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Home made disc sander project

Shane — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:08:59 +0000

Well I took the first major step towards getting this done. I bought a Dayton motor off of CL today for $25. 3/4hp 1725 rpm. That should be plenty of power without going over. The guy said he got it at a parts auction and it may not have ever been used. It sure looks pristine. Now to rig up some sort of sanding wheel attachment once my foot heals and I can get back in the shop.

Pendulum Mantel Clock

Skitz — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:58:53 +0000

A wedding gift I made for a friend. A beech body (been hitting the gym) with bookmatched walnut and aluminum slug face. A compact pendulum kit from Klockit rounds it out.

A fun gift with a lot of firsts for me, first mortise & tenon, first book matched panels, curved rails, first clock I guess….

Inspiration from poohBaah and splintergroup

Thanks for looking!

Shelf space

hodji — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:37:26 +0000

I just finished these shelves and desk. shelves are 36’ long and stand floor to ceiling. Desk is 7’ long.

Walnut Side Table Quandry

docspencer — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:07:05 +0000

I have two nice pieces of walnut that I plan to use to make a side table. Both pieces are variegated in color – mostly dark in the middle and lighter on the outsides. Neither piece is wide enough to use alone for the table top. In fact, I don’t like using single wide boards for table tops for fear of warping. In any event, given the differences in color deciding how to cut and put them together seems tricky. Also, until I actually start cutting I can’t visualize how different combinations of cuts and joining together would look. I hope this makes sense. I would imagine some of you folks have faced this before – any ideas about how to proceed? I can post a picture or two of the two boards if it would help.

Video: Efficient Chip Carving

MyChipCarving — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:04:09 +0000

Eggs for the Legs

Halc — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:57:41 +0000

I refinished an old drop leaf table that had been in my wife’s family for many years. I’m sure it wasn’t worth too much even when it was new, but it sure serves a practical purpose for us now. Without leaves and the sides dropped down the table is only 24” long and 40” wide. With the two sides up and the three leaves in it is 90” long and 40” wide.

When you pull the table apart to insert the leaves the two outside pairs of legs slide on the carpet. I was worried the brass toe caps would catch on the carpet and cause some damage. I don’t have a lathe and didn’t want to spend too much time shaping something, so I bought these wooden Easter eggs from Amazon.com and band sawed them in half. I had to shape a very slight concave arc on the cut side to match the curve of the leg. I attached each one with glue and a screw. The legs now slide easily on the carpet without catching.

One of the table’s legs was broken. I glued it together and recessed a mending plate with screws to hold it. I used pocket screws to reinforce the joint where the legs attached to the column. After staining you don’t notice the pocket hole patches. The tops of the table were badly scratched and I sanded through the veneer trying to sand out the scratches. I used a new cherry veneer with pressure sensitive adhesive to fix the tops. It was all finished with a couple of coats of General Finishes Candlelight and several coats of Arm R Seal.

rustic dresser

Chiromade — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:09:37 +0000

rustic dresser to match my bed!

I hang my hose in Texas

thephantomcarpenter — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:03:43 +0000

Bolts to a post or wall to hold a garden hose

carter hand jointer

ferdrobert — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:03:24 +0000

i have just bought a electric carter hand jointer but can find no info on it any help here thanks

Need a big slab!

Chiromade — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:29:41 +0000

Hey LJs, Looking for a Live-edged 70”x20” wood slab. Does anyone know where I can get something like this?

Dead Blow Mallet

Steve Panner — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:57:44 +0000

Weather got worse so I’m back into my “shop” turning. One of the first projects was this mallet inspired by Chris Pine.

It’s made of a standard 3/4 brass “T” fitting that is partially filled with lead pieces. Heads are threaded so they can be changed easily and I plan to make a set of them in different shapes and materials.

I’ve made a video of the whole process: https://youtu.be/Ov66b2ZwRiQ

Fliptop Tool Stand Video

GodofBiscuits — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:16:49 +0000

I created a video showing the construction of a Fliptop Tool Stand I built for my planer and oscillating spindle sander. My shop, like so many others is inside a small two car garage with some days feels like a one car garage. Space is not something I have a lot of and because the house I live in is a rental and only temporary, I can’t build cabinets like I’d like and or don’t want to put in the effort to build something that I’ll just have to remove and take apart when I finally move into a house I own. Mobile tool stand on the other hand can be easily built and moved without too much trouble and in the case of this stand, reduces necessary floor space and makes it mobile so I can move it out of the way when it’s not in use.

Head on over and take a look at the video and let me know what you think. This is my first ever build video and I couldn’t have done it without the motivation and know how of other youtube creators such as Mathew Cremona, Jimmy DiResta, Steve Ramsey….. the list goes on and on.

View on YouTube

Just a quick survey to determine...

Hinge — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:54:25 +0000

the Christianess of our site. The Jesus is my savior. Is the Jesus your savior? I know we shouldn’t be talking this subject but my curiosity got the best of me. What are our demographics? Do we have Jewish or Muslim woodworkers? If so, do they do woodworking the same as us? How do Hindus woodwork? Any secrets or tips?

Yarn Bowl

John — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:41:12 +0000

I have a few members in my family that knit so I thought a Yarn Bowl would come in handy. This one is Spalted Maple, 10.2” in diameter and 3.7” tall. It has a salad bowl finish. I’ll make the slots and holes a little bigger next time.

5 X 8 Hardboard

RandyPenn — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:33:30 +0000

Does anybody know if hardboard is available in 5×8 sheets? I built and outfeed/assembly table and it’s 5×8. I would like to put a hardboard top on it but not sure how a seam would work out.

Thanks
Randy

Need some info on a Jointer

kbrown1407 — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:32:53 +0000

Hello all. I am in talks with someone for a Jet 8” Jointer 230 V 2 HP 1Ph JJ-8CS. The photos appear to indicate the unit is in fairly good condition (I will have a chance to verify this and that it works appropriately). I did find out that the blades are in need of sharpening. The price we are at right now is $500. Here are my questions:

The unit appears to be green but may be blue, I can’t tell. I’ve been able to find out that these were the first 2 colors of 4 in the history of Jet tools. Does anyone know anything about this particular period of JET tools? I can’t seem to find much out there for a unit of this color/period.

Assuming the blades are bad, anyone know if a helical head is available for this unit?

Any thoughts on that price? Good, bad, so so?

Thanks in advance for the input

KEHOE

Midway — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:32:17 +0000

What happened to KEHOE they are my favorite dovetail ?

Paulk style workbench.

TheRealMcCoy — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:31:37 +0000

First project since joining. It’s a copy of the paulk workbench. Have a fairly small shop, so being able to disassemble and store/ set up in about 5 minutes is a big plus. I have the height set so it can also function as an out feed for my table saw. (Paulk actually attaches a saw to his table, mine is on a rolling stand already so I chose not too.)
The table is sturdy and stable, the dog holes are useful, although the festool clamps are high dollar, I have 4 but need more, if anyone has ideas for other clamps that will work with the 3/4” dogs please let me know!
I’ll be looking over the sight for ideas on how to best use space in a small shop, looking forward to getting know some of you.

HELP: Attaching stainless steel legs to a wooden baker's benchtop & food-safe finish

MedBaker — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:31:25 +0000

Hi,
Hopefully, I am in the right place :)... I am having a baker’s bench built for myself here in Cyprus. Very simple… a 4-inch thick beech wooden top (80 cm by 200 cm) to be prepared by a carpenter, and a stainless steel leg frame to be prepared by an industrial kitchen shop. Since it is not common at all here to have kitchen work benches with wooden tops and nobody sells this kind of stuff, I am having to have the pieces built separately and put them together. I have two questions:

1- What is the best way to attach the steel frame that will be built (see photo) to the wooden bench top? I was thinking of simply having some holes made in the frame maybe 4 or 6 of them, and screw the frame into the bench directly. Would that be OK for the integrity of the wood? Would it be sturdy/stable enough? Would you be able to refer me to some details that I can show to the guys that will be building the steel frame?

2- The carpenter I am working with is not aware of any food-safe finishes. I mentioned some that is typically used in the US, but he didn’t know. He mentioned teak oil, but I don’t think that’s food safe. So, I am asking him to have no finish on it, and was planning on applying something natural myself. Any suggestions? Beeswax? My wife is in the US right now and will be coming back in a week or so. I was thinking maybe I could ask her to grab a food-safe finish for me and bring it out here (as long as it is of course plane-friendly…).

Thank you much in advance for your time,
Hazim

Torsion Box Countertop, 40" x 14 feet

SawdustTX — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:16:18 +0000

Needed a 40” deep by 14 foot span countertop to support over 300 pounds of Audio gear in our church. The original builder installed counter had sagged an inch in the middle, so I wanted to build something seriously stout to replace it.

After much reading on LJs, I went with a torsion box of 3/4×1 1/2” ply ribs spaced 8” on center with half-slot joints, and sheathed in 3/4” ply top and bottom. Assembly was made more challenging by how warped the plywood was two days after bringing it home from the box store. Love the torsion box design – it ended up flat as a pancake!

I added some screw blocks within the grid so I could screw clamp the middle of the skins down during glue-up, and for wire pass-through holes.

To be able to transport this beast, I built it in two 7 foot long sections, then joined them onsite at install, with a center post support recessed 8” back from the leading edge of the counter.

Formica laminated, with a final one inch wide “bridge” strip installed after the counters were joined to create a seamless surface.

Next time – I’ll use solid wood for the ribs, and thinner skins, probably 1/2”.

Now I need to find time to make a couple torsion box tabletops for my shop!

Made a finger joint type jig for my miter fence and cut the half-slots with a dado blade.

Video from My shop: From Pallet to Farm Crate

BenhamDesign — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:55:18 +0000

The Pallets in my shop tend to stack up as materials for projects arrive. So to get rid of them I decided to build a few farm crates which after I was done I took down to the Local craft shows and farmers markets. They are an easy sell. It seems everybody loves a good farm crate.

