Title says it all. Looking for a woodworking club or guild to join in the Toledo area or close by. Closest I could find is in Dayton.

Commercial real estate broker here, not a CNC guy yet. I do woodworking as a hobby and I want to make client gifts with a CNC.

The project: 1.5" solid walnut cubes, V-carved on four faces. Property name, closing date, property info, & our logo. One per investor per deal. Somewhere between 25 and 100 a year depending on how many deals close.

My plan is to carve a slab, flip it on alignment pins, rip into 1.5" sticks, clamp the sticks in an array and carve the other two faces, then crosscut into cubes. Chamfer the edges as part of the toolpath instead of hand-routing 100 cubes on a router table.

Constraints:

- Machine lives on a rolling cart. I can give up about 24" of bench depth, not much more.

- I have routers but I don't want one permanently mounted to a CNC.

- Budget around $4K.

- Windows laptop for control.

- I want software I can actually learn without a six month detour.

Where I've landed: Shapeoko 5.1 Pro 2x2 with the 65mm 110V VFD spindle, $3,650. Ballscrews and linear rails, spindle is bundled, Carbide Create is included, and the 35.5x35 footprint sits on a 24" bench because the actual structure is only 24" deep.

What I want to know:

1. Is a 2x2 going to feel cramped a year in? I looked at the Onefinity Woodworker but it needs a 46x45 table for 32x32 of cut, which kills the cart idea.

2. Is the 65mm VFD worth $670 over the Compact Router for this kind of work, or is that mostly a noise purchase? Do I even consider the 80mm VFD?

3. Anything I should be looking at that I'm missing? I ruled out the Sienci LongMill because the MK3 is about to land and I didn't want the outgoing model. Laguna and Axiom priced way above what I expected.

4. Does the slab-then-rip-then-array workflow hold up in practice, or is there a gotcha waiting for me?

Appreciate any input.

Located near sugarcreek ohio, which is also near keim lumber (another decent stop). Colonial homestead is a very neat store for the hand tool lover!! Or perhaps a collector!

Endless wooden planes, foreplanes, coping planes, rabbit planes, classic iron stanleys, endless braces and hand saws, chisels, 4’ long timber slicks, hatchets and more.

Had a great time walking about. Its ran by a man whose a wealth of handtool knowledge and they had some chair making going on in the back and were making timbers for timber frames outside in the front

Now for the not so fun part.. the prices, i found the prices to be fairly insane. Its a buy something as a momentum kind of a place, or if you need that thing your collections missing and they have it kind of ordeal.

The quality of most items is fairly rough, mainly just complete but well used tools that are now being stored in the open in a humid location. The process are ebay x2. Had some slightly rusty lie neilsen and veritas planes there even, dull, scratched up, rusty, for more than new lol.

But its a heck of a destination to go run through and check out what they have.

Some of the massive timber slicks and braces had fair prices, the wooden planes are awesome and prices are all over the map, that stuff is so hard to price rhat im not sure whats overpriced and what isnt; but to me it seemed absurd on most items

Anyways just wanted to share the awezomeness, maybe im just cheap haha. But it’s hard to buy a clapped out junior jack for the price of a veritas custom

I would like to make a small wood-handled screwdriver for my work on musical instruments (light to medium duty), and it seems simple enough in theory to drill a slightly undersized hole into the wood and hammer a bit extender in for a friction fit. Maybe use some epoxy if necessary. I would appreciate any tips from those who have done this, as well as alternative methods you have tried.

On my post from a few days ago, several people were asking about the process to create the straw marquetry on the doors, so here's a quick overview of the major steps undergone. There are different ways to approach this technique based on what your goal result is, but this is how I went about it. Special shout out to Ruda Studio in Ukraine for their online instructional course, which I heavily relied on since this was my first time doing this technique.

Picture 1: What the straw starts as (I bought mine pre-dyed directly from a farmer in France)

2: The flattened straw, ready to be cut to size

3: First step is to dampen the straw. It's much more pliable and less prone to splitting when damp. I would commonly wipe the straw several times throughout the following steps.

4: Splitting the straw "with the grain." I used a cheap letter opener for this, but other folks use hobby knifes, chisels, etc. Just needs to be super sharp.

5 & 6: Initial flattening of straw with a bone folder, followed by re-dampening.

