WT10

Marc and Matt opened up the show by discussing Marc’s 3-day training session with Festool in Las Vegas. Marc thought it was one of the best training sessions he ever had and thought the instructor Steve was terrific.Matt made the announcement about the summer awards at Lumberjocks.com. There are 2 categories: garden projects and wood joinery. Check it out-great prizes and all judging is being done by your peers.Our first voicemail was from Patrick. His question was on blade maintenance. The second was from Larry with a feedback comment on protecting tool surfaces. He had really good success using Topcoat by Bostick. With our emails we received a follow up on wood toxicity and allergies. Another follow up was from Kendall on episode 9 on toxicity issues with certain woods. Kendall made note that the stronger aromatic woods means stronger oils. Gordon asked Marc and Matt if they will be attending the AWFS show in Las Vegas in July. Matt will not be attending. Marc and his wife, Nicole, will be attending and invited everyone to stop by the Festool booth and say Hi.

Brent had a question on shop air compressors. He would like to know what would be sufficient to run a brad nailer, finish sprayer and to clean up saw dust around work area? The guys recommended stepping it up due to using a finish sprayer. Best bet is to find the spray gun you are going to use and check out the air requirements. Jorge had a question as to where do plywood joints get their strength from? Is it feasible to use a rabbit joint to join the bottom of a wall cabinet or necessary to use a dado joint so that the cabinet bottom gets supported in the lower shoulder. Does using brad nails or screws help the joint strength while the gluing sets up?

James emails in with a suggestion on what planer to buy. The second part of the email dealt with matching wood color with wood grain pattern. What less expensive local woods would match with more expensive exotic types? For example, what wood grain resembles ebony, mahogany, wenge, or even cocobola? Keith had a question for Marc dealing with Powermatic. Keith had just purchased the PM2000 table saw a few months ago and loves it. He noticed that Marc has a PM66. There is a several hundred dollar price difference between the two, and he was wondering what the major differences are.

Gordon has a question on sharpening his chisels and plane blades using the scary sharp method, using sandpaper for your sharpening. It’s fairly cheap without having to buy one of those grinding stations. Someone told me to check out one of those new diamond stones. Are they quicker and how long do they last? And what is the grit size equivalent for each? He followed up with a note for Marc to not throw away your feeler gauges. I found a use for them. They’re great for working glue into hairline cracks or splits in wood, caused by the inept use of a chisel on occasion. Craig writes in and needs help. He is making a corner china cabinet and has a finish problem. His problem is with one of the lower doors. While applying a gel varnish he was sanding lightly between coats with 400 grit and got a little to aggressive on the lower door. Matt thought that he may have burnished the wood and that the sawdust was pushed into pores. Marc mentioned that when sanding it is hard to get wood to look exactly the same. He possibly pushed varnish down into the grain. It may never stain the same. Marc recommends spraying.

Alex’s question was on using double sided sticky tape and which tape did the guys use? Marc likes to use Turners tape, that he gets at wood working stores. He gets his at Wood Craft or Rockler. Matt has also used carpet tape. It’s a little thicker, and even the blue painters tape. We also had someone write in that says he was building cabinets this past weekend and started pondering the question of designing the cabinets to encourage them to be square on assembly. What other techniques can you suggest to help force the cabinet into square before applying a face frame or backing? Lastly, we have a question from Lip about spiral cutter heads on jointers and if its worth the extra cost. Both Marc and Matt agreed to go for the standard head, especially if you are on a budget. Marc and Matt closed out the show with a special thank you sent out to Bob-“You are the Man!”