WWGOA LIVE! June 2019

Sam says we're going live right now. How's everybody doing? Ready for our monthly Thursday night live, I am. And I've actually got the air conditioner on in the shop today. It was just a little bit warm and stuffy in here earlier.

So it's a nice to run the air when I can. Let me get my computer opened up and I want to do something right away, a little bit of an announcement. You're probably aware that we did, WWGOA did a sweepstakes, oh, it ended a couple of weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago and we have winners. So here's the deal, four lucky people here. Jerry Moraski of Dallas, Texas won the Laguna 1216 lathe.

Craig Young from Owasso, Oklahoma won the Kreg adaptive cutting system. Jonathan Hinckley from Newtown, Connecticut was the winner of the Woodpeckers precision square package. And Jason Reardon won the Armor tool package. So congratulations to you guys, I guess when whomever notified the winners notified the winners. Jerry said that he's fixing to use the Laguna lathe to turn pens as groomsman gifts for his kiddo's wedding.

So that's pretty neat. What a great groomsmen gift. And it's neat to see the, I don't know see the lathe go to a good home like that. Let me jump on here and see what we have for questions. And I am, for those of you that are watching on the YouTube, I am going to try to toggle back and forth between YouTube and the GOA page to grab your questions on both of those sites, as much as I can.

All right, we have a question about making a jewelry box with the lid glued to the top of the box frame best method for then splitting the two apart, with the lid then having, the lid having part of the box material. I use my table saw, I usually have to plane them a lot to get the two faces to marry up. So I think what we're talking about is making a box, hold please. Making a box. And then in this case, what I did was the whole box is done sides, top, bottom started some splining on here, but that's as far as I got that corner.

And then what I do with this is, once we get where everything is done and we're ready to make this into a box box, then I go to the table saw and cut the top off. So I think that's what the question is about. One of the things that's cool about this is when we put it back together as a box, we have grain alignment across these faces, 'cause this is one wide piece, this is one wide piece. So we're still going to have grain alignment across there. So let me adjust us here for the table saw.

We did, with our move from last Thursday to this Thursday that conflicted with Jenny running the camera. So I'm flying solo tonight, but we'll be okay, we'll get this to work. I'm going to do a couple changes here. This is not the right blade for what we want to do. So I'm going to pull this blade out.

I just unplug-ified the saw. And I'm taking the guard off, 'cause we can't have that on either. While I'm doing this, I'll do a little promotion. Doing a big open house here at my shop this Saturday, Saturday the 22nd. So if you're somewhere nearby Hammond, Wisconsin, which is about 30 miles East of St.

Paul, Minnesota gonna have the open house from one to seven, 1:00 PM to seven, and it's not going to be just myself, it's meet the makers is what it's called. So me, Matt Cremona, Paul Mayor, Matt Coppersmith, Donovan Cummings, and Anna Sprague. There are going to be about, I dunno, 10 or 15 different local artisans, makers, content creators, that are all going to be here for the event Saturday. So that will be a lot of fun. We've got door prizes.

I'm going to run the saw mill, I'm going to demo the saw mill every once in a while. So there's going to be a lot going on if you're nearby and can stop in. This is a great application for a riving knife, took the splitter off 'cause we can't have the whole basket on for this cut, but we can have a riving knife. And then the way I do this is, I set the height of the blade so that it's just barely above the thickness of my stock. Let me give you a zoom-zoom on that.

Currently too high Right about there. And then the fence can come in to our setting, whatever it is we want the height of the lid to be, that's where we would set the fence at this point. Now you can't see it, but I am plugging my saw back in give the computer a chance to catch up. Computer cause it's a saw stock. And then here's how this is going to go.

Computer says we're good. Dust collection. Hanging up on the riving knife, so I stopped the saw, unplugged. I think the top of the riving knife is just a little bit high. One of the interesting things about live woodworking.

Plug the saw back in. Let the computer catch up. That's better. Now remember when I said continuous grain, so this is neat. When we get hinges on this, that grain flows, and of course it does it on all four sides 'cause they all started as one piece.

Then what I would do with this is this edge needs just a tiny bit of sanding and a good way to make sure that it stays flat is to stick sandpaper to a surface like this. And then sand. If you hand sand this take a orbit to it, there's too much chance of rounding that, so I prefer to do self adhesive sandpaper, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, top and bottom, and take off just enough to get the saw marks out and then you'll be back in business. The big Las Vegas show is coming up, AWFS, any of you going to that? Lot of commercial equipment there.

