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GEMorris posted:This is the closest thread to my knowledge, but it historically hasn't been a major topic here, so please post and change that! I'm just getting into it, I think I got a good set of tools but I'm just going based on reviews. The main thing I was going to ask is how to find blocks of different kinds of wood aside from basswood which is everywhere. It complicates things because I'm in germany and don't speak much german so when i google "block of ____wood" without getting back garbage results after I put it through google translate. It does seem like a very relaxing (albeit messy) hobby and I'm looking forward to getting into it, so I'll do what I can with what I have and maybe post my embarrassingly bad first tries.
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Feb 2, 2018 23:53
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I'm just getting into it, I think I got a good set of tools but I'm just going based on reviews. The main thing I was going to ask is how to find blocks of different kinds of wood aside from basswood which is everywhere. It complicates things because I'm in germany and don't speak much german so when i google "block of ____wood" without getting back garbage results after I put it through google translate. I don't do carving anymore, but it's a messy hobby for sure. If you didn't get a fiber knit carving glove, get one. It's sort of like a soft thimble for your whole hand and it saved me from tons of deep cuts I otherwise would've gotten from my very sharp tools. There are websites like this one that do have lots of wood to choose from, so either you can find a European website or find a US website that will ship overseas. Of course, for international shipping there'll be additional costs, but I'd be surprised if there weren't European companies or even some in Germany that would just use Deutsche Post. ne: You may also look for some woodworking shops in Germany and see if you can obtain and/or buy some scrap from them.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:07
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I'm just getting into it, I think I got a good set of tools but I'm just going based on reviews. The main thing I was going to ask is how to find blocks of different kinds of wood aside from basswood which is everywhere. It complicates things because I'm in germany and don't speak much german so when i google "block of ____wood" without getting back garbage results after I put it through google translate. Someone was posting some pretty hand carved gunstocks they were making maybe they can speak more on it
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Feb 3, 2018 00:18
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Dictum is a big retailer in Germany that also hosts classes (some in English) so I assume some of their staff speaks English and might be able to help you out. I'm putting off anything carving related until I finally get around to making some chairs first, but I've heard nothing but praise for Mary May's new book published by Lost Art Press.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:29
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life is killing me posted:I don't do carving anymore, but it's a messy hobby for sure. If you didn't get a fiber knit carving glove, get one. It's sort of like a soft thimble for your whole hand and it saved me from tons of deep cuts I otherwise would've gotten from my very sharp tools. I did get gloves, that was one of the first things I put in my amazon basket because I am clumsy as hell and would definitely slice an artery or two without them. Thanks for the suggestion (also the other people who responded). I know basswood is the best starting wood but I like challenges so I want to try a bunch of different kinds and figure things out.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:37
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I did get gloves, that was one of the first things I put in my amazon basket because I am clumsy as hell and would definitely slice an artery or two without them. please keep the thread updated I've been curious about giving it a shot myself for a while.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:44
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:please keep the thread updated I've been curious about giving it a shot myself for a while. will do, fingers crossed that it's not a "at hospital lost fingat" type of update.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:49
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I did get gloves, that was one of the first things I put in my amazon basket because I am clumsy as hell and would definitely slice an artery or two without them. Walnut is real good if a bit pricey
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Feb 3, 2018 01:06
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I won't lie, the inner stephen king nerd in me wants to try and carve the key from the Dark Tower series from a block of ash wood. Other than that I just want to learn how to do it in general. It seems like the kind of thing you can figure out as you go but probably would be better/more efficient if you had someone guiding you along.
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Feb 3, 2018 01:22
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yeah I eat rear end posted:Other than that I just want to learn how to do it in general. It seems like the kind of thing you can figure out as you go but probably would be better/more efficient if you had someone guiding you along. I got started when I was like 13 by going to a woodcarving class with my dad, hosted by some 85 year-old dude (who was a cool dude) and which had mostly elderly men in it. But the banter was pretty interesting between all of them. The host guy was amazingly talented and had some really nice pieces he’d done since he was a young man. He didn’t really teach much, he’d give pointers and stuff and watch what you did, etc, but I learned a lot just by doing it and watching the older guys and how they did things. All this is to say, if you feel social, finding some kind of workshop or class would help you get better, and it makes it kind of more fun to be around other people doing it.
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Feb 3, 2018 03:24
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I finished a project that wasn't shop furniture for once in my life! Sure, it's just a live edge cherry slab table on some steel legs I bought off the internet, but damnit, it's a real thing that looks god instead of just being functional. Better lit slab close-up:  Had to fill a bunch of cracks and knotholes with epoxy, can't say enough good things about the West Systems stuff. Absolutely worth the money for the lack of hassle. Also my first time using Minwax Polycrylic (satin) as a finish, very happy with both the end product and ease of use there. We'll see how it holds up, but given that it's just a console table, I'm not expecting it to be taking much in the way of day-to-day wear unless my cats decide they need to fight on it.
