Author: woodshoplifepodcast

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Guys Questions:

1: Hey guys, this podcast has quickly become my favorite – appreciate the time put in.

Can you speak a bit on wide belt sanders (with a platen head) versus drum sanders? How important are they versus convenient?

I currently own the Powermatic 5HP Open End Belt Sander. I like it a lot, but often run into issues dialing it in and recently have discovered the feed table is not totally coplaner with the platen.

Was thinking about selling and either (a) buying a different machine or (b) exchanging if a widebelt is that advantageous – maybe I just got a bad machine. -Ray

2: I am researching efficient methods for breaking down sheets of plywood for shop cabinets, and I am trying to avoid splintering the outer layer and achieving square cuts. I do not own a tracksaw but do own a tablesaw, miter saw, and circular saw with combination blades. What do you guys recommend for most effective methods at a decent cost point? What style of saw blade, TPI, and brand of blade do you recommend? Or do I run out and get a tracksaw or keep it as simple as blue painters tape to hold the layer? And what variables should I think about regarding the plywood selection itself? Thank you much for the input! Keep up the great podcast. James

Sean’s Questions

1:I am designing a small cabinet with frame and panel doors. I want there to be a small chamfer (less than 1/8″) on the inside edge of the frame. How do I cut it? On the rail I can just use my block plane or run it along a chamfer bit on the router table but on the stile? The chamfer would have to stop exactly where it meets the rail. Do I cut it partially with the router and finish it off with a chisel after assembly? Or should I cut it after assembly with a bearing guided chamfer bit? That would still leave the inside corners unfinished, though..

Any input would be appreciated. Keep up the great work!
Jarmo from Germany

2:Hey guys, great podcast. I have a question about how to determine what wood thickness to use for a project. I’m making a console table out of soft maple. I was planning for the shelves to be 1-inch after milling, but couldn’t find any 5/4 or 6/4 maple boards, so I ended up getting some nice 8/4 boards. If I mill these 8/4 boards down to 1-inch thick though, it seems like a waste of wood (I don’t have a bandsaw so can’t re-saw them into thinner boards). So I was thinking maybe I’d make the shelves 1.5 inches thick, but that would make the table a lot heavier. What are the pros and cons to using thicker versus thinner woods (thinking about weight, wasted wood, joinery, etc)? For reference, I’m going to use tongue and groove joinery to joint the boards and dados to attach the shelves to the legs.

Thanks and keep up the good work! -Billy

Huy’s Questions:

1: Hey Guys! Great job with the podcast, learning so much! Wanted to get Huy’s feedback on the new table saw blade he got, the woodworker 2 clone. Keep crushing it! -Wood.by.nate

2: Here’s my question, I woodwork out of my two car garage and I’m looking to get more serious and take my woodworking to the next level, but living in mid-Michigan, I run into high humidity and temps in the summer that make working in the garage unbearable. The garage has no windows but does share a wall with the house and my master bedroom is over the garage. I’ve considered installing a dehumidifier and swapping out the two basic lights in the garage for ceiling fans. What are your thoughts on this solution? How do you guys keep your shop comfortable when your working in the hot summer? Thanks in advance for the help. -Jason

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Guys:

1) What do you guys use for air filtration and what are the aspects you considered when picking the system you use? Can a box fan with an air filter be a reasonable option?

2) I want to make a white oak chess table but have never done veneer work before. At first I thought I could make it out of solid wood but I now realise that won’t be possible due to wood movement. 

I don’t own a re-saw capacity bandsaw, a vacuum press or drum sander so not sure where to start. I assume store bought veneer. No idea where to go from there. 

Thanks so much. Love the podcast! -Tanc

Sean’s:

1)Wanted to see about how y’all manage your machines maintenance wise. Do you have a schedule for doing certain maintenance or just do it as needed? This includes things like rigging them, cleaning them, and lubing the moving parts. Second part is what type of dry lubricant would you recommend for the moving parts like the table saw lift and tilt mechanism? 

Thanks,

Brent Jarvis

Clean Cut Woodworking

2) Hey Guys, love the podcast. My question is about completing smaller projects versus bigger, more time consuming projects. As I’ve progressed in this hobby I am enjoying the nicer longer more involved projects but was curious how you balance this in your own shop. -Brad

Huy’s:

1)I plan to redo my kitchen cabinets and make shop cabinets so the shaper will be useful but I find it’s not as user friendly as a router table seems to be. Which do you prefer assuming you can only have 1 in the shop. -Ryan

2) Hi guys. I love the podcast. I strangely found out about you all through Dan Harmon’s (creator of Rick and Morty) instagram. He’s recently started woodworking and was listening to you all in one of his stories. Getting back to my question. I want to start veneering a bit more and need a vacuum bag system. What should I get? I have no set budget for this. I just want something that works. Thanks for the advise! Jonathan Stier

Links mentioned during podcast:

Jay Bates Air Cleaner Cart: https://jayscustomcreations.com/2016/05/mobile-air-cleaner-cart/

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Guys 

1) Hi guys. I have a question for the podcast. I recently made a miter station out of some 3/4 birch plywood. Originally thought I wasn’t going to apply any finish but have decided I would like to mostly for protection of the work surfaces and also for aesthetics. Would it be a bad idea to apply a water based poly to only the visible table top and drawer fronts and skip the inside of the cabinet? On a normal furniture project I know it would be best to finish all surfaces, but wondering if this would be passable for shop furniture. Thanks! John

2) Hi guys, your podcast is brilliant, thank you all.