It's a really cool thing to get to. All right, Stan says I'm going to be gluing up a 48 by 52 torsion box benchtop to hold a CNC. Flatness is important. I set up a frame of jointed two by fours to build it on that will later become the top frame supporting the bench top. I need to make clamping calls long enough to bridge the 48 inch direction.

I'm thinking of using more of the two by four framing stock destined for the legs. Any suggestions on making such large calls? I've never done it. I'm assuming... I'm thinking a second.

Yeah. I don't know. If you've got a jointer, I mean, I'd say a joiner is a must-have for what you're looking to do there, so that you can get the edge straight, so that when you use it as a call, you can rely on it holding everything straight and flat for your top. So I guess that's my best advice. I've never made a call that big, but I think it really feels to me like that's going to rely on a jointed edge.

Chuck asks, recommendations for a workbench, species of wood, where to buy plans, interested in a bench with dogs and an end vice, not sure I have the skills to build one. Recommended wood, my bench bench has got a Baltic Birch top. You want something hard, so it's durable. So this is actually two four by eight sheets of Baltic Birch, two one inch four by eight sheets of Baltic Birch plywood that make up the top of this table. So man-made material, that'd be a good choice.

And I know a lot of people use MDF for work bench tops, maple hard, maple or beech would be the woods of tradition. You know, the woods that have gone into work benches since forever, hard maple and Beech. So those are all good wood choices. And then for plans, Google is your friend. I would just start looking.

I would, I literally would put into Google workbench plans and see what's out there. Find something you like, find something that fits your skill set. Lot a lot a lot of people, a lot of content creators make work benches. Some are as simple as two by fours from a home center, some are more complex with mortise and tenon joinery. So it's just a matter of poking around and finding the design you like, and then build method that fits your skillset and tools.

Somebody is asking when are you gonna make a full-size router table for a router with a lift? I dunno. I don't know, it's not on the agenda at this point. And I'll tell you what if I do do that, and I'm looking at my router table, in all likelihood I will make a cabinet and then put a commercially made top on it. And I think that manufacturers do a great job of making tops and lifts that fit in the tops.

So I don't know, I'll stew on it. Does anyone know of a company, Oh 8:00 AM in the Philippines. So it's so Gary, I was just reading a Navy letters from my dad to his parents. My dad would be 90 something now if he were still alive. So in October of 1945, he landed in Samoa and I'm not far enough in the letters yet, I don't know what his duty station ended up being but it's interesting.

The letters covering his boat trip over to Samoa. It's pretty, pretty neat stuff. Neat read. Bob says anyone know of a company or individual that could help me set of a new Powermatic eight inch HH jointer. Well, how about Powermatic, maybe.

Right? I mean, Powermatic's still in business. So I'm not completely clear on what you're looking for. But Powermatic is, I would go to Powermatic. Gary says a Sawyer in Eastern Wisconsin had a load of rough cut Black Oak for sale recently, I wasn't able to buy it, but haven't had much luck finding information about it other than it is in the Red Oak family.

Is it suitable for cabinet or furniture building? I don't know what it is, Black Oak, I've never heard of it. Yeah. I don't know what you got there. Cleston is in Houston where I will be in just a couple of weeks.

Evans, Georgia, Renton, Washington, Prescott, Arizona and Rodney is in Western Australia. I recently sent in as the expert woodworking question haven't got a reply. Are you still doing this? We got myself and Dave, I'm sorry, jeez, myself and Paul answer all the questions. So if it was emailed in it crosses both of our desks and then we split up who answers it depending on what the question is.

If you want to post it here, I'll take a run at it, but we'll go from there. On YouTube, Matthew says, what are the pegs on my working, What are the pegs on my working table used for? By pegs do you mean he got dogs and dog holes? Like a dog day afternoon. So pegs.

I don't know if I actually have any conventional bench dogs. Let's look at... So on my bench, you're looking at the top of my monitor. On my bench here, it's got holes in it which could receive pegs. This is not a peg, obviously, it's another form of device I can use with the holes.

So when I put that in with the vice, there's a bench dog in the vice, I can sandwich material between those two. And even if this were just a peg, they would do the same thing. And then on this one, I also use those for hold downs. I think that's not going to go all the way in because the vice is right there, yeah bumps into the vice. But they fit into the same three quarter inch holes.

So yeah, the pegs typically marry into work you would do with the vice and act as a stop on your bench. All right. Homer, Alaska, Alec. I just turned my first green bowl out of a Birch borough and I had lots of trouble with it. I don't get any spaghetti like shavings, just sawdust.

