Author: woodshoplifepodcast

Squaring Lumber, Table Top Cracks, Machine Maintenance, and MORE!!!

This Episodes Questions:

Brian’s Questions:

I know planing before face jointing is sacraledge but I was recently visiting with an older experienced wood worker who noted he never face joints. Planes both sides then edge joints and it’s fine.

Thoughts? Thinking if you want it dead flat perfect or board is not great to start with jointing certainly makes sense. But anybody just plane it? Perhaps starting with a decent board it would work for most applications?

My 20” planer is a breeze to put wood through, the jointer is great but takes more effort/time if it’s not needed would be a nice step to drop.

Curious on your thoughts, Matt Wendig

I’m preparing to build a set of kitchen cupboards from white oak. The style will be Mission, with some Frank Lloyd Wright Prairies Style touches. I have several questions.
I need to cut up a lot of 3/4″ plywood. I have a good track saw and a cabinet tablesaw with side and outfeed tables. When watching videos of some people constructing kitchen cabinets, I’m surprised that they cut the sheet goods with the track saw but then cut them again, to final size, on the table saw. I imagined myself using the track saw only—to do very precise cuts to final size and not cutting the panels twice. What is your process? Any advice on maximizing my chances of getting near-perfect panels with the track saw only and avoiding the two-cuts process? Darrin

Guy’s Questions:

Hey guys, love the podcast. I’m making a screen door for the porch out of cedar that is 1.5” thick, 36” x 84” with 5.5” wide stiles and rails (top, middle and bottom). I have a festool DF500, if I used 10 x 50 dominoes for the joinery would that be strong enough or should I use traditional mortise and tenons?

I’ve read that cedar is pretty dimensionally stable. I was thinking about just staining or oiling the door (I don’t want it to turn gray) but does it need an actual topcoat to help keep it from warping? Just don’t want to use a finish that is going to flake off and I will have to sand and refinish every year or so. If it needs a topcoat could you recommend a finish?

Thanks,
Scott in Birmingham.

Throughly enjoy the pod cast. I am almost up to date on all past episodes and they hve been quite informative. Little back story on my question. Had a client contact me about repairing a dinning table they had built for their home. For clarity I didn’t build the table. The top is a solid wood glue up with breadboards on the ends. On one end of the top the breadboard sticks out about 1/16” past the rest of the top. On the other end 2 boards have a split between the glue line that stretches roughly 2 feet along their length. I’m sure it is from the wood contracting. Any pointers on how to repair the issue? I’m 99.9% sure the table top is made from southern yellow pine. It is stained with a top coat of poly acrylic. Robert

Huy’s Questions:

Hello guys,

I love the podcast and have learned a ton from you. Keep up the great work and thank you for your time.

I have a question on how you store your tools that require precision/calibration. Specifically, I have an Incra 5000 cross cut sled. When not in use, I store it standing on its side on the shop floor. Is there a better / more correct way? Similar question goes for any other shop made sled / jig that you expect to use over and over again. How do you store it?

Max
Greddie Woodworks

It was mentioned that one of you repalced the wheels on his band saw, do to it wearing out and it was a pain. I have bought a used 14 inch delta bandsaw, and I have no idea how to know if parts are worn out beside the obvious part being the blade. So how can I figure out parts are worn out, sources to shop for replacements ( no home depo in Okinawa) tips and or youtube videos on how to do these maintainance tasks? Oh and what you do to increase the function of a band saw, like would you buy a bow system fence for it?

Many thanks,
Paul Mitchell
Oki Mitch Crafts

Table Saw Blades, Veneer Patterns, Cocobolo Woes and MORE!!!

