Simple Resaw-Fence Dust Channel

I had a problem on my last cut while resawing some stock for the back column of Angle Madness. A simple modification to the fence would help to avoid it in the future.

Shop Tips - Organization Ideas that Worked for Me

I've been asked a few times for a shop tour.  You see the shop enough in project videos :) but a recent request added "because I see some ideas in the background I want to know more about".  Ah, that I can do!

I recorded this beginning of December and promptly forgot about it. Ironically, I started using a tool to better organize clips for editing because it "hides the clips that aren't for the current project". Well, out of sight, out of mind :)

Hope there are some ideas in here you can steal, improve, and put to use.  I needed to get organized cuz as my dad would put it: I try putting 10 lbs of crap in a 5 lbs bag :)


Additional Addendum:

(that comes before the next addendum because it has better news!)

Those plastic boxes at the end of the video can be ordered in 10 packs for ~$17 mail order from Daiso Japan. Thanks to reader Pat who found them in their retail store and found they are also sold online.


Addendum:

I had a lot of queries about the plastic boxes I use for manuals. For people in California or Hawaii, find a Marukai Market near you (4-5 in LA, one in San Diego iirc, and one in the Bay area).  All those boxes were purchased there and are generally $1-$1.50 each.  Buy lots :)

I can't find a US online store that has them (Marukai's are imported from Japan and the labels are long gone).  However, I found Amazon UK has both the slim ones and the deep ones.

Lee Valley at one time sold the boxes as a special purchase. They are long gone, but I wrote Rob Lee tonight to ask if they'd be interested in another run. He said they have ordered more a few months ago and will have them by the end of March 2014 for an April promotion.  You'll be able to pre-order them in March.  Product number is 99W0145 and will be a pair: one legal size, one letter size for $7.60.

Shop Tips - DIY Inspection Cam

I had a need to peek inside the tiers of Angle Madness tonight when marking out the cuts for the top panel.  In this short video, I'll show you 3 different DIY inspection cam ideas that you can likely use with things you already have.  The first time I used one of these ideas was to dig into a long wall cavity to locate some wiring; worked very well!



Top panels are dry fitted into the drawer tiers of Angle Madness. The next episode will cover a number of odds and ends before some interesting stuff I'm eager to get to!

"Shouldda Done It 2-Years Ago" - Drill-Press Tray

I'm certain some of you will identify with this problem: any available horizontal surface gets filled in my shop. The handiest one is the drill-press table as it is the first thing when I walk in and I don't use the drill press that often. When I do, oh, big chore emptying it for one or two holes.

This was one of those "I should have done this years ago" ideas. You don't need fancy scrap for it; I just happened to have found some nice stuff when the temperature broke a bit and I cleaned the other side of the garage.  That's the side where things get thrown in summer because nobody wants to be in that kiln to place something properly.

Oh, and you read that correctly.... one minute, twenty one seconds. Crazy.



In other news, I'm working on the drawer boxes for Angle Madness; these are required to properly place the drawer runners and kickers as you'll see in the next Angle Madness video. It's finally getting cooler and I'm eager to spend a whole weekend in there making progress with the garage door open!

Angle Madness! - Designing the Column, Rabeting the Tiers

After way Way WAY to long of a hiatus on this project, I got a hall-pass to go into the shop this long weekend.  That, folks, is partly why it was called Thanksgiving weekend! :)

The back is to get a column in Etimone, a beautiful Mahogany with a lot of color (board on the right in the photo).  While I've talked about it and waved my hands a lot while doing it, we never committed to any dimensions.  I go through the design process I used to originally come up with the numbers for the column.

The drawer tiers need the panels installed as well as the webbing.  To install the panels into the drawer tiers, we need to rabbet the edge, but the edge is on an incline.  The fact that each tier has 5 unique inclines means we can't use some normal techniques for doing the rabbet.  I'll talk about some options and why I didn't chose them then show you how I did these.

The section on rabbeting is longer than I expected, but it shows you some tricks to do the operation safely, even if you don't have a hotdog-phobic saw :)  I think the techniques are useful in a lot of other operations.

You have no idea the amount of time between the recording of the first clip to the last... whoa, need to reel in that day-job :)

As always, thanks for reading!  Okay, bucket of hot apple cider ready? Cue it up...



(the slow-cooker in the last scene was loaded with hot apple cider in case my neighbors showed up; sure enough, they did and I got nothing done, but that's okay because there may or may not have been some rum involved...)

For my email subscribers, here's a link to the video page.

Angle Madness! - First one in the bag!

The next episode is mostly edited with just a bit more to record for it.  Should be out by early next week.

Meanwhile, a bit of a photo update and a handy shop project you might find useful.

I setup the vacuum bag and platen to verify everything was going to work; don't want to diagnose a leak while plastic resin glue is merrily curing!  (Big roll of packing tape nearby is your friend if you do!)  I tossed in some shop towels and the atmosphere promptly smashed them.  Left the VacuPress vacuum pump on for a little over an hour to ensure it wasn't going to cycle indicating a leak.

As you can see, this is a huge bag... it can press a full 49"x97" sheet with full platen.  A big chip-clip makes the back half of the bag inactive.

