Lathe Stand

This was a relatively simple cabinet build for my lathe.  The size allows me to store the lathe in the bottom shelf and the entire cabinet can fit under my MFT when not being used.  All joinery was done with my Festool Domino and Kreg Pocket Holes...and as with all shop furniture, no glue in case I need to change something in the future.

Table/Bar for Behind Couch

In our basement theater room we have a large sectional couch that sits about 4 feet from the back wall.  My idea was to build a table/bar that would sit behind the couch with stools.   This was a fairly straight-forward project, but the size of the timbers is what made it difficult.  In addition ensuring that the table didn't tip-over considering how heavy the top is (see below to see how I solved this). 

Two pieces of White Ash, 2" thick x 9" wide x 108" long...these beasts are HEAVY!

Edge jointed, planed and glued up.  I used my buddy's Domino XL to cut tennons to use to aid the glue up and the strength of the joint.

All glued up, cut to length and ready for sanding.  

I decided to not keep the top nice and uniform, but allow the sander to cut some gouges as I was sanding.  I used my Festool Rotex RO90 to do the "carving".

I went back and forth on the construction of the legs.  I had considered building the legs out of wood, but in the end decided to use 1" black iron pipe to match some of the industrial look of the basement.

Top sanded, two coats of General Finishes Black Milk Pain, one coat of General Finished Java Gel Stain, and 4 coats of Minwax Wipe-On Satin Poly.

 

All done! 

Note how the feet on the table/bar extend under the couch.  The feet are a foot longer than the table top is wide, allowing the feet to extend under the couch, limiting any "tipping" of the bar/table.  This bar/table is "rock-solid".

Coffee Table - Part 1

Started working on the first piece of furniture for our basement home theater, a new coffee table.  I plan on building an end-table, and hall-table to match.  I decided to build all the pieces out of Ash since these pieces will be stained very dark, and the Ash from my local supplier is very inexpensive.  These projects will be incredibly simple, consisting of a solid 1 1/4" thick top and hairpin legs from ModernLegs.com.  The legs should be here in the next few weeks, but for now I can focus on getting the top glued up and finished.  

I decided to use 8mm Dominos to help in alignment.  The finished panel required very little flattening as the joints aligned perfectly.

All glued up.

First coat of finish.  The finish is an espresso colored polyurethane and stain blend, and after the first coat I am not that happy.  I wanted something much darker, but still allows the grain to show.  I haven't decided if I am going to attempt a second coat, or sand off this coat and start with a standard stain.

Bookshelves - Part 1

I have put this project on hold, primarily because I knew that it would be a lot of work.  These bookcases will be 7' tall x 32" wide and will be made out of Walnut plywood and solid Walnut.  The case is joined together with 5mm domino's.

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Getting ready for the first cut on the 4x8 sheet of Walnut.  At $130/sheet, this was a little unnerving.

Shelves

Side Panels

Using the Festool Domino to cut mortises for the case.

Mortises

Using the Kreg Shelf-Pin Jig to drill holes for movable shelves.

Dry-fit

All glued up in the clamps.

Putter Display

I wanted to build something that challenged me from a design perspective, something that wasn't "square".  For years I have collected putters and I  had been wanting a way to display one of them so I started sketching out a floor display that would hold a single putter, but would also function as a "practice hole".   Overall I was happy with the shape that I drew, now to transfer that to some wood.  This project is made from 6/4 Walnut.

Sketches

Main pieces cut out.

The "trunk" balances nicely on the base.

First time using the Festool Domino...amazing machine!

Multiple coats of Danish Oil followed up by a coat of paste wax.

Completed.

Miter Saw

About 10 years ago I bought a number of Craftsman power tools from Sears, and while they have served me well over the years, I have been slowly upgrading as funds permitted.  The last Craftsman tool that I needed to upgrade was my 10" compound miter saw.  This saw has cut a ton of wood over the years, but I had been wanting to upgrade, primarily for more capacity as it could barely cut a 90° angle on a 2x6.

The saw that I was most excited about was the Festool Kapex.  I own a fair number of Festool tools and all have exceeded my expectations.  The ease of use, accuracy and dust-collection justify the extra expense in my mind.  In reading the glowing reviews of the Kapex I had no doubt that the Kapex would be the perfect saw, and worth the $1,400 price tag.  I purchased the Kapex from my local Woodcraft and two weeks later returned it!  Here are the reasons why:

1.  With every Festool power tool I own I have been blown away by the dust collection, and I think my expectations may have been too high with the Kapex.  The marketing materials state that it will collect 90% of dust, but I only found that to be true in some circumstances.  Cutting a 1x4, sure the dust collection is good, but when I was cutting an 8/4 x 12" piece of poplar, not so much.  While I firmly believe that the Kapex does a better job of dust collection than any other miter saw...I wasn't blown away, especially for a $1,400 saw.

