Splintered Board Podcast

Farewell For Now

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:10:06 +0000

After 3 years of great times podcasting followed by 6 months of inactivity, I call it quits...for now. ; A special thanks to everyone who made it possible. If I left your name out, well, shame on me.

Episode 59 - Back to Basics and Missing Shop Manuals Mega Book Review

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:45:54 +0000

When I received the package containing the Back to Basics series, I had had a particularly rough day at work. I came home and found it on the kitchen table, and my wife giving me one of those "So, what did you buy for your shop now?" looks. I usually just have to say, these are books from Fox Chapel, and she understands. So that crisis was averted. I was really excited, because I wasn't expecting a new book, or books. I opened the package, pulled out the books and was overjoyed! Then a little bit of the mood of the day took over and I was saddened again. Just something about the cover art on the books made me think sarcastically 'Boy, these are going to be joy to read. And I still have the Missing Shop Manual series to review.' After looking over the covers of each book, I set them aside until late at night. After the kids were in bed I picked up Woodworker’s Guide to Wood and began leafing through it. Normally when I leaf through a book, I do just that. I look at the pictures, read a few captions, skip a few pages, jump to the index and see what I might have missed. Twenty minutes later, I found that I was reading more than leafing. I had read quite a bit of several pages and actually learned some things about wood that haven't really been explained all that well in other texts and podcasts that I have learned from in the past. I was surprised that this book had captured my attention so well. Pleasantly surprised. So much so that I decided to bring the Joinery book with me to work the next day. By lunchtime I had already experienced much the same delight with it. As someone who really enjoys trying (and usually failing) to cut all kinds of joinery using hand tools and power tools, just for fun, I found this book to be a fresh look at joinery. While there are dovetails on the cover, the book doesn't over emphasize the use, importance or play to the reputation that the various dovetail joints have garnered. What this book does do is fairly and accurately detail what joints are suitable for which applications, with which woods, and how to go about implementing them. Various tools are used for each joint, and the book doesn't assume that you have every specialty tool possible for each joint. So, when necessary, jigs, and how to build and use them, are detailed also. The next day I decided to continue this trend and bring the Setting Up Your Workshop book to work. I ended up getting so much out of it in so little time that I decided to rearrange my shop (1/2 of a 2-car garage) as it was depicted in the book. I generally regard workbench and workshop books as pretty boring. I get enough advice about how to organize my shop from my wife and father-in-law. The last thing I voluntarily want to do is read about someone’s idea of how I should organize something that they have never seen. But, I was pleasantly surprised with this book, and plan on returning to it in the next couple of years as my shop evolves. The Woodworking Machines book was next, and while I had already been through other books that gloss over the fine points of every machine you could possibly have in your shop, and probably act as a replacement for Ambien in the process… I was happy with the way this book shows how to setup each machine, describe the most common and best uses for each machine, how to tune and align them, and general maintenance. All-in-all, this one is staying in my shop so I don’t have to keep running inside and down to the basement where I keep my other woodworking books. Other books in the Back to Basics series are Constructing Kitchen Cabinets, Fundamentals of Sharpening (available to Ship Dec 1st, 2010), Woodworker’s Guide to Carving (available to ship Sept 30th, 2010), and Woodworker’s Guide to Turning (available to ship January 1st, 2011). It’s funny how these books struck such a chord with me. I was happy to actually read them instead of weeding information out of them. And you know what, that’s what it seems like I end up doing with most of my woodworking books these days. I feel like I need to set aside major chunks of time (because I’m a slow slow reader), just to get one little bit of information from them. With the Back to Basics series, everything you need to know is spelled out plain as day and ready for you in easy to read English. Like I've tried to explain through 2 years of podcasting, I have learned, what I consider, to be a great deal about woodworking over the internet and by reading books. It's great to see that these new books from Fox Chapel are not just regurgitating the same information that many podcasters, books and web sites continue to cover. These books are finding new ways to impart the same information, but supplement that with new ideas (at least to me), methods and non-mainstream information that may either be new to us all, or forgotten through the ages. This sentiment doesn't just end with the Back To Basics series. When I read the Joinery book this morning, I realized that this collection perfectly complements the Missing Shop Manual series, also published by Fox Chapel. The two collections even look similar. While the Missing Shop Manuals books are much smaller, they are all trade paperbacks with rounded outside corners and minimalist artwork on the cover. Both collections are full, and I mean full of charts, diagrams, drawings, and instructional illustrations. And sturdy? Let me tell you about these... I usually ride around with a book or two in my laptop bag for about a week or two. By the time I take the books out, usually because I haven't read them yet, they are mangled. I've done the same with the Missing Shop Manuals books, but they are still in great shape. The sturdy trade paperback covers have kept them mostly unmolested - except for a few dents on the covers from spiral notebooks. Probably the most useful book of the Missing Shop Manuals series is an unassuming title Glue and Clamps. Seriously, this book is worth it's weight... It solves the ever frustrating adage that you can never have enough clamps. Well, it doesn't solve it in that it supplies you with enchanted clamp racks that magically fill themselves, but it does show you how to improvise and build your own, new, clamps out of the clamps you already own. Specialty clamps, clamping jigs, frame clamps, carcass clamps, improvised vises, clamp extenders, you name it, it's probably in there. The Drill Press and Table Saw books are also extremely helpful, in that there are tons of simply made jigs documented that you could easily pay for down at the local (or not so local) woodworking store. They also go over the machines, and the different categories of each machine in pretty fine detail. Even that's not too boring :) The lathe is still a small mystery to me, so I can't really comment on that book right now, but it available also. So, you can imagine, if I'm as happy as this with the other books, then if you are really into turning, you might do well to pick up the Missing Shop Manual on the Lathe. The final book in the Missing Shop Manual Series that I have, but haven't mentioned is Circular Saws and Jig Saws. I don't really have a comment about this book. I looked it over a few months ago, and it didn't leave a lasting impression. That's not to say it was terrible, it's just that I wasn't jumping around saying 'I've got to get into the shop right now!' I'd bet that if you do a fair amount of circ and jig saw work, this book might do you some good too. I think what I like most about these collections, and I think Fox Chapel has hit on a veritable gold mine here, is that I like my information in personable - meaning, in plain English - relatively small chunks with examples that I can see, and accurately explained. I'm a hard sell when it comes to books. At least informational books. And I have to admit that I probably would not have even picked these unassuming books off of the bookstore shelf to thumb through, but that would be my loss. These are exactly the types of books that I have needed since I took up woodworking. Though the Missing Shop Manuals can, and should, find a place in every woodworker's shop library (I'll be building a special bookshelf for mine inside the shop), I can see the immense value of having the Back to Basics collection in every new and intermediate woodworker's shop. Some of the information may be a review, but there are definitely caches of knowledge in the books that most people haven't seen before.

Episode 58 - Happy Birthday Splintered Board!!!

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:16:11 +0000

Well, it was my birthday this week, so that means it’s also Splintered Board’s birthday. If you’re not following me, the original Splintered Board podcast began at the end of May, in 2008. I was very new to woodworking and was eager to show everyone my progress. I wanted to join the ranks of the Toolmonger podcast – my first ‘manly’ podcast subscription, Tommy MacDonald’s Rough Cut Show – my first woodworking podcast subscription, Marc Spagnuolo’s The Wood Whisperer, and Matt Vanderlist’s Matt’s basement workshop. The show didn’t really catch on too quickly, and I still don’t see the number of subscribers/downloads that The Sawdust Chronicles has… In the first few months I received a lot of mail that I regarded as ‘hate mail’. It was very critical – to this day I still believe the emails to have been pretty critical – but I believe that these critics had my best interests at heart. Through social networking online, I’ve actually ended up cultivated pretty nice relationships with some of these guys. And that’s probably one of the most reinforced lessons that I’ve learned about the online woodworking community, and even some of those that are never, and probably will never be, online – it’s that they are generally just really nice people. Sure, there are bad eggs in every group of people you meet, but even in the woodworking arena, the bad eggs are still pretty good. Now, I’ve been getting a few correspondences about Splintered Board succumbing to the phenomenon that is now known as ‘pod fade’ . Hopefully every time I released a new episode, after being silent for a while, squashed those rumors or concerns. It turns out that I’ve been unbearably busy. So busy, in fact, that I’ve been doing very little woodworking. And, a low turnout of woodworking means a low turnout of woodworking podcasts. Sorry about that, but that’s just what happens when life gets in the way. Again, addressing pod fade. I mentioned, on Twitter I believe, a few months ago that I might turn Splintered Board into a blog, but continue doing The Sawdust Chronicles. Well, The Sawdust Chronicles is definitely not going anywhere – in fact there are some great new surprises coming soon. The blog thing is still up in the air, but I think, for the most part, the podcast – Splintered Board – will remain silent except for the necessary podcasts. What does that mean??? Well, it means that I have handshake obligations with Fox Chapel Publishing to review books, Micro Jig and Total Saw Solutions to demonstrate and use their products, and of course I’ll be involved in Woodworkers Safety Week each May. Plus, I’ll be podcasting about each woodworking project I complete, as they are completed. The vast majority of shows will be video episodes from now on. I hope that gets people excited, I know I love doing video shows… But that also means that the post production time is longer, the episodes are shorter, and the time between podcasts will remain extended (especially since my output has been very sporadic over the past 12 months). Another change is that I’m not going to promise to do one project per season. I think that was ambitious of me, and doable too, but things just aren’t working out with that, so I’m just going to fall back on doing things as I’m able to get to them. Projects I have in mind are going to include another iteration of the X-Leg table, a possible weekend commission project, a bent lamination coat hanger, and a stack lamination Pizza Pie table. So there will be plenty of material to podcast to you in the future. What have I learned in two years of woodworking podcasting? It’s a pretty tall order to list everything that I’ve learned, but I’ll give you some topics in no specific order: Microphones, Audio/Video Editing, Lighting for Videos, Tool and Shop Safety, Sharpening, Hand Tool Use and Maintenance, Power Tool Use and Selection, Dust Collection, Shop Layout, Scavenging for Materials, Relational Dimensioning, a little about Finishing, Versatility of the Tools You Own, Bargain Tool Hunting, Furniture Design, Period Furniture History, Lathe Use, Scraper Importance, Inlaying, Wood Bending, Wood Grain, Wood Figure, and much, much more.

Episode 57 - Wood Worker's Safety Week 2010 - Part 2

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:02:05 +0000

Hey everybody it's Rick Waters for the Splintered Board Podcast. This 3rd annual Wood Workers' Safety Week was organized by the ubiquitous Marc 'The Wood Whisperer' Spagnuolo. In this episode I want to demonstrate something that MicroJig sent me last Fall. It's their safety tool called the GRR-Ripper. I think the GRR-Ripper is one of the most safety-centric tools on the market today. Now everybody has push sticks or push blocks, but the GRR-Ripper protects your hands and give you a place to guard your fingers just by holding something that grabs your stock and pushes it through your tablesaw, jointer or router table. So in this safety video I'm going to be demonstrating a little bit on the use of the GRR-Ripper, but also, I wanna do a little bit of Where's Waldo. I want you to be able to identify all of the safety hazards that you see in the different clips of me cutting the stock for a project that I'll be doing this summer. So here I'm frozen on a picture of the face of the GRR-Ripper and I'm showing you that because I want you to be able to see that there are 2 channels and 3 legs. What you see is the leg on the left which will grab the stock and provide balance for the tool; a leg in the middle which will stabilize the GRR-Ripper, and also grab the stock; finall the leg on the right serves as a thin wall that is attached to a handheld outside fence that also provides stabilization because it rides on the top of the table saw bed. So, the reason you have these channels is so that the table saw blade itself can pass between two of the legs. If that's confusing, it gets easier to understand when you see it in action. So, let's go ahead and take a look at how this works. OK, so hopefully you can see from this little demonstration that from my actions, I'm acting like I kind of don't really know what I'm about to do, but I really want to cut something. So I turn on the table saw, I get the wood in place, but I don't know where to put my hands... So, indecision is what I'm trying to show is a very unsafe thing to have around spinning or rotating blades. If you don't have a plan ahead of time on what you are going to do with a tool, Stop, Turn the tool off, Sit down and come up with a clear plan. Come back to the tool and Execute. Never turn on a tool without clearly knowing what you are going to do. OK, here's another. You can see that the stock is giving me some trouble moving across the bed of the table saw. There are 2 really good reasons for that: The wood is a little damp - it's been sitting in the garage after a particularly humid few days; Also, the table saw bed is not lubricated well - it hasn't been used in months and is dry as a bone with dirt and debris all over it. Clear off your tablesaw top and lubricate it, hopefully with wax. The next segment will show that the table saw top is waxed and the stock glides very well. I just want you to know that the GRR-Rippers have nothing to do with this inability to move the stock, they are definitely doing their jobs as best they can. Hopefully you noticed that when I first put the stock on the table, that it wasn't being supported behind me. You'll see that again at the end of the clip because it won't be supported on the outfeed side either. Both of these are safety problems for heavy boards (which these are). OK, here you see me forcing the board, just pouncing on it to get it moving. This is NEVER a good thing, please don't ever do this. Even if you do have GRR-Rippers, what if the board suddenly gave way and as you pounced on it it flew forward? If you didn't have very sure fotting, your arm or even your chest could land on the spinning blade. Never pounce on a board to get it to move. If anything, turn the tablesaw off, take off the stock, and lubricate the bed of the saw. At least with this clip and the entire video, I have a couple of good things going for me: I'm wearing hearing protection and the dust collector is going. The last criticism I have for this clip is something very basic to the procedures of using a table saw, and that is to push your stock completely free of the blade before turning it off. This is a habit that I'm trying to break, but haven't completely gotten rid of yet. One of the great elements of the Micro Jig GRR-Ripper is that you can adjust the position of the handle. They did this (I assume) because your center of balance should mainly be centered over the table saw blade itself. This makes moving the stock much easier too - and here I demonstrate that. All it takes is a few seconds, a short twist of a philips head screw driver and the handle slides very easily. Another twist and the handle is locked down. See how much of a difference a waxed table saw table can make? Here I'm visually check to make sure that the table saw blade is going to pass through one of the channels of the GRR-Ripper. The table saw blade should not be digging into the GRR-Ripper. This isn't a problem if it does - some people do it on purpose. The components of the GRR-Ripper are replaceable, so there's no problem there, but for my intentions, there's no reason to damage the tool. Has anybody pointed out the fact that I'm not wearing safety glasses yet? Now that was quick, did you miss it? I locked down the fence again just to make sure that it wouldn't move while I was cutting and pushing against it with the stock. This is very important, I posted something on it last year that my fence's locking mechanism is loose and will mess up my cuts if I don't put a lot of weight on it when I lock it down. Those people who say you can't make a curved cut on a table saw have never used a table saw with a loose fence. Now, if you're about to point out that I vary the speed at which I rip, there's actually a good reason for that. I was trying to determine the best speed to feed Lyptus into the saw to avoid burning. It turns out you have to go pretty slow to burn Lyptus. Right there, did you catch that? As I was putting down one of the off cuts, I got a couple of big splinters. One of the dangers of using a dull blade, which this is, is that the cuts aren't the cleanest and you have to be careful with handling all of the stock. Learning from my mistakes, I'm double checking to make sure that the board was seated fully up against the fence and that the GRR-Ripper's channel will go fully over the blade. It was pretty quick, but did you catch that? I pulled up my sleeves once again to make sure that they didn't get caught in the blade. I just published a safety podcast on that, so if you haven't seen the dangers of getting your sleeve caught in a table saw blade, check it out. No what just happened there was that the wax on the table saw bed has worn away. What I acutally need to do is put down a nice spray lubricant for the table, but when I was shooting this I was counting on the wax holding out for the entire video. The jumping of the stock actually serves to proved the point that pouncing on a board to get it to go through the blade is a bad bad idea. What am I doing here? I'm checking the GRR-Rippers to see if they actually did hit the table saw blade. It turns out that when I was removing one of the GRR-Rippers from a board at the end of a cut, I twisted the GRR-Ripper instead of lifting it off. That resulted in a minor cut taken out of the bottom of the green foam material that grabs the stock. So, remember that whether you use a push block or push stick, or even a GRR-Ripper - which I very highly suggest - keep it fully engaged with your stock and lift it straight off and back as opposed to twisting it. Here I'm just showing off a little bit. I wanted to show everyone what figured Liptus looks like once it's been planed, and before it has been card scraped. This stuff is extraordinary! I couldn't believe the flame figure on these boards. I have 7 or 8 of them and only 2 didn't have any figure at all. Stay tuned this summer so you can watch me turn these boards into another X-Leg Table. So that's it everybody! Please stay safe working wood this year, and I hope to be talking to you all again real soon!