I put my VacuPress pump in a mobile stand that's pretty handy; I roll it underneath the MFT table next to two milk crates on furniture movers used for offcuts.  The VacuPress stand has 4 very smooth casters.

The top tray is removable making removing the pump trivial or to take all the VacuClamp parts to a workstation area.  Basically the four corner posts on the stand are inset into the lip under the tray.  No rocket science was used in this quick handy addition.

The back has a scrap of ply to prevent racking of the sides and also to protect the connectors on the back of the pump like the vacuum hose, air cleaner bottle, and power connector.

I use the VacuPump as a vacuum clamp sometimes so the pods and other stuff in the tray is handy to store with it especially since that stuff stores as well as a ferret.  The vacuum hose for the bag is too robust and long to store on the tray so I hang it on a hook with a bunch of other hoses like the HVLP turbine hoses.

So this is the first panel of 12 for this project in the bag!  This is an underside panel with curly Maple book-matched on the show side and Poplar on the inside.  I'll get a book-and-end match ("4-way") recorded tomorrow night to complete the episode then see how it all edits.

Hockey Tape for Your Shop

A bunch of weeks ago, I got a strange request from Charles Neil.  He wrote me to ask where I get my hockey tape from.  How did he know I use hockey tape?!  He must watch the podcast... :)

He just got through a long week of clamping up cabinets so his fairly sensitive hands were sore from tightening up and slipping on clamp handles.  Ah, now you know the reason for the tape!

I use hockey tape a lot in the shop.  My parallel clamps and F-style clamps fortunately have great grips built in, but if I had those ones with the slick wooden handles, I'd have wrapped them in hockey tape long ago.  So if you have those handles, you might want to give this a read.

I use hockey tape anywhere I need to improve a grip or, as in the case of my shovels, avoid blisters (for my sensitive hands :)  This is the shovel I recently used to dig a foot-deep 30' long trench by the house to bury a power cable for the shop A/C unit (currently my favorite tool! the A/C not the shovel).  No blisters in the after-math.

Hockey tape comes in a variety of colors so grab a color pack and use it to wrap handles so you can easily identify a tool by the handle.  This is a plastic mallet I have; previously there were two different ones under there and I'd always grab the wrong one so I color-coded them...

...the other one, well, you know when you get frustrated during a glue-up cuz the glue seizes immediately cuz the shop is was 98ºF? Yeah, first disposable thing in reach gets that frustration.  (Lemme know in the comments how you've done the same! you have, haven't you?)

So how much will this shop wonder run ya?  Not a lot, actually.  I think the Canadians subsidize it to bring hockey to the masses.  You can get it from Hockey Giant.

But not all tape is the same :) From that page, here are some to consider...

Renfrew friction tape will stick your hand to the handle; meant to stay high friction with ice and water on it. This is perfect, only downside is that after grabbing it, you'll notice "friction tape" feel to your hands.  A little saw dust will likely kill that feeling.   I have a roll of this in the shop; people buy that high-friction expensive tape at the woodworking stores... this stuff is better and cheaper.  I use it often to make a surface less slick.  Couple strips parallel to each other and what you place on it won't really move much.

Another type is Renfrew cloth hockey tape.  This is general hockey tape in several different color rolls for marking stuff.  Feels great on your hands.  There are wider sizes, but if you are wrapping handles, you'll be wrapping in a spiral; too wide a tape and you end up with a lot of overlap that makes it all lumpy.   I use 1" tape for handle.  Also useful underneath stuff that tends to have sharp corners that gouge the bench top.

What you don't want is any of the 'stretchy' tape or 'shin guard' tape. Both are used to hold equipment on you so they don't really have cloth.

Naturally, I also use it to wrap hockey sticks for the best 90 minutes of the week.

A Place for my Files

I have a decent collection of files going.  Most are Iwasaki plane files: fast, aggressive files that leave a planed surface.  Nothing short of fantastic (oh, nicely priced, too).  Okay, I'm on a tangent...

Problem is storing them.  I put them in a drawer in their shipping bags so they don't bang together, but then I have to riffle through them to get those I'll need.  Had to be a better plan.

I asked for ideas over on FOG and an Aussie posted this link to a nice shop tour where a pretty good solution was waiting.

I grabbed a scrap board and laid out an array of Dominos up each side.  The flat files need 8mm of space.  Marching up the board using the previous Dominos as a reference off the base spaced them with a 7.5mm gap; good enough.

What you see attached to the fence is a narrow stock spacer; only works on pin-style Domino fences (nah nah ne-nah nah).  You could use the paddles to get a similar quick spacing.

The half-rounds needed more spacing so I stacked a few plastic shims (very handy) as I marched up those Dominos.

The result is a nicely organized board.  The gap in the middle is where I may someday put a handle to lift the whole thing out of the drawer; for now, fingers work well.

The resulting board even fits nicely in the drawer where they were.  Take the same space as before.

I forgot I took these pictures until I went to grab a file to soften some corners of a vacuum press platen I put together tonight!

My Favorite Router Bits

I was typing an answer to a comment Jim posted on the OF-1400 demo when I felt a strange déjà-vu so I thought instead of typing it again, I'd make a posting instead :)

The déjà-vu was in answering which router bits I use the most.  Granted, that's just good for comparison if you have a drawer full of them, but if you're starting with an empty drawer, it might make a good start vs some 300-bit variety pack.

