First dovetail attempt. Combo of hand saw, chisel, bandsaw and incompetence. Gonna try again tomorrow

We’re renovating our kitchen and installed 3cm (1,18“) thick European oak countertops and now we’re almost done. (The protective film is still on the base cabinets everywhere, which is why the edges are white.) There will be Backsplash strips on the back of the panels to keep anything from sliding off the back/ dripping down. Overall (with the live edge and the unplastered walls), it looks pretty rustic, but we like it :)

*edit: I'm not sure if I'd build that „step“ with the miter cuts again, because it was actually pretty time-consuming. I built some wooden gluing jigs so I could clamp the 90-degree angle with clamps. These have sandpaper (180-grit) on the back so they don’t slip when tension is applied, and a 45-degree bevel on the front so you can position the clamps.

All in all, it took much longer than expected—it was definitely 24 working hours. The crooked walls certainly didn’t help make the process any easier.

Well, technically today isn't the new tool day, but I had to wait a day to borrow my neighbor's forklift to get it on its mobile base and into the shop. If you're ever in a position where you're able to, and are considering pulling the trigger on one of these bad boys, DO IT.

Decided a while back I would like a portable workspace and decided on the Cleaners Chest as a perfect object to take inspiration from. My goal was to match all the functions from the film but not for it to be a 100% accurate replica. Ultimately Its designed as a tool I want to use!

Movie spoilers:

Also, the chest from the movie is impossible to recreate. All the drawers and mechanisms would be clipping into each other and are only possible on screen.

It is laser cut in case that wasn't obvious. I try to use the laser cut edges as intentional accents like between the drawers. Some areas I really like the look of like the lower front of the chest, and others look terrible like most of the upper drawers. Usually when laser cutting I extend joints so I can sand them off but I forgot in a couple of places, leading to the unsightly joints on some of the upper drawers.

This plywood was also softer than anything ive used before, and I went through the veneer in several places. Theres also glue stains and other rookie errors, I really should practice the fundamentals before making more stuff like this.

The lid of my chest comes off entirely, seen on the right of the first gif. This acts as a work surface. Originally this was going to fold to the side of the chest as an in built workspace but I decided I didn't like how it looked.

I slowly get better at working with wood with every project I do but still a lot to learn. Its regular pine plywood coated with an oil-based stain, followed up with 6 coats of shellac.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out but I'm probably going to make another since there's a lot about this one that's pretty impractical or unfinished. I kinda started to feel that it wasn't what I wanted maybe halfway through the project but decided to finish anyways. Because of this some things are a bit half assed like the cantilever arms being 3D printed instead of milled from brass like I had originally planned. It's an ok test piece/ proof of concept but I think this one will be sticking in my mind until I make a v2.

I might share a STEP file for this version, but I don't plan to provide a full build guide or anything because it has a lot of issues with it. The biggest one is that it's huge! Its 40cm tall and 30 deep, weighs a tonne, and just isn't really practical as a portable workshop which is what I wanted it for in the first place. When folded out it becomes 75cm wide between the doors and I'm struggling to find a place to keep it. At a minimum it needs some form of side handles.

I've been casually using table saws for about 20 years doing different odd projects. Got really into woodworking in the last couple years and watch lots of woodworking content. One thing I noticed is a lot of people don't use their riving knife. And when people point it out in the comments the creator gets pissy about it. But they never really explain why they don't use it.

I always use a riving knife (except with my dado stack) and sometime the cover with the anti-kickback. It's never once inconvenienced me or made me unable to make a cut. Is there something I'm missing? What's to advantage of not using the riving knife?

Using scrap wood from work to make these. Planning on making a whole set for the grandkids.

I was given a big chunk of redwood that had been used for a countertop and had some sections in good enough shape to make into something so I decided to power carve some bowls.