2.  The Kapex was not square out of the box, not even close.  Both the bevel angle and the miter angle were out of square.  Again another expectation that may have been too high, but I spent about half an hour attempting to get the saw to cut square.  In my opinion, a $1,400 saw should be square out of the box.

3.  The table was not level with the wings.  This is a little hard to describe, and I should have taken a picture, but the inner-table that rotates with the saw was about 1/32" lower than the wings.  Evidently this is normal for the Kapex (according to some information I found on the internet), but I hadn't seen the "feature" on any other miter saw I have ever used.  This may or may not cause an issue with making cuts, but I believe that it should be perfectly level, especially for a $1,400 saw!

4.  The blade that came with the Kapex is awesome (see note #6 below).

Thankfully Festool offers a 30-day return opportunity, which I have never had to exercise until now, and I was able to easily return the saw to Woodcraft.

So I ended up purchasing a DeWalt 780 12" sliding miter saw.  Here are a few of my observations about the saw:

1.  The dust collection is ok (not as good as the Kapex), but for $600, I didn't expect great dust collection.

2.  The saw wasn't accurate out of the box and I spent about half an hour getting the saw to cut square (only the miter was out of square, the bevel angle was good), but for $600, I didn't expect it to be square out of the box.

3.  The saw table that rotates IS level with the wings...why isn't the Kapex?

4.  I got the DeWalt mobile cart, a $200 value for FREE when I purchased the saw from my local big-box store (no mail in rebate required)!

5.  The saw has plenty of power and capacity.

6.  As expected, the blade that came with the DeWalt was a few steps above garbage so I did purchase an 80-tooth Freud blade that is much better.

So for me the bottom line is that the Kapex is a very good saw, but not worth $1,400 in my opinion.  The DeWalt is a pretty good saw, and is worth $600, especially with the stand thrown in.  At the end of the day, I was able to get the DeWalt for $600, and now I have enough left over to get the Festool Domino I have been drooling over!

Shop Organization

Over the past month I have focused most of my time on the shop.  When we moved into our new house about a year ago I set up the shop as quickly as I could, placing tools and storage areas in what I thought was the best places.  Since I was coming from a small two car garage (about 400 sq. ft.) to what I thought was an enormous garage (about 1,000 sq. ft.), I spread everything out as much as possible, not utilizing the space very efficiently.  After working on many projects I found that I needed to move some equipment around and build some additional storage.  While I am far from completed, I feel I have made some significant progress. 

In addition to some reorganization, I have installed two additional 20-amp circuits in the shop.  The idea is that one circuit is for dust-collection (either my large dust-collector or a shop-vac) and the other circuit is for the tool.

Tool hanging rack on left and a saw-till on the right are the latest additions to my tool storage.

New out-feed table (Kreg Universal Bench and plywood top).

Moved the dust collector into a different corner so that it is more convenient for all machines.

The cart on the right was built to house my Festool Systainers and the router table and spindle sander.

Timer for cordless tool batteries.

Shaker Inspired Bench - Part 2

With the basic plan in place I was ready to start cutting my joinery.  I started by cutting the dado on the bottom of the top the same width as the legs.  I then used the drill press to drill out the mortises in the top to accept the tenons on the legs.  Then squared up the mortises with a chisel.  I used my table-saw and dado blade to cut the tenons, slowly creeping up on the perfect fit.  

For Christmas I got a new 1/2" up-cut spiral bit, which is perfect for cutting the mortises on the legs.  Using my Festool OF1400 and the edge guide I was able to cut a perfect mortise very quickly.  This is my first spiral router bit, and I love it!

After all the mortises were squared up and multiple times dry-fitting everything I was ready for the final glue up, which went very smoothly.

 View of the through mortises with the split for the wedge.

Bench dry fit (no stretcher yet).

Cutting the mortises in the legs with my new 1/2" up-cut spiral bit, this thing is awesome!

Nice, clean mortise. 

Squared up the mortise with a chisel. 

Final glue up (can't have too many clamps).