There's the motley crew:

There's a cluster of 3 spirals, a cluster of 4 "profiles", and a stack of slot cutters up front.  Lemme go through each.

The spirals:

The front two bits are basically the same except the double bearing on the leftmost bit.  They are 1/4" down-spiral bits from Eagle America.

The one with the double bearing (#120-0412) is used for flushing anything with a tight turn.  The double-bearing has better registration than just one.  I also used this in the MFK-700 for flushing banding nicely until I found an 8mm version (bigger diameter bits avoid 'scalloping' the surface).

The one without the bearings on the right (#106-0452) is for shallow cuts on the surface like for an inlay, mortise lock, etc.  The down-spiral will leave the surface clean although these aren't good for deep grooves since the chips get pushed to the bottom.  In fact that down-spiral is what I used for the French-knot floor inlay as well (not a typical use, I know, but any other bit would shred that cork; down-spiral left it pristine).

The bit in the back is a Whiteside 1/2" compression-spiral double-bearing flush trimming bit.  There are as many adjectives in that bit's name as the average Starbuck's order...  It's not cheap as it is solid-carbide so it'll last long.  Eagle America has an alternative like this one #120-0865 (nearly the same price).  For normal pattern flushing, I use this compression-spiral bit.  The fibers on the top and bottom surfaces are cut towards the middle ("compressed to the middle" ahhh....) so the surfaces have no chip-out or fuzzing.  When following a pattern, I prefer to put the pattern on the bottom of the stock to cut mostly so I can limit how far I extend the router bit; "pattern" bits with the bearing above the cutters on the shank require you to have the whole thing exposed.

For pattern flushing like that, you could just go with a down-spiral with double-bearing and get very nearly the same results (#120-0815 or #120-0835).  Why? Because the pattern at the bottom will back the stock being cut so the down shearing of the bit won't chip-out.  As you can see, though, the price of the 1/2" down-spiral is about the same as the compression anyway.

Using a router on a guide rail, I can also use the compression spiral to cut a very clean edge.  Rough cut the edge with whatever you like (bandsaw, rip blade, frenzied beaver).  Lay the guide rail so the bit cuts your final edge.  The bearings will be below the board in this case and not used.  Make sure the small bit of "up-spiral" at the end of the bit is against the bottom of the stock and the cut will come out fantastic even with curly grain.

As an aside, the CNC industry uses compression-spirals a lot for cutting stock cleanly like that.

Last bit that I neglected to put in the photo is a 3/8" up-spiral.  I use it for mortise cutting.  I use 3/8" because my mortise will be at least that wide; for wider mortises, I prefer a second pass anyway.  The reason mine isn't in the picture is it was a HSS bit that got way over-used and is all discolored :)  I'll be getting a new carbide version.  For spirals without bearings, I now always look at Vortex Tool first; great bits.  This three-flute will be the replacement: #1860 (or the cheaper two-flute #1260)  They make bits for the CNC industry (hence no bearings); these are competitively priced, but made to much higher standards than other spirals.  Have some fun browsing their bits; dovetail spirals? yeah, they have that, too.

Addendum: someone asked about plywood bits... :-/  plywood isn't a specific thickness so while those bits get closer to the correct size, they never are.  You'll have a gap or too tight a fit.  That's why I do dados/grooves in two passes with a smaller bit and use the Bridge City KM-1 to exactly size the dado.  Even if "plywood bits" were the correct size, straight flutes in plywood make a messy splintered top; the compression spiral is the solution to that.

Enough about spirals :)

The next group, "profile" bits:

The blue bit is a 45º chamfer bit.  Usually I'll use a hand plane to put a chamfer on something because the small variances add character.  On a large chamfer, I want a bit.  Another use for this bit isn't so obvious: jewelry boxes.  For a small box like that, cutting thin stock on a 45º bevel for mitered corners can be messy with chipout.  Instead, I put the squared stock in a coping sled (discussed later) and apply a perfect 45º bevel on the edge with the bit.  Just back the board in the sled to avoid splintering on the exit cut.

45º camfer bits can be had about anywhere.  The blue one is from Rockler and one of my first purchases. Since I have the Eagle America site open for links, here's theirs: #152-0645; they even give a table of degrees for such boxes.

The green bit to the far right is a dish carving bit.  That's a Woodcraft bit.  It basically has a flat bottom with vertical cutting sides and a radius.  Think of it as a cambered plane blade for your router.  As you move around (paying attention not to climb-cut) flattening a recess, the radius keeps you from getting "router tracks" that are a pain in the butt to sand out; ask me how I know...  that was the reason for buying this bit.  I got a couple of those green ones on a clearance sale; good to do since you tend to hog out a good deal.  But you can sharpen them up... more on that later.  It seems Woodcraft no longer sells the greens and have switched to Freud ("reds" :) so here is the equivalent bit Freud Dish Carving bit.  Oh, if you suspend a router on a track to 'joint' a board below it, this is the bit you want: the radius eliminates most of the router tracks and also makes moving the router easier than with a straight/spiral.

