Studio711.com – Ben Martens

I don’t have room (or money) for full size woodworking equipment in my garage, so instead I buy the smaller versions. But there are lots of different things out there to spend your money on. Which tools do you really need?

Rockler has a nice article talking about the 8 basic tools you should consider for a small shop. I’m only missing the band saw and the thickness planer. Both are on my list but I’m still trying to figure out which one I’ll look at next.

Before I buy any more tools, I’m dreaming about redoing the shelves and the workbench so that I can use the full wall for a project bench. That would let me line up all my tools at the correct heights so that it’s easier to work with long pieces. That’s still very early in the design phase though.

I mentioned Tuesday that the videos on various YouTube channels are great educational experiences even if you don’t build the projects. Here are some of the things I’ve learned in the past couple months. Feel free to laugh at me if these are basic things you’ve known for a long time!

• Sandpaper gets clogged up well before the grit is actually gone. This is especially true for power sanders. Instead of throwing the sandpaper away before it’s used up, get a sandpaper eraser. It looks like magic the first time you use it! I recorded a quick video showing it in action.
• Bending wood or even something stiff like a very thick extension cord is a good way to draw curves. But holding the curve in place while you’re drawing the curve requires a third hand and you can’t always clamp it in place while you draw. It turns out there is a great tool just for this and it’s called a drawing bow.
• I don’t have a good photo of this, but I found myself needing to make a lot of repeat cuts at the same length using the chop saw. I had a 1×1 piece of oak that I cut around 4 feet long and then drilled two holes so it attached to my chop saw with some bolts. That sticks out the end and I can put a clamp on that at whatever distance I need, place my that I’m cutting up against that, and then get a repeatable cut every time. Until I have a table like this, the extension is a good solution that can be easily stored away.
• My last couple projects like the desk left my garage covered in sawdust. It was everywhere! Since then, I’ve been trying to collect more of it with the shop vac. The router table and belt/disc sander both have 2.5” ports that hook up easily to the shop vac. Others like the chop saw had an odder sized hole but this universal adapter worked great. One of my next projects is going to be building a box underneath the table saw with a hole for a shop vac hose at the bottom. That should help collect most of the dust from the saw. It will never be as good as a real dust collection system, but it’s much better than nothing. I might invest in a cyclone at some point too which helps pull most of the dust out before it reaches your shop vac. It’s a lot easier to empty a 5 gallon bucket than the shop vac and it keeps the filter clean.

Usually things like this aren’t the main point of the video or might not even be mentioned, but I regular spot solutions to problems that I have. You can learn a lot just by watching someone who knows what they are doing. You’ll either learn a new tip or find some new gadget to buy!

Yesterday’s post covered a couple good magazines, but YouTube has lots of excellent free content. Here are the series I follow every week:

• I Like To Make Stuff – This series generally has very quick projects and sometimes incorporates electronics.
• Jay Bates – He works out of his garage and builds a lot of things for his home. He puts a lot of effort into video editing and has a lot of it synced up to the beat of the music. Jay also posts videos of his design work using the free SketchUp tool. I’ve tried with limited success to use it to plan projects in the past, but by watching him work, I think I’ll get a lot more use out of Sketchup.
• The Wood Whisperer – Marc is the godfather of woodworking podcasts. He was the first and his podcast has a lot of polish. He has a very high end shop, but some of the projects he does are still within the more casual woodworker.
• Frank Howarth – I only recently started watching this. Frank has a nice shop and does lots of lathe work. I don’t have a lathe but I like his style and I still learn some things watching his projects. His montage scenes often have fun little timelapses where the wood pieces seem to move themselves around.
• Woodworking for Mere Mortals – This is the other new one in my list. He has a sense of humor to his videos, and, as the title suggests, he makes projects that most of us can relate to.

A lot of these videos have plans posted either for free or for purchase. It’s incredibly helpful to have a video to go along with the plans if you decide to build one of them. And even though I have yet to build anything that I’ve seen on these videos, I’ve learned a ton just by watching them work. It’s an excellent free education by osmosis. It’s hard to watch and not get inspired to go out and start building something.

The monsoon season is upon us which means it’s time to retreat inside from the yardwork and RC planes. I’ve been busy making sawdust lately so I thought I’d devote a whole week to woodworking posts (except Wednesday which is the fantasy football update.)

For this first post, I thought I’d mention a couple woodworking magazines that I read and ask if you have any others that you recommend:

Family Handyman – This isn’t exclusively about woodworking, but it usually contains a set of plans for something that isn’t terribly complicated. In addition to the plans, there is almost always at least one small tip or trick that I learn. With Christmas approaching, this is a great gift for the handyman in your family.

Woodsmith – I just started getting this one for my birthday, but it already has me contemplating some projects. There are multiple plans in each issue and the magazines come three-hole punched for easy binder storage. You’ll want to come back to them later. Their website also offers digital access to their back catalog for $99. Depending on how much I enjoy this magazine, that might end up on my wish list at some point.

