What am I doing?

I am currently reading Make Your Own Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.  I am prepping myself as best I can for my first guitar build.  This is hopefully the start of a Career.  I’m hoping that over the next 10 years I can develop my skill at building guitars and make a Full Time career of it.  It’s a tough business to get into especially competing with the Big dogs out there but I still believe there is a good market for Custom Built and Hand Built Guitars both Acoustic and electric.  Like most things I have decided to just teach myself at least in the beginning.  I’m sure I will take some classes down the road but for now it’s full steam ahead. 

Tomorrow night I plan to go into the shop and finally knock out the post on Tuning a Miter Saw.  I hope to have that up tomorrow night or Thursday.  Once that post is done I will start on the WIWW Nightstand build and start the post with that.  I want to break up each section into it’s own post so you have a step by step guide to building the nightstand.  Sorry it has been taking so long on this.  I know I got everyone all excited with the Series.  I had some really great responses.  April is about over and all of my commitments are mostly taken care of so I can spend some time focusing on the series and getting it done right for you. 

On a side note….   In a jonesing for something woodworking I tackled a new type of woodworking tonight.  Well not so much new as it was adapting some current skills into producing something else.  I am excited about it and will post about that as well in the future but for now it is going to be a closely held secret.  I think you will find it interesting as well.  Tonight was mostly prototyping and figuring out how I wanted to do things.  I still have a lot of figuring out to do on the project but think I am well on my way. 

I also got to spend sometime in the shop with Grover Jr. tonight.  We had a Parent/Child Project that we completed tonight from Home Depot.  It was a little shelf kit with the number 20 Home Depot Car.  Pretty neat.  If you want to spend some quality time with you son or daughter I highly HIGHLY recommend the Lowes Build And Grow Program.  I took Grover Jr. to one a few weeks back and we built a Kaleidoscope.  There was just something very cool about spending sometime with him just the two of us sharing something that I love with him and seeing him enjoy it. 

Here are some pictures after a successful morning of building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is a trip.  We never could get him to stop making faces.  I really totally so don’t know where he gets it from.

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Woodworking,WIWW,Women In Woodworking,Guitars

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WIWW: Miter Saw Recommendations and Use Pt. 1

During our nightstand build I will be recommending that you use a Miter Saw. The miter saw is a versatile tool that every woodworker/ DIYer should have in their shop. I highly recommend using a sliding miter saw. A sliding miter saw gives increased flexibility in that you can crosscut wider boards, typically boards up to 12”. Miter saws can differ in price dramatically you can spend anywhere from $89 on a low end 10” miter saw all the way up to the ultimate (insert high end car/purse/jewelry here i.e. Mercedes/Coach/Harry Winston) of tools a Festool Kapex KS-120 MSRP $1399. If a Festool Rep is reading this I will be more than happy to do a review for you if you would like to send me one. I promise I will send it back. As you can see there is a wide range of pricing.

There are also different sizes of miter saws, however the most common sizes are 10” and 12”. For the majority of users 10” is plenty, if you can afford it you will not go wrong with a 12” Miter Saw. I personally have purchased a Ryobi TSS100L which retails for around $199. This is a 10” Sliding Miter saw.

I am extremely happy with the saw in use and function. The one thing I don’t like about the saw is the factory blade it comes with. I suggest you upgrade blades as soon as you can. I did notice a bit of tear out from the factory blade. I am going to swap it out with a DeWalt 60 tooth blade. I will go into the difference in blades in a later post. Just know that a 60 tooth blade should give you a much cleaner cut with little to no tear out.

Now in choosing your own saw you need to read as many reviews as you can to have a comfort level with what you will buy. Ryobi, DeWalt, Craftsman in my opinion make good saws. I chose the Ryobi because the price was right. When you go and look at the saws touch as many of them as you can, keep weight and features in mind to decide if the price difference is worth the money to you. If you are like me I have limited space in my shop and weight is a big factor as I am constantly moving the saw around.

