For all of you Wood Magazine subscribers (and those who may like to get the occasional copy at  the news stand), the Shop Monkey returns!

Yes, the editors of  Wood must be gluttons for punishment, because they had me back again for a new edition.

Be sure to check out page 16 of the December 2009/January 2010 edition (can you believe that we are now writing the numerals 2010?) .  There, I have a what I hope you consider an interesting discussion about the level of precision required in woodworking.  It’s named, appropriately enough, Precisely how Precise?

If you want to read even more Shop Monkey input, why not check out my blog over at the newly-revamped Wood Magazine forum website?  The new forum software makes it easier than ever to navigate the content and read the input from your favorite bloggers.

Yes, you can even read my content if you have nothing better to do…

The current schedule for the Shop Monkey right now is that the columns will appear in every other edition (the next one is scheduled to appear in the spring).

Now, no more monkey business… back into the shop!

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  Stop for a moment and remember the victims of this act of terror…

This was one of those purchases I made because I ‘thought’ I should have one.  It turns out that while I don’t use it for every project, it has become an essential tool for several of them.

This is a Delta model 28-276 14″ band saw I bought at Lowe’s about four years ago.  Oh, sure, I looked at some of those fancy smaller models (the guys at Home Depot really wanted to sell me the 12″ Ryobi band saw), but I decided on this model because 14″ is a common size for most home machines. That way, it  would accept the most common upgrades.  Boy, am I happy I considered that.

I set it up in my shop exactly as described in the manual, turned it on and – boy – was I disappointed by the performance.  Unlike my Ridgid table saw I had set up a few years earlier, I discovered that band saws take some fiddling to get them to work properly.

Yes, this is a warning to all of you prospective band saw owners – don’t be disappointed if you don’t get perfect cuts right off the bat. It take some time.

Some things I like about the saw include the blade tension release control, which means I don’t have to change the tension setting after a day at the saw.  I can just flip the tension off and take the pressure off the blade.  I also added a rolling tool stand to the purchase, so I can move the saw around the shop as necessary.

Once I got the saw tuned up – it took a day or so – things started to improve dramatically.  The saw began to track more easily.  The cuts were a little smoother.  Things were definitely looking up.

I would strongly recommend that when you buy a band saw, you get a good band saw book to go along with it.  My choice was Cutting Edge Band Saw Tips and Tricks.  A book like this will give you far more information than the manual ever could.

The monumental step in my bandsaw experiece was when I started to upgrade some items on the saw.  First up, I ditched the original blade that came with the saw and bought some replacement Viking/Timberwolf blades.  These are made of a Swedish silicon steel and cut very true.  The product manual says you can run these blades at a lower tension, but I have noticed some tracking issues if I lower the tension to the recommended levels.

I also recently added the Kreg bandsaw fence.  As with the saw, I am still in the stages of fiddling with the fence to get the best fence performance.  It is a solid and easy to use fence, so I’m sure once I get it tuned up, I’ll be in the butter zone.

I have used the saw to cut curves and resaw, and the 3/4 hp motor will sometimes struggle with harder woods.  If I slow my feed rate, I can get good performance.

Some upgrades I would like to make to the saw include adding a task light to the bottom of the top case.  Where I have the saw right now, it’s not in the best lighting situation, so that will have to be addressed.  Also, one day, I would like to add the riser block.  Sure, I’ll gain an additional 6″ of cutting capacity, but I’ll have to buy new blades.  Also, I’d like to upgrade the original steel guide block with some type of bearing system to control the blade,  but that’s something to consider in the future.

All in all, the saw has been a decent performer and has served me well.  However, if I had to do it again, I would spend the extra cash to get a more capable model which would include a more powerful motor, a larger resaw capacity, a better guide roller system, a quality stock fence and a mobile base as part of the standard package.  Probably would have cost less than the saw’s original price and the upgrade money I have spent so far.

Live and learn!

Yes, this is Tom’s Workbench, my blog dedicated to the thrills and challenges of hobby woodworkers around the world.Marc Spagnulo set this up so I can make you laugh, scratch your head in confusion and learn something – sometimes all at the same time!We hobby woodworkers have our own challenges and considerations that are somewhat different than those of commercial folks. Hopefully, this will be a place where we can all put our creative heads together and make some woodworking magic.

No one likes to be under time pressure. It’s kind of cool and exhilarating when you rush to the phone to call your favorite radio station to see if you could win one of their contests. But, if you are at work, and three ASAP-high-priority-hot-button projects that were due last week land on your desk at the same time, your day is pretty much ruined.

The same thing comes into play with woodworking.

Honest answers, please. Raise your hand if you have ever opened your big mouth and offered to build something for a special occasion – even before you considered how long it would take.

One, two, three, four… OK, there are a lot of you. I’ve done it. A lot.

When a friend or relative announces they are expecting a bundle of joy, I always seem to volunteer to build a cradle. When a happy couple decides to make their relationship a permanent one, my mouth is no longer under my conscious control, and I blurt out that I’d be more than happy to build a suitable present. When a respected co-worker announces his or her retirement, my machismo rises to the surface and I offer to build a shadow box for them to frame their work mementos.

Yes, I am as guilty as they come. Time and again, I never seem to learn from previous experience and think before I offer.

Many’s the weekend I’d be in the shop, deadline fast approaching as I race from operation to operation trying to assemble that gift I promised. Cut the side of a cradle too short? That’s OK, just go back to the saw and trim a little off the other one to match. No time to machine a new one. Joint a little gappy? Some wood filler would do nicely. No time to go back and fix the problem. What about those dovetails I wanted to cut to really make the piece look special? Fagetaboutit! Just glue, screw and plug. NEXT!