There’s a new tool in my workshop and it has already been extremely useful. It’s a bench-sized combination belt and disc sander. There are a LOT of companies that sell the exact same product (with their own color scheme and logo), but I got a Ryobi. One of my favorite features is that it has a built-in dust collection port which is perfectly sized to accept a shop vac hose. Collecting dust from a sanding tool is pretty tricky, but even if it gets some of the dust it will be helpful.

It’s definitely in the entry-level category, but for my shop size and my projects, I think it’s going to do just fine. I do a lot with my 5” random orbit sander, but there are lots of times when I need to hold the work piece stationary and let the sandpaper move over it instead of vice versa.

For this latest helping tower project, I needed to cut off a bunch of pieces that were all exactly the same length to use as rungs for the tower. I tried to get something set up with the chop saw, but it just wasn’t the right tool. That’s when I learned about crosscut sleds. It fits into the rails on my table saw, holds the wood perfectly square to the blade, and allows for very repeatable cuts. Marc Spagnola of The Wood Whisperer fame has a good post/video on his site showing how to make a crosscut sled and what you can do with it. I followed his design and was very pleased. Mine still needs a little tweaking but it’s more than good enough to get the job done.

If you’re unconvinced that you need one in your shop, go to his post and play the video starting at the 15:38 mark. He walks through 5 different uses for it.

The ordering period is now complete. Thank you to everyone who placed an order!

• Platform adjusts securely and easily within seconds to heights of 7”, 11”, 15” and 19”
• The overall tower is 18″ square and 40″ tall (to the top of the arches.)
• Edges are rounded and everything is sanded smooth to help keep kids safe as they climb in the tower
• Built from beautiful unfinished pine boards ready for you to paint and/or polyurethane
• Sturdy base helps to prevent tip-overs
• This is a onetime offer! Orders must be placed by 10/31/2014. Payment is required up front.
• Orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis.
• Two models are available. For the model with hinges, you can pull the platform out and fold the tower flat for storage. The model without hinges still has the adjustable platform but it cannot be folded flat.
  • Permanent, non-hinged version – $80
  • Fold flat, hinged version – $120
• To order or ask questions, please send an email to [email protected] or contact Tyla.
• You will be contacted when your tower is available for pick up at our home in Woodinville. No shipping.

If you want to view the plans to see specific dimensions or even build one yourself, they are available for free online here: Ana White’s Little Helper Tower. 

Note: Adorable child not included. You must provide your own.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I pay extra, will you stain/paint it for me if I pay you? Sorry, no. Finishing all these would take more time than I’m willing to commit to. You can use them unfinished. It just means that spills might leave a stain.

Can you make a modification to the design if I pay you? Again, sorry, but no. I’m all set up to crank these out according to the existing plans and making changes will add quite a bit of time.

After seeing this helping tower on Amazon, I thought it would be perfect for Elijah. He loves to see what we’re doing up on the counter or what I’m working on at the workbench in the garage. But $200!? That seemed a bit crazy and I figured I could build it myself. I was going to start designing some plans, but then a quick search landed me at Ana White’s awesome website. She has very nice plans for a tower that’s very similar to the one at Amazon. A quick trip to Home Depot for some wood and I was off and running.

The build went pretty quickly. The only part that was a little tricky was that I decided to add hinges so it would fold flat for easy moving/storage. I had to do a couple assembly/disassembly cycles to get the pieces all cut right so it would open up square and not bind. After that it was time for sanding and a few coats of polyurethane.

This was my first build using a new brad nailer and it was a huge help. I told Tyla it almost feels like cheating! That feeling was diminished by my lack of skill as I continually shot nails out the sides of my pieces, but I’ll get better with practice.

Elijah LOVES his tower. He immediately figured out how to climb up and the highest setting for the platform is perfect for him. As he grows, the platform is easy to remove and insert at a lower rung.

Remember that $200 tower on Amazon? My bill was $21 for wood, $18 for hinges and then a little sandpaper and polyurethane that I already had laying around. $39. BAZINGA!

P.S. I don’t know if you can see it in the photos, but Elijah had just come in from playing in the dirt and I missed a spot right on the bridge of his nose. Ha!

A while back I wrote a post wondering why there were no good sites with woodworking plans that were nicely categorized and reviewed. Most of my requirements in that post have been met at http://ana-white.com

There are over 1000 plans on the site and they are all free. Each one that I’ve looked at has had very detailed diagrams, cut lists, etc and none of them have been too terribly complicated. You’re not going to find heirloom quality pieces here for the most part, but there is are a lot of great ideas for around the house.

I’ve burned a lot of time flipping through the projects and getting ideas. Stay tuned for a post about one project I’ve already built using plans from this site!