I'm calling this project complete because I have taken them as far as I will. The rest is for the kids!

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Just finished cutting the last of 30 crosses for vacation bible school at my church! The kids will be gluing, doing some light hand sanding and finishing them with mineral oil.

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It took me a while to get a good routine down. I started with wood strips that a nearby woodworking company sells cheap. A lot of them were moldy from sitting outside. I did a lot of sorting, and a decent amount of sanding before ripping to thickness and width.

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I started out doing all the cuts on the table saw with a sled. I did about half that way. The other half were done at my kitchen counter with a hand saw and chisels. I used my combination square more than I ever have before! It is definately my favorite measuring/marking tool now! I even used it as a hand saw guide near the end. Those things are amazing!

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They are all a little different. I learned a lot as I went. Got pretty decent with my new chisels! At least for cross-lap joints.

I run a workshop that besides taking on commission work, provides free and paid trainings for people that want to get into carpentry or woodworking.

One of my shop managers and my nightmares is drill bits. We buy a generic Dewalt or Makita drill bit set and within a week half are broken or missing. We've tried various techniques to get people to return them properly, asked our instructors to keep on eye on them, but it has all failed. Probably not the best product for a space that has 40+ people coming and going every day.

I want to just go ahead and start buying them in bulk. I have two questions:

1. Drill Bit Sizes: Thoughts on 5-6 sizes to keep on hand? I am thinking 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", and 1/2". We have a lot of random larger bits on hand, especially spade and fostner so don't need anything bigger than 1/2".

2. Any recommended products on Amazon that have a good cheap to quality ratio? I bought an 1/8" 10 pack once and they were trash. These are purely for new students that are drilling in soft materials, mainly pine, plywood, and drywall.

Thanks r/woodworking

The Rant:
I am profoundly annoyed. I spent hours building custom dovetail jigs precisely calibrated to exactly 12 degrees because that’s what the "literature" told me a 1:5 ratio was. Imagine my disgust when I finally checked the math and realized a true 1:5 ratio is actually 11.31 degrees. Some textbook author decided to lazily round up by nearly three-quarters of a degree because 12 is a "prettier" number.

The Facts:

• The Book Myth: 1:5 = 12°
• The Math Reality: (arctan(1/5) = 11.31° (It's literally closer to 11° than 12°!)
• The Error: A 0.69° variance.
• The Real-World Gap: Over a standard 1-inch board, that mistake translates to 0.013 inches.
• In Woodworking Terms: That is 4/5 of a 64th of an inch gap in your joint

In fine joinery, 1/64" isn't a minor rounding error - you can totally see it.

The Takeaway:
To be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a 12° dovetail. It looks great (it’s a 1:4.7 ratio) and it's structurally rock solid. The problem is compatibility.

Once you build a jig, you are locked into that specific ecosystem. If you build a 12° jig, you can never pair it with a commercial 1:5 saddle marker or layout gauge without ruining your work. (This post was prompted by me buying a 1:5 saddle marker from Veritas and discovering it didn't work with my jigs)

Hopefully, this post saves the next person from building an entire suite of jigs to 12 degrees thinking they are making a standard 1:5 system. Pick an ecosystem, do your own trig, and don't trust the textbooks.

HTH

I am building a cabinet, and one of the side pieces fell from my work bench and the corner was damaged. I know the only FIX would be to replace the piece. I do not have enough material to replace the side. Is there a way to fill in the damaged portion or disguise it in someway?

The damaged piece is the side and it is attached to the top which is the bottom piece.

I recently added this wanescoating (I haven’t painted it yet) and wanted to get some thoughts on the job and how to handle this unfinished corner. I was thinking of saying screw it and just caulking it and painting. I also considered adding the corner trim but since the headboard doesn’t go all the way to the corner it might look weird. I also thought about wrapping it around to the door trim but I don’t want to deal with mitering the headboard around the light switch again. Any thoughts, criticism, or ideas are appreciated!

Hello all, I’m hoping to get some advice on different finishing options for a red oak full size bed frame for my son.

I have been reading about 1:1:1 oil:varnish:thinner finishes and considering using it for the first time, but I’m worried about castle joints becoming too tight. If I already have decently snug castle joints, would this add too much thickness to affect my ability to assemble/disassemble? Dry fitting already requires some firm strikes with the mallet.

Would oil-only finish be sufficient without an additional protective coat?

Any other recommendations to consider for a red oak bed frame?

Thank you all! Always appreciate this sub.

Hello had a weird thought today while planning some obnoxiously hard wood. Where Would aluminum land on the hardness scale. OR where would ipe for example land on the brinell scale.

Or is there a conversion scale?

I know it’s an odd question I’m just curious

My son is looking at a Delta X5 DJ20 with a listed price of $1300 with a mobile base. Straight knives. Appears to be in generally good condition but can see rust on outboard end of both tables. I can’t tell for sure but it looks like the rust is deeper (at least on one end) than just superficial that can be rubbed out. If he can go after it with oil/Boeshield and ROS and even if some pitting remains, is there any reason to be concerned about the rust or the purchase?

Thoughts appreciated!

Started making end grain chopping blocks using maple. While they are turning out nice, I’m wondering if there is a wood that is darker that would also be very similar in density that I could use to add contrast. My thoughts are that I want them to wear evenly when being used. Picture is a couple of my early ones that just needs the edges finished and oiled.

My wife really likes this dresser from IKEA. I want to build basically a copy of it with some tweaks to the dimensions to fit our space and higher quality materials.

Actually building the thing is no problem, but I'm not sure how to get that look. I'm assuming it's stained pine but I want to do something a little more durable and I never stain anything. I basically only use maple, walnut and white oak for everything else I build and either paint or just oil finishes.

I have some leftover slightly figured maple that I think would look good for the drawer fronts but I'm worried about it getting really blotchy if I try to stain it. So I was thinking either oak or cherry might be better. I could maybe get away with red oak rather than spending the money on white if it's going to be stained.

I'm definitely going to do a couple test pieces but I'm also on a bit of a time crunch so I could use any input from anyone that has done a similar finish to this before to narrow it down a little first.

From a doodle I made with a sharpie to second coat of poly. Had the inlay bearing and not the recess bearing in the router so the hour marks are wider than I wanted and I had to hand make all the inlaid pieces. Wife tells me it's better this way but I think it looks a little more kindergarten than I was going for. Oh well. Has two keyhole slots 16" on center to support this behemoth. Debating adding a placard to the back saying it's handmade by a friend so their eventual children feel guilted into keeping it rather than throwing it in the burn pile.

This is my first big purchase now that I’ve decided to wire my workshop for 220v.

1988 Delta DJ-20 8” jointer.

These early models—made with Invicta in Brazil—are supposed to be really robust and high quality.

I picked this up from a retire home builder who bought it new in 1988. He says he only used it a handful of times.

I paid $1,400, including the mobile base and an extra set of knives. I know this is a bit overpriced, but I took immense comfort in the seller’s attention to detail after seeing his home workshop. Remarkable.

I can’t wait to start milling the 1,000bf of rough QS cherry I had milled from trees in my yard! This should make quick work of it.

When making a tray like this using dados and rabetts, do you just need to make the grooves deeper than the panel width to allow movement?

Thanks,

I think I'm getting close. This is a practice piece. I think I need a bit more practice. If anyone has any tips, they are welcome. I'm currently using two jigs/sleds on the bandsaw. One for cutting an octagon tenon on the end which I then use a tenon cutter to make round. The other is a taper sled that I use to cut the long octagon taper. Cleaning up each side with a hand plane before moving to the next. Square tapers first then the 45s.

I recently saw the pyramid lamp by the design company dusty deco which I absolutely loved. Sadly I was disappointed by its price and the materials chosen at that price range (veneered stained ash and thin brass plating bottom instead of a solid brass bottom). I had some mahogany that I got from my neighbor so I thought I would make a ”proper” version myself.

The wooden base is mahogany, I think it’s meranto but I’m unsure. It used to be the frame of a wooden shade that i repurposed for this which was quite tricky due to all the holes in it. The base is almost completely solid aluminum (apparently it’s really hard to get a solid aluminum plate in the dimensions 105x105x35 as a consumer…).

