Matt's Basement Workshop - Audio

Welcome back to part 2 of the Bedside Table Build. We again have some wide panels that will make up the sides of the tables and they need to be milled and glued up. But rather than tackling the task by “going ALL hand plane” on the wide boards like last week I decided to mix it up a little and use both hand planes AND power tools. In other words, living up to my claim to be a “hybrid woodworker”. The task is a pretty simple one. It’s a matter of knocking down the high spots of the concave side of the board with my Jack plane until it lays flat and doesn’t rock. Then it’s over to the thickness planer to do the rest of the work. Typically it takes more time to run it through the thickness planer than to knock down those high spots, but of course the board I chose for the video was the only one of the 8 pieces that decided to be difficult and took much longer than the others. The other tasks we complete in this episode are gluing up these wide panels, including a quic

I'm sure you've heard the trope "The cobbler's children have no shoes"? Well the same thing in the Vanderlist household can be said about furniture. Around here it feels like I'm always making something for someone else's house (or more than likely for my shop). For a long time now my wife Samantha has been asking me to build us a matching set of bedside tables. I keep asking if she wouldn't prefer something bigger and more awe striking like a new dining room table. But while that would be nice, a bedside table that actually has room to set a book AND a lamp seemed to be a higher priority. So, starting on today's episode I'm finally building those bedside tables for her. The design is simple. Straight lines, no embellishments and something with a drawer and a shelf. Samantha also asked that they be painted too. That's fine with me, I have a decent stash of Poplar that's been waiting to be used for quite a while now. I'll get us started by roughing out the stock that will be the 20"x18"

On today's show I'm walking you through the steps of building a very basic, utilitarian shoe organizer. And I'll admit it, I obviously didn't pay close enough attention to the warning signs when things started to go bad! It started out great. The components were milled in near record time, even with just having 30 minutes here and there during the week. I just never thought I'd be the victim of a glue-up catastrophe on this project! But even if the glue-up had gone perfect, this is the kind of project that gets tucked away in a closet or in the backroom where it gets used more than it gets seen. Which isn't a bad thing! Sometimes we don't want our projects just admired from a far, WE WANT THEM USED. This project was also just the kind of thing that let us take the new SawStop table saw out for a spin to see what we think about it. So far? It's a really nice table saw! And in the show today I even take a moment to demonstrate how easy it is to swap out the brake cartridge when switching from a regular 10&qu

Today's post is a short and sweet look at the Bypass system on the SawStop. After introducing the new saw just a couple of weeks ago, I heard from a few listeners that they were interested in hearing more about the bypass system that allows the user to "bypass the braking mechanism". The SawStop Bypass System isn't an ALL THE TIME option for users. It's a very deliberate action the user has to take to engage, and then once the motor is shut off after the cut, the saw returns to it's normal operating status. Then to re-engage it again, the procedure has to be repeated. The beauty of the Bypass System is that it can allow the user to test materials that they may be concerned will engage the braking mechanism or that they KNOW will engage it (such as aluminum or other conductive materials). For owners of any SawStop saw this information is all laid out and explained in great detail in the manual. They'll also find the procedures for conducting their own "Materials Conductivity Test" that c

ENOUGH TALK ABOUT THE NEW SAW, LET'S BUILD SOMETHING WITH IT!!! I'd love to tell you it would be something über cool, ultra modern and hip...but then it wouldn't be on this show if it were. Instead, the first project on the new saw is something FOR THE NEW SAW; it's a very basic, no frills crosscut sled. [caption id="attachment_6965" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Basic Table Saw Sled[/caption] The entire sled is built from scraps and cutoffs laying around the shop, the only thing I didn't make myself was the Micro Jig ZeroPlay Guide Bars. I maybe doing this on the cheap, and can easily just toss it on the burn pile and start all over, but why worry about loose miter bar guides when I can spend the money on these reusable and adjustable manufactured ones that take all the worry our for me? (In full disclosure, when we gave away a few pairs of these over the summer, I snagged myself a set from the pile...don't worry...Micro Jig already knows) If you follow the show on either

As table saws go, I've had an opportunity over the years to use one from each of the three body types; benchtop, contractor and cabinet. While they're all tablesaws and do the same job, the specifications of each are very different. Where benchtop and contractor saws are portable in their own ways, the cabinet saw is one you probably won't be throwing in the back of a trailer or truck and hauling around from site to site. In fact, the cabinet saw is a beast of a saw and is designed with the serious hobbyist and professional woodworker in mind. I've been using my granite topped Steel City cabinet saw for a couple of years now and have been loving the features and specifications that came with it. But just recently, an opportunity came up to try another make and model of cabinet saw that has some upgraded features and specifications I didn't think we're all that important at first, but now that its here I can't wait to test them out and share the results with all of you. In today's episode I'm introducing my

