Around the Web:

Jeff Miller’s Jigs for hand tools
Jeff Miller’s new jigs are designed to make the process of creating a mortise and tenon with hand tools quick, easy, and accurate. Matt and Shannon discuss whether or not elaborate jigs have a place in the hand tool shop.

Voicemails

Nathan – Can you save money by building your own furniture?
John – How to make a rule joint?
MLCS Woodworking Rule Joint
WoodSmith Shop Rule Joint
Roberto – What do I use to protect my tools during long-term storage.
Cosmoline or Ballistol

iTunes Reviews

Thanks Brian Brazil and 94Av8r!

What’s on the bench?

Matt complains about how his wife changed her plans for their new entertainment center. Marc has been working on a video about the MicroJig’s MJ Splitter. Matt mentioned using the MJ Splitter for Dados and there is a slideshow on MicroJig’s site on this topic. Shannon is using his new joinery bench to work on his new clock project.

Around the Web

Glen Huey visiting the Michigan Woodworkers’ Guild May 19, 2012
Popular Woodworking publishing The Woodwright Shop seasons 1-3 and 20 on DVD and in Shop Class On Demand

Listener Emails:

I’m slowly but surely building a Roubo workbench. I noticed that Shannon positioned the parallel guide on the leg vise at the bottom of the leg, while Marc has his above the shelf… I’m curious what both of you think about advantages/disadvantages of this placement? …Shannon, any regrets on putting it on the bottom of the leg? Marc, I’m guessing your choice of placement was largely guided by the Benchcrafted hardware. —Mark Jacobs

I’m considering purchasing a Lie-Nielsen #4 smoother with the 55 degree high angle frog. Is this a good idea to go with the high angle frog to use as my primary (only) smoother? Aside from having to push sightly harder and sharpen more often, is there any downside to using a 55 degree smoother for every smoothing task? I typically use cherry and walnut, but I’d like to use some curly cherry or more figured woods in the future. Adam Weigand (Why-Gand)

Voicemails

Dyami sends in a router safety story and reminder.

Topic

Matt describes a scary router accident. Shannon tells the tale of his tablesaw kickback. Marc confesses to a recent bandsaw cut that almost resulted in an ER visit.

On today’s show, we’re answering your emails and voicemails again. When to change your respirator cartridges, basement woodworking and the impact on HVAC, strategies concerning beading on a drawer front, polyurethane flammability, good woods to practice your planing, ebony species for G&G work, and cutting bevel angles exceeding 45 degrees.

What’s on the Bench?

Matt: Back from Vacation…Do not confuse Pirates of the Caribean ride with Williamsburg re-enactors!
Marc: Re-building an old prototype project and finishing up the Split-Top Roubo.
Shannon: Shaker clock and Spring Pole lathe

Around the Web:

Fine Woodworking April Fools
2012 WIA registration now open for both locations
2012 WIA Buddy Tracker Spreadsheet
Nintendo Controller Table
Baychico.com
Star Trek Enterprise Coffee Table

Listener Emails:

Chris Landy
I have a question regarding respirators. I have the 3M 7500 Series Reusable Half Facepiece, Model 7503
It’s the one that Marc recommended way back when on his video “Dust in Time”. I use it for heavy sanding and finishing in my tiny shop, but I am not sure how often I should swap out the filters. How do i know when they are spent and know longer doing their job.

Aaron Cashion
I will finally have my first shop, and it,will be in the basement. The only concern I have is my hvac equipment is down there. Do you have this issue, and if so what do you recommend for keeping this thing clean? I will have a cyclone and an air cleaner. I would appreciate any advice at this point.

J – One in Millions
I am making a jewelry box for my wife. She wants zebrawood fronts on the drawers. My thought was to build the drawers out of walnut and use some shop made veneer for the fronts with an 1/8″ wenge bead around the edge.

1. How do you recommend I make the 1/16″ round overs on the 1/8″ bead?
2. I’m also open to other dark woods for the bead because I’ve heard wenge splinters terribly.
3. I’ve read recommendations about creating a sort of shop made plywood for the drawer fronts in order to give the fronts stability which would help the bead stay on the ends by reducing movement across the grain. It sounded good to me because it would help the bead stay on the end and for the second reason that my wife wants the zebra wood to run vertically. I read that the minimum number of layers for this process is 5. Considering I was shooting for a 1/2″ thick max front it sounds like a pain because the veneers are thin. What are your thoughts on this theory and is it required for drawer fronts where the largest front is about 8″ wide and 3″ tall?
4. Will the bead stay on over time with the above method and which glue do you recommend?

