There's No Replacement for "Hands-On"!

[Pat Germain]

I've been doing woodworking off and on for many years. In the past year, I've been able to purchase the tools I have wanted for a long time: Nice TS Fence, 8" Jointer, Planer and Dust Collector.

I've made a few, simple projects with the new tools; all from pine, plywood and little red oak here and there.

Today I finally took the plunge and bought some nice eight-quarter walnut and hard maple. My objective is to make some cutting boards for Christmas gifts.

Well, gee. Aren't I in a new world! As I expect everyone else here is aware, working with walnut and hard maple is nothing like pine and plywood. I'm having to learn to use my tools all over again.

Working with actual hardwoods is a joy, but boy does it take some getting used to. I can increment my planer and jointer just a wee bit at a time or all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately, I trashed a small section of my hard maple when my planer got stuck. I made the boneheaded move of trying to back off the cutter heads and went the wrong way. DOH!

Oh well. Live and learn, indeed. As I see it, this is part of woodworking. No matter how many books one reads, videos one watches, or threads in which one participates, there nothing like hauling home some hardwood and squaring it up yourself.

Even with my mistakes, I'm learning a lot and having a blast. That sounds like woodworking to me.

[Don Bullock]

Pat, it seems that everything I do in the shop is a new experience for me. I'm glad to see someone else point out the learning curve, but is still having a blast with what they are doing. Enjoy.

[Greg Cuetara]

Pat,
Sounds like you are having fun. I am still fairly young....just had my first boy a few weeks ago so I don't have the luxury to have great tools yet. That will come someday so i am jealous of you right now. I am also trying to make some cutting boards for christmas gifts this year. I was finally able to get down into my shop for the first time in the past month....hopefully I will be able to make some progress this weekend. Good luck. Are you making end grain boards or do you have a design picked out yet?

I had a friend make an end grain board and he said it was a pain to get flat because he didn't have a drum sander....not sure what I am going to do...hopefully my planer will be nice to be with nice small increments.

Greg

[Pat Germain]

I'd like to make cutting boards like the examples in the project article area here on SMC. They are a face grain design, which I understand is less than optimal. They look so cool, I don't mind being less than optimal.

Today was also the first day it really paid off to have an 8" jointer. I was going to buy a 6", but the SMC folks encouraged me to at least 8". It sure was worth it! My maple and walnut stock were both 8" wide. Thanks for the info, everyone!

[Pat Germain]

Other lessons learned:

- Apply a fresh coat of wax to your tool surfaces before working with hardwoods. Apparently, since pine has a waxey surface, it slides more easily. Although pine slid along my jointer, planer and table saw just fine, the walnut and maple tended to stick. A nice new coat of Johnson's paste wax resolved this problem

- Just assume you're going to have to lose a lot of material for squaring. I searched high and low for the cleanest hardwood examples. Yet, it's wood. So, it's going to have some imperfections, a little twisting and perhaps some cupping. My maple was wider at one end than the other; something I didn't expect, but makes sense

- Although the folks on TV shows seem to take one pass on the jointer, planer and table saw to make stock square, I don't think that's typical. It seems best to take multiple passes removing just little bit of material each time. I expect experience will make this process easier. Until then, I'm going to have to take my time

I know I seem like quite the biscuit here. Please consider I grew up around cars and not woodwoorking. I took woodshop in school only one semester in the 7th grade where we weren't allowed to touch anything. My dad had no woodworking skills to share with me. Also, I don't know any other serious woodworkers. I've talked to people I work with who consider the cheapest tools at Harbor Freight to be just fine and a Shopsmith to be the ultimate, dream procurement. I guess they just make dollhouses.

Thus, I'm pretty much on my own here. I've checked on classes at my local Woodcraft, but they all seem to focus on cabinet making. Perhaps I should take those anyway.

[frank shic]

pat, get a permanent sharpie marker or a white china marker and draw a small arrow on the wheel and label it up. i get confused fairly frequently as well!

[David Tiell]

Other lessons learned:

- Apply a fresh coat of wax to your tool surfaces before working with hardwoods. Apparently, since pine has a waxey surface, it slides more easily. Although pine slid along my jointer, planer and table saw just fine, the walnut and maple tended to stick. A nice new coat of Johnson's paste wax resolved this problem

Keep in mind that pine can also leave pitch/sap on your tool surfaces which can also make it more difficult to work the hardwoods. It's a good idea to clean your tables and blades/bits when you have been using a lot of pine, then wax it again to make things go nice and smooth again.

