Woodworking 101--Tools and Tips

[topcok88]

Finally got time in the shop!
And turned these beautiful walnut slabs into boards for a mantle and floating shelves to go on either side of the fire place.

Cut the slabs down to manageable sizes to face joint (capacity is 12” wide) and boy was it a work out. Used my TS55 and a FS1400 and FS2700 track.

After face jointing I planed them down on the 24” planer to 7/8” thickness. And then onto the 36” wide belt sander to finish them out to 13/16” thick.

The picture isn’t all the slabs I used to all in I used about 57 board feet of material.

And then back to the basement where I cut the boards down to size for the mantle, threw some loose tenons in there and got the mantle into glue up. Still have to make four floating shelves and built ins with counter tops.

And I need a bigger shop. I’m running out of space down here.








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[ez-duzit]

Green with envy over your 36" wide belt sander!

 

[jonshonda]

I was making some really simple card holders for our kids for playing UNO! I noted that the wood on my biesemeyer fence swelled up at the end and is causing some issues. I am thinking about replacing it with some 80/20 extrusion so I have some T track to play with.

Thinking that while 80/20 isn't cheap, the ability to attach a variety of things will pay dividends in the long run.

 

[rlitman]

I was making some really simple card holders for our kids for playing UNO! I noted that the wood on my biesemeyer fence swelled up at the end and is causing some issues. I am thinking about replacing it with some 80/20 extrusion so I have some T track to play with.

Thinking that while 80/20 isn't cheap, the ability to attach a variety of things will pay dividends in the long run.

I’ve seen fence kits made from aluminum extrusion. It looks great.

 

[jonshonda]

I’ve seen fence kits made from aluminum extrusion. It looks great.

Yeah, I like the ability to easy accessorize it as well.

 

[Ray-CA]

I've started turning pens and know that I can turn wood blanks at high speeds. But what about acrylic blanks? And, should I drop the rpm's when sanding/polishing?

Thanks,

Ray

 

[rlitman]

Acrylic can be more brittle than wood, and anything that produces heat (sanding) can melt it. It’s a little weird to work with.

 

[Dave455]

I've started turning pens and know that I can turn wood blanks at high speeds. But what about acrylic blanks? And, should I drop the rpm's when sanding/polishing?

Thanks,

Ray

Yes, I would drop the speed right down.

The biggest problem is overheating, so start with a steel tool bit (doesn’t even need to be HSS) and get it really sharp.

I have tool bits that I use just for acrylic and nothing else.

Keep the speeds low and the feeds relatively high. If you get it wrong you will see it start to melt and you will know!

I’ve never sanded acrylic or Perspex. Get the best finish you can and then just polish. You can polish much faster but normally I don’t!

 

[Lumpy102]

I turned a batch of pens from Corian countertop material, at likely 2000rpm, sanded to 1200 and a good rub with polishing compound, and they gleam really nicely

 

[Ray-CA]

Thanks for info. I've been using my carbide tools on it at about 2000-rpm, and they worked really well. Didn't think about heat etc. and finished the first acrylic pen by sanding, starting at 320 and stepping up until I was using 5000 wet. Then polished with Turtle Wax. Came out fine, but I'm new at synthetic work and looking for ideas....

Ray

 

[Ray-CA]

A little bit of what I've just starting doing about 10-days ago......

The ebony one has flutes on the top to mimic a thistle.

 

[pkpk]

I'm too new to post in the Deals forum so I thought I'd share this here, a pretty nice Black Friday sale still going on.

DEWALT 13-Inch Thickness Planer - Three Knife, Two speed, DW735X model
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003OX9KME/?tag=atomicindus08-20

$499 plus free delivery if you have Prime. I signed up for an Amazon credit card to get another $100 off. Can't wait to have my own planer! Now to look for a jointer, or see how a jointer sled for the planer might work...

 

[ez-duzit]

Adding a hatch to a sailboat for ventilation and illumination requires fabricating a flat boss, outside, on which to mount the hatch, as well as trim to create a finished look on the inside.

