This Week in Wood » Tools

It can’t be… It’s a new Post!

glennth — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:06:02 +0000

OK, we’ve been doing a slew of projects over the last 3 months or so. These projects were small and large projects that we’ve been putting off doing on our house. We had to repair some drainage. We remodeled 2 bathrooms. We painted the outside of the house. I did a whole bunch of painting and patching on the inside. There were a few little ones in there but those are the highlights.

It’s time to get back in the shop.

Two weeks ago I decided to invest into Festool’s new RO 90 X. This is the small sander that also can get into corners. I have Festool’s larger 6″ (approx since Festool does everything in mm). My motivation for getting this is that the larger sander is often just too big for some of the jobs that I’ve been working on in my shop. When I am working on bigger jobs, I tend to move outside or the garage (which is where I have most of my Festool stuff). The larger sander fits better into that space.

I’ve only had a chance to sample the functionality of this tool but basically it’s performance is on par with the larger Festool sander. The larger sander has the capability for finer sanding as well as heavy removal. The RO 90 X also has that functionality and in fact the access to those sanding modes is simpler to change. My larger Festool sander does not have the twist lock power cord which is another nice function. The RO 90 X connects to the dust collection quicker than it’s larger brother.

My main purchase motivation were the size of the sanding disc and the corner/edge attachment. The size of the disk is about 3 1/2″ and the corner attachment is quickly changed though the manual’s instructions are not that clear.

Overall, I’m pleased with the purchase.

Note: This tool also came with the newer style T-lock systainer. The T-lock is much quicker to open yet still provides interlocking with the previous model of systainer. I would love to have only this style though it’s not worth entertaining this as the systainers are very expensive in themselves.

Post from: This Week in Wood (c)2009 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to This Week in Wood. See This Week in Wood Legal Information Page for specific usage rights.

It can’t be… It’s a new Post!

Not a pain in the Neck – jig for attaching a neck

glennth — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:31:24 +0000

A few days ago, I received a new jig from LMII. This is the Neck Jig which allows creating the mortise in the body of the guitar and the tenon in the neck of the guitar for attaching the neck to the body.

The jig actually required providing the wood (plywood) but all the hardware came with it. We are currently doing some work on our house so putting the jig together took a few days though I expect that it would have been an afternoon if I had a straight set of time to build it.

If you look at the jig, you can see that it is a double sided jig. One side is for creating the mortise in the body and the other side is for creating the tenon in the neck.

The first step is to create the mortise in the body. This jig has a clamp that holds the body in position and then you use a router to create the mortise.

The second step it to route out the tenon in the neck. First you use the metal bar to set the neck angle and then you clamp the neck into the jig and route at the tenon. This is where this jig really pays off in it’s usefulness. The only problem I had with this jig is that the threaded rod used to set the neck angle was too short so I had to get a replacement.

I still have work to do before I use this jig but this should reduce the stress of creating the mortise and tenon. Also, if I want to try dovetails for this joint, there are templates that will simply fit into this jig.

Small Epiphany – Dovetails

glennth — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:33:57 +0000

In my daily (ok, not daily but nearly so) practice of hand cut dovetails, I came together with a finished practice joint that was very tight. I still had one small gap (I’ll talk about that in a bit) but the sides were very tight.

In the cutting of the sides of the tails and pins, I’ve been struggling with keeping the cuts parallel and plum. I’ve also struggled with how close to the marking line to cut. I think that I’m starting to understand the required technique. I feel like placing the blade so that one side touches the edge of the marking line (from the inside of the material to be removed) is the best place. Also, I’ve found that using a square to make sure the marked line for the sides is perpendicular to the bench top works best. I’ve done this several times now and have got increasingly tight sides where it’s not too tight (too tight splits out the dovetails). I’m very pleased.

Now as to the gap, this is from the chisel line. I’m still struggling with how to chisel out the wood to the marked line. I haven’t found a similar epiphany for this. I’ll keep at it and hope to find the thing that gets me the tight and great looking joint. I’m open to any suggestions from any readers.

Updated Shop Tour – Detailed

glennth — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:19:44 +0000

Since well before Christmas, I’ve been working on a background project. Making my work areas more efficient. In the couple of little projects that I’ve done since this Summer, I’ve realized that a few things needed to be moved to a better location. Here is the results:

Main Workbench:

Rather than building a bench from scratch, I bought one. Many of the inexpensive benches are very light so I’ve anchored it to the floor for stability during planing and such. With the bench, I’ve made various bench hooks and such which have proven very useful.