The bowl was roughed on the lathe because it was too tall for my band saw, screw center ended up stripping out, and overall it was harder to turn, not easier. I was able to save it and make something cool with it, but the process was very hard. I probably sharpened my round nose scraper 10 times during the turning and coming right off the and it ended, Oh, there, worksharp 80 and then 400. So... You can't well, so you can't go 80 grit to 400.

If that's the jump, you need to use grits in between. That being said, I don't think you need to go as fine as 400. When I grind on my low RPM grinder, my fine wheel is 120, and that's where I do all my bull gouges and scrapers. So you don't need to go as fine as 400. And, I don't know if the wood was dripping wet green, and I wonder on your scraper, if you've got a, if the angle of your scraper is wrong.

So when you're looking at the flat top of a bowl scraper, the nose, the cutting tip should be ground, Oh it's maybe only five degrees or so off of plum. I almost wonder if that's too vertical on your scraper. You don't have quite enough cutting angle on there, quite enough relief angle. So I would look at that, but other than that I can't really figure out. The screws center stripping out that can happen.

That's happened to me, especially on green wood because it's softer more so than dry wood. So that's not a huge red flag, but if you were making nothing but dust and the wood was dripping wet green, then the only other thing I can point to really is your chisel wasn't ground right or wasn't as sharp as it should be. And then two keep in mind, round nose, with any kind of a scraper, round nose scraper, the top of the chisel should be even with the center of the bowl to get it in the right attack point. So make sure the top of your tool rest is in the right spot for that relationship. We've got Jim in Gilbert, Arizona, Stephen in Port Angeles, Washington.

And then somebody is asking about plans for the workbench. And I get asked this all the time, and here's, I love my bench. And I'll tell you the story. I did a video where I built a kitchen table that was 36 by 72. And at that time, my work bench, my main bench here was 32 by 74, something like that, a pretty small like traditional size top work bench.

So to do that big kitchen table, I did a lot of that work on a pair of saw horses with a four by eight sheet on them. And once I did that, and I had that aircraft carrier real estate available, I was thinking to myself, I really need a bigger bench. So when I started this project, I thought this bench is so big, it's 34 by four by eight, that not many people are going to want to bench this big because of space limitations. I've got a really big shop, but not everybody does. So I built this completely on the fly.

I had a picture in my head. I designed as I went, I built as I went, I designed as I built. So as a result that most of what I do I start with sketch up plans, but this one, I just, I winged it start to finish. So my answer plans to the workbench, yes, I'm very slowly working on them. So now I'm backtracking, I'm reverse engineering, doing the sketch up drawing based on where I ended up and that'll be available on my website at some point.

But I've been saying that for a few months now already. But enough people ask that I need to get motivated and finish it. So the short answer to your question is yes. The longer answer is don't hold me to a specific timeframe, please. Is there a non-premium video for sharpening chisels and planer blades?

I don't know, off the top of my head. So on WGOA if you go to that search window in the upper right-hand corner, or on your phone it's just a banner in the middle of your phone and put in the topic you're looking for, whatever pops pops. Off the top of my head, I can't remember how different content has been classified over time. Somebody is watching us at gate B5 in the Atlanta airport. I think I've been there.

I think I've been at that gate. I know I've been in the Atlanta airport. And then somebody too is jumped in on YouTube and is providing some information about Black Oak. So for whomever asks that if you go to WGOA live on YouTube there's some information there or Google it. Not Google the live, Google Black Oak.

How interchangeable are commercial router tables versus routers? Can a Porter-Cable router fit into any commercial table or top? Great question. Yeah. So you really don't need to into like, I've got a DeWalt or a Porter-Cable router, so therefore I need that same brand of table.

What happens is that there's an insert, if you don't have a router lift, there'll be an insert in the table. And I'm just trying to think if I have one laying here, but I don't think I do, both my tables have lifts in them. And those inserts might not, maybe they don't have any holes in them. And the instructions from the manufacturer will be drill holes to work with your router. Or they've got a set of, a component that looks like a cheese grater, 'cause it's got a gazillion holes in it.

And what they've gone through and said, what they've done is gone through and said use these three holes for a Porter-Cable 690, use these holes for a DeWalt, use these holes for a Bosch. So with that, so the answer to the question is it's hugely interchangeable because manufacturers are really good about recognizing you could own a Triton or a Milwaukee or a whatever and they want you to be able to hang that in their table. So pretty much infinitely adjustable. Bruce is in Fort Worth, Texas. I was just in San Antonio, Texas, not too long ago with the kiddo, what a beautiful city that was.

