Woodworking 101--Tools and Tips

[turbowoodworker]

Hope you like pictures, I'm getting a little crazy. Only thing is I'm out in the woods on DSL (yes that 1999 technology) so uploading is sloooow.

Almost done with my office buildout. Base cabinets, shelves and on the opposite wall I wanted a cabinet to hide thos ugly file cabinets. I was toying with not putting doors over the safe as it has its own cool look, but I am going to build doors for it today. Hardware is on the way.

I lined the cabinet with double layer garage fire block drywall. Not with the illusion of making it fireproof but maybe buying just a little more time, just in case. Most of the important stuff is in the Liberty.

 

[turbowoodworker]

How 'bout some projects?

This first one is of the pedestal for the "T" on my office desk. I had a few extra parts laying around and some MIG wire, and ****, there you go.

Next is a mirror I found at the folks house, bevel edge and all. The frame I built is walnut and Jatoba. When I was in AZ, it was easy to find silver artisans, so I got the idea to use a concho belt made by a guy from the White River Apache Res.

I saw an arts and crafts clock on a book cover and decided to copy it, again out of jatoba.

Last is a china cabinet. I found the stained glass in an antique store (and promptly overpaid for it). The top is on a barister door hinge setup I carried the arts and crafts drooping lily motif through the project with appropriate hardware and some added relief carving.

Sorry for the sideways pics. I tried but maybe someone can tell me how to fix it.

 

[bj383ss]

Wow beautiful built in office. I love how you incorporated the steel file cabinets into it. That's a great idea. Side of your desk is a great mix of mechanical with the beauty of wood around it. You have a great DC as well.

Bret

 

[turbowoodworker]

This huge table started out as a front door to a custom house. It measures 58"x93" and seats 10 easily. The squares were supposed to be filled with glass block and the whole door was to sit on pin hinges. It warped about 1/4" prior to installation so it was being thrown out, yes thrown out, three inch thick maple. It was sitting on its side and I was trying to figure out how to maximize the board feet when it came to me, that thing will seat ten!

So I filled the square holes with exotic woods (peroba rosa, osage orange, tarara amarilla, and built a pedestal, added some fiddle back maple edges, ought ten chairs and shazaam, a dining room table.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Thanks Bret. I'm subscribed to your thread and have been impressed with your talent.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Kids in their "hardware store". They steal fasteners and tools then sell them to me as needed. If I can't find a tape measure or a T handle driver, I know where to look.

 

[ez-duzit]

I like the office.

 

[drivesitfar]

Turbo: great pics and i don't think you can post up TOO MANY so keep posting. nice to see the kids are involved and also nice to see some of you guys aren't retired and you've got skills already.

BJ: yep i agree a lathe would be nice and trying to find a spot to put the Shopsmith is the big issue so i'll keep thinking about how to do it. also nice cabinet build and i don't think you showed us what was in behind the cabinet with the hammers hanging on it or did you?

nice rocket and i'll have to get a few pictures of my wood bowl i made 45 years ago that i still use for keys and change.

ALL: i don't think you can post too many pictures or talk too much about how to use a bench cause it looks like all of you have a nice one to do your work on. dimensions, features, pictures showing you using it, videos if you know how to and all that is very useful especially to those of us that haven't used one or made room in our garages for one. so give us a reason to park our car outside or build one and i bet a lot more guys and maybe a few gals will join the thread and make some cool stuff.

some of you also take for granted how you make simple drawers and cabinets and even a cool little chiseled in board holder so if you have time to tell more about it i for one would love to see and read about it.

any talk about wood grain, how to feed a planer or plane wood might be good topics too.

how to buy wood and which grains are best for which projects could maybe be a thread on it's own.

 

[ztorres]

Since no one has mentioned it I suppose I will. One of the most helpful things I've come across is wood working books. I have about 5 different ones now but I always am looking for new ones. They have a lot of great ideas and helpful topics. My European work bench was based off an article in an American Woodworker book. Right now I'm working on creating different tool storage racks. I saw an article about "hyper organizing" in the same book. I enjoy looking at these books and finding ideas and altering them for my needs.
The way this works is there is a racking board on the wall and you can easily make anything to mount on there. I have taken some of these ideas and modified them to suit my needs. I think this is an incredible tool that aren't used as much. My grandpa has a whole bookcase full of different books.


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[Toolfool]

Kids in their "hardware store". They steal fasteners and tools then sell them to me as needed. If I can't find a tape measure or a T handle driver, I know where to look.

