I followed some plans I found online and made a bench seat with 2x4s and I'm pretty happy with the result and learned some things along the way.
What can I do next to improve my woodworking ability?
Wood Working
I followed some plans I found online and made a bench seat with 2x4s and I'm pretty happy with the result and learned some things along the way.
What can I do next to improve my woodworking ability?
What kinds of things do you want to make?
I'm not really sure to be honest. Something useful
I was using clamps when I drilled the pilot holes and so I drilled in suboptimal spots. I realised I wasn't really going about it the right way though after the fact
>how to build an outdoors bench without wood screws
How do you do that? Joinery?
https://funwithwoodworking.com/product/park-bench-with-a-reclined-seat-full-plans/
That's the one I made though it looks like he's made a 3rd version as well
You've gotta pay a few bucks for it. I mean I could post here but I'd feel bad
>How do you do that? Joinery?
Correct. You do it by wasting an immense amount of time; and I'm saying that as someone who exclusively uses hand tools to make old-school joined furniture. It's an outdoor bench. You honestly did a good job.
If you want to make something really nice then you also need nice wood instead of the overpriced bottom shelf goywood you used for this. Seriously, you can get local hardwood for barely any more than you paid for this.
>Seriously, you can get local hardwood for barely any more than you paid for this.
Idk about that, at least where I am prices have only falled slightly from the absurd highs of last year, dealers seemed to have pegged a new price point and are happily gouging the frick out of us. As for wood selection it's honestly fine for a beginner, we all started with big box shitsticks and had to learn about proper wood selection along the way.
OP did a good job and it looks like it will last longer than some if the crap I've seen in stores
We pretty much only have beech and oak grown locally here but beech at least hasn't changed in price but because construction lumber has increased so dramatically (and stayed there), beech is now barely any more expensive than the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter at the big box store.
That said it was absolutely the right decision to use the cheapest softwood for a painted outdoor bench.
Ok gay I don't want to pay 9.99 for the plans.
You already bought them so just spill the beans for us
plans? just mimic it with your own. anything is possible with sketch up
The plans online shouldn’t have put the screws so close to the edge of the boards because that will split over winter. You could try and think about how to build a matching table, or how to build an outdoors bench without wood screws
>The plans online shouldn’t have put the screws so close to the edge of the boards because that will split over winter.
You should drill a thru-hole and then it will be fine, and easier to get a tight connection.
>actually you should have joined every board with hidden nailless japanese mortises
it's a bench my guy
Why did you mount it to the wall like that? How do you even sit in it?
Turn on the antigravity.
my guy have you never sat in a recliner? people pay good money for those things
link to plans? looks decent and i'd like some measurements
most bench planes i found are atrocious or need 100 cut boards
It's a really nice bench
>It's a really nice bench
10/10 would sit.
Build a bookshelf! I'm building one myself and learning precision, dadoeing and chiseling. Oak, art deco, French polishing. Maybe even will add some inlays, haven't decided yet.
Not to discourage you here but maybe tighten up your joinery and learn a bit about joint strength before going ham on all the fancy shit.
I'm working on it. Each of the groove is better that previous one. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get straight wood here, so each groove has to be done semi manualy. But hey I like it.
It's impossible to get straight wood anywhere with the occasional exception where you can pay out the butthole for it. If you want to square a piece of timber you need a plane first and foremost. I like the scrub + jack plane combo for this but that's a personal thing and you can do all of this with a cheap smoothing plane if you have the patience. To plane 1 side flat you need winding sticks and optionally a straight edge (you can approximate one with the edge of your plane). You can make both yourself but they're also very cheap to buy. To square 2 sides you additionally need a square. Engineering squares are perfect for this but you can also make one without having one to begin with. To square off the end grain once you have 2 straight edges you make yourself a shooting board. To square 4 sides you also need a marking gauge.
The procedure is simple but time consuming:
2 sides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4aimRp9V34
4 sides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHuhHq2o72o
I’ve never understood winding sticks, why not just put a flat piece of metal on it and check if it wobbles
Because winding sticks can be used on arbitrary lengths and subsections of wood, give immediate and obvious visual feedback, and include the scale of the twist. From a historical perspective it was probably also nice that you didn't need to calibrate the runout on something over a meter long to within a fraction of a millimeter.
in our land it is even almost impossible to buy anything else except construction wood 🙂
Anyways, I tried to flatten out planks with plane built from router (was fun project on its own). Make my planks almost or even fully even, true, but thickness suffered, and each plank was different. And to thinner them all to common denominator... Well, too much effort and waste of wood. So, decided to go with warped wood and curvy grooves.
listen, if a board is too cupped it is worth ripping it, squaring up and gluing together. while breaking up the visual this preserves the most thickness possible.
And for edge gluing lumber there exists rules how to align the growth rings, you broke them on all instances
>there exists rules how to align the growth rings
Not him. Could you elaborate?
3rd from top is the way to get the most dimensional stability
only reason to not follow that is if it hurts the visuals of a prominent surface
Ah. From the way you phrased it I thought you meant something else (thus my curiosity.) Thanks anyway anon
Not to discourage you either but at this point I’d just paint it. I screwed up the mitres on the box I posted earlier but some paint and it looks presentable
To add on to this, in ye olden days --- they wouldn't foursquare a board, just an edge and a face and mark them as the reference for any measurements.
Additionally they may also square or plane just certain parts of a a board where the joinery meets up to make it more tight and neat.
If you don't want to do any of that you can check which sides of your lumber are the most square and mark those as your reference/show edges and faces.
man I feel really lucky to have great tools and lumber when I see picks like this.
that looks really good
>mid century modern
A man of taste
what kinda tools and lumber do you have
That’s classy af
What’s the consensus on the best way to do dowels? I’m thinking about picrel so I can do more glue and less deck screws on my next project. Self-centering would be good for my impatient ass.
There’s a bunch of random Chinesium too but it’s hard to really tell how they function.
There’s a bunch of Chinese versions of picrel too for around $10 more.
I use one of these they’re pretty fine. Use jig with hand drill, then use dowel pins to mark and a (good) drill press for the face holes. If you do the outer two first and one by one it’s really to get them 100% perfect.
At that point why not just buy the Rockler store brand?
Why use dowels at all? I gave them up for biscuits. Glue is some much better now you don't need dowels.
Different tasks. Through-dowels are also a really nice look.
One thing I like about dovetails though is they are easy to do in pine and don't require the kind of accuracy needed for a mitre joint. Pins do look cool though.
I might just be a moron but I find all joinery easier to do in common cheap hardwoods because they don't want to split if you accidentally look at them funny.
One of my most difficult dovetail jobs was in hard maple, it had no give. Pine or spruce (any softwood) will compress, you can force the joint together, add glue and clamp. It's a legit joint, fast and strong. Straight grain stock like walnut or oak will split, demands very careful measuring.
>Pine or spruce (any softwood) will compress, you can force the joint together,
So you cut it too tight and couldn't just sand it a bit to fit?
I cut pine so it's a tight fit, add glue and use a bar clamp to pull the joint together. It will look like it was cut perfectly to fit, but its because it's a compression fit. If there is a small gap, add in a sliver of wood with glue, dry, shave off and sand the corner. This is a way to 'fake' a perfect dovetail joint. This process doesn't work with hardwoods, especially maple, in that case you truly have to make a perfect fit, the joint will not compress, it will just split.