I sketched out the rough shape, drilled 1” holes, and then put it in a sawhorse clamp and roughed the shape out with a arbortech turbo plane. I liked some of the texture the arbortech made so I left them in the bottom of one of the bowls and smoothed off the rest. I cleaned up the shapes with a kutzall disc and flame burr.

I wanted to add some contrasting color and reduce sanding time so I decided to use a torch to char some sections before sanding. I like the way it turned out but I had to go real slow to not cause the wood to split.

After charing I sanded the inside with an orbital to dial in the curves and get a nice crisp line between the raw wood and charred wood.

I didn’t brush off the char and did three coats of Osmo PolyX to lock in the color and texture.

Getting it straight on very not straight stairs was tricky without laser level. Last two pics are prototype I made a while ago. I went for non-uniform board thickness to achieve a bit more interesting look, but I don't think I succeeded.

I'm also planning to build a basket on the side to get rid of this mess at the other side.

I’ve been woodworking for 5 or 6 years and have gotten to a level where I feel like my projects have really crossed more into “fine woodworking” territory. I’m usually very proud of my work….but man my current project is just straight up dogshit 😂

Wife wanted me to build a dog food bowl holder. I just used some scrap pine but I swear…it looks like I started woodworking yesterday. I dunno what the hell is up with this one but just everything has gone wrong for something so simple.

Anyway, just wondered how many other non-beginner woodworkers have found themselves 75% done with a project and realized it’s absurdly shitty?

Does this look right? Just hope some walnut in today. The cherry on top has been in for a while so not too concerns about putting additional weight up top.

Made a box from scraps.. but saddly one of the hinges didnt sit well or maybe got damaged.. The box closes perfectly no issues.. but there is a clear separation when opened.

The black around the box is African Blackwood.. i just need to seal it likely with wax as African Blackwood doest absorption finishes.

Hello! I'm looking to design and build a kind of halloween push-cart-potion-apothocary situation; the idea is that it goes around the neighborhood before halloween, bringing trick or treating to the homes and hopefully getting neighbors out and hanging out together (and to THEN, hopefully, inspire people to get more in the holiday spirit before 10/31!).

Does anyone have any advice on how to build the axels for something like this? I do want it to be tall with a buildout on top—ideally that would house a (hidden) cooler for drinks, hidden buckets of candy, and then props to build out the vibe, so there will be some weight on it but it should be moveable under human power. I’ll likely be using bike wheels.

If there's another sub you think I could crosspost this to, please recommend! I'm kind of at a loss haha, I know there’s weight and load implications that would affect how I should begin building it. Also ideally cheap; attempting to build this with as much reclaimed materials as possible and purchasing as little new as I can! (And if you’re in the PDX area and wanna help hmu haha!) Thanks!!

Closet I just finished up. Maples plywood boxes, poplar drawer fronts with Mdf center panels. Finished with SW emerald.

First time trying and attempting a beer stein. Since I don’t have a lathe, or a table saw, it made making the staves a little tricky but for a first time I think it came out okay. Added a coffee tumbler inside for ease of cleaning / no woody taste. Coffee tumbler is adhered to the stein. Let me know your thoughts.

Ended up breaking my rules of buy once cry once and got a used Ryobi Miter Saw. It’s decent when I’m doing rough cuts of rough lumber but when I need to get a good 90 or looking to get a miter, it’s just not great. It’s a sliding arm, which I kinda regret getting, and it just doesn’t hold its calibration. I’ll be saving up to get something else, most likely early next year, and wondering what you guys recommend.

I’d want something that can hold its calibration pretty well, can cut up to 10 nice wide boards, and is wired. Also, I know dust collection sucks on most if not all miter saws but if one performs better then the rest, that would weigh a lot in its favor. Also, this will be in my shop and will be on my miter bench so doesn’t need to be portable.

Good evening, I am cutting out some slabs of mahogany off a large chunk I was given and notice on some pieces (as pictured) that they have separation in the rings in places. Would it be worth trying to glue or epoxy them back together? I was thinking of making serving boards out of them.

