r/woodworking

A while back I challenged myself to make a hand plane completely out of black walnut using only hand tools over the course of a weekend. This time I let myself use everything I have available and took closer to a month of on/off work.

The knob and tote are glued on while the frog attaches to the base plate using wooden screws and can be removed. Depth adjustment and lateral adjustment are both functional in the sense that they move and use wooden screws as well. Same deal with the blade, chip breaker, and lever cap.

Fantastic way to use up a lot of wood that was sitting in the off cut bin and I’m planning to enter it in a local competition later this month.

I recently posted here asking for advice on finishing my door. I just wanted to thank everyone that chimed in and gave advice, opinions, and compliments. I really appreciate the help you all gave me.

- Write up -

I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together this mahogany screen door for my home. It’s almost impossible to find an arched screen door, and those that do exist cost a small fortune. So I built one. For way more than I expected to spend on this project. As is tradition.

There are many, many imperfections, and probably a few genuine mistakes, but I’m pretty happy with it. This is only the 5th woodworking project that I’ve ever done, so it was a good chance to try a lot of techniques that I’ve never done before. I got to try using dowels, using my table saw as a jointer, using a Japanese pull saw, belt sander, etc.

Stiles and rails:
The stiles and rails are doweled and glued together. Nothing very fancy there.

The arch:
The arch was 4 or 5 pieces of 1x6 doweled and glued along the edge grain. I then drove a screw into my workbench, centered it along the width of the boards, attached a wire to it and then the other end to a pencil. This allowed me to trace a decent arch shape onto the wood.

I then used a jigsaw to rough-cut the arch before using a belt sander to get closer to the line and shape the arch. It’s a little janky in a couple of spots, but sometimes you waste so much time being frustrated and trying to make it perfect that you just have to move on when it’s close enough.

Probably would’ve been much easier to use a router and a circle jig, but I didn’t have the jig or know how to make one. If there’s ever a next time that’ll probably be the way I do it.

Someone in another sub told me that my arch is going to fail because of the exposed end grain at the top, someone else told me that it’ll probably be fine, but even if it fails, it’ll be a good learning experience as to why. I chose to go that route. I can always cut the top off and rebuild the arch, and build it better, if I need to in the future.

The bottom half:
All of the angled pieces at the bottom were just trial and error. I wish I was better at finding angles or knew some kinda hack on how to get them perfect, so please chime in if you have suggestions.

Regrets:
My biggest regret with it is probably not spending more time finding matching mahogany, but since this all came from Menards, I’m lucky that I was able to even get wood this good.

What I learned:
Besides learning how to use the various tools and techniques that I’ve never used before, the most important thing I learned is just how tight dowel joints can be. I know they say to use 5/8” dowels for a 5/8” hole, but trying to get it fit, especially with glue, was a nightmare. Literally tore the skin from my hand trying to hammer it together for so long.

After that, I ended up widening the holes a little bit, but even then that wasn’t enough. In the future, I will probably use slightly smaller dowels or sand down the ones I do use rather than widening the holes. Wish I realized that was an option while I was building this.

Finishing:
Used a card scraper and chisel to clean up and glue squeeze-out that I didn’t catch. Rounded over a few areas with the chisel to account for some of the inconsistencies before sanding the entire thing.

Staining:
Stained it with General Finishes Outdoor Oil. A lot of people suggested Penofin or spar varnish, or a million other options, and quite frankly, there are almost too many options. Makes it hard to know what’s best for your project.

I didn’t want anything that would be super difficult to maintain or another new technique that I would need to learn in order to apply it, so I went with what I know.

I recently used General Finishes Gel Stain on a bookcase that I built and I really liked it, so I decided to go with them again. We shall see how it holds up to Ohio weather.

Nothing like building a screen door as fall is starting and giving yourself about 2 weeks to enjoy it before it’s finally too cold.

Also, shout out to Rex Krueger for giving me great advice and an incredibly meaningful compliment as a new woodworker. The dude is so incredibly nice. Should definitely check out his YouTube channel if you haven’t.

Lately, I’ve been reading quite a lot about the idea of a symbolic or spiritual animal, an animal that somehow represents something within us, our personality, or qualities we feel connected to.
It got me thinking: What would my own animals be?
For me, two stood out immediately.
The panther, representing inner strength, quiet power, and the ability to move forward even when things get difficult.
And the horse, representing freedom, independence, and the feeling of needing space to follow your own path.
So I decided to turn these two symbols into a piece of marquetry.
I wanted the animals to feel connected rather than simply placed next to each other almost like two different sides of the same person.
I made the piece using: Ash, Cherry, Walnut, Maple, Birdseye maple, Padouk, Smoked eucalyptus, Birch burl, Mahogany, Satin walnut
The finished piece is 75 × 75 cm (29.5 × 29.5 inches).
And because the idea fascinated me so much, I ended up creating a little 10-question test based on the same concept to see which symbolic animal might represent someone else.
I’m curious: if you had to choose one animal to represent something deep within you, what would it be and why?

