New Web Site

Starting my blog at blogger.com, was a test for me. I wanted to see if I would post on a somewhat regular basis. I was pretty pleased with my regular posts, and I have more ideas and projects coming. So I though I would move over to a real domain. New posts will now be showing up at theinquisitivewoodworker.com. I moved all of my current posts and comments over to this new web site. I plan to spend some time "customizing" the new site. You will see a general template for now, but look for some changes, as I start to figure things out.

Bandsaw Weekend

I did a quick tire change on the bandsaw this weekend and tested out the new bandsaw blade I ordered. The tire change went fast without any problems. It was then onto testing this new killer blade.

Resaw King bandsaw blade
The bandsaw blades I’ve been using lately have been Wood Slicer blades. I’ve been really happy with these blades. They cut pretty fast and pretty smooth. I knew even with the “nice” cut I was getting, there was going to be a lot of work cleaning up the cut surface. Recently I was listening to Wood Talk Online, and Mark was talking about a new blade he was testing. It was the Resaw King from Laguna Tools. He commented on the smoothness and quality of cut he got with this blade. He also said it was pretty expensive and he was right. I thought if the blade worked as well as advertised, it could save me a lot of time during the surface clean up.

There are some nice videos on Laguna’s web site, you might wont the check them out if you are considering one these blades.

The first thing you will notice about this blade, it’s not the standard hocked toothed blade you are used to seeing. It really looks like a “table saw” blade, but stretched out into a bandsaw blade.

A positive thing about this blade is that it can be sent back to be resharpened. It helped me justify the initial cash outlay, which for me was about $180. My bandsaw can support up to a ¾” blade, so I got a 105” - ¾” Resaw King.

While on Laguna’s site, I watched some of their other videos. In the section on their bandsaws, one of the demonstrations was on setting your fence for blade drift. It was brilliant and the simplest procedure I had ever seen. I had to see if it really worked.

Setting your fence for blade drift
First, find a nice piece of stock a couple inches thick. Make sure the edge that will ride against the fence is flat and square. Make your first cut about a 1" in from the outside edge. The cut should be a couple inches deep. Turn off the bandsaw. Observe the blade position in the cut.

In my case the blade was resting up against the right side of the cut, as you looked at from the cut side. The goal is to get the blade in the center of the saw curf. I opened the fence up slightly and did another test cut.

I was a little conservative on my first adjustment. Another slight tweak, and I got it on my second try.
This really is the simplest and quickest method I’ve ever used. Now, the real test was going to be how it cuts.

Testing the blade
Here's an example of a resaw cut I did last weekend using my Wood Slicer blade. It’s what I’m used to getting on my bandsaw and until now I thought it was a pretty nice cut.

Here’s an example of the quality of cut I get with the Resaw King blade.

You can just make out some very light “ribs” left by the blade. It is the cleanest and smoothest cut I have ever seen on a bandsaw. Laguna says they are trying to achieve table saw quality cuts on their bandsaws. I think I'm about 95% there with my bandsaw. I suspect you can get that quality of cut, on one of their saws with this blade. I on the other hand have a Grizzly 14” bandsaw, which is working fine for me now. Although, I look forward to the day I can move up to a higher quality and larger bandsaw.

I was so impressed with the quality of cut, I recut the laminates for the apron. The surfaces were so smooth, I decide to try the glue up without even cleaning up the cut surfaces. The apron is curing in the form and will be ready for a closer look tomorrow, or this next weekend.

Bending form for the apron

Available shop time has been low lately. I caught one of the early cold bugs going around, and then my wife caught it from me. This last weekend I felt better and had a little bit of time I could spend in the shop. I finished up the bending form I will use to make the apron for the Small Hall table.

I also started to cut some of the laminates I will use to do a test glue up. I had some issues with my band saw while doing this. I was hearing a thumping sound coming from the saw whenever I was cutting. This was unusual, because my band saw always sounded and cut smoothly. After a little investigation I found that a nice little chunk had been taken out of one my tires. I can't even begin to think how this happened. They were petty new tires, but I have ordered some replacements. Replacing the tires will be one of this weekend’s tasks. I’m also going to try a nicer resaw blade to see if I can get a smoother cut. I'd like to cut down on how much time I have to spend cleaning up each laminate. I'll post the results after I have had a chance to use the blade.

Which leads to the question, “How do you clean up the laminates”? Most of the woodworking shows and articles I have seen on resawing laminates, say to use a drum stander to clean up the surfaces. I would say that most amateur woodworkers don’t have a drum sander, and it’s pretty far done on my list of tools if it’s even on my list. I hate sanding dust!

I searched and found two articles, both of which I think I had read in the past. The first was in Fine Woodworking # 164. In this article Lon Schleining, uses a melamine board and double stick tape to attach the laminates to it. He then ran the board through a thickness planer, or drum sander if you have one :). I had thought of this, but the idea just scared me. Even taped down to another board, I have this image of the thin pieces coming apart under the fast spinning knives. It was good to know that it has been done.

Because I was still uncomfortable with the thickness planer idea, I kept digging. I found an even newer article I had read in Popular Woodworking. They say your memory is the 2nd thing go, I can’t remember what the first is. The article was written by David Charlesworth, one the people that really got me interested in hand tools. He attaches his laminates to a piece of MDF, using a couple drops of Super Glue at one end. He then uses a hand plane to clean up the surface. You only need the glue at one end, because as you are hand planing the piece it will be under tension. It also has the advantage of letting you left the piece up, to check on how you are doing. This method really seems to be what I’m looking for. It is safer and uses a hand plane. I may give the thickness planer a try, just to prove myself wrong or right. I'll post results of both methods soon.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I tend to try to remember things without writing them down. Just ask my wife when she gives me a list of things to pickup at the store. She’d always ask do you want to write that down. I’d always say, no it’s just 4 or 5 items I can remember that. Needless to say I always forget something. Now she just hands me her list.

