Respect Dust
Everyone knows that dust is some really nasty stuff. Don’t lie to yourself, you know it’s true. It can cause any number of diseases and cancers. I think most of us, who are non-professional woodworkers, think we aren’t exposed to enough dust to worry about it. I’d think anyone really knows for sure how much is “safe”. I have had this attitude from the beginning, even though in the back of my mind I knew I was just trying to justify not dealing with the issue.

My steps to address this issue are really simple and basic. An obvious first step, where possible improve dust collection at the source. This last year I already took some steps towards this, when I bought a new dust collector for my larger pieces of equipment. Some of this equipment has some pretty subpar dust collection, like my band saw and planer. I need to find a way to improve the dust collection on these devices. Next, as money permits replace hand power tools (sander, router, etc) with tools that have dust collection (that works). Until some of these issues can be addressed and improved, I will use an effective dust mask. I will also strive to keep that dust mask on, even after I turn the tool off. There is still dust floating around after a power tool is turned off. Also, as money permits, I need to add ambient air cleaning to my shop. Every new tool purchase will be made with dust collection in mind. I will not buy a new tool unless I have a way to collect its dust. You might know, I love my hand tools (most 100% dust free), but I’m not ready to give up some of my power tools. Although, I can find ways to use more hand tools, that don’t cause as much dust as the same power tool operation.

Improve time management and quality
Being a “part-time” woodworker, I don’t usually have long stretches of time where I can work in the shop. I generally head to the shop with the intention to complete as much as I can, in the shortest amount of time. For me speed greatly decreases my quality. I know this and yet I still rush myself. My plan to improve this process is to literally plan my project builds. Before I even step foot into the shop I will have decided the steps I will need to perform to complete the project. I’ve done enough projects, I can give a pretty good guess on how long a given step might take, without rushing the process. I’m hoping that choosing the steps I can complete in the given time, will give me motivation to slow down. I certainly won’t walk out of the shop if I complete an estimated 8-hour day, in 6-hours. I think having daily goals can help improve my sense of needing to complete entire project quickly. The ultimate goal is to complete the project, but setting smaller goals and achieving them with greater quality and satisfaction will be even more rewarding.

SawStop Update

I’ve had a chance to give the new SawStop a good workout.  I couldn’t be more happier with it.  It has the power I need.  I’ve cut through some 3” think Hard Maple, without any real slow down.  The consistent accuracy I was looking for, is there.  Then there is the dust collection.  What can I say, amazing.

This weekend I was finally able to rig something up, so that I could hook the duct collection up to the blade guard.

This first mock-up is with ¾” PVC pipe and 1.5” hose.  To tell you the truth, it worked really well.  I just wish Loew’s had black ¾” pipe.  I’ll have to keep looking around for that.

Here’s a before shot of the saw, cleaned off before the cut.

Here are some shots after the cut.  I cut a long piece of ½” MDF, that I had lying around.

There is the slightest bit of dust on the top.  SawStop recommends a duct collector with 300 CFM capacity.  I do plan to get a lager system soon, but what did I use for this test?

I’m sure a larger system will pick up that small amount that sneaked by in this test.  With the ShopVac on, I tested the suction at the blade guard.  It was pretty weak, but enough to pull the dust out.  As soon as I can make room for a larger system, I’ll add it to the shop.

Miter Sled

I’ve been waiting to build a Miter Sled, because I knew I was going to be getting a new saw soon.  Miter Sleds don’t move between saws very well, so I’ve been waiting.  Not too long ago, I bought a new Miter Gauge from Incra and I have been very happy with.  Incra also sells these Build Kits, for making jigs and the like.  You can use these kits to make a Miter Sled.  I was happy with their Miter Gauge, so I thought I would see what their Build Kits were like.  Overall I’m really happy with their kits.

I think I put this sled together in about an hour or so.  That really is the big advantage to these kits.  I’m sure there are many of you who will say, it can be made a lot cheaper.  That may be true, but I’m really happy with what I ended up with.  The ease of making it was big time saver.  I plan to add guard to the back of the sled, where the blade comes through.  You need to protect those thumbs, even if you have a SawStop.