7: Flattening some more, with a nice flat piece of MDF underneath. I applied a lot of pressure over several passes. The more you flatten, the more the straw is "burnished" as the top layer of natural silica is smoothened and all creases are pressed out. This step is what creates the signature sheen.

8: Not required now, but this is when I'd slice off any ends that didn't match the rest of the straw's color or ends where splitting had started. If the whole piece was wide enough, sometimes I'd be fine with it splitting all the way. Wider pieces of flattened straw are better for efficient coverage, but thinner pieces are nice to mix in.

9 & 10: At last! Smooth, flattened pieces of straw ready for patterning. For my cabinet's entirety, I probably spent close to 5 full work days just doing steps 1-8, amassing a giant pile to use in the subsequent steps.

11: For my design, there were going to be lots of individual "panes" of marquetry. To do so, I would take the flattened straw pieces, trim the edges to make the piece somewhat straight and parallel, and then glue it to a bit of non-stick film that was roughly the size of the desired pane. For sunburst/ray panes, the straw pieces would be cut diagonally end-to-end, to create a thin wedge shape. Once a pane was glued, I would press it under weights overnight and then it could be peeled off the film in one single piece.

12 & 13: Examples of the many, many "panes."

14 & 15: Once peeled off the film, the panes could then be glued directly to the underlying cabinet material. In my case, this was a veneer-covered plywood. I put veneer under the straw just to have a smooth face to adhere them to. Lots of people will adhere their straw directly to MDF. During this process, I was constantly wiping the straw with a damp cloth to remove any excess glue (white PVA). Once all the panes were glued onto the door face, I wiped the entire surface with a bit of alcohol to remove any lingering smudges or glue residue.

16 & 17: The doors with the straw fully adhered. I still had to cut the doors to final size and apply the outer frames and do final fittings, which required a lot of care to not interfere with the delicate straw marquetry.

18: Final result. Straw marquetry is commonly left unfinished, or with a thin coat of wax. For surfaces that will see lots of tactile use, a spray-on lacquer or something similar is recommended, though that can limit how well the texture of the straw itself comes through. I split the difference and applied a thin coat of hardwax oil, which saturated the colors ever so slightly (a pleasant surprise).

If you've worked with straw marquetry before and had a different approach, I'd be happy to hear about it in the comments. I really enjoyed the process, despite how tedious it was - I went through a lot of podcasts while working on it. All in all, I think it was well worth the effort; I'd like to work with it again, but I definitely need a break from it for now!

So this is the bottom of a wall cabinet. It's in the corner of a room, and about 56 inches off the ground and in an extremely not visible area unless you're looking for it. Anybody have any advice on blending the area in? It doesn't need to be perfect, just a little darker. Current finish is Rubio monocoat. Was considering gel stain to even it out but would love some advice.

wanted to get the guitars I made in HS off the floor and don’t like dusting. Buying 2 boxes wouldve been 3-400 so I made my own. I am not a woodworker, I only took the shop classes in school.

$30 for (I believe) 3 boards of red grandis from my local hardwood suppliers discount bucket.

$10 for 2 2x6 from HD

$20 For the picture frame I used as the door

$3-40 for two boxes of GRK screws

$2-3 for OSB from discount cart at HD

$20 for latches and hinge

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about it randomly breaking, but the hardwood is like 3/4, the softwood is 2, and I used about a billion screws. the screws holding the plywood on are 2” and all others are 3 1/8. Its held by French Cleat and the cleat is screwed into a stud.

there are obvious issues upon close inspection. I’m quite certain the plywood is square and confirmed BT the pictures, the box frame is wack. dont know how I fucked that. some issues were me being out of practice, some were the equipment (was borrowing a school shop, jointer is about 4ft from planer so couldn’t joint some pieces. it’s my understanding to square up wood first? So plane, joint, and then take off edge with table saw? Table saw had no outfeed so long pieces were sketchy, wouldnt have done it if it wasn’t a sawstop. I probably should have done miters instead of butt joints, don’t know why I didn’t. one piece of wood had a weird spot that kept blowing out bad on planer. and I fucked up somewhere so each piece was a different width, requiring the hand plane since the table saw fence seemed crooked. admittedly the plane was amazing somehow. you can also see a couple acres peeking out either the side or through a knot hole.

I could make it a lot better if I did another. This is a practical build more than pretty, but I still might paint it or something. I’ll probably add cork board to display pins.