And then I'm gearing up for the next question here. Best way to cut quarter inch plexiglass, table saw. And let's do this. I'm going to, I'm going to go back to the blade I had in I think, let me look at it and we'll go from there. So, for plexi, that's a 40-tooth blade that's in there now, that's too aggressive a tooth pattern.

This is a Diablo 60-tooth blade and that's going to work Smurferrifically for what we're looking to do here. So let's, I'm going to go back and undo what I had done previously. The saws unplugged, blade change. If I get through two blade changes tonight without dropping the Arbor nut or washer down into the saw, that will be amazing. And for what we're going to do the conventional guard will be a more better choice.

And then I think I have a piece of plexiglass right here in my storeroom. So I'm going to plug the saw back in, and the computer can play catch up while I'm going to get plexiglass. This is eighth inch, but the premise is the same. Fine tooth blade. I actually like having the guard on for this 'cause it helps keep the plexiglass down on the table a little bit.

I mean, I like having the garden no matter what, but it helps keep that on the tabletop. Set your fence. And then from here, the key, part of the key is I do set the blade a little bit higher for plexi than I normally would. I want to make sure it's got down pressure on it. So my normal rule of bottom of the gullet, even with top of the material, I'd go just a little bit higher for plexi.

And Bob's your uncle. So blade selection is really the key there. Any chance you could do a short class on CNC beginning to end from design of a simple part on a computer, to the part being complete on the CNC. Yeah, we've done it. There is a CNC class already in place on WGOA.

So if you do shop, up on the top of the banner, one of the options is shop, click on that. And then I think classes is an option in there. Then there's a CNC class on there where using VCarve Pro, we've got screen captures of VCarve being used. And then from there go to setting that up on the CNC and making cuts. And then we just did another one that hasn't posted yet, a more advanced one as well, where I know I cut aluminum in the more advanced one, I can't remember everything I did, it's been a few months since we shot it, but one is up already.

The second one will be in a few months. Brent says, enjoy your program. Ideas on the website can be lots of inspiration. In Yorkton, Saskatchewan. That's cool.

And then somebody asked again about the workbench. So same deal. It'll be on the Vondriska woodwork site as a PDF once I get it drawn. Another buddy somebody else in Prescott. Ken says bought the ISOtunes Pro find it difficult to put in my ears, despite trying all three of the included plugs.

I find them less effective than Worktunes headphones I had been using. Any tips? Well I would I would call ISOtunes, they've seen more ears than I have. For me, I don't know for what maybe five years now I've been using ISOtunes and I'm using the medium plugs, the medium inserts, roll them, put them in my ears and they stay stuck hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. But I would, ISOtunes is very responsive to customers.

So I'd shoot them an email or give them a call. and see what, if they've got any other suggestions. Rodney says when I joined two boards of different thicknesses with a biscuit joiner, do I reference from the thickest or the thinnest part for the joint to be secure? Butt joint 90 degree. I'm not sure, I'm not actually sure what you mean.

So if you're doing this, then, two boards have different thicknesses. So if you're doing, let me grab material. This board is about half inch, this board is about three quarter, if you're looking to do this, then I would set the fence on the biscuit joiner to center the biscuit on the thin stuff. And then you have to leave the fence in that same position. So cut the slots, and then you leave the fence in that same position when you cut the slots in this one.

And that's going to get this, these two edges to line up. I think that's what you mean. Don's got some information about Black Oak, very common Upland tree. How do you install Euro hinges on inset doors? Same way I would do them on any door.

Let me, I actually have an inset door with euro hinges on. Hold please. Coming right back. I really am. Can you still hear me?

I'm a long way away. So with Euro hinges, for the most part, with getting them on the door, it doesn't matter if it's inset or overlay, the cup distance, which is the distance from the edge of the hole to the edge of the door is usually three millimeters. There can be some variation there, but drill your 35 millimeter holes. If you're using conventional size Euro hinges, what I always do is whatever the door size ends up being, then if you're not completely confident in getting the hinges on right, I cut a piece of scrap. I cut a piece of three quarter inch plywood to that exact size.

And then at my drill press, I'll go ahead and drill with a three millimeter cup distance or four millimeter wherever you want to start, drill it, put the hinges on, see if that works for your cabinet. And then if not, it's only a piece of plywood so you can adjust the cup distance. But the cup distance is critical in order to let you get the right amount of left to right adjustment. Like I said, it's typically three millimeters, but it's worth doing a test bore on plywood before you do your real door. Your website do you mean here?

