WT28

General:
* This season on New Yankee Workshop, Norm is building… kitchen cabinets!? Do you find watching Norm build cabinets interesting? Or is this season a bit boring to you? Let us know what you think!
* Check out Dave Noftz’s website and podcast at modernwoodshop.com.
* Matt signed up for a handsaw class with Chris Schwarz.
* There are lots of new blogs and podcasts about woodworking starting up.
– The Teenage Woodworker (http://lumberjocks.com/teenagewoodworker/blog/3383)
– Dave Noftz (http://www.modernwoodshop.com)
– Kaleo (http://www.kaleosworkshop.com) (Note, no longer active)
– Gord Graff (http://blip.tv/gord-graff) (http://www.gordgraff.com/)
* Matt is thinking of upgrading his table saw. But, should he upgrade or buy new? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
* Glen Huey: Article on Popular Woodworking’s blog about new plunge cut saws (similar to Festool’s) being made by DeWalt and Makita available in Europe. (http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/plunge-cut-saws-available-in-europe)

Voicemails / Emails:
* Skee – Minnesota
I’m in Minnesota where it’s cold. My workshop is out in a detached garage. If I put a big portable heater out there and temporarily heat the space for a day at a time, am I going to harm my tools or hurt the wood by letting it cycle through hot and cold if I heat the garage up to 50 or 60 to stand being out there, then it drops down to 20 degrees at night? I know I can’t do glue-ups and finishing in this weather, but what about milling the wood and doing cuts? Then I can wait till the Spring to do the glue-ups and finishing. What do you think?

* Roberto – Voicemail
I have a question concerning a type of wood species. I am going to build an entire bedroom set. I’m looking for kiln-dried Manayo wood. I’ve been looking on the internet, and I can’t find it at all. Maybe it goes by another name?
We couldn’t find anything, but if you know of a source for Manayo wood, leave us a comment, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail so we can pass the information along.

* Dan – Florida
I have three quick questions for you:
1) what do you think of the Leigh Isoloc dovetail jig templates? Would you buy them? Do you like them? Would you use them?
2) I’m pretty new, and when I apply my polyurethane after I stain, I get bubbles on the surface. Is that from the kind of brush I’m using or the way I’m putting it on?
3) I’m in the market for a Powermatic Jointer. I can probably only fit a 6″ in the shop, but I’ve been looking at their 8″ jointers. Which one would you guys go with? I’ve been looking at the 8″ model 60B or the parallelogram one.

Leigh Isoloc templates

* Bob – California (It’s currently raining… and he’s in the car.)
Just wanted to check out your new technology and give you a shout out. I was at a furniture restoration store, and a guy was refinishing a piece using a wax that was already stained. The wax looked like it already had stain in it. (It looks like Bob got cut off here, but we’re going to answer the question he was probably going to ask about tinted wax!)

18 replies on “WT28”

I too was looking forward to Norm’s series of episodes on the kitchen, and I too am disappointed. The very first episode he went to Blum and looked at some really innovative hardware that they have developed called Dynamic Space. But it doesn’t appear (so far) that he’s going to use much of it except for the drawer runners. If I’m going to build a kitchen myself, one reason is that I can reduce the cost by building myself, but spend some of that savings on higher end fittings.

He also did the basic case in the first two episodes but didn’t really explain some of the things he was doing, like how much (or little) overlap he was doing on his face frames. Why the rail and stile sizes he picked? I’ve looked at several books on this, plus commercial sources, and they are different.

The face frames aren’t flush at the bottom, whereas all of the cabinets I’ve looked at recently are. Instead the face frame is below the bottom shelf. Eventually he said this was to act as a door stop for the doors. I also wish he was not doing painted cabinets and the particular simple style of drawer/door fronts he has selected. I’d rather have seen a higher end design. The only “fancy” thing he seems to be doing is that pain in the but bead he is doing inside the face frame openings.

You may be right…someone associated with the show and/or producer needed a new kitchen and they decided to make a bunch of episodes out of it.

The kitchen series will NOT be the entire season however, so it isn’t a total loss. I think there are only 9 episodes on the kitchen, with 4 more on regular projects.

I have not yet read the Fine Woodworking article yet though, so he may have some useful information in there.

