Thursday, February 12, 2009

Visited St. Roy's Shop

I cross posted this on a couple of forums (Old Tools, NC Woodworker) but wanted to keep a copy of it here for my own records.

I played hookey from work on Monday for a long lunch in the sunshine and
drove the 30 minutes down the road to Pittsboro, NC where Roy
Underhill is opening up a school for Galoot woodworking classes. I've
been hearing rumors and when I ran into him at the Woodworking in
America conference we spoke briefly about it. He was still waiting for
the benches and insurance to begin classes.

Well, he definitely has the benches! It looks all ready to go. It also
looks like a little slice of galoot heaven.

Now, you'll have to forgive the poor quality of photos, but I was
standing outside the windows looking in and taking pictures with my
iPhone on a sunny day.

That said...

Here's a view of the shop from the door.


There are ten benches, a spring pole lathe, a tredal wheel jigsaw and
a bunch of other stuff. Each bench has a carpenter's square lined up
along the corner, a small clamp, a bench hook and an assortment of
galootish tools underneath.

On the left side (facing in) is a saw sharpening bench with a backsaw
in the saw vise. (that giant plane is made of wood, including the
"iron")


Here's the left side again along with a bit of my finger. You can also
see the lathe on the right, and behind it the dark-colored pedal
jigsaw. Behind that is his little Roubo-ette bench.


Not sure what this is, but the window has plenty of odd bits and
pieces of things he's done on this show along with some whats-its and
a big old boring machine.








On the right side is a station with some sharpening things as well as
a couple of microscopes. Notice the picture of FDR up on the wall and
a poster from the WPA advising you to "Wear Your Goggles". You can
also see the reflection of another WPA poster that's in the front
window like they used to do.


Here's a picture of the benches on the right where you can see that
some have wooden planes as the tools you use.


On the left benches I saw some metal planes. It didn't seem like there
was a "wooden" side and the "metal" side, just that the front benches
reflected the diversity of viewpoints available. (nothing with tails)


The school in on the corner, and just around it is an essential
element for any woodworking school, the pub.


For more info this sign is on the door


It was a lot of fun peering into the windows. I can't imagine what it
will be like to actually take classes there. I'm psyched. :-)

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting the great pics! I'm DEFINITELY gonna make the 5 1/2 hour drive to check things out. His first four classes are full, but I'll get in eventually. May go down just to check it out and leave nose prints on the window! :)
    Your bench is looking good too. I'm in the process of building a Nicholson style English bench now.

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  2. I'll be posting a report of the class and try to take some pictures. I'm really looking forward to it.

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  3. Great article, thanks!
    John Gray
    Effingham, IL

    ReplyDelete

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