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Feb 3, 2018 05:58
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Neato! Love that wood grain. What grit did you sand it up to? Polycrylic produces a real nice finish. But I can't seem to find the right kind. Do they make an outdoor floor version? Also here's a real neat video playlist I found on the internet. I don't agree with their occasional lack of chainsaw PPE, but other than that it's informative and easy to follow: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEZ2hvCDKUpGd1jUYmDn71rpjDbZw00Xz Some people might think you'd have to throw out not-straight lumber. I like how they use string to line up their mortises. I wish I could say I'd have thought of it myself eventually.
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Feb 3, 2018 06:35
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I won't lie, the inner stephen king nerd in me wants to try and carve the key from the Dark Tower series from a block of ash wood. Other than that I just want to learn how to do it in general. It seems like the kind of thing you can figure out as you go but probably would be better/more efficient if you had someone guiding you along. don't bother, you'd probably just gently caress it up
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Feb 3, 2018 08:43
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Trauma Dog 3000 posted:don't bother, you'd probably just gently caress it up  I think you meant to post "Give it a try and let us know how it went".That looks really excellent.
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Feb 3, 2018 09:09
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Jaded Burnout posted:
yeah I eat rear end understood it
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Feb 3, 2018 09:10
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DreadLlama posted:Neato! Love that wood grain. What grit did you sand it up to? Polycrylic produces a real nice finish. But I can't seem to find the right kind. Do they make an outdoor floor version? I sanded to 220, which wasn't a hard task considering this is the first board I've run through my planer since I put new knives on it. I don't think they make an outdoor/heavy wear version, but there are plenty of polyurethanes out there that fill that niche. If you're looking for something that'll really take a beating, I recommend investing the money in some Epifanes stuff and following the directions carefully, it's the stuff they coat the bottoms of boats in and is pretty much bulletproof if applied correctly.
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Feb 3, 2018 10:33
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Jaded Burnout posted:
It's a quote from the books
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Feb 3, 2018 12:07
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It is me, I am the rear end in a top hat.
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Feb 3, 2018 12:39
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Trauma Dog 3000 posted:yeah I eat rear end understood it I did and appreciated it. Anyway here we go:  it'll probably take me a ton of trial and error to figure out what each tool is supposed to do (e: also how to sharpen them properly), but I guess that's part of the fun. yeah I eat ass fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Feb 3, 2018 |
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Feb 3, 2018 16:40
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I did and appreciated it. Anyway here we go: Quick cheat sheet: - U-gouges will be your workhorse, deep for rough shaping, shallow to smooth - V-gouge for small details - Flat chisel for edge shaping and maybe final smoothing, although approach flat surfaces with caution. Flat chisels are fine for making mortises and tendons and such, but they won't be useful for removing large amounts of wood when carving.
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Feb 3, 2018 17:25
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I did and appreciated it. Anyway here we go: It’ll be apparent after doing it for a bit what each tool is best for. If you find a club or class or gathering or whatever, they might have a grindstone. Good luck! Post when you finish up a piece. If I could find the cowboy I did (my first finished piece) I’d post it, but it’s probably at my dad’s house somewhere buried in the attic. E: I can’t see from your photo but don’t you have a concave knife in there, sort of like a curved scalpel? That ought to do well with taking edges off and such, and shaving down. Probably better than a chisel as you get more control with your thumb. life is killing me fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Feb 3, 2018 |
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Feb 3, 2018 17:29
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There are a few curved ones in there. I've only tried a few but yeah you can tell pretty quick when you are using the wrong tool for what you want to do.
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Feb 3, 2018 17:45
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DreadLlama posted:Neato! Love that wood grain. What grit did you sand it up to? Polycrylic produces a real nice finish. But I can't seem to find the right kind. Do they make an outdoor floor version? I'm prettttay experienced with chainsaws and I just clicked through to see the lack of PPE.. wow. that is unbelievably stupid and irresponsible
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Feb 3, 2018 20:21
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OK so a revisit to power tool chat. I'm a position where I'm starting to budget for the gear I'll need for my projects. The current list is: - Staircase - 2 straight lines of euro-style kitchen cabinets (mostly birch ply and premade butcher's block countertop) - Some shelving - Windowsills throughout the house - Several rooms of slatted indoor shutters - Cutting a small amount of engineered flooring to size - Simple T&G-style front cover for a bath - Maybe a kitchen table if my wood supply is in good condition (old floorboards from the house reno) Reviewing the advice I've had so far it looks like my shopping list is: - Table saw - Track saw - Router w/ roundover bits - Mitre/chop saw - Dust/chip extraction? - Band saw? - A big sack of clamps - There's also this advice regarding drill presses from Mr Mambold which means almost nothing to me. I have decent power hand tools, like drills, impact drivers, jigsaw, but will also need to pick up a decent hand saw as the ones I have are all cheapy things. My main questions: 1. Is that list above correct? I understand there's debate in terms of convenience vs cost with some of them, but am I in the right ballpark? Anything I'm missing? 2. What level of quality should I be gunning for? There seem to be three tiers, "hobby" stuff which is not super well made, "trade" stuff which is better made but might have a few issues here and there, and "industrial" big boy stuff. "trade" stuff is priced around £1200 for a table saw so it'd be a big outlay for a full set of the above. I'll likely not do any significant projects after the list above so I can resell a lot of them. 3. Is it worth buying second hand? I did have a look around and there's not a huge supply, and I'm not experienced enough yet to spot lovely gear. 4. Which project should I start on? Kitchen/stairs/shutters will provide the most value, but are more complicated. 5. When I'm sourcing wood should I be investing in planer/jointers or buying PAR? Thanks for the help!
