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.

I’m using Mahagony for these foot rests. I found a nice board at one of my local suppliers.

I marked out the pieces on the board and rough cut the longer board into a couple manageable pieces. I milled the boards using my Planer. Because of the width of the board, I started out using my Planer Sled to get one side flat. I then milled the boards to 5/8″ thickness. Going thinner, than the standard 3/4″, looks better for the scale of this project, and it makes the foot rest a little lighter.

Next I cut each of the components to their finial size. I also made a couple templates I would used to shape some of the pieces.

Using the templates to trace the shape onto the pieces, I rough cut the pieces on the Band Saw. I then used some double-sided tape and mounted the templates on the pieces. I use a router and a template bit, to do the final shaping.

To make this a changeling project, all of the joinery uses Through Tennons. To help place the mortises in the same place for each of base leg pieces, I made this jig.

The jig registers the leg and holds it securely. The mortises are cut using a router and spiral cut bit. I added some stops to the side of the jig, to limit the length of the mortise.

Once the mortises were cut on the legs, I cut the tennons on the Table Saw, using my crosscut sled.

I then removed the waste between the tennons using a Fret Saw.

I then cleaned up between the tenons using some chisels. This is about how far I got, when I first started the project, and because it was a few months ago some of the pictures seem to have been missed placed or were never taken. So, there are no pictures of assembling the base.

The bases were assembled. The stretchers have through tenons which are proud of the outside surface. The ends were “pillowed” to soften them. They were then pegged, to give the joint a little more strength.

Now for the really tricky part to this project, laying out and cutting the through mortises in the top. To do this, I started out by positioning the base on the underside of the top. Once I got it centered, I clamped it in place. I then used a marking knife to scribe the locations of the tenons. It’s very important to get the base square with the top. I used a router and a fence to cut the mortise, and if they aren’t square the router won’t be able to cut the mortises correctly.

The tops were clamped to this simple jig with a fence attached. I used a couple clamps as stops for the router, to set the length of the mortises. I made several passes with the router. I left about an 1/8″ for the final pass. This final pass will be what shows on the top surface. I made sure I was extra careful when making this final pass. I didn’t want the router veer off at all on this pass. I was lucky, no mishaps on any of the mortises.

Fitting and attaching the base to the top took a little bit of work. The mortises were cleaned and squared up using some chisels. The tennons on the base also needed a little tweaking, using a shoulder plane. Once the final fit was achieved, the base and top were attached. These joints were also pegged to give them some added strength.

All in all, I think they came out pretty well. I put a few coats of Arm-R-Seal on them and called it good. Here are a few shots of one of the finished foot rests. One has already been delivered to my wife’s office.

The Outfeed Table is made from Baltic Birch plywood. One 5′x5′ sheet was plenty for this project. The main are of the top is 30″ x 48″. I bolted the section on the saw using (6) 3/8″ bolts. That section is very sold, I think I could sit on it without any problems. Although, I didn’t test that fact!

The center adjustable support leg, worked out really well too. I wanted something adjustable, simple and effective. The support has a large magnet attached to it, which contacts with the center hinge and holds it in place for storage. I used some standard door hinges on the table. I might not have needed something this “beefy”, but I had these lying around. They do make taking the top off pretty easy.

I applied a couple coats of Danish Oil to the surface. After that dried, I applied a coat of wax. I think this should be a decent finish for this Outfeed Table. I’ll apply new coats of wax as needed.

Now that this project is done, I have a couple other projects that are near completion. I need to wrap these project up before I move on the next project, which will most likely be some Greene and Greene furniture for our library. I need to put those Darrell Perart classes to use!

Darrell is a professional woodworking and his approach if very jig intensive.  Jigs can be very time consuming to make, but they can guarantee results.  I was going through a very anti-jig stage of my woodworking, but after taking a couple classes from Darrell I’m starting reevaluate jigs.  I’m starting see the advantage again, for taking the time to build jigs.

Below are some pictures of the progress going through the weekend.

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.

This last weekend was a red-letter day for me, I upgraded to a cabinet saw! I’ve been looking to get a new saw for a while now. I looked at just about every saw out there. I knew I wanted a cabinet saw and at least a 3HP motor. I also wanted a useable blade guard, riving knife and a decent mobile base.