- Just assume you're going to have to lose a lot of material for squaring. I searched high and low for the cleanest hardwood examples. Yet, it's wood. So, it's going to have some imperfections, a little twisting and perhaps some cupping. My maple was wider at one end than the other; something I didn't expect, but makes sense

Yep, you're always going to lose material to the squaring process. I'm probably telling you something you already know, but you can reduce the amount of waste lost by cutting your stock to rough length before sufracing on the jointer. It's much easier, also, than running a long board over it, then cutting it to length,

- Although the folks on TV shows seem to take one pass on the jointer, planer and table saw to make stock square, I don't think that's typical. It seems best to take multiple passes removing just little bit of material each time. I expect experience will make this process easier. Until then, I'm going to have to take my time

I think the guys on tv just buy the best and straightest material available, have already done some of the machining in advance, or more likely only show the one pass to save air time. But you're right, I find that making several passes removing smaller amounts works best.

I know I seem like quite the biscuit here. Please consider I grew up around cars and not woodwoorking. I took woodshop in school only one semester in the 7th grade where we weren't allowed to touch anything. My dad had no woodworking skills to share with me. Also, I don't know any other serious woodworkers. I've talked to people I work with who consider the cheapest tools at Harbor Freight to be just fine and a Shopsmith to be the ultimate, dream procurement. I guess they just make dollhouses.

Thus, I'm pretty much on my own here. I've checked on classes at my local Woodcraft, but they all seem to focus on cabinet making. Perhaps I should take those anyway.

Sounds like you're doing just fine. As long as you're enjoying it and keeping all your fingers, you're doing it right!

[Greg Cuetara]

Pat,
It is always best to nibble away and slowly make your way up to the required dimension, David is right that if you are keeping your fingers and being safe you are doing just fine. Also food for thought...a 2x4 which is supposed to be originally cut as 2" x 4" rough stock is milled down to 1.5" x 3.5" so a quarter inch all around is removed just to make it square. If you are like me I take off 32's of an inch when I take a pass on the jointer or planer so to get to 8/32's takes at least 8 passes on each face .
I am pretty much self tought also and the best way to learn is you make mistakes and hopefully don't make them again...lol.
Greg

[Jerry Olexa]

[quote=Pat Germain;701640]Other lessons learned:

- Apply a fresh coat of wax to your tool surfaces before working with hardwoods. Apparently, since pine has a waxey surface, it slides more easily. Although pine slid along my jointer, planer and table saw just fine, the walnut and maple tended to stick. A nice new coat of Johnson's paste wax resolved this problem

- When I bought a new jointer few years back, A coat of wax made a HUGE difference on using the tool. Agree..

[JayStPeter]

Wax is good, but I always thought it applied double for pine. I hate putting pine through my tools. All that sap just gunks them up and gets them all sticky.

[Jim Becker]

Mistakes are how we learn. I actually try to do "something new" on every project that I can. Some new technique; a new hand tool; different kind of joinery than I've done before. Something new to me that presents a challenge.

So yes, hands-on is the way to go!

[Pat Germain]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.

I haven't had much trouble with pine being sticky. Although, I haven't worked a whole lot of it through my tools. In fact, my family has had an "eventful" year which hasn't given me much opportunity for woodworking.

I am taking my time and making every effort to be safe.

Today I was able to get all the walnut and maple planed to equal thickness. I'm now getting familiar with the subtleties of planing and can get a board through with absolutely no snipe. It was a matter of guiding the stock in just right, the setting an outfeed roller just right on the other end. I suppose I should try using another roller on the infeed side, but right now I have only one.

I'm getting the hang of the jointer as well. I had some trouble keeping the fence square to the beds. I had to loosen everything up, set it square, then tighten it down again. It was also a little stiff and needed some working-in. Now that thing is sah-weet! (It's the ShopFox 8" w/ paralellogram beds).

I also figured out today that I really need to build a crosscut sled. The miter gauge that came with my contractor saw is of Wam-O quality at best.

Question: I installed some anti-kickback rollers on my fence this morning. Apparently, I'm supposed to mount one wheel toward the front of the saw and the other toward the back. I really like the way the wheels hold the wood down and next to the fence. Yet, if the wheel toward the front is in place, I can't feed the stock through without bumping into the wheel. What am I doing wrong here?