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New Router Table: Adding Dust Collection

2013-05-15T19:10:00.001-05:00

In a video at The Penultimate Woodshop, Dyami Plotke is interviewing Fine Woodworking magazine art director Mike Peckovich. The subject turns to dust collection and Mike says:

You know, dust collection – I used to be pretty cavalier about it. The notion that my dust collector is a broom and a dust pan. But, you know, I have become more sensitized to wood dust over the years. And in terms of the information about the hazards of wood dust; it’s a real hazard and I think it is something you need to take seriously. So I think upgrading to a real dust collection system is not a horrible idea.

Dust collection is a subject which should be near and dear to all power tool woodworkers. I recently turned 53 years of age and among the things I would pass on to a young woodworker would be to embrace effective dust control as soon as possible. As an older woodworker (not an old woodworker), dust has become a health problem since it can shut down my nasal passages pretty quickly. Mike Peckovich is becoming sensitized to dust; I am already there.

Continue Reading >>>

My New Router Table is Finished

2013-04-28T18:08:00.001-05:00

The end is in sight. With the completion of the router table top and the fence, I am down to the final items before I can call this project finished. My punch list contains these items…

Complete the back
Mount the router
Install the power switch
Enclose the router area

Individually, these are minor steps in the project, but collectively, this is a lot to do. Lets get started. Continue reading>>>

New Router Table: Building the Fence

2013-04-17T16:54:00.002-05:00

It is not unusual for me to put in more than two hours of drive time on certain work days. This allows me considerable time to contemplate upcoming steps while building a project. Since creating the fence for my new router table has been rapidly approaching, I have been thinking of combining two router table fence designs seen in separate issues of Fine Woodworking magazine.

If you have been following my progress, you most likely have already seen this photo of John White's space saving router table from FWW #216. I also found a router table fence design in issue #211 created by woodworker David Diaman. I am taking the best of both designs and creating my own. Continue reading>>>

New Router Table: Creating the Top

2013-04-07T09:05:00.000-05:00

Over the past two weeks I have been working on the top for my new router table. In my last post I described the dilemma I faced concerning a new router lift. My solution was much more affordable than buying a router lift and a new router. Affordable was good because as I continued to purchase items for the table top, I began to rack up a sizable tab.

I picked up some melamine coated particle board for the top – this is the same material I used for the little table that previously resided adjacent to my table saw. I picked up a Kreg Precision Router Table Insert Plate PRS3030 at Woodcraft. I also purchased a Kreg t-track and a 80 tooth table saw blade which hopefully will mean chip-free cuts in the melamine. These items totaled more than $150.00 – it is funny how things can add up in a hurry. Continue reading>>>

Jeff Wins A Contest

2013-04-04T06:32:00.002-05:00

Wow, Sawtooth Ideas created a contest to find the best bookcase design in the whole universe and guess who won? Me! Sawtooth Ideas has really been ramping up their collection of bookcase woodworking plans and to incentivise woodworkers to submit designs, the contest came to be. They have a much better assortment of bookcase plans, many different sizes and styles, so I am quite proud to be awarded winner of the contest. Continue reading>>>

Terry B. Builds the Queen Size Bed

2013-03-27T08:08:00.000-05:00

This is impressive work. Terry B. from California just completed a woodworking project based on the Queen Size Bed plan I have at Sawtooth Ideas. Terry’s project is impressive to me because he is still in his early days of woodworking. While the joinery in this bed isn’t especially difficult, the bed becomes a large project as completion nears. Large projects, even those with basic joinery, often present some difficulty simply due to their size. Terry took a sizable project and successfully completed it. Continue reading >>>

New Router Table: To Lift or Not to Lift - That is the Question

2013-03-23T10:39:00.001-05:00

I knew this day would come. Going back to the earliest days of this project, I knew I would have to make a big decision regarding my new router table: determine what to do about a router lift.