You can peen the end grain out to close small gaps. Personally I just sit there with a chisel shaving off a little bit until it fits. Also, undercutting the insides makes it a lot easier. You only have 2 show faces per tail after all.
We don't really have maple around here. Mostly beech and oak.
Undercutting is a great trick to hide small errors, I do this on inside mitres for baseboard molding, or 1/4 round also.
>French polishing
a piece like that, ontop made from oak is not something one can polish.
french polish on oak means hitting the same spot for 1000 times without staying stationary, that doesnt work on inner corners you cant even hit ones.
brush on shellac and a quick wipe? good enough for a mat gloss
This anon is right, I would just shellac a few coats, light sanding between coats, cover with oil or oil/varnish mix, wax. The perfect finish.
>light sanding between coats
Shellac bonds into itself, this does nothing.
ugh it takes the nibs off you mong.
simple brushed shellac is rough as broken glass
a better method is one bursh coat and then rub it the next day with a wetted and oiled polishing ball, this leaves a glass smooth texture.
Ball is cotton pads inside a shirt, wetted with 10ml of thinned shellac and a drop or two of mineral oil
For constructed shelf - you are absolutely right. I will prep all pieces then polish them and only then I will connect and glue them all into one shelf.
Probably not optimal solution, but biggest value for me is to have fun and learn on the way
Not able to French polish on Oak, and not a good choice anyway. If that is Red Oak you will need to fill the pores first, sand, then just wipe on a varnish mix and wax, or shellac, oil the wax. Simple and a perfect match for the piece.
Hide your fasteners, match your reveals, mortise your joints, fix your knots and always work on your ability to read the grain, match grain and take the natural movement of wood into consideration as you build your piece.
Additionally, understand that end grain is not the ideal foot, especially for an exterior bench leg. Paint is going to chip because it doesn't stick to end grain as well, and it's being abraded by the ground, so water and moisture will invade those pores and cause the wood to warp and ultimately deteriorate. Something at the end of the leg to either prop the wood off the ground or create a barrier would help your bench in the long run.
>fix your knots
Can you elaborate?
There are many types of knots. They all have the potential to increase wear on your tools and can be dangerous to cut. To keep it simple, there are two types of knots: tight and loose. Tight knots are considered to be fine and do not weaken the board, but can still be hard on tools and might break into chunks when worked. Loose knots weaken the board and are dangerous to cut, they can do things like explode into chunks and fly at your face when you send them through a table saw or something. I had a knotty piece of hickory blow up on one one time. Shattered my wristwatch and popped me in the forehead. That thing made me bleed. Could have been a lot worse. So anyway, a lot of people will use either super glue or epoxy to fix the knots in place so they don't do that. You can use coloring to match the finish of a piece. You can also drill a knot out with a forstner bit or a hole saw and fill it with either a dowel or a custom cut circle or do an inlay. There are numerous guides and instructions about these techniques online.
In picrel you can see I replaced a bunch if knots in some hemlock with doug fir cut out with a plug cutter and I put a diamond inlay where a really big, nasty knot used to be. There are many other, much bigger knots that I filled. This particular piece was a good practice run on filling knots and doing inlays. If this was a serious piece I would not have used that knotty ass wood in the first place.
TLDR; Fill a loose knot with super glue or epoxy so it doesn't blow up and injure you while you work it or weaken your piece.
Thanks, woodbro. That was very informative.
Is there a /woodworking general/ thread anywhere on PrepHole?
its dead
There was. And sometimes still is. But mostly its dead. Sadly.
>craft that takes precision, patience, practice, artistry, and money
vs.
>average PrepHole users
I guess I am not surprised that there isn't a regular /wwg/ but still disappointed.
It is an expensive hobby to get into. And its very hard to make any money at woodworking unless you're exceptionally good at it.
Wait, Youtube woodworkers told me I can make $6,000 per table per week. I've been lied to?
You've been lied to many times. Did you attend any education institution in the past 30 years? They were all frauds at whatever school you attended.
Wrong. https://woodgears.ca/beginner/
its more like all general threads with time becoming containment threads for the board homos, sane people stay away
>cuck yourself with cheap carpenter tools, its not a false economy
how come the machinist thread is still up then
>does literally nothing
>adds another day to your project for no reason
>cant sand it
>immune to mineral spirits
That's just orange juice bro
>No Harsh Fumes
Am I the only person who purposely avoids products that say “No/Low VOCs” or “Green” or “Pet/Child Safe”? They are the paper straws of chemicals, they don’t fricking work and don’t make a difference at all when China and India continue to pollute as much as they please.
It all evens out in the end because even if I die a couple years earlier, the good stuff works properly and allows you to finish projects faster and get onto the next thing.
Yes, you are indeed an idiot.
I'll remind you that Shellac has no VOCs too.
ethanol is a VOC
It's not a hazardous one like what's used in high VOC products.
Anyone know a foolproof way to PU varnish pine? Every website recommends a different process. Most times I try it does end up glossy but the surface isn’t smooth (more bubbly if that makes sense)
Low VOC is about work safety more than about environment
Drill press and dowel centering pins works faster for me, unless you want to dowel into the sides of boards (which is best avoided imo)
reading this, i realize i also do this to a pretty extreme extent— especially if there are two nearly identical products and one is the VOC-free grade with modern cucked branding on it.
Do these other guys buy the low-fat sour cream? the no-sodium campbells soup? Products made of vegan leather?
There is always a trade-off, and if there wasn’t, it would be more expensive than the original
The trade-off is the other one doesn't give you cancer.
>"omg VOCs are going to give you cancer!!!"
>incapable of evaluating acute exposure limits, frequency of usage, and environmental considerations on his own.
>Just has authorities and literal advertising/branding make decisions for him
have a nice day m8. big difference between being a hobbyist woodworker applying a VOC finishes once a month small pieces in a well ventilated garage vs. being a professional flooring refinisher who uses gallons of a finish every day and often works alongside curing finishes.
These are good examples of contrarianism
> There is always a trade-off
You’re assuming that trade off is something that’s always relevant for your use case but it might very well not be. They’re just different products, and if you don’t know what exactly the trade off is then it shouldn’t matter which one you pic, unless you assume that low-voc is some kind of conspiracy against you, the hobbyist woodworker.
I use water based ‘low voc’ paints because my shit doesn’t sit in the rain anyway, and water based makes it easier to clean the tools
>I use water based ‘low voc’ paints because my shit doesn’t sit in the rain anyway, and water based makes it easier to clean the tools
>everyone that disagrees with me is a contrarian, now here's a non sequitur to the previous poster's point about contextualizing overstated health risks
t. yungcuck raised on hating muh boomers
OK, grandpa, time for your meds.
>sometimes the trade-off works in your favor!
>personally, i like that crayola markers are completely water soluble!
>I like it when my wife spends time with her boyfriend because it gives me time to work on my star wars legos!
works on my machine
try some dados and mitres n shit pal
use a hand saw and a chisel some
explore finishes
Ive never refinished anything before, currently working on this old rocking chair for the wifes preggo friend. Has to be done by 12 tomorrow, cant use my electric sanders because its too late for local noise ordinance. Currently hand sanding with 80 grit random orbit discs, going to work my way up to 400. Its also probably moronic to hand sand before staining.
$12,000 easy
Looks surprisingly comfy
What kind of timber is that
Not that guy, but I think they are the slabs used to case in concrete foundations, formwork timber.
I think it is because it looks dry and ashy - that wood ends up that way after two uses and has to be thrown out bc it’s inflexible.
