LIWC Woodworker Profile: Ken Lofink
The day before Thanksgiving, Steve Costello and I had the occasion to
visit with Ken Lofink. He lives in the area of the old Vanderbilt estate
in Oakdale. It's a beautiful location with dead end streets and curvy
roads, but the minute you're on Ken's street you can't miss his house.
Ken makes toys and furniture, and a few of these items can be seen as
lawn ornaments. We were met by Mrs. Lofink, who at the time was busy decorating
the house for the holidays. Mrs. Lofink showed us to the back of the house,
pointed to a pile of wooden toys, and shook her head in the direction
of the rear yard where Ken's shop stands. Ken proudly shows us around
his shop. After just a quick scan of his shop you knew he was justified
in his pride.
What we saw was a well-organized shop (a place for everything and everything
in its place), expansive and well equipped. A growing family caused Ken
to convert a garage to living space and a sewing room for his wife. Ken
is an energetic and cunning woodworker. What he saw wasn't the loss of
a garage and sometimes shop, but the opportunity to build a new shop.
No sooner was the garage conversion done than Ken started building his
shop in the back yard.
Ken's modest shop is a single level structure of two modules. One measures
16' x 20', the other 11' x 20'. Future plans call for expanding the smaller
unit to match the larger. The shop is heated by a large wood-burning stove
that also takes care of the scrap. Adorning the walls are a collection
of antique planes, saws and some open cabinets that house tools such as
routers. His equipment consists of all the basics and then some, like
a 24" belt sander, a pin router, two scroll saws and a router table
that's about 3' x 4'. The router table has a fence borrowed from an old
industrial table saw. And talk about lighting! He has two sliding glass
doors on one wall that face the back of his house. One is 8' wide, and
the other 6'. He has an overhead garage door over the 8-footer. Natural
lighting just floods the place. There's a window on the left side where
he has set up a small shop area for his grandson, who makes and sells
craft items.
A retired welder who worked on ships, boilers and structures of that
size, Ken has been woodworking for about 16 or 17 years. One day, he said
"enough", and retired. He needed something to keep him from
going bonkers, so he started woodworking. He is self taught. I guess he
was making dovetails on boiler plate and just kind of switched to wood.
Most of Ken's projects are made from #2 pine which he buys from Kirkup
Lumber in Bay Shore. He carefully harvests the material and comes up with
some nice clear stock. Ken makes no drawings for his projects. I know
several woodworkers who work this way. He has a good assortment of jigs
and fixtures for some of his repetitive items like his Beanie Baby house
and a rocking airplane.
Ken has been a member of the club for a year and jumped right in, contributing
and participating at the meetings and exhibition. His woodworking skills
are also evident in his house, where he's done extensive modifications
and enhancements to his surroundings.
I expect to see Ken become even more actively involved in the club -
maybe mentoring, maybe demonstrating. Nice work, Ken; keep it up.