Here is one I made from teak. The inner vertical frame is carefully fitted to match the shape of the hatch. And the lower, horizontal frame carefully matches the crown of the overhead. If you look closely you can see how the joints have been reinforced with teak slip feathers.

 

[turbowoodworker]

That is pretty cool. Love the look of teak. How is it to work with?

 

[ez-duzit]

Teak is a dream to work with. Though its slivers must be removed without delay.
It is extremely stable through seasonal changes. I use WEST epoxy exclusively for gluing.

 

[jonshonda]

I'm going to have some free time soon and will be working in the garage making some projects from pallets I tore apart a few years ago. I am concerned about dust collection from my old CM miter saw. Guessing that most miter saws throw off a lot of dust regardless, but wondering if any of the newer saws have better dust collection vs. just building a box behind the saw to collect dust.

I would prefer to not cut outside as it's cold out, but if that is the best option I could make it work.

 

[PugetDude]

I'm going to have some free time soon and will be working in the garage making some projects from pallets I tore apart a few years ago. I am concerned about dust collection from my old CM miter saw. Guessing that most miter saws throw off a lot of dust regardless, but wondering if any of the newer saws have better dust collection vs. just building a box behind the saw to collect dust.

I would prefer to not cut outside as it's cold out, but if that is the best option I could make it work.

I've had limited success with removing the useless dust bag and hooking a shop vac directly up to the dust port. Cut slow and you'll catch a lot (but not all) of the sawdust.

If you're cutting MDF all bets are off. Nothing will contain the dust from that stuff. Festool and NASA working together would give up in frustration.

 

[rlitman]

I've had limited success with removing the useless dust bag and hooking a shop vac directly up to the dust port. Cut slow and you'll catch a lot (but not all) of the sawdust.

If you're cutting MDF all bets are off. Nothing will contain the dust from that stuff. Festool and NASA working together would give up in frustration.

Similar experiences here.

On my old DeWalt sliding saw, the dust port had a small 1.25” vacuum connector. Plugging in a shop vac to that only marginally reduced the dust output beyond what the bag was doing (which was hardly anything). Still, it’s better than bag alone, which clogs to the point of doing nothing after 3 cuts. The vacuum keeps the path clear.

What I’ve done to improve the matter is make my own over-sized dust chute to fit my industrial size hose. That gets probably 90% of the dust or more. But yeah, I don’t really cut MDF.

The metal is from a junk thermos that I found fit my hose cuff perfectly. Then I added some scrap treadmill belting.

 

[mfg0772]

My garage is both for my workshop and parking cars and misc. storage. I once made the mistake of ripping MDF on the table saw in there. I was the middle of winter and I didn't want to roll the saw into the driveway. I will never make that mistake again. Any time I cut MDF now, either on table saw or miter saw, I set up outside.

 

[rrich1]

Nice hatch ez.

It's been slow going on my chest of drawers build. I got the top cut and hand planed a chamfer on the underside to lighten it up. Also got all of the drawers made and and still getting them fitted. Not super happy with them so far. I just feel like these drawers haven't cooperated as much as my other chest of drawers I've made. Im the end they will be fine but not the fit and finish I would like. Reinforced the half dovetail joints with dowels.

Also upgraded my jointer. I have/had a short bed cast iron base delta. Selling it to a friend and got an 8" long bed pot belly delta jointer. Excited is an understatement as the short bed total length is the length of either bed of the 8". I am switch out the three phase motor for a single phase and will be doing a complete tear down this winter. My next project is cabinets after the chest of drawers so it seems like a good time to multi task and do the jointer.

Also made a farm house table for my sister for Thanksgiving. Simple enough project but makes me never want to work with box store pine again.

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[cgv69]

Nice hatch ez.
Also upgraded my jointer. I have/had a short bed cast iron base delta. Selling it to a friend and got an 8" long bed pot belly delta jointer. Excited is an understatement as the short bed total length is the length of either bed of the 8". I am switch out the three phase motor for a single phase and will be doing a complete tear down this winter. My next project is cabinets after the chest of drawers so it seems like a good time to multi task and do the jointer.

Nice! I have the later version of that jointer (37-315 with the sheet metal base) that I restored years ago (same thing.. took it apart, converted it from 3-phase to single, refinished it, made a mobile base for it). Getting ready to convert it to helical style head soon.

