WWGOA LIVE! September 2018

Says we're on. So Sam is our equivalent of the great and powerful eyes. And you do not want to ignore the man behind the curtain because without Sam, we couldn't run this. Welcome to our September live brought to you by Titebond. Thanks very much to Titebond for sponsoring this and keepin' it free for all of you folks at home, or in your shop, or wherever you are.

We have Tyler on the camera. Jenny is ready to get props as needed, right? Could you do me a favor and just go maybe turn off the volume on my computer in there? 'Cause it's obviously on. We've got questions queued up already, so we're gonna jump right in here.

I gonna say something before I jump into questions and I did post this earlier on YouTube. If you're watchin' this on YouTube, I don't monitor the questions on YouTube because it's just too much to go forth and back, and back, and forth. So if you got a question go to wwgoa.com. Upper left hand corner, it says videos, click on that, menu appears, WWGOA Live, click on that, September, that's where you wanna post your questions. So if you're askin' them on YouTube I will never ever, ever, ever see them.

Here we go. Michael says, "Hey, George "watching tonight from the Florida panhandle". Did the hurricane effect you, Michael? Did it go that far South? I don't know.

"New to woodworking "and find the choices locally are limited "to whatever the big box stores carry". And that's true across the country. "I have access to some locally sourced to pecan and hickory "and want to know any special consideration "when using these, and are they a good choice"? And then he says, "Roll tide". Is roll tide a hurricane reference, like the tide is really coming in?

Is that? I am the least sports oriented person in the world at least or sports oriented male in this country. But I do know what roll tide is. Pecan and hickory are both great. If you were watchin' my Instagram stuff maybe a month and a half or two months ago, I did a kitchen table in hickory.

It was beautiful. And I honestly, I was so surprised. I was disappointed that I haven't tried it before this, in my woodworking life. Workin' with both of those, they can be a little bit splintery, a little bit prone to chipping and tearing when you're jointing or planning. So a good sharp knives, and a planer, a jointer, or make sure your hand blade the sharp if that's your approach.

But they're both beautiful woods. They're really nice and great hardwoods to work with. Steve says, "Hello from Port Angeles, Washington. Steven asks, "I know you use AquaCal lacquer. "Do you use AquaCoat filler "on open grain woods like oak and walnut?

"If you do, "do you coat with the filler before or after the shellac"? So if you've not seen my finishing recipe here's what I normally do. A base coat of dewaxed shellac, which if you're looking, for the particular product it's called Zinzer seal coat. And seal coat is simply dewaxed shellac. I put that on first.

Let that flash, let it dry. And then I do water-based lacquer over the top of that. So the other thing you can do and I did it on the hickory table, AquaCoat makes grain filler. And what's the deal with grain filler? Oddly enough, it fills the grain.

When you're working with porous woods red oak is such a great example. There are all of those pores. If you've, if you've finished something in oak, and you meticulously sanded it, and you got finished on there, and then afterward you were disappointed. 'Cause you kinda, you run your fingernails across there. And then.

And you feel like, man, I did a lousy job finishing or the finish never level or something like that. It's not you nor is it the finish. It's the open grain nature of oak. So with a grain filler it invisibly gets in there and it fills those pores. So when your top coat goes over the top you have a much more level surface.

On that hickory table. I couldn't believe the dramatic difference it made. So a couple of questions here. One Steven. Yes, I do use the AgriCoat grain filler.

Two, if you are only doing raw wood, shellac, AquaCoat, top coat, then the grain filler goes on the raw wood. If you're doin' stain, then what you wanna do is stain, shellac, grain filler, top coat. And the reason for that, the AquaCoat folks told me this, it sometimes happens I guess not all the time. I haven't experimented with it 'cause they told me not to do it. If you do the stain and then you do the grain filler over the stain, sometimes the grain filler pulls the stain, and kind of muddies your color.

So if you're stain, the recipe is stain, dewaxed shellac, grain filler, done. Shane says, "Making a few cutting boards "for Christmas presents". Always a big hit. "Few questions, does oil soak in better "on rougher sanded boards? "What final grip do you recommend?

" "Should final sanding be done before "or after the oiling process"? So gonna question number one, does oil soak in better? Maybe, but you don't want rough boards. If you're making a cutting board, let's jump to question number two. One final grid.

I would sand a hardwood cutting board 180, for sure. Probably 220 and then apply the oil to that sand that sanded surface. Then your last question, final sanding would be done before or after the oiling process? You know, I have wet sanded hardwoods with a little bit of oil on 'em, and then like wet sanding, a finish on a car. Wet sanded it at that point.

In all honesty, if you've already sanded it to 220 and then you oil it I don't think it's gonna need any sanding on top of that. So you could be done once the oil was on. Robert says, "I cut finger joints on 24 inch wide boards "with a radial arm saw fitted with a dado". Well, Robert, you might be the only person left in America with a radial arm saw. I had one when I opened my own shop, I had one.

Very useful tool. My insurance company would let me use it. They wouldn't let my students in class use it. So at 24 inch wide board, and of course your radial arm saw, pointing to my sliding miter saw, like a sliding miter saw. I was gonna pull across our board.