I had narrowed my search to either the new Delta Unisaw or Powermatic PM2000. SawStop was always on the list, but at the time I was doing my research they only had the Industrial Cabinet Saw and the Contractor model available. So, I had decided on the new Unisaw. The PM2000 was nice machine, but I really didn’t like the built-in casters system it had. I wanted to love the PM2000, but the new Unisaw won me over. I was just about ready to pull the trigger on buying the Unisaw, but then the economy took a nosedive. With jobs hanging in the balance I decided to wait.

In some ways I’m glad I waited. During that time SawStop came out with their Professional Cabinet Saw (PCS). This new saw competes directly with the new Unisaw and PM2000, in price and features. I took a long hard look at the PCS. For about the same amount of money, I could get the PCS with similar features and the SawStop safety feature. It really didn’t take me long to decide on the SawStop.

There are those who “criticize” the SawStop feature, saying it will give people a false sense of security. I’ll only say one thing about the SawStop feature. When has any new safety feature every caused more accidents? This excludes the complete moron factor, which there is no protection for or from.

I had planned to take pictures as I assembled the saw, but that just didn’t happen. Once past the initial box opening, the camera was forgotten.

Assembly of the saw was pretty easy and straightforward. The manual and other documents that come with saw were excellent. There are some great thinkers at SawStop, because they think about the small stuff.  How they packaged their nuts and bolts is brilliant.

You can see in the picture, that each group color-coded and each item in the group is numbered. The instructions tell you, you need so many #5 bolts from the Blue section. I can’t tell you how many tools I have bought, that just some with a bag of stuff and you have to figure out which screw or bolt you need. How may times have you put something together and discovered you used the wrong bolt and have to take the whole thing apart! This didn’t happen with the SawStop.

I only encountered on problem while putting the saw together. When attaching the cast-iron extension wings, I couldn’t get a perfect alignment. The front and back of the wing would line up flush with the top, but center “dipped” down a small amount. My brother said you can “flex” that into alignment, with a jack or clamps. I looked at him with some disbelief. I never saw cast-iron as being “flexible”. I wasn’t too concern at that time, I thought I would just call SawStop and see what they had to say. Today I shot SawStop an email, and within 20 minutes I had my response. They sent me instructions on how to “flex” the wings into alignment. I sent my brother an apologetic email, saying I will never doubt him again. They aren’t off by much, I’ll try the alignment procedure this weekend. I also need to check the alignment of the blade and fence, then it will be ready for action. I did a few test cuts and the saw is smoooooth. I don’t think I could be more pleased.

After I get a chance to use the saw on some real projects, I’ll post an update on how I think the saw performs. Below are some pictures of the saw, for your enjoyment.

This was the first class I had taken at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  In a previous blog, I wrote about stopping by the school earlier this year, while in Port Townsend for one of those getaways.

This first class was with Darrell Peart, a Greene and Greene inspired woodworker in West Seattle.  This class was his Greene and Greene Details II class.  We learned how he makes and incorporates these details into his furniture designs.  As an FYI, I’ll be taking his Details I class in Dec.

To be able to complete all of the work in the 2 days, some of the cutting was done for us.  Anything that was done for us, was demonstrated to us and was well within the skills of most woodworker.  An example of this was the finger joints, on a couple of the samples we worked on.

So the finger joints were cut for us, but we had to shape and “pillow” the ends.  We also learned how to pillow the ends of the Ebony pegs.  It’s sometimes hard to see in photos, but the exposed joinery and pegs are not flat on their tops.  It’s much more than just rounding over the edges.  It’s a delicate process to get the pillowing just right.

This first corner sample is only partially completed.  We finished up the other details on the second day.

We then moved onto a drawer sample.  This drawer pull isn’t really seen on Greene and Greene furniture.  Darrell was inspired by a similar pull made by James Krenov.  When seen on his furniture and it really does work well with Greene and Greene.

In this sample we learned how the finger joints are made for a drawer.  You only see the pillowing on the front.  Because the drawer has to fit tight, you can’t have the exposed fingers on the sides.  The Ebony pens here are purely decorative, as are most in Greene and Greene.  To give the drawer strength, we pegged the sides with wooden dowels.

We didn’t quite finish this drawer sample the first day.  We finished it up the next day, and started on the next drawer sample.  This next drawer pull is an inlayed cloud lift motif.