Next a Dedicated Sharpening Bench:

This bench was my quick and dirty attempt at bench building. Rather than get rid of it, I’ve turned it into my dedicated sharpening station with my Tormek, water stones, and granite stations. I love having this set up all the time. I’ve already been more inclined to sharpen blades when they start cutting funky.

Tool Cabinet:

I designed and built this tool cabinet with scraps from my shop. It has turned out very well to house my chisels, measuring tools, and hand planes. On the outside, I’ve got magnets holding my measuring tools.

On the inside are my chisels, hand planes, files, marking gauges, and mallets.

Hand Saws:

Next to the tool cabinet, I have my various hand saws. This is a collection that is still being developed. Based on reviews and trials, I’ve selected some of the basic saws I need. I’m really focusing on Western saws though I have a few pull/japanese saws.

Next to the main saws, I have more saws along with my brace and hand drill. This is also the port to the dust collection shed (see later in this post).

Sanding Station

I have a Rigid sanding station sitting on top of my Craftsman toolbox which holds hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, plyers, and such.

Router Table and Planer:

I have a cabinet (originally a flip top but I found that it didn’t work nearly as well as my fantasy) which houses my power planer and my router table (again I chose to go for a kit from Benchdog instead of designing and making one of my own).

Drill Press:

I have a Delta bench top drill press on a shop made cabinet.

Bandsaw:

Here is my Delta 14″ bandsaw. I need to get a new blade and tune it up.

Festool:

Here is a shop made bench with a Festool work surface on top. In the cabinet is my routers and bits and other non-Festool hand power tools.

Here are my Festool tools including a vacuum, circular saw, sander, jig saw, Domino. I love my Festools (including the rail guides which I have in various sides).

The rest of the shop:

Notice that my dust collection is outside the shop. Dust collection includes a floor sweep and 2 flex hoses on either side of the shop that can connect to the router table, bandsaw, planer, sander.

Basically, I’ve optimized my 12′x16′ shop space for hand tools and some limited power tool usage.

Another new tool – Brace and hand drill

glennth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:22:19 +0000

Yesterday, I made a post about getting a new tool (which arrived today). I forgot that I had also ordered a Hand Drill (eggbeater drill) and Hand Brace. As I move to using hand tools, this is a new set of tools that I’m excited to use and experiment with. I have hand drills and a drill press that I expect to still use but I’ve seen Saint Roy, use braces and hand drills and been impressed at how quickly they do their job.

I expect that keeping the tool square and plumb to the work surface will be a challenge until I develop some skills with the tool. If there is any advice from anyone on usage, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Expecting New Tool – Low Angle Jack

glennth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:13:06 +0000

Having your hobby live on a tight budget, you have to save and buy up. This can take month and requires a great deal of patience. Well, my patience is paying off. I had saved up so that I could buy a few tools. One that I’m very excited about is a Lee Valley/Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane.

I already have a Leigh-Nielsen Jack Plane. I’ve got this one set up as a rough tool. I wanted another plane about the size of a Jack for doing slightly finer work, much like a Jointer Plane but not as long. Some boards are just too small for using the Jointer but smaller planes like Block Planes are too small for the board.

Another way would be to get a different blade but I also wanted the benefits of the low angle plane so I figured it would compliment my other hand planes.

New Router Table – Bench Dog

glennth — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:09:11 +0000

After selling my table saw (see For Sale – which is sold), I needed to have a router table. Yes, I know that I am going to a more hand tool model but I think that routers are too useful for too many tasks to eliminate completely from a shop. For instance, I can’t envision owning a lot of moulding planes that are often expensive because they are driven up in price by collectors. Also, while I am getting better at my hand cut dovetails, I could not really envision cutting box joints by hand (I see the artistry in dovetails but box joints, while nice looking, are much more utilitarian to me).

So I wanted a small, bench top router table. One reason for the bench top, is that I don’t have space for a dedicated routing station (you’ve seen pictures of my shop in Shop Tour). In addition, having used a standard bench height router table, I have often wished it could be higher for better control and a bench top router table is definitely higher. I also wanted an enclosed router table for better dust control as routers are, by their design, very dusty creatures. There are a few options out there but I think that the Bench Dog contractor table was the best option for me.

It required full assembly. My only complaint is that the instructions (yes, I read the instructions) had really awful pictures and diagrams. These pictures were apparently photocopies of photocopies to a painful degree and very hard to use as references. It went together well and I only had to reverse directions (take apart and reassemble) ones on the top (it has these metal brackets and as I said, the pictures were not very legible).

It has a flexible insert for many router models and a great base for a nice clamping method. The fence and miter slot look very useful for jigs and the like. I am looking forward to using this table.

