Today’s show is sponsored by SawStop!
On today’s show we’re talking about are chairs difficult to make, filling cracks in cutting boards, and wood movement in wide lumber.
What’s on the Bench?
- Marc completed his Walnut woven hamper
- Matt broke his X-Carve and burnt out the motor.
- Shannon is packing up to head to Maine to finish his dining table.
What’s New?
- Prescott sent us a link to a hand grenade dresser
Kickback
- More CNC kickback with more perspectives on “cheating”, the last we will say on the subject. Thanks to Grant, Chet, and David on the additional perspectives.
Voicemail
Ryan has a question about attaching felt to wood.
- Cameron is frustated after a chair build and wants to know if chairs are hard to build.
- Jon has cracks in his end grain cutting board. Marc did a video on cutting board repair that might help.
- Kevin has a wide slab that just won’t stay flat.
How You Can Support Us
Use the links in the left column and sign up for a recurring donation, kick it up a notch and wear a Wood Talk T-Shirt, or leave us an iTunes Review
13 replies on “WT266 – We’re Pithed Off”
There are good CNC machines and poor ones. X-Carve is good, but not ‘great’.
The software is an issue for many folks. It is a different art to use the digital tools versus other tools, powered or hand.
You guys are pretty good at sketchup, so the transition shouldn’t be to much of as stretch to use the Easel tool.
Many CNC tools don’t use Easel, there are various tool streams that IMHO are a bit more difficult to use that Easel, especially for the beginner.
The mechanics of X-Carve are nice and light compared to may others. Other commercial and DIY machines tend to be heavier. Some larger, some smaller. X-Carve is low end and tends to flex more than some other larger (and more expensive) machines.
For what it is, X-Carve is ice, but there are other better techniques than using belts (i.e. gear racks, chains, linear bearings, etc). For comparative CNC machines that tend to be larger check mechmate.com or shopbottools.com and there are many more.
Regarding epoxy and food safe products. My day job is working in a laboratory for a coating manufacturer. Our primary market is the food packaging industry (Think the package your food is in at the grocery store.)
Epoxies can certainly be hazardous products to work with, but generally speaking they are safe once the two part products have cured. That is one of the reasons it is so important to mix the products together at the proper ratio. Typically, the hardener is the more reactive ingredient. If too much is added, and it is not completely used up by the resin portion of the epoxy, it will still be available for reaction. In most cases, it will react with the moisture in the air, but could potentially be problematic from a health and safety standpoint.
Food safety of chemicals is a very complex topic. Very generally, direct food contact approval implies that an item is either intended to, or may potentially become part of your food. Indirect food contact approval means that the product is not intended to become part of your food. The chemical guidelines with indirect food contact are much more lenient.
How epoxy products can be considered food safe is that the manufacture intends you to mix it at the proper ratio resulting in a full reaction between the two products. Once fully cured, they for all intents and purposes inert. More of these adhesive products are probably considered safe for cutting boards than you think.
Thanks for the information Adam, I completely understand anyone’s concern regarding adhesives and finishes and the possibility of them becoming ingested.
For myself, as long as I follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and allow for proper cure times, I’m pretty comfortable with using them in a wide variety of projects and applications.
Thanks again for the writing.
Hey! you actually read my comment on the show! that was awesome. i didnt know there was a bigger version of the x-carve but thats great to know, so just disregard the last part about being larger, leave it to Shannon to put my ignorance on center stage!
The X-carve is the updated version on the Shapeoko2. The x-carve has a some better carriage designs but is still essentially the same thing as a shapeoko2
oh and about the cutting board repair, why not just put a dab of titebond on the crack and hit it with the random orbit sander while its still wet. the sanding dust will make a nice wood putty mixture and fill the crack. but beware if its on the lighter colored wood, the darker wood will make the crack stand out! ive used this technique many times to fill cracks, once on a maple cutting board.
as far as im concerned the wood glue is safe to use. if wood glue is toxic in cutting boards, why am i not dead yet from preparing food on my board? you could always use the friction welder mentioned in a previous show, haha
I was considering suggesting a slurry of glue and sawdust, but I did so much research on epoxies I didn’t want it to go to waste CHORTLE!
I use the Probotix V90 cnc. it’s a tad bit more expensive than the xcarve but it works good for me. Also – it’s all built in the USA.
http://www.probotix.com/CNC-ROUTERS/V90-MK2
I was interested in the SawStop slider for cutting sheet goods. I decided to not buy it when I found out there are no stops built in, including 90 degrees. They said the designers decided to not include them. Go figure.
You know, I was surprised by that too.
Use beeswax on the cutting board.
A good way to top a gaming table is not to glue down the felt or fabric. Instead, glue down auto headliner. Then stretch the fabric over and tack to underside. Also, billiard fabric is great for gaming table. It won’t pill and allows cards to slide. I have purchase auto headliner at fabric stores. You end up with a slightly padded top because the liner is about 1/8″ thick foam.
I enjoyed the episode. Both the discussion about CNC and sliding tables for tablesaws.
Marc you nailed it regarding sliding tables, sheet goods, etc. It’s definitely not a necessity on a saw if you are typically building fine furniture and not using a lot of plywood. Although it would be nice when trimming a large solid wood table top. I’m getting my credit card out now.
CNC – The way I reconcile my feelings about things like CNC and 3-d printers is that I just try to see them as another tool for creating something.
I try to remember that I’m not worried that people will stop being attracted to beautiful things made (by people) out of wood.