We put a dado head in there. I would say I can't envision a way that if what you're planning on doing, let me grab a board. If this is your 24 inch wide board and what you wanna do is finger joint the ends like this, so this board can join another one. I can't envision a way, a means by which you can stand this on end and cut those fingers in here, because you've got to get the dado head pulled through this way. For instance, if I were doing this on a table saw, dado head coming out of the table saw, I'd be feeding across the top of it like this, that you need to emulate that on your radial arm saw.

I just can't. I can't picture a way to pull that off so I could be very wrong. But I'm thinking that a radial arm saw just isn't gonna do the joinery that you want to do on that particular front. Steven says, "Do you cut thin resaw next "to the fence or awake from the blade"? I assume you're talking about the bandsaw.

Let's head for the band saw, Tyler. And I, I can't, I won't be able to resaw 'cause I've got a really small blade with me right now. But we can talk through it. So Steven's question is, we're setting up to resaw and you wanna cut real thin stock. So am I gonna do this?

Veneer, you're usually shooting for about three 3/32 of an inch. Am I gonna do this? Peel it off the inboard side, or this, peel it off the outboard side? I always take it off the outboard side. Now here's the sequence of events.

I clean up this face, probably face jointed on my jointer. I clean up that face. I position the fence. I cut my veneer from the outboard face. I clean up the saw marks that just appeared on this board.

I move my fence, I make another cut. I clean up the saw marks, move my fence, make another cut. So the downside of this is that, every time we're cutting a new piece, we're moving the fence to peel it off the outboard side. The benefit, what I find, is that when I resaw a veneer, if I try to do it with the thin piece in between the blade and the fence, the board has a tendency to collapse into the cut. And then it's, for me, it's pretty much impossible to get a good straight cut, where if I'm peeling them off the outboard side, then of course that thin piece is just peeling away.

So we don't have that issue. So that has a lot more appeal to me. Oh, they're not even listening. It's all right, I laugh at my own jokes. Nobody needs to laugh at it.

So the answer to your question, Steven, is set it up. I always set it up. So I'm takin' them off the outboard side and a little more work, 'cause you're moving the fence each time but I think it better resolved. Maybe, Jenny, just grab my laptop and just hand it to me, just in case. I'll watch this so you don't block me, but thank you for thinking of my head.

Thank you dear. All right, Tim McFarland says, "Hi George. "I have a 12 by 20 Dutch barn I use as a woodshop. "I struggle with dust collection in the small space, "12 by 20", that's a nice space. "I've considered a shop vac with tornado filter option".

We'll come back to that. "Would you find that a sufficient "or opt for a dedicated dust collection system," "perhaps you have when you recommend"? So let's talk, let's talk shop vacuums versus dust collectors for a second. So in, in broad strokes what we can say, is a shop vac is a high suction, low CFM device, CFM, cubic feet per minute. A dust collector is a high CFM, cubic feet per minute, low suction.

So suction is meant often measured, easy to say, in inches of water. And literally what that means is if I hook a hose up to a pipe, how many inches up the pipe, and the end of the pipe is in a bucket of water. How many inches will it pull water up the pipe? With a shop vac, you'll get it a long way up, 'cause it's got a lot of suction. It's got a lot of vacuum.

With a dust collector, you'll barely get water to come up the pipe. So the problem with what you're describing, Tim, is that for instance, I had a table saw the recommended CFM for adequate dust collection on most table size is around 400 CFM. Most shot vacuums operate at about 90 CFM, maybe a hundred. So they got a lot of vacuum. They don't move a lot of air.

Now, couple, not really exceptions to the rule but a couple of qualifiers. If all you've got for dust collection is a shop vacuum. It is way more, better than nothin'. But especially when you get to something like a jointer or a planer, it's gonna be very difficult, If not impossible for a shop vacuum to keep up with the volume of stuff, the volume of shavings coming off of those tools. I do find a shop vacuum works pretty well on a router table.

It works okay on like a, a benchtop table maybe, where all you're doing is all you're doing is cutting. When you get to stuff like dado cuts on a full-sized table saw I think a shop vaccuum would have a really hard time keeping up with the dust that you're creating. So like I said, it's certainly better than nothing but a shop vacuum is not a, is not a great choice for general dust collection in your shop. Gary says, "With Titebond glue, "polyurethane and Titebond 3, "are they both food safe"? Titebond 3 is.

Hey Jenny could you grab the, let me look in that? Oh, I think you're gonna have to go this way. Grab a bottle of Titebond 3, if there is one, and a bottle of the polyurethane glue 'cause I actually can't remember if it's labeled, that's not it. You could look, if you go in that store room right there there's all the extra glue bottles are on the shelf kind of above your head. So Jenny will retrieve that and we'll see, like I said, Titebond 3 is and Titebond 2 is, I'm not sure if polyurethane.

Nothin'? Let me just walk, let me walk this way and I'll see if I have one. I've got a three, I've got 'em both. We kinda got stuck on that glue question. Yeah.

Thank you. All right. So right here on the 3, it flat out says FDA approved for indirect food contact. Polyurethane. I'm reading very fast.

It does not say that this is food safe. If you wanna double check, that Titebond, of course, would know, but just from reading the labels, it clearly says it on one, not the other. "I live in the Philippines", Gary goes on, "Where it is always wet "and humid, I was wondering on the difference. "I'm guessing Titebond 2 is good for indoor items "and seems to be food safe, but not as much as three. So the difference between two and three, water resistant, waterproof.