Voicemails

Nathan – Concerned about Polyurethane flammability
Aaron – What woods do we recommend for hand plane practice?
Brad – What type of ebony for G&G and will Brazilian Ebony work too?
Daniel – Has a bevel to cut that exceeds 45 degrees. How would we go about cutting it?

On today’s show, its all about listener mail!

Around the Web

Pop. WW’ing: California considers table saw law

PBS iPad/iPhone App – Watch Wood Wright episodes!

Email

Shane and Ryan both asked for our recommendation on the must-have tools for the beginner.
Doug wants to know what oil he should use for rust prevention on his hand planes.
Bruce wants to know how to finish his maple and walnut chess board.

What’s on the bench?

Shannon: finished the Queene Anne side table, small bedside stand for wife, Shaker clock for HTS
Matt: Broken closet door and a Hock Smoother
Marc: Finishing touches and some product reviews (Domino XL, ClearVue CV06)

Around the Web:

Paul Sellers on YouTube
Doucette and Wolfe YouTube channel for great project videos
Fine Woodworking Shop Talk Live new podcast now in iTunes!
The William Ng School video collection!
Bonus footage of Roy Underhill on the Highland Woodworker
Bernoulli Shell Clamp
The apprentice and the journeyman “Poorboy parallel clamps”

Topics

Is a Festool drill really worth the money?
The many specializations involved in running a wood shop.

Topics

Woodworking in America is going to be in two locations this year: Cincinnati, Ohio and Pasadena, California

Fine Woodworking is getting into the mix with their own event: Fine Woodworking Live

Amazing Kickback Video from NewWoodWorker.com

Highland Woodworking’s new web show: The Highland Woodworker

Tom’s Tips from Tom Iovino – Using playing cards as shims!

The Hawaii’s 20th Annual Woodshow 2012 – April 1-15 – The 20th annual show will be juried by a panel of locally and nationally known artists and design professionals and is well-known for highlighting the very best in local woodworking with participation from woodworkers from every island.

From the Back of the Case:

When building furniture, you need your workbench to be able to hold your boards to accurately work the faces, edges and ends. Chris Schwarz has built and used ten different types of workbenches and has experimented with many work holding challenges and solutions. In this DVD he demonstrates various strategies for holding the workpiece for these essential tasks, by designing or modifying a workbench for efficient use.

Our Thoughts:

While this DVD does show ways to accessorize and modify your existing workbench, this is really something you want to watch BEFORE you build your workbench. Chris does a great job of showing the various ways one might use a workbench, and how the bench can be designed to accommodate these things. In fact, this video is a nice compliment to Chris?s workbench books.

The DVD is jam-packed with tips and tricks and you?ll likely need to watch it multiple times to pick everything up. In addition to the workbench information, Chris shows us some general tips for chiseling, sawing, and planing.

From the Back of the Case:

This new workbench from Robert W. Lang combines the best workholding devices and ideas from a number of historic bench forms, along with a few design twists of his own. Whether you use power tools or hand tools (or both), this knockdown bench design is perfectly suited for the modern workshop.
This DVD contains everything you need:
? Hour-long video details the bench construction process
? 3D SketchUp model shows bench components from every angle
? Complete printable construction drawings
? PDF slide show of entire construction process
? Enhanced PDF of magazine article, with step-by-step construction instruction.

Our Thoughts:

Bob Lang shows us how to build his 21st Century Workbench, a sturdy and practical design that should suit just about any woodworking style. The bench can be knocked down and employs wedged dovetail joints to hold everything together. Bob confidently guides us through his building process at a reasonable pace. Unfortunately, there are a few significant details left out of the demonstrations or a shortcut is taken by showing the finished product and simply stating what was done. However, this is counter-balanced by a nice package of DVD ROM extras including PDF plans, a SketchUp plan, and slideshows. A guest appearance by Chris Schwarz was nice and the subsequent vise discussion was a welcome surprise. But the time spent on this ?extra? might have been better spent on elaborating on more project details. Given the total package though, just about anyone should be able to build this bench successfully with this DVD.

