MDF in general, because the recipients are going to paint the units, and MDF will make that task easy, and low project cost (cf timber).

Hinges – I’ve gone for a non-mortise hinge, which I now don’t like but I have a box of them, and I am still cutting mortises for them Inside the units, I have placed a pine strip for where the hinges are – a lot more strength so the screws don’t pull out. I haven’t determined if I need to do something extra for the doors – if I do, I might use small bolts through the door for added strength. Hmm – this has got me thinking. If I have to cut mortises, I might as well replace the hinges I have with stock-standard (and much stronger) ones.

I’d go cup hinges if I wasn’t trying to keep the costs down for them. However, on another toy project I went some auto-closing decorative hinges that worked very well. http://stusshed.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/20060422-sink.jpg

The doors and the main working surface of the sink and stove are 16mm MDF, the rest is 12mm (not that there is any real difference in cost, but significant weight difference).

Also, one thing I do with the oven door is make the handle large enough so it rests on the floor when the oven door is open. So if the child decides to crawl inside (sitting on the oven door), it has some chance of surviving – being supported at both the hinge and the handle! Saves the door being ripped off by over-exuberant play.

Two more questions if that’s not two much trouble…
What sort of hinges are you using for the doors?
And why are you using 12mm and 16mm MDF?

The reason why I ask is I was thinking of making my daughters one out of 12mm but believe I would need 16mm for cup hinges and was wondering if you had any thoughts on this at all…

Sorry, but no designs for these ones – I had a rough outline sketch on paper initially to get the concept into my head, and from that point on I have been building directly from my mental picture.

Rough dimensions – narrower units are 400 wide, wider stove is 500 wide (all in mm obviously). All units are 400 deep, and 1200 high.

They look great so far!

Did you design the kitchens in sketchup or anything before you started? If so have you considered making them available for your readers?

Iv found the 7″ saws much nicer to use.

I use a straight edge with the sheet goods sitting on sacrificial 55×90mm pine on the ground – then you can crawl over the sheet as you move over it rather than stretching

Never had the saw try to kick back

- How I was using the circular saw was seen in this earlier article http://stusshed.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/starting-toy-kitchen-build/

- Insufficient sheet support – definitely a major contributor in this case. Needed to work a bit smarter.

- Festool Plunge Saw – maybe one day. The Festool rail I was using was only a loaner. The Saw Board sounds like an interesting concept – will investigate.

Needless to say, the massive rail of the Torque Workcentre will give me huge amounts of control over my cuts in the future!

This is coming along nicely. As this is for a kitchen, were you not tempted to use MR (moisture-resistant) MDF? It would have cost a bit more, I’m certain.

Do you have any photos or information on your circular saw setup?

I totally understand WHY you do it this way before approaching the table saw. If the saw is binding though, this can often be caused by insufficient sheet support – most people will either use Marc’s idea or, build a ‘knock-down’ frame from 3″x2″ timber (with interlocking notches), which would probably be easier to store in a small workshop…! That’s certainly what I intend to do, some day.

I guess a Festool plunge saw with guide rail is out of your budget, too! Assuming your following a roughly marked link ‘freehand’, you may be better off making something that’s known as a “saw board” – one straight-edged length of timber or sheet screwed on top of the other. When you run the saw against this edge, the blade trims the lower piece to give you the correct offset from blade to edge of the plate.

It’s a good way to get a straight cut but, in terms of efficiency, it’s no way to replace a table saw!!

Keep up the good work!

Olly.

Trust me Joes a real person, i see him every morning, in the mirror!

Eye Dee One Zero Tee, got to remember that

I have to make one serious complaint though, your making me spend too much money!

Keep those reviews coming.

Joe

Certainly isn’t an urban myth – it is a real danger, and worth being aware of if you use any thinners/oils with rags and don’t have a procedure in place of disposing of the rags afterwards.

Stinky.

Let us know if you manage to burn down you shed Stu. Just kidding of course!

This is one of those things that I have always thought was a bit of an urban myth but I know better. I’ve just never witnessed it for myself.

Hmm- choice of words/posting photos and referencing articles from their website – yeah, it is SO hard finding a website to do first-hand research, and then cutting and pasting content to include in an article, and using their images when appropriate.

Yes – I work for a company that pays me to write 1/2 a million words, and over 1000 articles to disguise the 1 article about that company itself.

“Joe” is a regular on this site, and I was grateful to him for bringing a product such as this to my attention. I had no problem using the product, and my article reflects that. Your mileage may vary, but given it is designed as a sketching tool, and they have made no claim that you can do what you are complaining about (realigning an existing drawing with the grid again) it, perhaps the rest of your comment is as well researched, and not so surprising. If Joe suggested jumping off a bridge, there would be some definite justification to it, and I would therefore give the suggestion serious consideration. In contrast to anything you might come up with that is.