Please watch the video below and subscribe to my Chanel

Watch on YouTube

You can find more about the furniture I build at www.benhamdesignconcepts.com and more about me at my blog www.briansbenham.com

Small bevel gauge

bdresch — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:24:12 +0000

I am making a stool that includes several angled thru tennons. I started by hand cutting the mortises. Now I want to transfer the angle of those mortises to cut the tenon shoulders. Does anyone know of a small bevel gauge with a blade less than 3/4”? Otherwise I’m not totally sure how I am going to transfer those angles. The mortises are 3/4” square.

Workbench

JerryLH — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:23:59 +0000

I like to use live edge along with traditional joinery. The table has now metal fasteners.

Bespoke Wall-mounted Holder for Your Shop, Office or Bathroom

ChuckM — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:58:08 +0000

Customize and build this coopered holder with hand tools or power tools as you wish.

Measured drawing: http://tinyurl.com/npghqxu

Supplies:
Hidden hinge – http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=72734&cat=3,41241
Binding tape – http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70856&cat=1,110,43466

Ball catch – http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=43248&cat=3,41399,41405

Hell Bent

KelSnake — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:30:11 +0000

As most of you know already, I like to design puzzle boxes that feature wooden mechanical locking systems. Add to that a passion for recycling, or upcycling as I call it.

I like to find unique vintage boxes in antique stores and then retro fit them with the locking mechanisms. This one is a fine specimen of leather bound boxes.

Every different kind of material was used from my offcut bins. Now, this lovely box is made all the more desirable with it’s lil 9 moves to open retro-fit.

I just couldn’t bear making a design that would have had me drill through the detailed leatherwork.
The ‘wand’ is what makes everything move inside.

Comments and questions always enjoyed.

Fountain pens

Brady — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:20:32 +0000

I have been trying to overcome the “inventory issue” that my wife says I have. We have shows coming up and I’m low on pen inventory.

Here are a few of the pieces that came out of the shop yesterday. The first two are Victorian fountain pens. The first is made from buckeye burl. The second is from Pollyanna burl.

I also used some of the canarywood that I made razors from (see previous project) on some Duchess pens. They are the middle pens in the fifth picture.

All of the pens have a CA finish.

Comments and critiques welcome!

Large trifold mirror, paired with a second structure for rear viewing?

Sanman99 — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:16:38 +0000

Hello everyone! Last project I had been on here about really turned out like I hoped. This time around, I’ve got an expensive idea that’s important to me and I need to figure it out.
I’ve contacted a local mirror place who might be willing to give suggestions and I also know a handyman or whatever you call his job.
I’m not very experienced in this field, but I always put great effort and stress into whatever I set myself towards.

What I’m planning is a large-ish trifold mirror paired with another mirror structure (maybe tri or bi or single) so that I can stand and see behind my own back.
The angles and construction are crucial here.
I’m almost certainly gonna have to post back when I find my apartment layout sheet or I can snap some pictures.
The purpose is to be able to practice posture, adjust and flex my shoulders so they are in proper place (exercise), maybe other stuff such as vanity or walking or (dancing haha). I’m putting a pretty penny down and this is gonna fill up tons of space in my apartment. I’ll rearrange my furniture according to this.

The angles! Oh, the arms of the trifold have to have the right length and angles. Maybe adjustable angle. This likely won’t be practical to make freestanding. Another dilemma is how far away the second structure will be, making the image seem a mile away once it bounced back and forth.
The lighting, maybe I’ll someday want to install a fitness machine, the angles, making the second structure a single or bi or tri?
Please let me know if there’s other info needed, if you guys might have any advice, anything. You guys rock ;)
Hopefully I can go find my camera or layout sheet, if not just sketch it or measure.
Thanks y’all.

Osprey, Intarsia.

ElmwoodIntarsia — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:19:23 +0000

Returning to my favorite pastime, “Intarsia”. Designed by Bruce Worthington, I used Walnut, Aspen, Sycamore and Ebony to create this Osprey. I used three varying walnut stains and white acrylic.

Bookcase

ElmwoodIntarsia — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:11:34 +0000

Though I am not a furniture or cabinet maker. My wife asked me for a long time to build a bookcase for her. I went with Maple and a Cherry stain. This came out nice.

Birch Wall Cabinet with Spalted Maple Panel

djg — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:08:58 +0000

The cabinet is made from birch and some spalted maple. All dados, rabbets, grooves, dovetails, and final planing done by hand. The walnut knob was turned on the lathe and a wooden friction bullet keeps the door shut with a subtle click. The drawer opens and closes like a piston. When you pull/push the drawer you can feel air being expelled through the finger hole. the drawer is tight enough not to be sloppy but loose enough to open. Spalted maple was a bit of a nightmare to deal with….I learned quite quickly that some of the wood was a little punky and needed wood stabilizer which worked like a charm. It is awaiting installation at the Craft council of NL gallery in November for their annual Christmas exibition.

We have a similar key cabinet in our entry way. It hangs on the wall on a french cleat. We use ours religiously. It takes some habit forming but once you get used to putting your keys in, you’ll always know where to find them. Its a great place to store your main key sets and the drawer is a great place for odd keys that you have laying around.

The peice was finished with a hand rubbed oil/varnish blend. Hope you like it.

My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #1630: Deadlines

Sheila Landry (scrollgirl) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:03:43 +0000

Welcome October!

Our last day of September went out with a bang. It was probably one of my most 'unfavorite' days of the year weather-wise. (Is that even a WORD?) It was very warm and humid, but it was also very rainy and windy which made it difficult to have the windows open without the rain blowing in. YUKKY! I was warm and uncomfortable most of the day. Thank goodness that it seems much cooler this morning. It is still breezy out and overcast (and I believe raining a bit) but nothing like yesterday. I feel much more comfortable and happy.

The last few days have been a whirlwind for me. On top of several orders that had to be cut and shipped, I have had several deadlines to meet as well. I had thought that with the magazines not being around anymore that things would have slowed down a bit, but I think the opposite has been true. It seems that there are more opportunities than ever ahead for us and keeping up with everything sometimes turns into quite a juggling act.

Believe me though – I am NOT complaining! It is what I have been working towards for many years and it is fun and exciting to see everything unfolding. I hope things keep going in this direction for both Keith and I.

Yesterday I completed the pattern for the cool Autumn Harvest banner that I showed you all last week:

It is now available at Toletown and free to members. If you are not a member, it would be a great chance to join and give it a try. There are many very reasonable ways to become one. You can also purchase individual projects and classes I do believe, so you can look into that as well. It will be available on my own site in November.

The pattern is very detailed, as I geared the instructions all levels of painting (even beginners!) and has over 45 step-by-step photographs to guide you through the easy painting process. I find that when things are broken down into small steps, it makes things very easy for people to learn and gives them the courage to try. I hope I accomplish this with all of my patterns.

Checking that off of my list was a big accomplishment. I still am going to create a short video showing some of the painting techniques, but I will be doing that over the weekend.

I have some other deadlines to finish today as well, and I will be moving on to them next.

I also wanted to mention that Keith added another beautiful pattern to our site last night. He made this lovely SLDK616 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing sectional plaque pattern to go with his SLDK615 Silent Night sectional plaque pattern that he created last week.

I think both of them are lovely and will make beautiful gifts as well as keepsakes.

I hope you stop by our website and see all the wonderful holiday patterns we offer.

Today I am finishing up on (you guessed it!) more deadlines. I have a couple more ahead of me before I can start on some new projects of my own. I hope to keep pushing the piles though and creating patterns and instructions that everyone will have fun making.

I used to think that being self-employed meant that you got to do whatever you choose. The more successful our business becomes, the more I realize that the opposite is true. Without deadlines (self-imposed or otherwise) we wouldn't have a successful business and be able to do what we love. They are great guides to keep us on track and keep our productivity high. They also help keep us organized, which is probably one of the most important things to being successful.

I wish you all a wonderful day! Happy Thursday to you all!

Nakashima Inspired Bench

djg — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:40:09 +0000

I have been holding onto a couple of peices of live edge oak crotch for some time in hopes that it would “speak” to me. It was originally destined for firewood. One day I decided it looked like a bench top. I happen to have some walnut on hand so I started. I never work from plans but I do create a rough drawing before I start. I took a lot of time to grain match the walnut panels. the matchlines are almost invisible. The bottom stretcher is joined to the panels using hand cut bridle joints. Dutchmen in the surface stabilize 6 checks in the slab. the keys were hand made and were fitted by hand. THe waste was hogged out using a funny miniature version of the large veritas router plane. The plane looks like a joke but I use it regularly for this kind of stuff. I felt that the end grain looked funny so I added the stippling effect using a carving gouge. THis took alot of work! It actually takes alot of work to make the patern look somewhat random. The top is joined to the undercarriage using housed sliding dovetails which also serve to keep the benchtop flat if it ever should warp. Spray finished, rubbed out, waxed…as smooth as butter. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. Hope you like it.

Intertwined captive rings Irish goblet

Yuval Eitan — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:29:32 +0000

Intertwined captive rings Irish goblet

After posting an Irish goblet on FaceBook, a friend who practices Karate with me noted, sort of by the way, that she was about to celebrate a 13th wedding anniversary. Nonchalant, but with less than a hint of a hint…

So…

I turned this goblet from a branch of Pistacia palestina (or lentiscus, not sure).

I turned two integral rings, but then decided to break one loose, only to recaptivate it, intertwined with its mate ring. You figure out the symbolysm….

Finished with shellac (I make my own cut), and presented in gift wrap…

Thanks for watching!

Jig Blog #3: Another Shaper Dough Nut or is it Donut?

robscastle — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:03:30 +0000

I made this jig to enable me to re-route the common stress relief recesses in floor boards that I was using.

I am making a box from floorboard off cuts for a friend as a house warming gift but its an unfinished project at the moment so more on it later.
The box has a curved handle on the lid and its the concave section that I needed to do some additional finish work on.
First up I clamped up the material that I used for the handle to produce the required curve.

It was then upon releasing it from the clamp I saw I needed todo improvement work the concave surface.

So the the donut jig commenced.