This Episodes Questions:

Brians Questions:

Hi Guys
love your podcast. I have a quick question regarding table saw blades. Can you give me a recommendation on a good quality 10″ table saw blade that I can get re-sharpened when needed. I keep blowing through blades and I’m tired of buying new ones. Also, do you send the blades back to get re-sharpened or take them to your nearest local blade sharpening place
thanks in advance
Dave

I’m making an ash table top (never used ash before) and had a few questions. How should I edge join the boards for glue up (domino or biscuits), what’s the best finish for ash when used as a desk to avoid feeling the grain on ash. I don’t have a sprayer but could be a good excuse to get one. What edge profiles do you guys like to use for tables and/or desk that get lots of use and also look good? Chayse

Guy’s Questions:

My latest project is an Arts & Crafts sideboard made in quartersawn white oak. I’m at the point in the project where I need to start thinking about how to finish the piece. Its my first time working with this wood and I’m considering fuming the piece with ammonia as I’ve read that this process will really make the grain rays stand out. People seem pretty divided on whether its worth the time and risk of working with harmful chemicals and I wanted to get your collective thoughts and experience. Have you used an ammonia fuming process? Do you think its worth it? Any tips or tricks to share? I’m in the northeast so the current low temps add some complexity as I’ve learned that colder temperatures slow down the process.
Regards, Adam

I’m working on a veneered box. Normally you’d glue a similarly oriented veneer on the back surface to prevent warping. For the veneer, I’m planning on cross cutting small strips and then gluing them together, roughly like how inlays are made. I’ll then be cutting thin slices from the resulting laminated assembly. I’ll be using the thin slices as the veneer, like a mosaic or a quilt. The grain of these thin slices will run in different directions. Do I still need a backing? If so, in which direction should the backing grain run? Lauris

Huy’s Questions:

The topic of wood movement comes up pretty regularly on this show. When it does, however, it is typically related to questions on how to account for it in regards to a specific project or joinery method. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here wondering what wood movement actually is. I understand that humidity and temperature cause wood to expand or contract, but that’s about where my understanding ends. Why is it important to account for wood movement? What happens if you don’t? What is this business I’ve heard mentioned about projects exploding? On a related note, often when questions about mitigating wood movement come up the answers to those questions are something along the lines of “If you use __ (type of joinery, layout, etc) you shouldn’t have to worry about wood movement.” As someone still very new to the principles of woodworking, the question I always have is: why? Why will using such and such method or assembling your project in this or that manner mitigate wood movement? Zach

Hey guys. Love your podcast and appreciate the help you’ve given me over the years with your knowledge and experience in the craft. I have an entryway table I’m building out of walnut and cocobolo. The top will consist of a glue up of the two woods. What glue should I use for the glue up since cocobolo is very oily? And what sort of finish would you recommend for this application? Thanks again and take care!
Ryan of Mountain Custom Woodworks

Are Woodpeckers Tool Worth the $$$?, Router Fence Woes, Grain Direction and MORE!!!

This Episodes Questions:

Brians Questions:

I am making a toy box for my grandson out of white oak. The dimensions will be 38” width, 18” depth, and 30” high. The front will be 4/4 quarter sawn, while the back and sides will be 4/4 flat sawn lumber. I plan to attach the front and sides, and the back and sides via dovetails. Since quarter sawn wood will move less than flat sawn, should I be concerned about the wood moving at different ratios? Also, can you recommend hinges that will prevent the top of the toy box from crashing down on my grandson’s fingers?

Mike

My question concerns the router table that I built myself out of out of MDF and 2x4s last year. I’m pretty satisfied with it overall. I am by no means an expert, but I’d have to say having the router in a table seems to be roughly 1,000% more effective than using the router freehand.

Having said that, I’ve been struggling with the fence, especially When I’m trying to edge join a board. My approach for securing the fence has been to clamp down each end of it with a trigger clamp, placing an additional clamp on the support frame or what have you at the rear of the router table. I’ve included a picture of my setup for this as well for clarity’s sake.

Here’s the problem I’m running into: I position the fence, clamp it down, then check it again to make sure it hasn’t come out of alignment. When I initially begin running boards over the router table, it works great. However, before too long, sometimes as soon as the second board, I find the fence is no longer properly aligned. When I check it I always find that the fence has shifted back towards the far end of the router table, usually by a 32nd of an inch or so. As you are all aware, this small difference has a pretty significant impact on how my boards come out, particularly when edge joining.

