In this episode Marc and Matt have lots to talk about. Such topics as posting the winners of the Video Shop Tour Challenge to the great marketing ideas from Rockler. Marc also gives valuable insight on his new Makita drill. Also a very interesting survey was reviewed by Marc and Matt from Cabinet Maker Magazine. It has very interesting statistics from the small shop readership point of view.
From there Marc and Matt went to the voice mail questions. First question was from J.D., a novice woodworker that mainly works on furniture and tables. His question involved what his next most practical purchase be? He was considering between a band saw or a jointer. Marc and Matt both agree that he would get more uses and save money in the future milling his own stock if he chose the jointer.
Ken wanted to know the different uses for french cleats? Marc noted that they are a very secure way to hang cabinets. It distributes the weight along multiple wall studs.
Our last voice mail was from Allen, who wants to make a parquet floor. He asked if Marc and Matt had any suggestions or tips on patterns. Matt recommended Google search and Amazon.com and both recommended the library for some good books on design and instuctions.
From there, Marc and Matt went to their emails. Mike writes in, “Do either of you use a marking knife or gage regularly? What tools, techniques do you use to keep cuts and joints accurate?”
J.T. asks if they could share their techniques on how to work efficiently in the shop.
Mike had a question about a show he had seen by David Marks, where he believed he used polyurethane glue, but noticed it had not foamed up. Marc suggests that David may have been using plastic resin glue, which doesn’t foam up. But if they did use poly glue they simply left out the part where it foams.
Then we had a question from Justin as to the pro and cons of a sliding compound saws versus the radial arm saw. Marc and Matt both agreed on the sliding compound saw for various features as being more dependable, versatile and portability.
Then lastly we had a question from Scott: His question concerned the use of leather to line his vises. They both agreed that it shouldn’t make too much of a difference but that he could check out tool forum at Woodnet.net or Matt recommended Christopher Schwartz at Popular Woodworking.
11 replies on “WT8”
BOY! You weren’t kidding. This show was PACKED!
I actually had to take notes. It’s not an apprenticeship, but http://www.northwestwoodworking.com/ is one of probably more distance programs available.
Another reason to hate polyurethane glue, a veterinarian friend has performed several emergency surgeries on dogs to remove cured glue from their stomach/bowels. Evidently, dogs love the stuff. I have 3, so none in my shop.
And finally, Matt was correct about RA saw blade spin. You pull thru the wood. So, it would be possible to throw wood at yourself.
good point. Thanks for clearing up the blade issue.
And I actually remember reading something about dogs loving that glue. Excellent reminder!
Posted on Kevin’s behalf:
Mark/Matt:
I remembered this article in Fine Homebuilding on making a parquet floor. It might be of interest for your caller who was asking about this. It actually look kind of fun, but I never cared for parquet.
Thanks,
– Kevin
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/how-to/articles/beautiful-floor-from-wood-scraps.aspx?ac=ts
Sorry Guys the blade of a radial arm saw does not spin in the direction to cause the wood to come at you. The saw blade spins so that if the blade were to catch the wood the machine is pushed toward you. Usually the machine binds in the wood first causing the stators to eventually burn out. I have a radial arm saw and pointed out how dangerous the tool is in my submitted shop video tour on lumberjocks.
Yeah I thought that was the case. Every time I have used a radial arm its always a matter of controlling the saw itself so that it doesnt jump. The motion of the cut, in theory, should always be toward the fence.
I think Matt and I made this more confusing than it needed to be. lol
God, maybe that’s what I was thinking about..the arm flying at me. My stuff is all stored until I finish my shop…I will still set up the RA saw, it’s only tried to kill me once:)lol
boy – two for one 🙂
thanks Marc and Matt for answering both my questions. I need to go back to the Woodworks episode but I’m thinking you may be right and I got plastic resin glue mixed up with polyurethane glue. so, I’ll “stick” with (pun intended) TB3 for my project. Great advice, thanks!
Thanks for addressing my leather question, too. When I was looking into it, I did find Christopher Schwarz’s blog. He pretty much did the same thing you or I would do. He grabbed whatever was available at Michael’s. Actually, he even mentions that his first inclination was to cut up one of his wife’s old purses.
I’ll probably just grab whatever I come across locally. My neighbor is now deployed anyway, and I don’t really want to wait until he gets back to add whatever I come up with to his next order.
Other than the leather, the bench is complete. I’ll probably be posting it over at lumberjocks (my screen name there is muzhik) before you wake up and read this.
Whoah!! What a bench!! Anyone who hasn’t seen it needs to!
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/1492
Nice job!
Scott, beautiful bench…you should submit to FWW Tools issue. There’s drool on my keyboard!
As usual a very interesting and informative show, but you should have passed the question on which tool to buy (jointer or bandsaw) to your wives. My wife’s philosophy, when you can’t decide buy both.
DocK