Ridgid model 3612

My first table saw was a Delta benchtop model. It worked OK for a year and a half, but, as I quickly discovered, a 12″ rip capacity is really too puny to get serious work done. So, back in 2001, I upgraded to the Ridgid table saw I had been drooling over at the Home Depot. Some of the features that caught my attention were:

• A 36″ rip capacity – larger than most contractor saws.
• A beefy rip fence with t-track built in.
• The saw came with with the Herc-u-lift caster system. I work in a two car garage and have to move the saw frequently to get it out of the way. Without a caster system, I couldn’t easily use such a big saw in my small shop.
• The Ridgid uses a very easy-on, easy-off blade guard and splitter. This is a VERY IMPORTANT feature of the saw. Obviously, you can’t use a splitter when you dado or rabbet, so it has to be removed for these operations. I can have it off in about five seconds, and right back on again – perfectly aligned – in the same amount of time.
• The saw has micro-adjustments for blade alignment. Rather than unbolting the entire trunnion assembly and wrenching it the very small distance to get the blade parallel with the fence, you simply loosen a bolt where the manual tells you to, and you can inch everything into alignment – no fuss, no muss.
• The saw came with a lifetime warranty.
• The saw’s motor is built by Emerson Electric who used to build Craftsman motors back in the day.
• The saw easily handles a 8″ stacked dado blade.
• The saw always seems to rate well in magazine reviews.

There are a few downsides to the saw.

• It is a contractor’s saw with the motor hanging out the back and the cabinet open, so dust collection can be a problem. In fact, my most effective dust control scheme is to open the garage door when I cut and blow a fan outside…
• The saw can bog down on rip cuts in thick hardwoods due to it’s 1.5 horsepower motor. I have overcome most of the problems by using a 24 tooth rip blade, dialing in the blade parallelism and feeding the stock carefully while listening to how the saw is performing.
• It does take quite a few turns of the handwheel to raise the blade. This is great if you are trying to nudge the blade up to make a slight adjustment, but it takes more time to get the blade to the right height for other cuts.

Of course I have tricked out my saw. Besides building many panel cutting, tapering and other shop-made jigs, I added an Osborne EB-3 miter gauge. That sucker really cuts spot-on angles, has a flip-down stop to allow consistent cut lengths and allows a lot of support for stock while cutting.

I also replaced the left cast iron wing with a home-built router table. I routed it out to accept a Rousseau router plate (which supports a Freud FT 2000 router). I can use the saw’s rip fence as a fence for the router table, which allows me the same micro-adjustability that benefits me using the saw blade.

Since I may have to rout and rip moldings, I also have an auxiliary router table top that I can set up on a Black and Decker Workmate so I can dedicate a station to each task.

While you can no longer buy the saw brand new from Home Depot, you can get the follow on model – the 3650 – which has many of the same rock solid features found on my saw. While I do dream about upgrading to a high-performance cabinet saw, I have found my saw to be an effective performer that has yet to let me down.

Drawer Building Basics

It’s just a box inside a box. So, why is building drawers such an unnerving challenge for beginner woodworkers?

Fine Woodworking magazine offers this .PDF excerpt from Bill Hylton’s Chests of Drawers book.

This exceptional primer walks woodworkers through all the basics – parts of a drawer, joint selection and wood choices are covered in great detail. The best part of this article is that Bill covers options that appeal to woodworkers no matter their skill level. From the most challenging hand cut dovetails to the basic pinned rabbet joint, there’s something for everyone.

If your next project involves building drawers, don’t be intimidated – check this link out first!

All woodworking is a matter of scale. Some woodworkers build in huge dimensions – ­ entire libraries of bookshelves, complete room paneling systems and kitchens full of cabinets. Others work on the small side ­ – boxes, clocks and other small items such as toys.

While working large has its challenges, the small scale stuff can be even more intimidating. After all, it’s highly unlikely that someone will pick up a bookshelf and turn it in their hands, examining every small detail. In this small scale realm, one woodworker has made a name ­ and reputation ­for himself.

Doug Stowe, a woodworker from Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is widely known for his books and magazine articles on building awe-inspiring boxes from what many cabinetmakers would call scrap.

Doug has his father to thank for his woodworking roots. “My earliest remembrance of my father is being instructed by him how to hold a hammer and how to avoid hitting my thumbs.” While young Doug was honing his skills, his father recognized the potential he saw, and presented Doug with a Shopsmith for his 14th birthday. “The Shopsmith and I are both 1948 vintage,” said Doug, “and still going strong.”

The second part of his career ­ – the writing of woodworking books and magazine articles – ­ took a little more time to perfect. “I had studied creative writing in college and got some encouragement to go on with it. But I knew very little of enough interest for me to write about. Then I read James Krenov’s Cabinet Maker’s Notebook and realized that there was a lot more to say about woodworking than how to cut wood. So, I knew early what I wanted to write about, but also knew the depth of experience necessary to have anything meaningful to say. My first writing for magazines came at the invitation of Woodworker’s Journal in 1994, and my first book about boxes came in 1997.”

Doug has built a number of outstanding larger pieces, but his work with the smaller boxes is his calling card. His boxes are seen universally as creative, innovative and drop-dead gorgeous. While these masterpieces may seem beyond the abilities of an average home woodworker, they can serve as an excellent starting point for acquiring new skills and breaking out from beyond the norm. “Making boxes takes so little material, and so little space compared with larger work. You can learn so much from them. Nearly every technique associated with larger work can be learned through making boxes. You can more easily take risks in design making a box, so you get to be more experimental. When you make a box, you don’t have to think of the whole room setting the piece will compliment or dominate.”