This is pure sex and I'm planning on figuring the angles out and building 2.
How can I add a little support in the middle of the seat? Would I have to add a third leg, or could I get away with just using 1" planks for seat boards?
Are you supposed to use a compass or something to draw this or what
Who even draws measurements like this
Yeah, you need at least a Ph.D. in math to figure this one out.
Do a paper sketch using mm instead of cm to figure out angles, there is only one shape the figure will take. Even without the drawing and just using the lengths and a compass, you’ll achieve the cutouts fine and can measure angles and do the cuts properly.
You don’t know this but you can actually calculate the angles without drawing anything.
How to do this is left as an exercise to you.
You guys have any youtube channel recs that use actual woodworking methods and crafting? The algorithm keeps force feeding me epoxy shit and I'm so fricking tired of seeing that.
3x3 Custom
731 Woodworks
Stumpy Nubs
Rex Krueger (very hand tool focused)
ENCurtis
Bourbon Moth Woodworking
Foureyes Furniture
Tool Testers:
Project Farm
Torque Test Channel
Workshop Companion
Oh yeah, New Yankee Workshop has all the episodes up on Youtube now.
is making a spinning wheel even a respectable project looks like everyone and their mom is making one
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to CAD some furniture? I want to make a TV console, but with some specific autistic points.
Sketchup is what I usually see recommended by pros, especially since it can plan out materials by type, like a guide on how you'd breakdown the plywood.
Nothing fancy, but needed a night stand and Rockler had the perfect sized slabs and legs to make this.
Hand planed, trimmed the ends with a jigsaw with a diablo top and bottom cut finish blade, sanded to 220, filled voids with black CA, and finished with shellac.
I have an old dresser that was previously thickly painted over the original finish across the entire front and top. Needless to say stripping that old paint and finish and sanding the entire thing down to refinish it quickly became out of my league.
I've gotten the entire top stripped and sanded, it's just the body of the dresser that is proving impossible to work with. So I'm considering refinishing the top and then painting the body.
Any recommendations for priming and painting over the imperfect old finish?
is laser cutting the only way to make aesthetic stuff with plyboard
Nah just use a router
I need to build a bookcase, should I get an old Stanley No. 59 doweling jig and use that? Wood screws seem homosexual and I think dowels look nice with color contrast.
Why not just get a modern doweling jig?
First of all because the only way to do this is with a Festool Domino.
Dipshit.
Dowels and traditional joinery are a conspiracy to deprive poor starving Festool engineers of their $1200 pittance.
Let's not exaggerate here. The Domino is great if the time doing joinery seriously affects your ability to keep projects going at a good pace. If you're building custom furniture as your career, the domino is a major asset that will make your workflow a lot easier.
For most hobbyists, it's an expensive luxury tool.
You can make a jig for a router that does the same exact thing the festool does, or just get a drill jig and use dowels and it will take the same amount of time.
The real benefit of festool is having the full kit that all works together with power cords, dust collection etc. Their storage carry cases are also pretty nice
Again, not just that, but it has built-in alignment pins and other little features that make setting it up take seconds. Even with a router jig it takes a lot more work and time.
Having actually used both, I can confidently say you're wrong.
Sure having a 45 degree pin is nice but you can also just put your speed square on the jig, takes maybe 10 more seconds
Let's say worst case scenario where you're alternating setups every domino that's a grand total of maybe 1 minute extra every 6 dominos
Most furniture or glue-ups won't have more than 20, so you probably waste more time picking your nose per project than with the jig
Don't get me wrong, it's a nice tool. But it's a flex like saying "oh yeah I have my wine guy refill the fridge every couple of weeks"
People don't mock it because it's expensive, they mock it because it's a status symbol
>Sure having a 45 degree
So, you don't know about the spacer pins on the front of it then.
Yes, it's an expensive tool that does one thing, but it does it better and faster than older techniques. But you also don't need it unless you're a serious builder where the time it saves matters.
I do know about them, I just ignored them because any good router jig will have ruler marks and a slider as well.
The width adjustment is probably the only thing most jigs won't have, but all you need to do is swap in another guide plate to get that same functionality on a jig.
If you're making 5 projects per day with a team of guys maybe it makes sense, but for 99% of people (including the youtube stars) that money would be better spent on something else.
How much more obvious do I have to be before you realize I'm taking the piss?
If the dovel are visible you can clamp the piecse together and simply drill both at once
Miller Dowels are also a good choice for this
Another option is Massca's X jig, which lets you put in a pair of 5/16s dowels that lock the two pieces together even without glue.
ffs you dont need a jig for this
Need? No, but it does make it faster and a lot more accurate.
You'll find that this is true of a lot of different ways you can do things in woodworking.
What do you need dowels for? Shelves are dadoed into each side, corners are dovetailed. You can screw from the side through the dado to the shelf, but hide the screw with a plug. You can get the drill and plug cutter from Lee Valley.
This is my next project. Its a retro gaming cabinet set for the corner of the room. The biggest part will be the spine at the back. It would look better if it was triangular and simpler if it was square with an ugly corner jutting out from the back. Let's go.
how come plyboard is so strong
That's a frickin dope bench, anon. I am not a woodworker so no suggestions but I just wanted to tell you I think you did a good job, especially for a beginner 🙂
So aside from the trolling what’s you guys opinion on cheap biscuit joiners? There’s one from einhell for €80.
I have this plan to make a bunch of boxes out of 8mm (1/4”) ply and glued of course, but it’s too thin for dowels so was thinking biscuits. They should be pretty easy to align, right?
Biscuits are too big to use through 1/4" material faces. That tool only goes down to #0 biscuits, which are 5/8" wide, or have a cutting depth greater than 5/16s, which will go all the way through.
They are great for 1/2" or thicker material, though.
If you want a simple, easy joint, maybe consider rebates?
Thanks I had only thought of that after posting. Rebates would be nice and stronger but I need the outside corner to be flush. Guess I’ll just glue in a small support on the inside of the corner
can i install a square lock into a door by drilling a number of holes with 3/8 bit to required depth then chiseling away
i don't have a narrow chisel
yes
what if i make a big mistake
Forgot pic earlier. How do I avoid the golf ball surface result when applying PU? Could it be too thick?
Yes, use thinner paint and sand after each coat, after 2 or 3 you should have good results.
Can someone identify the wood my parents stairs are made from? The house was build in the late 60s in Germany. My dad says the previous owner meant it was mahagony but i doubt even in the 60s it was cheap enough for such constructions.
At least it doesn't look like the common woods like oak, beech and especially not pine or spruce.
> At least it doesn't look like the common woods like oak, beech and especially not pine or spruce.
Can’t tell from pic, definitely not a softwood, I would say it is mahogany too, but also don’t be fooled by the many appearances that oak comes in.
I’m one country away and my parents had a small staircase exactly like that btw. In the 60s there was already cheap teak from Myanmar and lots of other imported stuff like Rio Pallisander so it in that regard it could be anything
>but also don’t be fooled by the many appearances that oak comes in.
That's our fear too. It could be mahagony from pictures but also just some coloured oak.
If you have a scrap piece, drill it at high speed, both oak and mahogany have very distinguishable smell when heated.
Looks vaguely like sapele (not technically a mahogany but often called mahogany) though the seemingly very open grain is throwing me for a loop. Sapele is pretty cheap.
Quartersawn mahogany. Lots of it going around during that time. Beautiful wood. Lightens over time. Strong and resistant to moisture. We were chopping up the forests (and rain forests) for pennies on the dollar.
