http://woodgears.ca/ An engineer's woodworking site http://woodgears.ca/misc/trunk_cover.html Thu, 23 May 2013 12:00:00 EDT The trunk cover for my new honda fit is an expensive "accessory". So I built my own. http://woodgears.ca/home/baby_gate.html Sun, 19 May 2013 07:30:00 EDT A baby gate that parallelogram pivots up to allow it to swing up the stairs, for my brother. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/final_thoughts.html Sun, 12 May 2013 07:30:00 EDT Final thoughts about building a ukulele. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/go_long.html Sun, 12 May 2013 07:30:00 EDT Pat Hawley is good friends with the accoustic group "Go Long (!)", so we shot some video of my ukulele, played by a professional guitar player. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/comparison.html Sat, 11 May 2013 14:30:00 EDT With both mine and Pat Hawley's builds complete, time to compare the two. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/finish_up.html Fri, 10 May 2013 10:30:00 EDT Finishing up the body, making the bridge and nut, stringing it up. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_finish_up.html Fri, 10 May 2013 10:30:00 EDT Polyester finish, gluing on the neck, bridge installation, and leveling the frets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mKSKZau9qs Thu, 09 May 2013 18:35:00 EDT Matteo sent me this link. Cool to see some of this old equipment still put to productive use! http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/chris.html Mon, 06 May 2013 09:00:00 EDT A neat little banjo, made from a cigar box, with a bent fork as a tail piece! http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/assembly.html Sun, 05 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT Assembling the ukulele. Still not done, there are some odds and ends, like a bridge left to make. http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/small_bandsaw.html Sun, 05 May 2013 08:00:00 EDT Pekka's small bandsaw, inspired by my bandsaw designs. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/fretboard.html Thu, 02 May 2013 08:30:00 EDT Layout out the fretboard, cutting the fret slots and installing the frets. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_fretboard.html Thu, 02 May 2013 08:30:00 EDT Pat making the fretboard and installing the frets in his ukulele. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIUaOv2exe8 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:20:00 EDT An experiment I did with friends today, measuring how fast a foosball ball moves, using a high speed camera http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/resaw_guitar.html Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:20:00 EDT Just some short video and pictures of resawing veneers from old shelving tor making guitar sides. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/neck.html Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT Making the neck for the ukulele. Once again, the pantorouter comes in handy! http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_neck.html Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT Pat Hawley shows how he makes the neck for a ukulele. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/stephen.html Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:50:00 EDT Steve Suber's homemade jointer. Steve used melamine instead of sheet metal for the tables. Looks very nice! http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/reader/florent.html Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:15:00 EDT Florent Bouchard sent me pictures of his pantorouter. Wit ha neat wooden-screw holddown clamp on it. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/body.html Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT Assembling the ukulele body. I did it without an external mold, although, in retrospect, a mold would have been better. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_body.html Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT Pat Hawley assembling his ukulele body. http://woodgears.ca/mobile_base/chris.html Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT A mobile base made from steel tubing, using four inclines and a scissor jack to lift the 700 pound saw. http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/tablesaw.html Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EDT Pekka Sivinhufvud built a tilting arbour table saw from scratch, to fit in a very tight space in his small workshop. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/soundboard.html Sun, 14 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT Making the ukulele sound board, with the tools that I have. A thickness sander would be good for this type of work, but I wouldn't have a use for one other than for this project, so not worth building or getting one. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_soundboard.html Sun, 14 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT An experienced luthier making the sound board and back for a ukulele. http://woodgears.ca/reader/paul/bandsaw.html Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:45:00 EDT Paul Grundbacher built a bandsaw from old plumbing pipes many years ago, using engine valves as blade guides! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG9R0q9QJQc Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:40:00 EDT I came across this neat YouTUbe video of building a threadle lathe, all hand tools, wooden joinery with no glue. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/8string.html Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT A custom eight-string fan fret guitar, adding a high string and a low string to a regular 6-string tuning. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/index.html Sun, 07 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT The first installment of my series on building a ukulele. This week: Bending the ukulele sides. http://woodgears.ca/ukulele/pat_sides.html Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:55:00 EDT Pat Hawley showing how he bends the sides for building a ukulele. Using Hawaiian koa wood. http://woodgears.ca/scraper/index.html#v Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:30:00 EDT A new video on how to sharpen a cabinet scraper. The original article is from 6 years ago, but the video is new. http://woodgears.ca/reader/paul/emcostar.html Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:30:00 EDT Paul Grundbacher's odd looking Emco-star combination woodworking machines. There were some odd machines in the 1960s and 1970s. http://woodgears.ca/reader/paul/dowel.html Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:30:00 EDT Paul Grundbacher sent me some pictures and video of his dowel making method. I like how the cutter is permanently fixed to his dowel makers. Always ready that way. http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/reader/kraft.html Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT Bill kraft made a few changes to his pantorouter, including an interesting tilting table. He uses it to cut out shapes from templates, such as handle holes. http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/videos.html Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EDT When I put the old photos of dad's shop on-line, I noticed a lot of people clicked to enlarge the photos. So I figured people might also be interested in some old video around my dad's shop. Just random clips shot with a camcorder in the 1990s. http://woodgears.ca/kitchen_chairs/repair.html Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT Repairing the loose joinery on one of my brother's kitchen chairs. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/counter.html Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT Ron Walters built the counter from my plans, but at half scale (very small gears) and adding a fourth digit http://woodgears.ca/marbles/paul.html Sun, 17 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EDT Paul Grundbacher sent me pictures and video of his marble machines. http://woodgears.ca/reader/richard/sander.html Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EDT Another project by Richard, this time a drum sander. Very nicely built, as usual. Reuses parts of his homemade lathe. http://woodgears.ca/toys/cubcars.html Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EDT A jig to ensure the wheels are nailed straight when building cub cars. http://woodgears.ca/tripod/hiking.html Sun, 10 Mar 2013 07:20:00 EDT A jig to allow a set of ski poles or hiking poles to be used as a bipod or a tripod. Even works with a heavy DSLR. http://woodgears.ca/router_lift/uba.html Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:40:00 EST Another tilting router lift, with table. As many people do, Szczepan modified the design a little. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/75769 Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:39:00 EST A really nice slot mortiser built from my plans. Click thru to the flickr page to see lots of photos of it's construction. http://woodgears.ca/dovetail/jig.html Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:50:00 EST My new table saw dovetail jig, Showing how to build it and use it, plus videos. http://www.shigshop.com/ Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:20:00 EST Tim Murashige just sent me a link to his new woodworking website. Nicely done, and he built some machines from my designs too! http://woodgears.ca/dovetail/impossible.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:15:00 EST A simple but impossible looking dovetail joint http://woodgears.ca/reader/bathtub/index.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:15:00 EST A bathtub made out of wood! Exquisitely made! http://woodgears.ca/dowel/making.html#maker Sun, 24 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST A followup to my earlier article/video about dowel making http://woodgears.ca/planer/20-inch.html Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:00:00 EST Going over the big 20-inch thickness planer in my dad's workshop. http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/felder.html Sun, 17 Feb 2013 08:30:00 EST Reviewing dad's Felder KFS 36 table saw / shaper machine. Some aspects of this machine are very cool, others awkward. http://woodgears.ca/bandmill/reader/francois.html Sun, 17 Feb 2013 08:29:00 EST Most people to refer to build my 16" bandsaw, but this one is based on my 14" bandsa/sawmill plans. http://woodgears.ca/reader/richard/lathe.html Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:25:00 EST A homemade lathe. Modular, and with a copy attachment! http://woodgears.ca/domino/index.html#dis Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:25:00 EST Three years after I built it, it was still in one piece, so I took a video of disassembling it piece by piece. http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/shop_tour.html#vid Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:12:00 EST The Dad's shop tour video is uploaded (actually, finished two hours ago, but I was not at my computer) http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/shop_tour.html Sun, 10 Feb 2013 09:02:00 EST With dad's workshop cleaned up again, time for a shop tour! (the overnight video upload failed. I will post on here again once it's uploaded in a few hours) http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/photos/ Sun, 10 Feb 2013 09:01:00 EST I went through the old (non-digital) photos and picked out the ones around my dad's shop http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/construction.html Sun, 10 Feb 2013 09:00:00 EST The shop was built as winter was starting, after an fire destroyed the previous workshop. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/78763 Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:00:00 EST Brett sent me a link to his writeup about building the pantorouter. He does point out a couple of minor errors in the plans, which I have fixed since. http://woodgears.ca/dust/box_fan.html Sun, 03 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST I needed another fan when I was dusting out dad's shop. So I built one! Saved me a trip to town, and it's also more powerful. http://woodgears.ca/dads_shop/cleanup.html Sun, 03 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST Cleaning up and dusting out dad's shop. Over the last few years, it's gotten quite messy in there. http://woodgears.ca/copy_carver/collin.html Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:15:00 EST Peter Collin sent me some pictures of his copy carver, which he used to carve a large sign. A different use from what I had anticipated! http://woodgears.ca/sketchup/index.html#2 Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:15:00 EST Two SketchUp tutorials, one covering using scenes and layers to create multiple drawings in one, another about the finer details of nested objects, layers, and colour behaviour. http://woodgears.ca/urn/gravemarker.html Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:15:00 EST A Grave cross, made out of wood. http://woodgears.ca/misc/plastic_repair.html Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:15:00 EST Repairing broken plastic parts by melting some steel wire into the plastic. Good for reinforcing cracked plastic parts subject to a lot of stress. http://woodgears.ca/laptop_table/index.html Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:15:00 EST A small table to hold a laptop computer, to use it standing up. An odd piece of furniture, but exactly what my mom wanted. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/baumueller/index.html Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:25:00 EST Rudolf Baumueller built the 16" bandsaw, and a sawmill attachment he came up with for milling small logs! http://woodgears.ca/workbench/index.html Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:50:00 EST I built another one of my simple workbenches, this time taking video and lots of pictures of the process. http://woodgears.ca/home/deadbolt.html Sat, 12 Jan 2013 10:00:00 EST Installing a larger deadbolt over an existing deadbolt hole, in a metal clad door. http://woodgears.ca/reader/richard/drill_guide.html Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:10:00 EST Richard needed a drill guide for a stair project. Finding these very costly in Poland, he built his own out of wood. http://woodgears.ca/dust/air_cleaner.html Sat, 06 Jan 2013 07:30:00 EST A workshop air cleaner, made from a large furnace filter and a discarded fan. Cuts airborne dust in half every six or seven minutes. http://woodgears.ca/sander/open_frame.html Sat, 06 Jan 2013 07:29:00 EST A homemade 18' drum thickness sander, open on one side. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/steel_garage.html Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:30:00 EST Showing the steps to erecting an all steel garage building. http://woodgears.ca/toys/curvy_board.html Sun, 30 Dec 2012 07:30:00 EDT Making a curvy board - an experiment with bent lamination. http://woodgears.ca/box_joint/finch.html Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:30:00 EDT Gerald Finch adapted the screw advance box joint jig to work with the sled on his Felder format-style table saw. No need for a guide bar. http://woodgears.ca/toys/balance.html Sun, 23 Dec 2012 07:50:00 EDT A balancing board, but with safety stops to prevent it from shooting out from under you. Quick and simple project, lots of fun. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/mortiser_mount.html Sun, 23 Dec 2012 07:49:00 EDT Ron Walters sturdy wall shelf for his hollow chisel mortiser http://woodgears.ca/toys/wheelie_board.html Fri, 21 Dec 2012 09:50:00 EDT When I was a kid, anything you could sit on, with wheels, was just the best. This was a real quickie project, but it runs nice and smooth. http://woodgears.ca/dust/dylos.html Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:00:00 EDT The Dylos air quality monitor is a consumer-grade particle counter. Very useful when experimenting with dust collection and air filtering. http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/routerlift.html Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:15:00 EDT Pekka Svinhufvud's tilting router lift. Mostly based on my plans, but with some very fine plastic gears that he cut on his rose engine lathe. http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/routerlift.html Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:14:00 EDT Alois Schmid's router lifter, for use with a Festool plunge router http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcEto_Q8MlY Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:30:00 EDT A video from 1947, showing how california redwoods were logged. Quite fascinating. Too bad it wasn't sustainable. http://woodgears.ca/planer/knife_change.html Sun, 09 Dec 2012 12:30:00 EDT Showing how to change the knives on a cheap thickness planer. http://woodgears.ca/reader/gabor/ Sun, 09 Dec 2012 09:30:00 EDT Gabor Nemeth sent me some pictures of a very elaborate gasoline engine model that he built out of wood. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/tuneup.html Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:10:00 EDT Fixing and tuning up a very cheap bandsaw that I was given for free. With enough effort, even a cheap saw can make a decent cut. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JmSN-xzlU8 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:30:00 EDT A video I cam across recently, by another guy, Cosmar Bauer, who likes to build machines, showing how he built a disk sander. I'm not planning on building one myself, so might as well enjoy his video! http://woodgears.ca/dust/photograph.html Sun, 25 Nov 2012 07:25:00 EDT A contraption to capture ambient airborne dust levels for comparison, using a DSLR camera and external flash. http://woodgears.ca/reader/scrollsaw/ Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:40:00 EDT Mikiono sent me some pictures of his homemade scrollsaw. Building a scrollsaw is actually quite difficult. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tREZ77I7uO4 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EDT A random video I came across - far less use of power tools than today. But I think also far more pride in the trade than today. http://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/glue_methods.html Sun, 18 Nov 2012 10:55:00 EDT Exploring the idea of whether you can squeeze all the glue out of a joint, testing the strength of joints glued together with different approaches and surfaces. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/laudolff Sun, 18 Nov 2012 10:55:00 EDT Another bandsaw built by a 16-year old (less than half the age I was at when I built my first bandsaw) http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/segmented_bowl.html Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:55:00 EDT Pekka Svinhufvud on segmented turning, and making a sailboat pattern for segmented turning. http://thoughtsdesign.blogspot.co.il/2012/03/analog-clock-in-digital-world.html Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:25:00 EDT A complicated clock with digital display, but using mechanical gearing similar to my mechanical counter, and switches to activate the seven segment display! http://woodgears.ca/counter Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:55:00 EDT Building a mechanical counter, much like those used in car odometers or the old cassette tape counters. A very neat mechanism. http://woodgears.ca/handplane/sharpen.html Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:55:00 EDT Shaprening hand planes with a grinder and a buffing wheel. Hand tool purists will surely find my methods barbaric, but it works. http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/mitersaw.html Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:50:00 EDT Pekka Svinhufvud describing his homemade miter saw, a saw he built especially for precisely cutting pieces for segmented turning. http://woodgears.ca/delta_saw/small_sled.html Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:55:00 EDT I built my first version of this sled two years ago, and it's proven to be very handy. So I built an improved version of it, this time documenting the process. http://woodgears.ca/siren/ Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:05:00 EDT Insipired by how some of my blower experiments howled, I decided to build a siren. This one has two pitches, like the british air raid sirens in movies. http://woodgears.ca/table_saw/pushsticks.html Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:15:00 EDT Explaining why I like this style of push stick, and showing how to copy the shape, even if you don't have the object using my BigPrint program. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/pierre/ Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:14:00 EDT Another homemade bandsaw, this one in Home Depot Orange, which Pierre took a liking to after buying his table saw from Home Depot. The rest of his workshop machines (http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/pierre/workshop.html) are also in that colour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5BHtJGRZTk Sat, 13 Oct 2012 18:05:00 EDT I just realized, I totally forgot to embed the video in last week's article when I put it online. Just fixed that, and here's a link to the video, if you still want to see it! http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/shop.html Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:00:00 EDT Alois Schmid's, whose briquette press I featured Sept 16, has sent me some photos and descriptions of his basement workshop http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/aleks.html Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:00:00 EDT Aleksandar Momcilovic's modified marble adding machine. Very nicely built! http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/tornado.html Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:32:00 EDT Experimenting with