Dovetails – Tails vs Pins

glennth — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:32:45 +0000

As I noted in a previous post regarding my Handcut Dovetail Hopechest class, we learned about cutting tails first. I came into the class with no opinion on the old battle about cutting pins vs tails first. Even if I had, I would have probably gone with the direction from the class. What’s the point in taking a class unless you are there to learn what they are teaching?

Recently, I came across some reasoning why pins should be cut. The majority of the reasons were not really valid to me. I mean they were fine reasons but usually had a balancing reason for the opposite point of view. One reason though seemed simple and clear. It’s not a major reasons but a minor convenience improvement.

It comes down to marking the opposing item (pins if tails are cut first or tails in pins are cut first). When you cut tails first, you need to go to an extra step to mark the pins out. From my class, it required finding some support for the tails board while you hold it at 90 degrees to the pin board. On the other hand, if you cut pins first, the pin board gets to stand on the tails board with no additional support other than your hand holding it still and at 90 degrees.

I’ve only tried once but it does seem to be a minor improvement over the method. I’ll try it a few more times and see how it works out.

Are there any other thoughts on this eternal debate?

Hand Plane for shooting board

glennth — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:56:28 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post regarding the Lie-Nielsen Tool Event, I was thinking about a dedicated hand plane for the shooting board.

I’m currently using my Lie-Nielsen Jointer Plane which is set up for medium planing work (versus rough/aggressive or smooth/fine work). This works though I’ve found that the plane should be set up a little bit more fine for cleaner “shoots”. I’ve found that plane is reasonable comfortable and has a reasonably high side for decent stability when shooting. My thoughts on having a dedicated shooting plane is that I could have it set up and not have to change it for different work (i.e. non jointing work).

One option is the Lie-Nielsen Iron Miter Plane pictured below:

Lie-Nielsen Iron Miter Plane

I think the benefit of this plane is that it has large sides to the hand plane giving it a greater stability than non-dedicated shooting board planes. One miter benefit is that it may be slightly more comfortable than a standard plane. This plane is probably the most expensive option for this job.

Alternatives include low-angle bench planes like the Lie-Nielsen Low Angle Jointer Plane or the Lee Valley/Veritas Bevel Up Jack Plane (which has a reasonably hide side versus the Lee Valley/Veritas Bevel Up Jointer Plane which has essentially no sides). Here is a picture of the Lee Valley/Veritas planes (B or the middle plane is the Jack I mentioned above):

Lee Valley/Veritas Bevel Up Bench Planes

The Lie-Nielsen low angle planes have lower sides. The Lee Valley/Veritas bevel up planes look to have similar sides to standard bench planes so may have increased stability. Also the Lee Valley/Veritas bevel up planes appear to be less expensive so that makes this option attractive.

Based on this analysis, I’m leaning mostly toward the Lee Valley/Veritas Bevel up Jack Plane due to both functionality and cost. If any readers have opinions on this, I’d love to hear agreements, disagreements, or maybe alternatives via the comments.

Lie-Nielsen Tool Event – Wrap up

glennth — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:13:14 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, I headed up to Port Townsend. It turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour road trip (each way, including the required ferry ride) though I was able to catch up on a lot of podcasts during the ride so it wasn’t totally wasted.

It was a much smaller “event” than I had envisioned. They had tables set around a small room (might have been 40′x30′) with a lot of Lie-Nielsen tools. I’ve seen many photos of similar displays but it is impressive to see them in person. It was really cool to see the hand plane collection in particular. I was able to touch a few planes that I may consider getting in the future.

The two planes that I was in particularly interested are the Iron Miter Plane and the Tongue and Groove Plane.

The Iron Miter Plane was very nice in heft and feel. It comes with a “hot dog” which is basically a grip that can be moved from one side of the plane to the other for use on the right hand side or the left hand side. I’ve seen older miter plane designs that have a knob instead of this grip. I’m not sure which would be better in day to day use. It seems to use the same bed angle as the low angle planes which would make it very effective for shooting the end grain. As an alternative to this, I would consider getting the Low Angle Jointer Plane. My reasons for not going with the Low Angle Jointer Plane include the sides of this plane are not as tall as the standard Jointer Plane (which I already own) and the fact, that I already own a jointer plane.

Lie-Nielsen Iron Miter Plane

Lie-Nielsen Low Angle Jointer Plane

The Tongue and Groove Plane had a nice heft though seemed reasonably complex to use with the fence and the fact that the plane does two jobs instead of one in cutting the groove as well as cutting the tongue.