One thing the Ryobi doesn’t have is a double bevel feature which allows the saw to tilt left and right. I didn’t see the need for the double bevel as you can overcome that with the orientation of the wood. Most saws come with laser guides, some are attached to the blade arbor and some are attached behind the blade like the Ryobi and take a little adjustment to get an accurate laser beam on the wood. I may be a little old school but I don’t totally ever trust the lasers. I know they are supposed to be accurate but I always check the cut against my cut line.

One thing to look at is how much the blade moves when you push on it from the side. If it is very loose you can get deflection in your cut that will cause it to not be 90 degrees. Some of that could be from a loose bolt holding the blade so make sure to check that before dismissing a particular saw. You will also want to see how much slop (how much does the saw move side to side) there is when pulling the blade down to the table and if you are looking at a sliding miter saw also look at the slop when sliding the saw front to back. You want everything to be firm but not hard to move. Most every saw I have used has some movement you are looking for excess movement. Now keep in mind that 90% of the time you will need to do a little tuning of the saw out of the box. I will go into this in the second edition of the post. Feel free to give your input if you have a miter saw. I always believe the more information the better.

Coming in Part 2 – Using and Tuning the Miter Saw and Safety.

Definitions:

Crosscut: Cutting a board across the width of the board.

Tear Out: Splintering of the wood at the point of the cut.

Have a Great Day!

 

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WIWW: Nightstand Materials list

I have finished the design of our first project an easy to build nightstand.  The nightstand is dimensioned for a room at the beach house I am helping makeover.  However you can make it any size you would like.  It is 13 3/4” Wide x 16” Long x 23 3/4” Tall.  You can build it with or without the bottom shelf.  I have designed this to use 2”x2” legs.  I have had a difficult time finding 2”x2” Pine Legs so I am going to use 2”x2” Poplar legs for mine.  I am going to be painting mine white so it doesn’t matter that the wood is different.  An option you could use would be to use 2”x4” Studs as the poplar 2”x2”x36” are about $5 a piece and you can get the studs for $2 a piece and get all 4 legs from 2 2x4’s.  If you use 2”x4” Studs you will want to turn the wide edge to align with the longest side of the table.  This way when you look at the nightstand from the front you get a narrower leg. 

This is really up to you, as you can orient them any way you would like, however typically when building furniture you want to balance the symmetry or the piece so wider widths tend to line up with each other and likewise for the narrower widths.  If you are interested in seeing a diagram of this let me know and I will draw it up and post the picture.  Just let me know.   I am going to suggest you build this with pine to keep costs down and the pine boards from a Lowes/Home Depot tend to be straighter than the cheaper whitewood you can also get.

Okay let’s get to the materials and tools list.

Materials:

2 – 1”x3”x72”(6ft) Boards
2 – 1”x2”x72”(6ft) Boards
4 - 2"x2"x36"(3ft) Poplar or Pine if you can find it or 2 - 2"x4"x96(8ft)" Studs

Suggested tools:

10” Miter Saw
Random Orbital Sander (ROS)  You will also want 120grit, 150 or 180grit and 220Grit.
Speed Square or Framing Square

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

 

 

Kreg Jig

*If you are going to use a Kreg Jig on this project you will want to use the coarse screws since pine is a softer wood.

Wood Glue: I use Titebond III but I know a lot of people use Gorilla glue.  I have yet to use it.  Maybe one of these days I will break down and get some and give it a try. 

** Clamps:  How could I have forgotten these….    You will want to have at least 2 - 24” Clamps.  We will need these clamps to keep the top tight while the top glues.

***If you would prefer not to use clamps I can show you how to use the Kreg Jig to edge join the top boards.  Clamps can get expensive but you will need them if you are going to do lots of projects.  I don’t think you can have to many clamps.

I believe that should get us started with this build. 

If you have any questions make sure to comment below or shoot me an email.

Have a Great Day!