creating the right wind conditions to produce a mini tornado in my workshop. Surprising how much faster the air moves in the middle of the tornado compared to the surrounding wind. http://woodgears.ca/reader/hector/shopvac.html Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:31:00 EDT Hector added a Thien-baffle separator to his shopvac to pre-separate out all the shavings and sawdust. http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/square/ Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:30:00 EDT Another dust separator for a shopvac. This one was actually designed NOT to separate out fine dust, but still separates surprisingly well. http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/fab/ Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:55:00 EDT A wooden cyclone, based on Ron Walters's method of constructing these. Very nicely built! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzapXeMrW3s Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:20:00 EDT A cool video about a project by Tim Hunkin - a famous British tinkerer. I like his explanation of the design process towards the end! http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/plexiglass_gears.html Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:15:00 EDT Ron Walters demonstrating making gears from plexiglass on the scrollsaw. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/reverse_motor.html Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:30:00 EDT Ron Walters shows how to reverse a small shaded pole AC motors. http://woodgears.ca/router_table/rudolf.html Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EDT Rudolf Baumeller sent me pictures of his router table, complete with tilting router lift. http://woodgears.ca/cannon/index.html Mon, 01 Oct 2012 07:30:00 EDT Back in the days prior to May 2007, I worked on developing BlackBerry devices back at RIM. Occasionally, I organized some fun events for destroying some of the old broken prototypes. http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/thien.html Mon, 25 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EDT Phil Thien, inventor of the thien-baffle, emailed me about my dust collector, and we exchanged a few emails. I figured his thoughts on the topic might be interesting to others, so posted the exchange. http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/performance.html Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:31:00 EDT Characterizing the cyclone. it can separate quite fine dust, but it causes quite a lot of back-pressure and corresponding reduction in ariflow. http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/separator.html Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:30:00 EDT Building the Thien-baffle style cyclone for my small dust collector. http://www.donjohnson24.co.uk/topsy.htm Mon, 19 Sep 2012 10:20:00 EDT After posting about Alan's street organ last week, Don Johnson pointed me to the source of plans for that organ: http://www.johnsmithbusker.co.uk. Don Johnson has also built some of these organs, on his website (linked from this post) http://woodgears.ca/dust_collector/blower.html Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:11:00 EDT Experimenting with building a small dust collector. I designed the blower for this dust collector strictly by experimenting, any calculations were done after the fact. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/thrust_bearing.html Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:10:00 EDT Experiments with building a wooden thrust bearing using marbles. http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/press.html Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:10:00 EDT Alois Schmid built a briquette press from a log splitter. The press turns wood shavings and sawdust into wood briquettes suitable for burning in conventional wood stoves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcckxZqO5zo Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:40:00 EST A cool YouTube video I came across. Amazing tinkerer, and a cool street organ he built! http://woodgears.ca/table_saw/repair.html Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:01:00 EDT Repairing a work out worm gear mechanism for an old Rockwell/Beaver table saw. The worm gear had started to skip teeth. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/wormgear.html Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT Ron Walters experimenting with turning a wood drilling auger bit into a worm gear for wooden machines. http://woodgears.ca/cider/apple_grinder.html#natan Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:00:00 EST Natan Orkon sent me a video of an apple grinder that he buildt, based on my plans, but scaled up a little. See bottom of the page. http://woodgears.ca/reader/bike.html Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:45:00 EST 15 year old Collin Graver built a bike, entirely out of wood, using cheap plywood, and just a jigsaw to cut the gears. But it works! http://woodgears.ca/drawers/repair.html Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:30:00 EST Replacing part of a drawer front after a squirrel had chewed it's way through the front of it. http://woodgears.ca/tripod/justin.html Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:30:00 EST A reader-built wooden tripod, inspired by some wooden tripods on my website. http://woodgears.ca/chainsaw_mill/sharpen.html Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:45:00 EST A neat trick I recently discovered: Chainsaws can be sharpened with an angle grinder and a cut-off disk! http://woodgears.ca/physics/venturi.html Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:10:00 EST Explaining how the venturi effect works, and having a bit of fun with it. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/tvtable.html Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:10:00 EST A sturdy folding TV table design, Ron explains how it's built. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/cleveland Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:15:00 EST 15 year old Jack Cleveland's homemade bandsaw. The youngest person that I know of to have built their own bandsaw, and it's a nice looking machine too. http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/louver.html Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:05:00 EST From time to time, people have asked me how to make louvered shutters. I happen to have the perfect machine for that - the pantorouter. All it takes is an odd looking template to make those angled mortises for the slats. http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/2600/2612.html Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:15:00 EST An old Woodwrights shop episode in which Roy Underhill tours a Victorian-era sash shop, checking out all the clever machines for making wooden windows a hundred years ago. http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/laser.html Sat, 18 Aug 2012 09:30:00 EST Alois Schmidt came up with a clever laser guide for his format-style table saw: Mount the laser on the ceiling! http://woodgears.ca/andy/truck.html Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:31:00 EST I previously covered andy's homemade truck in 2010. He's had time to finish it last winter, so I went back and took some more pictures, and a video, of course. http://woodgears.ca/combolock/ramsay.html Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:30:00 EST Mark Ramsay built a combination lock from my plans, then proceeded to build a wooden safe around it. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/whistle.html Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:30:00 EST Ron Walters showing how to make a wooden whistle. http://woodgears.ca/cottage/nr2.html Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:31:00 EST Showing off one of the cottages at my parents former tourist camp (now closed). A lot of woodwork by my dad went into that cottage. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/niki/index.html Mon, 06 Jul 2012 07:30:00 EST A homemade three-wheeled bandsaw, buy a guy from Japan. http://woodgears.ca/misc/best_camera.html Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:30:00 EST Sometimes people ask me what camera I use for my videos. I'm certainly not an expert on what makes the best camera, but I thoguht I'd share my experience. http://woodgears.ca/lathe/bowl.html Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:31:00 EST Using the 10-sided blank made in my previous article to turn a wooden bowl. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/ujoint.html Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:30:00 EST Ron Walters making small wooden U-joints. http://woodgears.ca/miter/index.html Mon, 23 Jul 2012 07:35:00 EST It's relatively easy to work out the miter angles for making wooden polygon, but when the wooden polygon is tapered, or splayed, the angles become compound miters, and gluing and clamping become more difficult. http://woodgears.ca/karhu/index.html Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:40:00 EST Touring a professional fine cabinet shop. Very different from the sort of hobby woodworking that most magazines write about. http://woodgears.ca/workshop/2012.html Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:00:00 EST It's been three years since I last did a "shop tour", so a few things have changed since then. So made a new video and article about the state of the workshop. http://woodgears.ca/reader/alain/cottage.html Sat, 14 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EST Alain's "The woodpecker" episode 13 is about his remote cottage. Alain sent me some more pictures and info not in the video, so I put together a page about it. http://woodgears.ca/monitor_stand/computer.html Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EST A quick little project to hold a large LCD monitor immediately in front of a full-sized PC. http://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/drywall_screws.html Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:21:00 EST Doing some tests on the much maligned drywall screw. For some applications, it's the better wood screw. http://woodgears.ca/roof/low_slope.html Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:20:00 EST Reshingling the roof for a small addition at my sister's house. Quite a few things on what not to do when reshingling a roof! http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/mitersaw.html Wed, 04 Jul 2012 06:40:00 EST A setup for collecting dust from a miter saw, while still allowing the saw to be adjusted. Also some neat side supports for holding the work pieces. http://woodgears.ca/shed/latch.html Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:10:00 EST A very long rack and pinion door latch for the shed. http://woodgears.ca/shed/storage.html Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:10:00 EST Optimizing storing more stuff in the shed http://woodgears.ca/router_lift/scott.html Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:10:00 