That's great ! Those two will be flipping houses by middle school.

 

[Toolfool]

And now for something completely different...
Dust collection systems.
I had started a thread on DC because I saw so many threads with questions, so these pics are redundant, but you get the idea.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=304657&highlight=dust+collection

Turbo, glad you posted the DC. If guys are working indoors with power tools a DC is good to have, but if not properly designed and built it is merely a "chip" collector. The fine airborne dust is what can kill you. So my recommendation would be an air filter first. Capture the fine dust, the big stuff will fall to the floor. There's a ton of info here : http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/ducting.cfm#StaticElectricity

 

[CRSINMICH]

I don't have pictures of the cabinets or furniture I have built. I'll take some later. I do have pictures of some tools I built. They might open up the topics for discussion.

The first pictures are of Leg Vise ver 1.0 I just made it last spring. It's mounted to the end of the Catch-All bench in the garage. I do a lot of different things out there and fairly often I need to cut 2x4s etc. I got the screw for this at an estate sale for $5. Total cost for the vise was less than $10. It was really easy and totally fun to make. Now I want to build another bench so I can make another vise. I already have another screw.

The next picture is of a Howarth Turning Saw. I had to have one after seeing Willard Anderson make one on Roy Underhill's show. Making one splits the difference between woodworking and carving. It's really handy too.

 

[schor]

Made a bench out of some red oak hand rails. The ones you used to see in hospitals and such places.

And finally some boxes so I can get into the loft.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Great posts guys.
ToolFool's here so the IQ of the thread just took a big jump up. I think this thread is young and I can't wait to hear others chime in (ToolFool, RivNHewn,TerrH and so many others off the top of my head).
Torres, I can't agree more about books. I have two shelves of good woodworking and specialty books. GJ is good too but there is no substitute for books (except maybe youtube_).

 

[goingtoarizona]

As a WW hack, this is just beautiful and inspirational! Great work all. Now it's time to organize my garage to V1.2

 

[schor]

I just found this thread. I dabble in woodworking and metal as a hobby.

I needed a tool holder holder.

 

[jimreed2160]

Schor--Love your bench. Way to go on that recycled oak. There were literally miles of that in the last hospital I worked in. Building it into the corner means no racking. Others might find a similar spot in their garage and adapt your idea. Thanks for posting.

 

[jimreed2160]

In case you missed it, here is a post I did recently about making a replacement drawer for an oak machinist chest.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344009

 

[ztorres]

Just a quick tip about cutting rabbits and dados. I like to use my router to do this. I set up a straight edge to use as my guide for the router.


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[Shiftless]

Greetings all.
I consider myself to be another "hack" compared to the exceptional museum quality examples posted so far.
But I have built a few notable things out of wood. Here is a foot bridge, just 10 feet long, that I built a few years ago using mostly recycled old growth redwood and a few of the parts salvaged from the original bridge spanning this stone lined drainage runnel. Except for the post anchors, there are no metal fasteners in the railings. Just mortise and tenon with some epoxy paste. I built the sides flat on a big table using long pipe clamps to hold it together until the epoxy set up.
The walking surface is far more mundane. 4x6 stringers on poured concrete piers with 2x6 PT planks screwed down.
I made the post top design to match the originals using my 1950's vintage Craftsman table saw. But I did go with modern machinery for a JET square chisel mortise machine.

 

[bj383ss]

I don't have pictures of the cabinets or furniture I have built. I'll take some later. I do have pictures of some tools I built. They might open up the topics for discussion.

The first pictures are of Leg Vise ver 1.0 I just made it last spring. It's mounted to the end of the Catch-All bench in the garage. I do a lot of different things out there and fairly often I need to cut 2x4s etc. I got the screw for this at an estate sale for $5. Total cost for the vise was less than $10. It was really easy and totally fun to make. Now I want to build another bench so I can make another vise. I already have another screw.

The next picture is of a Howarth Turning Saw. I had to have one after seeing Willard Anderson make one on Roy Underhill's show. Making one splits the difference between woodworking and carving. It's really handy too.

Very Cool Saw.

Made a bench out of some red oak hand rails. The ones you used to see in hospitals and such places.

And finally some boxes so I can get into the loft.

Nice save on the Red Oak. I rescued a 2" thick solid top red oak desk from a Dr's. office and used it for the top of my lathe workbench. Very nice shop you have.