Episode 56 - Woodworkers Safety Week Part 1

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:39:06 +0000

This 3rd annual Wood Workers Safety Week was organized for the community by the ubiquitous Marc ‘The Wood Whisperer’ Spagnuolo. What I want to actually show you all today are the dangers of wearing baggy or loose clothing while operating a table saw. I realized that this would be a great subject while filming the next video that will come out later this week. So, here we have a dummy with a single arm that should be a good representation of a left arm too close to the saw blade while wearing a baggy long-sleeved shirt. Yes I understand that the dummy is mostly positioned in front of the blade, but this could also happen with a right arm too. Just watch… I’m showing the ‘naked’ dummy so you know how solid the structure is. A human would be constantly moving, while this dummy is solidly constructed and won’t move unless about 100 pounds of force push or pull it. You might be able to make out that the cuff of the sleeve is already caught in a tooth of the blade. This is for our safety. If I were to pull the sleeve into an already spinning blade, the results would be very unpredictable. Here, we’ll start the blade with the shirt already caught in it. Make him a little more human with a hat … and a face… And, let’s go. OK, let’s look at what happened. In two frames of this film, the blade tore the cuff of the sleeve down into the saw. A third frame, and enough of the shirt was grabbed to lift off the zero clearance insert and destroy it. 4 more frames and the saw blade is so caught up with the shirt that it won’t turn anymore. So, that equates to 7 1/100ths of a second to destroy a shirt, a zero clearance insert, and possibly your arm. Regardless of my initial observations, my zero clearance insert was not the only thing damaged. While removing the shirt from the blade I noticed the shirt shoulder had been ripped by the wooden arm’s sharp rear corners. I’ll show this later. Let’s do another run with no insert. This time, with no insert, the shirt was pulled in even further and almost completely around the blade. Let’s look at the aftermath. A length of shirt about equal to my entire forearm was pulled down to where the dummy’s ‘hand’ was. Meaning, an entire forearm could have been damaged in this kind of an accident. I totally do not advise sawing without a zero clearance insert if this is the case. And, I think I’m making my next one out of hardwood instead of hardboard… Joey, as my kids named the dummy, doesn’t look too happy here, huh? Here’s that shot of the shirt ripped off the shoulder. And this was a pretty tough shirt to begin with… Let’s gear up for a final test. This time I moved the arm closer to the blade and stapled the shirt to the arm. I originally intended for the wooden arm to fall into the blade for the extra gore factor, so here I’m trying my hardest to get this to happen. OK, looks like Joey’s ready… OK, so no wooden arm or hand splinters flying, but still a good example of how fast an accident can ruin your day. This split in the wood is not from the blade hitting it. The arm was made up of 2 3/8” strips of lyptus screwed together. Here you can see that my once nice-looking shop shirt is trashed. And so is Joey… I want to thank my kids for help with this demo and to my baby for napping long enough for us to set up and shoot it. Stay tuned for my second video later this week.

Episode 55 - Rick's NEHS Wrap Up

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:52:43 +0000

Please excuse my rambling about the New England Home Show. I think I got a total of 16 hours of sleep in the 6 nights leading up to this recording, and I taped this at midnight. Anyway, this is a little description of my trip to Boston.

Episode 54 - Tommy's Big Announcement

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:18:09 +0000

Tommy MacDonald and Laurie Donnelly announce that WGBH has signed a deal with Tommy for a new woodworking television show!Stay tuned for the details.

Episode 53 - Thirty Seconds With Tommy and Justin

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:04:13 +0000

Tommy and Justin discuss the very recent announcement that Tommy MacDonald has landed a TV deal with WGBH to become the next television woodworker.

Episode 52 - Day 1 of New England Home Show

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:42:31 +0000

Big news tomorrow, so stay tuned to the podcast feed! Pics from the Home Show - Day 1 New England Home Show 2/25/2010

Episode 51 - 2010 New Years Resolutions

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:55:04 +0000

Finally! I got out a serious episode in 2010. Here are my New Year's Resolutions, and some goals for the podcasts for 2010.

Episode 50 - Zany Book Review (Video 3)

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:18:26 +0000

I've had RW Anderson stop by and review the Fox Chapel Publishing book, 'Zany Wooden Toys that Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly'. Enjoy

Episode 50 - Zany Book Review (Video)

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:43:10 +0000

I've had RW Anderson stop by and review the Fox Chapel Publishing book, 'Zany Wooden Toys that Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly'. Enjoy

Episode 50 - Zany Book Review

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:03:00 +0000

I've had RW Anderson stop by and review the Fox Chapel Publishing book, 'Zany Wooden Toys that Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly'. Enjoy

Episode 49 - When is Bad Design Acceptable? - Audio

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:09:12 +0000

I’m calling this episode ‘When Bad Design Solves a Big Problem / When is Bad Design Acceptable?’ I was recently watching a podcast called The Stuff of Genius. It’s another of the How Stuff Works series of podcasts. I listened to the episode about the QWERTY keyboard. Christopher L Shoals, and another inventor patented the typewriter in 1868. There was a problem, though. The keys on the keyboard were in alphabetical order. That would seem pretty strange to us, since the keys on the keyboards were use now are almost in no conceivable order at all. The thing was, the most common letters used were too close together on Shoals’ alphabetical keyboard, and the arms that held the letter ‘hammers’ were getting stuck when they hit each other. Shoals ‘fixed’ this problem by making the keyboard harder to use. It slowed down the typist and spaced out the arms inside the typewriter so it wouldn’t get jammed anymore. Why am I talking about the typewriter and Shoals’ solution to the jamming problem? Design. It all comes down to design. The way I understand good design is that it is supposed to do a few things: - Solve a problem - Make something more efficient - Please the senses (look and feel in furniture) Part of this design, I think, should be the manufacturing process. The means to create the object being designed should also be efficient, but also the time required to create the new object should justify the object itself. In other words, don’t put 100 hours into the building phases of a small table that you don’t expect to last for very long, or that you could have bought at a discount store for $20. I’m getting a little off topic. Just a little though. Am I the best person in the world to be preaching about design? Absolutely not! Just take a look at the long list of people I’ve talked with over at The Sawdust Chronicles, and it should give you an idea of all of the great craftsman that could probably tell you better than I can. But, am I the last person that should be preaching about design? I don’t think so. Every once in a while, I think a fresh perspective should be seen from experienced, yet possibly callused eyes. So, let’s take a look at what Shoals did. He took a current design and made it harder to use, made the operator less efficient, and made it utterly incomprehensible to anyone unfamiliar with a keyboard. He solved his problem and got the typewriter to work. But he introduced a new problem. He forced typists to memorize a new ordering of the English alphabet. When I think about my own design problems I always go back to my X-Leg table. Why? Because even though I love how the table looks, I’m always upset at the way it was designed to be built. I’ve always known that there was a better way to build it. As you may recall, I plan on rebuilding the table as my Winter project. To get some help with the construction plan of the table, I called on the Twitter crowd. I asked whoever wanted to get involved to please get a Google Wave account (I invited something like 8 or 9 people), and join me for a collaboration. What followed was a little frustrating. I wanted help developing a new way to build the table. I didn’t want a newly designed table. After a few days of chatting, or Waving, with the folks online, I realized that the table’s construction design may have actually been OK. We tweaked the joinery solutions a tiny bit, but that was all. What I ended up gleaning from this collaboration was a new design for the table. A design whose construction should be slightly easier. This new design can be attributed in large part to Jeremy Kriedwaldt. I’ve mentioned him before, but for those of you who don’t recognize the name, he’s been on the online woodworking scene for quite a while, and is now contributing to Mack McKinney’s The Way of the Galoot podcast. Anyway, the new design for the table still captures the original essence on the table concept, but actually enhances my own design to the point that I think this may end up being the design I opt to continue with. In an anti-Shoals move, Jeremy has taken something that wasn’t entirely broken, made it better, made the construction of it possibly more efficient, and also made it look more elegant, in my opinion. So, thanks Jeremy!

Episode 49 - When is Bad Design Acceptable? - Video

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:04:28 +0000

Episode 48 - The Crappy Workbench

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:05:52 +0000

So, I finally put the workbench together.It's 4 slabs of MDF with 1/2" of solid Oak on top.The carriage is 2 legs of 4x4 Pressure Treated pine beams.

Episode 47 - Boutique Tools - A Love Hate Thing

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:43:29 +0000

I opened up my email the other day expecting to see an important message that I have been anxiously awaiting. Instead of receiving my personal invitation to the Playboy Mansion, I received an ad for another boutique tool. Most woodworkers have received these ads in one way or another. And I would bet that we've all thought, if only for a moment, 'That's one sweet tool,' or even 'I've gotta have it.' But, reality soon sets in...right about the time we see the price tag. Though our eyes continue to caress the shining bronze and stainless steel, the smooth mahogany, fiddleback makore or rich cocobolo, we know that this picture is as close as we will ever get to owning such tools (barring, of course, fondling them at trade shows). Some brave souls have given in to temptation, only to invite the unforgiving and inevitable wrath of their significant other. Even for well-funded woodworkers (or tool collectors), with tricked out shops and tool collections, there are always going to be gorgeous tools that are way out of even their price range. I started my tool collection with a $7 block plane from a home store, added a few low-end power tools, received a few second-hand tools from friends, then rescued a ton of old hand tools from a friend's basement. Though some of the old hand tools are in such good shape that they are worth many more times that of their brand new mid-range brothers, these cannot, in my opinion, be considered boutique tools. Those are antiques. Yesterday I read an old article in the New York Times about hand tools which mentioned that Garrett Wade and Woodcraft were 'high-end tool catalogue businesses' and grouped them with Lie-Nielsen and Bridge City Toolworks. I wasn't into woodworking in 1998 when this article was published, so maybe things have changed in the past 11 years, but in my opinion, Woodcraft is not a retailer that I associate with high-end tools. I associate it with overpriced tools, but not high-end tools. I'm just now becoming familiar with Garrett Wade and, contrary to the article's statement that Garrett Wade was 'the first of the ''boutique'' woodworking catalogue businesses', I would say they are an outlet for higher-end tools than Woodcraft, but still not high-end 'boutique' tools. No, rather, I classify a Boutique Tool as one whose competition consists of a few alternatives that range in their accuracy and price, from low-priced poorly made 'junk' tools that, normally, only new woodworkers would buy from their hardware stores or discount tools outlets, through to high priced 100% accurate and precise tools that, if used correctly, will return excellent results every time. What sets Boutique Tools apart from these high-end tools that work perfectly? Mainly, price. To me, a $48 well-made, accurate, and comfortable to use marking gauge is high end. A $145 marking gauge with nickel plated body, stainless steel knobs, and electro polished beam, or a $180 solid ebony gauge are both examples of boutique tools. Don't get me wrong, I don't condemn either of these tool makers. I've purchased items from both companies. In fact, the owner of one of these companies is a friend of mine. And no, his name is not John. Take, for instance, a couple of automotive comparisons. What's the difference between buying a Geo Metro and a Toyota Prius? Both are tiny little cars that get great mileage. One screams 'LOOK AT ME, I'M SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT!' while the other says politely 'I know my car doesn't accelerate that quickly, please pass me while I burn half the gas that your car does.' I used to own a Chrysler PT Cruiser, what's the difference between that and the Porsche Cayenne? Both are vehicles that offer seating for 5, are SUV-like, and plenty of storage. The Porsche also offers much more comfort, style, and power, while the Cruiser offers affordable maintenance. In both examples, what is the main difference between the mid-to-low-end cars and the high-end cars (yes, I understand the Prius is not a boutique car and the Porsche is, but work with me here)? #1. Price. #2. The statement. I understand the sociological differences between owning an $100k car versus a $20k car and a $250 hand plane versus a $2500 hand plane. I also understand that the expensive handplane in a tool collection may only ever be seen by a handful of people, while an expensive car is seen by everyone in the community. I guess when you compare a boutique tool to a boutique car, the answer to the 'why does this tool even exist?' question ends up being 'because someone, somewhere, is going to buy it.' Anyway, to drive home how ridiculous some of these tools' price tags are, I'm going to site some specific tools. And I already know that Bridge City Toolworks is going to come up quite a bit. I don't want to be misunderstood. I don't believe their entire line of tools are boutique. Some of their tools have no equal. This actually makes BCT one of the toolmakers I respect the most. They are the only ones coming up with truly NEW tools. Boutique Tools: Bridge City Toolworks: MG-5, CT-4, CT-15, CS-6, Dead Blow Mallet, SS-2x4 Aluminum Saddle Square, HG-1, CS-2, DSS-6, KM-1 Festool: Kapex, Domino Blue Spruce Toolworks: Mallet Grand Slam Tools: Ebony Marking Gauge EC Emmerich: All of their tools

Episode 46 - Back From Hiatus, Many Updates

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:02:36 +0000

Take a look at This new blog - Spudwood‘Garage Sale’ at Designed Stairs in Sandwich, IL24 bdft pink Lyptus (in 7 boards)13”x1”x8’ Hemlock6 short boards of 14”wx1”t yellow pine stairs40 4” C clamps for about $203 6’x1”dia acrylic rods50’ electrical cord autoreel5’ levelJim Birch (flooracle) from Erickson Decorating in Chicago, and Barry Gork from Timbermate – Timbermate productsUsed the Walnut on my railingJim Birch (flooracle) – free flooring samplesSomewhere around 200bdft of S. American hardwood flooring samples20 bdft of Oak hardwood flooringProjectsMagnetic board project - FinishedShop tableToy ChestWine Cabinet DoorNew ToolsAdzeChiselBench ViseCalipers (Free from Rockler )Folding rule (Free from Charles Neil)Abrasive wheels (free from Dremel)Scroll SawFlexible sanding pads (Klingspor)Tons of sandpaper (Klingspor)Abrasive lathe pads (As seen on RWW)

Episode 45 - Interview with Carole Rothman

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:51:44 +0000

I had the pleasure of interviewing a modern day renaissance woman, Carole Rothman, author of Wooden Bowls From the Scroll Saw. We discussed how Carole got into woodworking, and scrollsawing, her challenges and triumphs in perfecting the scrollsawn bowl, jar and vase.

