Shortly after he and his wife, Mary, got their own place, Wesley got his first table saw. He now has six. Plus “five or six jointers, three band saws … I’m pretty much a power tool guy,” he said.

The band saws are set up for different applications, but not necessarily the table saws. And as for the jointers, Wesley says he pretty much only uses two of them: one for flattening, and one for edges.

At some point, even though he hasn’t done it yet, Wesley said he’s thought about gathering everything that has migrated from his wife’s kitchen out to his shop to take a picture of it. That includes items like a one-third cup measuring cup, as well as cornstarch – “you throw it on the bed of a tool if you don’t want to let it slide; it’s just like mini ball bearings,” Wesley said.

Much of the wood he’s working with in his shop is oak, walnut or cherry; sometimes poplar. “Pine isn’t my favorite. It doesn’t stain nice; it’s pitchy; it’s prone to cupping.”

Some of the woods he’s worked with came from an acreage his family owned in Georgia, where Wesley worked as the president of a packaging company before retiring.  Cedar from that acreage made its way into cedar hope chests for his granddaughters. Of the 11 grandchildren, the eight grandsons get a tool chest when they graduate from high school, while the granddaughters get hope chests.

Other than the items for his own household, “Everything I make, I give away,” Wesley said. “Nobody’s ever complained.”

Over the years, the things he’s made have included a lot of toys, jewelry chests, urns and more.

He’s also made things upon request: once, his daughter was out ATVing in the hills of South Dakota and found some wooden heels that came from old style Adirondack chairs.  She wanted to make something out them, and Wesley suggested an oxcart – which the daughter is now using in her living room as a place to store lap quilts.

Most recently, he’s been making a lot of items for the chuch he attends, Our Savior’s Lutheran in Spearfish, South Dakota. Among those items are wooden boxes given to families at the time of their baby’s baptism. Those boxes are presented without a finish, because a new baby isn’t finished yet.

Wesley has also recently built a sandbox cross for the church: the sand is held in six different boxes that rest on a base. The boxes can be removed from the base and the legs folded up for storage, while the cross hangs on brackets that allow it to be mounted to a wall.

Woodworking, says Wesley, has “always been a hobby.”

The post Wesley Swartout: Woodworking’s Always Been a Hobby appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

– Jerry Reed
Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania

The post Adding a Staging Shelf to Your Miter Saw Station appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Calavera Tool Works’ new 5# Gear Bags are designed to take your supply storage to new heights of organization. These 2-1/4-qt. bags are made of reinforced, rip-resistant material. An internal drawstring on top cinches them closed. There’s a metal belt clip on one side, plus a nylon loop and spring-loaded carabiner for attaching the bag to a water pipe, pegboard hook, bucket handle or the like.

While the 5# Gear Bags are mostly black, they come accented in your choice of five different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, olive or blue. Their aluminum carabiners are anodized in orange. Made in the USA, these Gear Bags, which sell for $19.99 each, are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty on materials and workmanship.

Calavera offers a 4-bag Starter Set, in red, blue, green and yellow accent colors. Included with the four 5# Gear Bags is an aluminum mounting system consisting of a 19-in.-long base bracket, screws, multipurpose bar and two gear hitches. Combining these components enables the bags to be carabiner-clipped wherever you install the mount — to the edge of a workbench, countertop or between two wall studs. The mounting system is also designed to be compatible with Festool’s MFT worktables.

Calavera’s 4-bag Starter Set (item CAB509) sells for $145.

For a limited time, Calavera also has a larger six-bag set (item CAB501-INTRO; $189.99), which includes a second base bracket so you can move the multipurpose bar between two different mounting locations.

The post Calavera Tool Works 5# Gear Bags appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Rob Johnstone: Wow, how frustrating is that? This is not a problem I have heard of before and, unfortunately, the version of Delta that made your tools is a couple of ownerships past. It would not hurt to get in touch with Delta, but I would not hold out much hope. Looking at the pictures, I wonder if you have tried taking the upper unit off of the base to see if you’ll find something that is hidden from other views — but if that is not successful, I’ve got nothing else for you.

Tim Inman: Something is plugged up in Denmark, as they say. I’ll bet if you do some deep cleaning, you’ll find a mouse house or just plain-old clogged wood chips up in there someplace. Otherwise, its going to be a broom for this one.

Chris Marshall: Bud, I don’t think an obstruction inside the jointer is the main issue here, but plugged-up chips could be a secondary problem. Instead, I think dust-collection is your real culprit. Jointers create a lot of chips, especially when jointing board faces. The shop vacuum isn’t drawing enough air volume through the jointer’s dust collection compartment to pull the debris in the other direction and down the dust chute. That’s because shop vacuums draw a small volume of air at high pressure through a small-diameter hose. There’s not enough moving air to capture the debris, so the cutterhead is just throwing the excess chips and shavings onto the infeed table while your shop vac is struggling to keep up.

If you connect your jointer to a portable dust collector instead, which draws at least 350 CFM or more, I’ll bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised. A dust collector moves a high volume of air through a large-diameter (4-in.) hose, and that combination means it won’t be overwhelmed by the amount of chips your jointer is making. So, to fix this problem, it’s time to open your wallet. If the tool budget is tight, watch Craigslist or eBay, and I’ll bet you can find a used dust collector for $150 or $200 (I can find a half dozen in my area at this price on Craiglist as I write this reply). Then you can use it as a chip and dust collector for other debris-heavy tools too, like a benchtop planer or your table saw. I think you’ll be happy you did.

The post How Can I Remedy My Jointer’s Poor Debris Clearance? appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

– Wille Sandry
Camas, Washington

The post Making Draining an Air Compressor Cleaner appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

-Deanna Krysiak
Bloomington, MN

See the Gallery Below:

The post Barn Wood Creations appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

“It’s obvious that nobody listens to your advice, including you! Keep trying. ” – John H. Bonnett

“Wooden you know that they would prefer trees to other stuff! Woodworking is in their DNA.” – Ed Amsbury

This reader agrees that it’s a bad idea – and is glad he escaped the same fate. – Editor

“When we redid our kitchen a few years back, I had the brilliant idea that I wanted to build my own countertops. That was vetoed by my wife in favor of granite (truly bulletproof), and I was relegated to making the kitchen bar top – which came out very well, I might add.  However, after a dozen years, I’m glad I don’t have to refinish the whole kitchen now.” – Frank McEnulty

And some suggested various options for repurposing the wood. – Editor

“Just think of all the nice wood you will have when you decide to replace them.” -Bill G.

“You know, those wood countertops would make nice benchtops when you replace them. And if you have any left over, you could always send me a piece.” – John E Adams

“Just think of all of the wooden molding planes that could have been made out of the European beech countertops.” – Jeffrey Murray

“What kind of cloud were you born under? It sounds like you can’t win for losing. I use butcher block items, but only for a cutting board.  It looks like you have found the first of the projects for the new house: new countertops. Look on the bright side: you may be able to repurpose the butcher block tops by converting them into ‘butcher blocks’ and give them to the kids as gifts. There you go, another Christmas project taken care of.” – Bob Hoyle

The post Wooden You Know: Thoughts on Wooden Countertops appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.