The year in review

Recently I was thinking how little I felt I had accomplished in the last year.  Then I started to look back at what I posted over the last year, and felt much better about what I accomplished.  I attended my first weeklong woodworking class with Christopher Schwarz.  I attended a great hand tool event, Best in the West.  I started the mock-up of the small hall table, where I did my first bent wood lamination.  I made a couple Silverware Trays as Christmas gifts.  Although, I still have a couple more to finish!  I built the Small Benchtop Bench, which was a very fun project.  I attended a 1-day class with Rob Cosman, who is an amazing teacher.  I hope I can take more classes from Rob.  I built a bathroom cabinet for my brother.  Although I used very few hand tools on this project, it was a very stratifying project.  Then to top off the year, I visited the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  I met 2 great woodworkers there Tim Lawson and Jim Tolpin.  You often hear woodworkers are the nicest people and these guys were no exception.  Tim and Jim took time out of their busy day, to show my wife and me around the school.  I’ll be heading over to the school for a class in August.  With that kind of list of accomplishments, how could I have thought I hadn’t done much woodworking!

In the near future
Things have been pretty busy lately, so shop time has been a little scarce.  The good news is I will have a week off the first part of July.  I work for a great company and one of the benefits we have, is the company shuts down for a week around July 4!  We also shutdown for a week around Christmas!  My wife and I don’t have a lot plans for that week, so I should have a lot of shop time coming up!  I have some new tools I really want to try out and post about.  I also want to finish the small hall table I started around the end of last year.  I also have some new books and DVDs I want to share.  I hope this extra time off will give the time catch up on some posts.

My current miter gauge is an Osborne miter gauge, like the one Norm uses on his show.  When I researched miter gauges, about 4 years ago, I settled on the Osborne.  I knew little about what I wanted and needed, and if it was good enough for Norm it should be good enough for me.  After using it for these past 4 years, honestly I can say I really don’t like it.  It’s very difficult to get an accurate setting, outside of the few preset stops.  Also, recently I started to have problems getting a perfect 90° cut!

So I started to recalibrate the miter gauge, and found it would not stay square.  I discovered the problem was in the locking screw/bolt at the rear of the gauge.  The way you adjust this gauge, you loosen a top nut with an Allen Wrench then turn a offset hex nut.  This allows you change the “squareness”, by a small amount in either direction.  You then tighten up the top nut to lock it down.  The problem I found, I couldn’t tighten that top nut enough to hold it square.  Even a small amount of pressure on the outer arm would knock it out of square.  If I tried to really tighten down top nut, I would move it out of square while tightening.  Something was wrong, so I tried to contact the manufacture.  After a couple unanswered emails to the Osborne Company, I felt it was time to look for a new miter gauge.

I did quite a bit of research this time.  A few things I was looking for were:  it needed to accurate, finer setting for the desired angle, and a reasonably long fence with a stop.  There were a few that met these requirements.  Although, I kept coming back to the Incra miter gauges.

A fellow woodworker I know has the Incra 1000SE, and he is happy with his.  I was able to see the 100SE up close and give it a try.  I was pretty happy with its quality and features.  The 1000SE has stops at every 5°, plus a few other common angles.  This would have been fine for my needs, but Incra has come out with their new 1000HD (High Definition).  It has stops at every 1° (or 180 stops).  It really wasn’t that much more than the 1000SE, so I splurged.

I won’t bore you with the steps it took to set it up.  If you plan to buy one yourself, the instructions that come with it were very good.  I will say it was pretty easy to set up, and dial it to 90°.  Along with setting up the miter gauge, I took the time to check my table saw alignment.  I did this quite awhile ago when I first got my table saw, but have learned some new things about table saw alignment.  It was a good thing I checked, because it needed some work.

Awhile ago, I talked about Hendrik Varju’s DVD “Revelations on Table Saw Set-up & Safety”, and I still think this is the best instructional DVD out there on table saw set up and safety.  Hendrik’s approach is a little different than most, but in his DVD he shows and explains why he does things the way he does.  I was convinced by his arguments and have started to implement his style of table saw operation.  In the photos you might noticed the miter gauge is set up on the right side of the blade.  This is one of Hendrik’s deviation from “mainstream” table saw conventions.  The other is how the blade is aligned.