Non-Episode - Opening The Rookie

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:04:05 +0000

I received my issue of The Rookie, by Scott Sigler, today. Join me as I open it.

Episode 44 - Book Review - Wooden Bowls From The Scroll Saw

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:02:40 +0000

I had the opportunity to review one of the best How-To woodworking books I've ever read. Carole Rothman makes a seemingly impossible task utterly simplistic through her many step-by-step bowl, jar and vase projects in Wooden Bowls from the Scroll Saw. I was impressed with how detailed each project in the book was so intricately laid out and explained, but what really made me fall in love with Carole's how-to writing style, was that she must have her beginner readers' best interests in mind. In the first chapter she discusses the pro's and con's of several species of wood and encourages the woodworker to try other types also. Carole discusses all of the possible tools needed and how to use them. She even includes templates for how to build your own bowl glue-up clamps.

Episode 43 - Woodworking In America Overview

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:49:34 +0000

Day 1 Met Al Navas – Sandal Wood Podcast – Talked about his ailing shoulder Met Mike Brady – Fox Valley Woodworkers Club – Glen Huey came over and showed us the Blue Spruce mallets that will be awarded as prizes of the Hand Tool Olympics Watched Jameel – Bench Crafted – Demonstrate leg vice to spectator Met Mark Hockstein – Loogie – BS'ed Presentation – Anatomy of a Masterpiece – Jeff Greene Very concerned with examining furniture design within the context of the historical period – what was going on at that time. Styles migrating (over time) France – England – Colonies Oscar Fitzgerald - 20th Century American Furniture and Why You Should Like It Anyone who has an interest in furniture would like this session. Of the 7 sessions that I went to, Mr. Fitzgerald's was probably the most energetic. I described it later to several people as if we were shot through a cannon made up of 100 years of American furniture. I was especially pleased to see some of my favorites included in the fast-paced presentation, such as Jere Osdood, Hopkins and Wendell Castle. But he didn't limit it to my prefences, he also included several pieces from Maloof, Frank Lloyd, Wright, many other Arts & Crafts designers/builders, and reproductionists. Immediately following, I got a semi-private interview with Mr. Fitzgerald which I'll be sharing on The Sawdust Chronicles and the Splintered Board Podcast. After the interview I wolfed down a $9 lunch, that I vowed to not be forced to eat again, and in only 5 minutes! I befriended Dale Barnard of Barnard Woodworking School, and was off to another session. Presentation - Jim Tolpin – Measure Once, Measure Not at All Jim Tolpin's talk, about how specific imperial measurements aren't always needed for every project, was pretty refreshing. I've always wondered what the ancient woodworkers and stone masons used to measure their work pieces, since there was not always been an established, recognized, and accepted standard unit of measurement. Mr. Tolpin showed how he loosely uses body-size comparisons to get dimensions. Then he uses story sticks and templates to record the project's actual measurements. Not once was a protractor, ruler or tape measure used, and he never wrote down any numbers. During the Q&A Session afterwards Jim cut the parts of the project out of cardboard and assembled them within minutes. Don Williams - 19th C. Joinery, The Transition From Hand to Power Don was probably the most consistently entertaining presenter that I saw at WIA. His accounts of personal experiences and jokes about how woodworker apprentices must have always gotten the wrong end of the stick, were just hilarious. Don's comparison of hand tool use today to Ghandi 'getting back to basics' and rejecting his modern life, was very profound and thought provoking. Mixed in with the levity was a ton of tool history. The fact that the first known powered saw (water powered) was built and used in 1337, was just astonishing. At least, until we found out that they had chop saws and wind powered table saws in the 1500's. The 1700's brought us water powered vertical gang saws with 10 blades, jointers and planers running on steam and veneer saws. We didn't see bandsaws until the 1800's, which totally amazed me until I talked with Don alone the next day. I sat down in a Q&A session where he and I were the only people there. When I walked in I thought he was sleeping. We discussed finishes, advancements in technology from machines to medicine, and of course tools. He said that I shouldn't be so amazed that the bandsaw didn't exist before the 1800's, because the machine may have been dreamt up, but it may have been shelved until people were able to produce a strong thin band of steel that would not break. Day 2 Got a late start because through an amazingly crazy series of events, at 3am I discovered that our water heater had sprung a leak. That led to me deciding to go to the conference late – if at all. At 7:30 we got on the phone with the water heater replacement guys and scheduled them to come out to the house that day. Phew!! Anyway, I got to the convention late and missed the Greene & Greene session. So I decided to go to reproductionists Jeff Headley and Steve Hamilton's Casework and Detailing session. I jumped in a few minutes late and found an open seat in the back near Matt Vanderlist. About 2 minutes later Shannon Rogers came in and took the seat next to me. Jeff and Steve's presentation was great!!! Each piece they showed us was knock—downable. The first piece they put together was a Chippendale chest, but it almost didn't happen. They spent an exaggerated 5 minutes trying to figure out how the sides dovetailed into the bottom panel. Turns out they've been showing this knock-down Chippendale chest for 7 or 8 years. And their instruction on how to create each decorative piece and functional joint was excellent. Take aways from this session were: A new way (for me) to create a splay foot on a case. Glue blocks constructed from smaller blocks with alternating grain directions. On dovetails, use your mortiser to cut the pins. Stay 1/16 or less from the line, and pare away the rest. Woodworking Workshops of the Shenandoah Valley wwostv.com 540-955-2022 They have workshops schedule once a month, at least through July of 2010. Afterwards, I got to meet up with Shannon and Matt in the Marketplace and BS a bit. Matt and I ran into Al Navas, while Shannon traded a prize that he won at the Hand Tool Olympics for another recently highly valued item, Chris Schwarz's Hand Plane Essentials. I've got to give credit to Megan Fitzpatrick and her administrative crew at the show. Every time I've had a question, they've been right there to answer it or help out when needed. I'm starting to think that I'm bothering them, though... Brian Boggs – Composing with Wood Grain Not only does Brian talk to us about the positives and negatives about displaying and working with wood grain and figure, he relates about experiences when the grain in some pieces would not be fully appreciated. Brian touched briefly on how consideration should be given to the structural strength of different directions of grain. Matched 4 boards together to look like 2 boards on a table top. Two sequenced boards from a log were book matched then the next board in the tree went thru the center of the tree, meaning it was ¼ sawn. Took ½ of the ¼ sawn board and placed it on the outsides of the book matched boards. Came out looking like a 2-board table. Keynote Speech – Thomas Moser I had just concluded an interview with Mr. Moser when we all filed... I'm sorry, when we all gushed into the dining hall. After settling down at our table I saw that I had probably sat with some of the most well-known people in online woodworking that were in attendance – outside of the Pop Woodworking crew themselves. The table included Shannon Rogers, Matt Vanderlist, Bob ___ from Czech Edge Tool, David from Blue Spruce Tools, Ron Brese from Brese Planes, and Jameel Abraham from Bench Crafted. We quickly ate and sat through about 19 hours of Glen Huey giving away prizes to people who'd competed in the Hand Tool Olympics. Finally Tom Moser took the stage and presented a wonderful account of his life, not just his woodworking career. I couldn't do it justice to recount it here, nor do I think my voice could hold out if I tried. Rest assured, the man has furniture design and woodworking skills. Admittedly, I went into the conference having a completely different opinion of Thomas Moser than I did after that night. Day 3 Bob Lang – Arts and & Crafts – The Unadorned Truth There's not much that I can say about Bob's session. I'm not a real fan of Arts and Crafts furniture. And I probably went into this session with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Mr. Lang at least gave us a thorough history of the Stickley Brothers. But, there wasn't much more than that. I found it interesting, but maybe it was because I didn't sleep well for the previous 2 nights – I found myself falling asleep 3 times. Sorry Bob. Today was my day to buy stuff, and before I knew it I was out of money. I expected to see wider discounts on items while vendors were contemplating boxing their wares up and dragging them back to their stores. Unfortunately, the discounts I saw weren't great enough for some of the items I really wanted, but didn't really need. I really would have preferred

Episode 42 - WIA Video Slideshow

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:20:58 +0000

A quick look at over 150 pictures I took at WIA Chicago 2009. More longer audio and shorter video episodes on WIA will follow.

Episode 41 - Mmmm, Bench Cookies in Sawdust (audio)

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:54:32 +0000

Rockler's new product, the Bench Cookie, is supposed to keep your workpiece from sliding all over your bench while using a belt sander or router on it - with no clamps or hold fasts.I test them out after 'soaking' one in fine sawdust for 6 days.

Episode 41 - Mmmm, Bench Cookies in Sawdust

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:49:34 +0000

Episode 40 - Let's Catch Up

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:13:38 +0000

So, I've taken a couple of months off of the Splintered Board Podcast. I'm sorry about that, but sometimes you just need a break.

Episode 33 - Part 2 - First Video Episode

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:13:47 +0000

My first video podcast episode! Part 2 anyway. I show a salvaged tree stump that I want to eventually carve a chair from. I show my improvised bench, shop and everything I?ve been talking about for months.

Episode 33 - Part 1 - First Video Episode

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:09:35 +0000

My first video podcast episode! Part 1 anyway. I show a salvaged tree stump that I want to eventually carve a chair from. I show my improvised bench, shop and everything I?ve been talking about for months.

Episode 32 - Long Time, No Podcast

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:05:52 +0000

Hi Everybody! It's taken almost a month, but I'm going to try and get this out one last time. GoDaddy has been less than helpful with this episode... And thanks to GoDaddy, I had to remove several more episodes so I could upload this one. Because of all of the trouble with GoDaddy, and even though I still have over a year of service paid for, I'll soon be switching to another provider (or providers) that will allow me to do what I want with my podcast page and not charge me an arm and a leg for it! Take THAT GoDaddy!!! You can see some of my chisel-cut mortise and tenons here. The assembled changing table can be seen here and here while still on the assembly (coffee) table. Here is the table standing on its own! Finally! In this episode I reviewed Tom Hintz's book, The New Woodworker Handbook from Fox Chapel Publishing. You can find Tom Hintz's website at NewWoodworker.com

Episode 30 - December Updates

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:02:12 +0000

Happy Holidays to all!!! Hey everyone! In this episode I update you (in long form) on the birth of Mason Donald Betz-Waters! Also included are updates on the construction of some Christmas presents, the changing table, the WoodRat videos, and a new segment of the Splintered Board Podcast in the future. Special thanks to Rubber Band Banjo for the music in this episode.

Episode 27 - Baby Update, and Some Woodworking Too

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:00:14 +0000

Baby Update, and Some Woodworking Too We spent Thanksgiving in the hospital waiting to see if they were going to deliver the baby. It didn't happen, but they did manage to ruin our holiday for nothing... I handcut some dovetails!!! Take a look at this wooden, laser-cut business card! My Shop Pics. Baby changing table pieces. Music in this episode by Rubberband Banjo.

Episode 25 - Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:58:00 +0000

I'll be at The Woodworking Shows Schaumburg show on Nov 22nd. If you're in the Chicagoland area, drop me a line and I'll meet you there! Don't use your hand as a featherboard!!! A surprise in the mail, from Pete Bretzke.

Episode 22 - What is it That Inspires You?

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:57:02 +0000

In this week's episode I discuss inspiration in design and fitting in all of the projects that you want to do for yourself - outside of obligatory work. Also, an update on the desk restoring project. Find pics of the baby changing table pieces here. All music in this episode was obtained from mangatune.com.

Episode 24 - WoodRat Update

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:57:01 +0000

Really quick update about the WoodRat and a little about woodworking class last night. Look for a video episode coming soon!!! Music in this episode from Podsafe Music Network.

Episode 23 - Announcement From Splintered Board

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:56:41 +0000

I have a great announcement about a possible partnership between Splintered Board and WoodRat!

Splintered Board Podcast - Episode 30 - December Updates

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:03:24 +0000

Splintered Board Podcast - Episode 21 - Artistic License in Design

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:01:30 +0000

Furnitology's Neil Lamens joins me in an energetic and in-depth discussion about artistic license in design. We cover many aspects and examples of art throughout the ages. Two of the main sources of information to accompany this discussion were Creating Modern Furniture and Droog. We also reference Silas Kopf and Edgar Allen Poe's A Cask of Amontillado, Albrecht Durer. Audio readings of A Cask of Amontillado available in iTunes from BJ Harrison's The Classic Tales podcast, and Patrick McLean's The Seanachai. Music in the podcast (Odd Bird by The Lascivious Biddies) from Podsafe Music Network.