Oh btw- point of definition – being a spammer would require me to send out emails or something wouldn’t it?
Eye Dee One Zero Tee.

I’ve used this product and it doesn’t work that great. Once you take the paper of the textured plasic you can never get it aligned again with the grid.

More useful in schools etc. grades 3-12.

Steven

PS. I love how you reference “Joe” told me to go to the website. I wonder if “joe” told you to jump off a bridge would you do that also? get real.

Cheers, Michael

I don’t focus on the photography on this site – the photos are used to document something that is easier to show in an image than explain in text, and they are quite utilitarian in that regard. It is also a matter of being time-poor, so snap off a quick documenting image than actually concentrating on the photo itself.

Some sites really do put a lot of effort into the images they use, but then they also have weekly or monthly posts, rather than daily as I do, so they do concentrate more on the presentation of what they do post.

The other thing is I do recognise that the site is very image intensive, so I opt for a much smaller image size, and a much lower image quality than I would prefer to accept.

But I will have another look at what I do to see if there are ways I can improve it.

As to where the shed is – SE Melbourne

Perhaps I need the larger MagSwitch, so I can hang the tablesaw from the roof when it is not needed!

Larry Gelner

BRAVO………..with all the hype of new tools of the decade we’re about to be bombarded with I’m voting for the new “Stu-Vac” shop accessory.

Adding a spiral cutter for chip clearance, and it is even better.

By using the stops on the x, y and z axis, you can precisely set up the mortise cut, and then you have excellent repeatability.

- prices change, both over a short term based on fluctuations in exchange rates and specials etc, and over the longer time simply due to inflation. A review of a product from 2 or 3 years ago could have a significantly different price now (in either direction), and that is only going to be exasperated in another 2 3 or 5 years time.

- that feeds into point 2 – when companies have prices listed outside of sites they control, there are a number of people out there who then go to these companies and demand to get that price, even when it is or 3 years out of date.

- I try to present products based on their performance, not on their price. I always (hopefully!) provide a link to the seller of a product so you can get the current, accurate price from them, so you don’t get left completely out in the cold. It is then up to the individual to make an assessment of whether the combination of my opinion/experience of the tool in question, and the price they have been able to source independently means it is a tool they want in their workshop or not.

So many websites that do list prices (and links) are doing so to get a kickback from said company. I don’t (although I won’t disregard that opportunity if it ever presents itself). The is one exception to that – things listed in the “Store” I do get a small commission on any sales. But overall, I am not out there actively campaigning to sell you something. If you choose to buy it because of my experiences, then cool – both for you, and the company selling it.

It is a marketing approach I deliberately choose, and why I don’t review every product under the sun – it has to be good (as a general rule) for me to want to talk about it. If not, I will either give it a less than favourable review, or simply not review it at all (and that has happened on more than one occasion). Even so, if there are negative aspects to an otherwise good tool, I still endeavour to get that info out there.

So hopefully that explains a little of my rationale behind why I tend not to mention product price (although if it is particularly relevant, I have occasionally mentioned if something is significantly expensive or cheap for what it is)

Thanks

Like a lot of other people I know in the UK, I find it more comfortable working in feet and inches for rough measurements and only then moving in to millimetres (metric is what I was bought up on!) for finished dimensions.

I find it’s much easier to be ‘precise’ this way, when you have to, rather than to start diving inches in to fractions!

However, I’m not necessarily disappointed by Tassie being overlooked for things – the less people who know about the treasure down there the better, as I’m hoping one day to find myself down there in an environment still very much under populated, with resources that have not been depleted by overuse. Things like the trails, the forests, the environment unspoiled by too many feet, too many selfish hands.

So if it gets overlooked again, it is a blessing, not a curse!

…er… sorry about that – I don’t know what came over me.

Thanks, Ana

Confusing I agree!

dennis Leverett

The new price would likely be around $39.00

Welcome to the site – hope you get something useful out of it!

Regards,
Stuart

But let’s have a look at any points raised:

Correcting fence misalignment: we did cover how the gauge shows fence misalignment, and by referring to your saw manual, you can see how to correct your fence for misalignment, now you know where and how much there is.

Misalignment of blade and mitre gauge slot: thought this was pretty obvious – check front and back of blade using the same tooth on the blade and then refer to your saw manual how your saw can be corrected (and if you set your own saw up, this is one of the steps you will have done already). Just checked – it was mentioned in the video (guess you slept through that point)

Arbor runout: For a new saw, it means you can check if it is within tolerances stated in the manual, and if not, talk with the supplier. For a second hand saw, checking this is one thing I would do before deciding to buy. And if it is your own saw and it has this problem, then it isn’t that big a deal to buy (or get made) a replacement arbor.