I used a reasonably large piece of timber so as to be able to clamp it on the table and use it as a fence.
I traced a curve from a paint tin onto the timber and then cut it out on the bandsaw.
I then cut a 38mm hole with a forstner to accomodate the router bit

Fitted it all up and then raised the bit to exit the donut in the respective location.

Here is a shot of the handle and the work area I wanted to improve on

The jig worked well and cleaned out the recess nicely.
The bit I used was a 1/2” round over bit but only using the straight cutting edge part, any other suitable bit would work just as well.

Unfortunately when I finished it all I didnt like the result so I used the linisher to sand it smooth again, oh well these things happen.

Interest comment: Who knows the correct terminology? Dough nut or Donut.

Maple Burl

Duckster — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 01:37:36 +0000

Well, this is my first Dovetail. It made me a little nervous working with one of the prettiest pieces of Maple Burl. I used Brazilian Rosewood as a contrast wood. I took almost two weeks with this box. I chose to make one tray out of the Maple Burl and the other out of the Brazilian Rosewood. I lined the bottom of the box as well as both trays with leather suede that was Violet.
Finished with 9 coats of Intrumental Lacqure.
Enjoy

Delta 46-715 lathe, reeves drive problem

shipwright — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:41:24 +0000

My Delta 46-715 lathe has started powering out at high speed. My first thought was a sticky shaft in the Reeves drive, but after disassembling it and cleaning and waxing the shaft it seems that there is very little spring pressure. I can deflect the moving side of the sheave from the high speed position by squeezing the belt together with two fingers.
Do the springs weaken and need replacement? Should there be more spring pressure than that?
I don’t do a lot of lathe work so I’m not too familiar but I am familiar with the drive because it is very similar to my ShopSmith drive. You couldn’t deflect the moving sheave half that easily on the SS, I’m sure.

Thanks for any insights you may have.

This would look mighty purdy in my shop if lived in Indiana

Holbs — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:33:56 +0000

Here is a nice auction to keep an eye on if you are in the Fort Wayne area of Indiana 7:00 AM PT – Oct 18
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/41082513_jet-equipment-and-tools-tilting-arbor-tablesaw-workbench

Table saw started tripping gfci

mercwear — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:19:18 +0000

I ran some conduit in my garage shop a few weeks ago and all of my bigger tools (Table Saw, Jointer, Planer, Lathe etc..) from outlets that are run off of a 20amp gfci protected circuit.

Everything has been working fine up until today. I adjusted my table saw blade to 45 degrees (2 year old Rigid R4512), turned the saw on to begin my cut and the gfci tripped. The breaker did not blow, just the gfci. My first though was that my wiring job on the conduit may not be up to snuff so I checked everything and it’s fine. I could not get the gfci to reset to I installed a new one (20amp) and the same thing happened. This time the switch reset so I tried the saw again and it stated up. I knew the problem was not fixed so I shut the saw down, waited for the break to stop the blade and turned it back on – gfci blew.

I can run ANY other tool off of that circuit but if I plug the table saw into any outlet on the line it will blow the gfci 95% of the time. Before I call an electrician to look at my conduit ($$$$) I want to rule out the table saw as my problem. From the research I have done it sounds like the table saw motor could be shorting out or the capacitor that gets the motor could be drawing too much power and tripping the gfci.

What really confused me is when I run an extension cord to another gfci outlet the saw will start up! but I run the same extension cord to the outlet that trips in my garage the saw wont start.

I really am at a loss here, any help is much appreciated. I know that one solution that has been given is to do away with the gfci all together, I want to avoid this.

Edit: I did look at the cord of the table saw and followed it to the switch and then the motor and there were no shorts that I could find. I have NOT opened up the motor yet.

Shop stuff #2: Cabinet construction video

JimDaddyO — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:09:55 +0000

I built the main part of the shelving unit for the shop in this video. I basically just muddled along and got the job done. I have a bunch of video of the build and I am trying to get caught up. A bit more editing in this one, but I am trying to get them a bit shorter and easier to digest. I hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr8emJ_Sa7c

Stuck router bit

paul1474 — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:55:38 +0000

How do I remove a 1/2 inch shank router bit from my Titon router. Collet is loose, but I can’t budge it at all.

Someone was arrested every 51 seconds last year. 620,000 people. $3.6 billion every year

Dan'um Style — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:32:58 +0000

STAND-UP AMERICA >>>WE NEED TO GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT !!!

– Someone was arrested for marijuana possession every 51 seconds last year, according to the Huffington Post and new stats released by the FBI Monday. In 2014, there were more than 1.5 million arrests for drug-related offenses, and 40% of those were for simple marijuana possession, Vocativ reports. That’s an increase following seven years of declining arrests, according to HuffPo. “It’s hard to imagine why more people were arrested for marijuana possession when fewer people than ever believe it should be a crime,” Marijuana Policy Project spokesperson Mason Tvert tells Vocativ. “Law enforcement officials should not be wasting their time and resources arresting and prosecuting adults for using marijuana.”

Tvert tells Vocativ police around the country solved less than 65% of murders, 40% of rapes, and 30% of property crimes and robberies last year. Over that same period, they arrested approximately 620,000 people for marijuana possession. “There’s just no good reason that so much police time and taxpayer money is spent punishing people for marijuana when so many murders, rapes, and robberies go unsolved,” Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, tells HuffPo. He says he hopes law enforcement will soon get in line with the priorities of Americans. HuffPo reports support for legalizing marijuana is at an all-time high, yet the ACLU says the government is spending $3.6 billion every year enforcing possession laws.*

My Latest Carving: Football Player

ClaudeF — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:14:59 +0000

My latest carving, carved for a special order from a customer (I’m a Saints and Charger fan…). 1.5 inches tall, basswood, acrylic paint.

Claude

Finger joints --- again

Starfury — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 22:51:57 +0000

After having tons of issues trying to do finger joints on my table saw I picked up a Porter Cable Dovetail jig (4210) for $40 on Craigslist. I finally got around to using it…and the cuts are an exact 1/2 apart using my router.

The problem I’ve run into…I’m using as test some HD “hardwood” plywood. It has a very nice veneer on it that is probably .000001 inch thick and when I carefully ran the router through…it blew out on the front and back sides really bad. I was cutting end with the veneer grain and when I rotated the piece it wasn’t quite as bad when cutting across. I’m 90% sure that most of the issue is the lumber…even on the table saw the cuts were kind of ragged. As for the router..it’s a 1/4” bit Ryobi. I do have a 1/2” bit router as well (too cheap not to buy plus has a nice dovetail bit) and was wondering if I should invest in a good 1/2” straight bit and maybe some better quality wood to work with.

Ironwood vs. Fingers

ChadPMIK — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 22:42:43 +0000

Had a client drop off a couple small blocks of ironwood that he wants cut into knife handles. I’m doing my due diligence to learn how to work with this stuff before making any sawdust and was hoping for some input here on doing that safely and effectively.

I have:

10” tablesaw
7” miter saw
10” old three wheeled Craftsman bandsaw

I saw some youtube vids that recommend gluing the ironwood to a larger piece of wood to give you something to hang onto when you are cutting but I’d rather avoid the circular blades to prevent waste, I want to save the scraps for a little inlay work so I’m thinking bandsaw.

The bandsaw came with a 6 tpi blade about as sharp as a butter knife (that’s an exaggeration, a butter knife is actually much sharper). Since that blade is pretty much ruined already my current plan is to sharpen it, cut the ironwood, then throw the blade away and replace with a brand new one. This old blade has no kerf whatsoever so I’m anticipating a lot of smoke. Should I just forget that whole mess and start with a new blade? I picked up a Bosch combo pack with wood, scroll, and metal blades. Doubt I’d be using the metal one for much of anything else…

Where to buy bandsaw blades?

Ives — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 21:11:14 +0000

Where’s the best place to buy bandsaw blades for cheap? I used to have a supplier when I lived in England, but have moved to America and have to figure it all out over here!

stanley 120

daddywoofdawg — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 21:01:25 +0000

I putting a stanley 120 back together,is it a bevel up or down?

Hints and Tips #13: Spalted Log Breakdown

Dave Rutan — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:34:49 +0000

This is a 2 foot section of a 12 foot long branch which I dragged off our bank this week. I speculated that if it wasn’t too rotten that it would have some spalted wood in it. After cutting it in half on my band saw, I discovered I was right.

[Below] I screwed the half log onto a board with an edge overhanging the board. More imortantly one edge of the board was clear of the log as well. This is so that the board will be flat to the table saw and the edge of the board will run along the fence. Be careful to not put your screws in line with the blade.

[Below] I did this progressively until I had a flat edge on the log. Then I screwed the board onto that newly flattened face and repeated the procedure until I had 2 perpendicular flat faces. I started the blade low and raised it up with each pass at the same fence setting. Either way this is not for the feint at heart.

[Below] Once that was done, I just re-sawed the piece until i had nothing left. I made these rips at a little more than 1/4 inch thick. I have a project in mind for them and they don’t need to be that strong.

[Fun Fact] ‘Spalted’ is not recognized by my spell checker.

[Fun Fact II] The Esperanto word for ‘spalted’ is ’belputra’ (behl-POO-trah) which means ‘beauty-rotted’.

Free scrap wood give away

Lights — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 17:19:48 +0000

I have tons of scrap wood that I need to get ride of. Just let me know if u are interested and I will give u more detailed. Thanks

My kegerator build...the perfect merging of wood and beer brewing!

Holzarbeiterin — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:30:07 +0000

This blog just gives a bit more information about the kegerator project I submitted to LJ. The woodworking part of the project is pretty simple. If someone wants more info about that just send me a note. I thought some of you might be interested in the “beer side” of this story.
For other current or wannbe beer geeks out there here’s a bit more info about the beer brewing/dispensing side of the project.

The thermostat
I do not use the thermostat that came with the freezer. It isn’t possible to maintain proper beer temperatures with it. Instead a built a separate digital thermostat assembly that is mounted on the back hinge side on the outside of the sleeve. The thermocouple goes through a hole in the sleeve and is mounted on the inside wall of the sleeve in a thermowell for protection. TIf you look closely at the back left corner of the wood frame you can see the thermowell. It is partially made of brass. Unfortunatly, in this photo the thermocouple has not yet been installed.