My assumption is that this shift is due to my exerting pressure against the fence while feeding material through to keep the work piece tight against it. Do any of you have any suggestions regarding how I can secure my fence more effectively? Part of me wonders if I am just applying too much sideways pressure to my work pieces, but I also feel like I am applying just enough pressure to keep it from wandering away from the fence when passing the bit. Zach Owens

Guy’s Questions:

I’d also like to hear about your process for organizing your shop space and how often you revisit the layout of your shop.

As a follow-up to each question, I’d be curious if organizing and maintaining a shop are aspects of woodworking that you enjoy? Or loathe? Or maybe just tolerate?
Marc

I think there is a good question about red vs blue. red corner is woodpeckers, the YouTube influencers certified measuring and layout tools. Then there’s the poor humans with affordable blue corner igaging. I believe woodpeckers is rated in their accuracy to .002 inch and igaging is .002 inch. So, I wonder if that .001 would make my skills somehow greater?? I think honestly that having a set of tools that I can use without each being a different measurement, as tape measures often would be. I also think about cost, even with a higher shipping fee due to my location I nearly outfitted my shop with all the marking and measuring tools at roughly $300 instead of $300 for one ruler or square.
Thanks for the ongoing pod cast hope you all have a great year. Paul Mitchell

Huy’s Questions:

On the face of wood, there is clearly a right and wrong direction to plane. Going the wrong direction causes gouging, chipping, and/or a time tough pushing the plane across the wood. How do you tell the correct direction to go with the plane, without having to risk messing up the piece by potentially going the wrong direction across the face of the wood with your plane? George

I just made my first attempt at cutting dovetails for a small box with dividers that my wife asked me to make her for work. I cut them using a router table that I made just for the occasion. It went fairly well, meaning that they all fit and there aren’t any unsightly large gaps. Starting with test pieces was definitely the way to go.

I did have one issue, however. I’m not sure what the appropriate name for the different pieces of a dovetail are, but when I was cutting the female pieces I kept running into an issue where the router bit would jerk the work piece away from the fence, resulting in a somewhat crooked portion in my otherwise straight dovetail cut. I tried feeding the work piece into the bit from each side to see if one direction worked better than the other, but that didn’t seem to help. I know that typically the recommendation is to make several shallow passes, but obviously this is not possible with a dovetail. Do you have any guesses as to what I might have been doing wrong? Should I have been pushing the work piece more firmly against the fence? Thanks in advance for your answers and insight. Can’t wait to hear your next episode.

Sincerely,Z achary T Owens

Maintenance Routines, Knock Down Hardware, Basic Shop Tools, And MORE!!!

This Episodes Questions:

Brians Questions:

Hello Guy, Huy, and Sean,
I have two questions. 1) I’d like to hear your thoughts on your workshop maintenance routines. Are there yearly, monthly, project-ly routines to the maintenance and cleaning you do in your shops? Marc

What are your woodworking goals for 2025? Brian

Guys Questions:

Hey Guys,
First, thanks for the fantastic podcast. I always enjoy listening to you gents so much so that I’ve managed to get through the entirety of your past episodes. A little background: I work in a small space and am consider going with a combo jointer – planer can leave me some room for something else. I am not a a professional woodworker but an enthusiastic hobbyist. Right now I have a bench top 10″ jointer (I definitely understand why Guy pretty much hates these things) and a DeWalt 735 planer. I’m happy with the DeWalt, but the jointer can get finicky if it’s moved or looked at. I believe I heard in a past episode that Huy is using a Hammer A3-31 jointer-planer combo. Huy – are you in fact using a Hammer combo machine? And if so, are you happy with it? Is the fence pretty solid? If you were to buy again, what else would you consider? My other option is maybe a non-combo mid-price point Powermatic or Grizzly jointer. Any other brands to consider? It’s a tough choice – spend more money but use less space or spend less money and use up more of that limited space. Would appreciate hearing from each of you on this topic. Apologies for my long winded questions, but this feels like a big decision.
Thanks again for the excellent show.
Ron