Splintered Board Podcast - Episode 20 - What Is Inside You

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:58:09 +0000

Please don't be offended or put off by what is said in this episode. My intent is to explain my reckoning of what is inside me, what my woodworking style/direction has become. I will be challenging you to explore what is in you also. Intro and Outro music for this episode by Chris Greene Quartet, obtained from Podsafe Music Network

Splintered Board Podcast - Episode 1 - Introduction

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:57:04 +0000

Episode 1 Welcome to the first episode of the Splintered Board Podcast. ? I wanted to give everybody an idea of why I?m doing this. ? As many of you already know, about a year and a half ago, Erik Pearson created the NoviceGarage Woodworker podcast in order to share his experiences during his journey from a novice woodworker, to becoming a craftsman.? ? Well, his last episode was in September of 2007 and I hazard to guess that he?s probably not going to come out with any more episodes. ? I wanted to continue and expand upon Erik?s main idea: following the journey of a novice woodworker, but I haven?t been able to get in touch with Erik. ? So, Erik, if you?re out there and listening to this feed, drop me a line.? I?d like to hear from you. ? As I said, I want to continue what Erik was doing, but with myself instead.? I?m completely qualified, if you could call it that.? I?m a novice woodworker, and I work out of my garage ? that is once I?ve moved the cars out of it. ? Actually I don?t just want to follow my experiences, I?d like this to become a group podcast, a community podcast.? Where several people in similar situations can share their experiences on the same feed.? Almost like a podcast forum.? Ultimately, if this turns out like I want, I?ll have 8 or 10 novice woodworkers periodically posting episodes, be it video or audio, to the feed to document their journeys.? ? If you?d like to get involved, please just send me an email at splinteredboard@gmail.com. ? So, just a short and sweet introduction to the podcast to let you know what I?m trying to do here. ? Oh, one thing, I know the production quality isn?t going to be that good in the first few episodes.? Please bear with me.? Recording audio is new for me, so I?m probably going to be making quite a few editing mistakes int he beginning. ? I want to thank Erik Pearson for the inspiration for this podcast. I also want to thank Rubberband Banjo for the intro music from his piece titled Blue Orgone.? You can find Rubberband Banjo on iTunes.? I highly recommend all of his work.? In the future I hope to be including some music from Zoe Keating, whose music I dearly enjoy. I want to thank you all for listening/reading.? And I hope to be talking to you again soon.

Episode 38 - Safety Week 2009 - Part 2

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:30:46 +0000

A few weeks ago my in-laws were visiting from St. Louis. Whenever my in-laws visit, it means work. Not just clean-out-the-garage type work. More like let?s-check-every-single-shingle-on-the-roof-then-get-in-the-attic-and-check-every-square-inch-of-insulation-then-clean-out-the-basement-then-dethatch-the-lawn-then? You get the picture. Anyway, so my Father-In-Law was visiting and on some previous visits he had been in our small storage area of the basement. It?s crammed with stuff since both my wife and I are packrats. Beyond the storage area are the furnace, water heater and sump pump. Beyond those is the crawl space. The crawl space is roughly 4.5? off the ground, and measures roughly 12? wide, 3.5? high and 18.5? deep. My father-in-law?s idea was to build a floor for the crawl space so we could store our stuff in there and have it more organized. This involved 7 sheets of ?? plywood, 3 2x4?s, and 2 2x8?s. 6 of the sheets of plywood were fine as is/was. The last, though, have to be cut into 4?x28? strips. One even had to have a corner notched out of it. The 2x8?s also had to be cut in half. My miter saw is a 10? non-sliding miter saw. That translates into less than a 6? cut across a board. 2x8 lumber is actually 7? wide. This left an arc cut into each of the 2x8?s about 1? from the opposite edge. Safety tip #1: If you are attempting to use a miter saw to cut partially through a board, flip it and cut again, you will, not may, you will face injury unless you remember this safety tip. Bury the blade in the wood and release the trigger without raising the spinning blade. When the blade has stopped, raise the blade. If it gets stuck on the board, you have several ways of freeing it safely. Safety Tip #1a: Stuck board on miter saw: Unplug the saw. If you have a saw where the arm height locks, you are SO lucky. You should donate that saw to me! Also, you can raise the arm slightly, lock it in position, and gently pull the board toward you and away from the saw. Do not angle the board right or left as this may bend or break the blade. Safety Tip #1b: Stuck board on miter saw: Unplug the saw. If you don?t have a locking arm, get a bungee cord or rope and tie the arm down. You may need help doing this as the arm is spring loaded and you need to leave the saw to get the cord or rope. Repeat the procedure as above. Was I safe? No. What I did was dangerous. I buried the blade again, held the board down hard to the saw bed, turned the saw on and rocked the arm up and down about a ?? at a time until I got it free from the board. Not safe, I know. I had 3 other people helping hold the board though. Generally there are never that many people around to help though. The next most dangerous incident that almost happened was a while later after we measured out how much of the final plywood sheet needed to be sawn down ? the 28? strips. My father-in-law was expecting me to throw the full sheet of plywood up, sideways, on the short extension wing of my table saw and crosscut it that way. Now, I know that there are generational differences between us. After all, he?s 76 and I?m just shy of 36. But I was hoping he wasn?t too old to learn something about safety. In the time it took to explain most of the reasons why I wasn?t going to try the impossible balancing act on my puny contractor table saw, I could have completed the task my way, twice, by myself. Here are some facts about my table saw: The blade?s orientation to the fence is questionable. The fence locking mechanism is damaged. The zero-clearance insert is recessed at the top right curved corner ? meaning some pieces get caught in it and are forced into the blade as I push forward. I have no support stands. So, why is it so dangerous? Safety Tip #2: I would have been left to support the short end of a full sheet of plywood myself. While cutting! You are asking for the sheet to become uncontrollable as it is being cut and pushed. If the spinning blade doesn?t throw the entire sheet off the blade, you may be looking at a potentially dangerous/life-threatening kickback situation. The answer to the problem that my father-in-law gave me: ?Don?t be a wuss! Just push it at an angle into the fence? is still not safe. Once the strip is cut off the end, even if it stays on the table without being flung backwards by the blade, the larger piece of the sheet is still being pushed into the fence. Or better yet, at this point, it is being pushed into the blade itself. You are asking for a damaged piece of plywood and for the rest of the sheet to be picked up by the back of the blade and spun out of your control to the right (assuming you are trying to control the sheet from the back left corner. So, my solution won and I just zipped along with my circular saw. 1 minute of setup, 1 minute per cut, we were done in less than 5 minutes. One minor safety infraction almost happened during this project happened when my 14 year-old son used a cordless drill for the first time. In the cramped area of the crawl space, after the plywood floor had been laid, we needed to screw the plywood down to the frame we built. My son had this odd way of using the drill though. For some reason he kept tilting the head of the drill at a shard angle and expecting the star-shaped bit to still engage the screw at this angle. What kept happening was that the bit would slip and he would pound the bit into the plywood and the screw would go flying. Safety Tip #3a: Always wear eye protection when using tools! A sharp #2 screw in or around the eye is not something that any of us would like to experience any time soon! It?s a good idea to wear gloves too? Safety Tip #3b: Know how to use your tools. Get the feel for how you cordless tools work. Don?t assume that what you are going to try is the correct way. Whit my son, he was getting a lot of direction and instruction from my father-in-law and me. Yet, he still pounded the bit in a couple of times?

Episode 37 - Safety Week 2009 - Part 1

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:30:19 +0000

A few lathe tips for Woodworkers Safety Week 2009

Episode 39 - First Anniversary

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:30:04 +0000

Hey Everybody! It's my birthday today, so that makes it the Splintered Board podcast's anniversary too. I couldn't have gotten this far without all of my subscribers, so this one's for all of you! Thanks for everything, and I hope to make the next year even better. -Rick

Episode 36 - Not a whole lot going on

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:59:54 +0000

I just wanted to update you with everything that I've been doing for the last 7 weeks. Stay tuned for a couple of Woodworkers Safety Week episodes.

Splintered Board - Episode 35 - Hollow Chisel Mortiser

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:26:07 +0000

I just got a new/old Hollow Chisel Mortiser. I thought I'd share that with you all!

Episode 31 - WoodRat Video #4

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:56:13 +0000

Episode 31 - WoodRat Video #4WoodRat Video #4 - Through Dovetails & Half Blind Dovetails

Episode 29 - WoodRat Video #3

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:49:57 +0000

WoodRat Video #3 In this episode, I do NO talking at all and we get right into 3 of the WoodRat videos. Please address all questions to SplinteredBoard@gmail.com and I'll get you answers straight from the inventor! Music added to this video: Desert Woman by After Son from Podsafe Music Network

Episode 28 - WoodRat Video #2

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:43:23 +0000

Episode 28 - WoodRat Video #2In this episode, I do NO talking at all and we get right into 2 of the WoodRat videos. Please address all questions to SplinteredBoard@gmail.com and I'll get you answers straight from the inventor! Music added to this video from Podsafe Music Network

