| A list of the letters and questions: |
Q |
Hi Gary,
I've just read your article in Fine woodworking, "Gluing up Tabletops". I am in the process of making a work table out of Hard maple. The boards are 6 boards wide, with each board being 5' x ~6" x 1 5/8". All seem to fit after Jointing and Face Planing, however, there are two end boards that are a bit warped, about 3/16" - 1/4" at one end. Contrary to the jointing or face planing, they will not even out to match the others. What should I do? The fit is so nice ~ 1/32" or less for the other 4-boards, just these two are being stubborn. I am new to woodworking at this scale, have outfitted with necessary equipment, just now I run into these situations. I would appreciate a word of help from you!
Mark N. |
A |
Hi Mark,
Oh woodworking. Why isn't it easy and nice all the time? But it ain't and there you have it. As I see it, you have two options. One is get those two boards flat, surfacing one face each carefully on the jointer again. Then run the boards through the planer. Next if you like the new thickness, take all your boards down to that thickness and you should be good for a glue up. The table top will be unavoidably thinner. Option the second, punt. Get rid of those two boards, turn them into cutting boards or other shorter parts for the table, anything but try to force them into the table top. If they want to warp, let them, give up and move on. It's painful I know, but it's sometimes a whole lot easier to face the reality of a situation then try to convince boards to do things they just don't want to do. Best of luck.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I am writing to ask your professional help in recommending a suitable router table for my needs since I am finding the purchase of one to be one of the most confusing items I have ever encountered in woodworking. I'm a subscriber to FWW and FHB and have read a variety of your writing in the journals and your books and look to you for expert recommendations. I've also referenced the 2004 Taunton Tool Guide publication for some assistance but continue to be overwhelmed. As a homeowner with a large family I design and construct relatively simple furniture for off-spring scattered around N. America---most case-type pieces such as bookcases, endtable, tables, beds, some floor and table lamps, etc. As such I'm wanting to buy a complete router table for occasional use to make rabbits, dadoes, perhaps tenons, and make a radius on the corners of solid wood and plywood. Also a complete unit with fence, miter guage, etc, one that is safe, accurate and good value for the cost and my infrequent use as noted above. Can you recommend a make and model to me? I should add that I own an older Sears Craftsman fixed base router, but am prepared to purchase a new one either fixed or plunge design to accomplish the above. What router make and model would you suggest, again, in view of my needs? I much look forward to you early reply and trust this will request will not be a burden to you. Very many thanks for your help.
Bernard |
A |
Hi Bernard,
In response to your questions, I can say that the best router table I still own is a piece of 3/4" melamine about 30" square that I clamp onto the edge of my bench. I mount a router base onto the bottom of it and use a straight board for a fence. It's really that simple. You can of course build a table. Again I would use a melamine top because you can write on it easily and then erase your marks. Or check out my article FWW No. 123 April 1997 No-Frills Router Table. Contact the magazine for copies of that. The best thing about that table is the fence I made for it which has a dust collect port on it. This is valuable. And the square masonite table inserts to cover the bit hole for various sized router bits. As to routers, I like the Bosch 1617 EVS quite a bit. It has a fine adjust built into it making it handy for a router table. When you buy their package of bases you get a fixed base, a plunge base, and a base just for mounting on a router table. Pretty nice package. I hope this helps. There are all sorts of bells and whistle router tables out there, but what you need is something that will hold a good router in place securely with enough room on the table to clamp a fence. After that it's all what the engineers can sell you. But of course it's up to you, do you want to build furniture or admire the gadgetry of a router table. Good luck.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
Thanks for your prompt and helpful advice which I am following up on. I called FWW for a copy of your recommended article which they offered to send to me. And I will try out your direct and simple router table approach with my existing Sears Craftsman router before going ahead with further approaches. When you have a bit of spare time would you advise from your professional experience the following: 1. Best glue to use in attaching 1/8" to 1/4" oak, maple, other hardwood edging to 3/4" veneered plywood so as to avoid/minimise the plywood resistance to obtaining even staining. 2. Recommendation on brand & model of biscuit joiner. I would like to add this to my Kreg pocket hole method of joinery. By the way, you are commended for developing such a high calibre website---quality of information, accessibility, aesthetics!
