thanks Robert Rozaieski

[Robert Trotter]

Bob,

Open to suggestions for videos?

How about a sawing one for sawing wider boards...Cutting to dimension accurately across a wider board with a back saw. And defining dados for people without dado planes. ??

[Bob Jones]

I second the dado cutting request. I have seen lots of pictures of how tos but video would be really great.

[Robert Rozaieski]

Bob,

Open to suggestions for videos?

How about a sawing one for sawing wider boards...Cutting to dimension accurately across a wider board with a back saw. And defining dados for people without dado planes. ??

I assume you mean resawing? It's on the list. The problem right now is that I really don't own a good saw for resawing anything over about 5-6" wide. I do have a project in the works though that will be good resawing practice and can be built with mothing more than offcuts fromt he scrap bin. Sometime next year that one will be done.

Dados are coming...soon. As soon as I get the panels for the entertainment center sized, I'll need to be making me some dados. I use dado planes, but I'll cover other methods too. Few weeks for that one.

[Robert Trotter]

Bob, I was thinking more of dados so it seems you will be covering this in the future. Looking forward to it.

Rob

[Jamie Bacon]

Thanks again everyone! I was really honored and quite surprised when Chris asked me to write a few articles for the column. Even though he's been away for awhile, to me, it's Adam's column and always will be. While I have been working with Chris trying to come up with some things that I think might interest readers, I'll never be able to contribute in the way that Adam has. His writing, his knowledge and his ideas are in a whole other league. I'm just honored to have been asked to fill in from time to time while Adam is away.

So Bob, with you filling in for Adam a little, have you been fitted for your puffy shirt and stockings yet?

Jamie Bacon

[Bill Rusnak]

Thanks guys! For me they're just fun to do. I enjoy teaching and woodworking, so it makes sense for me to put the two together. I'm glad that people find them useful and/or entertaining. And as always, if there's something specific you'd like to see, just let me know and I'll do my best to get it on the site .

Bob, I really enjoy your site and check it daily for updates.

There are two topics I'd like you to cover. First, could you give us a demo/discussion on your pole lathe and perhaps cover the differences and pros/cons between a treadle and a pole lathe?

Second, could you give us an update on your Nicholson bench? I'm interested to know if you miss anything about having a more traditional top without the large front aprons, especially since you can't clamp down to the top except with a holdfast. I really like the Roubo style bench, but would also love to replicate something like they use in the Williamsburg cabinet shop.

Thanks and keep up the great work.

Bill

PS: I would also get a kick out of seeing you gussied up like Adam.

[Robert Rozaieski]

Jamie,
Sorry to disappoint, but no puffy shirt .

Bill,
I will be doing something on the lathe at some point. I'm not that good at turning, so I'm not sure exactly how soon that will be (I know I've been saying that for awhile). I can't really make much of a comparison to a flywheel style lathe as I've not used one of those yet, but I am considering replacing the pole lathe with one...maybe.

The thing with this style of pole lathe is that they are very light weight. This is great for portability, but not so good for keeping the lathe in one place when you are using it. Maybe it's my technique, but my lathe likes to walk all over the shop when I use it. I don't like chasing it, and because my floor is a concrete slab, I really can't secure it to the floor, nor would I want to since I need to move it against the wall for storage and pull it out to use it. I don't need the portability at this point, so that feature means little to me. I would really like something that I don't need to rearrange my shop to use and that stays in one place while I'm using it. So the heavier, self contained flywheel lathe may be a better option for me.

The other issue I seem to have with the pole lathe is that it really doesn't like dry wood. Obviously, it's a very slow speed lathe, getting only about 2-3 revolutions of the stock per pump of the treadle. This gives it a lot of torque and power, which is good for turning bowls from big heavy green blanks, but for dry wood spindle turning, it doesn't perform so well. The pole lathe really does best with green wood, which I don't have a lot of access to or use that frequently. While I've not yet used one, the flywheel treadle lathe's higher speed seems more suited to dry wood, so I think it might suit my work better. The joiner's shop in Williamsburg uses such a flywheel lathe very successfully with dry wood.

So that's one of the reasons I haven't yet done any kind of podcast on the pole lathe, even though there have been a lot of requests for one. I like the pole lathe, but I'm not convinced that it's the best option for the majority of galoots, as most of us don't have a lot of access to green wood. For folks who do work mostly with green wood, I'd say it's a better option than the flywheel lathe as it has more power and torque. But for those of us that use dry wood more often, the flywheel lathe might be a better choice, though I can't say that for certain at this point, having not yet used one.

As for the Nicholson bench, I love it. I don't know who said you can't clamp to the front of the apron, but they're wrong. I do it all the time. With an 18" bar clamp, I clamp things to the front of the bench just fine. Watch my last episode on making the marking gauge to see what I mean. When I filed the marking gauge pin, I clamped it to the top of the bench with a bar clamp over the front apron with the 18" bar clamp. No problems. In addition, I'm currently planing a bunch of wide (22") panels on the bench, and in order to keep them from sliding off the back of the bench, I clamped a 1 x 2 piece of maple along the back edge with two bar clamps, even though there is a wide apron at the back as well. Again, no problem. So don't let that stop you from building the bench. You can clamp stuff down just fine, with or without the holdfasts.

The only thing I would change about my bench would be the top thickness. I think I'd make it 2" thick instead of using 1½" construction grade lumber. I have popped off a couple of the blocks that beef up the holdfast holes from normal use of the holdfasts. I suppose I could just make the blocks longer and wider and attach them with screws as well (I did this to repair a couple of them), but using a 2" thick top would eliminate the need to do so. The holdfasts don't hold in the standard 1½" thick stock, so you either need a thicker top slab, or backing blocks. I used the backing blocks, but I don't think I'd do that next time. The cool thing is that I can easily replace the entire top by just unscrewing the two boards. Maybe some day, but for now it's serving my needs just fine. I'll just reglue and screw the holdfast block back underneath the holes when they pop off.

[David Weaver]

Well, bob, you've got kids, right? Say a junk tandem bike drive from the adjacent room, put the kids on it? Should be good for about 200 watts of continous power once they have some size.

A lathe and bandsaw are the two tools I'll never dump, even if I eventually dump all of my other power tools they just lend themselves far too well to power vs. human power.

[john davey]

I found Bobs site last week as well. Great resource and I have watched almost all of the podcasts now. Thanks.....