Since no one has mentioned it I suppose I will. One of the most helpful things I've come across is wood working books. I have about 5 different ones now but I always am looking for new ones. They have a lot of great ideas and helpful topics. My European work bench was based off an article in an American Woodworker book. Right now I'm working on creating different tool storage racks. I saw an article about "hyper organizing" in the same book. I enjoy looking at these books and finding ideas and altering them for my needs.
The way this works is there is a racking board on the wall and you can easily make anything to mount on there. I have taken some of these ideas and modified them to suit my needs. I think this is an incredible tool that aren't used as much. My grandpa has a whole bookcase full of different books.


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You are absolutely right about books and magazine. I have hundreds of them. I don't know if you guys have a place called half price books but we do here in several locations and it is a great place to get woodworking books for very cheap.

Greetings all.
I consider myself to be another "hack" compared to the exceptional museum quality examples posted so far.
But I have built a few notable things out of wood. Here is a foot bridge, just 10 feet long, that I built a few years ago using mostly recycled old growth redwood and a few of the parts salvaged from the original bridge spanning this stone lined drainage runnel. Except for the post anchors, there are no metal fasteners in the railings. Just mortise and tenon with some epoxy paste. I built the sides flat on a big table using long pipe clamps to hold it together until the epoxy set up.
The walking surface is far more mundane. 4x6 stringers on poured concrete piers with 2x6 PT planks screwed down.
I made the post top design to match the originals using my 1950's vintage Craftsman table saw. But I did go with modern machinery for a JET square chisel mortise machine.

Great looking bridge. Glad you used some reclaimed wood. You can't beat a vintage Craftsman saw.

Bret

 

[drivesitfar]

Shift: thanks for stopping in and if you have more pictures of that cool bridge and any of the during process post them up please if you have some time to.

ZT: great picture of you clamping down a straight edge and i do the same sort of thing when i cut plywood with my worm saw. i'm guessing a track saw would be a good upgrade for me.

just curious if you wouldn't mind posting up picture of the router and the bit you used cause I'm not positive and i bet the guys learning that might even own a router might like to know too.

thanks for taking the time to post that.

ALL: i agree there is a lot of great woodworkers on GJ so if any or all of you want to post simple tricks and tips along with some of the more complicated ones somebody will benefit. even those of us that maybe already know how and we might just learn how to do it better or different.

cheers and hope you are all having a great weekend.

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: i have 3 of these old WWII ship hatches in various conditions and not sure exactly what i'm going to make out of them. i do like them and i think at least one would make a good bench for my old 1920's Canedy-Otto drill press and my 1920's Prentiss 19.5 swivel jaw vise. any tips on how to finish this old wood? also one has maybe 5 coats of verathane on it so should i sand it off or leave it or ??

thanks

 

[bj383ss]

ALL: i have 3 of these old WWII ship hatches in various conditions and not sure exactly what i'm going to make out of them. i do like them and i think at least one would make a good bench for my old 1920's Canedy-Otto drill press and my 1920's Prentiss 19.5 swivel jaw vise. any tips on how to finish this old wood? also one has maybe 5 coats of verathane on it so should i sand it off or leave it or ??

thanks

Man those are cool I would just clean those up and leave them alone. Once you get them mounted to a bench you might be able to take the metal straps off if you put a runner underneath them.

Bret

 

[drivesitfar]

BJ: i think i want to use the WWII ship hatches as more of a light duty workbench and I might actually cry if couldn't keep the metal pieces still on them. i'd post a picture of my old little DP, but it's a pretty cool little cast iron design that runs using a leather belt.

ALL: speaking of books i have to say when i used to work 12 hours a day selling homes and properties i usually kept my good builders very busy so i'd end up hiring guys that i thought i could do better work. one day i'd got another BS answer about how hard a job was so i went to the local HOME BASE (Home Depot of the 1980's) and bought maybe $300 or more worth of how too books and started watching Hometime and this old house. granted the work wasn't easy, but it really did give me a sense of accomplishment. if i really didn't have time to do the job then i at least knew what it involved so my interview process improved and i was happier with the end product.

if you've got old growth wood that is very weathered and has metal on it i'd love to know of a few options to make it look better and maybe not like new, but a lot better.

 

[schor]

I had this piece of wood and a friend who wanted it.

It needed some work.

It is of reasonable size.

Got legs?

My buddy working for his table.