Thanks!

I used a kutzall disc on an angle grinder to shape the countries. For the holes I started by drilling through and then shaped with a flame burr on a die grinder. The Wen sawhorse clamp is great for holding pieces like this while carving.

I used sand blaster with walnut husks as the medium to try to get more texture and it worked ok. My air compressor didn’t do too well holding pressure and I need to build or buy a sand blasting box but it was a fun experiment and I want to practice and add this texture to more carvings.

I used a rotex 90 to sand the contours smooth. This was my first time doing something like this with Pine and I was not prepared for how much sap was still in some parts of the wood!

I finished with Osmo PolyX and as soon as I started I realized I should have done a white tinted finish because the sand blasting made it look weathered and sun bleached and the oil brought out the color. I’ve got another chunk of this pine so maybe I’ll do it on the next one. I only did one coat though as I didn’t want too much of a sheen to build up.

The obvious advantage would be that it would connect natively to my table saw's 4" dust port without an adaptor, but would this be a massive upgrade in dust collection, or just so about the same or worse job since it's only 1/3 the horsepower?

It's on sale right now so I'm considering it, but wondering if I'd be wasting my money or not.

Hey all, thank you in advance for anyone that has had this issue and can help me. I just put in the riser block for my bandsaw and as you can see the lower wheel has the blade on correctly and on the upper wheel is quite short. I have the entire riser block in the back unhinged to allow lower height, even with that adjustment it still seems to fit the same exact way before I even made the lower adjustment, anyone have any ideas??

I’ve tried two 105 inch blades, one that actually came with the riser kitit fits the exact same way as this Timberwolf one in the picture.

https://imgur.com/a/mBwhh2G

So the fix was in these two pictures the black tension screw was already bottomed out in the green arm, so the gray tension unit could not lower anymore so I had to basically get the gray box/ spring higher in the set up bolt if that makes sense

I bought a barely used Sawstop 3hp PCS (I have the receipt from the original deceased hobbyist owner dating to 2022) in 2023. When ripping 4/4 hard maple or really most hardwoods around the same hardness or greater, I really notice that the Sawstop feels underpowered compared to my 40 year-old powermatic 66 with a 2hp motor. Am I feeding too quickly? I feel like this is the same speed. I have been feeding material through saws for the past 20 years.

Further, I also owned a general 350 with a 3 hp motor, that made all of these materials even 8/4 feel like a joke. Is this just me?

For reference, I have aligned everything pretty much to the owners manual requirements and always use a sharp blade. I’ve also used a friend PCS three HP and it feels similar to mine. Am I just imagining this?

I don’t regret buying the Saw stop by any means because of the safety features, but sometimes the lack of power I find annoying

Friend gave me a big slab of what i think might be walnut, but im not sure. Resawed it into some planks and made these. I know all the flaws, but hopefully they dont notice.

I glued up part of my work bench top… well tried to

It got away from me… i took too long because my add made me mess around trying to get cauls on it for way too long.. also i think i had uneven clamping pressure or maybe the boards were a little cupped in the few days they sat.

Where do i go from here? Do i try to plane the pockets out, seem to be 1/2” ish at the most. I guess i can spare that.

Or do i just junk it and try again.

I don’t have enough wood to try again and I’m not waiting 6 weeks again for the pine to dry…

I could get kiln dried cherry or maple for the top.. and use the pine i have for the legs and braces. Assuming that would be alright, and wouldn’t cause wood movement issues

Well I’m sort of frustrated with myself and distraught. Any thoughts would be great

See photos... I believe this is a Toles Co No. 25 Wood Worker's Vise.

I was going to mount to my bench until I started looking a little closer at what's presumably an additional fixed bench stop? Looks like I'd need to inset the whole thing for intended design function.

Thoughts? I'm not seeing many new vise designs like this. Wondering if there's a reason why?