Woodshop Life Podcast

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Guy

1) Hey guys! I love the pod cast, ya’ll really do a great job. My question is about radial arm saws. I have recently started selling tables on the side to try and make some extra cash. Right now I do pretty much all my cross cuts with my 10″ Chicago Electric miter saw and I am tired of having to flip over anything wider then a 2×4 to cross cut. It seams that these radial arm saws are a dime a dozen on the market place apps and can be bought pretty cheap. How do they stack up to a sliding miter saw? I’ve really been thinking about giving one a shot just based on the $75 price tag. – Jimmy

2) Another question for you all. Every power tool I own seems to come with it’s own set of tools – allen wrenches, different heads, attachments, maybe a spare cutter or bolt, etc. How do you organize these ‘spare parts’ in your shops to keep them handy when you need them, and help identify which of these things belong to which tools? Attach them to the tool somehow (with string? duct tape? magnets?) With hand power tools, keep the paraphernalia with the tool?

The Ziploc bag method I’m using now seems so gauche. thanks for the great show Mark mlbettwoodworks

Sean

1)In a recent episode you discussed laminating two pieces of hardwood together and the need to offset grain directions to avoid warping. I’m building a simple, traditional writing desk (with a modern flare) and my plan is to accent the air dried walnut drawer fronts (5/8” thick) with an 1/8” piece of curly maple. I’ll be routing out the section to receive the maple taking the walnut thickness to about 3/8”. My plan at that point was to laminate the maple into place.

Is this a situation where I should be concerned about movement? Do you think the lack of material thickness will minimize these potential issues? Any advice or input would be helpful.  I have sent a sketch photo to your IG page for reference. Cheers, Taylor (not Tyler)

2) I recently completed a build for two white oak desktops and, in my excitement to see how the grain would pop and without considering the ramifications of my actions, I threw on some mineral oil. Man, those desktops looked BEAUTIFUL. After applying just one coat, I realized I should’ve done some research. I’m still learning about finishing techniques and figured I could use mineral oil the same way as mineral spirits in this context. I quickly realized the gigantic mistake I had made. After spending some time on a few woodworking forums, it became clear that there’s really nothing to do but lean into finishing these desktops with more coats of oil as no other finishes will properly adhere. However, I have seen some comments mentioning shellac as a possible option since shellac and mineral oil are used in combination for French polishing. This is not necessarily the look I’m going for but I’m wondering what you’d advise in this situation.

PS I’d really like to avoid sanding it all down again. And its 10 degrees outside so I’m limited in chemical options if I have to open the garage doors for ventilation.

Thank you guys for all you do. This podcast is always a huge help!

Christina

Huy

1)I currently have my bandsaw (Rikon 10-326) set up for resaw with a 1/2″ Woodslicer blade and its working great, but now I need to cut some curved workpieces. I only need to do a couple and then I would want to go back to the setup for resaw.

I dread having to change the blade and set the guides for 1 cut, and then again for resaw, but I also don’t want to distort or dull my resaw blade.

Should I just use this blade for both jobs or is there a blade or configuration that works for general purpose to minimize the changing blades and guide setup? Dan

2) I have a question regarding drawer slides: I am just getting into cabinet making and am excited to slowly make cabinets for my shop. I am first working on a built-in of sorts in my house as part of a bathroom remodel. The built in faces out into the hallway and the back juts into the bathroom, it creates a nook for the toilet area. I made the carcass and have it installed in the wall so that the bathroom side of the project can continue.

I plan to have two deep drawers on the bottom and then shelves with drawers above. I am a little unsure of how to properly size the drawer slides and would love to hear a discussion from you three on this subject. I ordered 21″ undermount Blum softclose slides last fall when I was planning the project. Now that the carcass is made, the inside depth from front (frameless design) to back is 20 3/4″. I see quite a bit online regarding how to install various drawer slides including different YouTube videos that you guys have but I am having trouble with the beginner step of learning how to size the drawer box and drawer slide properly. Do I buy a slide for the cabinet depth or for what my drawer box will be? I think the next available size down for a Blum slide is 18″, will this be difficult to mount in my deeper carcass? Thanks guys, keep up the great content! Jeremy

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Sean

1)Hey fellas. 2 questions for you

1. Purely hypothetical- you can only have 1: table saw or track saw. And why?
2. When sanding back, how far is back? Are you aiming for a perfectly flat surface? This is harder to achieve on open grain woods like oak, yes?