Working on this oak veneered sunburst coffee table over the past week. Should have it finished tomorrow. Pic of internal construction.
>How many clamps do I need?
>2 more than I have
Looks cool. How do you like the hilti battery tools?
The drill is a beast, nice features, but the chuck has a tendency to slip unless you really tighten it like a mofo. It makes makita and DeWalt drills just feel like toys in comparison.
The impact is great, pretty quiet and really controllable.
The jigsaw has ended up being used way more that I thought, it's really useful and can handle 2" thick solid ash/oak no problem. It does eat through the batteries though.
Ready for finish sanding
Looks really good anon, you do this for a living?
Ty. I'm a furniture and cabinet maker, for 14 years now.
Tell me about the veneering process. How do you get the seamless pie piece directional grain on the top? What's the method to get them together tight at the corners with the edge banding?
I do skilled tradie stuff but would like to make the jump into the higher level craft. Right now I can make half a dozen pieces of audio equipment, but if I put in 100-200 hours labor minus materials I'm at or below basic construction labor pay.
Leg joinery
I built a little tambour box
Nice, is the tambour attached to the drawer?
Did you make the tambour yourself, what did you use for backing?
Yes the door is attached to the drawer and I made the tambour door myself. The backing is just some generic non-stretch fabric.
really neat, anon
oh man i saw a writing desk with this shit but the other proportions were so off i didn't buy it
can you use this for doors like japanese style sliding door but without the paper bs
why aren't kitchen cabinets made like this could avoid the doors hitting the head
Would this kind of jigsaw guide be good enough to cut 3/4” mdf and ply sheets accurately?
Im looking to build some shop cabinets and later maybe a wardrobe, and have a makita 18v jigsaw. My options are this cheap guide (€35), the expensive one and an adapter (€90) or the track saw without battery (€160). I don’t cut sheets often but I need something that’s easy to make good cuts because ply is expensive these days
How wide are the panels you're intending to cut?
Jigsaws aren't really the best tool for the job. If I was forced to use one I'd rig up a straight edge to run the saw against.
Invest in a good quality blade, ideally a top and bottom cut blade so you don't have as much tear out to deal with.
The panels are full size but my widest part is 60cm/2” and if I’d need the occasional wider part I would do like you say, clamp a straight edge to it. I do that now but it’s slow and sometimes the vibration of the saw moves it. I know the track saw is probably a better tool for it but if the jigsaw+guide is good enough for the occasional sheet project I’d rather not spend that much yet
what would happen if you used a brad point drill on metal
how fast is a wood lathe cutting tool supposed to cut
i set up a turning setup and it's cutting very slow with a sharpened planing blade
do they fast forward the cutting in youtube videos
Need more information to answer that.
They aren't generally all that fast but that also depends on the tool type, speed of the rotation, and if the lathe has the power to keep up.
If you're using a plane blade, like holding a hand plane up to the workpiece, yeah, it's super slow.
Get some Carbide insert tools from Amazon and some big ass spindle roughing gouges. I have a 1 1/4 in and a 2 inch spindle roughing gouge from Penn state (dirt cheap) and they will make a small mountain of sawdust in a hurry.
can a tiny hardwood gear replace a nylon gear
It would snap along the grain very easily.
The tip would probably never get into the metal, it would just spin and get dull.
Do the matching shoe rack next! Those cheap shoe racks are always so flimsy.
I collected a few fresh honey locust logs from a neighbor, cut them to size and sealed the ends with max strength wood glue. Sat them in my garage in July with a fan on them for a week and now just waiting.
I'm thinking now that they may not dry properly while they're still in log form. Should I have milled them into 1 inch cuts? The logs I've got are all from the branches so they are about 6-9 inches wide and 2 feet long.
> Should I have milled them into 1 inch cuts?
It can dry but as logs it takes a lot longer, beat is to cut to final size plus some margin so that you can cut them to exact size when they’re dry and correct for warping
I have no problem waiting for a year or two but it sounds like I've got some work to do. Half of them will be cut into knife scales, the other half I'm going to keep as logs for bigger workpieces.
>read up and watched 5,000 videos on cutting tenons and mortises
>got a set of nice pullsaws and marking tools
>carefully mark everything, double check everything
>proceed to cut first real joinery
And all I accomplished was to confirm that I couldn't cut a straight line with a handsaw to save my mother's life.
Get some really cheap to free wood and practice. It's a physical skill that requires muscle memory to get right.
What
said, except I'd suggest that a cheap hardwood is the better option, as it's ironically more forgiving to work with. Also, if you want to use japanese saws, use a dozuki.
practice practice practice.
The theory is only half the battle, the other half is the muscle memory engrained into you through experience
straight lines are sovlless that's why machines do them so well
Eh, you can get really good curve work in if you put in the time to build the templates to route with. It looks better too because the curves will match if you're not good with a spokeshave.
Make rectangles
is tenon and mortise good for a lot of bending stress on the joint
I hadn't done any real woodworking for about a decade until recently when I knocked out a mother's day gift in a night or two, a wood frame for hanging small polaroid-sized photos on string with pegs. I did a nice job with it, all joints and dowels, even made the effort to put fancy green felt on the feet so it wouldn't scratch up her dresser.
Anyway, it inspired me to fix a problem that's been bothering me for a while, namely the kids shoes taking up space on our shoe rack and the coat hooks in the hallway being too high for them to reach. Bought a cheap 3-level bamboo shoe-rack for AU$25 from Bunnings and a few lengths of Tasmanian Oak, of 2 differing thicknesses and widths. Slapped the wood together using half-lap joints, wood glue, and x3 6mm dowels in each corner, then put grooves in the side of each frame to fit it flush with the shoe rack. Frame was then secured to the shoe rack with x4 dowels on each side and more wood glue. Rack and frame were both sanded down before hand.
I probably could have been a lot more thorough with the sanding on the shoe rack as there were definitely parts where the varnish wasn't applying properly but overall I'm pretty happy with it. It fits perfectly into the space by the front door and there was nothing else I could find pre-built that quite matched with what I wanted, not for any sensible price.
The use of half-laps, dowels, and the brown varnish really takes me back to the sort of furniture I remember being everywhere in primary school when I was a kid in the UK during the 90's up norf. That particular shade of brown brings back a lot of memories.
Looks like you’re ready for cnc routers, get your self some carbide up it end mills and program some gcode and make a full autonar-15 out of oak
Anyone got plans for a gym bench? Or gym equipment in general?
OP here, here are me and my b***h making benches
Total woodworking noob looking for gifts for family: why are cutting boards on Etsy so cheap? It seems like they're half the price of more conventional retailors. pic rel is like $65 for a 14x9x2
Are they making cheaper/inferior products?
Probably not. They're likely just being frugal with offcuts of cheaper woods. Take note of 3 things:
1. What species of wood was used. It should be a softer hardwood (cherry, walnut, about 1000 janka is fine) or you're basically just dragging your knife over a brick. Teak is a trap. It looks fine on paper but it's full of embedded sand grains.
2. If it's a multi-species piece, that the expansion coefficients of the species are roughly similar. The cutting board is going to get wet and if the wood used has wildly different expansion rates then it will tear itself apart in no time.
3. What glue was used. It should not be water soluble after curing and should be food safe (Titebond II is a popular and fine choice, even though it is technically water soluble)
Is that really cheap? $65 for that much wood?
is a 9" pull saw even useful
Houston, we have a problem... The only defense I can come up with is that I just left it open top initially, and then thought "hey I could put a lid on this pretty easily".