Bernard |
A |
Hi Bernard,
If I understand your first question, any glue left on a surface will cause finishing problems. It will act as a resist to finish penetration. Clean up any glue, I always use yellow glue, before it has a chance to harden, with a sharp chisel. Biscuit joiners. The best is Lamello. Everything else is adequate. I have a Dewalt. Check to make sure the fence is parallel to the base of the tool. Put the fence down in the 90 degree position. Then put a block of mdf under it, move the fence down right on top of the mdf, and lock it in place. Then check the opposite corner and see if the distance is the same. You will usually have to shim this.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
After a year and a half I finally set some time aside to finish my bed and I wanted to drop you an e-mail to thank you.My wife is ecstatic and can hardly wait for me to build night stands and dressers to match. I used the knowledge that I gained from Teri Masaschi to apply the finishes which allowed the bed to be finished in the manner that it deserved. Thanks to you and your school I am enjoying my career as a woodshop teacher and my own woodworking more than I ever thought possible. Mark |
A |
Hi Mark,
Congratulations on finishing the bed. Thank you very much for your note. It means a lot to hear this. Continued success. Isn't it cool to be able to do this stuff? The world is going crazy but we get to go into the shop. It's great.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I have read and re-read your article in "Fine Woodworking" on gluing up tabletops. I am currently in the process of building a curly cherry table for my daughter-in-law. I am working with 5/4 boards that are 9 to 9 1/2 inches in width and 8 to 9 feet in length. I know I need to flatten the board and therein lies the problem, my jointer is an 8" jointer which is too narrow to handle the boards. Are the boards too wide to use in the tabletop? Should they be re-cut into narrower boards? If the boards are ok, then it would seem that I need to find a place to joint the wider boards. I am a fairly new woodworker and there seems to be no woodworking community here that I can get any help from. Thanks so much for your help and since I just live in Eugene maybe I can drop in sometime and check out your school.
Bruce |
A |
Hi Mark,
Wide boards, skinny jointer. This is a common problem with no great solution, but a number of pretty good ones. The best solution of course is to find someone with a wide enough jointer, but this is not always practical. Another, as you suggest, is to cut the boards narrower to fit them onto your jointer and its cutterhead. Not a great plan but it works. You can also rip your boards in two, joint each face and their edges and reglue them, and with luck, reglue them flat. But the beauty of wide boards is just that, they are wide. So my solution has always been to joint as much of the face as possible, always using pushsticks or pads to hold the work flat. Then hand plane off the remaining inch or so of wood that was left uncut. This is slow but it works and it saves your nice wide board. When the face is flat enough, then you can send the board through the planer to clean up the other face. Come check out the Studio sometime.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I am building a small cabinet for my wife..in dovetailing the carcass. I had one small spot with some chip-out - other than that it's perfect. What is the best way to fill that in? I've tried epoxy and sawdust and regular glue and sawdust. All with very mixed results. The wood is cherry. I am planning to use a garnet shellac finish. I just want this to be perfect. Please help!! Thanks - great article by the way in Fine Woodworking on gluing up panels. Matt |
A |
Hi Matt,
It's hard to tell you how to correct a mistake without seeing it firsthand. Small imperfections in your work can be filled with an epoxy and sawdust mix. Some folks like to use shellac and sawdust. This might give you a better color match for your finish. But if the hole is too big, it's just gonna look like a filled in hole. (By the way, Tiger Woods once said about golf, that anybody who tries to be perfect at it is crazy because it's impossible. I think woodworking is the same. Perfect does not occur in woodworking, only what looks like perfect.) With larger holes in your joints, I'd fill them with wedges of cherry, preferably offcuts from your carcase parts so that they match in grain and color. Taper one end to a wedge shape on a sander or whittle a taper into it with a knife or block plane. Just so it enters the hole easily. Then you can put a little glue in the hole and tap it in with a hammer. This should fill up any imperfections. Caution: too large a wedge near the edge of a board may cause splitting so don't use your big dead blow mallet to drive in these wedges. After the glue dries, saw off the excess wood sticking above the surface and clean it with a clean chisel cut or a block plane and some light sanding. Best of luck.