Lie-Nielsen Tongue and Groove Hand Plane

I did watch a session on hand planes and what makes a good hand plane. The instructor was from the local woodworking program (the Port Townsend School of Woodworking) which I have considered (vs the Northwest Woodworking Studio mentioned in many previous posts). The instructor was sharp and did not have the arrogance of some woodworking instructors that I have met. I didn’t really learn anything from the session though it was full of information. I think this could have been useful if we had been given a schedule of these sessions in advance. I could have been there for the sessions that interest me versus just landing on this session.

I did also see (in use) the Shapton Glass Stones. I don’t know how long my Norton stones will last but these are stones I would consider replacing them with. I also saw something that could prove more useful than standard sheets of sandpaper for flattening plane bottoms and plane blade backs. This was Adhesive Backed Sandpaper on rolls. The only weakness (that I discovered later when I got home) was that these don’t seem to be available in high/polishing grits.

I got value from this event but it probably wasn’t worth spending the 5 hours of driving that I needed to get there. If this was more local, I’d go again in a heartbeat (i.e. at the Local Rockler or Woodcraft stores).

Shop Tour – Pictoral

glennth — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:44:11 +0000

I know, I know. Finally he shows his entire shop. Of course when you entire shop is less than 10′ x 16′ there isn’t much to show off.

First, here is my main work bench. Someday, I may build my own from scratch but I wanted to get to work so I bought a bench kit from Sjoberg. I did some research and for lesser expensive bench kits, it got lots of good reviews. There are better benches if you are willing to spend $1000′s of dollars (see Lie-Nielsen for example). A real big difference between many shop built benches (or these expensive ones I mentioned) and these in-expensive kits is the weight or mass. These inexpensive kits are prone to moving around as you use them. I’ve drilled holes into the leg bases and the floors so that I can have a removable anchor using dowels. It’s worked great.

Here is a shot of the entire corner where I have a quick/dirty shop made cabinet for hand planes/chisels/marking/measuring tools along with hand saws on the wall. I keep my saw benches (modeled after Christopher Schwarz’ design). This area has really worked out well as I move more towards using various hand tools. You will notice that I have a dust collection set up. This is somewhat the remnants from when I had my table saw (can you imagine a table saw taking up nearly the entire shop) but it’s still useful for shop cleanup and some of the remaining power tools (planer, sander). Notice that I still am working on that handcut dovetail hope chest.

Oposite my main bench is a secondary bench that I use for metal work (though I don’t do this much) and I can put a anvil or metal vise into the bench vises. Above this secondary bench, I have a cabinet purchased from the local borg which holds a few reference books and most of my finishing supplies. Also in the farthest corner, I have a scrap bin and trash on wheels (it’s helpful in such a small shop to allow everything to be mobile.

On the same wall but at the other end as the secondary bench, is where I have my benchtop drill press, benchtop planer, bench top oscillating sander, dovetail jig (for router cut dovetails). Above all that I have storage for fasteners and other misc hardware and supplies. Lastly, is my Craftsman (as in Sears) toolbox for hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, plyers, socket sets and such. Notice in front of the second door to my shop (which is hardly ever used) is a ladder. I use it to get to the overhead storage where I keep other wood odds and ends. Also you can just see my collection of bessy clamps that are vital to building anything.

Opposite the above power tool area is my Festool bench. It’s the orginal MFT 1080 (I think that is it’s number) bench (latest version is the MFT-3 which is a different shape but has the same essential features). I have the MFT bench on top of a shop made cabinet which holds routers (I have 4), circular saws (I have 3), router bits (never have enough), and some other misc tools. Next to that, you can see a band saw which I would like to change out the blade for a wider blade and tune it up so I can use it for cutting both smaller items (that the Festool circular saw has difficulty with) and cutting thicker material to be used for project. Behind the bandsaw, I have scraps that I haven’t put away but behind that I have a panel clamp system.

There are some other elements of my shop that are not actually in my shop. I have had several posts regarding my Sharpening Center which I keep in my garage. Now that you’ve seen the shop you can understand why. Also, if you noticed the dust collection looks like it comes through the wall, it does. I have a small shed outside of the shop where the dust collection system stays and makes it’s dust and noise which is not in the shop. Lastly, I have a sheet goods storage area in another shed (it’s a partitioned part of my gardening shed).

This is what makes up my woodworking efforts. I hope that you enjoyed the quick tour. I hope to put together a video tour as well but that will be later. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments and I will address them as I can.

Katz Roadshow

glennth — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:08:56 +0000

Tomorrow, I’m attending the Katz Roadshow at the local Dunn Lumber. The 1 day class covers finish carpentry and my main interest in it is that there are supposedly tips and tricks using Festool Tools (probably the circular saw and rail system).