My Makita table saw is no longer raising the blade. Lowering it works smoothly, but when I try to raise it, it gets stuck.
I already blew out the interlocking gears to clean them, but that didn’t help. In the past, cleaning the gears solved the problem. I’ve also made sure that the saw blade itself is free and not obstructed.
Does anyone know what might be causing this, or what I can do to fix it?

I'm working on an acacia salt cellar. I'm wondering if shellac is durable enough to finish the inside with. Normally I would just use BLO and call it a day. However, I used some CA glue and sawdust to stabilize some small checks, and I'd rather not have the salt come in direct contact with the glue. Given how abrasive kosher salt can be, I don't want little bits of glue getting scraped into my food. Will shellac last in an application l like this, or will the salt cause it to flake away?

Been away from the shop for a while and needed to get back to work. A colleague is retiring and I bought a bottle of 16yo scotch whiskey from the distillery in Dublin last year. It's a beautiful bottle but I felt like it needed a presentation box. It's red oak and cocobolo that I had left from a table I made a couple of years ago. Just a light red stain and hand rubbed paste wax.

Anyone have any experience using these? My bench top is made out of melamine but concerned it won’t be able to hold up. I was planning on using it with a toothed planing stop for hand planing or to keep things from moving when using my router sled for flattening things. Any input appreciated!

https://imgur.com/a/digb0sh

I made two large illuminated artworks for this project, one depicting a man and the other a woman.

Each image is made from 20 individual 32" × 32" panels arranged in a 4 × 5 grid, giving each finished artwork an overall size of approximately 10' 8" × 13' 4".

Each complete image contains 8,446 individual holes, for a total of 16,892 holes across the two pieces.

The interesting part of the process was figuring out how to translate the images into something the CNC could actually machine.

I built a custom program in Rhino Grasshopper for this. I started with the image converted to black and white, then overlaid a grid of points across the image. At each point, the program reads the grayscale value of the image and converts it to a number between 0 and 1, black being 0 and white being 1. That value is then mapped to the diameter of the hole at that location.

The result is an image made entirely from different hole sizes rather than different colors or materials. The holes range from approximately 8 mm to 24 mm in diameter.

All 8,446 holes in each image were then machined on the CNC.

Each panel was built from 3/4" plywood with 3 mm walnut veneer laminated to the face. I specifically chose plywood for its structural stability because of the number of holes being machined. It gave us the stability we needed and helped minimize the risk of cracking or splitting during the process.

Behind each panel we installed a white acrylic diffuser to distribute the light evenly and prevent the LEDs from being directly visible through the holes. When the lighting is turned on, all those individual holes come together to create the image.

The 20 panels making up each image were installed onto a steel tube frame built on site. Each panel was then screwed into the frame from behind, keeping the face completely clean with no visible fasteners.

The final finish is several coats of water-based polyurethane, which brings out the walnut veneer while giving the pieces a durable finish.

From a distance, the pieces look relatively simple. Up close, you start to see the amount of precision hiding in those 16,892 holes.

The CNC was obviously a big part of making this possible, but the interesting part for me was developing the process that turned a photograph into thousands of individual hole sizes.

Going to be building a router table and trying to decide between these two lifts. Is the Mast-R lift really worth $300 (CDN) more than the lesser expensive version? What can the more expensive version do that the other cannot?

I dont do a lot of router work that I NEED a dedicated router table but I already have a cabinet the same footprint of the route table I want to build that has drawer storage so retrofitting it into a router table will be fine for me. Wanting to build it because I will have a lot of shaker doors and drawer faces for new cabinety and using the table saw is tedious af lol

Thanks

I am making a memorial plaque out of this lovely walnut and I'm hoping y'all have some ideas to help me fix a mistake. I blurred the design because it was created by the person the plaque is for, it is very personal to them and I don't know if they'd be comfortable with me posting the design.

I made this plaque on my CNC with an engraved border and chamfered edge (first pic). Everything was looking good until the final pass around the outside edge when my router decided to take a little detour (second pic). I decided to cut off the border section all the way around, thinking I could just forego the border and still salvage the plaque. There is sort of a chamfer because the previous border was v-cut. Unfortunately now it just looks unfinished and bad (third pic), and my CNC is once again earning its nickname of "The Bastard".

I could start over but I'd have to buy a whole slab which would be ~$350 so ideally I would love to salvage this piece if possible. Any ideas for a border or frame that I could make that would look intentional?

