Novice Door Making - Guest Column by Glen Bayley

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Background: The first attached image (1-Door-inspiration.jpg) is the inspiration for the design of some of my doors.  To be clear – I didn’t make this.  This is kind of what I’m shooting for.  I have a few variations I’m building.  The basic construction of the door involves a solid 1” core with ¼” thick panels glued to the core spaced ½” apart from each other.  Interesting details and tips in here, but are not relevant to this tip.  I constructed the core of my first door, milled 9” wide, ¼” thick African Mahogany panels perfectly and started gluing the first one ...   

Reclaimed Wood & Free Wood - Money Saving Tips for Woodworking Part 2

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I am always looking for wood. I am not always intentionally looking, but it's always in the back of my mind. I look for all sorts of wood, new wood, used wood, demolition wood, cut trees ... it's all potential sources of wood. This article will reveal many of my sources and ways of acquiring lumber that may help others get good wood for good prices and in some cases even spare sending wood to the landfill.

There are lots of different places that are great sources of finding new and used wood, but be aware that you are likely not going to be purchasing premium wood, so there will be some work in it for you. There may be excessive trimming or gluing, or the wood may only be suitable for smaller projects. That is what you often get with discounted or free lumber. It just means you need to but a bit more effort into using it, but the savings could be well worth the investment ... 

Fact or Fiction: Zero Clearance Table Saw Inserts Make Better Cuts

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For many, many years there has been a long-held belief that Zero Clearance Table Saw Throat Plates give better quality cuts on the underside of the material being cut than non-zero clearance throat plates, and I too, have been a perpetrator of this theory. Many Years ago, before carbide tipped tables became popular and we were still using steel blades, I tested this theory and  ... yes, zero clearance inserts did improve the cut. 
For some reason, lately, I wondered that with the much better quality of saw blades if this theory is still true or not so I decided to try out a few of the blades I have and see if do cut better with zero clearance or not.

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/h7PpHpZyhKA

I started off by trying some of my crosscut blades on some very dry, fine grain fir. I Set up my table saw first with a Freud 90 tooth cross cut blade and with the zero clearance insert I had made and made my first cut .. they replace the zero clearance insert with the factory non-zero clearance insert and made the second cut ... 

Clamping Hacks Part 3 - Woodworking Tips and Tricks

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Clamps and woodworking are integral to one another. If you do woodworking, you need to use clamps ... sometimes lots of them. Unfortunately, clamps are often awkward to use, especially when you have coated your wood with wood glue and it starts drying the moment it is spread on your wood and if you don't attach the 2 pieces of wood in a timely manner, the glue will stick poorly, or not at all. And of course, that is the time for you wood clamps to start acting up ... and if you are like me,  always seem to have to be unscrewing the handles and getting them in the correct positions. Gluing could be the most stressful time of woodworking ... at least it is for me and that's why I try to do everything I can to make my clamps more user-friendly because for some reason I never seem to remember to take the time to prepare them for their clamping ahead of time.

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/IBcU_ngqOL

Check out some these ideas to help make clamping a bit less stressful ...

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