 

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Sneak Peak of the first WIWW Project

 

 

I hope I have you interested.  This is going to be a simple coastal style nightstand.  We will use a few basic tools.  The Tools we will be using will be a miter saw, Kreg Jig Jr. and a speed square or a framing square.  I plan on using dimensioned lumber from Lowes/Home Depot. 

If you are not familiar with what dimensioned lumber is it is lumber that is precut to a certain size for example 1x3, 2x4, etc. and is what in the woodworking world is called S4S or S2S.  This means surfaced on four sides or surfaced on two sides.  Essentially what happens is each side is cut to be made square to its parallel or opposite side.  We want to use this type of wood to cut down on the tools you will need to have to make this and any other projects.  By making the sides square when you join the boards of the table top they will fit closer together and you will have fewer gaps.  There are tools and techniques that you can use to virtually eliminate any gaps between the boards but that is a post for the future. 

I am working on getting the materials list together for you soon.  I will also before we get started on the actual building go into miter saws a little bit more in-depth.  If you don’t have one or don’t want to purchase one there are other options to building this table.  You could also use a circular saw or a jigsaw, however if you are planning on building several projects I highly recommend a miter saw.  I will get my thoughts together on this and post this soon. 

 

We are looking forward to this and wish everyone success.

Have a Great Day!

 

Technorati Tags: Women in woodworking,woodworking,kreg jig,nightstand

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Women In Woodworking

Everywhere I turn I see nothing but men involved in the art/craft of woodworking.  This hobby/craft/profession seems to be a male dominated one.  I’m not sure I totally understand it especially after introducing my wife to a miter saw during one of our recent projects a Shutter Mirror.  For all you men out there if your wife even remotely expresses an interest in woodworking I HIGHLY, is that emphatic enough, recommend you taking her out to the shop and letting her try her hands at any of your hand or power tools.  When I showed my wife how to use a miter saw to cross cut some boards for the project I have not seen a bigger grin and sense of excitement.  I was amazed at how much she enjoyed using it.  In her words “It cuts like butta".  In talking with my wife one thing I want to really try and do is introduce women to the art/craft of woodworking.  I know there are women woodworkers out there I am going to highlight three that I have found in the blog world later in the post.  I just feel led to do something to not only help my wife become more comfortable with woodworking but all women.  This is where you ladies come in. 

I really need some ideas of what you might be interested in.  It can be anything.  Now you will have to forgive me but being a man and married man at that I have come to realize that sometimes men and women don’t speak the same language.  My wife and I are working on our translation book.  So in an effort to make sure I make things clear my wife has agreed to help me edit my postings to make them less Grover and more universal.  All this meaning if you have no experience with woodworking I want to make sure I can clearly express my thoughts. 
Please make sure to comment on some of the ideas, concepts, projects you would like to see get help with or even contribute to. 
Three Women Woodworkers – These are just Three of the Women I have found so far that have amazed me.
Kari Hultman @ The Village Carpenter
Kari primarily works with Hand tools and has an amazing video on YouTube on hand cutting dovetails.  I know I am going to use her technique to start teaching myself how to cut dovetails.  Kari has been a contributor in many of the Woodworking Magazines. 
Julie @ Follow Your Heart Woodworking
I have been watching Julie’s blog postings on building a Buffet Hutch.  She is a furniture maker and has a site dedicated to that as well.  The hutch she is building is going to be outstanding.  It doesn’t hurt that she builds furniture that is country/primitive which is what I really enjoy.
Carole Rothman @ Scroll Saw Bowls
Carole has written at least one book on making Scroll Saw Bowls.  Her bowls are truly works of art.  I have played with a scroll saw a few times and started to get pretty good at it but I can’t wait to give one of her patterns a try. 
These are three amazing woodworkers.  I highly recommend you take a look at their sites.  I can’t say enough about their abilities as woodworkers. 



Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Women,Woodworking,Women in woodworking,village carpenter,Kari Hultman,Julie Rose,Carole Rothman,Scroll Saw Bowls

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