While his boxes are striking and dramatic, his preference for materials actually brings his interest closer to home. “I have a very strong preference for using Arkansas hardwoods. I seldom find Arkansas woods with very dramatic figure like you may find in exotic woods, but that is not a problem. Nearly every piece of wood is suitable for box making. If you have plain wood, you have to apply more craftsmanship to come up with something striking. And what’s wrong with that?”

Given the small scale of these boxes and the outstanding results Doug demonstrates in his writing, woodworkers might stumble a while before they truly master the projects. “We all make mistakes, and we get better at things through practice. If your toddler takes his or her first three steps and then falls, you celebrate the steps, not the fall. Your toddler gets right back up and goes again. When we make a box, we know the first won’t be the best, but each will bring new skill. Don’t worry about your finished product. Learn something from each one and celebrate the steps.”

Besides the immense satisfaction Doug takes from building these boxes and teaching the craft to thousands through his writing, he also sees the big picture ­ what people will take from these pieces years down the road. “We each can leave an important legacy in the things we make that tell more clearly than our words about caring for each other and for the planet. In the meantime, we become more potent, more creative, and more alive when we are engaged in making things from wood.”

To read more about Doug’s thoughts on woodworking, visit his Wisdom of the Hands blog.

I love this time of the year in sports. The NCAA men’s basketball championships are in full swing, and the competition is fierce. Perennial powerhouse schools such as Georgetown, Duke and the University of Connecticut are out, and long shot schools like Davidson and Western Kentucky are still dancing.

I run a pool for the men’s championship with some friends from around the country. How am I doing? Well, let’s just say my new nickname is ‘Foundation.’ I don’t know how I can get much worse.

Perhaps if I had the chance to see each of the 65 teams entered in the brackets, I might have had a better handle on how they would perform under the bright lights of national attention.

In much the same way, I have picked more than my share of loser tools. After woodworking for ten years, I have a collection of gadgets and gee-gaws that the inventor no doubt thought would change the face of woodworking forever. And, based on the reviews of some users, I fell hard for them, only to be terribly disappointed by their performance.

If only I had the chance to handle the tools before I could buy them…

Well, this past weekend, I had just that opportunity. The Woodworking Shows expo came to Tampa, and I figured it would be a good idea to mosey over and have myself a look.

If you have ever been to a woodworking expo before, you might be a little jaded by the experience. One of the nearly universal sentiments is the shows aren’t what they used to be. Time was, you were able to go to a show and score an excellent deal on a sweet tool, get to meet the innovators themselves and network with woodworkers from your area. “The Internet is killing the show experience,” many woodworkers claim, because everything you could do at the show, you could easily find or do online.

That may be so, but I have a very different take on things.

From the moment I walked in to the Florida Fairgrounds just outside of Tampa, I was like a kid in a candy store. The floor of the Fairgrounds arena was covered with booths from manufacturers demonstrating their tools. Other areas were set aside for training sessions. And, the place was packed!

What were my observations?

Well, getting to talk with the representatives of the different tool companies gave me a fresh perspective on woodworking – and the tools I already own. I spoke with Henry Wang, inventor of the Grr-ipper push block system. I had purchased one of the Grr-ippers a few years ago just to make narrow rip cuts on the table saw. Shortly after, I walked away from the booth shaking my head. How could I have gone for two years without knowing what the tool could do?

Every time I look at a tool that I want in a catalog or online, I find myself wondering just how big it is or how it feels in my hand. Is it something that’s substantial I will use for years, or just a use one time and throw it away in disgust type of tool? When I turned a corner at the show and saw a huge booth by Lee Valley tools, my heart started to race. Rack after rack of neatly arrayed tools were on display. I got the chance to feel how the Veritas bevel up smoother plane was different than the Veritas low-angle smoother plane. Something I couldn’t quite understand from the catalog description.

There was a wealth of knowledge there for the taking. Jim Heavey of Wood Magazine was offering a series of woodworking seminars. I watched him for about 30 minutes, and learned about six techniques I am going to add to my work. Sure, the information is out there on the Internet and in books, but I was able to stand next to him and look at how everything was set up. I could even ask questions and get immediate responses as well.

Also, I was able to meet people who shared the passion for woodworking I have. Again, I am an active poster on many woodworking forums, but the opportunity to shake hands with people goes a long way.

I left the woodworking show after three hours a little lighter in the wallet, but the experience was well worth it.

And, it took my mind off of the sting of making such lousy picks in my NCAA tournament pool.

Working with hot hide glue

If you are looking for an adhesive to stick your projects together, there are dozens of choices out there. Some you expect to see in today’s workshop (yellow carpenter’s glues). Others are prized for their specific properties such as being waterproof or extremely tough (epoxy).

Have you ever considered using glues from a bygone age? Hide glue was the norm for centuries in cabinetmaking shops. Today, it’s used by musical instrument makers, antique restorers and a growing number of hobby woodworkers.

Even though it has a reputation as being finicky to work with, hide glue is not as difficult as you think.  It mixes easily, forms a strong bond, repairs nicely and cleans off the wood’s surface without leaving any residue to interfere with a finish.

This site, run by Spurlock Specialty Tools, shows step-by-step how to prepare and use hide glue in everyday woodworking. There’s even a plan to make an inexpensive yet totally effective hot glue pot for less than $20.

If you have ever wanted to try hide glue, this is the site you should consider first.