Big green bit in the back is a tabletop edge bit.  It has a second radius on it, but I don't use that often; typically I just use the swooping profile up top near the bearing.  Makes for a nice edge on the underside.  I cannot find this bit online from Woodcraft (Woodriver brand) or others.  It shouldn't have been in the picture; I use it often for parts of the profile, but I wouldn't say it's super handy for everybody.

The grey Whiteside bit in the back to the left is the Charles-Neil signature molding bit.  Over the years, he used a huge multi-profile molding bit, but only used one portion of it for nearly all his projects, so he refined that profile and had a custom bit made.  He gets a run of them made from time to time so if they aren't available, sign up for his email list and you'll find out when a run is being made (or send them mail so they know there's a demand!).  I don't put profiles on a lot of projects, but usually what I want is on this bit somewhere.  Whiteside bits are excellent.  As of this writing, he has 5 left.  No pressure :)  First consider if you plan on using profiles often; these are decorative ones.  Traditional furniture has lots of molding.

The last bits I showed in the first family photo is a screw with a bunch of slot cutters on it.  I bought this set from Eagle America: #199-4615.  That's the 4-wing set; they cut very smoothly, you can stack them for different slot sizes.  I don't use them a lot, but they seem to be more of a "only good thing to use here is a slot cutter"... there are times when they're the perfect solution, like routing a groove in thin stock you don't want to stand up on the router table or, more scary, table saw.

After awhile, you'll get a decent number of bits with bearings.  Getting a bearing kit like this isn't a bad idea; note that this kit is geared towards slot cutters.  I swap out bearings to change how deep a profile or rabbet goes; this is a good-to-have for later when you notice a lot of bearings on your bits.  Bookmark this page: Bearings and look at the bottom for related kits; all of those kits fit different needs; when you need a different bearing, go to that page and you'll find it after a minute or three.

So I mentioned a coping sled.  I use this Woodpecker's coping sled and really like it.  I like the easy adjustments, the quick ability to remove parts of it if you need more capacity, all the excellent hold-downs, lots of T-track for your own additions/jigs, and the best part: it rides against the fence, not in a "miter slot".  Since it rides the fence, you can do your usual fence adjustments on successive passes instead of readjusting the stock in the sled.  You can also use this against a start pin when using the sled to deal with small parts (oh, most "small parts" holders I've seen and tried were really lame; judge it in person before you buy one).  The only complaint I have with this sled? The top plastic that rides against the fence rides really close to a T-slot on my Woodpecker's fence :-/  Since I use a sacrificial fence on the fence anyway, it isn't normally an issue.

Last tidbit... get a bit cleaner and clean them; makes a big difference.  I also have a set of diamond sharpeners by Eze-Lap (here's a DMT equivalent)  Use these on the flat part of a bit's cutting edge to touch it up (never on the outside bevel).

Others that get used from time to time are bearing-guided rabbetting bits (I have two: one for 1/2" deep, and the other I swapped the bearing so it's a 3/8" deep rabbet).

Round-overs?  They seem like you'd use them a lot, huh... I use the 1/4" radius roundover for making shop-made oversized Domino tenons.  Everything else gets a hand-plane or rasp/file treatment.

Okay, sorry, that was longer than anticipated!

Domino Crib Sheet - 3 Topics - Mid-Panel Joinery, Cut-to-Length Stock, Pinning Joints

A final installment in what was apparently a crazy long Saturday.  I think I will hear my computer burp when I delete all this footage!

In this Domino crib sheet, I demonstrate two techniques for placing a joint accurately mid-panel.  You'd typically do this to Domino a shelf into the side of a cabinet, but I've also used this many times to place smaller 'rail/stile' pieces mid-panel as well.  One technique lets you set the top of the shelf or joining member while the other lets you center it on a line.

The second topic is more a continuation of the Domizilla review I did recently since I now have the cut-to-length tenon stock that is being released with the Domino XL DF-700.  Even if you don't have an XL, the 8mm and 10mm cut-to-length stock will be useful for times when you need a different custom tenon length.  Personally, I've made my own  longer DF-500 tenons on a couple home projects (stair refacing, suspended shelving, and installation French cleat for a built-in cabinet).

Third topic, pinning joints with a 23ga pin nailer.  I did a demonstration of this in a previous DF-500 demo, but it's useful enough for a re-run.  This can significantly reduce your need for clamps with certain builds, but regardless that benefit, it adds strength.

Now to get back to editing video for the 'angle madness entertainment center'...



Admit it, you're gonna miss that shirt now that the series is over...  but fear not!  A yoga hottie told me it's her favorite shirt so, oh my!, it'll be back :)


For disclosure, I received the Domino XL early as part of the Test Drive program, which requires testers to return the full kit on June 1, 2012 or allows the testers to purchase it at a small discount.

Domino Crib Sheet - Grain and Angles - 4 topics

I'll admit, I didn't know I shot that much video the day I played with Domizilla; still editing it down into bite-sized pieces :)

Today's Domino topics revolve around being aware of the types of glue joints you can make with a Domino and how they differ from those of a traditional mortise-and-tenon (M&T: meticulous & time-consuming :) kidding! hey, put down that pitchfork...)

Other topics involve miter joints (not too tricky) and mortising on a bevel (can be tricky).  My Angle Madness project has a number of crazy bevels to be joined with the Domino so getting this right is important or re-learning all that math is for naught!

By the way, I haven't forgotten that project, but this Domizilla character kinda shook up the shop for a weekend...



For disclosure, I received the Domino XL early as part of the Test Drive program, which requires testers to return the full kit on June 1, 2012 or allows the testers to purchase it at a small discount.

Domino Crib Sheet - Prefer the Quick-Height Setting and Domino Drawboring

This video crib sheet has two tips.  The first is to use the quick-height setting on the side of the fence even when that doesn't center the tenon.  Actually, even when I set the fence by hand, I never set it dead center for reasons demonstrated in the video (and that have saved a frantic glue-up or two).

The second tip discusses drawboring.  Drawboring a tenon involves using a peg through the tenon and an offset hole that causes the tenon to pull the joint tight and hold it there.  Fantastic for strength and it's clamp-free!  The tenons for the original Domino are, to me, too small to be used for drawboring, but the XL's tenons are much larger and heftier and seem to drawbore pretty well.  Now if you go back and see my video on making oversized mortises with the XL quickly and easily, you'll see a huge amount of drawbore potential.

Well, not to draw this out and bore you :) here's the video!



For disclosure, I received the Domino XL early as part of the Test Drive program, which requires testers to return the full kit on June 1, 2012 or allows the testers to purchase it at a small discount.

Domino Crib Sheet - Screw Holding

The ongoing crib sheet theme... another installment!

This is a quick demonstration of how to use a Domino to significantly improve screw holding in man-made materials like MDF (in the demo), waferboard, particle board, or MCP (commonly called 'Melamine').

The technique is pretty low-tech, but helps a lot when making things like cabinet lowers or other utility box that's later adorned with countertops.

Domino Crib Sheet - How do you glue?

When I did a review of the Domino XL DF-700 'domizilla', I mentioned a forthcoming video on Domino joints; I called it an encyclopedia, but that sounds far too authoritative for me.  Hence the high-school crib sheet :)

I have a lot of footage to edit and thought only insomniacs would enjoy watching it all in a sitting, so I'm going to break it up into small snippets like this one; some will include multiple tips, but none will require pausing for potty breaks.

If you are browsing from a desktop browser (most mobiles don't show it), there's a table of contents above this entry that will list all related crib sheet posts.  So if you save this entry and come back later, you'll find the others listed.

Back to the crib sheet...  this first video of the series does a glue-up experiment.  I often hear people say they only apply glue inside the Domino mortise for both speed and little to no squeeze-out meaning little to no cleanup.  Personally, I put it on both the Domino and in the mortise, but who's to say that isn't just overkill and a lot of cleanup.

This video shows an experiment I did applying glue to a mortise-only and to both.  Even if instinctively you think glue in only the mortise is weaker, is it too weak to use?  Might be strong enough.

Oversized Mortises with the Festool Domino XL Domizilla

The Domino XL DF-700 has thicker and longer tenons than the original Domino DF-500.  When you're building larger structures, these can be used alone or in an array of mortises to create strong joints.  While an array of Dominos can provide a lot of glue surface and twist resistance all while being easy to layout and plunge, sometimes you'd be even better served using much wider tenons.

Wider tenons are even faster to layout and plunge than an array and are easy to drawbore or peg for even more mechanical strength and simplified glue-ups.

The largest tenons you can make and directly use with the Domino are 14mm thick, 140mm long, and 68mm wide (for us 'mericans, that's a little over 5 1/2" long by a little less than 2 3/4" wide).  These things look like PopTarts more than Dominos!

In this video, I'll show you the simple procedure that uses the Domino's pin fence to create three oversized mortise widths quickly and easily.  If you've watched my procedure for oversized mortises with the original Domino DF-500, it was a little awkward and relied a lot on lining up the cursor for each plunge.  It works and I've used it many times, but the procedure is all mechanical with the Domizilla and therefore very fast!

The one caveat is that your centered pencil line is not in the center of these oversized mortises.  If you locate the first plunge of the mortise using other means (say, the cross stops or fence pins) and mirror the plunges (i.e., on one board start with the right pins, on the other use the left pins), everything will line up perfectly.  If you really want to center on a pencil line (and I do actually), you need to modify your Domino's cursor to add hairlines at 3, 4, and 6mm from the centerline.  This is really easy to do and I show you the procedure at the end of the video for those who want to stick it out.

The cursor is a replacement part so if you are concerned that you may not want to mark up your cursor or that you'll botch it up, the replacement part number is #701458 and can be directly ordered from Festool USA for $3.21.  I may start bugging people at Festool to modify their cursors to include all the lines from 2mm out as this procedure could greatly benefit people building fences, gates, doors, out-buildings, and monster conference tables.