The mahogany threw me a little first chiseling it. It was way softer than the maple and I gouged it a little . I did get the tails bigger than the pins this time. Also I’m out of maple and mahogany at this point. I can get poplar, red oak, maple, mahogany, possibly a few others from the closest box store but if it’s worth practicing on something else I can make the half hour drive for pretty much whatever I want from a local lumber place. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Also I appreciate all the tips. At some point in the next 30 days I’m probably going to make a box or something so it’s not just all cutoffs lol.

An old ratcheting hand drill. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what the application of the ratchet would be used for with this specific tool. It’s evident that it’s fairly old and well used, but it’s in good condition no markings or branding.

I currently run a PM 66 and a Sawstop PCS back to back, with a shared out feed in between. As you can see in the image, there is currently a wall on one side, preventing me from adding a third saw or a router Table on that side. I’m currently cleaning up and re-organizing the shop and was thinking it would be cool to add a third cabinet saw to the mix.

I’d love to see all of your interesting set ups. Whether they are 2, 3, 4 saws, or a variety of other machines, I’m looking for inspiration.

Edit: for those suggesting that it’s a small space; you are correct. It is a 650 ft.² two car garage, with a loft above it. 1/4 of the garage is partitioned off for lawn care equipment and the lake. Also, the picture I took provides a poor perspective; the first floor workspace is L-shaped, and part of the L is hard to see. There are more pictures in the comments.

One saw is dedicated to dados and one to ripping and cross cutting.

Wanted to make a chair for over a decade. This is made entirely out of walnut. Only joinery and glue, no screws. Finished with general finishes arm-r-seal in satin.

Made a pair of basket weave end-grain cutting boards out of maple, cherry, and walnut. Really pleased with how they turned out, especially the continuous end-grain sides. Design is taken from Caleb's Fine Woodworking, who has an excellent build video for those wanting to build their own.

Between projects and thinking about building a wood rack along a wall to lay down back stock. Anyone have an opinion? Or is standing stock ok...

Would there be any interest in this? thinking of open saucing it and putting it on github. It suits makita/einhell/ozito 65mm diam body cordless routers (not dewalt at this stage)....

it works reasonably well, I think too much torque when using 8mm cutters but 6mm works well, depth of 25mm. I don't have a longer 6mm cutter to test deeper... it can be adjusted for width and depth of cut, has a height adjustable fence, and dust extraction down through the face and out the side... can also do dowel holes..

I built it a couple of years ago, had some issues with accuracy (maybe runout, or not rigid enough) eg 8mm holes coming out at almost 9mm. Put it in the cupboard and didn't touch it for almost 2 years.

ignore my bad placement of mortises! just ran some test cuts last night

We’ve a small nock in our house that doesn’t fit a standard size chest of drawers; yet it’s the perfect place for them! Me being me, I thought I’d give building a set ago.

One pile of poplar later and I’d built the carcuss, then birch ply and oak were use for the drawers and the total is a live edge piece of oak that had a bow tail, epoxy treatment.

I’m so impressed with myself, it was complicated and took a lot of thought to get it rights some imperfections, such as the last drawer not gluing square because it was the last one and I rushed it, one set of dovetails wasn’t perfect because the jig slipped and the bow ties could be better.

But, it’s level, square and functions exactly how I expected.

As I've grown as a woodworker over the last couple years, I found myself needing something more than the little Gent's Saw I bought to learn with. I still use it frequently for smaller cuts, and it definitely should be in every beginner's kit, but cutting larger joints with it is a real chore. So for my birthday last year I decided that I should treat myself to a couple joinery saws to grow into.

Woodworking has always been an affordable hobby or me and I have other, more expensive hobbies, like having a kid and a house, so I went in search of budget options. I wasn't really satisfied with much of what's affordable out there, but the nice stuff was out of my budget. I found SawKits.com and didn't see many reviews or info for their saws, but they seemed like a good option for the quality saws I was after. I could get a couple saws for what one good dovetail saw costs, and have all the fun and satisfaction of making them myself!

I decided to get the 9" taper plate dovetail saw and the 12" carcase saw for $136, then if I liked these I would get the 16" tenon saw later to complete the set. To be clear, these are not the cheapest options, but seemed to be the cheapest way to get what I wanted. I am in no way affiliated with the company, and I paid full price for them. I'm just a customer who wants to help others by providing feedback.

The kits include just the metal parts, so I headed over to Goby walnut and found a nice walnut board with some figuring and a distinct, swirling grain pattern to make the handles out of. For about 25 bucks I got enough to make 3 saw handles with leftover for other tool handles in the future. A couple handle templates are included, but I opted for some pistol grip patterns from Blackburn tools. I used these to drill and cut the handles, then got to work shaping with a Shinto saw rasp, files, sandpaper, chisels, and a card scraper. I used all hand tools for this part, with a handful of evenings in the shop I was able to turn out two nice feeling handles. There are plenty of videos on YouTube for how to do this, it's not difficult per se, but it does take some time and care and shouldn't be rushed. Once they felt good I finished them with BLO and shellac.

