On today’s show we’re talking about: woodworking continuing education, buying a Sawstop, and investing in the shop.
What’s On the Bench
- Marc spoke at the Colorado Woodworkers Association
- Matt is working breaking the guild video record with the highboy
- Shannon laid on his back all week
What’s New
- Popular Woodworking is creating a lumber yard map
- Phil Lowe has a 5 part series called The Art of Woodworking on his town’s community channel Bevcam.
- You gotta check out The Atomic Box by krtwood on YouTube
- Wilbur Pan has a video out on Japanese Tools
Kickback
- Josh has some thoughts on the content creation question from last week
Voicemail
- Eric has a question about the sizes of plywood sheets
- Scott has some waxed covered wood that is giving him problems
- Bob wants to know how we continue our own woodworking education
- Andrea needs help to buy her husband a SawStop
- David has a successful shop and wonders if he should upgrade his tools now or later
How You Can Support Us
Help us out over at Patreon and kick it up a notch by wearing a Wood Talk T-Shirt, or leave us an iTunes Review
6 replies on “WT415 – Should Have Been a Guitar”
Hey guys,
Thank you all for your contributions to the wonderful world of woodworking. I’ve been a listener since episode #1, and you all have educated and amazed me.
I just finished reconditioning a cutting board made of laminated bamboo, and it’s my first time working with it. I don’t remember hearing or seeing any of you talk about working with it (forgive me if you have), but as bamboo is becoming more popular as an alternative to wood, I would really like to get your thoughts and perceptions on working with it.
Thanks for keeping WoodTalk going — I really appreciate it!
Hey guys,
Here is a questions about router bits. I am using a newly purchased LeeValley 1.25-inch bottom cleaning bit in my router planer to flatten end grain cutting boards. The result is ridiculous. The bit rips out fibers, and I end up with a rough surface that needs 1 mm of thickness sanded off with a belt sander. With this result I am better off skipping the planing step and just using a belt sander with a 36 grit paper. The result is way better. Why is the bit performing so poorly? It happens with walnut and maple (and softer woods of course as well). I tried to up the rpm, but it makes no significant difference. LeeValley bits are supposedly decent bits. What other options are there for flattening end grain? So far, I am using the belt sander, but I am not crazy about the amount of dust it creates.
I don’t know if they have the time to keep up with the comments on here so be sure you send in your question through the contact form over on the left side. I would ask you how does the bit perform on face or edge grain? If it does fine there then you know it’s just not working well on end grain. If it doesn’t work well then you know you have a problem with the bit or the router or the jig you are using. I’ve always used my drum sander but I know Matt uses a router jig before going to the drum sander.
You guys are too kind. It’s funny because I haven’t made very many furniture sized things so I look at what you guys do and think what am I even doing? I think it’s easy to make interesting artsy things because there are no rules. It doesn’t have to be practical. But making a table and have it be something that you’ve put your own spin on amongst the billions of other tables that are out there and have it still be classy and timeless and actually serve the purpose that it has to do is another thing entirely and something I hope to be able to do someday.
I’ve been turned on to the Pill Lowe videos for a while now. There excellent!! Very entertaining and informative, even for an old pro. Lots of little gems. Love the show, thanks for not quitting. Rob
Hello everyone,
So my question is one of opinion. I’m still pretty green in woodworking and so far I’m still “unplugged”. I have some second hand planes and I’ve decided to purchase something new and I believe I want to go with a Wood River product, but my struggle is in deciding which to get. Specifically I’ve looked at the 4, 4 1/2, 5, and the 5 1/2. I would just like to hear some opinions from a few of you who are more seasoned than I.
-Thank you.