If you do add the additional hairlines, you'll need to recalibrate the cursor to your Domino.  The procedure is really easy; that link is for a video showing it on the DF-500 though it is identical for the Domizilla (in fact, the part number of the cursor is the same for both :)

The following table shows you the widths of the mortises for each of the 4 bits sizes for all 4 mortise widths (the exact width as you'd normally use plus the three oversized mortises this procedure produces):

Bit Size	Single Plunge	Two Plunge	Three Plunge	Four Plunge
8mm ∅	21.5mm	36.5mm	53.5mm	66.5mm
10mm ∅	23.5mm	37.5mm	54.5mm	67.5mm
12mm ∅	25.5mm	38.5mm	55.5mm	68.5mm
14mm ∅	27.5mm	39.5mm	56.5mm	69.5mm

Here are the offsets for centering the mortise on the pencil line. These assume the pins used in the video; that is, left-inside, right-middle, left-outside; if you mirror the pins, flip the left/right designator in the table:

Two Plunge	Three Plunge	Four Plunge
6mm to right	3mm to left	4mm to right

"6mm to right" means put the pencil line on the 6mm line to the right of the center line.

Note that thought the bit size increases by 2mm for each row, the widths for a type of mortise only increase by 1mm.



For disclosure, I received the Domino XL early as part of the Test Drive program, which requires testers to return the full kit on June 1, 2012 or allows the testers to purchase it at a small discount.

Angle Madness! - The Jigs

Time for a flashback in the project... I created some jigs to accurately cut the compound angles for this diamond-shaped entertainment center; this video goes over the thinking behind the jigs and how to make them.

I used Bridge City's Angle Master Pro to mark and verify all the compound angles.  I have to say, I was thrilled that the cuts on the mock-up (both!) were so accurate as to not need any flush sanding, filling, "colorful language".

Hopefully there are some useful ideas in here for dealing with compound angles in your projects.



(For email subscribers, here's the video link: Angle Madness! - The Jigs)

Some new shop accessories

Last weekend, I went to Los Angeles for a family function.  I stayed an extra day to see a woodworker friend of mine, hang out, and bounce some ideas off him (he's notoriously creative).

We went to Eagle Tools for what he said was an errand.  That place was a total toy shop.  I've never seen a bigger fully stocked area of Festools ever; every accessory, every size Systainer, even oodles of pads for the RAP polisher (to show how even the obscure stuff was piled high).  When my eyes popped out, my friend said, "see, payback, this time I'm gonna get you spending on tools".  Makes that sound like a bad thing!  :)

The back warehouse had about every tool imaginable setup for touching.  The back was a store room for Inca tools and parts (so, if you're an Inca fan, this place has you covered).  The bandsaw area had Agazzani saws of all sizes right up to a 36" behemoth.

While not an obscure accessory at all, I did pick up 2 Bench Dog push pads.  -yawn- how un-exciting is that?  But I have to say, I never looked at those before and they are hefty, great hand grip, and the pad underneath is noticeably more grippy than the generic ones the chain stores sell. I tried them on freshly planed Maple from all kinds of angles and pressures... never slipped even after getting them dusty.

So if your generics look like mine, I think you'll like these.

I also spotted a micro-adjuster for a rip fence that was installed on a General table saw.  It said it worked on a number of other fences including the SawStop fence.  Well, kinda.

I screwed in a small piece of scrap and put the fence anchor piece on the scrap as the sides of my rip fence don't project out far enough to just pop it on.  Super trivial modification.

The way it works is simple: when you want to micro-adjust, flip down the part on the handle (the part that says General)... it has a strong magnet in it that holds it to the fence rail.  Unlock your fence then turn the knob for micro-adjust.

When you are done with it, just flip the magnet back up; it may look like it is in the way of reading the measurement, but that's the camera angle as it isn't in the way at all.

I was using it tonight for sizing some shims for T-track for the drill press table and it was easy to use and nicer than the ol' tap-tap-crap!-tap-tap routine.

Funny story time: my friend wanders by while I'm looking at the micro-adjuster. "What's that?" So I explain.  He gets a serious look, "oh, you're gonna make me buy it; now you're getting me back again!"  ha ha!  He has Inca table saws so he went and dug around the back of the warehouse to find a new-in-the-box micro-adjuster from Inca.  Told you, the place is crazy.

Other interesting side story: the SawStop's design is based on Inca's table saws.

The last day of any trip to Los Angeles always includes a shopping trip to Marukai Market in Gardena.  It's how I exit the city on the 91, which starts by the store :)  I love cooking Japanese food and though locally I can get more than I could years ago when I started going to Marukai, it is the CostCo of all things 和風の料理.

The kitchen section usually has some interesting finds and this time I found a few things that are for the shop and work really well.

Naturally, a package of bamboo skewers; I use these a lot in the shop for cleaning glue nozzles, dropping glue in drilled holes, stirring satin varnishes, scraping off dried varnish from jars, and sometimes I make yakitori with them.  Chopsticks are also immensely useful in the shop and at about $1 for a bazillion, you should stock up!

I also grabbed 2 plastic Norpro scrapers; these should be useful for scraping off squeeze-out when it's snotty.  Glue won't really stick to these so that's nice.  Also, scraping a utility knife on the edge sharpened them up for better scraping.  These are easily found in kitchen shops.

The bowls are called silicone pinch bowls.  Normally any small bowl is a pinch bowl in the kitchen, but these mean you can literally pinch them.  You'll see the frontmost one has Titebond 3 in it.  I rolled it around so the sides were all covered because I wanted it to dry in the bowl as a test.  The surface tension on that silicone is so high that the glue just ran to the bottom and wouldn't surface the sides.  Very nice.

I left it in the bowl for 2 days.  Here's the play-by-play of removing it:

I'm going to like that!

The bowls are from Trudeau.  (With the exception of Tremblay, no name is more French Canadian than Trudeau!)

Okay, writing this up has me hungry from some sakura mochi.  nom nom nom....

How to Eliminate Snipe on Lunchbox Planers

Snipe's a dirty word.  In a class of its own: it has 5 letters!

Way long ago, I wrote about reducing snipe on lunchbox planers, but the planer in this video was all installed in a machine stand so the pictures required some imagination.  Tonight, I was replying to someone about how to reduce snipe with a lunchbox planer and realized the planer was in a for-sale pile and available for a last shot at (very very limited) fame!

The popular forum solution to lunchbox snipe is to elevate the two flip-down tables to compensate for the flex that happens in use.  That relies on a little black magic if you ask me... you can't guess the weight of the boards you are planning on running through and with an elevated table, the load is variable as the stock progresses through the planer.  Either that or I can't figure it out.

My solution consists of two feed tables, but their torsion-box construction and how they are used with the planer on an assembly table is the key.  The boxes can also be used in different ways for thin or short stock like box parts or drawer sides.

When I used this system before getting a big industrial planer, I never was concerned with snipe because it just didn't happen even on a set of 12 foot by 1 foot planks I ran through it for a large cabinet on my patio.

If snipe is making you use slightly shorter words to scare neighborhood children, give this a shot; I'm sure you'll like the results.

The Season of Taking

Now that the Season of Giving is more or less over (marked by the end of free shipping at Lee Valley...), we resume our regularly scheduled Season of Taking.  d'oh!

After typing that, I did a quick pass to the shop to make sure everything was locked up, again.  It's an annoying if healthy paranoia.

Before my day-job company closed between Christmas and New Years, we had a small pizza party and lots of conversation about anything but software.  One discussion stuck in my head: our president had his garage broken into and several custom bikes stolen (as in $1,700 wheels custom).  How they did it, and I'll discuss that below, is strikingly easy to do.  The interesting part is that of the 12 of us there, 4 had this exact same technique used to steal from their garages.  I knew of the technique because two of my neighbors were robbed the exact same way.

Likely your garage right now could be raided with this low-tech technique.

For fun, a few photos...

What you see here is my, er, somebody's shop.  Someone driving by can easily see there's at least $20 of tools in there.  Here's another view:

this is what the would-be thief would see after I close up for the day.

Now that we've seen the obvious, let's list what else these two photos show:

• the shop completely fills the two-car bay; there will never be a car in there (even if I get a girlfriend... it's a pre-existing condition!)
• the car is parked in front of the one-car bay.  It's likely the only car otherwise to use the car in the bay, you have to back out the first car to get at the garaged car.  Though the windows on the one-car bay are covered, this reasoning is pretty sound.
• the guy might be silly enough to have a garage door opener in the car for when he comes back with another sheet of exotic MDF and doesn't want to have to go through the house to open the door.  Someone might find it easier to pop the car door to take the remote, although the tactic I'm gonna describe later is much easier than breaking into a car while owners are home.
• windows.  The garage door has windows.

Next photo:

this photo tells us:

• the car is gone.
• as the car is likely the only car, nobody is home.

How does this ultra-easy break-in happen?  Someone pushes in one of the middle windows (they are held by metal clips; a baseball bat will make a loud noise when it pushes it open, but the 'glass' won't break; it's Lexan).  Nobody needs to crawl in... just reach for this:

Normally there's a pull-cord on the part connecting the door to the top rail.  Pop a middle window and you can easily grab the cord, pull, and you've released the door; lift at your convenience.  I removed the cord as a minimal deterrent; I routinely pop that release with a long clamp head when I install the red-neck A/C unit under the door.

Once inside the garage, they can close the door and watch through the window.  Grab some quick-sale stuff and go.  Worse... how many of you lock the door from the garage to the house?  I dunno if I have that key anymore!

Normally you can lock the garage door from the outside.  Mine could only be locked from outside so it was a major pain to do, plus the "locks" engaged these:

The steel cord went to the lock handle; when you twisted it to unlock the door, it pulled the spring-loaded latch out of the slot in the piece to the right that was attached to the house.  Problem is that if the door wasn't exactly lined up with the slot when you locked it, the tab never fell in the hole.  Silly.  I bet more modern houses have better systems, but a key here is that even if the locking part is better, most still use a steel cord to unlock; if someone pushes in a window, they might be able to use a simple hook to catch the cord, pull up, and unlock the door.  Worth considering even if you don't think you have lots of money in the garage; it isn't what you think the garage contents' value is, it's what the thief thinks.

Better deterrents, besides the obvious of keeping a half-starved Anaconda in your garage include:

Replace the door locks with latches and don't connect them to some goofy-ass knob on the outside of the door (i.e., no steel cords).  This is what I moved to:

I operate it by hand.  Push the rod into the door track to lock, press one of the releases to release the lock.  Someone would have to know that I have this latch and would have to stealthily reach from the window to move the bottom release to the side; not an easy trick.