To create the inlay, we used templates and a router.  It’s a pretty easy process if you have the templates.  Luckily Darrell has these templates made for him, and we were able to pick up a set for $15.  Well worth the money, seeing how much time you might have to spend making your own.

Next was to shape the knob.  The rough shaping was done with a router and large belt sander.

The finial shaping, was always is done by hand.  Again, notice that the top is not flat it is also pillowed.  When it’s all put together, it is a very striking design.

The only thing I really did wrong on this pull is that I didn’t pillow the horizontal Ebony pieces enough.  I think you can see from the photo they are pretty flat, on their tops.  I should have looked at Darrell’s example a little closer.

In the afternoon, we started on the last detail, which was going to be applied to the first piece we started on the first day.  This detail is supposed to simulate a leather strap.  The rough shaping again was done using several router templates and couple different bits.

This corner sample is a sample of what Darrell uses on his Aurora Desk.  You can see an example here.  You will also see how he uses the Krenov inspired drawer pulls.

All in all, I had a great time.  Everyone in the class was friendly and hepled others if they needed help.  I’m really looking forward to the next class in December.

A few of weeks ago I attached the curved part of the apron, and while clamping it for the glue up the apron distorted slightly.  Ok, that was my fault.  I thought I was being extra careful, because I knew this could be a potential problem.  What little pressure I used, was too much.  I let the base sit for a while, and it came back into shape for the most part.  At least enough where I could work with it.

Then the other day, I happened to walk past the base sitting on my bench.  The legs looked odd to me, they looked warped or twisted.  I thought maybe the wood had started to move on me.  I put a straight edge on the faces and everything seems to be ok.  I’m thinking the grain is causing a trick of the eye.  I wasn’t happy with the selection of wood I had for the legs.  I think I just learned, not to settle on the wood selection of your project.

Here’s a picture of the base.  The picture really doesn’t show the effect unless you know where to look.

I brought the table inside to see how it would look in the hallway.

Even thought this still “raw” wood, both my wife and I feel it is going to be too light for the room.  I’m going to play around some different stains to see if I can find something we like.

I looked around to try to find a better method or a jig.  Recently Popular Woodworking ran an article on 3 ways to taper legs.  One of these methods intrigued me.  Glen Huey showed how he uses a jointer to taper legs, in only 2 passes.  I thought about using this method, but after looking at my jointer I realized my jointer infeed table was too short for the length of the legs I had.  Check out his video, it’s pretty amazing.

Then I was over at Fine Woodworking and came across an article and video by Richard W. Beebe.  This jig as a little more complicated, but had some features that made 4-way tapers much easier.

Building the jig wasn’t that difficult.  The only interesting part of the project was cutting the circular slot for the indexing pin attachment.  Here’s how I set it up to cut with the router.

As you can see, I just added a piece of MDF to my router table, where my router bit can come through.  I then marked the radius I needed and drilled a hole for a nail to act as the pivot point.  I added a couple stop blocks and made the cut, in a couple passes.

The adjustable fence and the clamping arm are the key to this jig.  The fence allows you set the jig for any angle and for any length of leg.  The clamping arm gives very firm clamping pressure on the leg.  I never had any issues with a leg wanting to move.

The indexing pin attachment isn’t required for the jig, but is a nice feature.  It allows you to rotate the leg around a center point, without needed to move the fence if you are doing a 3 or 4-way taper.

In this picture, I only firmly pressed the leg against the pin.  This worked ok, but on some cuts there can be a little vibration.  In subsequent cuts, I drilled a hole in the bottom of the leg and inserted the pin firmly in the hole.

When you get to the third taper you will notice that the leg doesn’t sit up against the fence anymore.

If you aren’t using the indexing pin, all you have to do is readjust the fence for the difference.  If you are using the indexing pin, the pin holds the leg in place without the aid of the fence.

On the forth cut, if you are using the indexing pin, the bottom face is not sitting on jig.

For the most part I didn’t find this to be an issue, but I did experience some vibration during the cut.  This was because the wood isn’t fully supported on the bottom face.  I felt the indexing pin held the leg firmly in place for this cut.  If I were cutting a lot of legs, I probably wouldn’t use the indexing attachment.  I would cut the first 2 faces on each leg.  Then readjust the fence and cut the last 2 faces on each leg.

I think the time spent making this jig was worth it.  This should be a jig I will use over and over.