Titebond 2, if you're puttin' together an Adirondack chair, where yes, it's gonna get rained on every once in a while, Titebond 2 is fine. Titebond 3, if you're building a planter, where you're gonna fill it with soil and it's under constant exposure to moisture, three is gonna be a better choice. All right. And then Gary says, "Can you go into details "about what to look for in Japanese double-sided saws"? One is for ripping and one is for cross cutting.

"I'd like more information about other options "of what to look for when buying one". So Jenny, if you could grab, see the, it's a bamboo handle saw, on the pegboard just to the left of the spoke or yep. Cabin scraper. Yep. So here's what Gary's talking about.

And unfortunately, Gary, I'm gonna grossly disappoint you. I own a couple of these. So, so here's what we're talking about. Japanese double-sided saw. Fine teeth on this side, coarse teeth on the side, cross-cutting versus ripping.

If you're not already aware of it with Japanese saws they cut on the pull stroke instead of the push stroke. One of the things that allows is a really thin blade. What's the benefit to that? Thin curve. So we're fighting the saw less as we cut because we've got a thinner curve saw.

The other thing that I really like about it is that as you cut, because you cut on the pull stroke, you're tensioning the blade on the cuts. With western style saws, you're cutting on the push stroke. So you're putting resistance against it that way. And we've probably all experienced when a hands saw flexes like crazy. It's kind of a "Three Stooges" looking thing.

And with the Japanese saw, they're not gonna do that. So I learned to do hand tool work on western saws, conventional dovetail saws, overseas in Africa. When I got back here, I switched to Japanese saws. That being said, I own a couple of these Gary, in all honesty. I think I bought this at a woodcraft store.

At some point, I don't know what I was shopping for. You know, if other people have information on these put 'em in the comments. At the end of the day, I own a couple, but I don't, I don't have good buying advice, as far as characteristics to look for. I love the saw. I'm glad I have it, but again, I can't give you much help there.

Sorry. "Is the band saw "the best way to cut a four inch square, "glue up of coasters? "I was using a miter saw, "miter gauge, all the boards straight, "and was getting some drift on my saw table. "Is the issue likely with my bandsaw or my technique"? Well, it's, it's such a small piece.

I would be inclined. I like the idea doing it in the band saw because that's a nice, safe way to handle small parts. Jenny, I'm gonna send you in that direction. Good thing we stayed here. So see the jigs.

See the saw stop brake on the pegboard? That's below, below the brake. Nope. Right above where you are. That jig is the one we want.

Yup. The jig is up. I lost my train of thought. So I like the idea of cutting it on the band saw because it's level. Let me trade you for the glue.

Heads up. Heads up. It's like living in this, like we're livin' in the circus. So Tyler, gonna make you work a second. This is my, this is my band saw, small parts jig.

So the way this works, and this is included, we've got a jigs and fixtures class online GOA does. And this jig is included in that class. So miter gauge slot, miter gauge track, goes in the miter slot like that. And then. And in fact, I'll cut this piece of maple just to show you 'cause it's cool.

Thank you Jenny. Jenny brought a stool over for my laptop, 'cause she recognizes that's an accident waiting to happen. I use this all the time. Don't ask me why I only put one earpiece in that was stupid. I use this all the time for cuttin' small parts.

So for you Gary, small four inch coasters, four by four coasters, you could use a sled like this on your bandsaw, which would probably give you better results than a miter gauge. The other way to do it. I would probably be inclined to make a sled for my table saw that includes a toggle clamp. So now Jenny, if you could bring, actually, let me think a second. If you go in to that Axiom CMC, like three doors down, there are a bunch of red handled clamps.

I would probably make a jig for my tablesaw that's got a toggle clamp on it which Jenny's about to bring us. Like that, but different. There's another style in there. Nope. It's just like what you had in your hand.

Maybe check a different drawer. I know they're in there. Yes, ma'am, either one of those. And use the toggle clamp to secure the board, so your pinkies don't have to get close to the blade. Toggle clamp, so this is gonna get fast into your jig.

This is gonna be out here. So when you throw the clamp, that's gonna hold the coaster down, and then you can make your cut without having your fingers uber close to the blade. The reason I'm saying go to the table saw is you're gonna get a better cut there than you do with the band saw. So you'll have less sanding to do. And Gary points out, There are two different Gary's asking questions.

So it wasn't a Gary asking like 16 questions. It was a couple of Gary's. Todd Whirl says, "Good evening "and hello from Houston, Texas. "In some of the GOA classes from cabinet builds, "I noticed you don't use sleepers "in the middle of your toe kick. "You think they're really necessary"?

I guess not, 'cause I don't know what sleepers are and I don't use 'em. I think on the, in the classes, most of the cabinets I've done have been relatively narrow. If a cabinet has it. So if a sleeper is a thing to like carry the toe, when I'm building a 40 inch long base cabinet, it's gonna have a mid-wall. And that mid wall is also gonna carry the toe.

So that's serving that purpose for me. So hopefully Todd, that answers your question. So Chris says he's forcing his mother-in-law to watch with him. So Elizabeth, I hope you're staying awake, and Chris fed you plenty of caffeinated product, like coffee before we started. 'Cause I am guessing if you're not a woodworker this is as boring as the day is long.