The CO2 system
The CO2 tank currently sits inside the freezer. This keeps the overall footprint of the kegerator smaller and everything is in one place and easily mobile. If I’m just dispensing beer I go through a lot of kegs before the tank runs out. I never did a count but I have not found a need to have a large tank outside of the kegerator.
The CO2 goes through a filter before it is sent to 2 separate regulators. Two regulators allows me to work with 2 different gas pressures at the same time. For example, I can have one set to a pressure for dispensing beer and another one at a higher pressure to carbonate beer kegs before they have their turn on one of the taps.

The CO2 goes from each of the regulators to separate manifolds with valves. This allows me to feed the CO2 to multiple beer taps with the same line pressure at the same time.

The beer Kegs
I mostly use 5 gallon Corniellius kegs. I have a few 2.5 gallon kegs which I use for root beer and having carbonated water on tap (My partner is German and she hates still water.)

The business end of the project
I have 5 304 stainless steel Perlick Series 650 forward sealing faucets and matching shanks. I highly recommend the faucets. They are superb in every respect. Sorry, I don”t have a good closeup of the faucets…

This is a woodworking blog so I won’t go crazy on the beer info. If someone has questions just let me know and I will respond with a private message.

Easy Table Saw Jig That Has Many Uses

PCorl — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:12:00 +0000

I use a simple method to make jigs that fit over the fence on my table saw. In this video I show that method and also some uses for the jig. The video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq4RY_xkmEA . I hope you find the information useful.

Klein Solid Body Electric Travel Guitar #7: Hogging Out the Cavities

Dave G — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:31:03 +0000

Hi all,

I measured at least 10 times before making the cavity cuts. These need to be done before shaping so there is support for the tools – drill press and router.

Before beginning the routs I had a little cleanup to do on the butt end of the through neck. The photo shows I back cut the tuner mount (this travel guitar is headless and has the tuner behind the bridge) to 20 degrees. This is so the tuners swing nominally level after tensioning the strings. If I didn’t do this the tuners would stick up in an ugly way. In a later post I’ll show how the tuners work.

Back Cut Base of Neck 20 degrees for Tuner Mount

So then we move on to the routs.

First I cut the control cavities. The location of these is not critical to guitar sound. This was done by first drilling through holes at the diameters of the controls (two potentiometers 3/8” and a switch 1/2”). I added some spotfaces so the knobs will look clean when installed. Then I flipped the body over and hogged out using a 1 1/2” Forstner bit. You can see in the photo this result with a pot dropped into the cavity to illustrate. The cavity was cleaned out with a chisel. Then I uses a 1 3/4” Forstner bit to cut the rabbet for the cavity cover, evening this out with chisels.

Through Holes with Spotfaces

Back Cavity with Pot Shown

Traced Rabbet

Cut Cover – Smoothed with Files

Cover Shown Installed

Finally I cut the Humbucker routs. The location is important according to my resources – they need to be as near to the bridge and necks as possible.

Humbucker Routs

Damn! Now’s taking shape, literally. Next I’ll use the sandpaper disk grinder to shape it all up… see you soon.

New project

icemanhank — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 07:40:32 +0000

I just found this beautiful yellowbox burl and couldn’t resist buying it. I think it will make a stunning table.

Shop stuff #1: preparing for a cabinet

JimDaddyO — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 02:57:12 +0000

The new shop is coming along. You may have seen the Spidey Box project I posted about. It is nice to work in, but still in disarray and needs some organizing. I am building a big storage unit and getting video of it. Just making it out of construction material, it has to be sturdy and yet look decent. Here is a photo of it part way through and a video of how I went about getting there. I have more footage of it and I am going to edit them into “bite sized” pieces and post them. I just kind of muddled my way through it, designing and creating as I go.

and here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSbkLTz_nz4

Thanks for watching!

Building a Strength Test Carnival Game (my first video)

woodify — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 23:51:33 +0000

This is my first woodworking video. I’m building a strength test game for a fair. I’d appreciate some feedback on the video.

https://youtu.be/k2Uhd2voRHU

Thanks

ANNUAL WOOD WORKERS GUILD SHOW

kiefer — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 21:13:12 +0000

This past weekend we held our annual wood show which is part of our local harvest festival which consists of many different events held over a four day period .
Our wood show went well and the public attendance and interest was overwhelming .
We did a raffle for a box that I donated to the local food bank and I delivered the proceeds to the food bank today and had the director of the food bank draw the winning ticket and a seven year old boy was the winner .
There will be an overall winner of all the contributors that had displays at the show which will be chosen by the public but has not been announced yet . I also visited an old and working blacksmith shop which is of great interest to me and also looked at some terrific local art work .
I hope you enjoy the attached pictures .

Klaus

3.amazonaws.com/lumberjocks.com/nvgif23.jpg!

!https://s3.amazonaws.com/lumberjocks.com/nvgil5c.jpg!

Fox F28-194B, 14" Bandsaw, 2hp

tamtum — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 16:41:42 +0000

Before I start my review i have to say sorry for my bad English but i’m sure they are better than your Greek.
I have this band saw for the last 7 months. When I wanted to buy it I had not find any review. So it’s time for the first. I live in Greece and the tools are expensive and difficult to find many brands. According to manufacture the specifications are:

• Motor: 1500 Watts (2hp)
• Blade Length: 2750mm
• Blade Width: 6mm – 25mm
• Max. Cutting Capacity – Height: 230mm
• Max. Cutting Capacity – Throat: 345mm
• Table Dimensions 435mm x 535mm
• Table Tilt Angle: 0?- 45?
• Weight: 100kg

The fox machinery is an Italian company the child company of the Femi, but as you can see the band saw is the same as many other from Chinese market.

Quality of construction: The main construction is very good and the machine is very stable but some little pieces as screw and handholds are in the middle quality as all Chinese machines. That’s not very important just more annoying (may require a change of this items).

Service: As the company is Italian and we have long and good summer please pray do not have problems during this period. One handhold takes 1.5 month to sent it to me from Italy to Greece.

Table top: is made from cast iron and its very stable and rigid. It can tilt angle 0-45. I do not want to cut in angle so I change the handhold with a screw to 0 angle. The fence is stable and very accurate.

Saw guide: The quality is good and its easy to change when you change blade. I have not any problem with it.

Motor: The motor is very good at 1500 Watt (2Hp). Its powerful to drive the wide blade 25mm. I think thats a very good point for this machine and its one of the reason to make me buy it.

Blade: The blade of the manufacturer is for the rubbish. I change blade and I buy two professional blades one in 15mm for patterns and one 25mm for thick woods.

Cutting Capacity: is 23 cm and the motor of the machine have enough power to cut hard woods in this height.

In conclusion I’m satisfied from this band saw. I use to cut hard woods with it. It’s not a professional machine but I cannot say it’s for hobby. A professional woodworker can have it as a second bandsaw (as a small bandsaw).

Screened Porch Corner Cupboard

redtail — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:41:50 +0000

I had a few requests for more details on the corner cupboard so I thought I would post this series of photos I took during the project. As the pictures are installed into the blog it chopped off the right side. Sorry.

The face frame and the doors are joined using pocket screws.

The top is made using 1/2” plywood for a base and then applying the alternating pallet wood and barn board. I used the thickness planer to get both down to about 1/2” so that the total thickness of the top is about 1”. For some reason the barn board did not want to go through the planer. It would not pull in so I finished those boards off with a scrub plane followed by a #7 Stanley. I took care to match the edge thickness of adjoining boards, with a #4 plane, to maximize a smooth transition from board to board.

Rough Dimensions:
Base is 34” high
Side panels are 34”x9”
Face is 34”x33”
Frames are 2” all around
Feet are 3” high
Doors are 14.25”x27”

Side panel to corner is 33”

Installing the edging was tricky because it is made from a live edge barn board and therefore did not have a straight and even edge to line up with the top of the top.

Hydraulic Crane (Toys and Joys) #11: Finishing

Dutchy — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:32:47 +0000

It was a beautiful and sunny day, and that came out well. I was ready with the small parts and also the glue work was done and in the backyard I could start with the varnish work.

I hope that at the end of this week I can post it as a project.

Thanks for watching

Bathroom Mirror #1: Bathroom Mirror Lighting Question

artsyfartsy — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:11:37 +0000

My wife would like a new mirror in our bathroom over the vanity. She want’s better lighting so she can put her make-up on. I have an idea I want to use but, I’m not sure on the lighting issue. I’ve thought about putting can lights in the valance over the mirror. Will the lights get too hot in the valance encasement? Should I use low wattage lights such as LED’s? If I do, will the LED’s be sufficient lighting for her? Should I scrap the whole Idea and just get better lighting in the bathroom? Should I have an exterior light fixture instead? I’m not an electrician, so I don’t have an answer to my own question. I need a little guidance.

My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #1629: More on Inktense Pencils and Blocks

Sheila Landry (scrollgirl) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 11:38:01 +0000

Yesterday I posted about the new Inktense colored pencil set I had purchased. There were several people who wanted to know more about them so since I was cutting wood most of yesterday at the scroll saw, I thought that I would answer some of the questions and talk about them some more here today.

The "Inktense" products by Derwent not only come in pencil form, but they also come in pure pigment blocks, which resemble pastel crayons.

At first thought, one would think that it would not be necessary to have both forms of them, but each one has its own purpose and I think it is very handy to have them as well, as the blocks are even more versatile than the pencils. (Of course, I needed to have them both! Besides – I was able to find them at a great price on Amazon, as I did with the pencils and they were shipped free as well.)

Now I know I am a 'spoiled brat' when it comes to this, but we all have our own fetishes. Mine just happen to be color, which I am very grateful that I am able to work with in my daily living. They do offer the blocks in smaller sets as well as individually, as with the pencils, but when I looked at the prices of them, it was little more for me to go and get the full range of colors, so I thought, why not? I am very glad I did.

As with the pencils, the colors are very intense. When you apply them to watercolor paper or card stock, they almost look like crayons. However, when you brush them with clean water to blend them, they turn to a beautiful translucent ink that when dry is permanent. This makes them optimal for using as backgrounds and base layering effects.