I've been doing a lot of resawing lately in my workshop. Not for the purpose of making my own veneers instead it's all about milling thin stock for the boxes I'm making for my wife's photography clients (shameless plug...www.shuttersam.com. Resawing thick stock into thinner pieces is a great way to save materials and money too! As a beginning woodworker my assumption was that thin stock, anything thinner than 3/4", was a rare item and either you settled for the warped and over-priced stuff at the home center or you repeatedly ran the stock through a thickness planer until it was the dimension you desired. Then one day the light bulb went off (actually I read an article) and I discovered resawing. In today's episode, I'll share with you a few options I've experimented with when it comes to resawing. I've tried it on the tablesaw and I've had some success with a handsaw, but my preferred way is on the bandsaw. And even that has changed slightly over the past year. Regardless of which route you choose fo

Great news! That momentary interruption I was talking about is coming to an end sooner than I anticipated. The adjustment to the new school year is going great and we're practically back to a regular schedule. So this means it's time for me to get off my butt and start producing new content. A new full length episode is on its way next week and in the mean time I wanted to share this great shop tip I found in the WOOD Magazine Newsletter I get each week. I'm not being paid to promote it, but when I find something this good...I just want to share it. Sign up today by visiting the WOOD Magazine website at www.woodmagazine.com. Help support the show - please visit our advertisers

Over the years, I've done my fair share of experimenting with sharpening. From the early days of sandpaper on glass to waterstones and now on to my Tormek, I had one goal in mind...to create the scariest sharpest edge anyone could ever imagine!!! I won't claim to have achieved that dream yet, but I've managed to create edges that were sharp enough to draw blood with very little effort, usually also at the worst possible moments too. In today's episode I'll show you some of the tools and equipment I've used over the years to accomplish this goal. It's not an episode on HOW TO SHARPEN but instead an episode on options for WHAT TO SHARPEN WITH. From sandpaper to power sharpening and a few in between, I'll show you what I've tried in the past, what I'm using now and a little bit of why on each method. Just like our woodworking, sharpening methods are a personal thing, there's nothing wrong with experimenting until you find that one technique that's right for you.

I'm really getting bad at this, I almost forgot to remind everyone of the schwag drawing this month! Not that many of you have forgotten about it, but just in case you have here's a nice little reminder to whet your appetite and ensure you stop by our SCHWAG SIGN-UP PAGE and enter your name for this month's drawing.

At the heart of my workshop's redo is the massive Bench Dog Router Table system I reviewed with ToolSelect.com - see the review HERE. Compared to previous router tables in my shop, this version is a beast! Of course it's not really a fair comparison, given its predecessors were all bench top models, but that's beside the point. The Bench Dog ProMax RT router table system provides woodworkers with a number of great options for customizing their own version. The system in my shop is a cast-iron top on an enclosed cabinet, but it could easily be a phenolic top instead. Or I could choose to have either one of those tops on an open stand. For me, what really makes this new router table system so invaluable in my shop IS the cabinet. The enclosed cabinet has enough storage space built into it that it's become my all-in-one router center. All my router bits, router accessories and even my routers can be stored in it and there's still room for more. What it takes up in floor space, it makes up for with overall sto

Following up on the last episode, where I revealed recent changes made to my shop to improve work flow and efficiency...at least in theory...,today's show is a closer look at some of the "accessories" and little shop helpers I've added all around it. We've all heard the cliche "it's the little things that matter". In this case, it really IS the little things that make all the difference...in how I feel about working at my various tools. As much as we want to justify buying all kinds of new fangled jigs and shop accessories the one issue we run into eventually is where to put them, and more importantly, how will we find them when we need them the most? Being organized shouldn't just refer to having a set of well thought out plans to build a project. Being organized should also refer to where and why things are laid out also. I don't know the statistics off hand but I think it's safe to say that many of the shop accidents that occur regularly each year, both big and small, probably have t

I'm not a fan of New Year resolutions. I vow to stop making them every January 5th, which usually coincides with the same day I give up on the diet/exercise program I started on January 1st. However, this year I decided to give it one more try and announced on Wood Talk Online Radio that by the end of the year I'd give my shop a much needed facelift. This is nothing new in the basement workshop, in fact it's something I had been vowing to do for a long time. For a long time now I've been getting frustrated with how cluttered my shop was feeling and even more frustrated at my inability to get work done without having to constantly move things around just to accomplish a single task. To be quite honest, the extra time it was taking me to clear a spot to plane a board or to set up a tool for a cut that should take only 30 seconds to accomplish was becoming too long. Not to mention that I was constantly losing small items and tools in the ever growing piles. In other words...SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE! Today's ep