Topics

Today we discuss our 2012 woodworking resolutions. Shannon plans on finally taking a 5-day Windsor Chair class, Matt plans on re-organizing his shop (for the last time??), and Marc plans on doing more client work and pushing his personal skill set.

As part of the discussion, we mentioned Roy Underhill’s School, William Ng’s School, and Easy Wood Tools.

Chris mentioned an industrial-strength mobile system in the interview and here’s the link.

General Questions

- How’s life after Popular Woodworking?
- What intrigued you about the Roubo design?
- What are your thoughts on the split top concept? Any gotchas?
- (Brian Brazil) I’ve recently become a little obsessed with the Holtzapffel bench from Chris’s Workbench Design book. Since he has experience working on both the Holtzapffel and Roubo bench designs, how would he compare the two?

The Wood

- Hard or soft and why? Primary and secondary woods to save money?
- (Bjorn) I recently got a good amount of quarter sawn old growth Douglas Fir. These are former floor boards. If we assume that money is secondary concern, would you recommend building the workbench top from that wood or is there something better?
- (Chas) Wants to use two species in his bench top. Do you foresee any problems incorporating a different species in places like an end cap, a vise chop, or in the case of the split top Roubo, the dog hole backing strip (in terms of wood movement)?

The Hardware

- What do you think of the Benchcrafted hardware and how does it compare to other options you’ve tried? Any reasonable alternatives?
- (Torch) Any good sources for older quick-release vises?
- (Imaginos) (pretty Benchcrafted specific) The wagon vise on the split top Roubo is perplexing me. It looks like the hardware is either identical or very similar to a slide L block tail vise. It seems that with a sliding block and dog holes in the right spots, I can do everything that the wagon vise can do plus more options for work holding on right end of the bench minus a little bit of support where the block sides out. The recurring theme that stands out in Chris’s book is efficiency and economy of effort, so what’s the downside of the sliding L block tail vise? What’s a wagon vise do that an L block can’t?
- (Skunkeye) You use those huge wooden screws on some of your leg vises. Do you have a preference for coarse wood threads or metal acme threaded rods?

Construction

- (Texfire) Does the added height of a Moxon Vice change the equation on bench height? Do he suggest setting a bench low enough for planing and use the Moxon to raise the material for dovetailing and/or power tool usage?
- (Brice_Arnold) I have heard that a bench is dependent upon not only the user but what kind of work they will be doing (hand tools vs power tools/routers). If you can only have one bench and the work you do is a balance of hand and power tools, how should this influence the bench height? Average between high (power tools) and low (hand tools)? Also could you reiterate the rule of thumb for ideal bench height.
- (JeffB1) If my stock permits me to go thicker than 4″, is that recommended?
- (Barron) In your book you indicate that holdfasts don’t work well as the top gets thicker, is there a problem with the holdfast holding if making the top a more than 4″?
- (Bjorn) Do you think a workbench top is best made from a lamination of smaller boards or a couple massive slabs?
- (hhh) Do you have a preferred lamination pattern for a top made from 8/4 stock?
- (Torch) In your books, you have implored people to build as big & sturdy of a bench as they can. If neither cost nor space were an issue, what would be the ideal size?
- (Skunkeye) Preference for square or round dog holes (or both)?
- (Skunkeye) What are your thoughts on bench storage? Should a bench be for work holding only? (Tool trays)
- (Tom Buhl) Full mortise and tenon vs barrel bolt hardware approach. In your book you did not think highly of the barrel bolt approach.
- (Tom Buhl) What are your thoughts on how short a roubo bench could be (practically) and still use the BenchCrafted Tail Vise? My space can handle about 6 feet.
- (Tom Buhl) I need my bench to be mobile.I plan to add a flip down wheel bar as shown on the LVL bench and seen at WIA. For the split top Roubo, is this lunacy or workable given the size/weight?
- (hhh) Do you have an adhesive preference: PVA, epoxy, hide glue?..
- (many people) Do you think it is worthwhile to design the end cap so it can be removed later for easy machine planing or is this lunacy?

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