If you have had a serious kickback or some other significant event with your saw, then knowing how to check the arbor is important to see if the machine has been damaged. But perhaps as you have decided, there is nothing that can be done about it anyway so who cares if the blade has an arbor-caused runout.

Blade runout: If you look at my section on “Battle of the Blades”, you’d see there is a significant impact on cut quality based on blade runout. If you don’t care about quality of cut, then sure, don’t check the blade runout. Again, I base my decisions on what is a quality vs cheap blade in part based on runout – there is a reason why expensive blades care whether there is a lot of runout or not.

The video was not about setting up your saw, it was all about the Woodpeckers Saw Gauge.

Sorry you found the video boring. I suggest in that case you don’t bother watching any of the other videos then!

In other words there is little (if anything) the average home woodworker can do about arbor run out (vertical or horizontal), but blade/miter gauge slot missalignment CAN be corrected.

I believe MOST of the video should have been about this malady, thus little if any concerning arbor runout.. Also, aligning a fence to the miter gauge slot with a blade that has NOT been aligned with the miter gauge slot causes heaps of problems with table saws.

Sadder is the fact, that on many table saws, correcting blade missaglinment is a cumbersome chore. The video should have gone into this in detail, because it is vital that this be corrected, if a woodworker wants consistently good saw cuts.

I found the video quit boring, as too much time was spent (and the delivery was too slow) over mundane things particularly when no mention was given to the above.

I am going to purchase the tool, BUT my main concern, is getting the blade AND the fence dead parallel with the miter gauge slot, since there is little the average woodworker can do about most of the other things mentioned in the video.

Also, blade runout (while in the at rest position) will often tend to true out once it reaches proper speed due to inertia, etc, more or less. So measuring the runout of a still blade I see as little value.

carl dixon

The problem was (apparently) that the Chinese changed their manufacture once they had the contract, and went from using virgin plastic as specified, to one that had recycled plastic content, making the fans a lot more fragile. Also, the original fans had sharp edges where the blades fitted to the body of the fan, which is simply poor engineering.

Once this was determined, and after a time, they reverted back to using virgin plastic and added a radius to the bottom of each blade.

They were going to use clear or translucent plastic, which can only be virgin plastic, but instead the impellers ended up still being black, and a painted dot put on the back to indicate that it was virgin with the improved design.

This image was the result of the last impeller I had fail (while I was running a course to make it worse) before I sold them both off and got my Carbatec Deluxe 15″

http://stusshed.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/thicknesser.jpg?w=128&h=104

Not only is it an overhead router, but with the different tool mounts, it can be a rip and crosscut saw – an SCMS with 1200mm of crosscut! (although back to the noise of a brushed motor, aka circular saw), a drill press with massive ability for putting the bit anywhere (and at any angle) etc.

Lots of fun to be had

http://stusshed.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/episode-30-pro-drill-press-table/

http://stusshed.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/drill-press-table-drawer/

http://stusshed.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/episode-49-kreg-pockethole-drillpress-table-upgrade/

Paul

Stay away from these requests. They are scams!

When the Superjaws gets exceptionally worn from use, the locking bar becomes rather dented (but it takes a lot of use, and a lot of clamping at high pressures).

The only times I have heard about your experience, it has been from ‘enthusiastic’ lubrication!

Dad

(Basketball reference)

The simple fact is that the Triton wetstone grinder is no longer available. The Scheppach is imported by at least 3 distributors that i know of – which of them will offer warranty, guidance or even spare parts?

Re the life span i have customers who have bought Tormek and they are still running after more than 20 years – i doubt your cheap Chinese copies will add up to that! Our wheels will outlast any other by up to 10 times. Our torque is at least 3 times that of the others. Our instruction book is actually a book not a couple of photcopied pages. Our jigs are cast not just pressed steel that can flex when under pressure.The list goes on and on.
I am actually happy that these inferior brands have come onto the market as it brings more people into the best way to sharpen – Whetstone. They then upgrade to a better sytem.

All the best Stu.

If you don’t treat it as a fine-particle collector, and more of a heavy particle one, that would be a start, but as I’m guessing you have, my concern would be in the minimum particle size it will stop. I’m assuming they mean it will collect “down” to 5 micron, not “up to”! That means it is efficiently aerosolising everything smaller, where it might have otherwise had a chance to settle post-tool.

If it were to be able to filter smaller particles, then it may have too much back-pressure being created in the bag to ensure new particles were effectively trapped, and they could leak out past the fan (and once the fan is turned off……)

Like wearing a nuisance mask when a P2 grade filter is called for.

Regarding the Triton dust mask – good pickup – it’s been so long since I used it, I’d forgotten about it altogether!