Another advantage to them is that you can kind of grate them (Yes – I said 'grate' them!) into the little cups of your bubble palette or a small container and then add some water to make a beautiful ink wash. I had a small ginger grater and flicked off some of the light yellow for my background wash for my bee picture that I showed yesterday and it worked just beautifully! Derwent sells a jar with a 'grater' lid, but I thought my method worked just fine. (Besides, I spent enough already!)

The blocks also were better for covering large areas like backgrounds and so forth, as you just use them on their side and then brush with water. They give you a bit more control that way of where you want the color to be, although you naturally have to watch when you wet it where it will run. When it is wet, it will mix with other colors which offers you wonderful blending opportunities.

Finally, you can use a wet brush to pick up color off of the blocks as you would regular watercolor paint. Remember those little sets of 'spots' of color we used in grammar school? You can use them just like that to get fine lines or different intensities of color without even picking up the block. They are truly very versatile and cool.

I took some time out this weekend to 'play' with my new toys. I printed out a 'generic' photo of a pansy that had several colors in it. I wanted to play with as many colors as I could. I mostly used the pencils for my experiment, but I did try the blocks here and there as well.

I found my effort was not really that remarkable.

The colors of the pencils and blocks were all very dark and it was difficult to gauge from looking at them what they would actually look like on the white paper. I found the blues and greys especially 'close' in appearance, and I kept picking up a color that I thought would work, only to get unexpected results.

(I had marked the box with the color numbers so when I used the block up, I would know which one to reorder)

What I decided to do next was time consuming, but very much worth the effort. I printed out a color chart which I created on my computer which gave each name and color number. I then colored in 2/3 of the corresponding box for each sample. I then used a wet brush to pull the color so I was able to better see what to expect from the pencils and blocks. There were colors like "Mustard" in which the blocks/pencils looked positively GREEN, yet when I applied them onto the white stock, they did, indeed look like MUSTARD.

The final color chart was in itself a work of art. You could see the subtle differences of each pencil/block and really make better decisions on using them:

You can also see the deep, deep intensity of the colors. As you may imagine, what I believe my biggest challenge to be will be to 'tame' these colors to allow contrast in my work as well as highlighting. Unlike painting with acrylics or oils where highlights are typically placed on top of things at the end using lighter values, when using these as well as pencils, you kind of have to leave the areas to be highlighted alone and avoid them for the most part until the end. It is very much the opposite way that I need to think about my artwork.

After creating my charts, I attempted the same pansy a second time:

I felt that I did a little better, although there is certainly room for lots of improvement. I think this will come over time as I get to 'know' the medium better.

Here is the final comparison of the two pansies. The left one I did before I did my color chart and the right one after:

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I hope you can see the difference.

I often am told how I have 'natural' talent. I really don't believe that that is completely true. While I may have the desire to do creative things, there is a lot of work involved in getting to a point where our art is what we want it to be. And even at that, I always feel that there is a need for improvement. It takes a lot of work and willingness to put in time to learn about every aspect of drawing, painting and creating. It takes trial and error and learning from your mistakes. I do believe that is what really makes a difference in a 'good' artist and an 'excellent' artist.

I look forward to seeing where this new medium takes my skills, as learning one new skill certainly lends itself to learning in all aspects of art. We train ourselves to look at things differently. That can apply to so many other aspects, including wood and fabric!

Today I am writing my pattern packet for the Toletown project. I also need to take my cat Richard to the vet to get his stitches out from his recent surgery. He has been a wonderful patient and he looks like he is healing perfectly. I am glad that is over!

I wanted to remind you all of some of the patterns we have on our site, as I mentioned earlier in the week. Below is a pattern from Keith:

SLDK333 Self-framing Olde Christmas Fretwork Plaques

And finally one from me – My SLD486 Merry Christmas Block Set which includes the full alphabet so that you can make your own sayings as well as the beautiful layout shown:

I really loved both of these projects.

I hope you have a great day today. We are having some light rain here in Nova Scotia, after another beautiful moon and clear sky last night. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Slow Days at the Shop. #1: Cleaning, finishing the band saw stand, carpentry, and making pestles

fatman51 — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 07:33:22 +0000

I took a look at my project lists this morning, like I do every Monday, and picked out a something that had been waiting a while. It was a carpenter project, custom exterior stair rails. I went out to my shop to take a look around and decide where to start. I decided that before I went outside in search of material, I needed to clean the place up. As I vacuumed the planer shavings out of the base of the band saw stand,

I decided to finish the case and build the drawer that I had planned for the stand before I got started with work.

Each leg was built 2 degrees off plumb, out from the center, and I built the drawer the same way. I filled the drawer with the stuff that belonged there and was happy that said stuff would not be buried under planer shavings again.

While I was cleaning the shop up from that project, I heard a truck outside. My friend, and neighbor, needed help with his shop project. His shop is a 20 by 60 building that he moved with him the last time he relocated.

The building has an interior wall that is structural. This wall had separated from the rest of the room on one side and was leaning 2 inches out of plumb.

The interior of this wall is not sheathed so I screwed a 2×2x16 inch block to the XBX on the outside corner where the wall was leaning out, another to the adjacent wall, which was sheathed on the inside, cut the obstructing nails that had once held the two walls together out of the way with a Sawzall, used a pair of clamps to pull the corner back together, and fastened the corner with 3 inch deck screws.

I did not take any pictures.

I went back to my shop but before I could gather materials for my intended carpenter project, a guy shows up at my door hoping that I might make him a couple of pestles. Visitors are welcome but unusual because I am not exactly in an industrial park. My shop is off of the beaten path inside of an old trailer house. My work generally comes through referral. As it happened. the man, an older guy who grows much of his own food, had heard that I made kitchen utensils. I do make kitchen utensils, and I decided to put off the general carpenter work.

He uses glass bowls and did not want me to make him any mortars so I decided not to clean off my 10er to make 2 pestles.

We figured out what he wanted, one out of birch, and the other out of alder, I suggested several more suitable hardwoods, but he wanted what he wanted.

I found a clean scrap of alder, laid out one side of the first pestle, cut it out with the band saw, laid out the next side of the block and cut it the same.

I did not cut the round end completely out because I still needed the layout on the adjacent side.

I smoothed the sides with the stationary belt sander and used a 7/16 round over to shape the corners. This gave me a perfect circle at the small end of the taper to guide my work on the disk sander. In no time, I had a conical pestle with round ends, which I completed shaping by hand with sandpaper. It did not get an oil finish, so I burnished it with a clean leather stropping wheel and moved on to the birch pestle which had a different shape.

I did not find a scrap of birch in the shop, so I looked for something in the yard.

Mmm, lets grind up some pesto!

That block could have been any number of woods but birch and alder both have distinct smells. The sawdust told me I had guessed well before I even examined the fresh sides.

I cut out my block and laid out two sides the same just as I had on the other pestle. I rounded the blank on the router and finished shaping with the sander, sandpaper, and a scraper.

Nova G3 lathe chuck

PCorl — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:40:32 +0000

I recently bought a Nova G3 chuck for my midi lathe. I am very impressed with the quality of this product. I did a YouTube video of the unboxing, assembly, impressions, and use of it. If you would like to view the video it is available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abTBxQit8OY I hope you enjoy the video. This is the first chuck I have bought and am glad I chose the Nova. I also bought the optional pen jaws. Even with the one minor problem I mention in the video I still feel this product rates 5 stars.

Classical Plunge Bit Failure.

robscastle — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 09:12:58 +0000

An interesting situation occured when I was making Edna’s Kitchen Benches.

I was routing a profile in the length of the leg when whilst using a Mustarka Router bit I routed over or through a knot.
This knot completely totalled my new router bit in one pass.

History: This was a brand new unused bit and very similar profile to Photo 1 it was a 1/4 shank, 19mm dia but a 3.2 radius.

The profile on the bit is similar to the I have posted in photo No 1. (from what I can see the only difference is a minor difference in the radius of 3.2mm as opposed to a 2mm radius)

Situation: Whilist I was routing the Pine material I noticed a change in the profile, so I stopped straight away.
Upon inspection I saw the router bit had lost a lot of its original profile.

Photo 2. Although a litle small to catch a decent photo it shows the shattered tungsten profile on both edges
Photo 3. Shows a second view of the same bit.

What am I going to do with it?

Its beyond help and is enroute to the rubbish bin.

I finished the work by re-routing it with a cove bit, with no other problems encountered.

I did the post as I was very surprised that a knot could do so much damage to a tungsten faced cutter, and thought it worthy of mentioning, hence the one star (now reviewed to 3 Stars as I may have given the wrong impression of its capabilities), and I will keep it to show the supplier when I buy another.

I am not sure where the Mustarka brand bits are going market wise but an exact replacement one certainly is not available from the supplier.

From my last PU they appear to be getting overtaken by Yonico bits.

No doubt Julian can have some comfort in knowing it dosent just happen to him.

Biesemeyer Fence Major Disappointment

Hawk_Guy — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 16:25:13 +0000

So I finally pulled the trigger on a Biesemeyer table saw fence, the Rolls Royce of fence systems. I will preface this with the statement that I must be the most unlucky consumer on the market or the tool industry has gone to total crap. For those of you who have read my reviews in the past you may be thinking I’m some sort of internet troll out to bad mouth manufacturers. I’ll be frank, if the product is good then I’ll rave about it but if the product stinks I’m going to tell you about it and that’s really a service to a fellow enthusiast and consumer.

To begin with the product came in two separate boxes, the fence head in one and guide tube and rails bundled in the other. The box that contained the rails and tube was pretty trashed and the end caps of the guide tube (plastic inserts) were destroyed. The rails and guide tubes also suffered minor scratches. The front rail also had some rust and scaling in a few places.

The instructions for assembly were good and will do for most. The rails come with many holes predrilled for various patterns, of course not a single hole lined up with my cast iron table. Not a big deal though, using a pair of bar clamps and the provided height alignment tool, drilling new holes was a snap and in 30 minutes the new rails were mounted.

