a hasty retreat to that site. There were no pesky winged blood suckers flying around the site, so I rolled out my sleeping bag and pulled the flap over my head (just in case). Pete closed the truck windows and we went to sleep.

The next morning, it was still dark, and I am an early riser by habit. (I grew up on a farm in the Massachusetts Berkshires, and the cows taught me that before the daylight was chow time.) As I was coming out of my slumber, I became aware of a roar. At first, I thought it was a waterfall, but as I gained my senses I realized the country all around the lake had no serious drops in elevation where a waterfall was even possible. I realized it was the roar of the mosquitoes. I climbed out of my sleeping bag. There were no bugs of any kind flying around our private campground. I worked the pump and splashed water on my face and body, got dressed, packed my sleeping bag onto the truck, woke my pal and suggested we get rolling.

Pete, who was not naturally an early riser, climbed out of the truck, blinked his eyes, grabbed a towel and suggested he would go jump into the lake to wake himself up.

“I don’t think that is a good idea,” I warned.

I might just as well have saved my breath. Pete was on his way. In the dark, I heard a couple splashes as he charged into the shallow water, and then, “Yeowww!!!” and a couple more splashes. Suddenly, from out of the darkness, a very excited and naked Pete appeared. He refused to go back to get his clothes or even his towel. Since I had suspected his ordeal, I had no intentions to go retrieve his clothing. Somewhere, around the Minnesota lake country, there are mosquitoes wearing his skivvies left on that lake shore. Those mosquitoes were actually THAAAT BIG! – Wayne Tinker

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Grab some plywood and follow along with me to make one for your shop.

Making the Sides

Begin the side panels by cutting two 3/4″ plywood blanks to size, then lay out and remove the lower “stepped” portion from both using your band saw or jigsaw. Next, cut the top shelf to size, and make an overly long blank for the back panel that measures 16-1/4″ x 19-7/8″. Tilt the blade on your table saw to 45 degrees and slice off a 5″ piece from one end. This beveled offcut forms the French cleat for mounting the cabinet to the wall. Set it aside for now.

Switch out your standard blade for a dado set, and adjust it carefully so its cutting width matches the thickness of your plywood stock. Raise it a quarter inch above the table. Use your miter gauge outfitted with a long fence to support the side panels as you cut the top and bottom shelf dadoes. Notice that the top shelf dado intersects the stepped edge of the side panels. And remember, the sides are mirror images of each other — not carbon copies. This matters when orienting the panels correctly for dadoing.

With these dadoes done, crank the blade up to 1/2″. Clamp a sacrificial facing to your rip fence, then position the fence next to the blade to mill 3/4″-wide rabbets along the back inside edges of the side panels. These will house the back panel.

Before you can assemble your parts, chuck a 1/2″-diameter roundover bit in your router and ease the front bottom edge of the top shelf. Now clamp the shelf into its dadoes in the sides and use the shaped edge as a guide for filing the square corners of the sides to match the shelf. (You’ll also notice that the top shelf stops short of the back panel rabbet by 2-1/2″ — it’s no mistake. That gap makes room for the protruding nailing tips of your guns so they’ll rest flat on their magazines on the shelf.) Round over the bottom front corners of the side panels, too.

This is the right time to sand all of the project parts up to 180 grit. Mask off the dadoes and rabbets in the sides before applying finish. It’s easier to topcoat flat surfaces now than inside corners later!

Assembling the Carcass

Avoid making the same mistake I’ve made before when assembling parts with French cleats: Your back panel’s beveled edge should face into the cabinet, not toward the wall. Fasten it into the side panel rabbets with glue and screws to bring these parts together. Then slip the top shelf into its dadoes and attach it with glue and brads.

I made three dividers in sizes to support my guns and make them easy to grab, but the proportions should work for most models. Shape their top corners with a 2″ radius and round over the sharp leading edges. Finish the dividers before screwing them to the top shelf and back panel, spaced as needed to fit your guns.

Wrapping Up

Turn more plywood into the bottom cleat, bottom shelf and cabinet top panels. Finish and install them, locating the bottom cleat flush with the bottoms of the side panels — it creates enough clear space for the French cleat to fit through the cabinet back and up into place. Then find a wall stud to mount the French cleat — bevel edge facing the wall. Rest your cabinet on it. Drive another screw through the back panel in the upper cabinet area and into the stud to lock the project in place. Now load it up for full nailer convenience!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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