“It’s satisfying to be involved in direct patient care, the way primary doctors used to do years ago,” Sandry says. “The biggest reward is inspiring someone to change their sedentary life into one filled with fun and useful activities.”

Recalling those years prior to junior college and health care, Sandry would help his father, a remodeling contractor, build decks and refinish floors during his summer breaks from school. He admits that he didn’t realize it then, but those formative years were already teaching him about woodworking and how to do good work, generally. Two woodworking uncles — one a boat builder and the other a woodcarver — also influenced him.

Sandry’s mother is a writer, and her career helped shape his current publishing pursuits, too. “In the most basic sense, I build things and write about them,” Sandry says. “Talk about the acorn not falling far from the tree!”

Over the years, Sandry has gravitated toward Arts & Crafts style furniture, and we’ve published several of his projects embracing this aesthetic. While he appreciates the work of Gustav Stickley, Harvey Ellis, the Greene brothers and Elbert Hubbard, Sandry has a particular fondness for Charles Limbert. The Limbert “bug” caught him when he attended the 25th annual Arts & Crafts convention in Pasadena.

“Sometimes I’ll do Limbert reproductions, trying to match every angle and dimension. Other times I’ll let functionality guide the design and add in cutouts and inlays reminiscent of a Limbert piece,” Sandry says. “Limbert used angles, curves and cutouts in a recipe that almost always produced a beautiful piece. He had a few flops, but to me that’s a sign that Limbert wasn’t afraid to experiment with new styles.”

Among his resume of projects, Sandry tends to feel that the one he’s just completed is often his favorite. But, a special example that stands out for him over the years is a master bedroom suite that includes a bed frame, dressers and nightstands. He’s also pleased with an Arts & Crafts-inspired triple entertainment center he designed and a Limbert Hutch that ran in our magazine’s June 2019 issue.

Sandry’s work demonstrates a high degree of skill. But of course, no one becomes a talented woodworker overnight. Sandry admits that it’s taken many years to gain proficiency with the craft. He feels the evolution of his skills started with the ability to make joints fit together well. Then, he focused on his project design skills, and last came the ability to apply finish well. Laying down a quality spray finish — his preferred form of application — has actually helped him feel much better about his projects overall. “Once you take the leap into that whole world (of spray finishing), you start to see better results with a lot less effort,” he says.

Often, designing a project is his favorite step of the woodworking process. When he 3D models a new piece of furniture, Sandry tends to set the drawing aside for a week or so before committing it to a cutting list. The time away from his rendering can provide fresh perspective.

“When you revisit the design, does it still look good? Sometimes we need to see a form multiple times to know if it’s right,” Sandry says. “Quite often the characteristics that separate a great design from a good one are relatively minor. Add a corbel, remove a backsplash, make an inlay smaller … Ahh, just right!”

A number of years ago, Sandry’s penchant for Arts & Crafts projects — and the associated high cost of buying pre-seasoned, quartersawn white oak lumber to make them — prompted him to build a lumber drying kiln. His shed-style kiln (a project you can read more about in our June 2017 issue) now enables him to buy air-dried or green lumber direct from homeowners or sawyers and then dry it the rest of the way himself. It’s a cost-saving effort that also helps him better control the quality of how his lumber is seasoned.

“It changes the whole way I look at my lumber supply,” Sandry says. “I don’t calculate down to the board foot anymore. I buy by the stack and not by the board.”

Arts & Crafts has even inspired Sandry to try his hand at another craft: leatherwork. When he wanted to sew leather cushions for a Morris chair and ottoman years ago, he took a class to learn how. But the class ended up being over-enrolled, which forced him to learn most of the sewing process on his own. That actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“I practiced sewing piping and welting a few times, and I was hooked,” Sandry recalls. “There’s a real art to tuning and maintaining an industrial sewing machine, especially the old Juki and Consew walking foot models that I favor.”

While he might dry the lumber and sew the cushions for the projects he designs, writes about and photographs, one aspect of the process Sandry has decided against is sawing boards directly from the log.

“I debated about buying a band saw mill one year, but that same year a log rolled onto a sawyer friend of mine. He broke his pelvis, and it forced him to retire early,” Sandry says. “Right then and there my wife made me promise I wouldn’t get a lumber mill.”

But, provided he stays away from bucking logs, Sandry says his wife otherwise “heartily” embraces and encourages his woodworking. For a time she would even come out to the shop and help him with sanding.

“She doesn’t do that anymore,” he quips. But she does accompany him on many field trips to buy lumber, or attend conventions and browse antique stores for inspiration. Sandry’s woodworking has also sparked interest from his twin teenage sons. They occasionally build projects with him.

“If nothing else, it’s a special memory for me now and will be a special memory for my boys in 15 or 20 years,” he says.

With boards drying in the kiln, a supportive family and plenty of CAD drawings in the works, Sandry’s woodworking is an avocation that continues to offer new opportunities for both learning and enjoyment. There’s no question that he’s “all in.”

“If a chair needs a leather cushion, then all the better…let’s sew one. If a cabinet needs a leaded-glass panel, get out the soldering iron and let’s do this thing. And if someone reads about my work and is inspired to make something like it, well that’s just the cherry on top, my friend.”

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The 1/8HP, 110-volt Feeder can be used on router tables, shapers, band saws and other tools that benefit from consistent feed rates and hands-free operation. The motor provides a constant output, variable-speed range of between 6.5 and 56 feet per minute, to feed even large workpieces at whatever speed you choose.

Three spring-loaded polyurethane drive wheels ensure that workpieces will be held securely against the tool’s table and fence without marring the wood surface. An adjustable arm enables the Feeder’s head to be oriented either horizontally or vertically, depending on the application. Feed direction is reversible by flipping a switch.

An included template makes it easy to drill four mounting holes through a tool table for installation. Infinity also offers an adapter plate as an accessory for mounting the unit to a cast-iron table. Available soon, the Infinity Mini Power Feeder (item MPF-001) will sell for $399.90. The adapter plate for cast-iron tables (item MPF-ADP) will sell for $79.90.

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Tim Inman: In my humble opinion, there is NO safe hook angle for ripping on a radial arm saw. Ripping on a radial arm saw is just plain dangerous, and I would recommend you never do that. Hook angle has nothing to do with the danger; the climbing force vector of the saw’s design has everything to do with it. It just ain’t safe.

Chris Marshall: I had a radial-arm saw for a number of years, and it was an effective machine for crosscutting. There were those occasional times when, pulling the saw carriage through a cut, the motor seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to lurch forward on me. That kept me extremely cautious of it every single time I made a crosscut. It also kept me from using it with a dado blade. When a big conventional sliding miter saw eventually replaced the radial arm, I honestly didn’t miss seeing it go. I know there are many died-in-the-wool RAS users out there who regularly use their saws for rip cuts — and I mean no disrespect to them. But, ripping with mine was a technique that took more nerve than I was comfortable with. I did try it a few times, but it just never felt safe. I’d much rather use a table saw, band saw or track saw for that job.

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“I have four sibling granddaughters ranging from age 4 to 10. I wanted to give them a chance to learn some basic woodworking, as they already love to come into the shop — if just to play darts! Last year for their birthdays, I made each of them a simple pre-cut toolbox kit. Within a few months, I made time for each of them to work with me in the shop to glue and assemble the kits. They took them home and gave them custom paint jobs! They loved spreading the glue out with their fingers, carefully using the nail gun and having the exhaust blow their hair about, and drilling holes with the drill press, with their eyes looking through the safety glasses. For me, it was all about spending time with them and seeing their enjoyment and excitement with the finished product. This year I made birdhouse kits that we will assemble later this summer. My first two grandsons are coming up soon, and I plan to do the same with them.” – Bruce Johnson

“Some of the very best time I spend in my woodshop is with my two grandsons Jacob and Nathan (see photo, above). Over the course of several weekends together, spent entirely in the shop, the boys each built an Adirondack chair for their parents. Jacob built one for dad and Nathan built one for mom. They helped with everything from surfacing the lumber all the way to finishing and final assembly. We used cypress lumber, which is plentiful here in Florida. I made the templates that we used to make the parts, but then the boys took over and did pretty much everything. This is the result of their efforts.” – Jerry Carpenter

“I’m certainly not a father, but it was my own father, now gone, who sparked my interest in woodworking. When I was seven, we bought a little Cape Cod house in a tract, just like so many did in the early 1950’s. Daddy got the option with the unfinished attic, and he used the savings to get a Sears table saw. It stood on a big pedestal, and it was the ‘latest-and-greatest,’ with a steady table and a tilting arbor instead of the other way around. I was forbidden to touch it. I’ve lost track of how many Saturday mornings I spent with Daddy in that unfinished attic that he was finishing in knotty pine paneling to make a bedroom and playroom for my sister and me. My job on those mornings was to hold the other end of the board. When he was cutting short pieces off the long pieces of pine, I held the floppy end and walked it forward while he guided it through the blade with the utterly inadequate miter gauge. When he ripped a long piece, I caught the end and steadied it as it slid between blade and fence. I marveled at the dado set he got, which made mouldings. Eventually we had a lovely pine paneled bedroom, with built-in desks and cubby holes for school books and special items. Some of the best times I had with my father were those Saturday mornings. And above all, I didn’t touch the saw. Not until I was a grownup, but that is another story.” – Louise Heite

“These are my daughters, who are now in their 30s, and my grandson (see photos, above). I started them all early with the safe stuff — no power tools until they were tall enough to control them. Today my daughters are both very handy and creative.” – Rob McGloin

“My daughter, who now has 5- and 8-year-old boys, would spend lots of time in my shop as she was growing up. Her first activities that I remember fondly were her occupying herself with the shavings from my hand planing. With paper bags from the grocery store she’d draw eyes, nose, ears, mouth and so forth on them with a Sharpie. She would then busy herself with glue and all of those fine plane shavings adding hair, beards and mustaches to them. To this day, I’m reminded of that whenever using my planes! As she got older she had her own tools to work with, but seeing her creating faces on bags has a special memory for me.” – John G. Eugster

“When our kids were in first grade, their teacher tasked them to create a ‘Leprechaun House’ to share with the class for St. Patrick’s Day. My younger daughter, Barrett, took on that challenge with relish when she and I built her version from wood (see photo, above). She’s always been a tongue-biter when she’s really focused on the project at hand — and I think that habit may just have started with her efforts here. She’s nearly 19 now and busy with all things college. But this time spent building that little project still stands out in my mind as a special one. We’ve got it tucked away in a toy room in the basement to this day. In a few years when she moves away for good, I hope she’ll want to take it with her as a special keepsake from shop time spent with dad.” – Chris Marshall

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