 

[rrich1]

Nice! I have the later version of that jointer (37-315 with the sheet metal base) that I restored years ago (same thing.. took it apart, converted it from 3-phase to single, refinished it, made a mobile base for it). Getting ready to convert it to helical style head soon.

Nice. Don't suppose you have any extra handwheels lying around? [emoji1]

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[Notgrownup]

My garage is both for my workshop and parking cars and misc. storage. I once made the mistake of ripping MDF on the table saw in there. I was the middle of winter and I didn't want to roll the saw into the driveway. I will never make that mistake again. Any time I cut MDF now, either on table saw or miter saw, I set up outside.

That stuff goes into everything everywhere every time... lol

 

[cgv69]

Nice. Don't suppose you have any extra handwheels lying around? [emoji1]

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Sorry but no but this place has a lot of options that might work for you... https://www.wdscomponents.com/en-us/cast-iron-hand-wheel-keywayed-with-revolving-grip-wds-8193/c-315/p-36155?currency=usd&gclid=CjwKCAiAq8f-BRBtEiwAGr3DgYzTECjcr6Mg3WGxJolDsIhviR7BpcC2ESDwmqitV1yeqvHrj0MEnhoCKmQQAvD_BwE

 

[jonshonda]

Dialing my CM 113.xxxx table saw setup a little more today. The on/off button I installed should be MANDITORY on any table saw. Being able to shut the saw off with a bump from your thigh is a really nice feature when handling larger sheet goods.

8" casters are due to my storage requirements for the saw. It lives in the shed in my back yard, so transporting it is difficult with smaller casters.

20201209_175134 by Jon S, on Flickr

 

[PelicanPines]

JonsHonda, Your tall fence is AWESOME too.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Dialing my CM 113.xxxx table saw setup a little more today. The on/off button I installed should be MANDITORY on any table saw. Being able to shut the saw off with a bump from your thigh is a really nice feature when handling larger sheet goods.

8" casters are due to my storage requirements for the saw. It lives in the shed in my back yard, so transporting it is difficult with smaller casters.

20201209_175134 by Jon S, on Flickr

Looks nice and from my experience, those cast iron wings are much better than the stamped ones my grandpa had on his C-man tablesaw. I do like the off button but I completely disagree with you that they should be mandatory, I would like to see them as an option but I'm already under siege from enough folks earning their paycheck from my taxes mandating what I must have, driving the cost up and up every time.

 

[mfg0772]

Dialing my CM 113.xxxx table saw setup a little more today. The on/off button I installed should be MANDITORY on any table saw. Being able to shut the saw off with a bump from your thigh is a really nice feature when handling larger sheet goods.

8" casters are due to my storage requirements for the saw. It lives in the shed in my back yard, so transporting it is difficult with smaller casters.

20201209_175134 by Jon S, on Flickr

Did you make that fence yourself? If so, mind sharing your plans? I'm particularly interested in how it works on the outfeed side.

 

[jonshonda]

JonsHonda, Your tall fence is AWESOME too.

Thanks!

Looks nice and from my experience, those cast iron wings are much better than the stamped ones my grandpa had on his C-man tablesaw. I do like the off button but I completely disagree with you that they should be mandatory

The cast iron wings are nice, but the only issue I have found is that the fence I have slides along the surface of the table, and can get hung up on the wings sometimes.

With regards to my mandatory statement, the saw is so much more safe to use with a switch like that. Mostly due to its location, but also that large stop button is really really nice and use. When I was younger I worked for a car stereo shop, and processed hundreds of 4x8' sheets of mdf with a CM 113.*** saw (we really should have had a big powermatic with big off feed tables, but the owner was cheap). I can tell you that the placement and style of the switch I have on mine now is SOOOO much more convenient and safe then what came on that saw, it is easily worth 4x what I paid for the piece of mind alone.

Did you make that fence yourself? If so, mind sharing your plans? I'm particularly interested in how it works on the outfeed side.