So hi Elizabeth, and thanks for watching. And Tim wants to know if Gary is the most common name in woodworking. It's the most common name in Indiana. Craig says, "What is the best way to fill pine "and not have issues staining it after"? So you're pining over some staining issues.

I'm on such a roll tonight it's crazy. Roll tide. Yeah roll tide. So you can do a couple of things, Craig. Here's the problem.

There are woods that are inherently blotchy when you stain 'em. Pine is one, birch is one, maple is one. So products like a wood conditioner, you put that on before you stain, it soaks into the wood and you'll be amazed at what a difference that makes. It really levels out the quality of your stain when you put stain on. So wood conditioner is one choice.

What I more commonly do. Hey Jenny, could you grab a can of that Zinsser seal coat out of the finishing cabinet, 'cause we keep talking about it? I more commonly spray a coat of Zinsser seal coat. And this is like, the first time I did this was so counterintuitive. 'Cause I'm like, well you're sealing the whole thing with shellac and then you're gonna stain it with that?

But you've already sealed it. I think one shelf down from where you're looking maybe, oh, I see it right in front of your right elbow. So like two shelves down from where you are. One more shelf down that brown can right there. And then, that say seal coat?

So another option for you, Craig, is to seal everything with seal coat. So that the key to this is it's shellac, but it's dewaxed shellac. Seal everything with this, lightly sand it, 220 grit, then stain over this and it will still stain, and it'll level out that blotchiness issue. It works amazingly well. The other thing you may notice is even if you have woods that are not so blotchy, so maybe you're you're gonna stain cherry, although white wood, I don't know, but maybe you are, but I'm picking cherry because it's such a nice closed grain wood.

But end grain pretty much always stains darker than face grain. Same treatment. Give only the end grain a coat of dewaxed shellac before you stain and you'll have uniform stain color everywhere. Of course, as always, with finishing, experiment with this stuff on scrap before you use it on a real project. But shellac is my go-to for that.

Robert is saying "One by 12 by 24 inch boards". So we're back to the radial arm saw, the finger joints on the radial arm saw question. And then it goes on to say, "The arms swivels 360 degrees". Maybe there'd be a way to do this. If you, if you turn the cutter instead of this way.

I'm trying to remember my radial arm. I think my radial arm also turned this way. So could the board stand up like this? And then you're pulling it through, cutting a finger raising the data ahead, pulling it, through cutting a finger. Would be really hard to be accurate with that.

But maybe that would work. I don't know It just sounds like possibly not the best tool for the job. James was asking, "This is my first online event like this, "is there a video that goes with"? Yeah. So James look above where the questions are being typed.

I'm gonna go up there now just to make sure but boy, hope we're, and it says so on my screen, I'll show you, it says, "Learn from the woodworking pros" which I guess they mean me. That seems weird. But then I think if I click this it's gonna be yeah. That's us. So James look.

That's kinda weird. It's like the Twilight Zone thing. Just to make sure. Where's my pause? All right.

Yeah, so click that window up there and you'll get live action video. And then two, remember this stuff is always archived. So if there's anything you want to go back and revisit, these are always free and they're archived forever. So a couple things, 725. One, thanks to Titebond, we're standing in a different part of the shop.

So the banners over there, but still, nah you're okay. Thank you to Titebond. Two, I mentioned this at the top. We, if you're watching this on YouTube and you're posting questions there I'm not gonna see them. 'Cause we only monitor questions and wwgoa.com.

So if you've got a question you want me to put my peepers on, make sure you go to wwgoa.com. Videos, WWGOA Live, September and post your question. Sam answered the same question. All right, continuing. I scrolled down a little too far.

Robert says, "All my 16 gallon Craftsman "shop vac keeps up with a five-eight dado "on my radial arm saw". That's good to know. So he is getting that, he's speaking to the air flow issue. So it is keeping up with the dust that's created, which is great. James says, I recently spoke with Titebond about this.

So now we're back to the glue question and they said both two, and three are FDA approved. Yeah, that I knew. It's the polyurerthane that I, as far as I can tell is not necessarily, is not FDA I don't think. But check with Titebond. What's the best finish sealer for a live edge slab?

There isn't really a best one. You know, finish isn't. Finish is more about like what's the best finished sealer for you? So in my case, I have a facility in which I can spray. So I spray on my finish.

That affects what finishes I choose to use. If you can't spray that'll affect what finishes you choose to use. So it's not really about the fact that it's a live edge, it's what different finishes do. Oils that you can just wipe on with a rag are super easy to wipe on, wipe off the excess. And you're about done at that point.

Polyurethanes offer a lot of protection but they take a long time to dry. So if you're finishing in your shop and there's little bit of dust mites fallen out of the air still, there's a good chance they're gonna get in your finish. Lacquer is a fairly protective finish, dries very fast. Solvent based lacquers have a real strong smell that many people don't like. So if you're finishing in a basement probably not a good choice.

So we've got, if, for just general like information on finishing we've got a finishing class, and it walks you through attributes of a bunch of different kinds of stains, a bunch of different kinds of top coats. And it's really provided to be a primer on just to help you choose, if I'm doin' this, what's a good finish to pick for it? And if this is my only means of application, what's a good finish choice for me? Ross asks, "Do you use the Festool Domino"? I do.