Yep. QGOA.com, all sorts of info there. Search window in the right corner. I noticed you have a blower motor next to your table saw, do you have more than one dust collector system? Yeah it's not a blower motor, I've got a dust collector.

So I've in this building, I haven't plumbed it, plumbed it for dust collection. I've got one on the table saw and that's all it does is the table saw. Then I've got one over there. I can show you. So here's here's my dust collection deal.

Nah nah nah nah nah. I've got that one, see that right there. That's a dust collector dedicated to just the table saw. Then I've got that one, which ignore my marginal plumbing job. But that goes in that direction.

So that connects to the band saw. And then in that end of the shop there are four CNC machines that it connects to, and then one CNC machine back there, I use a shop vac and the Rockler separator that picks up off of that CNC machine. How's that for pointer skills? Nah nah nah nah nah nah, am I making you seasick? And then where am I?

Then I have that dust collector and that one is plumbed into jointer, planer, Supermax sander, 18 inch band saw. And my brand new dust collector or air compressor, I just bought at a garage sale last week. Are you going to be teaching any classes at the Rockler in Buffalo, New York? Or do you have suggestions on classes in that southern New York or northern Pennsylvania? Yeah.

I don't know anybody offering classes out there. Rockler, I've been in a lot of Rockler stores, I'll be at the Rockler store in Houston in July. Go to the store, tell them you want me to come teach there, they'll talk to corporate, and we'll try to get it figured out. So it all just comes together how it comes together. I was at Rockler in Chicago just last weekend.

Harvey says I made a picture frame with a round circle cutout in it, had a very hard time trying to cut a circle out of plexiglass. How would you do it? I would do it on a bandsaw, with a, probably a six tooth per inch blade would be a good choice for that. How do you transfer patterns to wood for wood-burning? I am not a wood burner kind of a guy.

So I don't know what a common thing for that is. Interestingly, if you've never tried this, it works. If you photocopy a pattern and then you lay it on a piece of wood and you iron it, so layer it image down, and then you iron it. And I got to think a second. I think it has to be a laser printer, laser copier printer.

All right? And then you iron it, it'll transfer it to the material. Now, if you're wood-burning that and then you have to sand off the transfer lines. How does that affect your wood-burning? I don't know.

But I've used that method to transfer patterns. I have a small shed to work in, so I don't have room for a dedicated to the layout table. I have made a small sheet of plywood I attached to my table saw for a workspace. Does that sound okay? Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea.

I mean, table saw is nice and flat, adding a little build out to that, so you have more working room, that seems like a great idea. Alex says, I forgot to say, I tried a shearing cut during roughing and there wasn't a big difference, but I'm not sure because it wasn't round yet. Yeah so when a bowl is spinning, it's out of round, and you don't have continuous contact with it, scraper or gouge, it's hard to get the spaghetti shavings. But as you get it closer and closer and closer to being round, then you should start to see those spaghetti shavings come off. I'd still default to, I would really look at the tool and make sure it's beveled like it should be and as sharp as it should be.

Thanks for the answer about router tables and routers. Does the same interchangeability apply to lifts? So part of the line in the sand with router lifts will be not what brand of router you're buying, but what size of router you're buying. So I want to say the big three horse like the Porter-Cable, 7518 router, three horse, or the big Milwaukee router. I think that those motor diameters are about three and a half inches.

They're pretty big. Then in like the two and a quarter horse, like the Porter-Cable 890, two and a quarter horse, DeWalt makes one that size, Bosch makes one that size, the motor is physically smaller. So what some manufacturers do is they have a lift for this size router motor, and it's not brand specific, it's this lift will work with motors that are from this big to this big. And then they have a different lift for a different size. Other manufacturers may have defaulted to the big one like the three and a half or whatever it is.

And then they perhaps provide shims that you can use to size a down for the smaller motors. So again, it's not about brand, in that case, it's more about, it is about how big a router you're choosing to buy. So you want to explore that before you nail down your lift or your router. Gary says when face joining a longer board, where should I be putting downward force on the board? Before or after the cutter head once the board has started?

So what I do is... I got to think a second, 'cause I just kind of do it inherently at this point. My down pressure stays in front of and behind the cutting head all the time, even on a long board. 'Cause that's the critical spot. And if I had, I just don't have anything long here I can face joint.

