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Our new-ish online editor, Tom Nunlist, started a little less that a year ago, and took like a Kentuckian to bourbon in his “real” job, which is to handle the backend of the web site, shoot and edit videos, write the weekly newsletter, help readers with online, er, challenges and more.
In other words, he was hired for his technological expertise, rather than his woodworking experience…which was zero.
But when he was hired, Tom expressed interest in learning more about woodworking than just the lexicon he’d need to edit our posts and write the newsletter. And now, he’s completed his first project for the magazine – a modular bookshelf and wine rack for the December 2012 I Can Do That column, under the expert tutelage of Robert W. Lang. (And FYI, the issue will be mailing to subscribers, both digital and postal, in two weeks).
Although I think Tom was disappointed that he couldn’t use the table saw for an ICDT project, he did get to plug in and use a miter saw for the crosscuts, a router to cut rabbets and a jigsaw for the angles on the ends of the shelf. Oh – and he got his first taste of hand tools with the block plane he used to clean up the joints. (Now, I need to teach him to sharpen a plane blade and teach him cut dovetails…ya know…lure him to the hand-tool side of things early in his avocation before he becomes too enamored of those tailed tools.)
You can read Tom’s first story now – like all of our ICDT projects, it’s free online. And if you’re at Woodworking in America this weekend (the Marketplace is open to the public from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, tickets are $10 at the door), try to find Tom (he’s about 25 years old…so look for a young fellow), introduce yourself and welcome him to the woodworking fold. He did a great job with his first project – we’re very proud.
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I was told by our webmaster that once one is logged in, the popup shouldn’t show. It’s supposed to show up only to those who’ve not registered/logged in. I’ll ask him to take a look.
Well done Tom!
Megan is right. For a first effort this is great, and a neat design.
All 40 of the bookcases in my house are butt-jointed and screwed together at the corners – this made flat packing them to move from England to the US a piece of cake.
As for the pop-up comments guys, like Flash PW’s pop-ups don’t show up on an iPad, so they won’t last long. Everyone is busy reworking their sites to go in the mobile direction, and I expect Popular Woodworking will be doing the same.
“took like a Kentuckian to bourbon”? That’s not hard to do… Life along the Bourbon Trail is quite enjoyable… the leaves have been turning pretty colors, too…
TWH / in Kentucky
I agree – that pop-up is a real nuicance! We all know you sell stuff, and we buy it when we want it. It would be nice if the pop-up was gone.
Hi Tom, welcome to the ICDT community. Good job! But – can you tell me why there is a double thickness of wood used for the central side of two cubes? I think it would look better with a similar thickness along each side. Your thoughts?
Megan, that central obstructing pop-up is a real pain. I suspect many of us check the PW blog site every day and having to kill that pop-up every time to see your latest is a nuisance. If you cycle among Chris’ blog and the editors’, you have to kill it every time you return to the home page. Using the site is not convenient when seeing the page is difficult. I wonder if it turns off more devotees than it attracts new subscribers or sells Roy shows, etc. We don’t want to harsh your mellow but could you folks just turn it into another conventional ad along the side? Thanks. We’re with you.