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That old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention" was never truer that doing home renovation projects or working in the workshop. As a rule I don't mind doing home reno projects, but I like to work at them at my own speed. This is because the always take at least four times longer for me to complete that what I calculated they would take. Not long ago, after having an "Energy Audit" done on our house, it was deemed that several areas of the house needed to be redone, including some previously un-insulated concrete walls and all the windows in house, to name only a couple of the projects.

Both of these projects required major renovation work to be done in my woodworking shop which meant it would be out of commission ... and guaranteed, for longer than I would expect, since two of the walls needed complete rebuilding, insulating and re-surfacing. I was fine with doing the work, and have done this kind of work before, but I am slow at it because I am not a pro at doing it.

This combined with the fact that the walls would need to have all pieces custom cut, and that I had to work around all the existing power and shop tools as there was no other place they could be stored. Next I knew would be the dredded re-surfacing ...

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pkg0025Woodworking routers are one of the most popular tools because of their unique versatility. Although using a router free-hand is useful for rounding over corner edges or even cutting dados, the real value of a router is when it is in a router table. Someone told me many years ago that 90 percent of things you can do with a router - require a router table. That comment has stuck with me for many years and I still agree with it.

The new Freud Router Table is not much different than their original version of a few years ago, with the biggest change being in the capabilities of the fence. In the older "Ultimate Router Table" in order to remove the router from the router table it was necessary to completely remove the 2 large hold-down/fence-adjustment bolts. Even more annoying was the fact that if you were making raised panel doors for example, after you made the rails and styles and wanted to move on with the the actual raised panel portion of the door, again you had to completely remove the 2 hold-down/fence-adjustment bolts. Now this isn't huge deal, but if you made a lot of raised panel doors like I do, this was very annoying to have to re-set up the fence each time.

The new Deluxe Router Table solves this problem by having not 2 but 4 hold-down/fence-adjustment bolts, and they, along with the whole new fence design, are all on slides now. This means the whole fence can slide back and forth the full distance of it's adjustment without having to remove any of the hold-down/fence-adjustment bolts. This also means that if you want to take the router out of the table, again, you can simply slide the whole fence back far enough with all the hold-down/fence-adjustment bolts in place, and still remove the router and base plate.

 The other nice feature of the new router table is the micro fence adjustments on BOTH the left and the right have been re-instated .. and more, click Read More for more information on the Deluxe Freud Router Table

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Storing larger 10" and 12" table saw and mitre saw blades can be a bit of a hassel. I have a number of table saw blades and I change blades quite frequently depending on the job I am doing so finding blades is a common task.

Almost every power saw blade these days is tipped with Carbide. The reason for using carbide is that it is very hard and it resists heat very well, and that is why carbide retains it's sharp edge for a long time. The problem with Carbide is that because it is a crystaline type of structure, it can ... and does, fracture easily if bumped against another carbide tipped blade or bumped against steel. (for example, laying a carbide tipped blade down on top of your steel-topped table saw can often chip or even knock a carbide tooth off, and once this happens, blades should NOT be used as they are now dangerous, ALWAYS lay carbide tipped blades down on softer materials like wood, cardboard or some other softer material)

This is why it is important to have a good safe place to store you power tool, table saw and mitre saw blades, and either plastic or wood are idea. If you have a number of blades, a quick glance will tell you which one you need to grab and install on your power tool, so being able to see all your blades at the same time is beneficial.

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Most woodworkers love looking at the works of other woodworkers. I often think there is some sort of inspiration that happens when you have the opportunity to view someone else's work. When it's old, antique of classical furniture it's even better. Well, we had the opportunity recently to visit a historic site in Western Canada, not too far from the city of Cranbrook in British Columbia, called Fort Steele. The town was originally called Galbraith's Ferry as it was beside the Wild Horse River, and was settled around 1864 during the time of the Gold Rush that started in California and ended in Alaska in the late 1800's.

The name change happened in in 1888 when the general tone of the residents of area became tense and Superintendent Samuel (Sam) Steele of the North-West Mounted Police  was summoned, along with his troops, to come to the area and to try to resolve the unrest between the Ktunaxa and the white and Chinese settlers who were relatively new to the area.

Today Fort Steele is national historic site with buildings and furnishings either restored, or rebuilt as near as possible to their original state, and that's exactly what we came to see.  Original buildings from the 1880s and furniture from the period.

 

We located some fantastic finds as we toured the site, trying to keep out of the way of other tourists but still trying to capture all different furniture pieces as well as the building structures such as log buildings and antique furniture.

Click read more to see other photos of what we found ...

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Every tool manufacture gets back broken or defective tools. Sometimes they are deficient in manufacture, other times customer s actually break them ( often but claim otherwise), regardless of the reason, tools break and very often manufacturers take them back.

So, what do they do with these tools you ask?  Well, some are destroyed, others used as parts and others still are refurbished for re-sale. In the industry they are called “refurbs”, and they are often retailed at 30% - 50% less than new-in-box (NIB) tools. Depending on the manufacturer and the tool, there may or may not be a warranty with the tool and if there is it may or may not be the same as the NIB tool.

The real question for most woodworkers is “are these tools worth purchasing”?, and the quick answer is yes they are, but there are a few things to watch for.

Some refurbs come in brown packaging while others come in what looks like new original boxes. Either way, they are still refurbs and there are 5 important things to look for,  such as ...

1 – Most important – is the tool a brand name, well recognized tool brand or is it knock-off or lower quality made tool. If the tool is a brand name tool, like Makita, Milwaukee, DeWalt, Delta, Ridgid and so on, it is probably a good buy. Walk away from brand names that look and feel cheap and are names that you don't recognize, unless you are willing to risk your investment.

More Articles ...

  1. Tool Auctions
  2. Table Saw Push Sticks: What to Keep What Pitch
  3. Wood Movement and Moisture Content
  4. Making Raised Panels
  5. Bandsaw Setup and Tuning