But you want to make sure that you're maintaining contact between the face of the board and the in-feed and outfeed table of your joiner. So keeping your down pressure close to the cutter head I think is where you're going to want to be. Let me get a little Gatorade in me, please. Or a lot of Gatorade. Before we, I'll do some more questions in a momentito, but as always, thanks to Titebond for underwriting this, which keeps these live events free for you folks.

So kudos the Titebond for doing that. I noticed you don't torque the Arbor nut on your table saw very much. Is there a recommended amount of pressure. Yeah this a hard one. Because it really doesn't take, if your knuckles are turning white when you tighten the Arbor wrench on your table saw you're making it too tight, I think.

Then it's just that much harder to get off later. So I struggle with this and it's the same problem I have when I'm teaching classes is how to define what, I know this much pressure works. You know, it's a little bit, it's like changing spark plugs on a car. I've done it 8 million times. And when I'm holding the ratchet and going glug glug glug glug, done, I know the spark plug is right.

When I'm teaching my kids to change spark plugs on a car, getting to that, getting that definition for them is hard to do. Same thing here. So I'm getting to that point of contact then another little oomph and then that's it. So that another little oomph is my I guess, definition of how much pressure. Steven says your opinion of table saw blade stabilizers.

I don't have them with any of my blades and I use thin curve blades. So I don't know. I don't want to say you don't need them, because maybe in some cases you do. In my case I've never put a stabilizer on a table saw blade. Maybe I'm missing something.

And for somebody who uses them all the time they'd say you're missing getting incredible cut quality out of a thin curve blade 'cause you're not using a stabilizer, but and I guess the real answer is I've never used them. I don't know much about them. I don't know what they would bring to the table saw for me. So I can't really render an opinion because I've never used them. There's a comment that somebody had a woodworking friend who cut glass, but that's in asterisk so I don't know if it was really glass on his table saw; did it just to see if he could.

Not recommended. I don't think, I don't see how he could pull that off and not have glass shards all over the place. Freud makes a blade specifically for acrylic negative hook. Yup. And that's a great point.

A negative hook on plexiglass cutting blades is a great characteristic. Have you used African Blackwood? I tried it, it destroys sandpaper, bleeds into the curly maple. No, I haven't tried it. And there's a couple of woods like that.

Another one is padauk. It's pretty common to marry padauk next to maple 'cause it's a really pretty contrast. Padauk is almost pumpkin orange. However, excuse me. It's not uncommon that then when you put any finish on it the padauk starts to bleed into the maple.

I've not done it. I'm familiar with the combos like you're talking about here but I haven't done it myself, so I don't have a solution for you to prevent that bleed from happening where it starts to creep into the lighter colored wood. Sid says he's trying to mill eight foot long Oak boards on a joiner with mixed results. Any hints for jointing long boards on small equipment. What it's just tough.

I mean, I hate to say you can't. However, as a general rule, as a general guide, you can joint stuff about twice as long as the overall length of your jointer. So if the bed is, if it's like a benchtop joiner and the bed is two or three feet, you're gonna be able to edge joint stuff that's four or six feet, and that's going to be about it. If you're determined to make this go, I would work really hard to set up in feed and outfeed support in addition to the tables. So that could be roller stands.

It could be, I don't know something, but you need something, you need more support, that's going to help prevent the board from sagging off either while you're on the in-feed side and you're starting to feed it, and there's still a mile of wood behind you, or you're getting through the cut and a bunch of board is sticking out there and starting to sag off 'cause you're falling off the outfeed table. So my first thing would be add additional support in feed and out feed for the board. David says proper way to evenly stain maple. You can do a couple different things. One is wood conditioner, maple and Birch and pine can get real blotchy under stain.

So one workaround for that is to use commercially made wood conditioners and they work well, follow their instructions about compatibility with stains and topcoats and everything else. The other thing you can do, interestingly, is you can seal the whole board with shellac. And this, the first time I did this, it was like mind blown because I didn't think this could possibly work, but dewaxed shellac, and you can see all the board with that, very lightly scuff sand the shellac and then stain it. And it'll still, even though you've got shellac on it, it'll still take stain, but that will also help even the color out so that you don't get blotchiness. Shellac is also a great way to deal with end grain.

End grain has a propensity when you're staining stuff to stain much darker than face grain. So shellac on the end grain can help resolve that too. So wood conditioner or shellac, experiment on scrap so you know you can get the look you want before you do your real project. I like your cordless tool cabinet, trying to gauge dimension by height. Let's see how long we've been here.

Okay. It is 64 inches tall, 24 inches wide, 16 inches deep. And just the top part for the cordless stuff is 16 inches tall. Douglas says does polyurethane get old and not dry like shellac, or is there another cause? Putting year-and-a-half-old polyurethane over red mahogany stain waited two days for stain to dry and then what the polyurethane's not drying?

I'm not much of a polyurethane user, trying to think if I run into this. I would... I mean honestly my best advice would be call the manufacturer or email their customer service and ask them the same question. If it's, I mean I don't think you're saying, I don't think you're telling me how long polyurethane has had to dry, right? But if it feels like it's still tacky when it shouldn't be I'd asked this question of the polyurethane manufacturer.

I guess for the most part in this joint, I'm consuming stuff at a fast enough rate that I don't really have a shelf life issue and polyurethane just isn't something I use pretty much ever. So I don't, I just don't have a lot of experience with it. Speaking of dust collection, do you have the fine particle collectors also? I was told after having bought mine, a dust collector without this was useless because it allows fine particles through its bag. That's what well, so these...

One of my dust collectors has a pleated filter on it. The other two have cloth filters, and they're actually aftermarket, they're actually very cool and probably worth a look. There's a company called American Fabric Filter. So on that unit, that Ghostbusters, that's not the original filter that was on there. I called American Fabric Filter, said, this is the diameter here, and they made that filter for me.

I don't remember how fine it is, but, and the dust collector on the other side of the shop, I've got the same filter system and that's on my surface sander, that's on my Supermax and it works great. So there's a number, there's a micron number you can get from the manufacturers to tell you how fine their filters are going. I want to build a table top with a solid wood border with miter joints. How would I go about pulling the pieces together? So so don't do a solid wood top and then capture it with a mitered frame.

You need to do a man-made material top and capture it with a mitered frame. I've seen this go wrong a gazillion times. That solid wood top is gonna expand and contract. And if you miter a frame and now you've got a cross grain piece of banding mitered to the long grain piece of banding, when the top expands and contracts, it's going to blow the thing apart. So use some kind of man-made material to make the field.

And then when you go to band it, you just measure, cut miters, measure, cut miters and work your way around the tabletop. Ron says, what's the max cut on a planer so as not to get snipe? Well I don't think it's really about the maximum cut. I mean, maximum cut is more like what are the planar handle? I've got a five horse unit in here.

I can take almost a quarter inch off per pass. Benchtop planers, you're going to take a 32nd maybe a 16th off inch per pass. The snipe is a function not of how much material you're taken off, but how the machine is set up. On benchtop planers, they typically have locks on the cutter head to help overcome sniping, on big stationary planers, if you read the owner's manual, there are typically instructions for setting up the down pressure on the feed rollers and that helps mitigate snipe. How to keep a drill press chuck from falling off?

Well, that's frustrating, huh? So here's a cool trick. If you've got a Morse taper there and it just keeps falling off the Morse taper, clean it, that's the first thing, and make sure there's no like cosmoline left from the manufacturer in there. And then once it's clean, let it dry. So like clean it with denatured alcohol or a solvent like that, not mineral spirits.

'Cause mineral spirits is just a little bit greasy. Denatured alcohol, naphtha. And then once it's clean and dry, let's see, I've got to think of where I have stuff. Before you put it back together, rub a little chalk on it and then sock it in there. I'm not completely sure what the, I dunno chemistry is of the chalk, but that can really really help the two stay bound together.

So clean it first with Naptha denatured alcohols, sometimes like that, and then once it's dry, put a little chalk on there and try that. Sid says is your shop always so tidy? No. Ask Jenny who works for me. She does a great job of picking up after me.

When I'm frenetically busy, which I usually am, I'm very bad about just setting stuff down wherever. And then of course I can find it and there's stuff every place. Because of the open house we have the Saturday here it's a little unnaturally cleaned right now cause we've been meticulously getting stuff put away and organized. So then somebody else is asking about planer snipe. Is there a way to help a planer not make marks the beginning and end of the board?

So yeah, the marks are snipe. If it's a stationary planer, in the owner's manual it should tell you how to adjust in feed and out feed roller pressure to help reduce that. On benchtop planers, if it's got a cutter head lock, use the cutter head lock. If it doesn't have a cutter head lock, then there's really no way to stop the planer from sniping. What you can do is feed multiple boards.