This time it wasn’t remembering something it was doing math in my head, which is just as bad. Last weekend I started to work on the form for the bent laminate apron, for the small table I’m working. I knew what the finished radii were for the apron. I then had to compensate for the cork I was going to line the form with. I though it’s only a 1/8” I can do that math in my head. I don’t know what happened. Where I need to subtract a 1/8” I added and/or where I needed to add a 1/8” I subtracted. In any case, the measurements were off. Luckily this wasn’t a big deal, it was only a couple small pieces of MDF I had to through in the trashcan. I’m really glad I found my mistake before I got all the way through my glue-up!

What I learned from this? I failed on the Measure Twice part. Even though I was dead on in laying out the wrong measurements. I really need to write everything down. I think I’m saving time by doing stuff in my head. In reality, it has cost me time and money more than once. I think I have finally learned my lesson. I may even start to make grocery lists now :).

Small Hall Table – Starting the Mock-Up

This weekend I had some free time and spent my time working on the mock-up for the small hall table.

I started with the legs. I was concerned that the size of the legs I drew up in my plans might be too bulky. The legs I drew up were 1 ¾” square at the top and tapered down to 1” square. After making the first leg I was sure it was going to be too bulky, for this table. I mocked-up another leg that was 1 ½” square at the top and tapered down to ¾”. I like this leg much better. It just goes to show that it is hard to judge size and proportion in a "CAD" program. A full size drawing or a mock-up might be needed.


To cut the tapers I made a simple jig. It’s just a piece of ½” MDF, with a couple stops attached to it. The stops held the blank in place pretty well, but I added some double-stick tape for good measure. After cutting the first two tapers, I had to add a small “shim”, the size of the waste I cut off, to the lower part of the jig. This kept everything lined up for each cut. The cuts were made on the table saw. The jig runs up against the rip fence.

After getting the legs worked out, I had some time to start on the form I was going to use to glue-up the apron. The apron will be a bent-laminate glue-up. This is going to be a somewhat “small” glue-up, so I just plan to use a few pieces of MDF. The apron will be about 1 ¾” wide. 3 layers for ¾” MFD will give me the width I need to do the glue-up. To make the radius cuts I need, I used my band saw. I’ve seen this done on many woodworking shows, but haven’t tried it yet. I didn’t make fancy jig for this, it's just a piece of MDF attached to my top. I then drilled holes for the different radii I needed, and used a piece dowel as the pivot point.

The boards that were going to be cut, were somewhat small so I only used double-stick tape to attach the jig to my top. Someday, I may spend some time to make a “reusable” jig. For now a simple board taped to the top worked well.

I started the glue up of the 3 layers of MDF. I plan to use some cork to line the form, but I have to track it down first. I think I’ll have time next weekend to do a test glue-up of the apron. I’ll show the completed form and glued up apron at that time.

Looking for lumber

I went by 2 of the larger hardwood suppliers in my area (Crosscut Hardwoods and Edensaw), looking for lumber for the small table I'm starting. For the first time I struck out finding what I wanted. I was looking to build the table out of Cherry. I wanted the top to be one piece and it needed to be about 10" x 20". Most of the boards I found were closer to 6" and 8" wide. I didn't want to glue up the top, I thought the joint might look odd on the half circle shape. I did find one board that would work, but they were calling it "Figured Cherry" and it was over $20/bf. If it had figure in it I might have gone with it, but I didn't really see any figure in it. Unless you call sapwood figure!

On to Plan B. Now I'm looking to use veneer for the top. I'll just add one more thing to this project that I haven't done yet. This simple little table is turning into a real experiment for me now. I started looking around online for veneers. I found some really nice Redwood Burl veneer at B&B Rare Woods. I had come across this company awhile ago, but I haven't ordered from them yet. I sent off a few questions to them, and I'm waiting to hear back. It sounds like they are in the middle of moving to a new location, so I'll give them a little while to get back to me.

In the meantime, I plan to pick up some inexpensive wood to start the mock-up. I plan to mock-up a couple different sizes of legs, to figure out which proportions work best. Design and proportions is something I'm still working on and I think a mock-up is needed. I've seen a lot of new woodworkers try their own designs, and quite often they come out chunky and heavy. This is going to be a somewhat small/delicate table, and I don't want tree trunks for legs.

It's interesting, Christopher Schwarz just talked about design in the latest issue of Popular Woodworking (Oct 2008). I had recently come to the same realization that there are no real design classes out there for woodworkers. Part of what I want to share in this blog, is how I develop that skill. I've been thinking about looking at some of the community colleges around me to see what they offer. If anyone is aware of design classes that can be taken by "average" people let me know.

Montana Trip

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Montana. My wife’s parents have a house on Flathead Lake, and we try to go over there each summer. I love the Northwest and can’t imagine living anywhere else, but Montana would be a really close second for me. It was a little cloudy the few days we were there, so we didn’t get any good pictures this year. Here is a picture I took a year or two ago, from the porch their house. It’s really hard waking up this view each morning ☺.

We didn’t stay quite as long as we planned. Both of the parents caught a cold just before we arrived. We hung around for a couple days, but then decided to head home before we caught it. It was still a good trip despite being cut short. We still have a few days left on our vacation, so we will spend it at home. I hope to get some shop time after a few tasks that need to be done around the house.