The large majority of the wood that I have is sawn in slabs. While the live edges allow more design possibilities, there are times when I don't need them. Layout To process this slab, I start by aligning my straight edge just inside the bark. This results in the straightest grain with the least amount of waste. … Continue reading Breaking Down Slabs
A reader recently inquired about the method I use to secure the crosscut fence to my sliding table saw. Grizzly provides a knob with a long male thread to pass through the slot in the outrigger and into the bottom of the crosscut fence. This is secure, but slow to remove when taking off the crosscut fence. For … Continue reading Fast-Action Clamp for Crosscut Fence
When I bought my sliding table saw, I wanted to get a material hold-down for the sliding table. Such an accessory did not exist for the saw, but another Grizzly sliding table saw with the same T-slot size came with one. I ordered the individual replacement parts for the hold-down and put it together myself. These … Continue reading Cam-Action Hold-Down for Grizzly G0623X Sliding Table Saw
This weekend, I am demonstrating Festool power tools at Lee Valley Tools Ltd. in Coquitlam. To generate interest and demonstrate what can be done with the tools, I am turning this seven-foot-long slab of cherry into a coffee table. By the end of Thursday, I had made some good progress. To make the legs, I used … Continue reading Single-Slab Cherry Coffee Table, Part I
After a day of work at Lee Valley Tools, I came home and found myself in my shop with a bit of time. I had a simple project already started and only a little more work remained before assembly. I finished cutting the 6mm mortises with my Festool Domino Joiner and began the glue-up, which … Continue reading Unforeseen Challenges
A few years ago, I was in the market for a new table saw. My decision was between a sliding table saw or a SawStop table saw (you can read more about my decision process in the three articles titled Why a Sliding Table Saw with a Scoring Blade?, Why Not a SawStop? and Benefits of … Continue reading Review of My Grizzly Sliding Table Saw (G0623X)
The Vancouver area is a great place to be a woodworker. There are literally dozens of quality lumber suppliers, a handful of big box stores, a scattering of specialty woodworking stores, and even toolmaking companies. One of those toolmaking companies is MEGAPRO, which specializes in making screwdrivers and bits, including three very unique bits - … Continue reading Hole Boring Bits with a 1/4″ Hex Drive
It's been a wild few days on the west coast. Saturday it began snowing, and two days earlier I spent the day in warm, sunny weather. It was a beautiful Thursday morning when Dave Kilpatrick and I set up to cut some small, live-edge walnut pieces, destined to become cribbage boards. I positioned the chunks … Continue reading The Start of Black Walnut Cribbage Boards
There was certainly a little creativity and cleverness that I put into the design of this box. Because of that, I have enjoyed the process of making them. Yesterday, I had three batches in various stages of completion and began detailing one group. Chamfering the Edges The first step was to chamfer the edges. This … Continue reading Adding Chamfers
Last week, after deciding to apply the cabinet back directly to the rear edge, I spent most of a day rehearsing and mentally preparing myself for the glue-up. In this assembly, I only glued together the cabinet sides, top and bottom. I used 3/4" x 3/4" stickers as cauls to force the finger joints together as … Continue reading Insanity 2: The Back