So if you're planing more than one board, if one goes through and you chase it right away with another one, that'll stop it from sniping, and then chase it with another one, chase it with another one. And that'll eliminate the snipe thing. Okay, if there was one plane to buy, what would it be? Looking for the most versatile purchase. I think a Cessna because they make really good planes.

As far as I know. No, I am the least good person in your world to ask hand tool questions. My standard joke for hand tool related stuff is my hand tools are all in a cabinet behind a glass door and over the door it says in case of emergency break glass. 'Cause I'm just not, I taught into a joinery for peace Corps in Africa for almost three years. And, but since I've been back, it's just not a thing I know much about.

So there are woodworkers out there who will know much better than I, what kind of hand plane to get. I'm trying to get two boards that are 23 by 13 by 1/8th, wanted to join three quarter inch boards, but can't find a band saw with a big enough resaw height, can I resaw smaller boards and join these? Yeah. That's yeah. So if I was shooting for that 23 by 13, by an eighth, I mean, if you can find the band saw, like my band so it's got a 13 inch capacity, so it'd be conceivable.

However, I guess my approach would be, you could do a glue up of like 3/16ths or quarter inch boards. And then I'm assuming the 13 is your width. If you can find somebody with a surface sander to then sand those down to the final 1/8th thickness, I think that would be your best approach. Jim says you do a great job in these live programs. Thank you.

I enjoy it. I'm looking at the clock now, I can't believe it's nearly eight o'clock already, the time goes so fast, and it helps when people are asking a lot of questions, then things really flow. Steven says any suggestions for drilling a forstner bit hole 45 degrees without getting wandering. Yeah. Here's what you could...

Let me think a second. I guess what I would do, let me see if I can, I mean a Brad point bit, if the whole doesn't have to be huge, if it's gotta be forstner-bit-huge, then you're kind of stuck, but if it's a smaller hole I would do it with a brad point instead of a Forstner. But I'm thinking. I'm coming right back, I didn't abandon you. What I'm stewing on here is, here's I guess what I would do.

This is a four by four. It's a piece of Rosewood of all things. Drill your hole through this, then... I'm gonna get a marker so it's easier for you to see. So inside here, drill your hole, nah nah nah nah nah nah.

Nah nah nah nah nah nah. And you might need to thicker block. Then go to a band saw and cut this at 45. Probably need to thicker block, and then use this resulting chunk as a drill guide, clamp that to your work piece. And then when you follow that you should be able to punch a hole into your work piece at 45.

And because the Forrester bit is captured inside this hole, it shouldn't have the opportunity to wander. I would experiment with this, I think this block is going to have to start thicker, so you have more platform here for the 45, but I think that would work. I think it'd give you a running chance. But I would experiment with it and for sure test run that drill guide clamp to scrap before you do it on your project piece. Any familiarity with micro curved blades?

No, sir. I have no idea what that is. David says, we'll do just a couple more here and then we gotta split. Is there a way to fix a 45 degree joint that isn't perfectly flush? Like on a picture frame?

Or... So if the 45 is like this, and you sand, I don't have anything mitered here. If it's like this and then you sand the top piece, you can cheat that and feather a down to a point where it's close to being flush. And then this'll be our last one. Can you post where you will be doing a class and when?

Yes so if you want to track my class information, it's actually on my webpage Vondriskawoodworks.com, and there's one of the menus items on there is classes. And I always have my schedule posted there. And that way, whether I'm teaching here in my shop around the road, everything I'm doing is on there. So just if you're in the Houston area, I will be there in July 12th, 13th, 14th. I'll be at the Rockler store in Spring, Texas, on Friday the 12th.

Rockler store in Houston, Texas on Sunday, the 14th. And then I'm teaching for, teaching cabinet making and furniture making stuff for the Houston woodworking club on Saturday the 13th. But that is open to the public, so you can contact them, don't contact me about that. I'm just showing up. If you Google Houston woodworking club, Houston woodworking Guild, it's one of those two, you'll find them and you can contact them about getting in on those meetings or classes.

All right, I'm going to take one last. I'm holding me over here, Sam, I'm sorry. Yep. Nothing new on YouTube. I think we're covered there.

All right. This is good. We're out of time and out of questions. So thanks so much for tuning in folks and we'll see you. This is, yeah, I'm not sure about July.

We'll get that figured out. 'Cause I think, just watch your posts from, watch your emails from WGOA, 'cause now that I think about it, I think the normal second Thursday of the month I will be in Houston I think, or I'm going to be at the Las Vegas show, one of those two. So anyway, watch your schedule and we'll get July figured out. That's it. Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.