Keep up the great show. Mark Aka Matt

2)I am finishing a large table, 10’x 5′, and would like to use Shellac on it, then seal it with water based poly, specifically General Finishes High Performance Water based Satin.

1. How important is it to keep a wet edge with the shellac? Since it dries so quickly, I can see some difficulty keeping a wet edge on a piece this big. If so, any advice on how to do that?
2. On a test piece I’ve been using, the above mentioned poly is drying FAST. As in completely tack free in under 10 minutes. I’m working indoors in Central Ohio, with temp about 68, and low relative humidity, probably around 35-40%. Should I be concerned that the Poly is drying that fast? Will it cause any problems?

Thanks  and keep up with the great show!

MLBett WoodWorks

Huy

1) Good morning. I have a quick question about building a slab top hand tool bench. I was recently gifted a great 60”x20”x4.5” oak slab. I’ve read Chris’s book and would like to do a roubo style bench. My problem is my current shop is in the basement and I would eventually like to move to a new outbuilding shop down the road. What design ideas would you suggest for a sturdy base design that is functional but could eventually be broke down and moved them out back together? I was thinking sliding dovetails in the bottom of the slab then build a base to connect to that? I have no idea. 😂 appreciate the help. Cheers, Garrett

2)New Patreon supporter here. Love the show. Love you Huy! Love you Sean! Kind of like you, Guy! HA! (Why is he so cranky?!)

I’m a garage hobbyist who loves to work in the shop as a getaway from real life. Generally speaking I’m a neat freak and the dust in my garage makes me crazy. I’m currently using a 2HP Harbor Freight Dust Collector with Dust Deputy XL and Wynn filter. I’ve got a combination of PVC piping and flex hose to my tools. The PVC joints are taped together but not glued. I try to keep the wynn filter blown out and have even taped the top of my plastic bag to the metal housing for a better seal. Every time I turn the collector on I get a ton of fine dust in the air. It covers everything in the shop and even gets to the point of looking a little foggy. I intend to get an air cleaner (or just some box fans) but I can’t imagine that it will take care of all the dust. I don’t know what to do. I’m considering the Oneida Supercell because it seems totally self contained with no exposed filter or bag, but that’s a big purchase for a hobbyist. I see shops that look spotless online. Is having a dustless shop really possible? Is there anything you suggest I look at in my current system to minimize the dust? 

Thanks for all you do for the woodworking community and Guy, please cheer up. Thanks- Ben in North Carolina

Guy

1)Good day gentlemen. Great information but let’s jump right in and not boost your egos more than necessary 🙂

My wife and I built a custom house in 2020 which somehow has a master closet that is only 50sqft smaller than my woodshop. Can you help me understand how I allowed this to happen?

Ok kidding, I am grateful to have my own shop space but I would like your thoughts on using pre-finished plywood for making built-ins for said closet. It will be a huge project and the thought of spraying latex or a pre-cat lacquer on that many cabinets sounds daunting.

The built-ins will be some shade of white with lower drawer banks and upper open shelving/hanging areas. On the lower sections, I can use UV finished ply as the interior will not need to be white but can I get custom colors for the open uppers?

If I go the route of using pre-finished ply then all joinery will need to be concealed and I would likely need to purchase a system for this. The Lamello p-system looks slick but a hefty investment. What system would you choose for this application? Thank you for your input, Chris Olsen

2) Hey fellas, when starting a clamp collection, what size parallel and f style clamps do you use the most? My future projects include several cabinets for a wet bar, benches, coffee table, and maybe a round dining room table. Thanks for the help! – Chris

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Sean

1) Hey fellas. So I’m having some trouble getting nice glue lines when I’m edge jointing long boards (6’+). I’m building a table top (72”x36”) out of hard maple.  How particular are each of you when building table tops? Should the glue joints be flush off the jointer? Do you massage them with a hand plane? Are small gaps ok as long as they close up with a bit of clamping pressure?
I have checked, rechecked and rerechecked my jointer and it seems dialed in so I’m pretty sure this is user error.
Thoughts on using a magnetic feather board on the infeed side of the jointer to help with stability?
Love the show – keep it coming!
Mark
MLBettWoodWorks