That should hold her. (this is the bottom of the piece)

Done

Installed

Some of the shiny, done only with danish oil.

 

[ztorres]

So to give a run down of how to use a router to make a dado or rabbit.
1. Set your depth and bit. For this I am using a 1/2" straight bit set to a depth of 1/4".

2. Measure the diameter of your router face. For my router I have a 6" diameter face plate.

3. Take 1/2 of the diameter, or the radius, and this will give you the distance to make a rabbit that is 1/2 the size of the bit diameter. Then add the remaining distance to determine the distance for desired size rabbit or dado. For this cut I am making 1/2" dado so the distance I will use is 6"/2 + 1/4". You'll want to mark this on your piece in several locations.
4. Take a straight edge or piece of wood that is straight and clamp it to the piece. This will be used as the guide for the router.

5. Just like in machining it is more desirable to make a NON climbing cut, for the life of me I cannot remember what this is called. For this cut I will move from left to right because my blade spins clockwise, when looking from the top. There is instances where a climb cut works but that's another topic. See picture below to see how the router is using the guide.


I like to make my dados a little over sized so I have a little extra piece along the edge as seen in pic below.

I take a chisel lay the flat face flush the the cut and slowly take the excess off. Then sand it and its good.



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[bj383ss]

Drive- Here is a somewhat breakdown of how I do the box joints, using a sled I made for my table saw and dado blade. You can also make these in the router table or with a box joint jig and handheld router. I call them box joints some people call them finger joints.

This is the cabinet you saw on the back wall of the 2 car garage side I posted early.

20161109_191448 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

I like to use 1/2" box joints so I mill all my wood down to 1/2" thick on drawers as it makes everything easier. It also make the inside of the drawer bigger. I made this entire cabinet section out of free recycled pine and birch plywood from work that was going into the trash. Only thing I had to buy was the hinges for the upper and lower doors.

I stole this from my woodshop thread. It is in the woodshop at my old house before I got my DC.


Jointed, Planed, ripped and cut to length
20150122_115544 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

There is a sequence you follow for cutting the joints. The sides and the front and back are cut as pairs. I cut the sides first. They go up against the key on the sled. And then after the first cut you move the joint you just cut onto the key and go until all cuts are made. I like to make the drawers a height that is divisible by 1/2" as that way all your joints are the same.

After I cut the sides then I cut the front and back but when you do those you load the sides into the key so that your joints on the front and back will be cut opposite of the sides so that they will go together. These 2 pictures kind of explain it. Not mine stole from google. So A pieces would be the sides and B pieces would be front and back.

93 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

This picture is where you load A piece against the key so that B piece will cut opposite.

86 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

My box joint jig. It mounts onto my crosscut sled. I make a couple of test cuts to make sure my joints are the right tightness. They need to slip fit because if they are too tight you will never get them glued up. I also make the cuts about a 1/16" past 1/2" deep so that the joints will be proud and I can plane them or sand them flush once glued up. I fine tune my dado blade to exactly 1/2" with 2 spacers and I have them marked so its a faster setup. I used a piece of Pecan hardwood for my key it is a very hard wood and stable. I can usually get my cuts setup in 1 or 2 tries. What I really should do is build a dedicated box joint jig and it would stay setup.

20150122_134454 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

320 cuts later...

20150122_140322 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

Some shots of them being glued up. You can see how the fingers are proud.

20150123_094055 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

20150123_190709 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

The plywood bottom actually measures 1/4" thick. It came from a desk that my grandpa made back in 1958. I had the desk as a child growing up. It was falling apart so I took it apart a couple of years ago and saved all the wood. I am glad to be able to reuse it in these drawers. It will live on. It has great patina and will leave that way.

20150122_171628 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

I hope I explained in a manner that is understandable. I am getting ready to make some more drawers so I will be sure to take more pictures this time around.

Bret

 

[drivesitfar]

ZT: AWESOME and thank you.

Schor: ME LIKEY A LOT. WELL DONE!!

ALL: here's the little Canedy-Otto DP i'll i'm thinking of putting on one of the ship hatches.

since i like metal too how about putting a ship hatch on top of this old steel bench cabinet? the cabinet is 60 inches wide just like the ship hatch and i have a 2 foot deep 63 inch wide inset section in my shed that i built 20 years ago that is attached to my house. i was thinking of putting some old lumber i have onto the wall as side supports and maybe a piece of plywood under the ship hatch to maybe protect it a little from the metal bench and since i'm 6'3 a little taller bench works good for me. thoughts?

since my wife wants a sort of picnic table out of one ship hatch maybe i'll build that one out of the one that already has the varathane on it. so i just need to get some ideas on how to spiff up and finish the ones that have splits and some damage or wear on them.

