Make Your Own Boat - Skin On Frame Boats

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We don't do nearly enough on boating and boat building. I have been lucky to have met a few keen boat builders and craftsman over the years who have an amazing ability and a patience for woodworking I can only admire.

If you have never built boats or worked on boats or renovated boats, I can tell you one thing that you probably don't know, and that is ... when you work on boats, no 2 pieces are alike. That is almost a guarantee. Every part of the boat is slightly different, that's just the way it is.

I seem to have re-awakened my boating desires lately and am investigating some of my options. I am looking for something that is light weight and that I can use in local rivers, lakes, and of course in the ocean. It should hold 2 people, but for those time I want to take the boar out alone, it needs to have that capability too and not be to much for me to handle, oh and did I mention it needs to be pretty rugged to withstand some of the places I want to go? All these are reasons why I wanted to see more about  dreamcatcherboats.com

One of the boats I was interested in was from someone I met at one of the wood shows in past months, who introduced me to the skin-on-frame type of boat construction, something I knew nothing about, so I thought why not take the camera, go and visit Brian and even make a video about it while I am there?

How to Select Table Saw Blades: Beginners #2

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THE most important part of a table saw is the blade. You can get great saw cuts on a mediocre table saw that has an excellent blade, on the other hand, a really good table saw with a crappy blade will give you just that ... crappy cuts. If you are going to spend some good money on something in the workshop table saw blades is the place to do it. There is a place for poor blades, they can be used if you are cutting up wood for the wood stove, or maybe even making a fence, or hacking up shipping pallets, but if you are a woodworker, and you want good cuts you need to have good blades.

In this video we show 4 of the most popular saw blades for woodworkers and describe their uses and what makes them unique. With the information presented in this video you will be able to make wise choices in selecting table saw blades that will do the job you need.

You can't always rely on price to purchase good quality blades, but in most cases you can. There are some anxious retailers who either don't know how to price table saw blades, or they are perhaps a bit aggressive in their profit margins when pricing their wares. It is up to you, the woodworker to know what you need, and how to select better quality blades.

Presentation Box for St Patrick's Day

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I was asked to make a "quick and easy" presentation box. I'm not exactly sure what that means, so I simple set about, with the objects that I had, and made something suitable. I was give a bottle of spirits and a couple of Irish Coffee wine type glasses. Rather than simply make a box that these would be hidden in, I wanted to make something that would make them stand out, after all, it is a presentation of some sort so the box or case would should have some kind of a wow factor. After measuring the glasses, I knew the approximate size and I had an idea in my head that I wanted to try out. I wanted to make a small mini 2-door display box and lucky for me I had just received a box of veneers from Oak Wood Veneers.

This is the first time I have seen their veneers and the quality is simply outstanding. More on this later ... for now I needed to make a carcass or box that fit the spirit and glasses, and that when transported would not crash around and break.

Because this is a smaller box, I opted to us 1/2" maple material that I had on hand. The box would be approximately 14 inches square and 4 inches deep, and because there is a fair bit of weight I decided to use box joint corners to make sure the structure was good and solid.

How to Use a Table Saw: Woodworking For Beginners #1

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In this video we begin our series on videos for beginners, with basic instructions on how to use a table saw safely. With the help of a little bit of trick photography for the title page, we go on to show proper table saw setup and usage.
To start of with, you need to make sure the saw is set up properly. ALWAYS, unplug the saw to disable power to the motor before doing any of the fine tuning and adjustments that might need to be done. Table saws can come out of alignment with all the use and vibration, so they need to be checked from time to time, and if you have never done this, now is a good time to start. First, check to make sure the blades is running parallel to the mitre slot, next the fence also needs to be exactly parallel to the mitre slot.

If you have a Riving Knife or Splitter with blade guard, you need to make sure that these are in perfect alignment with the saw blade. If they are not, you may need to purchase or manufacture shims to adjust the positioning. I use brass sheets from the metal store, they are not expensive and last for ever, but any thin metal will work, you may need a few of different thicknesses to accommodate different blades.