After installing the guide tube I anxiously placed the fence on the guide tube and gave it a push. I quickly realized the fence faces were in direct contact with the table and the UHMW tab that the fence uses to glide across the table was not even in contact with the table. Essentially the person who installed the faces of the fence screwed up and installed them too low. Now the fence faces raise the height of the head so much that guide rail doesn’t even contact the guide pads. It also appears, after a few quick measurements, that each fence face is at a different height.

I am definitely annoyed after making alterations to my cast iron table and expecting a superior product.

I purchased from CPO outlets, I’ll let you guys know how they handle this…

No bugs in my shop

oldnovice — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 00:06:27 +0000

I installed two of the Feit two tube LED shop lights in my garage shop and they are much better than a comparable fluorescent light fixture. These shop lights are not described on the Feit Web site which makes me believe that these are Costco specials.

These lights come on instantly and are much brighter than my two 150 watt fluorescent lamps. Obviously there is no hum. These are cool white and no UV content so bugs will not be attracted which is important in a garage shop!

The only thing wrong, at least in my opinion, is the supplied mounting hardware. Supplied are two wire hangers that are supposed to be spaced at 45.09” apart. These wire hangers have a loop on one end and a grooved barrel that fit into keyhole slots on the top of the fixture. There is no friction or snap in feature for these barrels on fixture and they can slip out very easily; not secure for a shop light with a pull chain or in earthquake country.

I went the typical mounting method, S hooks and chains, much better in my opinion. Using the chain method I can also relocate the lights as needed.

A review on the Web
Provides many technical details, including a tear down showing the inner working, that were not in the product description with the purchase or on the Feit Web site.

grizzly 15" disc sander review

pinebeetle23 — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 12:48:42 +0000

I have had this sander a couple years now. It has plenty of power, haven’t had any mechanical issues. The table is great, heavy and stable (even with an cast iron angle jig on it). The only issues to date has been the paint has peeled and flaked off on part of it, and the latch on the stand door broke. Minor issues only. I previously had a 12” disc that I was not satisfied with. (I do recommend getting Heavier weight discs than the grizzly ones (currently carried by them) If you do a lot of sanding. Fintech has industrial grade discs that are a bit pricey but last much longer). All in all I have been very satisfied.

My Thoughts on the SawStop Professional Table Saw

Rockfoot — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:48:58 +0000

I’ve been woodworking since my 8th grade wood shop class back in 1982, but I didn’t purchase my own table saw until about 12 years ago. I bought a Rigid contractor saw from Home Depot and it served me well for many years. Since then, I’ve added many other large tools like the jointer, planer, bandsaw, router table etc… to complete my shop.

A few months ago, I decided it was time to upgrade my old table saw to a 3HP professional grade cabinet saw. I narrowed down my choices to the Powermatic PM2000 and the SawStop PCS31230 w/mobil base. Without the obvious safety feature, both saws were very close in cost, quality and configuration. I ultimately chose the SawStop because I felt it was every bit as good a saw as the PM2000, but it included the safety feature at no extra cost. In fact, the SawStop was a couple hundred bucks cheaper. I also like the mobile base on the SawStop better. Just a couple foot pumps, and the saw is up on casters and moves easily all over my shop. A light tap of the release leaver and the saw is lowered gently back down and does not move.

The quality of this saw is just as you would expect for a $3000 “professional” saw. The dust collection is pretty good and I think once I get the over head collection on the blade guard, it will improve considerably. The blade guard is very practical and I find that I use it all the time since it’s so easy to remove and reinstall when necessary. The fence works very smoothly and was spot on right out of the box. I never use a ruler to set the fence anymore. The wheels for adjusting the blade height and angle are heavy polished iron, but work incredibly smooth.

With all that being said, there are a couple things that really annoy me about this saw. First, for a “professional” saw at this price point, I should be able to install my dado set and cut dados right out of the box. But instead, I have to buy a $40 insert plate and a $90 brake cartridge for the dado blades. Not a big deal, but I think they could charge an extra $130 for the saw and include them with the saw. It’s just annoying that I have to purchase those separately.

The second and biggest annoyance, is the fact that you can only use a 10” blade (not counting the 8” dado). Because of the breaking feature of this saw, the break has to be between 1/8” and 1/16” from the blade. If it’s too far from the blade, the saw will not start. I build guitars and use a very thin kerf 6” blade to cut the slots in the fret board. To my dismay, when I installed the blade one day to cut some fret boards, the saw would not start. It just blinked at me indicating the break was too far from the blade. You can disable the safety feature temporarily, but the saw still has to be setup correctly. It simply will not start if the break is further than 1/8” from the blade. My only option now is to buy a $200 fret saw and special miter box to cut the fret boards by hand.

Over all, I’m still pleased with my decision. Once I finally break down and buy the dado insert and break cartridge, that minor irritation will be gone. I usually cut dados on my router table anyway. Also cutting fret board slots by hand really doesn’t take much longer than on the table saw and it’s not something I do all the time.

This is my opinion of the SawStop, hope it was helpful. If you need to use a smaller blade and have no other options, you may need to consider a different saw. Otherwise, this is a great saw and I think you will be happy with it.

Like so many others...

tblake1984 — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 17:08:24 +0000

I’ll make this succinct.

The Good:

[1] Once you set it up a few times, it gets pretty quick and repeatable. I do think the overall “system” is a great concept.
[2] I did not have any issues with my irons or chisels sliding around in the guide. It seems reliable in this respect.
[3] Veritas customer support has been one of the best customer support experiences I have EVER had – this is really the only reason I have not given this guide 0 stars.

The Bad (i.e., the review narrative):

[1] cost – $70
[2] can be a little finicky to set up the first few times but eventually you get the hang of it
[3] the roller bearings gather slurry and I don’t think they will last forever. It seems like you will end up purchasing a replacement roller at some point. I have oiled the bearings and still, after just a few uses, I can feel a little bit of grinding in the roller. Also, be careful with oiling the bearings – if you overdo it, it will leak out during use and foul your stones.

I bought this thing a month ago from a local Woodcraft and from day one, have not been able to get a straight microbevel. See the picture. The primary bevel is perfect but the microbevel is consistently skewed to the left on every tool I use it on. I can hone by hand but have trouble getting microbevels right so this is really the only reason I purchased this guide but in this state, it is unusable. I have used a workaround by keeping the guide in the primary bevel setting and backing the iron or chisel off the guide stop 3-4mm to do a microbevel.

To their credit, Veritas has been extremely supportive. Linda MacPherson was very responsive and helpful. First, she sent me a replacement unit and a prepaid shipping label for the bad one. However, this brand new guide exhibited the same problem out of the box (the picture is of the results from the second brand new MkII). After updating Linda on the issue, she arranged to have one tested first before they sent it to me and I am currently awaiting that third MkII right now. If this third MkII shows the same issue, I am at a point now where I will return it to Woodcraft.

I use shapton stones and a DMT duosharp diamond plate for flattening and I have watched all the videos and tips for using this guide and I still have the issue. I know I am not the only one. I also know Veritas is normally a very reliable company but I think they have run into some QA issues with this product.

To summarize: I would take your money elsewhere.

Low Budget Quarter Sawn Out Of Construction Lumber At The Box Store

TObenhuber — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 00:46:48 +0000

After completing my recent coffee table, I posted it and mentioned that being picky in the big box store is very worth while. The 2 in. x 12 in. x 12 ft. Premium #2 & Better Douglas Fir Lumber is a great section to look through. With very little effort you can pull out a piece that is pretty straight. Nothing you couldn’t cut into smaller pieces and eliminate most of the cup, bow or warping with a little milling.

It is pretty wet as described on the website (19%ish) but you can let it dry as long as you want to get the moisture level you are requiring. Me, so far I have had pretty good luck with a minimal wait time. LOL!!! The time it takes to drive home and start making saw dust. About an hour or two sometimes.

I have laminated tops and other project pieces with some movement by the morning. Usually minimal for the projects I have been doing. Mostly rough, rustic type projects. You know, beginner projects. I can usually push or pound them back into the position I planned for them to be in according to the plans. I should probably learn to have more patients for drying but none of the tops I have made thus far have split or cracked into thousands of pieces. At least that’s how I picture it in my mind. The one night stand I made with this wet wood has a few minor splits in the end grade but nothing that has reached the surface and its been a couple years now and a move from the pacific northwest to the DC area. We all know how careful movers can be.

As for the price, Using some basic calculations, its about 50% more expensive as compared to several 2 in. x 4 in. x 8 ft. SPF. No faulting using SPF 2X4’s (heck, the 70% off cull lumber rack in the back with the purple paint has been a frequent stop for me) because I have used plenty of those starting out and quarter sawn 2×4s can be found. It takes a lot of time and a lot of sorting through the stack till folks start looking at you like you are a crazy man. I especially like it when the contractors start watching and wondering what you are doing. Just say, “Where’s my precious, I lost my precious” a couple times and folks usually leave you alone. PS, please let me know if you try that and take a video. Post it to my facebook page and I would be so proud of you.

The 50% more expensive really sucks when it comes to suggesting to the wife that I would like to try another project. Now with the use of Google Sketchup I know before hand cost to within 5-10% and I can show my wife what I am thinking so she can decide what she would like different before I start cutting. Its cheaper that way.

Trust me, the work flow of building in Sketchup and then wife proofing it is a woodworking technique not often mentioned on this page. It can save some serious money. Being a beginner and low budget minded, take my word. LEARN SKETCHUP!!! There is no saw nor sand paper that can help you get a better low budget result than prior planning. Jay Bates on Youtube has some great how to videos and breaks it down to where if you are able to use the Lumberjocks webpage. You can use Sketchup with a little more patients. Not to mention Google Sketchup Make paired with Cutlist Extension is FREE!!! Now thats a price even I can afford but I digress.

Link to Google Sketchup Make Download:
http://www.sketchup.com/download

On the plus side, the 50% more expense goes toward a grain that is much much tighter and the possibility of gleaning the quarter sawn Premium #2 Better Douglas Fir (at least that’s what we have here locally at the box store). I call that a win.

At the end of the day, my wife and budget are the deciding factors at my house.