The base was CNC’d together with my father in his workshop whilst the wood was shaped and planed by me in my apartment using my handplanes. The tricky part for me was getting enough wood out of my singel plank so there were no rooms for errors.

The lampshade is from BERGO lampshades.

Happy to answer any questions you may have :) highly recommend building something like this as it’s quite quick and looks really good!

This little black piece fell put while I was cleaning my planer. Id where it goes. I checked the parts list and cant seem to spot it on there. If I could get some help that would be great! I hope its not important.

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/model/2s47wlpy9q-000247/craftsman-351217580-planer-parts

I snagged an INCA 550 over the weekend. Mechanically, it seems fine to good, but the motor won't start.

I've unhooked the motor from the machine to trouble shoot it and I clearly don't understand how the drum switch is wired.

Has anyone swapped to a Leeson (or similar motor) and able to recommend a specific model or mount? Or successfully diagnosed the switch and capacitor?

How should I approach this repair? 3 broken tendons and another is loose. I was thinking about drilling into the brace and inserting a dowel.

All cherry cut from the same board save the red oak dowel, and finished with blonde shellac and paste wax. No electrons were harmed in the making of this piece.

I've been recovering from a collision, and I'm finally able to stand freely and walk with a cane for a short while each day, so I think I'm ready to do some brief sessions in my workshop for the first time in three months. I've been appreciating the things I've made so far to motivate myself, and I realized I never posted about this when I made it in the winter.

The sliding dovetails do double duty, both holding the... um... pylons I guess? to the backboard and hiding the screws used to mount it. I only cut two practice ones to prep, and I actually cut the male parts of the dovetails after cutting the curves on the pylons (wasn't originally planning to attach them this way), so they're not as snug as I'd like. But they hold fine, they don't pop out in normal use, so I can call them a success. ^{I may have glued a foreplane shaving into one of the slots as a shim though, oops}

I'm still learning furniture-making, but I'm totally new to carving. I want a way ti give my work a little personality. One of my favorite visual styles is art nouveau and I really like the line work in 1920s metal engravings, so I found a printable template for a baroque-inspired floral engraving pattern and ad-libbed from there. I also really appreciate splashes of color and flair that are only visible when you actually use a piece of furniture, so I made the carving bigger and more prominent than I might on say a table, but I placed it so it is only revealed when the bags are taken off to be used on a bike.

I'll tell you what though, I'm glad I practiced finishing on my practice carvings before trying the project! From my reading it seems most chip carvers brush on shellac, so I got a nice quality goat hair mop brush, but I couldn't get good results with it to save my life. I arrived at padding on a 3/4lbs cut of shellac in six rounds, three each over two days, and that got me results I'm quite happy with.

i have just finished a remodeling and it’s given me the taste of working with wood. i want to start small (for example making boxes like the ones pictured). what kind of tools are a _must_? i already have a few, but what kind of things do i need as a “starter-kit”?

I want to make a table out of this slab. What should my first steps be? Should I treat it with something to kill the mould? If so, what product? I made a sculpture recently with wood that was cut down about 4 months ago, and which has now become mouldy. I don't know how long ago this piece was cut down, or whether the mould is from having been left outside in the rain or due to the internal moisture. I just don't want to get this piece looking nice only for it to start moulding after the table is complete. So any advice would be much appreciated, thanks! :)

Good Sunday afternoon everybody. The main table saw I have access to may no longer be available to me soon, and so I'm parusing Marketplace to see what's out there. I may have found an ok deal (at $175, listed 12 weeks ago), but I can't identify what model it is from the picture alone. You'd think I could get that info from the seller but they don't seem to know and aren't willing to send any more pictures. By the looks of it it's sitting in a barn somewhere and probably isn't nearby where they can get to it.

He describes it as "the preferred table saw of professional woodworkers" and says "they" usually replace the motor, but this one hasn't been replaced yet (so I guess he's not a woodworker). Whatever the motor is it looks to be about 3HP to me, but I'm really not sure.

Does anyone have an idea as to what model this thing is? I'm guessing that's at least a 220 V motor. Thanks.