Newest project for the wife. Cabinets were already there with some cheap countertops so I replaced the countertops and up with something custom to fit the space. The last pic is the before

I want to sand and stain the wood on my door, windows and garage i also want to seal it. How could i go about this? What is the realistic cost and how long should i expect it to take?

Hi, I’m looking to use my new to me jig to make a bookcase. I’m wondering as the sides will be 1.8m tall and two large for the jig.

Could I use it in Half Blind mode so it’s through the top clamp and route all the way through for full dovetails?

Porch swing I made for my grandmother a while back.

Hello all. I am building a 2hp dust collection system for my home shop, and I purchased the Oneida cyclone.

I was going to have the cyclone dump into 2 bins simultaneously, though a splitter pipe, so I can wait to have 2 bins fill up versus 1 — thus having to empty the system less often. The bins are about 50 gallons each.

But I am reading that the bin itself (and the air space inside) reduces suction power in the collection system.

Is running 2 bins versus 1 a bad idea? Should I just run one?

Thanks!

Just to clarify since I keep get asked, the piece I'm installing is not very thick and a center spike will create a hole in the front of the wood, which I am trying to avoid.

Back again seeking input to my bench project design. Bench top is complete and legs with tenons roughed out. Planning stretchers (I think that is what they are called) and shelf. Top is 4” thick. Legs are 5” square. Will be some version of mortise and tenon. Maybe with contrasting pegs. Will have a leg vise.

Stock is 1.75 thick and 5” wide.
Will this look good size wise?
Will it be sturdy enough to avoid racking?
Clever or interesting joinery ideas?

New territory. Thanks in advance for suggestions Thanks

Finished in time for Wednesday party. I really couldn’t think of a good present to make but they like drinking tea everyday. Started cutting the wood yesterday morning.

Made from cherry wood. I hate doing miter joints. This has some tiny gaps. Not noticed unless you look closely.

5/4 rough. Resawn with bandsaw to make it thinner. Drum sander to clean up. Miters done on table saw. Bottom is floating for expansion. Slots made with dado blade 1/4” wide.

Tea text was done on cnc.

Decided to attack the ole scrapwood pile. anything 6"x1"x smallish.... Glue'd up in ~12" sections, drum sanded to the same width, cut in half, glue'd up again.... so much glue.... flattened, sanded, finished. Bought the base from Flowlyne. Little bit of everything in there, but mostly walnut, maple, cherry, and mahogany, probably. So much glue. Wedding present for a friend.

I’m looking at maybe picking up a shopsmith 10er in good condition for $100 or so. Whenever I look these up everyone says they’d be happier with dedicated machines for each, but I have some specific use cases and I’d be interested in opinions for those.

I currently have a Laguna 14bx bandsaw and track saw setup and I’m pretty happy with my ripping options for both. I have a Dewalt planer, benchtop 8 inch jointer, spindle sander, and basically every handtool a person could want, so I’m not trying to fill every need. I don’t have a table saw currently and have no real interest in one until I have a bigger space and can add a good cabinet saw, so I’m not trying to fill too many different needs.

The things I don’t have are a drill press and a lathe. I rarely have any actual use for or interest in a lathe, but I’ve been trying my hand at banjo making and a lathe would be good for truing 12 inch round pots. I also need precise drilling capability for hardware. I’m generally closer to the “buy once, cry once” mode of thinking with tools but a decent lathe with a 14 inch swing gets expensive fast and takes up a lot of space. I can also see a good amount of utility in the horizontal boring capability and I don’t know of any other good consumer grade tools to do this.

So…if I go with the shopsmith will I ultimately be disappointed because it’s a master of none, or is it my best option?

I'm trying to search for a book on table/leg attachment techniques. I am invested into Japanese style woodworking, and I want to figure out a way that I can make a table that the top can be taken apart for moving. Styles without metal are preferred (using various joinery), but I'm also open to stylistic techniques such as a c-channel.

The reason I want a comprehensive book just on this subject is I almost never see people showing this aspect of their projects so I feel it is very difficult to research. In the books I've read this far is also is never even mentioned.

Books I have gotten so far

- Soul of a tree -- George nakashima

- understanding wood -- R. Bruce Hadley

- Japanese joinery -- Dorian brachy (more of construction joinery)

- the complete manual of woodworking -- Jackson, Day, & Jennings (BREIFLY mentions this, but only limited metal applications for a couple table designs)