Studio711.com – Ben Martens

We’ve lived in this house for 6.5 years. For that entire time, our piano books have sat on the floor in the box that they were packed in (or scattered messily around the box.)

I decided this would be a good wood working project to tackle so I flipped through a bunch of plans and settled on the tower bookshelves from Wood Magazine, partially because I previously purchased the digital back catalog of the magazine so the plans were “free.” The plans recommend oak or maple but I thought I’d go for cherry.

The project began with a trip to Crosscut Hardwoods to buy the most expensive piece of plywood that I’ve ever purchased (though it can get much more expensive than this!) I got a 3/4″ piece of cherry plywood that was nice on both sides, a 1/4″ piece that was nice on only one side, and a 1″ thick board.

I was pretty nervous about cutting into the plywood, but I was also excited to use my new table saw with a big sheet of plywood. My old saw was too wimpy and too unsafe to do big pieces. I cut about 25″ off one end and then ran the rest through the saw. The saw ran like a champ, and combined with the assembly/outfeed table, it never felt unsafe.

After cutting some strips of hardwood and using it as edge banding on the plywood, the main joinery is done using biscuits. I’ve done a little bit of work with the biscuit joiner before but never this much. It really is simple and makes quick work of some of these bigger glue ups.

Next up was the base and the top trim pieces. Those were a little tricky as the plans recommended biscuit joints on the mitered angles to hold the joints together. That worked but I think I’d probably choose a different method next time because it took forever to get my cheapo biscuit joiner dialed in for that fancy cut. In the photo below you see a scrap piece filling in the empty back so that the band clamp can squeeze evenly all the way around.

The final construction step was to build the drawer, install the drawer slides, and then cut/attach the drawer front.

For a finish, I chose to keep it simple and went with a wipe on polyurethane. It does give a bit of a plasticy finish but that build-up is also extra protection for the books that will be sliding in and out fairly regularly. After the coats of finish were done, I put on the 1/4″ back and reinstalled the drawer.

Once we figured out where to place it in the room, I took the time to attach the top to a stud with a strap. It’s very easy to tip over and with a three year old running around, it wouldn’t take long for it to topple over.

This project was a nice way to dabble in some nicer furniture. This was about the biggest thing I can comfortably handle in my shop so I won’t be tackling a dining table anytime soon, but I’m happy I did this one.

It’s pretty easy to see the different colors of cherry woods, but I’m hopeful that as time goes on, the cherry will all darken up to the same color. But even as it is now, I’m very happy with it and admit to walking into that room just to check out the bookshelves. It’s a nice step up from the cardboard box mess on the floor.

 

I’ve really enjoyed having dust collection in my workshop, even if it’s just a simple shop vac with a cyclone. I kept it under my workbench, but the mess of wires and hoses basically meant that it stayed there. It was a pain to dig it out to vacuum out the car or anything like that.

I finally made a version of Jay Bates’s shop vac cart. The cyclone hangs above the shop vac so it uses less floor space and gives me a space to collect all the various attachments. It’s also very easy to move around.

The project was pretty simple but I’m always amazed at my ability to mess up the easiest things. The end result is good enough though and I think it will be helpful. One negative that I didn’t forsee is that the hose connection is now ~5 feet off the ground and most of my dust collection parts are near the ground. That just means I need a little bit longer hose but maybe that will be offset by being able to move the cart closer to the machine I’m using.

My new Grizzly 1023RLW table saw is assembled and ready to use. It took significantly longer than expected largely because I’ve never done anything like that before and I had to do many of the steps three or four times to get them right. Luckily, I wasn’t in much of a hurry so I was able to take my time and get it right.

I took some extra time to raise the saw up 4 1/4″ to a more comfortable height for me. That’s 3/4″ higher than I had my old table saw set at. I’m a big guy and it’s nice to have things at a level that doesn’t hurt my back when I’m out there for a couple hours.

This thing cuts like a dream. It’s silky smooth on start up and powers through boards like they aren’t even there. I’m looking for excuses just to cut boards!

I wrote last week about why I decided to buy a Grizzly 1023 table saw. The next trick was getting it to my house. Having Grizzly ship it would cost about $240 by the time I was all done. They have two showrooms and one of them happens to be 1.5 hours away in Bellingham. (The other one is in Missouri.) I wanted to check out their building anyway, so I made a plan to go get it.

Unfortunately they are only open on weekdays during normal business hours, but I was able to drive up there on Friday afternoon. I went back and forth on whether I should load it right into the truck and rent some ramps and a dolly to move it down or if I should rent a trailer with a ramp on the back. Both rentals were in the same price range so I went with the trailer because it would be lower to the ground and hopefully easier to unload.