If I had all the money in the world, the decision would be easy (or at least much easier). I would probably combine a Woodpeckers Sidewinder router lift with the burly Porter Cable 7518 3 1/4 hp motor. The price for this package? Over $600.00 (and the PC7518 is currently on sale at Woodcraft).

But, I have very little money in my workshop savings account. And, we have a costly home improvement project coming up soon. It’s just difficult and even irresponsible to make a significant power tool purchase right now.

As the week developed, this budget problem caused a lot of twists and turns along the path to finishing the router table. I have changed my mind many, many times this week. In addition to the Sidewinder/PC7518 combo, I considered these options… Continue reading >>>

New Router Table: Adding the Base

2013-03-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

I have said before that an old rickety drill press is better than no drill press at all. In the photo above, I am using my Dad's old Craftsman bench top drill press to do some deep mortising.

This drill press shakes worse than a wet dog; it shakes so much I feel like I need to call someone to help me keep everything in place. I am doing some mild exaggeration here, but in the photo above I am using several clamps while drilling some mortises. The clamps keep things secure while the drill press vibrates away. Old and rickety, but it still does the job (a new drill press will be my next power tool purchase). Continue reading >>>

New Router Table: Drawer Construction

2013-03-01T06:05:00.001-06:00

If you looked up the word "procrastinate" at Merriam-Webster.com, you would find the following definition:

"to put off intentionally and habitually"

This word came to mind this past Sunday when our get-together at the neighbor’s house had to be re-scheduled. Suddenly, I had a large chunk of the day which could be devoted to building the drawer for my router table. But guess what? I got zero woodworking done; procrastination had taken firm hold of me and blocked me from my peaceful basement workshop. I place total blame for this sorry situation on the Accuride 3132 under-mount drawer slide. Continue reading >>>

Why I Like my Adjustable Sawhorses

2013-02-17T16:34:00.000-06:00

I have had these adjustable sawhorses for only a short while and have not put them to much use. In my last post on the router table, I have a photo of the project resting on my two foot tall sawhorses. The two footers are handy, but they are two footers. What if you want your work a lot higher?

Until yesterday, the shell of the router table called my workbench home. But, I need that space to build the drawer. Looking around my shop, I spied my new tall sawhorses and put them to use. As you can see, I can position the router table much closer to eye level which will help me fit the mahogany drawer front and continue to fit the various drawer parts. Pretty sweet! Continue reading >>>

New Router Table: Making Progress and Making Mistakes

2013-02-10T17:27:00.000-06:00

The goal – create the case face frame (shown in blue) and…

…build the back, then put the case together.

Woodworking is often a humbling hobby. I have been working with wood for about 30 years and while I don’t consider myself an expert, I think by now I should know enough to keep from making silly mistakes. But, as I have made progress on my new router table several mistakes have surfaced; two of them being significant ones.

I thought about listing them in this blog post, but remembered a MWA podcast with Jim Heavey of Wood magazine. In the podcast, Jim says this about discussing mistakes with others: just shut up. When viewing a completed project in front of others... Continue reading >>>

The Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Highland Woodworking

2013-02-02T19:54:00.000-06:00

I am moving my blog to Wordpress. The link below will re-direct you.

What a day. I spent the better part of today in Atlanta, Georgia at Highland Woodworking, location for one of Lie-Nielsen's Hand Tool Events. I have wanted to attend one of these shows for quite some time; I have seen videos and photos from various sites across North America, but never at a location and time which worked for me. When I saw Lie-Nielsen's announcement for the Atlanta event, I made a point to be there.

I had received a message that the MWA Atlanta group was going to meet there at 10:00 a.m. When I arrived it was already crowded. One reason was the appearance by Chris Schwarz. Continue reading >>>

A Review of Bob Lang’s Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp

2013-01-27T16:02:00.000-06:00

Last year I did an exhaustive, multi-part review of Tim Killen's SketchUp ebook, during which Dave Richard's SketchUp video was launched. I reviewed it as well. Within the world of woodworking, I felt there was only one other source on SketchUp I needed to review to be well versed on the subject - that being Bob Lang's ebook titled Woodworker's Guide to SketchUp. I share my thoughts on Bob's ebook below.