Splintered Board - Episode 3 - Past and Future Projects

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:57:37 +0000

In this episode, I'm going to go over the projects that I've done around the house and those that I have planned. Please keep in mind that I knew absolutely nothing about woodworking before I moved into my house 19 months ago. And I think that it's only through the ability to spread information over the Internet that I was able to learn what I have learned so far. The first project in the house was to fix the laundry room door. Within days of moving into the house, the laundry room door quickly stopped being able to be shut completely. It started to get wedged in the frame. Now we all know that that can happen due to the wood movement, but I thought I could fix it up just fine if I had one of those things I saw guys from This old house using to trim just a little bit of wood off of a board. So I go to Home Depot and get a block plane. I don't read the instructions and have no idea what I'm doing, but after about an hour of messing around with the contraption I get plane together and start stuttering my way down the side of the door. 'Hmm, that's not how the guy on This old house was doing it. He made it seem much much easier.' Eventually I chunked enough wood off of the door and sanded it up well enough for it to fit in the frame just fine. Next project was a little more involved. We had removed the door to the basement so we could get my wife's large desk down the stairs. We liked the open look of the stairs down to the basement, so we decided to keep the door off permanently. The only problem was that the door frame looked ugly with what I thought of as door hinge and door latch gouges. So I removed the wood slats that stop the door from swinging right through the opening. I bought a piece of trim wide enough to cover the entire inside of the door frame, but had no way to cut the wood at 45 degree angles. So, after asking the Home Depot guy what to buy for that job, we came home with a 10" Ryobi compound mitre saw. I'm only regretting now that I didn't buy the sliding mitre saw. A few cuts and nails later and the job was finished. The next project was a little more complex than the last and involved a little more swearing on my part. My wife decided that the refrigerator that the previous owners left here wasn't good enough, so we bought a new one. We were concerned the entire time with the cabinets over the old fridge because they looked low. But we had all of the measurements and it looked like the new fridge was just barely going to fit. A few days before arriving, we realized we had mis-measured something and the cabinets would have to have the front lip trimmed in order to get the new fridge to fit. So, back to Home Depot and asking the salesman what tool he would recommend we wound up with a circular saw. Now, maybe this is a point for some discussion, but knowing what I know now, I would definitely have preferred him recommending a jigsaw. Anyway, I bought a very small hand saw too - just in case. Looking back, I think my wife and I spent more time getting the cabinet off of the wall than I did actually trimming it up. In fact, that's where the majority of the swearing came in. I very quickly realized that just because a spinning saw blade is buried in wood, that doesn't mean you are going to cut a straight line. Hmm, now the bottom lip of my kitchen cabinet looks like a saw blade edge, all nice and jagged. How to fix that??? I decide that a 2x4 has a nice and straight edge. Back to Home depot for a 2x4 and a couple of clamps. You know those big clunky orange clamps that Mark Spagnoulo said he bought when he started out? Yeah, I have a couple now too. Anyway, I rig up the 2x4 as an improvised fence/guide for the circ saw and cleaned up the edge on the cabinet. A little sanding, and pretty soon the cabinet was back on the wall. And not a bit too soon either. The fridge was delivered the next day and the delivery guy said I did a great job! Wow, confidence in working with wood! That was new for me! About 6 to 9 months go by and we are making great progress with the house, and I decide to spruce up my media room in the basement a little by adding an old Compaq server rack as my cabinet for my projector, DVD player, and anything else I plan on adding in the future. The only problem is that the rack came with no sides. Only front and back plexiglass doors. So, off to Home Depot I went. I picked up 2 pieces of 4'x8' cabinet grade plywood. At least for this project I didn't need to buy any extra tools - but I did need to buy saw horses. I was able to use my circular saw to rip the plywood sheets. All I had to do after that was attach small blocks from a 2x4 to the center of the panels and screw them to the brackets of the cabinet. Done! It only took a couple of hours. Turns out, there was some scrap from each side panel, so I kept them around for future projects. About 3 months later in the winter of 2007/2008 I realized I needed somewhere to store the lawn mower in the winter. We had just bought a snowblower and had nowhere to put it, so the garage was getting really cramped. I decided to build a box hoist to lift stuff up to the ceiling of the garage using ropes and pulleys. This project was a lot of fun. Trying to get all of the pulleys attached to the ceiling of the garage and to the corners of the box were difficult, but still a lot of fun. I built the box out of scraps from the server rack side panel project. I used that plywood for the floor of the box, 2x4s as the bottom frame, a 2x6 as the walls of the box, and some eye bolts as the tie-down rings for the box. I'll post images to my blog later for everyone to see what I'm talking about. That worked great all through the winter and just recently I realized I need to do something about the anchor points I put on the wall of the garage. So, I'll be tearing into that project this coming week. Anyway, the last project I completed before creating this podcast was the cornhole project. You can already see pictures of how it turned out on my blog at splinteredboard.blogspot.com or check back here at the website soon. Now, cornhole isn't what you might think. I get strange looks everytime I say cornhole. It's that bean bag tossing game that's really been taking off lately. Well, Vicki and I had our annual Spring party coming up - in fact we just had it last 2 weekends ago - and I wanted to build the cornhole boxes for the party. So, I got on the American Cornhole association website and found out there are pretty specific dimensions to the boxes. So I drew up, what I've since come to understand is a cutlist, for a 4x8 sheet of plywood. I liked the furniture grade stuff so much last time, I got the same stuff this time - birch. I realized that I didn't know as much about cutting wood as I thought I did. I experienced kickback before I'd even heard about it or the dangers associated with it. I found out there was a such thing as burning wood with a blade, and that you could bind and pinch a blade if the wood bowed while you cut it. I realized I was sucking up a lot of fine sawdust and killing my ears, so I bought the useless and paper masks and started using my big construction ear muffs. I was learning a lot. I realized there was a such thing as different sized drill bit shanks. I bought a 6" hole saw and mandrel for it, but once I got the mandrel and hole saw put together, the shank was too big to fit in my drill. I sent them back to the store. And bought a jigsaw. I had to cut the holes somehow. After roughing out the holes I started listening to the Toolmonger Tool Talk podcast. That's where the real education started. Encouraged by Sean O'Hara's success with his Dremel, I went out and bought one to finish up the holes. It worked, but with the thing overheating every 30 seconds or so, it took 3 days to finish cutting the 6" holes in the top panels of the cornhole boxes. Since I only had 2-3 hours per week to work on that project, it took a good 3 months to finish them, but I learned a lot. I started watching The Wood Whisperer and Woodworking online, then I started listening to Wood Talk Online with Mark and Matt, then Kaleo Kala, then Dave Noftz's Modern Woodshop and just recently The Rough Cut Show with T Chisel. Anyway, I bought a router, and used a 1/2" round-over (or 1/4", can't remember) bit to smooth out the top edges of the boxes. I counter-sunk all of the 60 screws used to hold the boxes together, then filled the screw holes with plugs that I drilled from plywood scraps. I used 3 coats of dark maple Varathane to finish the boxes. And sanded with 220 grit between the first and second coats, then sanded with 400 grit between the second coat and 3rd coat. Now those boxes are so slick people were complaining that the bean bags my wife made were sliding right off the tops. On to planned projects. Well, the first thing I have to do is fix the wall anchors for the box hoist project. I need to get that thing back up in the air just so I can get my car back in the garage. That's just going to be a 2x6 attached to the wall with molded 2x4 blocks acting as fingers to hold the ropes. I'll put pictures of the box hoist, old anchors and new anchors up on the blog later this week - once the new anchors are up on the wall. My first planned project is what I am calling the Cross-Leg Table. I took a tip from the Wood Whisperer on this one and used Google Sketch Up to help in the design. I can't believe how extremely helpful Sketch Up was! I used to be a classically trained Civil Engineer tech, so I'm absolutely used to calculating angles and distances using pencil and paper. But I got to tell ya, Sketch Up reduces that work down to about 2 seconds! Some of you are probably saying 'I know a Civil Engineer, and he's always designing or drafting in AutoCAD. Why didn't you just use that??' And I'd say that you have a good point. First, I used to train new recruits how to use AutoCAD, so, yes, I'm a little familiar with the tool. Second, AutoCAD is so expensive I'd never use it for this project because I want to be able to share my creations with everyone. Sketch Up is free and all I would have to do is post my sketch and other people can create my table too. Third, since Sketch Up is free, I was able to install it at work and work on the design during my lunch hour. Others of you might be saying 'What's so hard about calculating angles when tables usually have all 90 degree corners?' And, again, I'd say you have a good point. I think this question is best answered by describing the table. If you want, download the Sketch Up file of the table from the blog post that coincides with this episode. Then you can listen to my description while you look at the table. The Cross-Leg Table looks like this: Imagine an 18" x 18" square topped table, 25" from the floor. The table top is 5" thick. Now imagine that the table only has 2 legs. One leg spans the entire width of the table, but is only 1" or 3/4" thick. I call this leg the Wide Leg. The 2nd leg, or what I call the Thick Leg, is about 2.5" thick and 9" wide. Picture these legs positioned under the table top such that the Wide Leg stretches from one end of the table to the other and the Thick Leg is centered on the opposite side of the table with its 2.5" edge facing the Wide Leg in the shape of a T where the two parts of the T don't meet. If that's not confusing enough, now imagine that I angle the two legs so that the Thick Leg crosses through the middle of the Wide Leg. Both legs should terminate at the floor, flush with the edge of the table top. So, from the side, the table legs look like they make an X. Since there are only 3 components to this table and I have no experience working with any kind of wood, I intend to make this out of 3 different kinds of wood. So far I already have the Thick Leg purchased. It's 10/4 Jatoba. I'm not sure what I want to do for the other 2 types of wood because the lumber store was closed this weekend due to Memorial Day. Hey, as far as I'm concerned, as a vet it's my holiday, it was also my birthday, they should have had the store open just for me. But, whaddaya gonna do, right? Anyway, so this table should give me my first experiences with working with hardwood, dressing it, gluing it, and a little bit of joinery. I figure I'll use a big mortise and tenon joint for the Thick Leg where it meets the underside of the table top. And I'll use another long tenon for the Wide Leg. I'm not sure how much more or less stable the Wide Leg will be compared to the Thick Leg, but I'm a little worried about it since the Wide Leg is so relatively thin compared to the Thick Leg. Anyway, this is going to be a great project, I just know it. I've been sketching it up for months on paper, going over joinery in my head, thinking about the types of wood I want to use for it. And even going as far as deciding to make a trial run at it with a cheaper wood. Yeah, I know everyone's been saying lately that you don't really need a 'Poplar and Alder' phase, or even a plywood phase. But, I've strictly been using plywood up until now, and I want to make something out of a less expensive wood before I go cutting into some expensive boards that I'm going to have to drive 45 minutes to replace. My second table design is going to be much more difficult. I'm calling it the Pi Table. That's P-I as in the Greek letter Pi. Why? Because it's profile looks like the letter Pi. Looking at the picture, you can tell it's ambitious for a beginner. There are tons of rounded faces and bent the legs will be another first for me. I can only visualize this one in a deep dark red wood. I'm still looking through my copy of Terry Porter's Wood Identification & Use to find the right specie. As slow as I am getting along with the Cross-Leg Table project, I don't plan on starting the Pi table until next Spring or Summer. Finally, I have a design for a third table that I can't even describe very well. I really just want to mold it out of some of my son's modeling clay so I can see it with my own eyes. If you are familiar with Salvador Dali's paintings - of which I'm a huge fan - and knowing I'm a fan, you'd probably think it was Dali-inspired, but it wasn't.

Splintered Board - Episode 2 - Rick's Background

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:56:44 +0000

I live in and grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I spent 4 year on active duty in the US Army from 1991-1995, then re-enlisted in the Reserves from 1996-1999. I'm a Senior Engineer at an electronic trading software development company in downtown Chicago, but I've also worked in the following occupations from the age of 14 to present: Newspaper distribution factory worker, Optometrist Assistant, Theater Usher, Liquor store stockboy, Signals Intelligence Intercept Analyst/Czech Linguist, Pizza Restaurant Manager, Civil Engineering Technician, Software Representative, Software Quality Assurance Analyst, Software Engineer. Nope, nowhere did I mention anything that had to do with woodworking. Like most inquisitive young boys, I took many of my geared and electronic toys apart with the intention of fixing them, but mainly just succeeded in finding out how things worked while destroying the toys. I am recently re-married (to my wonderful wife Vicki), and we moved into a 25-yr-old home that needed quite a bit of TLC that the original owners never showed it. So, among all of the projects, my wife became a great painter (though she doesn't like doing it much) and I discovered that I like working with wood. There are more details in the podcast, but not much more.

Splintered Board - Episode 7 - What I Learned This Week 2008.06.18

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:56:33 +0000

Intro and Outro music: Kelly Dean- JB vs JB Well, last night was my second session of Woodworking Level 1 at the local community college and I'd like to share, first what we did, then what I've learned this week. This week the class focused on instruction in the use and safety on the thickness planer, jointer, band saw, oscillating spindle sander, drum/belt sander, router, drill press, Kreg jig, biscuit jointer and finally the dado blades. We went over a bunch of different kinds of fine joinery. Then we presented our plans to the instructor. I was second to last, and as people showed him their plans they left for the night, so my XLeg Table plans really provoked a lot of discussion with him. I really had to sell him on the idea that I could complete the construction in 6 weeks even though I have very little experience. Eventually I got the OK for it, but I think there's going to be a lot of chiseling involved in creating the angled mortises. I'm probably going to start cutting the wood for it tonight (6/17/08) or tomorrow because I'll be in St. Louis this weekend. Again. And I won't be able to get any shop time in between tomorrow night and Monday night. Oh, and did I mention? There's no class next week anyway. So I want to get a good start early instead of waiting. I hope to have the plans without the dimensions available for this episode's release. I'll end up sending out another version of the plans with dimensions when I've proven the table can work. Plus, the joinery will be a little touch and go too. I have an update on the table saw I mentioned in the last episode. I said that I bought a very lightly used 4 yr old Jet contractor's table saw from a guy who used it once. He used it once, then stuck it in the back of the garage until last week when I picked it up. And that's pretty much the sum total of what he did with the table. Meaning, he left the packing grease on there to bake and freeze with the Chicago weather for 4 years. I was having such a hard time in the last week getting the grease off that I reached out to everyone following me on Twitter. And boy did those guys come through! I had already used a sharp plastic scraper, engine degreaser, peanut butter, and WD40. Then I got suggestions for using Simple Green, citrus-based cleaners, Scotch-Brite pads and steel wool. I tried the orange-based Cabinetta my wife had in the closet and that shined up the non-grease covered areas, but didn't moved the grease at all. Then I tried the Simple Green. I've been using Simple Green since I was in the Army - I've cleaned everything from cruddy latrine floors and showers, to weapons parts, and engine parts to combat gear. But, it never even occurred to me to use it on the table saw. The one test spot I tried it out on worked like a dream. So, I laid paper towels out on the bed of the saw and doused them with Simple Green. I left it there for about 1.5 hours and then rubbed the grease and most of what I thought was some kind of corrosion right off the surface. The only problem was that the Simple Green dried very quickly once I was done rubbing, and it left behind the pattern of the paper towels I had used to soak the bed. No amount of scrubbing with more Simple Green was going to get out that crazy pattern, so I took my WD40 and wiped the surface down again.This time it took off more residue and the paper towel pattern. So, I want to say thanks to Eric from the Adventures in Woodworking Blog, Dave from the Modern Woodshop Podcast, and Matt from Matt's Basement Workshop Podcast for their help in this greasy matter.

Splintered Board - Episode 6 - What I've Learned This Week 2008.06.13

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:55:42 +0000

This week?s episode is going to be the first in a series of at least 8 ?What I learned this week? episodes. As you may remember from my last episode, I was able to get into a woodworking level 1 class at the local community college. I?ll be sharing what I?ve learned each week, as well as other woodworking topics and events that have come to mind over the past week. If I haven?t already mentioned, I planned on doing a ?What I Learned This Month? episode each month, but that seemed to make news wait for too long before sharing, so I?ll be putting that stuff into each weekly episode until the class ends, and then we?ll see if a weekly episode of that type is still called for. So, week 1 of class was probably like what most of you went through in middle school or high school during your first week of shop class. It was all about safety, how to read a tape measure to 1/16th of an inch, the simple differences between hardwood and softwood, lumber dimensioning and board foot calculation, and demonstrations of the table saw, compound sliding miter saw, and almost a demo of the thickness planer. Unfortunately, I can?t say that I learned much in the first class. The only new tidbit that stuck in my mind was that you should never be cutting along the grain with the miter saw. I believe I understand why, even though the instructor didn?t explain why. The way I see it, visualize a board as a closely packed bundle of sticks, all pointing the same direction. Now put this board under the miter saw so that the blade will cut across the grain. Spin the blade in your mind and notice that the ?sticks? are being cut quickly because they are being broken in half by the blade. Now picture that you?ve put this board under the miter saw so that the end grain, or the points of these sticks that make up the board are pointing at you. Spin the blade in your mind again. Now the blade is catching the end grain, picking up a lot of the sticks and throwing them all over the place. Yes, this is the Splintered Board Podcast, but keeping the board from splintering is the goal, not destroying the board and everything in it?s wake.

Splintered Board - Episode 5 - Plans. What are They So Afraid of?