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Feb 5, 2018 13:47
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I like to ask, is it worth buying first hand instead.
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Feb 5, 2018 14:39
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You will probably not need all of table saw, track saw, and mitre saw. Of your listed projects, the table saw only seems potentially useful for the kitchen.
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Feb 5, 2018 14:58
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His Divine Shadow posted:I like to ask, is it worth buying first hand instead. That requires a little more domain knowledge than I have to answer, I think. The benefits to buying new are ease of supply and delivery, simple recourse should things be busted, and out-of-the box alignment etc. The problem is I don’t know the risks of buying this sort of equipment second hand so it’s hard to balance the two.
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Feb 5, 2018 15:00
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I'd drop the bandsaw and table saw for that list of projects. How good is your handheld Jigsaw? E: and oscillating multitool. E: my scheppach track saw has been great for a fraction of the price of a festool, I'd be aiming for "trade" grade brands i.e. makita et al for anything else. E2: the drill press advice is for drilling cabinet hinge pockets, a cheap aldi-level drill press will do these all day long. You could also get a vertical jig for your hand drill to do the same (literally just holds your drill nice and straight against whatever you drill) E3: you'd have to check your budget for buying rough lumber and planing Vs buying ready to use but the recommended dewalt planer will keep most of its value when you sell it again. cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Feb 5, 2018 |
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Feb 5, 2018 15:22
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I'd start with the track saw, a router, and a shopvac for dust collection. Make sure you get at least clamps for your track, but also consider one of the right angle adapters from manufacturers like TSO If you buy a track saw that has an available router attachment, make sure the router you buy is compatible as well (usually same brand will be). Being able to use your tracks to make sliding dovetails or dadoes with a router is a lot nicer than trying to clamp up regular jigs and ensure the router never drifts off.
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Feb 5, 2018 15:42
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I would also recommend buying the minimal toolset you need to tackle the simplest of the jobs, and doing that first, before buying any more tools. There's always the possibility that you'll discover you aren't interested in doing more yourself, and you don't want to be saddled with a bunch of tools you don't need.
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Feb 5, 2018 16:44
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cakesmith handyman posted:I'd drop the bandsaw and table saw for that list of projects. How good is your handheld Jigsaw? It's OK-ish, though that was without using a clamped guide. cakesmith handyman posted:E: and oscillating multitool. I have a fairly basic one that I bought for plunge-cutting socket holes in plaster. I gave it the briefest of tries when I was cutting a hole in a chipboard countertop without my jigsaw handy and it just burnt the wood. cakesmith handyman posted:E: my scheppach track saw has been great for a fraction of the price of a festool, I'd be aiming for "trade" grade brands i.e. makita et al for anything else. Thanks for the advice on quality level, but that aside I guess the question is whether you can get good accuracy using this sort of thing? cakesmith handyman posted:E2: the drill press advice is for drilling cabinet hinge pockets, a cheap aldi-level drill press will do these all day long. You could also get a vertical jig for your hand drill to do the same (literally just holds your drill nice and straight against whatever you drill) Right. I have a similar thing for my dremel. Also Aldi sell drill presses? cakesmith handyman posted:E3: you'd have to check your budget for buying rough lumber and planing Vs buying ready to use but the recommended dewalt planer will keep most of its value when you sell it again. This is the part I'm having trouble with, in that presumably the point of buying the planer is to amortise the cost of the materials?
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Feb 5, 2018 17:15
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Cakesmith, I'd also like to pick your brains about sourcing timber in the UK, as most suppliers don't exactly have ecommerce sites.