Bob Lang is currently Executive Editor at Popular Woodworking magazine. He is highly regarded as a SketchUp instructor and each year teaches SketchUp classes at various locations around the USA.

Having reviewed SketchUp teaching products from Tauton Press, I wondered how Woodworker's Guide to SketchUp would differ from Tauton's competing ebook by Tim Killen ebook titled SketchUp Guide for Woodworkers. Continue reading >>>

Mahogany for a Router Table? I Get Started on my Next Project

2013-01-20T13:41:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of moving my blog to WordPress. The link below will take you to my new blog.

Time for a new project. I am in the process of building a new router table which will replace the antiquated one I currently use - a much needed upgrade for my shop.

When I think back to the day I received my first router table, I have to smile because I got it shortly after we moved into our current home - that makes it about 25 years old. I saw it in a Highland Hardware catalog (currently known as Highland Woodworking) and immediately knew I had to have it. I had never seen a router table before and once I had it in my shop, ready for use, I was the proud owner of what was then state-of-the-art and a very nice router table (you will see a photo of it later in this post). Continue reading >>>

Ed M. Builds the Bedside Table

2013-01-06T17:26:00.002-06:00

I wanted to put up this quick post to highlight a completed project based on my woodworking plan, You Can Build a Bedside Table. Ed M. of Pennsylvania sent me these photos of his table; he downloaded the project plan at Sawtooth Ideas.com.

A cool aspect of working with wood is the woodworker can take a project plan and adapt it to suit his or her needs. Here, Ed uses the table as a home for a video monitor. He made minor changes to the beads which surround the drawer and door openings, used a more heavy duty way to attach the top and base to the case, and made a more simplified back for the table.

In particular, I am jealous of the raised panels he made; they turned out better than what is on my bedside table.

I consider this plan to be a solid intermediate woodworking project due to the web frames which help form the skeleton of the table, the panels which are present in sides, doors and lower shelf. The doors and drawer are the inset variety, so getting a good fit can be challenging. And making bracket feet and breadboard ends to the top takes some work. Also, this small table simply has a lot of parts to it.

So, Ed, good job and I am proud to feature your table on my blog.

By the way, this woodworking plan has been optimized for IdeaRoom which is the interactive software developed by Sawtooth Ideas. I was originally drawn to Sawtooth Ideas because of the professional nature of their website and how they do business. But it is the implementation of their proprietary IdeaRoom software which makes Sawtooth Ideas truly a unique source for woodworking plans. There are a lot of places on the web where you can get plans. At Sawtooth Ideas you get plans and a very unique way to use them in your shop. See the short video below…

Be sure to check out all the woodworking plans at Sawtooth Ideas.

Creating a Woodworking Plan, Part 4: Bringing a Plan to Life

2012-12-31T07:38:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of moving my blog to WordPress. The links below will take you to my new blog.

I make a ton of illustrations while creating a woodworking plan.

While the part of a woodworking plan I dread the most is the cut list, the part of the plan which is by far the most work is creating the illustrations. I make extensive use of illustrations in woodworking plans for two main reasons: 1) in general, I don’t like the photos I take, and 2) I think I can communicate more information in a better way with illustrations. By the way, see part 1 of this series here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

Page Layout
A typical page of a project plan may have as many as four illustrations. Most have three and with the queen size bed plan I am updating, there is one which has no illustrations at all (the cut list page). I like to create visual interest by changing up the page layout as a project progresses. I do this mainly by changing the number of illustrations per page. I often use a grid structure for text and illustrations (see more on the benefits of using grids here - Google it also). This helps create an organized look to the document.

To read more, click here.

Creating a Woodworking Plan, Part 3: The Cut List

2012-12-28T09:10:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of moving my blog to WordPress. The links below will take you to my new blog.

A vital part of my woodworking plans: the cut list.