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:54:51 +0000

Quick update: Woohoo! A couple of people dropped out of the woodworking class that starts next week at the local community college! So, I just signed up and am all set to start! Obviously, I keep everyone posted on how the class goes. Why are they so hard to find? Why are good plans so hard to find? Well, that question assumes that plans are hard to find. Simple answer: They aren't. Let's refine my question then. Why are free, quality plans so hard to find? To answer that, you have to understand the basis for the word Quality. I have worked in Software Quality for 10 years now, so I know a little bit about what to expect, and when I don't get it. Here are my criteria for 'Free Quality Plans': 1) Must be Free 2) Must have a picture/drawing of the finished product - preferably one from each side 3) Must have written instructions/steps to completion 4) Must have either a parts list or cut list 5) Must have Joinery suggestions 6) Optional - Tools used/suggested 7) Optional - Recommended wood specie 8) Optional - Recommended finishes (if applicable) Is this asking a lot? I really don't think so. At the very least, if you create a plan, publish it/make it available for free, you could create an opportunity for other like-minded people - woodworkers - to communicate with you and each other about what they like or dislike about your plans. This can only make your plans better, and help to create future plans with a better understanding of what other woodworkers look for. That being said, I want everyone to know, I found very very few plans that met all 8 criteria. In fact I found quite a few that didn't meet the 5 'must have' criteria. But this episode isn't about plans themselves, but more about where to find free plans and why it's so hard to find quality ones. I don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but come on! They are plans to build furniture, not patents for a cold fusion reactor! And I'm not talking about the kinds of plans that you put together for a patent you are working on. Believe me, I know what kind of work goes into putting those together and how valuable they are before you receive your patent. I'd never give out the plans for the patents that I haven't received yet, and I'd never expect anyone else to do so either. Why is there such a disproportionate amount of free plans to the overwhelming number of links to plans that you have to pay for? Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. I just did a Google search on 'woodworking plans'. Unexpectedly, but gratefully, I found that half of the page that I currently see - including the first three entries - advertise free woodworking plans. That's wonderful! That's exactly what I expected to see when I first typed in this search 3 months ago and spent an entire lunch hour searching for free plans for a friend. Now I click on the first link that does not say it's a free site and randomly click on one of the many furniture plans they have listed. It takes me to a page that describes all about this 'wonderful' coffee table with a glass inlayed top. The plans are only $15.95 USD and for an extra $13, you can get plans for a bookcase and night stand too. I'm sorry, but this makes me kind of sick. Yeah, information and education costs money, and even though obtaining manual skills can cost you money too, I've never thought it should be that way. When your father taught you how to hold that hammer, start the grill, shovel the driveway, pitch or catch a ball, did he charge you a dollar every time? I hope not - though given the chance I know my step-dad would have if he'd thought of it. All joking aside though. Yeah, I understand that the skills I mentioned above were free to you (hopefully) because you had a parent who cared about you. If you were less fortunate though, now you're even less fortunate than ever, because now you've got to pay someone to teach you a skill. Yeah, I've taken a golf lesson before. I paid the pro. My kids are 10 and 13 and I've even sent them to skateboard class, karate class, and numerous other physical camps, classes and workshops for things that I just can't teach them. Is it my failure as a parent? Maybe. But is all of the information that they are going to teach my kids, or the golf pro is going to teach me, is all of that info online for free somewhere? Absolutely, yes! It is. I can find just about everything I need to learn - especially in my field, software design and development - online. So, why am I so upset? Because all of the sites that are selling this information, that I expect to be free in one form or another, are choking out the sites that are giving it away for free. It's because of this internal conflict of mine that I promise that I will always make all of the woodworking plans for my projects absolutely free to anyone who wants them. If you here me talk about a project that I am about to start, or have already completed, and cannot find the plans for it on splinteredboard.com, send me an email at splinteredboard@gmail.com and I'll get the plans, Sketch Up drawing, AutoCAD drawing, and anything else related to the project to you as soon as I can - unless it's copyrighted. If it's copyrighted, no one but the copyright owner lawfully has permission to disseminate the materials - sorry. Rest assured, though, I probably won't be using any plans that are 'owned' by anyone. And if anyone has a particular set of plans for a woodworking project that they want to publish for free, let me know and we can probably get you set up to release it on either splinteredboard.com, or somewhere else online. Brief commercial here. I had to include this. As I'm writing the script for this episode during my lunch hour, I just got an RSS update from the Toolmonger feed. This is friggin' hilarious. It turns out (no pun intended) that there is a company in Australia that sells a certain wax for woodturners. As this is a 'Clean' podcast I shouldn't really say the name, but it sounds a lot like Shiphot Waxtik. Take a look at the picture of the product on the blog for this episode. ShithotWaxtik450.jpg OK, back to the topic at hand - Plans So much for plans that cost you money, and my pledge to you. What about the free plans that are out there? Where do you find them and how good could they be? I mean, they're free for cryin' out loud! Well, I had planned on doing some research and giving you some very specific statistics on what I found on the Internet regarding the availability of free vs paid furniture construction plans. I started getting into the research and eventually realized that even those sites that come up as 'Free Woodworking Plans' on Google, they have very few actual free plans. Now, before you jump up and down and holler and scream about your site having 100% free plans, I'll admit, there are a few out there. In fact, very few. The vast majority of sites that I have researched have roughly 80 - 85% paid plans, 5 - 10% free plans and the rest are broken or outdated links to other websites. Again, these are rough estimates. Unfortunately what I found, as a norm, was that no one site has a great repository of plans. They might have a good listing of links, but not actual plans. I spent a good 8 hours last month, 4 hours last week and 2 hours last night gathering links to sites that have a good number of quality free plans. You want to know what I ended up with? WoodworkersWorkshop.com - They have a separate list of free plans sites. FreeWoodWorkingPlan.com - I found a good number of free plans stored directly on their site. Georgia Pacific - They really surprised me with their library of free quality plans. For me, these are reminiscent of my drafting days. Binkys Woodworking - Though I'm not really in to creating toys myself, I was impressed at the quality and detail of this sites free plans. There are paid plans here, but the free ones are very good also. Please don't put your entire faith that what I have given you here is a complete list of the only sites you should go to for free plans. Absolutely not! I found some great plans - easy to read and follow - at sites that buried the free plans after many pages of paid plans. Please realize that this topic is completely and unquestionably always going to be subject to the speaker's opinion. My findings reflect the time and energy, thorough or not, that I have decided to dedicate to the subject. And given the time that I put into researching my theses in college, this research is not even close to thorough. The time and energy that you decide to put into finding free plans with quality content is probably not going to reflect my findings.

Splintered Board - Episode 4 - School's Out For Summer

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:53:43 +0000

Well, school?s unfortunately out for the Summer. I was really hoping to get into the Woodworking level I class at College of DuPage. Two nights ago they had one seat left open, and after I got in touch with the woman in charge of scholarships and had her activate my Illinois Veteran?s Grant for this summer, the seat was taken. I guess I?ll have to wait for the Fall. For those of you who are wondering what the Illinois Veteran?s Grant is: Illinois has this sweet deal for veterans who enlisted from Illinois and came back to reside in Illinois after their term of service is over. Unlike the GI Bill that provides a serviceman with cash money every month while they are in school and getting good grades, the IVG credits the vet with a bank of, well, credits. As you take more classes ? in a state school ? they deduct credits from your bank. As long as you still have credits left in your bank, you don?t pay any tuition. It?s a pretty good deal since the credits don?t have any time limit ? no expiration. The GI Bill, only lasts for 10 years. If you don?t use it in that time, you are SOL. Searching for the Plane(r) I assume that I am currently in the same predicament as most woodworkers. I need or want a new tool and have been agonizing over what to get for some time. Fortunately, I?ve been able to hear and read a lot of different points of view from podcasters, bloggers, and people commenting on blogs. But I think I might end up catching a little flack for what I?ve decided to get. I?ve decided to get a thickness planer. Why? Well, let?s try and understand what tools I currently have and what I can do with them I have a circular saw. It?s no comparison to having a table saw, but it makes a crude, more dangerous, substitute. I have a jigsaw. It?s no substitute to a band saw, or a table saw, but it?s been good in a pinch so far. And neither a band saw, nor a table saw can cut holes in boards. Not that I need to do it that often, but that?s why I bought it in the first place. I have a corded drill. It?s no drill press, but it?ll do. I have a router. It?s no jointer, to be sure. But once I get a table for it, I can use it as a substitute for a jointer. I have a compound miter saw. No, it?s not a slider, but I?m getting really good at cutting one side of a wide board, flipping it over and lining up that previous cut with the blade, then making the new cut to get all the way thru the board. I?ve only tried that for straight 90 degree cuts though, no angled or beveled cuts. Lastly, I have a Dremel. Dave Noftz once asked what tool are you most embarrassed to admit you own. I would bet most woodworkers would say the Dremel, first if they had one, then if they weren?t me, or in my situation. That thing has gotten me out of some tight binds, especially lately. In fact, while replacing 2 drains in the guest bathroom sinks 3 weekends ago, I found out the drains were frozen in place. My father-in-law got them to move vertically, but I needed them to unscrew and they weren?t going to budge. I broke out the Dremel and in less than 5 minutes, I had both pipes cut and removed from the sinks. So, no. I?m not embarrassed to say I own a Dremel. Sure you could do the same thing with an angle grinder, but I?m guessing to bet most woodworkers don?t count one of those as part of their inventory. Plus an angle grinder can?t do half the things that I?ve used the Dremel for. So, sorry Dave, I can?t say that I?m embarrassed to own any of the tools in my shop. I can say that I?m embarrassed to not own a table saw? So, back to the point. I?ve decided to buy a thickness planer. It took one email to Matt Vanderlist to clear up what I was seeing online as what I was hoping was a combo machine. The magical Jointer/Planer. Wow, for $50 more than a planer I could get both a jointer and a planer. But wait! That jointer/planer looks like a jointer, not both? How does that work? Well, Matt explained that, while confusing as the name may be to beginners like me, a jointer/planer gets its name, or names, from the many different countries that speak English. In most of the UK colonized countries, a planer is what we in the US think of as a jointer, and a thickness planer is what we would just call a planer. So, whenever I can, I?ll be referring to the thickness planer as a thickness planer. And I?ll be calling the jointer/planer a jointer. This?ll either cause a lot of confusion, or eliminate it. Why do I think I need a thickness planer? Well, dressing the wood is the first thing you do once you have purchased the wood and have it acclimated to your shop, right? Well, I don?t have any way to dress up my wood. I can turn my router into a jointer, like I said. But, I don?t have a way to plane it to the right thickness. What?s that? Don?t I have a hand plane? Well, yes actually I did buy an $8 off-brand plane from Home Depot ? that I have no idea how to use correctly. I?ve actually been meaning to learn, but I want to get more comfortable doing things automated before I do things by hand. Maybe that seems a little backwards to you, but hey, that?s how I roll. Hopefully that answers why I want to get a thickness planer. I?ll have links in the blog to the Ridgid and Home Depot sites that show the thickness planer. Ridgid R4330 http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/R4330-Thickness-Planer/EN/index.htm http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100083773 Go Ahead and Fence Me In ? AKA Building the swamp fence So, one more project that I didn?t include in my last episode is the swamp fence. This is directly related to something that the previous owners of our house tried to fix, but made much, much worse in the process. This is one of those times that I wish I lived in the desert. Unfortunately, I live in a part of the country actually named for the enormous amount of swampland around it. Chicagoland. The problem is our sump pump and how much water it removes ? or better yet, where all of that water goes. This is the situation: Our house was built over an underground river. We found this out about a year after buying the house. At the same time we found out that the river probably comes closest to the surface right about where our house is. Hearing this I could have kicked myself! I love my finished basement, and would hate to see my gym, my media room, and even my wife?s home office, destroyed by a flood. Fortunately, in the past 25 years, the basement?s never had a leak. Unfortunately, that means we pump a ton of water all year long, except during the driest parts of the summer. Where does all of this water go? Well, it goes out to an area right next to where our driveway and sidewalk comes together. At least we don?t have a front loading garage and we live on the corner of two cul-de-sacs. This gives us a lot of yard to love, and only a little to hate. The previous owners didn?t like all of the water they were pumping either, but at least they were pumping it to an area that was right along the property line with our next door neighbor. I?m told that when they and our neighbor pumped a lot of water at the same time, it would form a river between the two properties. Instead, now my neighbor floods my yard and I flood a different area because they redirected the pump to the area by the sidewalk. So, I?m left with a swamp most of the year, and during the winter, people out for a stroll, or just walking their dog have to be careful because the sidewalk will, more often than not, be covered with a about an inch thick patch of ice. How to cover this up and make it look better? Well, I?ve had my ideas, but most of them I?m either barred by village code from doing, or my wife just plain won?t let me. So, I?m going to build a rustic corner fence along the sidewalk and property lawn to at least make it look a little less noticeable. I bought some 6? cedar planks about 3 or 4 weeks ago and they had been drying in my garage attic ever since. I took them down last night and every single one was so freakin? warped I about lost it. My fault though. When I bought them, I knew they were really wet and when I stickered them I didn?t weigh them down. So, I took out every clamp I had, stacked them all on top of each other and clamped them together. I?ll leave them like that until next weekend and see how they are then. Tie Down the Winch Solution to anchoring the box hoist. On Monday night, I got about 1 hour of sleep because that darn hoist anchor problem was bothering me so much, that I just couldn?t stay asleep. The next day I decided to put some real thought into how I wanted to solve the problem. I came up with a simple fix and briefly went into it on the last episode. What I ended up doing that evening was gluing together two longer strips of scrap plywood from the server cabinet project. They are approximately 30?x10?. I went with Tite Bond II because it was the first one I grabbed, I know I probably only needed regular Tite Bond, but it didn?t matter much to me and I was in a hurry. At the time I planned on taking 4 2x6 blocks and carving one corner out of each in a curved shape. After screwing these to the plywood backing, I?d have a pretty good anchor system. But I started thinking and realized I?d probably still be stressing a single anchor more than the others, and eventually I?d end up with a problem again. What to do? Almost immediately I thought of getting a salvaged rigging wheel from a sail boat and use it to wind the rope onto some type of column. I couldn?t find anything like that to help me though. So I went and ordered a hand crank winch from Grainger ? about $40 with freight. The winch was delivered today ? Friday ? and I was just ecstatic to find it on the door step before the weekend. This gives me all weekend to figure out how to rig it up and get started on a permanent solution. ?Well, isn?t the winch itself the permanent solution?? you ask? Well, it?s part of the solution. The thing is, with the force that the box hoist exerts on its anchor point. I?d estimate it in the 100 ? 250lb range. Now the load bearing weight limit on the winch is 1100lbs, so there?s no real worry there. The problem for me now is how and where to mount it. The handle on the winch extends 6.5? past the mounting side. So that means I?ll need at least 6.5? clearance just to turn the handle. That means my solution for gluing together two plywood planks and mounting it on the face of the plywood isn?t going to do the job. I need a way to mount the winch and turn the crank handle all the way around. I have a 5? long pressure treated 4x4, so I marked of two 7? long sections. I cut the pieces and glued them back to back. So tomorrow morning, when the glue is dry, I?ll have a roughly 7? long 4x8 block. I?ll fasten this block to the plywood backing with 8? long ?? diameter lag bolts. Just in case these mammoth lag bolts fail, I?m going to cut a chalk block from the same 4x4 stock and form a bracing wedge to keep the 4x8 block from moving under upward load. I know this rig sounds awful as I explain it, so take a look at the very quickly drawn Sketch Up that I included with this week?s blog episode. Hand Winch Mount Sketch Up Also, I've taken pictures of the rig and the hoist box, and added them to the blog. Check them out below. Going to the Beech After completeing our Sunday morning tasks I was reminded that we had to go to Indiana for a friend of my wife's party. So, we packed the family into the car and drove for two hours out to Indiana, stayed at the party for a couple of hours and returned. At least I got to see a mammoth Beech tree. I'm a little too tired to write about it, so listen to it in the podcast.