EST Andrew Scott sent me some pictures of his tilting router lift. he added an angle fine adjustment crank, using a piece of bolt as a worm gear. http://tobiasmuthesius.net/2012/06/arduino-controlled-table-saw-box-joint-jig/ Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:10:00 EST Tobias Muthesius sent me a link to his webpage about a computer controlled box joint jig, using a stepper motor, attached to the sled of his format-style table saw. Eliminates the need for different gear sets, but adds electronics. http://woodgears.ca/shed/doors.html Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:01:00 EST Making two large barn doors for my shed, and adding metal siding to them. http://www.keithnewsteadautomata.com Sun, 24 Jun 2012 10:10:00 EST Came across this via the Make Magazine blog today. A cool site of all kinds of automata, nice videos too. Or you could go straight to his YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kmn000/videos http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/shop_solutions2.html Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:35:00 EST Three new videos showing shop solutions by Ron Walters http://woodgears.ca/shed/raising.html Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:01:00 EST With the shed pieces all prepared, time to invite some friends for a shed raising and barbecue. http://woodgears.ca/shed/metal_roof.html Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:01:00 EST Applying sheet metal roofing to the shed, while it's still in pieces on the ground. http://woodgears.ca/tenon/dan.html Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:00:00 EST Dan Chernoff sent me some pictures of the quick-set tenon jig he built. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/burge.html Sun, 10 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EST Pictures of Col Burge's bandsaw. I don't publish pictures of every bandsaw anymore, but I really that this one is painted in red! http://www.dmpipes.com/pictorial.html Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST Dan Morrison sent me a link to a pictorial description of his pipe making process. over 200 photos! I don't advocate smoking, but the process of making these is interesting. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/cr_wheels.html Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:40:00 EST Ron Walters's experiments with creating solid wood clock wheels with circumferential and radial grain patterns, including four videos. http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/kutyba.html Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:30:00 EST John Kutyba sent me some pictures of his pantorouter. A really nicely built machine! And a nice workshop too! http://woodgears.ca/shed/build1.html Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:01:00 EST The first two in a series of articles about building a small storage shed for my back yard. I built the shed mostly in pieces on the ground, and assembled it later. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/dust_extraction.html#scrollsaw2 Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:00:00 EST A new video by Ron Walters explaining how he added more comprehensive dust collection on another scrollsaw. http://woodgears.ca/copy_carver/copy_phone.html Mon, 28 May 2012 07:00:00 EST Using my copy carver to copy the shape of a rotary dial telephone. An interesting challenge, especially the handset, which has no flat side. http://woodgears.ca/reader/richard/pantorouter.html Thu, 24 May 2012 11:15:00 EST Richard sent me some pictures of his pantorouter, showing the construction. Also adding an electronic speed controller. http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/bennie.html Thu, 24 May 2012 11:10:00 EST Pictures of Bennie Ketelaar's Pantorouter http://woodgears.ca/copy_carver/index.html Mon, 21 May 2012 07:30:00 EST Two articles and two videos on building my new router copy carving machine. http://woodgears.ca/delta_saw/insert.html#video Mon, 14 May 2012 07:30:00 EST A new video showing how I make zero clearance table saw inserts. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/scissors.html Mon, 14 May 2012 07:30:00 EST Ron Walters on making scissor extending lamps, including several videos. http://woodgears.ca/reader/zimmer/pantograph.html Sun, 13 May 2012 07:30:00 EST Lee Zimmer's 3D pantograph http://woodgears.ca/pantograph/miguel.html Mon, 07 May 2012 07:30:00 EST Miguel Ruiz built a router pantograph which supports the router, like my 3D pantograph does, but mounts plunge router. People often ask if plunge routers can be used in some of my machines. I suppose they can be adapted, although that involves some compromises. http://woodgears.ca/bandmill/misadventure.html Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:30:00 EST Cutting up some more logs with my homemade sawmill. Things don't always go as planned, but I learned a few things. http://woodgears.ca/mobile_base/sibley.html Sun, 29 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST Peter Sibley sent me some pictures of a saw lift based on my design, but using a much heavier table saw. I guess that approach works for larger machines as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrWzIDcXB80 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:55:00 EST Alain Vallaincourt has a two part series on building a router table cabinet. I haven't been posting all his videos here lately, but I really like this one. http://woodgears.ca/box_joint/build_videos.html#2 