To recap where we have been so far, the first installment in this series discusses the updates to the queen size bed SketchUp model (see it here). In part two, we discussed some of the creative aspects of the plan: the various formats and a little bit about graphic design and the set-up story for the plan (see it here).

Once I get the initial introductory story completed, the next thing to work on is the cut list, which to me is the most dreadful part of the plan. Why? It is one of the most important elements of a woodworking plan and it is the part which I always have trouble with.

Do you need a cut list?
Fine Woodworking magazine regularly receives emails asking why they don’t include cut lists with the projects they feature. There is a very interesting blog post at FWW.com with a lively comment thread on the subject.

Continue reading by clicking here.

A Josh Finn Workbench Update

2012-12-26T11:43:00.002-06:00

If you were to Google "Josh Finn Workbench" you would find almost 500,000 responses (his workbench has sort of a cult following). My blog will be somewhere in those search results because I wrote about the build of my Josh Finn workbench about three years ago.

I got the design from Fine Woodworking issue 202. Upon completion of this workbench I pledged to critique it from time to time, because it is certainly an unusual bench: two box beams which basically rest on two sawhorses. When I built it, I kept my fingers crossed that I had made a good decision, and it has been good for the most part. The bench was relatively inexpensive to build, the box beam set up gives me a wide variety of options while woodworking; especially clamping options. The beams are skinned with two different materials; one being melamine which has been a good work surface so far.

But there is one big problem with my bench - it isn't heavy enough. I am reading Chris Schwarz' book "The Workbench Design Book" and early on in this book Schwarz makes the point that a workbench can not be too heavy by saying "I have yet to find one that was just too burly to be practical." But, the opposite of this can be a problem: "What is so bad about a lightweight bench? ...Try using a handplane on that bench. You'll move the whole bench."

When I began using my first real handplane back in May, my Josh Finn inspired workbench would scoot across the floor with each pass of the plane. To be fair, my bench is a scaled down version of the one shown in FWW. In the image above you can see Finn using a nice big plane and his bench is quite a bit larger than mine. If I had room to make one as big as that shown in the article, it would have to move less. Maybe as I get more practice with my planes, this unwanted side effect will be less frequent, but at present, it is a problem.

I really consider this workbench to be an assembly table. It's flexibility is great for glue-ups (also yellow glue won't stick to the melamine) and using it with power tools is very nice. The reason I am reading Schwarz' book is I see a proper workbench in the future, especially as I continue to be tempted by hand tool work.

Speaking of hand tools, let me introduce you to my new block plane: the Lie-Nielsen 60 1/2 R. I have not used it yet, but the fit and finish is excellent and it definitely has some weight to it.

This was a hand tool Christmas for me; I also got several books on the subject. I hope Santa brought you some good woodworking stuff.

The Becksvoort Sawhorses Are Finished

2012-12-23T15:13:00.000-06:00

The last time I wrote about this project, I had largely completed the Becksvoort Tall Sawhorses minus the adjustable parts (see that post here). Next on the construction schedule was making the adjustable components known as “extenders” and are what make these sawhorses unique.

We learn something with each new woodworking project don’t we? These sawhorses are no different in that regard. Like with most sawhorse designs I had several angles to fabricate, some of which are quite steep. Other opportunities to learn would soon follow.

Read more by clicking here.

Creating a Woodworking Plan, Part 2: Getting Started

2012-12-10T21:14:00.000-06:00

<<<< See part one here

Once the SketchUp model has been completed it is time to work on the project plan itself. Typically, I use four different software products to create a plan: SketchUp, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Paint, and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

There are several ways you can generate a project plan. I have seen people use Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. I have both of these programs and hopefully I’ll graduate to InDesign in 2013, but I use Publisher for three reasons: 1) it is very flexible, 2) it was what I had; it came included in the Microsoft Office bundle we bought a while back, and 3) I have become skilled in using Publisher to get what I want. As soon as I can get my hands on an InDesign book, I'll start the process of learning it since InDesign seems to be what the professionals use.