 

[schor]

Drives, I just found this thread and I am not sure what ship hatches your talking about and cannot visualize what your going for. Got a link

Thanks for the likes on my wood builds, I've got more.

 

[drivesitfar]

Schor: post #103 has the 3 WWII ship hatches that i own. suggestions about what to do to clean up one or both of the rougher looking ones that have cracks, holes and wear on them? here's a few more pictures of one of them i think i'm going to use.

 

[schor]

Oh man Drives, those look awesome as is. Maybe epoxy the whole thing and leave everything as is.

 

[drivesitfar]

Schor: since i've never epoxied a piece of wood any recommendations on a brand or type? or a link to where i could buy one on Amazon or at HD or Lowes?

thanks for the kudos and i kinda like them too.

 

[Denwood]

Drives, those ship hatches would make for very cool coffee tables.

With respect to the project below...Outstanding! That is a simply gorgeous end result!

I had this piece of wood and a friend who wanted it.

It needed some work.

It is of reasonable size.

Got legs?

My buddy working for his table.

That should hold her. (this is the bottom of the piece)

Done

Installed

Some of the shiny, done only with danish oil.

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: happy to see you stop in. when you get 5 minutes when you are not doing some awesome project or directing your crew at work i'd love to see your sawdust collection system on this thread.

it looks like it was simple and did a very nice job getting the debris and sawdust out of your garage.

one of the ship hatches was a coffee table a couple weeks ago before i tool the metal legs off. i'm hoping to make one into a picnic table, one into an old workbench for a few of my old tools and the 3rd one might be a gift if i can't find a spot for it. thanks for the kudos and keep thinking of a base to get it up about 30 inches or so.

thanks

 

[schor]

Schor: since i've never epoxied a piece of wood any recommendations on a brand or type? or a link to where i could buy one on Amazon or at HD or Lowes?

thanks for the kudos and i kinda like them too.

Check out west systems epoxy. I used it to fill the voids on the bottom of that live edge piece. For your pieces I would to a few runs, fill about 80% of the voids, taping the backs if it can flow through, then fill the rest then go over everything with the epoxy. You can sand it an polish it if you get the right stuiff, There are lots of vids out there about how to do it.

 

[ztorres]

Start of my rolling cabinet. This is what I was cutting all the dados and rabbits for. I'm going to put a top on it and then add some racks for hanging "hyper organizing" bins


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[drivesitfar]

BJ: i don't have a table saw set up, but have used several and still not sure how to set up a dado blade (or multy blade) set up. that is a lot of great work there in that pile and thanks for showing us.

did you show us what is in the cabinet behind the hammers in the cabinet you store your planes in?

ZT: great progress!!

ALL: since i'm getting into the Woodworking mode big time i actually picked up a few tools today at a sale i probably might have passed on a few weeks ago. when it quits raining and i get some daylight i'll take a few pictures and have a few of you tell me what they are, cause not quite sure on a few of them. i think one is a 2 handed fro or shaver.

 

[CRSINMICH]

Schor: post #103 has the 3 WWII ship hatches that i own. suggestions about what to do to clean up one or both of the rougher looking ones that have cracks, holes and wear on them? here's a few more pictures of one of them i think i'm going to use.

Drives: I'd only do the absolute minimum on those hatches. Maybe just a light brushing scraping to remove loose flakes then something to seal it all. If you are really concerned about cracks and splits look into putting in some Dutchmen. Those are the bow tie shaped inserts that Shor used on his three legged table. That's exactly what they were meant for.

Shor: Your buddy and you did a great job. Very elegant looking. BTW I thought Ajax sounded familiar so I looked it up. It turns out that we stopped there for a picnic lunch by the water on our way to Quebec. Nice looking city.

 

[Shiftless]

One of the regular contributors to this thread and all around great guy, CRSINMICH encouraged me to post a photo of another bridge I built. This one I designed from scratch based on a requirement from the property owner to make it rustic looking and include some diamond shapes which echo other diamond designs elsewhere on the property. All redwood. This long shot photo of my work appeared in a national garden magazine. There is a seasonal waterfall that flows into a quarter acre pond.