That's one deterrent and it is quick to lock/unlock.  I also use a padlock in the track:

Uhm, I lock it usually :)  I keep the key very close by so for me to open it from the inside is very convenient.  If you have these locks, you don't need the latch I showed you earlier.  You also only need these on one of the two tracks for the door.

I also have one of these in the shop:

it's just a webcam connected directly to a computer on the second floor.  I haven't yet found something I like yet, but there are many security camera software applications out there.  Since the camera is there anyway for when I stream with woodworker friends ("shop at a distance" :) then I may as well have it record all day long.  It uses a roll-over buffer so I have the past 24 hours recorded at a slower frame rate to conserve disk space.  The monitoring software increases the frame rate when it detects motion.  Some applications allow you to set motion thresholds when it will send you a text message; when you get one, you can remotely access the camera with any browser and see what's going on.  When I find some software I like, I'll write up a post here with some configuration information.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to occasionally take the video camera and walk the shop; open all the drawers, pan slowly, save the SD chip somewhere.  Makes a claim much easier.

Other Uses for the Domino

While chatting with someone about the Domino, I realized a brief tour of other uses of the Domino might be interesting.  Here goes:

This shelf in my shop currently has three things hanging from it.  There used to be a few more jigs there, too.

The top of the shelf has a series of equally spaced Domino mortises...

The underside of the hung items also has mortises.  As you can see, the shelf is where I pop an unglued Domino in whichever mortise I need to hang items.  For awhile, I also had a moisture meter hung by a Domino since it had a wrist strap I could hook over it.  But the Domino isn't just used for stowing things on this shelf.  Next to the shelf is a large box that protects the water softener and water filter from clumsy woodworkers.  On the top of that, are 3 mortises (left, right, and one about 2/3 more to the right); each has an unglued Domino.

In this photo, you can see that the spray gun stand that was hung on the shelf can be hung from this box when I'm spraying outside the garage; the stand doesn't stand up well on its own with the long tail and whip on the gun so this is really handy.

In this photo, the "ladders" that were on the shelf are now deployed onto the box; they are used to hold panels as they dry with dye or finish (they can be much wider as they cantilever off the frontmost nail).  I made this while preparing 10 shelves for a cabinet and it has been very useful.  It is also the reason for the "2/3 more to right" Domino so it can handle shorter shelves or drawer parts.  As you can see in the picture, the exotic MDF is ready for French polishing :)

Ah, the back junk wall above my bench.  That horizontal stick of Oak is there for mounting mini shelves like the shelf for the scrapers (or the clamping squares to its left).

Push the Domino flush to the wall and plunge, which puts the Dominos 10mm from the wall.  Use that spacing to make the mortises on the bottom of the shelf and you have a quick way to make a removable shelf; easy to scoot over, too.  If you change your mind on a shelf's location, glue the Dominos in place and cut them flush.

I had a laptop in the shop for a long time.  I wanted a stand to hold it, but also wanted it removable.  I ran across the stand today in a hidden corner of the shop (in the garbage now as you've seen I have a wall-mounted monitor now).  Where my monitor is today, there was a horizontal strip of oak like the one for the scraper tray where this laptop holder could be quickly inserted or removed (as it stuck out over the bench a little, I'd often remove it when assembling something tall enough to hit it).

The laptop sat on the incline to make the keyboard more accessible; the oak front sticks up high enough to stop the laptop from sliding down!  Notice the two Dominos in the back.

On the back of my "Sysport" drawers, I use a Domino to register in the Systainers' locking slot to keep them in place.  I've used this trick on non-Systainers, too, as just a nub that sticks up is enough to keep a box from sliding around, but also easily removed.

If you remember the entry about the Moxon vice, I made a 'jig' mortise with the Domino using its registration pins so I could make mating mortises in jig accessories that attach to the vice.  First one I made and love is one for locating a drawer side plumb while cutting dovetails.

Out of the shop, I use a couple Domino tricks as well.  My dad made this ceramic bald Eagle long ago.  I borrowed it when I first moved in :)  That shelf is actually my first woodworking project in hardwood.  It is shaped from a tracing of that bird's shadow.  Now, I think the shelf needs more shaping, but I like it anyway.  It is mounted to the wall with 3 Dominos into the bracket (the bracket itself is screwed into wall bracing):

The two slots to the left are the "middle" size giving a bit of play; the other is elongated: 2 of the "wide" mortises in a row.  The shelf attaches by putting one Domino into the elongated slot then sliding the shelf into the other two:

Once inserted, a small screw goes through the top of the bracket to pin the Domino closest the corner.  It's rock solid, but easily removed.  Note that this shelf doesn't have to hold a lot of weight; 3 Dominos in shear like this would actually be pretty strong, but not enough for a hand-crafted anvil or anything.  Also, for the curious, there's a recess in the middle of the shelf that matches the base of the eagle so it can't vibrate off the shelf and also it places the eagle in the correct orientation it was in when the shadow was traced.

As a final example, this built-in cabinet is in my master closet.  The mirror in the back is held in place by 5mm Dominos.  No, no, I didn't mortise into the mirror :)  The Domino holes are set back from the front molding enough to hold the mirror in place; should I ever move, I can pretty easily remove the cabinet and take out the mirror for transport (no mirror mastic!)

Oh, yeah, I use the Domino for joinery, too :)