My suggestion, if you are very new and still deciding if you like woodworking. Or, in the words of Yoda, “Much to learn you still have.” fits you the best. 2×4s at the Big Box Store are the way to go or heck the cull lumber 70% off rack with the purple painted pieces. Any of them, just start making something and build some experience. If you get the bug, have acquired a couple beginner skills and the confidence (You know that means wife’s permission) to spend a little more. Don’t be scared and upgrade to the next rack.

Enjoy the process of learning and Be Safe.

Jessem Rout-R-Lift II - Preliminary Review & Purchasing Experience

Kurt T. Kneller — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 00:00:13 +0000

Well, my new Jessem Rout-R-Lift II finally was delivered today. This review is preliminary at this time and still need to complete my router table before using it. So, I can only comment on whole experience to date.
The 3 star rating at this time is a reflection on the customer service and purchasing experience.
I give 4 stars on initial inspection.

The Purchasing Experience:
I placed the order, through JessemDirect.com on August 4th, and regrettably used PayPal to place the order. I come to find out that was a mistake in this case. The funds were withdrawn from my account on August 5th. At no time did I ever receive an email to confirm the order was placed and or the status. I only was able to find out what the status was by calling them about a week later. Their representative told me they were down for 2 weeks for year end inventory and they were just coming back to full production. Let me say that throughout the ordering process there was no indication about items being on back-order or not in inventory. I called a week later and the story changed a bit and they were down for about a month and the were waiting on just one part. Finally after a third call during the middle of the week she told me it was ready and it would ship the next day. Did not happen. It was shipped the following week. Turns out it was also held up in customs for about 4 days. I ended up order through them direct because I could not find the lift, template and extra rings at once source, seemed to makes sense at the time. In the future, I think if I buy any other Jessem tools, it will be state side for sure. If you would order through Jessem I would recommend to do it over the phone and get verification of availability!

The Lift:
Upon opening the box I am pleased so far. The lift seems well built, runs smooth and the fit and finish look great. The plate is phenolic along with the rings. The plate appears flat but I’ll check it tomorrow with my Woodpeckers straight edge. I like the fact that the plate has holes for locking bolts at the corners, plate snuggers and plenty of set screws along the perimeter to ensure that plate will sit sold once installed. I will test the fit with my Bosch router. God I hope it fits and the are no problems. I would hate to go through the hassle of sending back through customs. It feels like a precise tool and I hope that was worth the wait. I will post an update after I have it installed and had a chance to put it to the test.
Wish me luck.

Grizzly G0490X 8" Jointer With Helix Cutter Head

Kelly — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 03:24:59 +0000

GRIZZLY G0490X 8” JOINTER

After a year of looking for a good jointer and losing out on three nice ones, due to procrastination, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new Grizzly 8” Jointer with the helix head.

The model number is G0490X. The X indicates the jointer is equipped with a helix head.

Assembled, the jointer is the heaviest tool in my little shop, weighing about five hundred seventy-five pounds.

Now that I’ve ran some highly figured walnut through the Grizzly, I’m glad I missed the boat on the other jointers. They were equipped with knives.

ASSEMBLY-OPERATION MANUAL

Generally, the manual is good and lets you know all you need to know to get your jointer up and going. More information could have been provided on installing the guard (details below), but little else is left to the imagination, or others’ experiences.

Someone with experience could take short cuts, some of which I note below.

ASSEMBLY

I drove from North Central (Eastern) Washington to Bellingham and picked the jointer up at that Grizzly showroom. Though quite distant, it’s an impressive place and one I wish I could visit more often. Meanwhile, the have one heck of a catalog.

Helping the fork lift driver load the two boxes into my little Ford Ranger allowed me to appreciate the size and weight of the jointer. Subsequently, and during the trip back, I was concerned about getting the jointer out of my truck and assembled. Moving it from the garage into the shop, on the other hand, didn’t worry me, because the unit is equipped with wheels (the single one is iron).

I had seen a few guys rig harnesses and lift the bed onto the stand. As fate would have it, though working with a large piece of missing heart and at sixty-four, I was able to do remove the unit from my truck and assemble it by myself with less significantly less effort than I used to move my Unisaw.

I was able to ease the base, with the motor, out of the truck by flipping it and easing it down and out. Turning the box upside down is not a problem, since the motor is secured and you have to, if you want to lite the box off the base.

Once the base was on the floor, I removed the side panels and installed the wheels. Once done, I turned the unit on its side, so I could lay the motor on its permanent mount frame, to avoid having to hold it while securing it. When bolting the motor in place, I left the mount bolts somewhat loose, so the motor could be adjusted to bring its pulley in line with the jointer pulley.

NOTE: The control panel mounts on the jointer, once its secured to the base.

After the base was mobile, I removed all but the base of jointer crate while it was still in my pickup. Then, I was able to push down on and lift the end of the jointer bed to duck walk it off its crate base. I was lucky. The jointer was not bolted to the base, and was undamaged.

After I removed the crating top, sides, front and back, I rolled the base to the back of the pickup and locked the wheel. For my pickup, there was only about 1/2” difference in height between the truck bed and the mobile base top.

I was able to pull the jointer straight back, out of the pickup, with surprisingly little effort. Before easing it onto the base, I put some of the crate foam under the front of the jointer, to avoid scratching the base as I pulled the jointer fully on to the base.

Once the jointer was ready to drop off the truck, I put more foam under that end, then finished pulling the jointer out of the truck, onto the jointer. It landed on the jointer smoothly.

If there had been more of a height difference, merely placing boards, 2x’s or whatever was needed to fill the gap between the bed and the jointer base would have allowed me perform these tasks will only a little more effort, but still not a lot of brawn.

Once the jointer was on the base, I lifted the ends, one at a time, and removed the foam. The balance of the jointer was such I was able to lift one handed and remove the foam (or wood) with the other hand.

I moved the base and jointer back from the truck, bolted the jointer to the base, then bolted the control panel to the jointer.

With comfortable working room, I just used one of my depth gauges to insure the motor pulley was the same distance from the back side of the base as the pulley of the jointer and went through the expected steps to lock it in position, and lock down the motor. Cake walk.

I did a quick install of the fence and guard, then re-installed the sides and rolled the unit into its place in the shop.

Once in the shop, I had to loosen the top screw of the guard and turn the part it was holding with channel locks to add tension necessary to its working properly. This was not covered in the, otherwise, good manual.

The stock plug was the same as my cabinet saw, so testing the jointer was a plug swap away.

BUILD QUALITY

The wheel raising and lowering mechanism is well worth the extra expense. Even if moving the beast is a little like herding a slightly trained cat, it raises and lowers easily and the unit rolled from the garage to the shop just fine.

Once in place, there are two legs that can be adjusted to stabilize jointer on uneven floors. They require a happy medium adjustment. Too long and they act as brakes, when the wheel is being used, and too low and the unit can still rock. Adjustment is easy though (you can do it by finger, but a wrench would be smarter, in case the wheel let down).

There were no sharp edges I needed to be concerned about. The paint, my abuses aside, was fine.

The only thing I, as the end user, might do to the end build quality is, add a small dab of epoxy to the tip of the gauge on the end of the fence. It’s not a problem during use. However, during the build, I caught on it several times. I was more concerned about it bending than being cut by it, but that is a possibility. A little epoxy would fill any void, smoothing it, lessening the likelihood of it bending it in the future.

The three horse motor on this unit starts much harder than the one on my Unisaw, but runs smooth. It would be interesting to do actual power comparisons of the two motors, since the Unisaw runs at half the amperage, but claims the same horsepower and has never bogged on me.

SET UP

I was able to get good edge joints on two inch thick stock running the jointer out of the box.

I had to tweak the eccentric bed adjustments to produce six inch stock that could be glued face to face.

The manual indicated the fence should be removed to adjust the tables. I found merely locking it up, out of the way gave me all the working room I needed to complete the task.

I was apprehensive about how complicated it would be to adjust the eccentrics, but it went quickly. It was a simple matter of loosening the Allen screws and using a drift punch to coax minor movement, then seeing if I had more or less air under the straight edge.

I adjusted the bed stops with relative ease, per the directions in the manual.

OPERATION

Setting the in-feed table height is just a matter of turning the table lock, then moving the lever under it. I tapped the lever to get it to move the little I wanted for the setting I was after.

The gauge is a reasonable indicator of the depth of cut. If I need dead on precision, I’ll take the faced wood to the planer.

The power button is mounted on a steel tube and feels stout, when turning the unit on or off.

Had I not read the manual, it might have taken a moment to figure out the OFF button has to be turned, before the ON (start) button will start the motor. The red light indicates the unit is off and the knob needs to be turned, to turn on the jointer.

After the initial start, the jointer felt smooth and the running motor has that nice sound of a power you expect with a cabinet saw.

Using several passes, at about 1/16” per pass, I converted some very rough and highly figured walnut into boards that will require only a little finish sanding. They were were good enough to face joint, so edge jointing would have been a cake walk.

Of course, the spiral head inserts were all new, but I could not see any tear out, even around the tight knot in the most figured area.

Having only used planers with knives up until now, it’s comforting to know blade changes will be fewer, because of the carbide edges on the spiral head. Too, it’s comforting to know I don’t have to change all the blades because of a nick. I just have to turn the damaged insert(s) ninety degrees.

DUST COLLECTION

For the time being, the Grizzly is connected to my 3hp Jet collector via twenty feet of 4” hose. In spite of that, I leave more shavings on the floor sharpening a carpenter’s pencil.

Great Rust remover for only $5

WillardsWoodshop — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 19:44:55 +0000

I finally bought my first jointer at an auction. The top had some bad surface rust. Bought this stuff at HD, poured it on and watched the rust disappear. I did two coats and hardly had to scrub. One bottle did the 76 inch table and the fence. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area.

Also I paid $10.00 for the Delta DJ-20 jointer. And…....Go

Absolutely, Positively Square - And Cheap!

jonah — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 13:04:01 +0000

I have two of these yellow plastic speed squares. One was $3-4 at Home Depot years ago. One I purchased a couple of months ago for $4.

Summary/TL;DR version: these cheap plastic speed squares are absolutely 90°.