While, as I’ve indicated in previous posts, I’m including more and more hand tool use, I have no intention of completely eliminating power tools. I’ve gotten rid of my tablesaw (I had a Jet Cabinet Saw) and will use the Festool circular saw with precision rail systems. I also intend to use a router and router table for certain tasks as well. Mostly, these tools are to rough out materials so that the medium and fine finishing can be done with hand tools.

I expect that I will use hand saws, hand planes, chisels, scrapers along with circular saws, jig saws, band saws, routers and router tables.

With this class, I’d love to see how to improve set up with the rail guides and how to use these guides with the router and maybe any other Festool tools that may apply. If it is not meeting my needs, I may not stay very long. Wish me luck that I get what I want from the class (at least it’s at no cost).

Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest – Wrap Up

glennth — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:32:46 +0000

See my previous posts giving updates from my Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest from last week (I did 5 daily updates). This post is to give you some progress pictures and show you what happened.
Here is Gary, the owner and teacher of our class at Northwest Woodworking Studio:

Here are a series of shots that show tools, test cuts, layouts, pin boards, tail boards, carcase fit, pre-finish for the inside:

This is my one and only action shot (thanks Katie!). I was cleaning up the outsides so we could cut off the top.

Lastly, here is a class shot with all the students and Gary in front along with our boxes:

Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 4

glennth — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:00:20 +0000

It was a big day.

We prepped our pieces (cleaned up the interior for pre-finishing) and taped off the glue joints so that finish didn’t cancel out the glue.
We adjusted a dado (for the top and bottom) so that the pieces didn’t need a hammer to go in.
We pre- finished our pieces – specifically the interior pieces.
We cleaned up our finish.
We dry assembled in case we needed to adjust anything and discover how many and what length of clamps were needed.
We assembled in two stages since it has been so dry and hot and the glue working time was measured in seconds not minutes.
We started cleanup.
We began planning for next stages including patches and repairs (I have way too many) and installing hinges (a jig needed to be done).

What’s left, if it can be done in the time remaining, for tomorrow is:

Finish cleanup (benches are very high so we will have to be creative). This will take quite a long time in my case. I may revert to using a plane though I think Gary is worried about my skill set on that.
Patches and additional clean up of said patches. This could also be a lot of work as I may have dozens of patches and these can be very challenging.
Cut the top off and clean up the new edges. This may be the shortest amount of time.
Router out for the hinges and install.
Finish piece.

The first two are so intensive, I have doubts about finishing at this point.

Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 3

glennth — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:39:25 +0000

Today, I finished all the dovetails. According to Gary (instructor and owner of school) “it looks good, except that it doesn’t.” He’s a funny guy and makes many “smart” remarks throughout any day. From this statement, I read that it’s good that I have the dovetails done but that there is a lot of work that will be needed to clean them up.

I also cut the grove for the top and bottom. The design is a simple enclosed box that we will cut the lid off and then put hinges on. We had an issue with the router bit that Gary had who unfortunately had a personal appt so Zach was in charge and couldn’t find alternatives to the router bit. Fortunately, we had a close woodworking store where one of our fellow students ran out and got a new bit. After that, everything went well.

The groove is very tight though and my dry fit is still not quite fit. I am going to have to seriously chamfer the bottom edges of both the top and bottom pieces (which are cherry ply).

In working, I really leveraged the graphite coating the edge of the tails to fit the pins to the last 2 edges I finished. The results were much tighter though still quite a sight different that what Gary or Zach have samples of.

Today was much more encouraging though I had hoped to glue up before we left today.

Tomorrow should be putting a coat of finish on the inside and glue up. I may even get to the cutting the lid off. Once that is done, it’s hinges and finish (maybe not in that order). One benefit of the dry and hot weather is that glue and finish sets up very quickly (of course, one bad thing about the dry and hot weather is that glue and finish sets up very quickly).

Depending on tomorrow, Friday could be a short day off. I do have Saturday off (and the family may come down for the day and play – or not). Sunday is a dovetail class so I can practice dovetails more (and maybe other types of dovetails).

UPDATE: I forgot that I also got a couple of tips.

Gary recommends 1 1/2 lb cuts when mixing shellac.
To mix 1 1/2 lb cut, take 4 oz of denatured alcohol and add 1 1/2 teaspoons (it could be tablespoons but in reality it is supposed to be ounces so which ever of teaspoon vs tablespoon of flakes that ways an ounce) of shellac flakes.
Gary prefers a polishing motion for applying shellac.
A fellow student recommended Camilla oil to coat chisels and planes to eliminate rust. Another student had some and I got to smell it – a fairly pleasant smell.