As always thank you for the podcast and sharing your knowledge. This one may be mainly for Guy as I know he’s a proponent of the Lamello Zeta P2. Like Huy I’m a bit of a tool junkie, and can’t pass up a new one. I was never happy with my old Porter Cable biscuit Joiner, so I gravitated to the Domino DF500 which has been a great tool. I came across a deal where someone was selling a complete Zeta P2 system so I picked it up. I’ve watched a number of the videos guy posted using the Zeta P2 and so far she seems like a great machine, but now I have some questions that I was hoping you could point me in the right direction:
1) Is there any reason to keep my old Porter Cable Biscuit joiner?
2) I have the knock down domino accessories that I’ve used on some builds in the past. Do you have a guide line or any thoughts on when you would use the Domino vs. the Lamello?
Thanks again, Doug

Huy’s Questions:

Hello gentlemen, since you have been asking for questions, here are some for you regarding tools for projects, projects for tools, and tools AS projects.
First, tools for projects. Thinking back my early days in woodworking, there were many times when I would have an idea for a project that exceeded the capabilities of my limited tool collection. Some of these were a basic as ripping a board or making an accurate cross cut. I managed to get by with the most basic table saw that I could afford and an old circular saw. Since a lot has changed in the 30 years since I started, like track saws and set-ups like MFT and Kreg’s table setups, what would you guys recommend for the basic tools for someone starting out?

Second, projects for tools. As I started to improve my skills as a woodworker and more tools became available, I felt the need to add tools to my shop. To help justify the purchases, I found myself coming up with projects that would be easier if I had that “special tool/bit/blade.” Have you every made a project specifically designed to justify a tool purchase, or is it just me? If so, what was the project and what was the tool?

Third, tools AS projects. A few years ago I started to get more into hand tool woodworking after inheriting some of my grandfather’s collection. I also began frequenting a couple of used tool stores in Maine while on vacation where I picked up some vintage panel saws and most of a Stanley 78 rabbet plane. With some cleaning and sharpening I began to really appreciate the use of hand tools and began looking for a used router plane. I don’t know if it was just the area that I live in (New England), but there are very few used router planes to be found, and the few that I did find were almost as much as a new one.
Determined to add a router plane to my arsenal I went online, found multiple different options for making my own, and then settled on the Paul Sellers’ kit for the hardware and using hickory and cherry for the base. I found out to be a very fun project that taught me some new skills, and I use the tool very frequently. Have you guys done similar projects to make a useful tool that also improved your skills?
Thank you for you time. Joshua
The Black Dog Woodworks

Hello again gentlemen. You guys are the best at answering questions. My third question involves making two 11″ by 11 3/4″ panel doors that slide left and right in a groove cut into the top and bottom of the frame. The door panels are made of 1/2″ MDF but with a 3″ wide piece of Poplar that is glued to the top and bottom ends of the MDF. This is to allow for cutting the rabbet into wood instead of MDF. The rabbet will slide in upper and lower grooves in the frame.

I created my own veneer of Walnut in the front face and Poplar in the back face because I’m cheap and the back won’t show. Both veneers are 7/64″ thick and the long grain runs left to right (same direction of the door travel). I used Titebond Veneer glue and glued both faces at once. I sandwiched the assembly between two pieces of plywood and clamped and weighted the whole thing.

After 24 hours, I removed the clamps and saw that the panel had cupped in the direction across the grain (the same as a 12″ wide board would cup). I don’t understand why it cupped as I thought MDF wouldn’t allow that to happen. I did use too much glue on the walnut side as there was a lot of squeeze-out. I backed off the amount of glue on the Poplar side. Was the veneer too thick? Should I have ran the back face veneer perpendicular to the front face instead of in the same direction? Did the two 3″ wide Poplar pieces somehow contribute to the cupping? I am waiting on doing the second door panel until I hear your opinions on this.
Thank you for a great podcast. I hope you all keep it going.
Anthony

Making Thin Stock, Angled Tenons, Dust Collector Placement and MORE!!!