I use it and I love it. It's a great tool. It is not inexpensive, but, and I always say a Festool doesn't owe me anything. And I don't owe them anything. That being said, owning a Festool Domino in my furniture work, I will probably never cut a traditional board mortise and tenon again.

The Domino is so fast and so easy, and so strong. It's an amazing way to put stuff together. So yeah, I love and I've actually got both of them. I've got the small one and the big one and I use 'em all the time. I own a, I own a mortiser, so I can cut mortises pretty easy.

But like I said, with a Domino here, every furniture project I've done recently, you know, typical rail to link construction has been put together with Dominos. What's the best way to cut a plastic lens for a fluorescent light fixture? Let's go, Tyler, toward the saw, table saw. And Jenny, if you could throw that, once we make a move maybe, I'll take that, drinky-drink, 'cause I'm running low on liquid. I had it for the table saw because you should be able to cut fluorescent light lenses here at your table saw.

And really it's gonna be all about blade selection. You want to have a, in fact you can kind of, you can tell a plastic is the last thing this was used on because that's plastic right there. You wanna use a fine toothed blade, and in the, I'll try to lock down to do zoom. Fine toothed blade. And the other thing to pay attention to is the hook or rake of the blade.

So that is how much angle the teeth are at or aren't at. If the teeth are really leaning and leaning into the cut. When you read the blade, it'll say like it might say 10 degree hook. And that means it's leaning forward into the cut 10 degrees. This one I think is, this one is a 10 degree.

You can go five degree. You can also go negative hook. So you wanna have 10 degrees or less really for cutting plastic. What that does is it makes it less aggressive. So you'll get a better result on your, on that fluorescent lens.

All right. That's helpful. Can Titebond products be thin if they become too thick to pour? I'd be, I think if it got too thick to pour, I would question the viability of the glue. I hate to answer this one, because glue, of course, is a pretty important part of a project.

And I don't want to lead you down to a done a primrose path here. I would call, I would call Titebond and ask 'em, but I feel like if it sat so long that it thickened up, what does a bottle of glue cost? What is your project cost to make, time and materials? Maybe just buy a new bottle of glue. I would be hesitant to thin it out because of the, just the chemistry of it.

Guest 2117, that's I haven't seen that before, that guest thing moniker says, "Good evening, George". So could evening to you ma'am or sir. Another guest, as a new woodworker, what power tools are a must for my shop? I have a 25 by 10 foot space and currently a planer, jointer, table saw, chop saw, anything missing? I would get the next tool would be a credit card with a really high limit, and then get whatever you want.

Let's see, I don't know, planer, jointer, table saw, chop saw. So you're in great shape there in the world of portable power tools. A handheld router, a good sander, a random orbit sander, A router table, I think, is a wonderfully versatile piece of equipment. Small space, you could get that as either a bench top or a floor mount depending on how your layout works for you. So you're, you're doin', I think you're doin' well on your round of tools you have there.

Maybe, tertiary down the list, maybe a drill press. At some point. It's a boring tool, but they're handy to have. But if you can do a lot of work with, Jenny just got that. Boring is another word for drilling.

And Tyler didn't get it, 'til Jenny explained it. That's 'cause Jenny did her work study here in the shop as a senior in high school. So she's got more ins in the woodworking world than Tyler does. Now I lost my train of thought. There's a lot of work that you can do with a drill press you can't do with handheld drill.

So depending on what you're doing a drill press may or may not be too high on the list. James tells us he's, he's posted a link here for us where you can go to Titebond and see the FDA stuff on their products. John, "Stained a jewelry box and decided after "to add heat that attached to corners of the box. "Is there a preferential clue to attach", oh clue, but I think he meant maybe glue, "to attach unfinished feet to a stain box"? Well, yeah.

So as a rule, as a rule, if the wood's already got finished on it glue's gonna have a hard time sticking. What I would lean toward doing is sanding only the area where the feet are gonna go, and try to sand down to where, you know, it doesn't have to be completely raw wood but get to where you're seein' some raw wood. And then once you've got that, you can, you could go back to just yellow glue and use that to put the feet up. But I would start by removing some of the finish so that you've got a wood to wood bond that isn't interfered with by the, by the finish. Allister says, "Looking for easy ways to glue up tabletops".

Let me think on that a second and see if I can grab some material. We'll head for the glue table and do a little walk here. We'll come back to that. Mark says, "How does one get rid of a radial arm saw"? Yeah, I mean you could Craigslist it 'cause obviously people like, was it Roger or I'm forgetting names here.

People that are still usin' them. So you might be able to sell it and you could poke around with that. There might be somebody out there who wants it. Since I retired, I gave all my tools to my sons and we moved to a retirement community. I only have a small double car garage and the car and golf cart barely fit in.

We got to have priorities. So you got the golf cart in there. I bought a Shopsmith to be able to have something because it doesn't take up much room. Where do you get the Shopsmith other than having to keep switching tools on it? I have a long history with Shopsmith.

I worked for them starting in about 1986 and then overseas with Peace Corps, came back, worked for Shopsmith again. I always liked, especially for people with small space, the Shopsmith offered a lot of versatility, just a really important aspect, so that if you're not familiar, what happens with the Shopsmith is it's a five in one tool, table saw, drill press, horizontal board, disk sander and wood blade. And when you're doing each of those operations you're gonna change it from one to the other. Additionally, there are tools, jointer, bandsaw, planer that can be connected to the power head so that you have more options. So every time you're gonna do something you're interchanging tools.