2) Hey guys I have a question/conversation. Just wanted to get your guys thoughts on the topic of the expense of woodworking as a hobby. I feel a lot of woodworking influencers I guess you’d call them are afraid to actually talk about the real cost of woodworking. I feel it’s taboo or something. If your someone who is cheap or doesn’t have the means I don’t think this is the hobby for you. Things like having a climate controlled shop. Having proper dust collection. Having all the proper 220 installed in your shop. Then having the right tools to do each operation. I dunno I guess I’m just blunt about it. If you wanna do this hobby right and also safely it’s a lot of money. Just wondering your thoughts
 
Nathaniel

Guy

1) Thanks for the best woodworking podcast around! It’s so good to have a podcast that’s all relevant information and without the hosts’ constant snickering among themselves, as if they think that’s entertaining. Here’s a question regarding pocket hole joinery:

When assembling cabinets for my shop, and other projects using pocket screws, I often end up with the parts sliding out of alignment as the screws are installed. I have and use the Kreg clamp that has the pin that goes in one of the pocket screw holes, but still often end up with the parts slightly misaligned. I’m considering driving a couple pin nails before driving the screws. Any other ideas that won’t leave telltale (albeit small) holes that have to be dealt with?

Thanks again for the great format! Tim

2) Hey guys,
I’ve been pondering the idea of adding a second smaller dust collector to my shop instead of upgrading to a 3 hp system fully piped to each machine.
Currently I’m in a small basement shop that’s about 400 square foot. I have a HF dust collector with a cyclone and filter. I’ve piped it with 4” to the table saw, jointer, planer and miter saw.  It’s not the best but it gets most of the chips from the planner and struggles with the other machines.
 
My thought was to add a wall mounted dust collector to the table saw and the miter saw. Then leave the planer and jointer hooked up to the cycle dust collector.
Curious how much of a difference a larger dust collector fully piped would make.
 
Thanks,
Jesse

Huy

1) Hey Guys…Wondering if you could give us opinion of the Festool domino machine. Any tips and tricks you may have figured out? Can the cutters be resharpened? What size domino do you mainly use? Do you make your own dominoes vs. buying them? Just curious. – Dale

2) Hello gentlemen. First, thanks for your input w/r/t my belt sander question. I did keep it, and it saved me a bunch of elbow grease on an epoxy project.
I’m kicking around the idea of installing a wood floor in my shop which is a 2 car garage with a concrete floor.  I would frame it with 2×4 with plywood on top of  those right over the concrete. Benefits include :
– easier on my feet
– save the edges of my dropped tools
– be able to run electric & dust collection, among others. I can’t seem to find any drawbacks outside of the cost. What am I missing? For the record no cars park inside, and I do have large stationary tools including a table saw, 6” jointer, bandsaw etc.
weight considerations? Should I use 2×6 instead? What about moisture possibly wicking up through the concrete?
Thanks for the input and the great podcast.
Mark Bett

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Sean

1) Hey guys – Ray here from Ravenwood. I love the podcast and the information it provides!

I’m building a hand tool cabinet and had a quick question about storing hand planes in a plane till. I know conventional wisdom is to store planes on their side to protect the plane iron? How does a plane till change this? Do you guys retract the blade when storing in a till, or is the idea that the angle of the till sufficiently mitigates gravity such that the plane can remain set up?

2) A woodworking podcast that actually has woodworking content! Love your show.

My question deals with routing dados on large carcass builds  by hand.

When placing a straight edge, sometimes the router wants to jump on me and go off line. I tried placing a  straight edge on bottom and then at the top  of router while going in a left to right direction.

Should I be using two straight edges to keep router from veering of line? Or are there other factors such as speed and depth of bit?

Thanks. barriowoodworks

Guy

1) Hey guys, first love the podcast! Of course I’ve learned that I cannot do anything else while listening as I’m constantly having to pause the podcast and write stuff down haha.

My question is about shake/rail and stile doors and drawer fronts. I’ve made a handful at this point and it seems no matter what I do they never end up flat. They are twisted or just bowed out a bit or something. I try to be as careful as possible during glue up etc, but they just never end perfectly up flat in the end. Is there a good strategy that I just don’t know about? I use poplar usually for the rail/stiles and plywood for the inserts – Ephraim

2) I’m new to the world of veneering and would like your advice for my current project.

I’m building a simple hand tool cabinet from rift sawn sapele and would like to accent the door panel and drawer fronts with a contrasting veneer. Most likely, it will be maple.