And it all went together so well. First time actually coming up with a full cut-list beforehand and working it. Only assembly frickup was not thinking about the order of assembly of the internal stuff (and how it would prevent me from getting the drill where it was needed), so I had to flip over the deck board on the circular saw side and have a couple of exposed pocket screws. I took the lid off and flipped it around (so I now have shitty looking holes on the front), and of course its still like 3/8" too tight for the track saw. Get to redo the lid with only a 2" stationary board.
It amazes me how that turned so well because man that is some cheap looking ply
Much better. Though the very tips of those screws holding the piano hinge are sticking out. And I know damned well if I don't knock them down I will tear the shit out of my hand sometime in the near future.
Thankies!
>cheap looking ply
Man, this is the fancy "sande" stuff. I usually just use CDX for everything.
Man I'm in the same boat. I want ot build a loft bed for my tiny ass apartment that holds a full size bed that I can put my computer desk under.
>does anyone have any plans they care to post?
Dood, don’t do a lofted bed if you ever want to feel anything warmer than the onahole. I know it seemed cool when you were 11, but maybe get rid of the gamer chair and get a Macbook.
I would use commercial scaffolding so I could change anything I liked rather than frick about with wood. Staging clamps etc are also an option and either can integrate a steel bed frame with little work. Elevating storage using narrow Baker scaffolds (too small for beds tho) is also an option. Paint them something appropriate and have at it. Steel angle is reasonable if you want a custom layout or to use a combination of staging, scaffold and custom. Use flanged lock nuts on anything with threads.
Many lofted beds in dorms didn't imped their owners laying pipe. Sounds like a user issue.
Dumb question, for a work bench specifically, would support braces running diagonal or perpendicular be stronger, or is the difference negligible? Making it out of almost entireky 2x4's except the legs as i have a bunch on hand
Ms paint your design and I will give you the best guidance
The lighter blue will hold the cross bracing on which the work top (dark blue) both sits on and is affixed to. Sorry for my poor drafting, also didnt include legs as didnt feel it was necessary
The work top will overhang the bracing a bit so i can clamp to it
That’s way better picture than I was expecting, thanks. I would do perpendicular 2x4s to the front of the workbench. Shorter span = more strength, but the reality is like you said, unless you’re putting a transmission on top the difference is negligible.
Also, I’d recommend 3/4 plywood for the top instead of what looks like 2x4s. Less warping and a more even surface.
>source: I’ve built a lot of different types of work benches
The real heavy-duty workbenches use face-joined 2x4/6s rather than edge-joined as well. But plywood does work.
Nta but plywood just doesn’t have that nice weighty/solid feel to it when you put heavy stuff on it.
If instead of flat you put them on their side and then laminate for a solid 4” top and you won’t need any bracing. You probably don’t need the bracing right now as other anon said. But if you insist, put them perpendicular
Agreed that 2x lumber is sturdier, the main pro of the plywood is the flat surface. You could always glue and screw 2x plywood sheets together if you want a thicker bench. I did that with my very first bench and honestly it was huge overkill and heavy as frick unnecessarily. But whatever you decide just get it nice and square, don’t skimp on the fasteners and make sure to use it for lots of projects as god intended, not some Onions displace shelf for your perfect condition tools.
I mean, old school way was just running a big-ass plane over it until it was flat.
>Heavy duty Ward-PowerKraft 5 inch planer/jointer. Great working order. Very heavy. Adjustable fence for bevel and width.
>$120
should i? I dont have a jointer or planer
im a moron and forgot pic
Bump for opinions
I think ima go for it, i dont know if blades for those things are universal though or id just be fricked if they were chipped. but id like something to get started.
how do i find someone to make a custom wooden displaycase for me for a christmas gift?
Contact an etsy seller?
What about the legs? That looks like lathe work.
>lofted beds in dorms
Yeah, that’s not anon redoing his bedroom at his mom’s house. Also frat boys with their own room def get more pussy that dude on the top bunk in a dorm.
I was wondering who made the original. Like with a lot of Kreg stuff, there’s 20 Chinese knockoffs before you get to the Kreg version of the same tool.
> I was wondering who made the original
I think the original one is from Dowl-it. They’re also one of the few that make it in multiple variants. They say they have the patent for it but don’t find any patent numbers on their website. Mine is branded Westfalia and is pretty solid but definitely not top quality
>What about the legs? That looks like lathe work.
Make them square or buy prebuilts
That is a nice looking stand. How difficult is it to build a rolling slat door like that?
If you don't need to match grain? Not too hard. Lots of identically sized slats stapled to a non-stretchy fabric.
Depends on what stock you can get. If you can buy a thin long piece that is straight and flat already you just cut and attach them. If you can only get a bigger board and have to do the width and thickness yourself it’s difficult because cutting even thin flat strips flat is a pain
How hard is it to make a sideboard such as this? Everything online is $1,000+ for some shitty Chinese made MDF covered in veneer. Can these be made nicely by someone like me who just has a compound miter saw or should I look on Facebook marketplace for a carpenter
>just has a compound miter saw
no
get a router and you can do it
Any suggestions for USA sellers of pigmented MDF board?
Gonna start making some furniture
Got a jointer/planer and big table saw
I have worked in carpentry for years so I have most “contractor” type tools
What are some “must have” tools I need but probably don’t realize yet?
Any recommendations on chisels?
I probably need a decent hand plane?
Big or handheld tools? On big tools, this is kind of the order you'd want them:
Table Saw
Planer - With these 2 you can use a planer sled and tapering jig to square up a rough-cut board.
Drill Press
Bandsaw - Being able to resaw larger boards means you can get cheaper lumber to start from.
Jointer - Saves you the steps of needing the jigs to flatten and square a face and an edge.
Optionals:
Drum Sander - Especially if you're doing stuff like end-grain cutting boards, a planer will tear those up.
CNC machine - Really good for automating production of lots of identical items, carving designs, or creating templates
just start with what you have. I'm tired of these consoomer posts asking what to spend a bunch of money on before even making anything. pick a simple project and make it. you probably have enough tools to make a stool or a tool caddy. go from there. don't buy a whole bunch of stuff you're not even sure you'll need.
it's exactly the same in the home diy threads.
>guys what do I buy if I want to do everything
you don't. not a single established craftsman, DIYer, woodworker, etc. bought an entire workshop before they made anything. they built up their set of tools as they went, starting from basic simple projects that could be done with only a few tools, and learned how to use each new thing as they got it. if you do it the other way around you'll be surrounded by a bunch of shiny new things you have no idea how or when to use. if you look at Paul seller's videos, he has thousands of dollars in hand tools around him in his workshop. did he go and buy all of them at once? no, he started with a couple saws, a couple planes, and some chisels.
Sounds good, when I find myself going “this saw fricking sucks for this” I’ll go find something else
until then use what i got
The important thing is knowing what tools/techniques are available for the kinds of things you want to do. Then you can make up your mind on whether to get one or not when it would be useful. There are more opinions on tool sets than there are woodworkers.
To answer your original question, if you want to do traditional joinery then the immediate non-obvious thing is measuring/marking equipment like marking gauges, as well as sharpening equipment for your edged tools. If you want to do traditional joinery just be forewarned that chisels with thick edges are a trap and you need something with bevels ground down to the back like pic related. Don't bother buying a massive set because you'll more than likely only use 2 or 3 chisels and the rest will gather dust. Buy as you need them and don't think you need to buy the most fancy wank on the market, just get what works for you. I have good experiences with MHG and bad experiences with Narex. Lots of people here have good experiences with Narex. YMMV.