You're not gonna walk from the table saw to the drill press. You're gonna, excuse me, you're gonna take this tool and change it from a table saw to a drill press. So it's really important that you plan your work and work your plan, so that you're efficient about making those changes. So I haven't used the Shopsmith, Eddie, for a long time, but like I said, back in the day, I mean I got to a point where I owned two or three of them because I liked the way they worked. So I appreciate their efficiency.

And the discussion about shop vacs. Jim asks, "Do cyclings make a difference "in your recommendation to not use that "for planers and jointers"? I think if you're adding a cyclonic cylinder after the tool, and before the shop vacuum there might be a little bit of air loss there. I know a friend of mine, he's got one. I think he's got a Festool system and he's got the Dust Deputy from Oneida and he loves it.

He uses it in line between the Festool, whatever tool he's using, and he loves it. Then he's just dumping a bucket of stuff. He's not constantly emptying bags out of the vacuum. So my guess is you've got a little air dynamic going on there, and you're gonna, you're gonna have some loss, but I think the gain of having this in-between chamber, where you're dropping all that stuff out, and you're not sending those chips to clog up the filter on your vacuum, is gonna make it worth it. Chris asked, "You to have a video "of the bench built and showed on Instagram"?

I don't. So here's what, let, let's go back to this thing to the main bench. We'll circle around here. And the question, or the the project Chris is asking about is this work bench. And in retrospect, I should have had this in mind when I built it.

In all honesty, what happened is I winded a four by eight bench in the worst way. And I started puttin' this thing together. And I honestly, I just, I planned in my head and I built as I went. And this was what I got up, came up with. Since then, dozens of people have asked about it, like probably more than dozens of people.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I am going to get a bunch of photos of it. I'm gonna do some amount of sketch-up work, probably not super, super detailed, but enough to give you a general perspective on how the thing went together. And then I'll put that on the Vondriska Woodworks site. Vondriskawoodworks.com.

There's a page on there, that's got other downloads on it. And once that's available, you can you can email me, if you want to get on an email list that will let you know when it's available. And then, and I'll just give that away because it's not gonna be, like I said, it's not gonna be super detailed, but hopefully giving you enough information to let you do it. And part of the reason I didn't do that from the get go, is that it's a four by eight bench. And I know most woodworkers are in small spaces.

I'm in 3,600 square feet. So I thought, well, I'm not gonna bother documenting this because so few people can use a four by eight bench. So my fault. So. I inherited an older basic table saw from my late father-in-law.

The fence is not the greatest. What recommendations do you have for replacement? Some companies like Biesemeyer. Now I gotta think a second. Delta owns Biesemeyer, and Delta had some issues about product, about production.

So I would Google, see if Biesemeyer fences are still in the marketplace. B-I-E-S-E-M-E-Y-E-R. And I've had table saws where I've added those as aftermarket fences to the table saw. It's an amazing fence. Now the other thing is just Google after market table saw fence and see what you find.

But that Biesemeyer has served me while as an add on for a couple of different saws. Rasayn says, "Hey, George, I hear you're been to the east". This is correct. I am a traveling man. Some of you will get that.

Some of you won't. Cliff says, "George, would you suggest "the best ways to ground dust extraction system, please"? He's watching from the bush in Canberra, Australia. So that's pretty cool. Here's the thing, Cliff, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna be more comfortable if you get this information from Clearview or Oneida or somebody that really knows what they're talking about because I'd hate to be the guy you call in like a week and say, "I blew up my shop "because you didn't tell me how to ground it correctly".

So I, you know, I do, I have dust collectors? Yes, they're, they're actually all spiral piped. So I didn't have to ground the system, 'cause they're on spiral pipe. So I don't want to lead you down a primrose path here. So I appreciate you asking.

However, I'm gonna ask that you get that information from someone who knows way more than I. Dave says, "I agree with Robert. "I love my radial arm saw, "with the right accessories, it'll do everything". And that's, I don't disagree and I'm not, I don't mean to put them down. They're amazing tools.

And when you see these books from like the fifties and sixties about all the different stuff especially with accessories, you can do on a radial arm. I used to use a Wagner safety planer when I taught for Shopsmith. And that was originally a radial arm saw accessory. And you would turn the head sideways, connect the safety planer, to the spindle coming out of the motor. And it was a rotary, like fly cutter.

It was a fly cutter. So if you wanted to flatten the surface like you would with a planer, you could pull this back and forth across the surface, what an amazingly versatile tool. So a radial arm saws had their place. Somebody asks, "I want to retread my stairs "with half inch three quarter inch red oak. "Do I cut the current overhang off "or use deeper treads to cover the current edge"?

I'm not sure. I can't visualize this. And it's kind of a, it's kind of a home improvement question. Maybe not a woodworking question. Let me read it again.

Gonna retread my stairs with oak. "Do I cut the current overhang off or use deeper treads"? You're talking about refacing the treads? I don't know. It would depend on the look.

I don't think I can answer those questions. 'Cause there's a lot of variables here. I would mock it up. I would mock up the new tread in a way, I guess, where you're leaving, where you're creating a deeper trench to cover the edge and see if you like how that looks. And if you do, keep going, and if you don't, go back to option one.