Splintered Board - Episode 14 - What I Learned This Week - 2008.08.02

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:52:42 +0000

Episode 14 News: I just signed up for the next semester of the 2-part woodworking set of classes at the local community college. I got the plans for the Baby Changing Table yesterday - along with a couple of catalogs. So, I went and got wood for the changing table today. I bought way too much, but at least I'll have enough for a very small side project later. I cut my first dove tail!!! I really needed a board fixed under one of the extension wings of my table saw so I could clamp things to it. But I didn't have a board quite long enough. So I took 2 thin scraps and tried out cutting a tail with my router. It worked! Picture Of Dovetail Here I got the components of my dust collection system delivered! Except for 1 more horse clamp. Doh! But, I bought a copy of Encyclopedia of Woodworking to justify another package. And can you believe this, but the package is left Forest Park, IL on July 25th, and here it is July 29th, and the package is still not expected to make it to me until Aug 2nd! Now, I know not many of you are familiar with the Chicagoland area, but from my house to Forest Park is about 45 miles at most. I could have walked there and picked it up by now? Anyway, I?ll just say ?Thank you? to Amazon for giving me the free USPS free shipping and be done with it next week? State of the XLeg Table: The XLeg Table is finished and it's in its intended position next to my recliner. Pictures of the progression of the table are here. It was a long road getting there and there have been many developments since I last shared anuthing about the table. When last I left you, I think the Thick Leg was ready to be placed in its mortise. If not, then let me back up for just a second. I cut the mortises in the lower 3 panels of table top. The easiest, and best was the third mortise which was the only one that wasn't a thru mortise. I cut that one using the drill press and a 1 1/2" forstner bit. Then I just chiseled out the excess. IT fit great on the second try after clearing out more with the chisel. The next day I put the lower 3 panels together to see how they all fit on the Thick Leg all at once. Well, it was not good. I had cut the mortises separately - probably one of the biggest mistakes during this project. Doing the mortises seperately, and these being my first, well, let's just say they didn't line up right. They all fit over the Thick Leg's tenon, but they were skewed a little left or right. None of them were right on with each other. I wanted to fix this the best way I knew. I took the 3 panels to the table saw. Then I realized that even though I had the panels clamped to each other in the positions that they fit over the tenon, there's no way to run this over the table saw! So, I got a bright idea! Screw the boards together, then trim the edges a little, then they'd be square with each other! So I did it. Only afterwards did I realize that if you have already cut your mortises, you cannot, or shouldn't really, change the dimensions of the board. I already had the mortises for both legs cut and trimming the edges put the mortise for the Wide Leg so close to the edge that the Wide Leg's tenon actually busted through the edge because there was very little support. But that's jumping ahead... So, I was actually a little excited that I could finally show the table taking shape, that I jumped into gluing up the Thick leg to the table top. Well, I failed to remove the screws and glue the table top panels to each other before doing this, so the table is going to stand with 4 screws in it and only 3 panels. It's OK I guess, it's a little neat too. The Wide Leg is 1" thick, the Thick Leg is 2" thick and the table top is 3" thick... Kind of cool I guess. Next I dry fit the Wide Leg. While doing this I split the Wide Leg pretty badly. I had every intention of putting a little glue in the crack and fixing it, but I never got around to it. I had a heck of a time getting the Wide Leg to fit over the Thick Leg and I still don't know what the problem was. I spent hours filing down the sides of the Wide Leg's mortise that the Thick Leg goes through, but it just wasn't helping. Eventually what I realized was that the mortise wasn't square with the edge of the board. That made the entire mortise crooked and angled the Wide Leg to one side - by almost 1/2"! While trying to decide what to do about the mortise being crooked, I saw that the Wide Leg was also about 1 1/2" too long! How did that happen?! Well, I set up my table saw and cut off the excess. I decided to straighten out the mortise using the jig saw. So much for my new love of chisels, rasps and files. There comes a time when you want something done right now - this was one of those times. I only had to cut about 3/16" off at the thickest point, but it was enough to straignten out the Wide Leg - for the most part. This made it simple to get the Wide Leg in place for a glue up. But wait! Now that the Wide Leg is in place, it's way too short! How did that happen? Just one night ago I had measured it about 3 times and it came out too long each time. Well, guess what? I was measuring it without it being seated in it's mortise. The tenon was still getting caught on the table top, so of course it was too long! I was almost ready to just glue on the piece I had cut off the night before, but saw that I was right that it was too long in the first place, but only by about 1/4". So now I had to take a 1 1/2" wide board and shave 1/4" off of it with the table saw blade tilted at an angle that would have hit my fence (yes, I have a right-tilt table). So, not to be unsafe, I made a really ad hoc jig to be able to have the board be pushed up against an auxiliary fence and pushed down so it wouldn't take off upwards. I took a very long and thin piece of scrap and pool-cued the board through the jig. If you can't picture it, just think of it as passing a very thin board through a wood tunnel with a small push stick. While getting ready to glue the Wide Leg onto the table I realized that when I had glued the Thick Leg to the table, I didn't clamp it in every direction that it needed support. So the clamps had pulled the Thick Leg so that it left a large gap, about 3/16", wher the leg should be flush with the table top. This made gluing the Wide Leg awkward because it was going to have to leave a gap also, since the two pieces depend on each other for their angles. The only thing I could do, short of ripping the table apart, was to glue very thin scraps into the gaps. So that's what I did. You can easily pick the scrap pieces out in the pictures if you know what to look for. After the glue up I shaved off the excess as well as I could. Today I leveled the legs and ran through 3 sanding and finishing cycles. I used 100, 220 and 320 grit with Dark Maple Varathane. It's the same finish I uses on the plywood cornhole boxes, and was hoping to use it all up. So, that's the end of the XLeg Table! For now... What I learned this week: 1. While chiseling, keep your fingers and hands out of the path of the chisel 2. Don?t drop your chisels 3. Trust your measurements ? don?t make a cut just because it doesn?t ?look? right 4. Put pressure (clamps) in every critical direction during a glue up 5. If you have joinery at the edges of a piece that you are working on, after the joinery components are cut, you should not make adjustments to the dimensions of the piece 6. Lock the fence down, lock the fence down, lock the fence down 7. Hand tools are cool 8. While removing router bits, watch your hand positioning! 9. Marking guages work better for me than a ruler 10. My respirator makes funny lines on my face 11. Always meticulously look over each board you buy before you check out 12. When finishing use both a sponge brush AND an old cotton T-shirt Erik Pearson (from Novice Garage Woodworker) and I are working on a new, joint podcast. We have a name all picked out, we?ve registered a domain. And thanks to Dave over at the Modern Woodshop Podcast, we?ve got the info necessary to get a site up that?s at least better than my own site. Remember to check out the blog, show notes and leave comments at www.splinteredboard.com for the occasional update and for links to pictures of projects. You can also take a look at my current projects at photos.splinteredboard.com. And, as always, feel free to send me a direct email at splinteredboard@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter as rwaters73.

Splintered Board - Episode 13 - What I Learned This Week - 2008.07.23

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:50:46 +0000

Welcome to the Splintered Board Podcast! Woodworking Class So it?s been 2 weeks since a real Splintered Board episode. I know the audience is still pretty small, but nonetheless, I hope no one went through the Splintered Board DT?s I got back from STL yesterday afternoon after 5 hours of driving, dropped the kids off at their mother?s, then went to my house for an hour?s rest ? where I proceeded to watch Norm put together, hmmm, something? I think I fell asleep. Then I had to get my butt over to the school for woodworking class. Last night?s class was pretty productive. I actually learned a valuable lesson, taught the instructor something, and made a little bit of headway with the XLeg Table. The valuable lesson I learned actually adds more fuel to the fire that is currently brewing about workshop safety. I had a couple of boards that make up the table?s top that were cupped diagonally, so that there were 2 corners that were higher than the others. So, remembering Dave Noftz?s episode and blog post on the thickness planer sled to repair this, I brought some ?? plywood, wood screws and a piece of poplar scrap to class. If anyone is not familiar with the technique/method, please give Dave his due and check out his description, it?s much better than I can describe. You can find it at: http://modernwoodshop.com/2008/06/18/flattening-wide-boards-with-a-planer-sled/ I explained what I was doing, to the instructor, and why just running the board through the planer is not going to fix the problem. He thought it was a great idea. I got the jig together in less than 5 minutes (which included finding and getting out the drill and driver bit, plus putting it away again) and I was ready to feed it into the planer. Here, I need to set the scene a little bit, because this is where/when I learned a valuable lesson. The in feed side of the planer faces the jointer, which is about 7-8 feet away, the bandsaw which is at least 15 feet away, maybe 20, and then the instructor?s desk that?s at least 20-25 feet away. Also, remember I said the piece of scrap that I used as the lip on the sled was poplar? Well, let?s take a moment to understand something. Weeks ago I jointed the wood, then planed it then cut it to size. A week later I planed it again to get out the cupping and twisting. I had saved all of my scraps and took them home ? that?s where this piece of scrap, for the jig, came from. Anyone see a problem with this? Go ahead, take a minute to think about it. OK, here?s the deal. The scrap piece was thicker than the piece I was sending through the planer, it was going to hit the knives. No problem right? Wrong! The grain was going sideways. The result was the lip getting ripped from the sled at about 6000 RPM and thrown across the shop ? about 20 feet. I?m not sure how hard it hit the bandsaw because there was no dent or noise, but it made it that far and splinters went clear under the instructor?s desk. The instructor and I went over the design of the jig and both came to the same conclusion, the lip (or fence) needs to be lower that the knives, and if it has a grain pattern (because MDF doesn?t) it should go forward and backward. We made up a plywood jig from shop scrap and the rest went just fine. I just realized though, and Dave confirmed it, that we were using the jig backwards. The fence side goes in first. This would explain why I had so many problems with the board coming off of the sled. I just want to say, though, that in this instance you had a beginner woodworker and an experienced woodworker trying something new, and there was still an accident. That?s all I?ll say about that. Other than the fireworks, I made a little bit of headway with the table itself. I got the second mortise for the table top cut to the correct size. Or at least wide enough to get the Thick Leg?s tenon through it. I also cut into the third board of the table top to account for the same tenon. This mortise looks great, I think. I used forstner bits on the drill press to hollow it out, then used chisels to clean up the edges. I think this took me about 30-45 minutes. I couldn?t be happier with the results. Oh, and the tenon slid right into it on the second try ? you know, after cleaning up the edges of the mortise. Next up for the table is to glue up the boards to make the full table top. Then I?ll trim the edges on the table saw. After that, the through mortise on the Wide Leg, then the long mortise/groove on the bottom of the table top, and I should be done. My Vacation Thanks everyone for wishing me a nice vacation. I really tried to have a nice one. I really, really needed to get some relaxation in after the past 10 months ? it?s been a very stressful time at work and in my private life. We took the kids to Six Flags, we went fishing, and just did a lot of outdoor stuff. Unfortunately, the weather down in STL last week was 90+ degrees with high humidity then entire time. At least I dropped 3lbs! Woohoo! Future Podcast with Erik Pearson Erik Pearson and I are still in the works, trying to get something together as a joint beginners? podcast. We?re hoping there will be a lot of listener interaction with us too. So please stay tuned to the Novice Garage Woodworker and Splintered Board podcasts for more news. We don?t have a name for the show yet, so any suggestions are always welcome. You can send them either, or both of us, at splinteredboard@gmail.com, or garagewoodworker@gmail.com. Confusion I?d like to clear up a bit of confusion about my ?Short Opinion Poll? that I added while I was on vacation. I just listened to it again and yeah, I guess it could be said that I came off as trying to start a little fight between some of the listeners that left comments. That is definitely not my intention. To explain, I received a couple of comments that criticized my lack of familiarity with proper use of tools and techniques. Safety, or lack thereof, was a large concern in these comments. I agree that some of the things that I have done were pretty unsafe, but something that you inherently learn in the Army is to work safely. It is always forefront in my mind when in the shop. And, while I don?t want to get too much into what I want to share with you in upcoming episodes about this topic, please trust me that when I say I tried something risky on purpose, I tried to do it in the safest way possible. Also, when I asked, ?what gives you the ?right? as a woodworker to try something new?? What I probably should have said was ?what qualifies you to try out tools you?ve never touched before, or techniques you never even attempted on scrap before?? I hope that clear up some confusion. Remember to check out the blog, show notes and leave comments at www.splinteredboard.com for the occasional update and for links to pictures of projects. You can also take a look at random pictures of my current projects at http://photos.splinteredboard.com. And, as always, feel free to send me a direct email at splinteredboard@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter as rwaters73.

Splintered Board - Episode 12 - A Short Opinoin Poll

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:50:04 +0000

I want to get as many of the listeners' comments/opinions on a vague question. Please listen to the episode, but here's the gist of it: I've been receiving a bit of comments that lead me to believe that some of you think that I am headed down a path that will surely endanger myself and others. My vague question (that I will not explain or elaborate upon) is this: As a woodworker, what gives you (for lack of a better term) the 'right' to try something new within the craft/hobby; instruction (video, audio, personal lessons, fill in your favorite instruction media here) or hands on experience. I will not be displaying any comments to this question/episode for a week and a half (roughly) and I go over them in an episode. I'll also be going more in depth with you about why I decided to ask for your opinions. Then I will display them all (unless you tell me not to share yours). A week later, I'll be sharing my own opinion with you. When the next few weeks' events have concluded I will then open up the comments sections of the episodes to immediately post your comments again. Thanks! Rick

Splintered Board - Episode 11 - Interim 2008.07.13

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:49:47 +0000

News News News. Lots of news and a little woodworking. Vacations The Novice Garage Woodworker resurfaces! Family News The New Tree On The Block Sorry for not having a 'What I Learned This Week' episode this week. I'll be on vacation starting the day after class this week, so I won't be able to get an episode up for you. Maybe a longer one in two weeks? Maybe a couple of short one while I'm on vacation? Maybe.

