More woodworking from Down Under

How bout those championship games yesterday? Good games: I really thought San Francisco could pull it off right up to a fumbled punt return at the worst possible time ever.
In Australia, cricket is very popular. I dont know much about the game, other than it employs the use of a flat bat. And when I see a cricket bat, I think of Shawn of the Dead.
Brenton Rawlings describes cricket this way: "A sport that most Australians will play in the backyard pretending to be good at it with only a select few who make a career from turning professional."Heres a set of cricket "Stump Shelves" he made.

And look: a picture frame with Brentons family pictured. Its made of Oak with a Jarrah inlay.

Finally, he sent over a picture of an awesome looking go-cart he made with his nephew for Christmas. I so want to ride this!

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John Steele works in the tech wing of a local school and tells me that my iWood video is compulsory viewing for all new wood working classes. Uh-oh! 

John describes his gorgeous turnings: 

"The motif is a gum leaf - inlaid into some random eucalypt hardwood. Commonly called Victorian Ash (gum trees from Victoria). The inlay is redgum burl. 

The last one American Ash- Fraxinus americana, and an Australian redgum burl shaped again as a gum leaf.  This could be seen as a symbol of the connection between our two countries (or it could be that I was given a few offcuts of American ash.)"

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Breaking down plywood

Dealing with cumbersome sheet goods is one of the least pleasant woodworking tasks, but something most of us encounter. A 4 x 8 sheet of plywood is very heavy and nearly impossible to cut on a table saw unless you have a really big set-up.
So the trick is to figure out a method to cut the sheets down to manageable sized pieces closer to the sizes needed for your project.
There are many ways to do this. Mostly you just need to figure out how to physically move the full sheet without breaking your back or worse, chipping the plywood edges! I like to cut plywood as soon as I buy it and use my truck as a workbench. After loading plywood into my truck, I rarely have to lift it again.
I then like to set up a straight-edge and make rough cuts, usually a half inch greater than I need, using a circular saw. I have also had success using a jig saw. The idea is to get the pieces small enough to square up on my table saw.
Here are the rip guides I use:
Empire Level 900 edge cutting guide
Kreg Rip-Cut
Accu-Rip
This video is my contribution to "Get Woodworking Week" over at Toms Workbench, a whole week of links and articles just for beginning woodworkers. Check it out.
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