What do you want your woodworking plan to be?
I originally called my plans e-books. This seemed to be a somewhat accurate term since my first project plan was 27 pages in length. But, they don't really resemble a book; there is no cover, except for my first plan, there are no table of contents. I no longer call them e-books (I also dropped that term when I realized people don't search for woodworking e-books, they search for woodworking plans). My plans are really meant to replicate a magazine article - they include the construction process, a ton of illustrations and hopefully teach a thing or two about the steps required to bring a project to life.

To read more, click here.

Creating a digital workbench

2012-12-04T22:36:00.001-06:00

I am well under way on an update to my queen size bed woodworking plan (you can read all about why I am updating it by clicking here). I am currently working on page seven which deals with creating the posts for the headboard and footboard.

For the updated plan, I am switching from the original photos of the build process and creating illustrations of how the bed went together. As I attempt to visually explain how to assemble the posts, I need a workbench to place the posts on. After looking through the 3D Warehouse of existing SketchUp workbench models, I decided to make my own.

What you see above is my version of the "Braeden Workbench" from Fine Woodworking magazine's Winter 2005/2006 Tools and Shops issue.

This is not the workbench I currently use, but it would be a worthy addition to a shop and I actually think it would be a good workbench for the beginner.

I am on a sort of a two-tone kick these days, so I added a second wood color to the model.

It was a fun SketchUp exercise; I was able to create it in about an hour (I did not draw the vise, it came from the 3D Warehouse because I am not that good yet).

The workbench will add a nice touch to my plan illustrations (see an example of what I mean by clicking here).

Becksvoort Sawhorses and Alabama Football

2012-12-02T16:02:00.000-06:00

I am still in the beginning stages of making a pair of Christian Becksvoort tall saw horses and I am concerned they are too tall. If you recall from my first post in this series, I am adding the second pair in a collection of sawhorses seen in Fine Woodworking magazine. These sawhorses are going to be the tallest of the three sizes Becksvoort recommends for shop use. My dilemma: as designed and without the adjustable components (called extenders), the saw horses stand 35 3/4" tall. This is taller than both my table saw and my work bench. Only my router table is about the same height.

A feature of this design is that I can adjust the saw horses to be a lot higher. So, my thinking is to make them shorter and then I can simply raise the extenders. After mulling this over during the work week, I make my decision to take some height off the saw horses. While I have not yet determined how tall they will be, the comparison illustration below shows a four inch reduction on the left.

To read more, click here.

Creating a woodworking plan, part one: SketchUp

2012-11-17T13:00:00.001-06:00

My next project plan: an update for "Making a Queen Size Bed Step-by-Step."

One of my most popular woodworking plans is the plan centered around the build of what I call "the Tornado Bed". This was a project completed about a year ago which was donated to disaster recovery following a historic severe weather event in which 63 tornadoes struck north Alabama. All 63 tornadoes struck within a 24 hour period on April 27, 2011.

A visitor to my blog sent me an email this week which has triggered a major overhaul of this woodworking plan. The visitor, who works at a mattress store, advised me that a queen size bed without a center support could potentially void a mattress warranty. The original design of the Tornado Bed was based on a queen size bed I own and it does not have a center support, but the lack of one could be problematic for the woodworker who downloads this plan, so an update is needed.

I will document the process I use to update the plan which will give some insight on how a woodworking plan comes together.

Read more by clicking here.

My next project

2012-11-11T21:06:00.001-06:00

Usually, I take at least a short break upon completing a large project. But I have so many projects waiting to start, I want to quickly jump into my next one.

I'll be building a pair of Christian Becksvoort tall saw horses. Read about the beginning of yet another woodworking project by clicking here.

Construction finished on the front porch

2012-11-04T09:45:00.000-06:00

I am finished building my front porch! Another project comes to a close. I started staining the new wood yesterday, but it is raining right now and I'll have to finish the stain later this week.

Read about the extensive update by clicking here.