Well, it is a hybrid of sorts. It started life as a Beisemeyer fence setup that was on another CM 113.*** saw I bought. But I really didn't like how flimsy the guide rails were on it, so I scrapped everything except for the actual fence itself. I work at a place that has a large inventory of steel on hand, so I went through what we had and made this setup. It is all very 8ga or thicker angle iron and rectangular tubing. The original fence from Beisemeyer is 14ga or thinner tubing sandwiched between 1/2 ply, with laminate. It must have gotten wet at some point, and was swelling up causing some obvious issues. So I replaced it with some 3/4" plywood from menards. I plan to put some T-track in it for featherboards, and for now I have left the outfeed side of the fence stock.

 

[jonshonda]

I put the table saw to work today. A few months ago I built a folding workbench from 3/4 plywood. I didn't have the time to put wood edges around it until today. I'm sure it's not good practice, but 2x4's are all I had.

I ripped the 2x4 in half, then put the dado's to work routing out a 3/4 x 3/4" dado. That seemed to be close to the limit of what the old girl could handle.

20201211_175544 by Jon S, on Flickr

This picture should tug at a few GJ heartstrings! All of the tools in the pic were purchased based on GJ discussion and leads. The curly strips on the floor are from a Stanley spoke shave.

20201211_183522 by Jon S, on Flickr

 

[CRSINMICH]

Health issues and family concerns kept me away from the shop for some time. When I finally could do some work I decided to make this English style tool chest as a Christmas present for my 5 year old grand-nephew. It's a kid-sized version of the plywood chest that Chris Schwarz made. It was fun trying to scale things down. I enjoyed the build and the practice on hand tool techniques. The only power tool involved was a table saw to cut the 1/2" Baltic birch parts to rough size. The molding was done by hand using 1/2" poplar. I also made some tools to go in the chest. The joiner's mallet is a scaled down version of Paul Seller's mallet. The Try-square really is square. The 6" rule and the sanding block were reproductions of the first two projects I did in 7th grade wood shop - in 1963.

 

[Bobaloo22]

Very nice gifts to get the boy started. You got me thinking of the Handy Andy tool set that I got for Christmas in around 1966. Merry Christmas

 

[1Garageman]

I made a picture frame for one of our daughters pictures my wife and I wanted on the wall. I think I did a good job, and I proud of it.

I am not sure though if it also needs some Polyurethane, or something else on it??









Info: Sorry, I just wasn't comfortable show the picture of our three year old daughter, so her face is covered.

 

[CRSINMICH]

I made a picture frame for one of our daughters pictures my wife and I wanted on the wall. I think I did a good job, and I proud of it.

I am not sure though if it also needs some Polyurethane, or something else on it??



Info: Sorry, I just wasn't comfortable show the picture of our three year old daughter, so her face is covered.

What finish do you have on it now? You should be proud of your work. Those mitered corners look pretty good. That's hard to do.

You did the right thing by covering your daughter's photo. There is a lot of **** out there in cyberland.

 

[rrich1]

Finished the chest of drawers this week. Happy with how it turned out. Finished it with arm r seal and buffed it out.

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[ez-duzit]

1--lovely work.

 

[CRSINMICH]

rrich: The chest of drawers came out looking good. There's a nice Greene & Greene feel to the design too. Nicely done.

 

[LeeG]

Here is a spoon display case I made as a Christmas gift for my Mom.

View media item 109223
View media item 109222
Bubinga with a shellac finish. The back is from a single board.

 

[CRSINMICH]

Lee: I'm sure your mother liked the spoon cabinet. That was a nice present. I've never built anything with bubinga. How is it to work with?

I have to admit to being a bit puzzled by spoon collections but I'm sure your mother would be puzzled by my vise collection.

 

[LeeG]

Lee: I've never built anything with bubinga. How is it to work with?

It machines well, but is very hard. Make sure you have a recently sharpened blade in you saw. Here are some wood hardness's (Janka) for comparison:

1450 Hard Maple
1820 Hickory
2410 Bubinga
2520 Purpleheart
2760 Osage Orange

Lee: I have to admit to being a bit puzzled by spoon collections but I'm sure your mother would be puzzled by my vise collection.

I'm with you on that.