On to the saws themselves. The saw plates need to be seated into the brass backs. After trimming the brass and rounding off the front I tried CA glue. That set up too quickly and I wasn't able to seat the saw completely, and had to heat the brass to remove it. After cleaning up that mess I mixed up a little 5 minute epoxy and used that. Just a tiny bit along the saw plate, you don't want gobs of this stuff leaking out! The back of the saw plate can be trimmed to fit inside the handle with normal metal shears no problem. Then came drilling the holes through the saw plate. This stuff DOES NOT drill well! I recommend getting a 1/4" punch for this, or get a disposable drill bit because you will ruin it. Maybe even a dremel and grinding attachment.

These come with traditional split nuts so you will need a driver for these. I fashioned one with brass and walnut, but it's a bit rough and I'll probably replace it next time I need to take these nuts off. The wrong shape can scratch and mar the nuts so be sure you have something that fits well.

The teeth are punched but not sharpened or set. I bought a cheap set and modified it to fit the small teeth, set them, then gently tapped the set back out. Richard McGuire recommends no set on small saws and I find they're definitely easier to use like this. I sharpened them for a rip cut, a bit less aggressive in the first inch for starting cuts, and I was done!

Now that I've had time to use them, I really do like them. A lot! I reach for the carcase saw for just about everything, unless I need a full size panel saw, and the dovetail saw is really wonderful to use for smaller stuff. I definitely recommend these, assuming you can make the handles and do the minor assembly of the saws. Setting and sharpening saws is a skill you should develop anyway if you use western saws, so this is a good opportunity to learn. The big chore is really the handle making, but most woodworkers should be able to do that with minimal tools. I feel that now I've got a couple great saws that I won't outgrow, I can use these for as long as I'm interested in making sawdust and then maybe my kid can take over after that. I'll be going back for the 16" tenon saw soon, I'm excited to build that and complete the traditional set of 3 saws.

I hope this long-winded report helps someone who might be on the fence about SawKits. I think they're a great, affordable way to get high quality saws and any issues you might have with them are going to be from assembly, handle making, set/sharpening, and not from the kit itself. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer what I can.

Made this small keepsake box mostly with hand tools. The body is walnut, resawn down to roughly 1/4”, and the corners are mitered. I used a miter shooting board to fine-tune the miters.

The box ended up a little smaller than I originally planned because this was my first time doing mitered corners. My first attempt wasn’t square, so I shortened the pieces and cut the miters again. On the second try, I paid more attention to keeping the plane flat on the shooting board instead of accidentally leaning it toward the workpiece. I also kept steady sideways pressure on the plane so it stayed properly registered against the runway. The second attempt came out much better.

The lid is a contrasting hardwood piece from a thin hardwood offcuts I got from woodvault.com, bottom is red oak

I actually don’t know the species of the lid, any guesses?

I cut the grooves for the bottom by hand with chisels, which gave me a few problems, and the glue-up took more than one attempt. The lid rides on small internal supports and I added a simple finger notch at the front

Would appreciate any feedback, thanks

Just a little cherry blank I've been working on. My brother-in-law is an arborist so sometimes I get the scraps. I do a couple blanks at a time when I prep them and then throw them in the freezer to save for whenever the creative itch tingles.

Rough carving is my favorite stage. It very much is just removing everything that isn't the spoon. The spoon is in there, you just gotta find it

This is a project I thought would never get finished rather. I bought this cookie from a guy in Arizona in July and I’m just now finishing up. This was my first time using this particular wood. It’s definitely visually striking and you don’t have to do a lot with it. the woods, the star. Approximate dimensions 24 inches wide 16 inches deep & about 2 inches thick. The epoxy on this particular project is clear and I used the total boat deep pour epoxy. I pour in roughly half to three-quarter inch deep pores. I find that works the best. Did run into a snag here with after the epoxy was poured. it ended up clear & didn’t have any bubbles or defects in it. I take things to an industrial shop locally and have them flattened whether that’s with a planer or three head sander or belt sander. This particular instance was the three headed sander and it takes it to 220 grit in a single pass, but it left a lot of surface scratches in the epoxy which made it opaque. I ended up having to buy basically 400 grit through 2000 grit, sandpaper and incrementally sand the epoxy through those grits until I got all the scratches out of it. I will say that what you’ve seen and read about that hybrid sandpaper turning the surface into something that resembles glass is true. it doesn’t feel like wood at that point. I was originally going to use Rubio but as we all know, we can’t use that product past about 180 grit and have it work. I actually tried Odie’s oil for the first time and I was really impressed with how it turned out. I don’t think I used up the amount that sticks to the top of the lid when you close the jar on this cookie on all four sides. I wiped it on let it sit for about an hour, buffed it off with a cotton towel. I plan on buffing it out with a terry cloth bonnet in a few days once it cures and I’m going to end up putting some stainless steel feet on it and calling it a centerpiece.