I made good time on the drive up there but as I approached Bellingham, the temperature dropped and the rain started to have some snow in it. I was NOT eager to drag a trailer home in the snow so I hustled through the showroom and filled out the paperwork to pick up the saw. I want to go back some time and take it all in!

After getting loaded up, I wrapped it with some stretch wrap and strapped it down tightly. Thankfully the snow held off and I was able to make it home safely.

Tim and Logan stopped by to help me unload and it turned out that I really only needed one of them. It was relatively easy to just push it off the back and down the ramp. Oh well. The main box ended up being 450 pounds and then there was a second ~100 pound box containing the fence and rails.

In the next post, I’ll cover unboxing and setting it up.

For about the last ten years, I’ve saved bottle caps from most of the beers that I’ve opened. I have… a lot of them. I always knew there would be a project with them at some point, but what? I like the idea of covering a coffee table, but I don’t really want a coffee table in the man cave. And I like the idea of doing a big mosaic but I don’t think I have enough of each color to do anything very impressive. Then I got the idea to do a map. There are lots of cool bottle cap maps around, so this isn’t anything original, but I made the state of Washington with bottle caps. The wood is just simple 1×4 pine and I covered it with some stain that I then sanded down to look a little distressed. This was a very Pinterest-y project.

Along the way, I thought about doing the United States and having bottle caps on the map from where the brewery was located, and I thought about doing something similar for Washington, but in the end, the placement was mostly random. There are a couple bottle caps specifically placed where the brewery is located but I’ll let you find those Easter Eggs on your own if you want to.

I got my first table saw about 3 years ago. I liked it because it was a good price and it was fun to use one of Tim’s dad’s tools. Over the years I got it dialed in and built a nicer stand for it, but at it’s core, it was still a contractor saw. You can read about the differences between contractor, hybrid and cabinet saws but the main points are accuracy and power. If you’re out on a job site ripping down plywood, it’s fine if all your cuts are within 1/8″ and you’re just cutting thin boards. And I made a LOT of projects that I’m very proud of using this simple saw. But now I’m itching for something safer and more accurate.

As part of our finances, Tyla and I give ourselves an allowance every month. I saved my pennies for a long time and my original plan was to buy a CNC machine. But around that time, I got cold feet on the CNC purchase and was really feeling like I wanted a better table saw. So I started researching table saws and landed on a Grizzly G1023RLW. Here are the things I like about the saw:

1. It’s a 3hp 240v motor. I can’t find reliable numbers for my old saw but I think it’s either 0.75hp or 1hp. I can’t count the times when I’ve been making a cut and the motor has either bogged down or the blade has stopped. That’s horribly unsafe and made me pee my pants every time. It happens more often now that I’ve started working with thicker hardwoods.
2. It has a riving knife and a blade guard. These features in addition to the increased power should make the new saw immensely safer. Have you ever seen kickback happen? Scary.
3. It’s a full-blown cabinet saw which means I can perfectly align the table top, the blade and the fence to all be exactly square with each other. This not only increases accuracy but it can improve safety too.
4. Theoretically it will offer me better dust collection but I don’t have a system powerful enough to move that much air yet.
5. It has a built-in router table. I love the space-saving aspects of it but I’m not sure how it will compare to my dedicated bench-top router table now. I expect actual aligning and cutting aspects to be similar to what I used before but the dust collection will be worse. I’m willing to make that tradeoff to save some space and if I decide not to use it in the future, there’s no big loss other than the small additional cost.

Because this sucker weighs in at 550 pounds, it’s expensive to ship. By the time I pay a freight company with liftgate service (to get it from the truck bed down to street level), it was going to be about $240. Thankfully one of Grizzly’s two showrooms is only 1.5 hours from here. So I’ll be driving up to Bellingham to get it and then I’ll be suckering a couple friends into helping me get it out of my truck and into the garage.

You may have heard about a company called SawStop. They have a patent on technology that instantly stops the blade if it contacts your skin. The demo videos are incredible, and given that table saws are the most common source of shop injuries, it’s a good place to make an investment. I strongly considered buying one, but in the end, I couldn’t justify more than double the price of the Grizzly for a tool that I only use lightly as a hobby. It’s a beautiful saw and if I cut my fingers off I’ll regret this choice, but I’m willing to accept the risk.

In the end, I’m buying an expensive tool that is way more than I need and it’s just for a hobby. This is clearly a luxury purchase. I’m thankful that I can have it and I’m excited to start shortening some boards with it! This could be the last table saw that I ever buy it might also be the most expensive tool that I ever buy.

(And by the way, I’ll be selling my old saw and router table if you’re interested…)