>and you need something with bevels ground down
the thing with these is they suck for general work.
ive cut and pinched myself more than a couple times on the sides despite blunting them even more
Yeah I cut myself on the sides way too often too but my joinery chisels are my good chisels so they're still leaps and bounds beyond my old firmer chisels. I don't really have a problem using them for general joinery work but I sure as hell wouldn't bother with them if I wasn't doing dovetails.
I have good experiences with narex. Thick edged chisels do have an advantage tho, which is you can make/deepen slots of exactly the chisel width, or at least they make it easier. I see myself doing that a lot. Almost all of my slots, mortises etc are exactly the width of a chisel I have
I much prefer cutting mortises with dedicated mortise chisels over firmer chisels. A firmer chisel will do in a pinch but a mortise chisel makes it so much easier. Plus they're so damn chunky they feel unbreakable even when you're wailing on them. I'm not trying to pile hate on firmer chisels. They're for carpentry and they're excellent at that; but the question was about making furniture and my caveat was that if you want to cut traditional joinery then it's joinery chisels you're gonna need. I barely ever use my firmer chisels anymore.
Yea guess you’re right, maybe if I had some mortise chisels I’d use the joinery chisels more instead of the thick ones
For some though it's more efficient to just hog it out with a drill press and forstners or a router, then clean it up with a chisel.
Depends on what you like to do.
Can you blame them?
Picrel is what you need to follow Home Depot's "How to Make a Cutting Board" article. This shit is everywhere online and is combined with a general derision of entry-level techniques (like fastening with wood screws, etc, rather than hand-cut mortises or festool dominos).
A leather handle for a cutting board? What the frick?
Is painting wood frowned upon?
Depends on the wood, really. Pine or cedar? Go for it. Walnut or other higher priced, really pretty woods? I mean, it's your money and furniture, but seems an odd choice to make.
ive got a 4x8 sheet of 1" butcher block that idk what to do with
I'm going to be building shelves similar to this. Any suggestions on support for the shelves? Are wood screws through the back enough or do I need to run metal rods or something?
I would do 3/4" uprights and rabbet 3/8-1/2 for each shelf besides the top and bottom
You mean Dados?
Stop dados side and back, screw from the back. You can get a plug cutter to hide the screws. If you want a challenge, make them sliding dovetails, but you will need a dovetail bit and router, no screws required in that place, would be cool.
>you will need a dovetail bit and router
Yeah. "Need."
Can you make a pen out of wood?
Totally, Rockler and Woodcraft sell the parts and starter kits for pens, wood blanks, and small lathes.
That's pretty sick anon, any tips for my first project? got two huge oak boards I want to turn into a donkey
>have the great idea to use my table saw to cut grooves in pieces to make frames for panes to ultimately make display cases out of wood and acrlic
>This will always leave at least one section with a hole at the bottom
Pic related test cuts in scrap wood - have any anons here done this successfully and have suggestions?
I assume upper left is what you're building. The rest is one possible solution. A stronger approach would be a mortise and tenon joint with a haunch.
Great, it got rotated 90° in EXIF
No problem regarding rotation, but yes that is exactly what I'm building. four of those for the sides of a display case, then solid top and bottom.
>mortise and tenon joint with a haunch
Okay I see what you're saying especially with that image; this would be done on two opposite pieces and then slide into the other two effectively hiding that hole. Thank you for that suggestion I am going to try that out.
This would be a tenon with a haunch. That's the kind of joint you'd use to make doors, or just good strong frames. I don't know how you were planning on joining your frame pieces but this is how they'd do it in ye olden days where they had essentially the same limitation you have where you can't plow a stopped groove. At least not without making it a lot more work.
Sounds like what you're looking for can be done with a simple Rail and Stile router bit set, they make them with a bunch of different profiles.
https://www.rockler.com/search/rail%20and%20stile%20bit
Was watching the video, the only problem is that the smallest they seem to have is 1/2 inch and I'm looking at using somewhere between 1/8 to 1/4 thick acrylic.
>mitre joint
Oh I see definitely another option. Thank you.
>Was watching the video, the only problem is that the smallest they seem to have is 1/2 inch and I'm looking at using somewhere between 1/8 to 1/4 thick acrylic.
That's the shank size, or what size router collet it fits in, the panel slot is 1/4".
Also, the Freud sets let you adjust the thickness of the panel slot.
So...if you are making frames with a grove and you route or cut the grove out you will end up with a hole at the ends. You can still route the slot but use a mitre joint at the corners to hide the cut. This is typically how it's done and looks correct. Tenons are for joining skirts to legs, door frames, not for small items like mirrors or picture frames. A rail and stile set is very expensive and must be used in a router table and if difficult to set up accurately. Just make your stock material and then mitre the corners. Simple. Done all of this many times, sold my rail and stile set, looks too modern and I built reproduction furniture.
>A rail and stile set is very expensive and must be used in a router table and if difficult to set up accurately.
https://www.rockler.com/router-bit-set-up-jigs-rail-and-stile-bits
Rockler makes setup pretty easy.
>https://www.rockler.com/router-bit-set-up-jigs-rail-and-stile-bits
I had a Freud set and it was very expensive. I made a few things with it and gave up, I like the pace of hand work using hand tools.
I almost finished my first project: a child rattle toy.
It's not great, guess I'll just make a second better one and learn from my mistakes.
Anyone here builds children toys? What finish do you use? (I was thinking of beeswax + olive oil)
I use a 2-step process for things for kids. First I let it soak in a generous amount of polymerized (note polymerized, not boiled) linseed oil, wipe the excess off after an hour or so, leave it for a few days and then rub in a paste wax of 1:4 (by weight) beeswax to polymerized linseed oil (preferably heated up to liquid in a waterbath but if you have warm hands that's fine too), leave it for an hour again, wipe the excess off, then preferably wait at least a day before giving it to the kid. It'll take a week or two to harden properly.
I make my own polymerized linseed oil by bringing raw flaxseed oil (the food-grade stuff) up to 240-250°C briefly, then keeping it at 220-230°C for 3 hours. This is extremely dangerous so I'm not gonna recommend you do it but it does make a food-safe wood finish that dries in a matter of days, not months. I can't find anywhere to buy it near me but you might be able to find it near you and if so you should just get that. I believe they use it to make oil paints. I refine my own beeswax too but I get trimmings for very cheap from a beekeeper down the street. This you should just buy it and you really don't need much. I would steer well clear of olive oil. It will go rancid and smell.
Thanks a lot anon
> I would steer well clear of olive oil. It will go rancid and smell.
I found several people who recommend it (with melted beeswax), but only in my language (French), while the English internet says it always goes rancid, strange...
All raw oils go rancid, including linseed oil. You can abrogate the issue by applying only very thin coats and waiting weeks between applications so it has time to fully dry, assuming your oil has enough PUFA to dry. To put it into perspective, linseed oil is ~70% ALA and LA whereas olive oil is around ~10%. I'm guessing you see it a lot in French because that's what you've historically had lots of. Up here in the cold north we've used linseed oil and pine tar for about 2 millennia because that's what grew here.