Jim asks what CutList software do you use? I use CutList Plus from Bridgewood Design. And what I'm starting to mess with, I've been using SketchUp for maybe six months or so, and just gettin' better at it. But anyway, there's a CutList plugin for SketchUp and I have it, I got it, but I haven't used it extensively yet. So that if you're, Jim, if you're a SketchUp guy, you might want to entertain, tryin' that plug in.

I do know people that have had success with it. So that would be another option. But today, big cabinet projects, CutList Plus from Bridgewood. Tim says, "I'm jealous of your hoard of clamps. "I'm doing a lot of cutting boards for family, "seems to be the Christmas trend this year.

"Finishing with walnut oil I think is just preference. "But would you finish with anything after that? "Like a wax"? I think with walnut oil you're done. I think that can be your top coat on a cutting board.

Robert is advising us on thickened glue. He says, "I'm a chemist, thickened glue is half set, "body-care material has fewer molecules". So net-net, Robert is saying don't use the thick glue. If you want to double-check, give Titebond a jingle jingle jingle and they'll, they'll answer for ya. Kevin.

Oil based finishing products sometimes contain a warning label indicating the dust created by sanding between coats is subject to spontaneous combustion. Makes sense. Any suggestion for safely collecting the dust produced when sanding between coats? Well what you need to not do is get an airborne. So don't blow it then with an air compressor.

I guess I can see this, you know, just like a flour mill explosion or a sawdust explosion. In this case that dust, not only is it dust, which is prone to combusting, but it's also a very volatile product, it's finish. So I guess I would like wipe it down with a rag. That'd probably be the safest way. Then you're not getting it airborne.

Casper asks, "I need a one by three oak board "that needs to be rounded on one end, semicircle, "how would you perform this cut"? Jigsaw hand-held jigsaw or a, or a band saw. I find, Steve S, I find that as I use my router table, the insert seems to move up and down, and I need to re-level it. Is there a way to keep the insert steady level? I thought of using Loctite, but mine was way too old to try.

Oh yeah, I would use Loctite. So are you saying if what you're saying is, Oh then he goes on. "The router insert seems to move over time "while using the table, if that makes sense". So if, if the insert is not staying level with the table, typically there are jack screws that come either through the table and they the kiss the bottom of the insert. And that's what holds it level.

Or there are screws that go through the insert and kiss the top of the table. And that's what holds it level. In either case, I would use the blue Loctite, not the red. I used the blue Loctite to lock up those threads and try to keep that in place. Albert says, "Hello, George".

Hello Albert. Merrimack, Massachusetts. "Is there any major difference between latex paint "and latex stain? "Looking to finish a table, "and I find that some latex paints remain sticky "even after it dries, especially in humid weather. "Is there a latex paint or stain that dries harder "and less sticky"?

Wow, well it's gotta dry. Yeah, I don't. I mean, if it's not drying, we got a thing. 'Cause it's gotta cure. If your shop is super humid I would try running a dehumidifier.

I've run a dehumidifier in my shop many, many times just for this purpose. In here I don't like running the air conditioner in the summertime just 'cause I don't like having the AC on. But, especially when I'm finishing, it'll get to a point where I have to run the air just to pull the humidity out of the air, so that my finishes can dry adequately or correctly. So I haven't tried that yet. I'd try dehumidifying your shop to make sure the finished drives.

'Cause I think latex paint or latex stain, you're gonna have the same issue either way. If it's not curing out, it's not curing out. That being said, I said, I'm not hugely. I don't use water based stains. I just, as a rule, I don't use stains.

So I don't have a lot of experience with it. Ross say he's had a Shopsmith for 40 years and it does things okay, but not great. Accuracy is always key. Gary says, "Any suggestions on thickness "of boards for use in a dining table glue up"? The kitchen table I just built, I bought four quarter material, I'm sorry, five quarter material.

And then my finished table was one inch. And I liked that look a lot. That table is 32 wide, no, 36 wide, 72 long. And I felt like with that biggest slab if there was three quarter inch stock, it would look out of scale. So I went, that's why I went with a full one for the tabletop stuff.

Starting with five quarter. Dan asks. "Question is, is the Festool track saw worth the price "or is there a model you feel works just as well"? I love my Festool track saw, I use it a lot. It is admittedly very, very expensive.

I have got a Craig track that runs with my DeWalt circular, it'll run with any circular saw. And nowhere near the cut quality from that, because it's just, it's a DeWalt circular saw designed for cutting two by fours. The Festool saw has tighter tolerances, tighter bearings and not just Festool, but many track saws have those attributes. I know people, you know, this is statistic of one stuff. I know people who are very happy with the DeWalt.

I know people with the cordless Makita track saw that they're very happy with. I haven't tried 'em. So just speaking to my own experience the Festool has served me very, very well, but I know it's expensive. I would look for some magazine, you know Wood Magazine does tool tests all the time. And I would Google tracks saw tool tests and look for objective tests where they've looked at six or eight systems.

And see what they say. "Is your shop separate "from where you live, as in somewhere "to drive to every day"? Separate from where I live, but somewhere to walk to. I live about a half mile from my shop. So my truck and my car can sometimes sit unused for a week at a time.

