For those of you interested in metalworking and woodworking, this post may be of interest:
Looking for a circular saw? Acccording to some WoodNetters, the Makita Hypoid circ saw is hard to beat:
I’m not sure which is funnier – the Craig’s List item for sale – or the forum thread itself:
Even considering repeat posters, over 1000 people took advantage of this “Day After Thanksgiving” Sale:
As “Danny in Houston” says so well, “….WOW ….(best) post of the month for sure!”
My Wife Finishes a Major Project (Warning: Lots of Pictures)
Did you know a Unisaw is a table saw, but a table saw isn’t necessarily a Uni..? (Submitted mostly for the pictures of Keith’s A100 Unisaw, presumably the very first one produced/sold by Delta.)
What is a Unisaw?
There are some true artists out there, and it seems like the Woodnet forums gets their fare share of them who build beautiful hand planes.
Damascus and Ivory Plane
My fascination with hand planes began one year when my Dad gave me a Stanley 4-1/2 smoother and a Stanley 78 rabbet plane for Christmas. He found them in his shop and since he’s a power tool kind of guy, didn’t have any use for them. I had always used power tools in my woodworking because that’s what Dad always used.
The last time I had tried to use a hand plane was when I was a young boy. I’d go down to my Dad’s basement shop and spend hours “building” things. But trying to use his hand plane was so frustrating, I gave up. It wouldn’t cut and it kept tearing out the wood. Read the rest of this article »
But apparantly, there is such a thing as a free table saw blade:
Time for a Giveaway
Maybe he should make this dust collection system upgrade:
Better Cyclone Supplemental DC System
Here’s one for Randy Maxey:
Six for One Trade
Very nice bowls:
Coupla Bowl Pics
I was reading this thread on WoodNET and it got me to thinking. Even if you have a shop full of power tools, or “tailed apprentices” some might call them, hand planes have a place in your workshop. Some woodworkers use hand planes to get that glass-smooth surface after they’ve run the workpiece through their jointer and planer. Others just enjoy the process of working wood mostly by hand and will dimension and surface stock with hand planes. Jeff Gorman lives in the U.K. and has a great web site for woodworkers. He talks about dimensioning stock here.
But I use hand planes for a lot of other things in my shop like smoothing an edge, leveling a joint, or adding chamfers, just to name a few. I have a nice collection of old Stanley planes, but when I recently built a dining room table, I needed a smoothing plane like a Stanley 4-1/2 that worked better than…well…my Stanley 4-1/2.
So I recently ordered a Veritas Low Angle Smooth Plane from Lee Valley. I looked at Lie-Nielsen’s Low Angle Smoothing Plane, but decided that I liked the design and price of the Veritas plane better. I haven’t received my plane yet, so I’ve yet to see how well it performs. I’ll post an update after I’ve had a chance to use it in my shop.
I’m real interested in hearing your opinions about the use of hand planes (and hand tools in general) in the shop. Do you use them at all? For what? Do you hate them? Want to learn more about them? Can’t see the reason to use them? Let me know your thoughts!
Sometimes I spend more time following the links to home pages on the forums than I do reading the forums themselves. Rather than link to the forum thread itself, I’ve decided to provide direct links to some good examples below.
Home pages:
Wood grain background and more
Fisher Woodcraft
How much wood could a woodnaut naut, if a woodnaut, could naut, naut?
NJ Custom Woodworking
A nice, big home shop
Woodworking with APMonte
An even nicer, bigger home shop
Woodworks by Garry
Galoots:
A great hand plane resource
Woodworking at Rex Mill
Hundreds of links at this link
Index of Fossil-Friendly Woodworking Knowledge
In Business:
Custom designed and built furniture
Chisel and Bits
Uses Sam Maloof-style joinery for his rockers
JSR – School of Fine Woodworking
Blogs:
This guy has some great time-lapse video (if you’re into that sort of thing)
Some Junk We Like
Got a link you like? Send it to me.
I’ve added a new link to the tabs at the top of this page. It’s for WoodNet.net.
WoodNet is the internet side of the three great woodworking magazines published by August Home Publishing. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. It has links to PlansNOW, Tips & Techniques, Forums, and Tool Reviews. I also was amazed by the huge amount of interesting links they’ve tracked down on the Links page.
LouB says he wants his oak to be dark…real dark. He’s getting lots of suggestions for how to do it.
How to Get a Dark Stain on Oak?
Chuck1945 wanted to build a mobile bench and asked for ideas from WoodNet’s resident experts.
One of the responses to Chuck1945′s question provided a link to the New Yankee Workshop web site. Whenever I visit this site I like to check out the “New Yankees At Work” gallery. It’s a little difficult to navigate, but you’ll see some fine work by woodworkers from all of the world.
Finally, I saw this the other day and thought it was kind of inspiring. Check it out.
There are tons of sources online for our woodworking dollars. As you know, I’ve bought a lot of vintage tools through ebay. I’ve also bought tools online from Rockler, Lee Valley, and even Amazon/Tool Crib. But, there’s one thing I haven’t ordered online — lumber.
I’d like to know your experiences. Have you ever bought lumber online? Was it S4S or rough? Did you have any problems? Were there shipping issues? What was the quality?
I’ve got a poll going on WoodNet.net. Check it out and tell me about your experiences.
Occasionally, I’ll find a topic on the WoodNet forums that’s….well….topical. Considering I just featured Paul Sellers yesterday, I thought this post would be of interest: Homestead Heritage.
Sometimes the posts on the WoodNet forums are shameless attempts by woodworkers to elicit a compliment or two on recently completed projects. This guys waste bin though is a good example of when the compliments are well deserved.
Finally, this is the hottest item on the Tools Swap n’ Sell that I’ve seen in a long time! Get yours now, before they’re all gone.