When you polymerize the oil you're basically making it rancid under controlled circumstances and burning everything that might make it smell in an anoxic environment. It's essentially the same process used to make seed oils except you don't bleach the oil. If you make your own you'll see it turn from a golden green to a deep orange/red and you'll see burnt bits fall to the bottom and possibly a sticky mucilage depending on how well it was filtered. When they make it professionally they heat it to 300°C under a vacuum so it doesn't catch fire and explode, which it does at around 260°C when in contact with air, and they keep it there for days.
A nice side effect of using edible finishes is that you can just apply it with your bare hands, which is nice since we're talking about drying oils and any rags you use need to be left to dry off the side of a bucket or similar as they can spontaneously combust if you crumble them up and put them in a pile.
It will go rancid in French or English, use MINERAL OIL and beeswax.
just wipe on mineral oil from the drug store. safe, or don't add anything. you can rub with beeswax since it's food safe.
He can potentially use tung oil as well. Non toxic as it is used for cutting boards. Curing time takes a while but it produces a nice result.
I melt beeswax and mineral oil in a tin in boiling water to make a hard paste, use that to finish and maintain my boards. The stuff you buy is that plus some scent, might as well make your own.
how to make this? wont the pegs split the seat?
Not sure it's worth the effort, people weight a lot more these days. I've repaired many of these, no more than decorations now, or a child's chair. the leg should be made of hickory or white ash, but you need bottom rungs, chair will still fail though.
Damn this is true with furniture. You used to build stuff for like 160lb max weight, now everything is expected to hold the perfect score in bowling with ease.
I feel like boring a hole halfway through the bottom of the seat would solve that problem instead of a through-hole.
Still worth making for the experience, not for your 300lb mother-in-law. I repaired a lot of arrowback chairs, eventually got rid of them all. Better to drill through, use a wedge, and add bottom runs and be prepared to reglue.
>160lb max weight
I'm 20 lbs heavier than that just from lifting/cutting.
look at YT videos of the 60--70's, no fat people.
Yo I can't make my own thread because PrepHole wont let me upload images, but I have a wood related question. Found a cool wood piece outdoors to use as a prop for my photography, but its dusty and has some dried mud on the side, what's the proper way to clean it? Should I just wash it or is that a no no? I don't want to damage the piece
Scrape off the mud with something metal, not something too sharp to damage it. Also use a strong bristle brush.
I've seen some people use that pushblock successfully.
>decent dust collection
Does it support a vacuum hose attachment?
It's pretty fricking bare bones but I got it for a really good price and it's my first table saw, got to start somewhere.
Any advice in general on what get for it or how to improve it would be appreciate d
I've owned many expensive table saws, but their value comes down to repeating accurate cuts. The bearings have to be true or you get blade wobble. Check that you can make consistent square cuts. Check that it's not the blade first which could be warped. My current saw is a contractor special from Delta, but it's the best one I've had, cuts perfect 90's. There is an old Fine Woodworking article that goes through the steps to fine tune your tablesaw. The blade should be square to the mitre slots, not to the mitre guage. After tune up, you might want to upgrade the mitre guage. Take an oil stone and restore the top. Also, one thing I always do is to add an extension on the right side for a router, nice option for later. Have fun, the most important item in your workshop after a good bench.
Replacing that light switch with a proper big red button would be a good idea too.
https://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-71651-Paddle-Installation-Hardware/dp/B095HTCW42/ref=sr_1_5?hvadid=598020899035&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9019546&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9046966745079740077&hvtargid=kwd-319003579854&hydadcr=8464_9883300&keywords=safety%2Bswitch%2Bfor%2Btable%2Bsaw&qid=1701025823&sr=8-5&th=1
Make a new insert with an integrated splitter, that's probably the biggest safety factor right now on it. You'll likely need to jerry rig something to pull dust out of the underside.
https://stumpynubs.com/make-safer-cleaner-table-saw-cuts-with-this-homemade-device/
Gotcha, as far as push sticks or feather boards or any of that kind of stuff, what should I get?
>Looking at black Friday sales seeing if I can pick up anything
I've been watching this guy's videos on shit and he shills this one featherboard. Not sure on other anon's opinions on this guy.
?si=dugL4FHmc_3bB3aA
Stumpy has good info but he is also a shill. I wouldn't disregard what he says but he's definitely taking money to push particular tools.
Lots of featherboards out there and most work. I use my Jessem stock guides more and a grrripper most of the time though so those are other options. The grripper would be my first choice (a push block that will help you hold things tight to the fence)
I'm waiting on some more filament and I am probably going to just DIY a featherboard. However in that video he does shill
Shill or no, he does give excellent reasoning behind why he recommends specific products rather than his safety/general tool use videos.
His sudden switch to Harvey after being a die-hard promoter of Sawstop's safety because they gave him a free high-end cabinet saw was interesting, though.
I don't disagree. His videos and content are good. That isn't exclusive with him being a shill. His videos are worth watching generally, just gotta tune out the, say, bridge city tool reviews (incidentally owned by the same people as harvey).
Most of the big names are at least somewhat shills. On the other hand, the wood whisperer dumped his powermatic saw, cried about it repeatedly in his videos, and practically had a sawstop the next day when powermatic dumped him.
Ever since the power carving disk incident I can’t take him seriously on safety. He did exactly what you shouldn’t do, with a tool that should only be used in very specific circumstances, almost lost 3 fingers and then made video stating that it was a freak accident and that he did nothing wrong safety wise
His other videos are pretty good
Frick that, it's an extremely dangerous tool that is too easy to slip up with. He was in fact using it the "right" way and made a small mistake of accidentally pushing it into the piece as he was finishing a pull. It's a stupidly dangerous tool that does nothing that other tools don't already do faster and safer. The Kutzall burr discs don't have the huge cut-in the chainsaw discs do so when they make contact it's the same direction of forces on the grinder whether pushing or pulling.
And those chainsaw discs are advertised for those uses (cutting, notching, carving). They're garbage at every task they're advertised for as well.
> He was in fact using it the "right" way and made a small mistake of accidentally pushing it into the piece as he was finishing a pull
I concur, you can (maybe) safely use them, but only in such a way that only one small part of the disk can touch only one small part of the work piece. Because only that “makes it impossible to suddenly invert the direction of pull”, which is the safety rule for any angle grinder attachment.
There's no good reason to actually use it, though. There are far safer tools for power carving with an angle grinder. You can just use a circular saw to make the kind of cuts that this can make far cleaner.
Bow's foam-tipped ones would be the answer for both.
Honestly looking at what I'm going to have to do to bring it up to snuff of a modern saw it makes me think I should have just bought a cheap modern saw with the ability to have a knife and some actual dust collection. Because the table is pitted to hell as well
Not necessarily. The quality of the bearings is key and the trunion casting. The rest is cosmetic, fix the top, clean and grease, check the mitre guage (at least it's metal), you might have a diamond in the rough. My plain jane delta is better than my old unisaw.
Do you have any recommendations for videos about tune-ups? And checking things like the bearings?
Should I get one of those gauges to measure the wobble?
Try this for starters, but I bet these days there are a lot of YT video on the topic. You don't need that instrument. Once you are set up, with a new blade, cut a scrap piece of wood about 4" wide then flip it over and compare the cut to the blade for alignment, any wobble will show. There is no harm in replacing the bearings if you think they are worn, they have to be pressed in and that involves removing the trunnions, it can wait. One thing I do with all my motors is to take them to a electric motor rebuild service and have it "dipped and baked", not too expensive, totally worth it, will run very quiet and smooth, like a new motor, replace the belt. As noted, wire in a paddle switch.