Totally agree on Norm – I DVR the show every week and sat down the other day to watch them – the first was OK, the second was fast-forwarded for most of it, the third and fourth episodes were skpped through almost entirely. How many times can we hear the praises of pocket screws and using a slot for biscuits?

It reminds me of his book on building his own house – except the book was more enjoyable – he found a project that he or a buddy didn’t want to pay for, so he go the advertisiers/producers/publishers to pay for it. Great yankee ingenuity, but not his most entertaining shows.

I have seen the episodes and I have enjoyed them thus far. I am actually building kitchen cabinets for a house that my wife and I are building. However, it does get a little boring, since he uses the same type of construction for almost all the cabinets.

I think it’s been a good series so far this season. However, all of the negative comments are right on for the most part. I also think that ultimate and painted should not go together….

But there’s definitely a few things I’ll take away for my own kitchen cabinet project.

Matt and Marc,
Another great show, buying secondhand heavy duty cast iron machinery could be a bargain but be prepared to invest some time in finding your table saw or band saw since more people are doing this the steal deal could be harder to come by (I know some that just buy and resell). Most of what I see selling is on the internet from companies that specialize in used equipment, auctions, eBay and others.
Woodworkers are buying these up from just a picture and song; donâ

You were a little off on your conversion from pounds to dollars. The pound is worth almost twice the dollar. 509 pounds = $1002

I have been enjoying your show quite a bit, but … less talking about the podcast, more talking about woodworking. I have seen too many podcasts get caught up in the medium instead of the message.

I look forward to the next one!

Paul. I am a bit surprised by your criticism. From what I counted, we spent about 2 minutes in the beginning talking about general non-ww stuff, and another 2 minutes at the end. And for a show that’s nearly an hour long, 4 minutes of off-topic talk seems like it would be acceptable.

Now if you are also referring to our discussion of other podcasts as part of this, then I would have to disagree with you completely. A major part of what we do is inform our listeners of other woodworking content that’s available. We like to spread the word and lots of folks appreciate that.

Am I off in my thinking here??

My apologies. I listened to the first 20 minutes again and, indeed, you don’t spend much total time, although it is interspersed here and there. Heh, I think the term “social media” may have flipped a bad switch in my brain, and I am over sensitive to talk about the medium (I’ve clearly heard too much about it). Keep up the good work, and above all make episodes 🙂

On new iron, I have to disagree. I have regretted most of the new heavy iron I have bought; for the same prices, I could have bought much better older (not even that old, just used) iron for the same price. I’m talking about stuff in good condition, not fix-er-uppers. Mind you, it isn’t always easy; just try finding a Minimax or Laguna16″ bandsaw locally (I’ve been trying).

Regarding parallelogram vs. dovetailed ways on a jointer:

Traditionally, jointer tables rode on dovetailed ways (think giant metal sliding dovetail). These could be manufactured very precisely, and once set the tables stayed in alignment for a very long time. Problem is, if the infeed and outfeed tables went out of alignment, the only way to adjust them was with shims, which is a pretty long process. But you only have to do this once in a very long while.

A parallelogram jointer has four adjustment mechanisms at each corner of the tables, which makes eight altogether between the infeed and outfeed tables. This makes it easier to make adjustments compared to the shimming technique. It’s unclear how well the multiple adjustment points will stay in alignment, though.

Im listening to Episode 28 and it seems so quiet. I would recommend that you increase the overall volume. I listen on a laptop and with the volume ALL the way up I can barely hear you guys.
Other than that, you guys rock!

On the Parallelogram design tables…isn’t part of it that the adjustment of the table follows the radius of the blade so the distance between the cutterhead and table stays constant as the table is adjusted up or down unlike a traditional design where the table moves directly straight up or down. FWW talks a bit about this in one of their videos of jointer comparisons.

Another thought on bubbles in the poly. It should be stirred rather than shaken. It is quite often a beginner mistake to shake the cans to stir up the contents like we do with paint.

I am going to counter my own advice. I am currently listening to episode 39 of WTO and my advice is listed as Myth #3. I personally believe what I said helps, but it may be more anecdotal than empirical. [Moderator: if you feel it’s better for the overall woodworking community to delete my comments to avoid passing bad info, please do so.]

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