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Feb 5, 2018 17:17
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Jaded Burnout posted:This is the part I'm having trouble with, in that presumably the point of buying the planer is to amortise the cost of the materials? Partly that, partly being able to produce e.g. a 5/8"-thick board (or whatever you happen to need) when the only thing the store sells is 3/4". You also get considerably more flexibility in the materials you can buy when you don't have to limit yourself to boards that are already S2S1E (surfaced on two sides and one edge).
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Feb 5, 2018 17:22
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Partly that, partly being able to produce e.g. a 5/8"-thick board (or whatever you happen to need) when the only thing the store sells is 3/4". Makes sense.
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Feb 5, 2018 17:22
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If your goal is to make flat boards, not just smooth ones, you're gonna need either a fore plane and a stable workbench, or a jointer, in addition to a planer. I've probably said it a thousand times but if I were to start over it would be with a track saw and a lunch box planer, but my first project would be a hand tool workbench and I would also have lots of hand tools. If your goal is to do some projects and not pursue it as a hobby, I'd stick to buying s4s and even getting your store to custom thickness boards for you if you really need it.
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Feb 5, 2018 20:20
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Jaded Burnout posted:It's OK-ish, though that was without using a clamped guide. Jigsaw is for curved or awkward cuts, not straight quote:I have a fairly basic one that I bought for plunge-cutting socket holes in plaster. I gave it the briefest of tries when I was cutting a hole in a chipboard countertop without my jigsaw handy and it just burnt the wood. New/sharp blades. I recently got a deal on JCB branded ones as b&q were flogging them off. You also need to clear the sawdust frequently on plunge cuts, it has nowhere to go. quote:Thanks for the advice on quality level, but that aside I guess the question is whether you can get good accuracy using this sort of thing? The tracksaw? Yeah, down to the millimetre on plywood or worktop. quote:Right. I have a similar thing for my dremel. Also Aldi sell drill presses? Aldi, Lidl, whatever. One of them has a drill press at the moment for £60. That's not a recommendation but for that price meh. quote:This is the part I'm having trouble with, in that presumably the point of buying the planer is to amortise the cost of the materials? Covered better by others but a dewalt or makita thicknesser costs about £500 new, sells for about £350-400 used and let's you make whatever you want whatever thickness you need on demand. Jaded Burnout posted:Cakesmith, I'd also like to pick your brains about sourcing timber in the UK, as most suppliers don't exactly have ecommerce sites. I'll try, there may be others who can help more. What are you after and where are you-ish? cakesmith handyman fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Feb 5, 2018 |
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Feb 5, 2018 20:38
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cakesmith handyman posted:Jigsaw is for curved or awkward cuts, not straight quote:New/sharp blades. I recently got a deal on JCB branded ones as b&q were flogging them off. You also need to clear the sawdust frequently on plunge cuts, it has nowhere to go. Also use the correct blade for the material. A lot of reciprocating cutting tools come with just one blade that is not suitable for all materials. Trying to cut dense particle board with a metal cutting blade will not work, for example.
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Feb 5, 2018 20:47
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Already good advice regarding the tool purchases. I would just like to stress a simple and cheap combo everyone should have: circular saw and speed square - for quick, short straight cuts (besides all the other stuff both tools can do). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhWpuWvtEA I have the same one Tommy is using in that clip I think, only in metric. Had to order mine from the states after first getting a crappy China model in abs plastic which sucked. They aren't very common in Europe, which is a travesty.
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Feb 5, 2018 21:10
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Leperflesh posted:True, but you can make good straight cuts if you use a clamped guide, and even a handheld circular saw will make bad straight cuts/rips if you don't use a guide. Good point, hence the track saw.
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Feb 5, 2018 21:12
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GEMorris posted:If your goal is to make flat boards, not just smooth ones, you're gonna need either a fore plane and a stable workbench, or a jointer, in addition to a planer. I *think* a combo planer thicknesser will do that, right? GEMorris posted:If your goal is to do some projects and not pursue it as a hobby, I'd stick to buying s4s and even getting your store to custom thickness boards for you if you really need it. Yeah, I'll do a bunch more digging around to see how prices vary. Some places I've looked at charge 5 or 6 times as much for PAR, and over volume that adds up. Also most places don't do more than 8" boards, which is fine for most things but no good for stringers. And the place that will do finished stringers at a good price are wholesale and need a minimum £900 order. It's confusing! cakesmith handyman posted:Jigsaw is for curved or awkward cuts, not straight Yeah, though that's not what I used it for, because I didn't know any better  My curved freehand is a bit bettercakesmith handyman posted:Aldi, Lidl, whatever. One of them has a drill press at the moment for £60. That's not a recommendation but for that price meh. I was more surprised that supermarkets stock them at all vs challenging you about which one. I'll take a peek. cakesmith handyman posted:I'll try, there may be others who can help more. What are you after and where are you-ish? I'll keep looking at suppliers and get back to you. But Kent.
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Feb 5, 2018 21:46
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