Yeah, when you put yourself with your back to the wall, you can really find yourself taking some shortcuts. Fortunately, I haven’t gotten hurt racing to the deadline, but I have got to really start focusing on allowing more time for projects.

For many of these projects, it’s OK to not have them on hand for the big day. If you are building a barrister’s bookcase for a niece who graduated law school, it’s OK to hold off with it until she actually starts with a law firm.

Unfortunately, just as many of these projects do have hard and fast deadlines. If your plan is to build a cradle for your new grandchild, you have to remember that babies sleep in cradles for a very short time. You may find yourself changing that gift from a cradle to a changing table to a toy box to a student’s desk to the aforementioned barrister’s book case as time passes!

Why bring this up now? I’ve done it again! I’ve promised my wife a new dinner table for Thanksgiving, and I’m wondering if the finish will be dry enough to keep the turkey platter from sticking. When I went to my Weiss Hardwoods in Largo, my hardwood supplier, and told Earl in the mill shop what I was doing, he laughed. “Yeah,” he said, “This is the time of the year when we see lots of folks come in with the wild-eyed look.” He stopped for a second, glanced at me sideways, and asked, “You didn’t promise it, did you?”

Uhh… That guy Earl can read minds!The clock is ticking yet again, and word is already out in the family that they’ll be dining from the latest Tom creation. Bad enough I have to cook the dinner, I also have to have the table it will be served on ready to roll. No pressure, right?I know that many of you might be considering building Christmas presents. I’m sure each of you has allowed plenty of time to design, build, finish, wrap and ship those beauties, haven’t you?

If you need some motivation, here’s a countdown clock you just might want to check from time to time. You know, just to be sure you have enough time available to make it happen.http://www.emailsanta.com/clock.html

Lots of luck getting those projects done, and be safe!

When I was living off campus at college, my roommates and I weren’t particularly picky about our furnishings. The first two weeks I was in the apartment, we had very little in the way of furniture; an old couch left by former tenants, a TV up on concrete blocks and a pine plank, our beds and a kick butt stereo system. Yes, we had our priorities in order.

When my parents came to visit me the first time, things started to improve. We got some really ugly couches that looked like they came out of some old lady’s parlor, an old dining table that must have been trendy when Kennedy was in office and a coffee table that had seen its share of coffee spills. This was good, but whenever we had a chance to upgrade (read: diving the dumpster), we went for it. Eventually, the majority of our furniture was lovingly plucked from the refuse bin.

Boy, was I in for a shock when my wife and I got married. We had to have some decent (read: NOT obtained by diving the dumpster) furniture to fill our apartment, and eventually our house. Believe it or not, I was shocked by the prices charged for low-quality, mass produced junk. I could forget any sort of custom made furniture – that was way out of my price range! That’s part of the reason why I got into woodworking – I knew there had to be a better way to get good stuff that was custom for my home. And, as I built for my home and showed off my pictures, a strange thing started to happen. Suddenly, I was approached by lots of folks who wanted things built for THEIR homes.

Now, I am a hobby woodworker. I don’t feed my family based on how much I earn building things. And, I don’t have the overhead a business would have, so my expenses are pretty low. And, I have no problem building gifts for my family and friends and giving those away – I know the folks I’m building for will truly appreciate my efforts. And, when I build, it’s kinda like I’m going out to play tennis or golf – it’s what I do for fun.

But, some folks who want things built see me as their gateway to inexpensive custom-built furniture. Now, people like our Woodtalk Online Editors Marc Spagnulo and Gail O’Rourke are professionals at this stuff. They have their expenses calculated out and know exactly how much the market will bear for their hand-crafted custom projects. Their customers don’t balk, because they know they are buying custom pieces from talented craftspeople. Folks like me are at a little disadvantage, because weekend warrior types like me are often not sure exactly what our work is truly worth – or we have difficulty making others see the value of our work.

A few years back, this one lady in my office approached me about building an entertainment center. She had a drawing of what she wanted, and she was very particular with her requirements. “I want it made out of cherry with dovetailed drawers and those doors that open then slide back into the case.”

As I started wrapping my mind around this massive piece of furniture she wanted, she said something that made my jaw hit the floor. “Oh, I saw something like that at Ikea and they wanted $600 for it. ” Pause. “You can build it for less, can’t you?”

I was kind of stunned by what she said, and I told her that I’d have to price out the materials and determine how long it would take to build before I could give her a final cost. When I found that the special door hardware she wanted ran no less than $200, and I visited my hardwood supplier to find cherry ply and stock at a premium here in Florida, I came back and told her she’d be better off buying from Ikea. It was going to cost me money out of my pocket to just buy the materials for the project. And, forget about buying some saw blades or bits with any profit from this challenging job.

Now, this is the exception, not the rule. My neighbors, a couple from the World War II generation, needed some cabinet pull outs made. After a few days of knocking around in the shop and cobbling together some workable units, I built and installed the pieces to their satisfaction and delight. I wasn’t expecting anything in the way of payment, but the lady of the house handed me a tidy sum of money for my efforts. When I said I couldn’t accept any payment, she told me, “You know, if I get this for free, I’m not going to be sure that I got the job done right. Besides, custom cabinetmakers like you deserve the money they earn.

“That was a refreshing change of pace!pic 1My shopMe busting butt in my shop: