How Id Do It Half Lap Joint

I enjoy those summer mornings my wife and I sneak out of the house and leave our girls to find their own breakfast (have no worries, two out of three are old enough to stay home alone and even the youngest has been pouring her own cereal for years). Naomi gets her coffee, I get a Diet Pepsi and we hit the area garage sales.
I dont enjoy these mornings because of I get to see mounds of toddler clothes, or various brick-a-brack and keepsakes, or even for the occasional circa 1970s jig saw.  Two things make me drag my carcass out of bed on these mornings, the first is the time I get having my wifes attention all to myself, (Im a selfish guy what can I say), the second is that I get to look around another dudes garage. If theyre woodworkers I get to see their shop layout and some of their stationary tools and that is like a little bit of crack to an addict.

I am not interested because Im casing the joint for nefarious reasons, in fact Im not completely sure why I like this so much. I think I feel a little validation when I see, in person, evidence that someone else finds the same tree sacrificing endeavors enjoyable. I also find ideas in those visits. I get to see floor plans that work and some that dont. I get to see storage solutions and individual answers to the same conundrums we all face in our shops.
With the idea that not everyone has the same answer when it comes to shop solutions, its also true not everyone has the same approach when it comes to executing joinery. More than a peek inside someones shop, I love a peek inside someones joinery decisions and process, and I know Im not the only one. Joe Ledington from the Sleepydogs Woodshop Blog started a bit of a movement, connecting woodworkers through Google+ and inspiring several of us with woodworking bloggers to join in whats been dubbed "How I Do It Friday"
On the last Friday of the month, we will all do a post covering how we chose to create one type of woodworking joint. This month, the inaugural month, were going to be starting simple and working on half lap joints.
I think I will be using this format as an excuse to play with a medium I have only dabbled in so far . . . video. Im hoping to get better and appear more relaxed than I have in previous attempts. I have worked in a classroom as a teacher and I regularly make presentations in front of crowds (sometimes a couple hundred people) with my living history hobby, but video is different for me. Maybe its the fact that the moment is preserved and I can come back and critique my perfectionist self again and again.
Unfortunately. after shooting and editing up the video, I came to the realization that through the whole thing, I consistently call the joints shoulder and the cheek by each others names. What can I say, dyslexics of the world untie! So, please bear with me. An now, without further delay, here is How I Do Half Lap Joints.

Take some time and check out the other contributors to How I Do It Friday
Joe Ledington at Sleepydogs Wood Shop
Andrew Detloff at Ravinheart Renditions
Matt Vanderlist at Matts Basement Workshop
Allison Slay-White at Scroll Dust Woman
Al Navas at Sandal Woods
Steven Taylor at The Taylor Garage
Tom Iovino at Toms Workbench
Jeremiah Rodriquez at Sawdust Is Life
Kenny Comeaux at The Wood Ninja
Dyami Plotke at The Penultimate Woodshop
M. Scott Morton at M. Scott Morton Woodworks
Chris Wong at Flair Woodworks
Todd Clippinger at The American Craftsman Workshop
If you blog and are interested in adding to the crowd and offering your own joinery two cents I suggest you drop Joe Ledington a line over at Sleepydog, Hes been voted our How I Do It Friday Team Captain. Or you can look any of us up on Google +
Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

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