Splintered Board - Episode 10 - What I Learned This Week - 2008.07.08

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:48:55 +0000

There's no clock in my shop There's no clock in my shop, and there's several reasons for that. I'd like to say that the only reason is because when I'm in the shop, I WANT to lose track of time. I WANT to be relaxed and not live by the clock. The majority of the time I spend in the shop is after work and on weekends. If I'm in there after work, I don't want to know that it's 11pm and I have to wake up in 4 1/2 hours to get ready for work again. On the weekends, I don't want to know, on Sunday, that my weekend is almost over. The shop, I guess like in a casino, no one wants to live by the clock. We, or at least I, spend almost my whole week governed by the clock - even on weekends. I just want to keep that time in my life free from the stress of timelines. Sure, glue-ups and finishing are time sensitive, but a simple oven timer, or wall socket timer connected to a lamp could alert you when the next step in your process is ready. At least that way there's no visible clock in the room. I guess this only really applies to those of us who are hobbiests. Those of you who are making a living doing this, well, I can't speak for you. How do you deal with time? Dust, dust, everywhere; but nary a speck collected Very anticlimactically, I am actually listening to MBW episode "Dust Collection Advice for Tablesaws" while I write this, hmmm, about 24 hrs too late. In fact, when I woke up yesterday morning to design and build a dust collection system for my tablesaw, I didn't even know Matt had an episode on this exact topic. So, to let you know my thinking/planning/building process yesterday... I sat down at the kitchen table and drew out some plans for an upside-down pyramidal chute from the base of my contrator table saw to a hinged door that I could dump sawdust into a plastic bag when needed. I also was going to cut a hole in the side of the chute to connect the shop-vac to. I measured everything out, made up a parts list and went to Lowes. I was able to find everything I needed, except a 3" to 2" hose reducer (for the jointer), and a dust collection bag that I was going to use to catch all of the dusty air that the shop-vac blows out. So, I get everything home and I start cutting the pieces to form a pyramid. The only thing is that the base of the table saw is not square, it's rectangular. For once my geometry failed me. I failed to realize that a non-square-based pyramid will have a different bevel angle than a square one. I just bevelled the edges of the triangles at 45 degrees and noticed that the pieces never fit - at all. So Plan B was to take the small amount of 1/2" plywood I had left and enclose the bottom of the table saw in a box with a slanted bottom and a hose hole cut-out. So, I cut out a few pieces that will fit the stand that the saw sits on, but at that point I was out of time to play around with it for the day. So, this morning while looking for more MBW episodes to listen to, I see the one I mentioned above that is right up my alley. I started listening and Matt says he has pictures of his solution. I take a look and it's almost exactly what I had already started to build. Just that his is much more compact and looks a lot better... Kickback Rounds 2, 3 and 4 OK, when I had said before that I had experienced kickback, I had no idea what I was talking about. So, for one of the biggest things I learned this week, kickback is dangerous. Very dangerous. Didn't I know this? Of course I knew. Didn't I try to prevent it then? Of course I did - when I remembered to. Believe me, I'll remember everytime now. So, what happened? Well, while I was cutting plywood for the dust collection bin for the tablesaw, I was having trouble feeding the wood, keeping it flat on the table, keeping it up against the fence, and standing on the left side of the blade. Well, I was ripping a 2'x4' piece of plywood down the middle and the right half got caught on the splitter. So instead of backing off the blade, I tried to push it against the splitter and force it to back off the table. Big mistake! The board lifted, spun and flew across the garage. It caught my index finger and shaved a lot of skin off it before it hit me in the upper thigh - a little too close to home if you know what I mean. I was pissed! Especially when it happened 2 more times that day. I don't know what was wrong with me on Sunday, but I just couldn't cut anything right that day. Eventually I just threw all the wood on the garage floor and gave up for the day. So, there everything still sits and my wife can't be too happy. But, I think sometimes you just gotta take your lumps and give up for the day. That's what I did. Now I understand all of the things I was doing wrong: 1) I wasn't using my push sticks. 2) The splitter wasn't aligned properly - something I'd been meaning to fix 3) I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been 4) I was saying "Fingers and thumbs don't be dumb" but I wasn't heeding that warning.

Splintered Board - Episode 9 - What I Learned This Week - 2008. 07.01

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:47:20 +0000

Music in this episode by: Kelly Dean Zoe Keating Rubber Band Banjo The Jointer Has Landed! Notes on Jointer setup: 1) I've heard the jointer referred to, in the reviews section of HD's website, as mislabeled as jointer, when it should have been labeled 'Box of grease. Jointer included.' Well, I would label it as 'Hernia in a box' or 'Be-careful-not-to-break-your-back-or-crush-your-hands-or-feet-while-offloading-this-from-your-car' 2) The instructions were written by someone who meant well. But they really should have done some proof-reading. The instructions often include 'as shown in illustration' when it was definitely not shown in the illustration provided. 3) The setup, at least when dealing with the motor installation, should be simplified - drastically. There's not much worse than to install a heavy motor on an angled piece of metal, strap a heavy belt to it, then told to pull the motor along the angled mount until the belt it tight enough, then tighten the bolts. Picture this for a minute. That's about the most idiotic thing in the world. I had to rig up a system of clamps to get the motor to stay in position while I tightened the bolts. Truly not an ideal setup. To Ridgid's credit, there was an optional way to do it. The way I did it was to have the assembly upside down. Which is how the assembly already was positioned from the previous steps. The other option was to upright the assembly and have gravity pull the motor into place. The last thing I wanted was to have the motor fall into place, and then land on my face when I was under the thing trying to pull on it and tighten the bolts! 4) I think it's just absolutely awesome that they included two angle mounts that, when used together, form a cross that sits on the bed and helps you to angle the fence for beveled cuts. What I think is just down right lame is that there are two of these guides and only room to store one of them on the jointer's frame! Woodworking in America Woohoo! Woodworking in America is coming! Woodworking in America is coming! Aww, crap! I'm booked solid in November! JK Surprisingly enough, I'm not kidding when I say that I'm trying to schedule going golfing with my friend, but we're already looking at the middle of August! Sheesh! My schedule never used to get filled up that fast before I was married... Alas, not going. I do have a very special announcement to make right that will take place right around that time. But I won't be making that announcement for a few weeks. (Muhahaha, let the anticipation build!) It'll keep me away from joining everyone this year, but I hope to go to some large woodworking events next year. Just like I joined my local Woodworkers Club (Fox Valley Wood Workers Club), but haven't been able to make it to a single meeting yet (I've missed 2 and will miss a third tonight), mostly due to the woodworking class I'm taking. But anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'd love to join you all and meet you face to face, but I think it's going to have to wait. Shame to, it's in Kentucky. Though I can't stand Kentucky (no offense to you Kentuckyans, I've just had a lot of bad experiences there), it's not that far of a drive... Class This Week OK, this was the first REAL week for my woodworking class. The first two weeks were familiarity with the machines, the third week we had no class because the instructor was out of town. Now this week, we started our projects. Remember the first junior high dance you went to? Where all of the guys were on one side of the gym and the girls on the other. A lot of people standing around looking at each other, the floor, their hands, waiting to see who would be the first one to 'make a move'. Remember that? That was tonight at class. At least, that was the first 5 minutes of class. Then everyone jumped into action. Sorry, but it wasn't me that made the first move. It was the captain of the football team. Damn! He always has more guts than me. No, no, it wasn't like that. I was, um... sorting... out... my wood! Yeah, that's it, I was lining it all up so that it looked like I knew what I was doing. Aww, what do I care? No one's looking at me. Well, except the cute girl in class. Sheesh! Who am I kidding? She's not that cute. OK, let's ditch the high school mental reunion! I jumped right in jointing the edges of my boards, then thickness planing them as well as I could. It turns out that most of the boards have cupped and twisted in the past 7 weeks, or so, since they've been sitting in the garage. Go figure.

Splintered Board - Episode 8 - What I Learned This Week 2008.06.27

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:45:58 +0000

A Bone To Pick With Home Depot I?ve got a bone to pick with Home Depot. In a neighboring town, less than 5 minutes from my house, we have a Home Depot and a Lowes in adjacent parking lots. While Lowes is not really harder to get to than HD, I choose to go to HD because I find more of a selection of products ? even if the average knowledge of the typical employee has diminished greatly over the past 5 years. If I shop there so much, what problem could I have with them? Well, it?s like this. As many of you know, I?ve been chomping at the bit to buy either a joiner or a thickness planer. I?ve decided to buy both. I received many HD gift cards (by request) for my birthday and Father?s Day, plus I have a $10 off coupon for large purchases, plus if you use your HD credit card for purchases over $299, there?s no payments/no finance charges for 12 months. Still all good things right? Wrong! Let me show you what my problem is. Go to Home Depot?s website, go ahead, I?ll wait. OK, now search for ?joiner?. The Rigid 6 1/8? stationary joiner/planer comes up as one of the first items. Mine says that this item is ?Online Only?. No big problem right? I?m online anyway, and it?s free shipping, so why not order it online? Go through all of the mess of checking out, but don?t actually buy it. That would be silly. Extremely silly. Because, hey! What about those gift cards? Can?t I use them for this purchase? I?m gonna cut through the BS that I had to go through to find out the answer and just tell you how it is. The way HD works is that the stores have whatever merchandise they have. They can order whatever merchandise they are out of. But when it comes to items that are on their own website that say ?Online Only?, that is a different story. The website ?Online Only? items belong to HD?s ?warehouse? and cannot be sold in stores or ordered to be sent to a store so you can use your HD gift cards on them. I couldn?t believe it ? still can?t ? but it?s true, apparently. So in this age of the ubiquity of ubiquity, or maybe as Dave Noftz would say ?ubiquityness?, where all information is ever-available, where anything for sale can be bought from anywhere and have it sent anywhere, where damn near everything for sale can be purchased with a gift card, gift certificate, or other newer mode of alternative payment, why is it that I can?t just use my HD gift cards to purchase something from HD? I?m still going to buy my joiner from HD, but it may be that last purchase I make there. Just as my wife almost chokes over saying the word ?Target? now, let alone shopping there anymore due to a dispute over their new return policy. I?m not trying to threaten HD, it?s not like they would even care if they lost one customer ? even if that customer has pumped close to $10,000 into their cash registers in the past 18 months. But, they might want to reconsider their online payment options. So, the short of it is that you will probably be hearing me mention Lowes a lot more often now, instead of HD.

Splintered Board - Episode 19 - What I Learned This Week

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:44:47 +0000

When last we left him, Rick Waters, aka 'Splintered Board' ? the self described 'Woodworker Un-extraordinaire' ? was about to continue his project in completing the most difficult, most dangerous, possibly the most disgusting project of his woodworking career ? the Baby Diaper Changing Table. Said table has quickly and rightly become Splintered Board's nemesis. With such heinous acts against the woodworker as: repeatedly demanding more and more wood; requiring many extra hours of design; consistently jamming up an 18" thickness planer; having so many pieces that the woodworker can't possibly keep track of them all; weighing so much that the constant shuttling back and forth to the school woodshop is breaking the woodworker's back ? this table has now resorted to pulling out the big guns. It has now called in the woodworker's wife to comment on the lack of progress! Splintered Board has no choice, this table is going down! Meanwhile, locked away in the bowels of the 'Mancave of Sawdust', Splintered Board tackles another project. This first commission (pro bono, naturally) proves to be no challenge for Rick's fledgling skills. And if that's not enough, in this episode, your hero, Splintered Board will share a tip on wood identification, some anecdotal information about a pen-turner, and the possible future of THE SPLINTERED BOARD PODCAST! Thanks, Greg, for the great intro!!! Links for this episode: Please take a few minutes to fill out this quick survey! Check out this ToolMonger blog entry on the Angle Ease. Please visit Greg Crites' website VeinArmor.com If anyone can help identifying this type of wood, please let me know.

Splintered Board - Episode 18 - What I Learned This Week 9.24.2008

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:43:02 +0000

Links Drying Times Document Fine Woodworking Index CD Fine Woodworking Content CD What I learned this week... I love the Bandsaw!!! Mark your waste. Don't look like an idiot. Newbies don't know scrap!

Splintered Board - Episode 17 - August and Med Sptember Wrapup

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:41:44 +0000

Fox Valley Woodworking Club Meeting I had another woodworking club meeting last week. This one's content may not have been as exciting for me as the previous one, but I did get some very valuable time with the club's vice president. The club president is out of the country, on business, but the VP and I agreed to sit down with the pres. when he's back, to discuss ways to get the younger generation more involved in the hobby/craft. What I Learned This Week Something that may be obvious to some, others may have learned it simply by occurance, but I really didn't expect this to happen. What I found was that wood residue stays on blades. Like I said, it may have been obvious... Walnut and Purpleheart getting 'smeared' on the faces of maple boards. What am I reading now? Box by Box by Popular Woodworking. I picked it up last night and am already getting some great ideas. Bridge City Toolworks CT15 Stainless Steel bevel angle tool for the small price of $289! Compare that to the bevel angle tool I almost picked up at Woodcraft last night for $16.99. Local (to me) woodworker's blog 'Spackle & Sawdust' by Patrick Jaromin At least he's local to me. Less than 5 miles from my house is local, right? Coming to grips with replication Well, it looks like Wendell Castle has already done something very similar to what I wanted to create. Lately I've been calling it the 'Dali Table' because it reminded me of Dali's melting clocks. Not that it was going to have anything to do with a clock, but that I wanted the table to look like it was melting - liquid. Well, I went on over to Wendell Castle's website and took a look at some of his desks and tables, and was really surprised to see an almost complete replication (if you can call it that, since he did it first) of what I wanted to do. The proportions of certain features of his 'Table with Leg' aren't what I had imagined, but it was so similar, I almost don't want to make the table now. Am I being a baby about this? I emailed back and forth with Neil Lamens, over at Furnitology, about this and he had some very interesting things to say about it. Castle's sculpture background firmly planted him in Art, and thus he creates/created furniture as art. While the rest of us create, mostly, for use and if we can make it look art-like, well, all the better. A little bit on Safety This past week Kaytrim (aka) pointed the 'Twitter Crowd' to a LumberJocks discussion topicon workshop safety. Please be careful when bare handing wood with power tools! The Sawdust Chronicles is available! Erik Pearson and I are now recording episodes of The Sawdsut Chronicles, a podcast for beginning woodworkers, by beginning woodworkers. Our aim: help newbies understand craft terminology and techniques, make the craft less ambiguous and intimidating.

Splintered Board - Episode 16 - Where Are All The Veterans?

Splinteredboard@gmail.com (Rick Waters) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:40:09 +0000

Our Veterans, Where are They? As a few of you already know, I went to my first woodworker's club meeting last week. It was great! Although I was probably one of only two people there that were born anywhere near or after the 1970's, I still had a great time. In fact, looking at the crowd that was there (probably over 150 people), I was wondering where all of these woodworkers hiding? Why don't we hear from them in our digital woodworking community? Router Cabinet Design? I just saw a maple base cabinet come up in my neighbor's trash. This cabinet has a nice drawer on top of the door - you know, like a kitchen floor cabinet would. I was thinking about picking it up and using it for that router table that I so despirately need. But then I was thinking, 'Hey, why doesn't someone make a router cabinet that is one giant drawer?' Then you could change the sawdust bag easily and change the bit easily. I don't know if that's something that everyone is looking for, but that's the first thing I thought of. Too bad I don't have room in the garage for a cabinet, or I'd have picked it up. My First Box This weekend I built my wife a box. This was my first box, but even without taking any measurements at all, I was able to make it completely square with an inlay and miter keys. Take a look here and let me know what you think.