I'd love to tell you we're starting a new build project today or I had a new tool or two to share (which I do, but that's for another day) but instead this is just a quick "heads up" of what's happening and NOT happening with the show. Unfortunately the warm days of early summer draw me out of the basement and in to the fresh air and sunlight. But luckily for the show, coming in the next several weeks, that same fresh air and sunlight will be SO HOT I'll be retreating to the basement to enjoy the rest of my summer months. So new content is just around the corner, I swear! Off on a tangent...in honor of Father's Day I have a couple of great titles written by Jack McKee of www.woodshop4kids.com. "Woodshop for Kids" & "Builder Boards" are two books filled with great ideas and projects to help you introduce your kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews...whoever they are...to woodworking. Because Father's Day is next weekend (as I'm posting this) I'm offering copies of these books t

Woodworking In America 2012 isn't until mid-October, but it doesn't hurt to start planning now if you'll be attending. I have it on good authority there's still plenty of openings for woodworkers to sign up, and attend what has become a perennial destination for anyone passionate about woodworking. This year's conference has a little twist to it. Rather than one big weekend, the folks at Popular Woodworking Magazine have taken a gamble and are offering two full weekends of some of the best woodworking lectures, vendors and get-togethers modern woodworkers have ever known. For the past few years, attendees and those who wanted to be attendees, have been asking for Woodworking in America to travel west of the Mississippi river. This year they're doing just that by holding the first of the two weekends in Pasadena, California. And as everyone knows, out west they do things they're own unique way. The West Coast WIA conference will be no different! With speakers and events specifically planned for the first of

The other day I had a chance to sit down with Eli Cleveland to discuss what seemed to be our differing views of the online woodworking community. It's no secret that recently there were some raw nerves exposed over what has been perceived by many to be a slap to the face of woodworking bloggers and podcasters. It appeared to many of us that our legitimacy was being questioned and we were being branded in a negative way. The resulting volley of comments back and forth regarding this most current statement, and even ones previously, have served as a rallying cry for many to say online woodworking is stronger and more united than ever. But is it? As one of the first woodworking podcasters on the scene back in 2006, I heard a lot of less than nice things about how stupid or crazy I was for trying something like a woodworking podcast. At the time, I would reach out to "established" media resources to ask for permission to use content or ask for advice and quite often there was never an answer or even

We're now about halfway through Safety Week 2012 and hopefully you've found that one or two golden nuggets you'll carry with you every time you step in the shop. Regardless of what it is, the most important thing is to take what you've learned this week and turn it into the kind of habit that becomes second nature. Because it's those kind of habits that one day could be the difference between a close call in the shop or a trip to the Emergency Room...or worse. Woodworking to me is the kind of past time and lifestyle that is probably best learned by observation and learning from our mistakes. No one makes perfect dovetails the first time out and no one WON'T have a close call or two in the shop over their lifetime. The real responsibility of every woodworker when it comes to safety is to develop a set of best practices they can count on to greatly minimize the chance of an accident occurring. Because the truth is, there will never be a way to completely eliminate them. Last year while working on a project f

Without a doubt, home ownership is probably one of the biggest catalysts to propel people into woodworking. Even if you grew up with a woodworker or took shop classes in school, being a homeowner reignites that spark and grows into a passion for tools and creating projects intended for in and around the home. Most of the time that spark occurs because once we take ownership of a house, we immediately want to make it our own. Whether it's replacing trimwork, adding crown mouldings, maybe even tackling some repairs to unsightly fixtures or features that would scare off some people. Whatever the task it suddenly means it's time to get some tools and dive headfirst into those projects. Recently a friend of ours approached me with a problem she's lived with for several years, a broken louver door to a bedroom closet. As soon as she walked in the door with it I had flash backs to when we bought our first house. It was a project I couldn't resist, especially because I knew it was one I would have been intimidated

On today's episode we wrap up the construction of the Hock Smoothing Plane Kit from Hock Tools. Last week we assembled the pieces, glued it all up and set it aside to dry in the clamps. Today we start the work to make it a fully functioning hand plane. I'll walk you through one method of truing the sole to make it flat, which is extremely important for it to work the way it's suppose to. We'll shape the body to a size and feel that not only makes it unique from other planes on my shelf, but feels right in my hands. And then we'll take it for a maiden voyage and discuss a little bit about adjusting the blade of a wooden bodied plane vs the metal bodied versions with mechanical adjusters. If you've built a Hock Smoothing Plane or something similar, I'd love to hear about it. Send pictures if you have any available, I may even post them so others can see your work.

Today's episode is the first in a two (maybe three) part build series featuring the Hock Smoothing Plane Kit from Hock Tools. Previously we had such success building the Hock Shoulder Plane it only seemed like a great idea to come back and build this kit. Just like before, all the materials for successfully building a completely usable plane were included, all you need to add is glue and some shop time. In less than a weekend you can have a great tool that will quickly become one of your favorites. In part one, we tackle the assembly process. While it's very straight forward there are a few key tasks that need to be accomplished to ensure the rest of the setup goes as planned. So follow along and see why this kit maybe your entry into the world of hand planes. Help support the show - please visit our advertisers