Properly set up a table saw is a fine precision instrument, it makes all your work so much easier and it's worth the effort to tune up and keep it maintained.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/project-guides/shop-machines/tune-up-your-tablesaw-2
anyone make their own tools? currently making a lathe lol
Use a soft wire brush to remove loose dirt. mix up warm water and Murphy's Oil soap and wash off, use a soft brush, dry quickly with paper towel.
Got a old 10" table saw and looking to get some needed accessories for it.
are Microjig Grr-rippers worth it for safety? what other safety shit should I be getting?
Is there decent dust collection setups for these old things?
Woodworking seems so zen, if only I wasn't stuck in an apartment.
I’ve got to drill a 1/2” hole 12” deep into a 1” thick board for floating shelves. Without a press, how do I keep my bit straight?
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-portable-drill-guide
Probably can't go the full 12" deep with this alone, but you can get the hole started deep enough the bit won't wander.
Not even a proper collet can keep a twist drill from wandering. If you need an accurate hole you have to bore it to dimension. Auger bits are better but they too can wander.
On another note, if you don't want to spend $180 to drill a single hole, get yourself a block of scrap wood and turn it into a drill guide by drilling a hole in it at a perfect 90° in 2 dimensions. You do it by holding a square up to the drill bit as you drill the hole and then repeatedly changing position so you're squaring it from the front and the side as you drill through the block. You can check for square afterwards by poking your bit through the block and testing with a square all around it on the bottom of the block, meaning you get effectively infinite chances to make a proper one.
If you can't keep a drill bit straight in a hole that's already 6" deep, you have bigger problems.
Yeah. Problems like "reality."
Are you really trying to compare precision microdrilling through graphite to putting a .5x12" bore into wood?
Ah yes, the
>it wanders less than I consider acceptable so it's not happening
line.
Just because you fricking suck at drilling doesn't mean all of us are as bad as you are.
Do you think he's wrong? Why do you think the drill press exists?
So how would you drill that particular hole that anon asked about, huh?
Full moron.
$10
>12” deep into a 1” thick board
wha...
i've found if i use the drill with a front handle set perpendicular to the back grip you have control over both axes and it drill very straight
Is there a way to build an outdoor sliding door that doesn't get gunked up by dust and sand in the rail?
Yes, make the rail a single track, convex or square, and put some brush weather stripping on the bottom of the door. Ball bearings make pretty good track wheels
Wood is peak PrepHole
I'm going to build, or buy, a shed and turn it into a woodshop. What size would you go for? Ideally, I would build/buy one that can be moved. I would like to build a 16x24 but I'm considering just paying the premium of having someone build it for me.
Moved? With a crane? Or like a container on a skid?
Anyway 12 feet wide is enough for a bench on either side plus 4 feet to stand in. If you want big machines or store big stock 16x24 is okay. Note that a longer, narrower shop tends to be easier to organise than a square-ish one because you get more wall length and storage on the ceiling is easier
Suppose I wanted to school myself as a woodworker, but without going to school, any book recommendations?
Don't really need to be explained what the tools do, but stuff like wood selection and more advanced techniques maybe.
Trying to do some spoon carving, but I struggle to make a small tear-shaped holes like picrel. Trying using the thinnest drill I had to drill through but it looks like shit. Any advise for what is the right tool for the job?
trust the process anon. you haven't fricked it up.
just sneak up on the lines with some files.
Impossible with the size of my current drill for the smallest of holes. Should I get even smaller drill? I feel like they don't sell them smaller. Is there no other way?
yes you want a good ground set of wood drills. cleanest hole you will ever get. (i shill for presch austria).
a cone reamer / awl might come in handy to as it allows for clean and precise enlarging.
and dont buy a coping saw, can be steered as precise. For this thin stock buy a israeliteelers thread saw
Is this not just a coping saw but thinner?
no its a cheap sturdy thread saw
coping saw is not meant for delicate work and tight curves.
and all the coping saws on the market are trash anyway, i bought an eclipse last year and it doesnt even hold the blade in a straight line or holds its setting. but pic rel? there are twisted blades that cut in all directions
Ah I see, I'm not the anon asking but I was interested in similar after seeing a israeliteeler working with one. Thank you
Bought thread saw. Looks like I will manage somehow, although cuts are very irregular and need more sanding later.
Is that the israeliteeler's one? I was thinking of just getting a generic one off amazon.
It was not labeled with any specific use in mind. Cost about 15 usd + blades for wood cutting another 10 bucks.
Isn’t this normally done with carving chisels? You chisel out the shape from both sides and then meet in the middle to have perfect edges
I don't have chisels that small. Also they are super expensive.
Coping/scroll saw.Put a small hole in, thread the blade through, then cut it out.
I prefer not to buy any large equipment for what is supposed to by a hand craft. I will try Coping saw, looks promising. I wonder if I can get it super small. Thanks for advice.
https://www.amazon.com/Spyral-FreeStyle-Coping-Degree-Tooth/dp/B097BTF6BY
For a small round over (just to keep corners from getting busted and people from getting splinters), would a dremel with router attachment do or would it be a pain to use? I have a dremel, the bit is €10, the router attachment is €30.
The alternative would be a makita lxt router which is €180. But I don’t see many other reasons to get a router atm
Get a small plunge router, 1/2 inch, you will need it anyway.
I'm sorry to sound like a noob, but is there a more defined plans in making a work bench? I thought I would start by just buying a used one, but I figure it'd be better to try and build one myself with trial by fire. I only ever worked on wooden materials in workshop back in high school but made the sickest wall mount shelf that I was proud of.
Any books, and video recs? Thanks in advance.
Look for "The Workbench Book", still available. You don't need anything else.
thanks for the tip
Have a tool review diy. This is the dowl-it clone that a number of brands sell under their own name. Grizzly and Home depot sell it as ‘shop fox’, Amazon as ‘Woodstock d4116’. I got it for €25
First thing you notice is the whole thing is covered in metal cutting lubricant like many tools fabricated by hand in China. All ends and bore holes are terrible quality, some still have shavings inside. No signs of cnc use or proper cutting speeds. Deburring was optional. The two holes on the top are not threaded. Why? Because they are the “12mm bushing”. So one entire half of the tool is useless 100% of the time. Also on the left side, a retaining ring is held in place by… washers and small hex nuts which is a crime against craftmanship. For something so greasy, turning the spindle isn’t smooth at all. They forgot the knurling on one of the 8mm bushings. Almost half a mil of play on the linear guide rods so it rings loudly when you move it.
The cutting not exactly neat. No sandpaper no deburring just paint and assemble it
Guide holes and holes for alignment. Drilled first and then milled out by hand with a tiny milling bit. The maker made a small mistake and took out a bit too much but frick it it’s not like he cares. The viewing holes were deburred (with an angle grinder of sorts) but not on all sides
If you use dowel marking pins you’re out of luck because you need to mark the piece on the adjacent face and make the markings line up (or insert the drill first, but the jig is heavy as shit).
Despite that and it’s heavy weight, it’s easy to use, seems square, the bushings are all okay (very accurate). It measures 25mm from edge to first hole and 20mm between dowels. I wouldnt use it for a pair of 12mm dowels because there would only be 8mm between them.
7/10
That's a lot of chatter in those tooling marks, too.
I'm about to buy some premade table legs. Is it worth spending the extra $15 per leg to have them install the mounting screws? I'm worried about installing them crooked