Eddie Knapp
12-30-2011, 4:10 PM
So i'm a hobbyist (at best), and got the bug after taking a class at the Philadelphia Furniture workshop, so last year, i went out and got a couple tools on sale at lowes, and have slowly added over the past year. With the addition of my first kid, there hasn't been any time, and i just picked it up again recently. I finished my first project with a number of valuable lessons, and very thankful that I decided to go with the cheap-o poplar from Home Depot instead of good hardwood. I made wine racks. They turned out pretty decently.
I'm now on to cutting boards. I figured i'd make a few of them (i owe christmas gifts), so i headed out to Hearne's hardwood (which was a very cool shop) and proceeded to have my first fail. I did the math wrong (using thewoodwhisperer's cutting board plans), and for 3 cutting boards bought 25 board feet of 8/4 cherry and 25 board feet of 8/4 hard maple. I didn't need that much. BTW - anyone in philadelphia needs any 8/4 cherry or 8/4 hard maple...i'll sell it at 50% off.
Fail #1.
Fail #2: My table Saw:
217681
This is the aforementioned lowes sale item. I picked it up for about 70 bucks (it might have even been $50). It actually works pretty good. I made a decent sled for the wine rack cuts, and i've got a 6" dado stack that does the job (although the bolt that holds teh blades isn't large enough to get anything bigger than a 1/2" dado stack on it). And the fence needs to be manually squared each time its moved.
This table saw actually stalled out yesterday when i was cutting the hard maple. Just stopped. Hit the reset button resumed cutting and everything was fine.
The cutting board is end grain with alternating woods and widths. When i was cutting the hard maple, i had to take small pauses in the middle of each cut to get positioned correctly. The result was that the cuts had grooves in them from the saw blade. Well, i figured, i've got a jointer, i can just clean up those edges:
Fail #3:
My Jointer:
217685
Picked this baby up off of craigslist for $80 in December 2010. Guy told me that the blades were brand new. Didn't use it until yesterday, and got disastrous results. Here's an example of what happens:
217686
Snipe is redefined with this piece of machinery.
But i was relentless in my quest to push forward, so i kept going I glued up my cutting board (yes with bad joints. yes I know this is a cardinal sin. Yes, i've learned my lesson).
Fail #4 - Today, i came out to my glue up to trim up my edges, cut down the board, and re-glue for final cutting board awesomeness (OK, it wasn't going to be awesome, it was really just a trial run, work with me here). My table saw (please refer to fail #2) does not possess a table large enough to fit the 18" x 10" glued up monstrosity. Screw it, i've got a straight edge and a circular saw. Here is the result:
217687
I honestly thought i was going to start a fire.
So, aside from my venting, i actually have some questions that i hope you can help with:
1) What the heck is wrong with my jointer (yes it's rusty, yes i've cleaned it, no i can't keep it non-rusty). Do i need new knives? Do they need to be sharpened? Was i doing something completely amateurish?
2) Why is my table saw stalling out on hard maple? Is it that underpowered? Was I hoping for too much from a $50 table-saw?
3) Same question - circular saw? What kind of blade should I be using on it to cut this?
4) I've described what i've done somewhat thoroughly, any advice, pointers, guidelines, etc will be much appreciated. Mockery can be e-mailed to me directly @ suck.it.im.new.at.this@gmail.com
Thanks!
I'm now on to cutting boards. I figured i'd make a few of them (i owe christmas gifts), so i headed out to Hearne's hardwood (which was a very cool shop) and proceeded to have my first fail. I did the math wrong (using thewoodwhisperer's cutting board plans), and for 3 cutting boards bought 25 board feet of 8/4 cherry and 25 board feet of 8/4 hard maple. I didn't need that much. BTW - anyone in philadelphia needs any 8/4 cherry or 8/4 hard maple...i'll sell it at 50% off.
Fail #1.
Fail #2: My table Saw:
217681
This is the aforementioned lowes sale item. I picked it up for about 70 bucks (it might have even been $50). It actually works pretty good. I made a decent sled for the wine rack cuts, and i've got a 6" dado stack that does the job (although the bolt that holds teh blades isn't large enough to get anything bigger than a 1/2" dado stack on it). And the fence needs to be manually squared each time its moved.
This table saw actually stalled out yesterday when i was cutting the hard maple. Just stopped. Hit the reset button resumed cutting and everything was fine.
The cutting board is end grain with alternating woods and widths. When i was cutting the hard maple, i had to take small pauses in the middle of each cut to get positioned correctly. The result was that the cuts had grooves in them from the saw blade. Well, i figured, i've got a jointer, i can just clean up those edges:
Fail #3:
My Jointer:
217685
Picked this baby up off of craigslist for $80 in December 2010. Guy told me that the blades were brand new. Didn't use it until yesterday, and got disastrous results. Here's an example of what happens:
217686
Snipe is redefined with this piece of machinery.
But i was relentless in my quest to push forward, so i kept going I glued up my cutting board (yes with bad joints. yes I know this is a cardinal sin. Yes, i've learned my lesson).
Fail #4 - Today, i came out to my glue up to trim up my edges, cut down the board, and re-glue for final cutting board awesomeness (OK, it wasn't going to be awesome, it was really just a trial run, work with me here). My table saw (please refer to fail #2) does not possess a table large enough to fit the 18" x 10" glued up monstrosity. Screw it, i've got a straight edge and a circular saw. Here is the result:
217687
I honestly thought i was going to start a fire.
So, aside from my venting, i actually have some questions that i hope you can help with:
1) What the heck is wrong with my jointer (yes it's rusty, yes i've cleaned it, no i can't keep it non-rusty). Do i need new knives? Do they need to be sharpened? Was i doing something completely amateurish?
2) Why is my table saw stalling out on hard maple? Is it that underpowered? Was I hoping for too much from a $50 table-saw?
3) Same question - circular saw? What kind of blade should I be using on it to cut this?
4) I've described what i've done somewhat thoroughly, any advice, pointers, guidelines, etc will be much appreciated. Mockery can be e-mailed to me directly @ suck.it.im.new.at.this@gmail.com
Thanks!