In my design, there are two banks of drawers. The dimensions of their faces are 3.5″ x 6″ for the top set, and 4″ x 9″ for the bottom. Ideally, they will be 5/8″ thick.

My plan is to use baltic birch as the substrate for the door panel, but I would like to use solid wood for the drawers.

Given their size, how important is it to have a balancing veneer? If it’s not important, should I consider a more stable cut of wood, such as quarter sawn or rift?

Thanks in advance, Justin

Huy

1) Picture an oval shape in 2 halves and each edge will have fingers to interlock a center divider which will utilized a divider; shelf on the top and a half oval drawer on the bottom The long edges of the divider will have fingers that will interlock with each half of the oval..

I want to veneer the outside and inside of this oval and will dress the edges with a walnut 1/2″ thick edge banding. I am going to acquire some 24″ x 96″ sheets of walnut veneer. Most have a paper back.

1. will this veneer work in wrapping the outside and inside of the oval or will the curvature be too tight and cause the veneer to break. If so what would you recommend that may be a better solution.
2. With a glue up like this what would you recommend for glue?
3. I do not have a vacuum system or bags I will create a form from MDF to apply the pressure to the inside and outside. I am looking at veneering the insides first while it is still in 2 pieces. Once the 2 halves are together I will veneer the outside.
4. Any advice on the gluing of the veneer and thoughts on how to apply the pressure for the glue up.

This will probably be the most ambitious project I will be creating which is going to utilize new techniques and building processes I have never done. This design has been in my head for years and I have put it on paper years ago.

2) I was wondering about your ideal way to glue up book matched door panels. For instance, I have a 4/4 board and I’ll resaw it on the bandsaw. These boards will be my boards to make the panel. The thin boards are usually too thin to put in a clamp. My process is to use blue tape and a friction fit. I’ll put the tape on one side then prop it up in the center and put glue in the joint and wiggle it a tad back and forth along the joint then put more blue tape on the other side. I was wondering if you had another method that would be better.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives and sharing your knowledge with the community!

This episode is sponsored by Maverick Abrasives. Check them out at https://www.maverickabrasives.com

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Sean

1) Hi, I just joined as a new patron and my name is Dale. I have been listening for a couple months and have tried spraying shellac on ambrosia maple. I sanded with 400 grit between each of 3 coats, then I sprayed a water based polyurethane as a final coat. I am new to spraying but what I found was that all of the vertical surfaces turned out great but I got a lot of nibs on the horizontal surfaces. Any idea why? -Dale

2) Going to be using General finishes Gel Stain on small toy chest. I’ve heard two different methods to prevent blotches; apply a mineral spirits slip coat prior to staining or apply shellac prior to staining. Is one better than the other? Thank, Brandon

Guy

1) Guy since you started working in the other, more commercial, shop:

How did working there change your behavior in your own shop? Are you faster now? Do you still treat your own projects the same way you did before working there?

Cheers from Austria, max

2) Hey Guys (and Guy specifically).  I’m looking to possible build another router table (already have one in the wing of my table saw and love it) but being that I am for the time being in a smaller shop that everything has to be put away at night I need multi function.  Looking at how the LS attaches to the table I was thinking I could remove the positioner (and put it on the wall) when not in use.  Am I killing the whole function of the repeatability if I take it off and put it back on when I want to use it? Thank you, Doug

Huy

1)I have Question on wood glue. Usually I use Titebond but on the bottle it says it shouldn’t be used in temperatures lower than 50 degrees. So are there any glues that work in temperatures below freezing? My shop has no heat and the I’m in northern Iowa so we’ll go below zero before the winters over. Thanks for any advice you may have, keep the podcasts coming.

Josiah

2) Hi guys, first of all I sure have enjoyed your podcast and I have learned a tremendous amount. On a sidenote, my goal is to be just like Guy someday and be in a position in life to do whatever the hell I want and not give a damn what anybody thinks of me. I think it’s a noble goal. My question involves face joining boards. I wonder how much pressure I’m supposed to be pressing down on the board as it comes over the knives. Do I push down hard enough to take the spring out of the board? Or do I let it coast over naturally as to not take the spring out of the board?  If I put too much pressure on the board it just springs back after it comes off the machine. But if I don’t put enough pressure on I don’t get clean results. I sure appreciate your help, and I look forward to hearing your answer.  — Bill

Thanks to this show’s sponsor: Maverick Abrasives