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I went in search of new wood and now have a need for some advice. I went to my local wood supplier to check on their supply of Mahogany. I found some very nice sticks of African Mahogany, 4/4 at roughly 8 ft by 15" both. These pieces have real interesting figure, they have the same hue of pink and gold as the Honduran I'll be using for the legs. The question you see is whether to laminate two 14" pieces (the table top will be 28 by 38 or near to that) or to rip each piece into 3 and relaminate. Will I lose that much in stability if I laminate two for the purpose of maintaining figure? Will 1/8 inch kerf and some for rejoining lose me that much in figure? I plan to cross cut a small piece, rip, and find out what this does to my figure..well not my figure but that of the wood. I'd be grateful for your imput. David |
A |
Hi David,
Mahogany is known for its stability. I see no problem using 14" wide boards as long as you properly attach them to your table base. The issue is whether or not you can get them flat enough to edge join well. If not, then ripping them to smaller widths and then edging and regluing them back together might be a better option. Just cut them oversize in length by an inch or two. When you reglue them adjust them for the best grain match. Quarter sawn stock will make matching easier than plain sawn stock, but if you're careful you can match even flame pattern pretty well. Best of luck.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I was wondering if you could lend some general advice. I want to start a career in woodworking, cabinetry specifically. This will be a career shift for me, though I do have woodworking and tool/equipment experience, I have no portfolio. How do apprenticeships stack up against a course (like yours or at Seattle College) as a way to get into the field? I'm a bit older than most people entering the apprenticeship, 32, and thought that a specialized course would be a better alternative for me. Now I wonder, will this over qualify me for many positions? Leslie |
A |
Hi Leslie,
If you apprenctice at a cabinet shop you will learn how to make cabinets. If you study at a fine woodworking school, you will learn how to build fine furniture. The first will pay your bills and bore you to tears. The second will almost pay your bills and keep your step lively for years. We are always faced with these darned choices. Good luck.
Sincerely, |
Q |
Dear Gary,
I'm building a jewelry box for my wife for our five year anniversary. But I'm building it for a very specific piece of jewelry and I want to cut/rout? out the bottom of the box so that the piece fits into a perfect space created for the piece. I'm not quite sure the procedure to do this, and then I want to cover the bottom in felt. What is the best way to rout this out? do I just trace the jewelry and rout the inside of it out? Seems to simple/ hard with a router. T. Vancouver, B.C. |
A |
Hi T,
My approach to this problem would be to lay out the shape you want on a piece of cardboard. You want to do this right? Get a piece of acid free cardboard. If the shape is too complex, you'll kill yourself trying to match it. So don't bother. Simplify the shape so that you will be able to work with a chisel or gouge into all the corners. Glue your felt onto this piece of cardboard. Get your chisels and gouges sharp. Then lay out this shape on your board with a very sharp pencil or knife. Set your bit depth to cut a hole for the cardboard, the felt or leather or whatever on top of it, and for the piece of jewelry. Now routing freehand is not that difficult if, IF, you understand how the router likes to cut. Working topside, the bit spins clockwise and so feeding in the proper direction, from left to right will pull you into a cut. This would be clockwise for this shape whatever it is. But in this situation, this would be most likely a disaster because the router will cut wherever it wants to. Remember there is no template or guide to direct the cut. So the router will cut and pull you towards the easiest wood to cut wherever that is. So rout backwards. This is called climb cutting. And with a small diameter bit, say 3/16", you can cut counter-clockwise and get pretty darn close to your lines. This is because the router bit is constantly pushing you away from the cut now instead of trying to pull you in. Try it in some scrap and you'll feel the difference. By pushing you away from the cut but with such a small diameter bit, it's pretty easy to get it close to your lines. Finish up with your chisels and gouges and then glue down the cardboard and felt into the hole. Stand back and admire. I would suggest practicing this once or twice on some scrap first. Good luck.
Sincerely, |