This Episodes Questions:

Brians Questions:

I’m in the market to upgrade to a cabinet saw that I want to last for a long time. I’ve been using a Powermatic 64A contractors saw for the past two years that I bought used and have done my best to tune up. That saw still has its flaws though, and it’s time to move on. I’m setting a budget of roughly $4000. I want a new saw with a 3 HP motor. 30″ rip capacity is enough for me, as I can break down sheet goods using other methods, it will also fit better in my shop. I’m currently considering the Powermatic 2000B or the Sawstop 3 HP cabinet saw. Which one would you choose, and why? What other models would you consider? Love the podcast! Thanks for your advice! Mike K.

Hey guys!
I’ve recently started scroll saw portraits (ex. Newton Makes Art or Scrollsaw Scribbler). So far I’ve stuck mainly to using pre-milled 1/4” stock, but I would like to add some dimension to the pieces and get even thinner stock, down to 3/16” or 1/8”. I recently added a planer to the shop and was thinking of taping stock to an MDF board to thickness the stock further.
So my questions, first do you think this is safe? I have fears going this thin may lead to things getting ripped apart on the planer. Second, is there any other ways you’d recommend getting boards this thin? PS I do not have a drum sander to help with that last bit of flattening.
-Trevor

Guys Questions:

I am a relatively new woodworker. Still learning skills, techniques, and patience with woodworking.
Last year I made a pair of bar stools using cherry wood. It was my first real project of any significance, and overall I am really proud of how they turned out and how they have been holding up to daily use.
This is a two part question because these are the two issues I struggled with the most during the build.

  1. I made the legs of the stools splayed, and raked. I used blind mortise and tenon joinery to attach the rails to the legs. Since the legs were splayed and raked, I had to cut my mortise and tenons joint on an angle to accommodate the legs not being vertical. I used a forsner bit on the drill press and angled the table to roughly the proper angle, then used a chisel to square the holes. But I really struggled to do this accurately, especially when using the chisel to square the angled hole. What advice would you give to get precise angles, and to keep that angle while chiseling the holes square?
    Part 2. What would you suggest for attaching the seat to the base of the stool? I pre drilled holes into the bottom on the seat and used screws from underneath. You can’t see them unless you foil the stool upside down. but I felt like a bit of a hack doing that and would have preferred to use some sort of joinery instead of screws.
    Thanks again for providing the woodworking community with your knowledge and for the great entertainment. Braden

Hey Gents! Canadian listener here, I found your podcast about a week ago and i have been listening every day now. Thanks for the content.
I love the look of pure oil finishes like tung oil but I can’t handle how long it takes to dry. I have heard you can thin it to help. Is this something you guys do from time to time and if so what do you thin with / what ratio? Tyler

Huys Questions:

Hey Guys,
As I’m working on building a new shop this summer. I’m getting a little closer to figuring out dust collection for the big machines. I ended up putting two 6” runs in the slab. But I’m stuck on which DC types work best.
I built a large storage shed off the back of the shop that is walled off and the plan is to store the DC, lumber , air compressor, etc.
I know a cyclone with a hepa filter is the gold standard in removing fine dust, which makes sense if the DC is inside the conditioned shop.
But I already have a dual bag setup from Shop fox W1687 (3hp DC with separater and bag filters). I think this setup may get better air movement than the cyclone. And since it’s housed “outside” of the shop I think the filter requirements could be reduced.
Shop specs: 470 sq, all the normal machines to process rough lumber. Jesse

Hello from Australia!
I’ve been an enthusiastic hobbyist woodworker for about 18 months. I use mostly hand tools except a budget circular saw, which I hate, and I just got a 12 inch bandsaw, which I love.
So far I’ve build a joiners bench, several planes, including a 52 degree smoother from a broken Stanley no.3. And I’m most of the way through a small bookshelf made from Tasmanian oak.
As you know a lot of Australian wood is hard and can be challenging to work with. My next wood will be Austrian blackwood, which is moderately hard and has a high silica content. But it is also filled with glow and once oiled looks amazing.
I also have some reclaimed floorboards which are some kind of gum tree. I would like to use them at some point but the boards are determined to remain in their current form. They are difficult to work with and if my no.5 plane is not super sharp it will just skip over the wood.
Can you share any tips and knowledge on working with hard woods?
Thanks for the show, I’ve learnt a lot from it
Kind regards
Jeremy