'cause I walk back and forth. Lenny's got some additional details on the dust explosion possibilities from finishing dust. Jim says "I bought a home in snow country "and I'm building a new shop. "Any suggestion for the safest way "to heat the shop in the winter"? In my old shop, the furnace was in the shop And I knew I would be, I knew I'd have airborne dust and I knew some finishing was gonna happen in there.

So I put in what was a, oh man, all I can think of internal combustion. And that's an engine. The bottom line is it was, it was a natural gas furnace with no exposed flame. So the pilot igniter was in a sealed chamber and the flame was in a sealed chamber. So there was zero way, and the air intake was PVC pipe that came in from the outside, was my air intake.

And then it was high efficiency. So the exhaust was another PVC pipe that went out. So there was zero chance for stuff to get to the flank. So that would be a choice. Electric heat, in my part of the country, electric heat is an expensive way to heat a building but that would be another choice.

And there are probably other ones out there. I would really talk to an HVAC person and describe what's goin' on, you know, describe your setup and see what they recommend. Oh yep, Allister, yeah. We'll go back to the glue up thing. I'm gonna cut this piece of cedar right here and then we'll walk over there.

Ross, "Watching from Emily, Minnesota, "still building fishing rods", which I've seen "And they're beautiful and turning wood handles". Very nice. Robert asks, "How is your hand"? Thanks for askin'. It's way more better.

So I had a little ligament injury on my left hand. This is week six of eight, of a, Tyler's reminded me because I answered this question earlier in a live stream. Week six of eight of having them taped. In all honesty, I can't wait for the tape to come off 'cause it's killing me. I'm like the penguin from the Batman movies and it's killing me.

Let me quickly cut this piece of cedar. And then we're gonna head to the glue table and answer, kinda walk Allister through a glue up. All right. Walk this way. Without dropping the laptop.

I'm gonna get stuff while you're coming this way. All right. Here's some tips, Allister. First, good clamps. Here's the thing, parallel jaw clamps are not inexpensive.

I think that these 30 inch clamps are about 45 or 50 bucks. However, they're a really good investment for glue ups because the jaws don't flex, hence the name parallel jaws. They really do a good job of helping your work stay straight. So if you can do it, get two of these, 30 inches is a great versatile length. Then on your boards.

Now these have not been jointed But I would go to my jointer and then I would take the boards and I would do this. And when you do this with hand pressure, you should be able to close this joint. If you do this and you can still see light, go back to the jointer. We're not asking the clamps to close the joint. The joint should want to, the joint should close on its own.

So you got to have good edges. That's joint work. Then how many clamps? The way to think about your clamps is that when I have my clamps on my work and I start to tighten. I did a lousy job cutting these three boards to uniform length.

When I start to tighten, like there's a cone of pressure that comes off the clamp and it's about a 45 degree cone. So when I look at my clamp position, I want the cone from this clamp to overlap the cone from this clamp. So 45 degrees, 45 degrees. This looks like a pretty good setup for this. If you need, if two clamps is enough to get the overlap on the pressure cone, you have to add another clamp.

As you start to tighten them. Now, of course we've got glue on here. Stuff has a propensity to swim around a little bit. If it's a big glue up like those hickory that hickory table I was talkin' about I'll put biscuits in there, not to reinforce the joint because the joint is plenty strong without 'em, but to help align the surfaces so that they stay in alignment, so that I'm not doing weeks of sanding later. The other trick for that is to take a clamp and I'm gonna turn this so you can see more better.

So the other way to make sure these boards stay level is to take a clamp, bridge the seam. At this point, your bar clamps would still be loose. Bridge the seam, tighten and just snug is good. What that pad is doing is holding those surfaces level. And then close the clamp.

So good clamps, good joinery, locate the clamps, so you have a pressure cone that overlaps each other. Clamping calls can be an option or clamps like this to help level things out, biscuits in the joint to help level things out. If you go on goa.com and you Google, and you search clamping tips, you'll find a video that walks through a glue up like this. Okay. Jenny, Paul is asking about the shop dog.

So you probably gotta bring her over here. And then this'll be our wrap up and we'll get Sam out, Sam and Tyler, and Jenny can all go home. You aren't gonna believe the tolerant dog is about to come in to the frame here. So this is Vida. Jenny, what kinda dog is Vida?

A newfie chow. A newfie chow. We think she's a rescue. She's a rescue. Originally New Mexico is where we got her, right?

Yeah. Came from a kill shelter in New Mexico. So Jenny saved her life. And that's how she got the name Vida, which is for life. What else do you want to tell us about her?

Eight years old or so, right? She's 10. 10 years old. She's a good girl. She's a good girl.

She doesn't mind the tools in here. Very tolerant of loud noise. But thankfully, you know, like grandchildren, I like the dog, but she goes home at the end of the day, 'cause it's Jenny's dog. So that's Vida. All right, can we wrap up?

Thanks again to the folks at Titebond for sponsoring, very much, very much, thanks. Thanks to you, a lot. What am I saying? Thank you for watching and tunin' in tonight. And we should be on track for second Thursday in October, 7:00 PM central time will be our next live like this and I'm working on a guest.

It'll either be October or November but we'll have a guest, more on that later. So that's it. Thanks for watchin' and get out there in the shop and make chips, man.