Normal wisdom says to get the blade perfectly parallel with the miter slot.  Hendrik argues this is nearly impossible to achieve, and because of blade runout this is not desirable.  Hendrik advocates canting the blade .003” to .005” from front to back.  The back of the blade is canted to the left.  This is one of the reasons he sets his miter gauge to the right of the blade.  When making a cut this way, you can stop your cut without having to go past the full length of the blade.  Then when you turn your saw off, you have eliminated the possibility of the runout causing the blade to wobble and nick your work piece.  This used to happen to me a lot, but not anymore.

I’ve only scratch the surface of what Hendrik covers in his 5 DVD set.  I highly recommend the DVDs to anyone who is new to table saws or wants to learn Hendrik’s approach to setting up and using a table saw.

Lately I’ve been doing some research on the Greene & Greene style.  I think there are a few projects I would like to do in this style.  In researching this topic I came across Darrell Peart, who is an amazing craftsman who builds in the Greene & Greene style.  You can find him over at www.furnituremaker.com.  I recently picked up his book and it is incredible.  I haven’t finished the book yet, but when I have I will post a little write-up on it.

While looking at Darrell’s web site, I saw he was teaching some classes over at The Port Townsend School of Woodworking, which isn’t too far me.  I tried to sign up for one of his 2-day classes, but it was filled up ☹.  I’m on a waiting list to see if I can get in.  The ironic thing is, Marc “The Wood Whisperer” just posted he’s taking a weeklong class from Darrell Peart, at William Ng’s School.  I can’t wait to hear about his experience with the class.

This weekend is looking good for some shop time.  I hope to be able to post some pictures of the mini-bench soon.

It was time to dig out of our driveway. My wife needed to go into work today, and 10+ inches of snow wasn’t going to help her get out of the garage. I on the other hand worked from home. Give me an Internet connection and I can do my job from the Moon.
The good news is, its warming up and things are melting. The bad news is, its warming up and things are melting! I just ran out to pick up a few things, and the roads are clearing up, but there are some real nasty ruts in some places and the parking lots are a mess. I hope the weather continues to improve. If so, I should be able to work in the shop soon. For now, I’ll just get caught up on some reading.

I love snow, but our area really isn’t equipped to handle this much snow.  Most things just shut down.  Most people around here act and talk like they have driven in snow their entire life, but the number of 4-wheel drives you see in the ditches tells a different story.  I used to ski a lot, and at the time I owned a Camaro.  I will say, if you can drive a Camaro up snowy mountain passes you can drive anything in the snow.  Yes I know, I’m sounding like one of those know-it-all snow drivers.  The rest of the Camaro owners out there can back me up on this one.  Now I own a Toyota Tundra, which does much better in the snow .

With it being so cold, I haven’t been able to do much in the shop.  I only have a small space heater for the shop, and it doesn’t help much with this kind of cold.  I had plans to insulate the garage/shop this last summer but I didn’t get to that project.  I’m really regretting that now.  I will not make that same mistake this next spring/summer.

What’s better than buying a new tool?

Getting one for free!  This Saturday I had a visit from the UPS truck.  A small box was dropped off, from Marc and Matt over at Wood Talk Online.  I was the proud winner of a new Veritas Side Rabbet Plane.

Seeing that the shop is pretty cold, I haven’t had a chance to try it out.  Once I do, I will post a complete review.  For now it’s just an early Christmas present, I get to fondle.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone

My personal favourite are the peppermint marshmallows with a chocolate drizzle, yummy.  For you Chili-Heads out there, she has come up will the most unique flavour of all.  She has several types of powered chillies and she put this in or on her different items!  On a marshmallow drizzled with some chocolate, it is the most amazing and unique flavour you will find.  I know you are thinking it’s crazing, but it really works and it’s tasty!

Give her web site a look, and try some sweets for the holidays.