I am a hobbyist woodworker only, I started after I found out about French cleats when searching shed storage projects. In an earlier podcast Guy talks about the benefits of buying a piece of equipment against fussing about making it when time can be spent better using the tool rather than making it, in my case a crosscut sled which took me a fair bit of time and after finally giving up on the 5 cut method and fixing the fence with a framing square only to find the sled binds so I cut it in half and now have a right and left handed sled, I really would like to buy the Incra mitre gauge and watch many operations where it is used straight on the table saw without a sled, so my question is ‘is a crosscut sled necessary or beneficial “

Thanks for your time -Geoff

Sean’s 

1) Hey fellas. I don’t currently have any milling tools. I’ve seen bench top jointers in my research but don’t really hear about or see them in the YouTube or Instagram community. Those are the jointer currently in my budget, am I better off saving up for a big boy jointer or would this get me rolling albeit with smaller projects? Appreciate any and all advice. -Trevor

2) So question for the podcast; what do you think about verical/horizontal lumber storage like this (Shows picture of hotizontal lumber rack with boards laying on their edges/sides instead of laying face down)? I can’t store a lot of lumber vertical as my ceilings aren’t that tall and all my cutoffs are not that long so this was a hybrid solution I thought up but it sounds like a few others have had the same thought. Food for thought?

Huy’s

1) Hello everyone, really enjoy the podcast and learn new things every show!  I have a question on how to deal with harmful fumes from finishes, etc. My workshop is in my basement in a completely walled off room from the rest of the basement without any windows….When I have to finish a project I have to move it up into the garage but then I have to deal with dust and other factors that I can’t control since it is a garage.  I can control the environment in my shop but being a tad close to the furnace and or other open flame devices…..I really don’t want to blow up the house. I don’t mind drilling through the wall but I really can’t exceed 4″ diameter through the wall to vent to the outside. So do you have any ideas of what kind of fume extraction device exists for this purpose?

Thanks! Kalman

2) Calculating expansion. Is there an actual formula or do I just keep on making an educated guess based on my feelings for what a particular piece of wood might do. A good example to ponder. I recently built a 12 foot tall, solid wood paneled, sliding barn door for a Master Bedroom out of Alder. Each board is 6 inches tall by 30 inches wide and .5 inch thick. The boards are in a dado on both the rail and stile in the door frame. That is 144 inches of horizontal grain that will do what ever it is going to do. How would you calculate or estimate the vertical expansion? – Alex

Links mentioned in the podcast from Huy in regards to calculating wood movement:

How to Calculate Wood Shrinkage and Expansion

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Guys Questions:

1) Hey guys and Guy, back with another question for you. I foolishly agreed to make the new dining table for my fire department. We Firefighters are basically 240 pound toddlers, so this thing needs to be essentially bomb proof. My main concern for this piece is finishing. I have listened to a lot of podcasts and done some reading but most of the discussion on finishing is in regards to the nicest finish. Not how to gorilla proof a finish. I’ve had people suggest epoxy, but I don’t really want to do an epoxy pour, especially with the stigma surrounding epoxy right now. My go to finish is the minwax oil based poly. And I’m wondering should I just go that rout and add extra layers? I’ve even considered using a poly for hardwood floors. What do ya’ll think? I am probably going to build with 8/4 hickory. Thanks in advance. -Hunter

2) I’m new to veneering, but was curious about the subject of cross grain glue ups with veneer. If one wants to veneer a panel with a Baltic birch plywood core, how would you glue something over 4ft? With plywood grain running the 8ft length, my guess is you would have to put a layer of backing veneer perpendicular to the plywood grain and then lay up the finish veneer on top of that.  I know using MDF would make this easier but I’m not love with it. For reference this would be a cabinet side for a 9ft tall built in with an outside face. -Jesse

Sean’s Questions:

1) My one car detached garage is 109 years old and is running off of one single 20A 120V circuit. I have just two outlets in the garage right now and I want to have a subpanel installed with more amperage and ideally a 220V circuit as well. That’s what I’m wondering about. I was thinking a total of 100A with three 20A 110V circuits and one 40A 220V circuit. I’m not an electrician so I don’t even know that that’s possible, but if so, does that power setup sound good. I’m trying to “future-proof” it a bit, thinking about potentially expanding the garage one day,  having a 220V dust collector and maybe a Hammer combo machine like Huy once I get that rocket engineer kinda money but I was also thinking of externally mounting the panel box so I could run external conduit to have flexibility for future outlet layout changes. So yeah, I just want to get an opinion on power availability throughout the shop and what your thoughts are. Jonathan Scott woodcrafts

2) What is the piece that you built and wish to forget about? – Eric

Huy’s Questions:

1) I have a 1970s Rockwell floor stand drill press I restored with no appreciable run out as well as a powermatic 180 (18 inch planer) with helical head upgrade.  They are older but seem sturdier that today’s machines. Just wondering what machines you might consider looking for older versions that may be better than today’s equivalent as I do not see many of the type in your shops. Thanks again, Matthew

2) I have a lot of a variety of types of clamps that is on a simple wall rack now. I need the wall space in my growing ever smaller 2 car garage shop. Considering a clamp cart or possibly under benches? Please discuss options and how you each deal with them being out of the way but handy when needed. -Darren

Thanks to Maverick Abrasives for sponsoring this episode. Check them out at https://www.maverickabrasives.com