Long version:

After reading a thread in the forums a while ago extolling the virtues of “precision” layout and marking tools, I decided to resurrect my 9-10th grade geometry and trigonometry and figure out exactly how square these things are. I discovered first that the squares are absolutely identical in size. Both are exactly 7.25” x 7.375” – exactly as the HD website claims. I checked that with a measuring tape as well, my 12” Starrett combination square that I got off eBay some years ago, and a ruler. However, if you look at the picture, you can see that one corner is not a 45° angle but is clipped off at 90°. Using two rulers, I determined that if that side continued out at the angle it was at that the side would be about 1/8” longer.

Here are our options for discovering the angles and sides of this triangle:

1) Law of triangles (all angles add up to 180°)
2) Pythagorean Theorem (for right triangles)
3) Law of Cosines/Sines
4) Using trusted 90° angle, compare to the speed square to see if they differ
5) Using trusted flat/straight board, use the “two line” test to see if opposite sides of the square make parallel lines on the board

If the angle on the speed square is indeed a 90 degree angle (which it turns out it is, but lets not take that as a given for the moment), we could use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the measurement of the third side of the triangle. If that number differed from the actual measurement we’d know that the angle wasn’t 90.

I decided to not take a 90 degree angle as a given for the moment and to use a much more complicated Law of Cosines formula. Here's a good website that explains it.

3) Law of Cosines

I ended up tracing the triangle onto a piece of paper using a really fine mechanical pencil, extending the line of the clipped off corner, and measuring that. The hypotenuse of the triangle ended up being just above 10 27/64”, so I took that to mean 55/128”. 10 55/128” is 10.4297.

After a bunch of simplification of the above formula we end up with with ~90.01° or ~89.99, depending on which angle you set to be C. We pass. That’s pretty square!

2) Pythagorean Theorem

I have sides of 7.375”, 10.4297”, and what I suspect is another 7.375”.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

10.4297^2 – 7.375^2 = b^2

b = 7.3748 = 7.375

We pass the Pythagorean Theorem test.

4) Trusted 90° Angle

My most trusted 90° angle is the aforementioned Starrett combination square. Holding the square up to the speed square, I see no gap between them all the way down to the end of the blade. We pass this test.

5) Parallel lines test

Again using the Starrett square as well as my best straight edge, I found a piece of plywood that was absolutely flat and straight and square, with the face 90° to the edge. I drew a line with the speed square. I flipped it over and drew another. Both are parallel to my eye. I tried ones that were very close together as well as 1/4” apart. I could not see any obvious divergence. I tried the same test with my Starrett combo square. Same thing. We pass this test.

Conclusion: any divergence from 90° in this speed square is so slight that I cannot detect it with the measuring tools I own and cannot see it with my 20/15 vision. Five stars, especially considering the price.

Couldn't be happier

navyccc — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 21:58:04 +0000

Since I was younger, I have always had the woodworking bug. Well, for my 41st birthday, my Wife decided to buy me a saw so I could learn the craft/hobby. Initially, we were looking at the portable saws like in HomeDept, Lowes, etc. I do not have a dedicated shop, as we park our cars in the garage, so portability was a concern and consequently, I was looking for as much saw as I could fit with the smallest footprint and one that I could afford. I looked at new, used, Craigslist…all over. We went to Rockler, Woodcraft, local tool stores, read, read and read some more. My wife comes to me one days with an ad in Craigslist, and the poster claiming to work for Laguna with floor/display models for sale. Thinking no way, I didn’t call the number listed in the ad, but called Laguna themselves, and was transferred to the person…wholly *&%!! We spoke for about 15 mins, hung up the phone and began to read reviews, everywhere, including here. Needless to say, I was worried, but the complaints most had was the customer service, not the machines.

Called Laguna back, made arrangements for the pickup, and took the day off from work. The saw was packaged in three packages and all were packaged well. No visible damage to the anything at all. The one larger box was the saw, the long package is the fence and rails and the third were the wings.

The assembly was relatively easy and took about 2-3 hours. The hardest part, getting it out of the wife’s minivan. This thing is HEAVY, at least for one person (wife said “I bought it, you move it” LOL!!) The manual for setup was enough to get the job done, I say that, because I wasn’t familiar with the terms that were used, but hey, that’s what Google is for. Once I had everything together, this saw functions with no issues. The machined wings are dead flat and highly polished. I applied some wax to them for protection and to allow the wood to slide a bit easier.

The saw is better than what I could have hoped for. The fence functions great. The wheels function and allows me to move the saw to the middle of the garage after I pull the cars out. The extra space on the right side wing, I installed an extension wing I made for my router and have had no problems with any portion of the saw. After using it for about 2 weeks, I called Laguna to inquire about a zero clearance insert, and was shocked at the price, so hello YouTube! Matthias Wandel has a great video (actually all are great) and in no time at all, I had my zero clearance insert.

With dust collection, all I have right now is my shop vac and a cyclone, so I don’t have the best results, if much. So I need to clean out the “cabinet” often. Well, guess who had a surprise the first time, me! Inside the cabinet were 2 other inserts, one for dados and another zero clearance, how lucky is that!

The most substantial wood that I have cut is 6/4 walnut, and resawing walnut (5”) with no problems. Can I feed the wood fast? I can feed it as fast as I feel comfortable, which is fine for me, I haven’t had it mess up or burn or even seem to want to give up. Everything comes out great and I couldn’t be happier. I have made a few things with the saw, 2 are posted here on LJ’s, and have no complaints.

Black and Decker 135W 1/3 Sheet Sander KA300 Review Video

WoodWorkingFusion — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 20:25:06 +0000

Hey guys in the YouTube link below I will be showing you a full detailed review on this Black and Decker sander.

Video- https://youtu.be/bMLGoGzxpZY
My YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIexhYXbev8Qg77iV2IgOg

A Decent Jig

whope — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:44:39 +0000

I had picked this up at least a year ago and the project I had in mind never made it beyond the thinking stage. I finally opened it up to do a simple walnut disk (will be posted later).

I had used the smaller guide (M200) and have been happy with it. This jig centers very easily with a 1/4” steel pin and an insert that fits into the router opening. It fit fine on my DeWalt 618. The guide pivots around an 1/8” steel pin that you put into the hole that marks the size of the circle. Pretty straight forward.

A couple little things keep it from being 5 star (I’d like to have only knocked down 1/2 a star): – The markings are on one end of the scales only. Would have been nice to have them on both ends. – The holes for the 1/8” in the template are slightly loose which could give you little imperfections in your cut

Overall, the guide is easy to use and some times it’s just easier to buy it than make it.

For my walnut disk, I used it to cutout the disk and then I swapped in a box cove bit to run around the edge.

J-B Weld KwikWeld - 6 minutes to setup

Mike — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 15:38:10 +0000

Hi All;

So many of us have used the standard 25 minutes J-B Weld that well takes 25 minutes to cure. As many people know, that is a long time to keep something clamped and it usually in my experience takes a few hours to actually cure. The other day I had to make a repair to my car and I went into the big Orange box to pick up some J-B Weld. I came across the 6 MINUTE J-B Weld KwikWeld. I’d never seen it before (might have been out for years, I don’t know). I personally didn’t want to sit and hold a turning lamp in place for several hours so I figured I’d give this stuff a shot.

J-B Weld KwikWeld comes in the two standard tubes. Just like the longer open time formula, this is a 1 to 1 mix. I noticed that the viscosity of the chemicals will change dramatically with temperature changes. In the house it was about 10 degrees F cooler than outside and once the tubes heated up, the chemicals have a slight flow to them before they are mixed.

I cleaned off the surfaces to be glued, mixed up the J-B Weld and applied it, then taped the parts together to hold them in place. Being that I was bored waiting for the curing process to finish I decided to play with the remaining mixed epoxy. Sure enough, at about the 4 minute mark it started to really show signs of setting up. At 5 minutes, the epoxy was very tacky and difficult to move. At a little after 6 minutes, the J-B Weld had setup and wasn’t going anywhere.

Later on in the day, I took the car for a drive and the light didn’t move at all. The J-B Weld held as expected.

Ok so why four stars? Simply put it’s the tubes. They are a pain to store and keep clean. Also, if you use the cap to pierce the tube, you now have chemicals on the cap which can add to the mess. While J-B does make a dual tube applicator, my box store didn’t have them in stock.

Rikon 70-220 VSR Customer Service

woodmaker — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 18:59:24 +0000

I must brag on Rikon and their customer service.
My lathe variable speed indicator stopped working. 1st Rikon sent me a new cable and that worked for a couple days and stopped working again.
Rikon sent me a new mother board and switch assembly pronto; which I promptly crossed wires and fried. I contacted Rikon told them what I did and asked how much for a new one. Rod Burrow from Rikon whom I’ve been working with sent me another new one and no cost with an invite to call before I install. I will certainly do that as I don’t want a repeat.

Anyway this is what’s known as GREAT customer service and I had to post it.

Removed

Blackie_ — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 11:44:19 +0000

Gone

Bargain box of Sand paper rolls

bigJohninvegas — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 04:47:39 +0000

I found this box of sand paper rolls on Klingspor’s web site, advertising a 20# box of end rolls for wood turners.
I like there sand paper rolls for turning and normally would buy 1.5”X10 yard rolls from them. 7 grits at about $8/ roll. so $56 when you need all of them
This deal was about $30 for a 20# box assortment at 100 Grit or finer. This box has a couple of 80 and 100 grit rolls, 5 or so each 120, 150, 180, and 220, a couple 280, and 320, and 1 of each 400, 600, and 800. Also, about half of it is on a hard backer. not at all flexible and won’t be much use at all for anything with any detail to it. I rarely use a 120 course grit. normally 180 to about 400 for most of what I do. So in the end, this was a big mistake for me. I don’t think the hard rolls fit a turners needs at all.
I would have returned it, but the 1st four rolls I pulled out were what I use most, 180, 220, 320, and 400. (Dumb luck there.)
Two months later I get around to organizing the rest of the box and discover its almost all a course grit, and on that hard backer.
Live and learn I guess.