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:01:00 EST The final two videos of a four video series on building the screw advance box joint jig are now available. http://woodgears.ca/reader/hessam/index.html Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EST Some pictures of Hessam Sane's sculpted rocking chair project. A chair like that involves an incredible amount of work with rasp and sandpaper. http://woodgears.ca/box_joint/build_videos.html Sat, 21 Apr 2012 15:50:00 EST The first two videos of a four video series on building the screw advance box joint jig are now available. http://woodgears.ca/trim/curved.html Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EST Setup for cutting the curved molding, and matching the existing molding by taking multiple passes with a basic router bit set. http://woodgears.ca/trim/layout.html Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:45:00 EST Capturing the curved shape of a window using a camera and my BigPrint program to do the layout for some curved molding http://woodgears.ca/ted/index.html Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:21:00 EST on Monday, a spam was sent around promoting the Ted's woodworking 16,000 plans scam. The spam claimed to be from "wood gears", with a return address of woodgears.ca@gmail.com (not me). This prompted me to dig into this scam a bit. http://woodgears.ca/pantograph/dice.html Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:21:00 EST Carving the classic rounded corners wooden dice shape with the router pantograph http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/mules/index.html Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:21:00 EST Michael Mules's bandsaw build - a very detailed writeup http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/petos/index.html Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:20:00 EST Tamas Petos's wooden bandsaw http://woodgears.ca/misc/april_fools.html Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:21:00 EST How Steve Ramsey and I did the special effects for yesterday's April fools video. http://woodgears.ca/reader/zimmer/bandsaw.html Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:20:00 EST Lee Zimmer sent me lots of photos of his bandsaw build, panotorouter build and tilting router lift build. http://woodgears.ca/misc/skype.html Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:20:00 EST An online woodworking collaboration with Steve Ramsey, of woodworkingformeremortals.com. It's amazing what this new version can do! http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/squeal.html Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:20:00 EST What causes the loud whine while resawing on a bandsaw. I was originally going to cover that in my bandsaw resaw physics article, but it was already a pretty long article without this topic. http://woodgears.ca/box_joint/lundin.html Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:30:00 EST Jim Lundin sent me some pictures of the box joint jig he built, reflecting on how it compares to more conventional box joint jigs. http://woodgears.ca/reader/richard Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:30:00 EST Richard, from Poland, sent me a lot of pictures of his workshop, some of the machines he built, and various projects. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/parallelogram.html Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:35:00 EST I built the parallelogram mechanism that I used in my jointer again, just to test my improved method of making it, and to get some photos and video of the process. http://woodgears.ca/workshop/bill/ Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST I recently met Bill Price, a retired engineer and woodworker in the Ottawa area. He showed me his workshop and some of his inventions, and he was ok with me filming it and posting it onto the site and YouTube. Three videos with the article. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2NalaplhQ Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:35:00 EST Jon Burros sent me a link to a video about his pantorouter that he built, I enjoyed watching this one. Didn't realize I was such a good salesman. Jon is just 16. I hope he will post more videos in the future. http://woodgears.ca/lumber/moisture.html Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:20:00 EST Wagner Meters sent me one of their contactless moisture meters for free, so have been playing around with it, and explaining a bit more about why wood moisture content is so important. http://woodgears.ca/reader/nagel/index.html Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST Not much to say. Pictures tell the story. http://woodgears.ca/bed/nagel.html Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST Andy Nagel's bed, based on my bed from 2x4's bed plan. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/gear_cutting.html Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EST Ron Walters explaining how he cuts his clock gears. Much more careful and methodical than the way I have been cutting my gears. http://woodgears.ca/drill/sharpen.html Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:15:00 EST A reader recently asked me about sharpening drill bits, and looking around, I realized there wasn't anything on the web that I thought was worth recommending, so wrote short article on it. http://woodgears.ca/router_lift/modify_bits.html Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST Using my tilting router lift, I often find the guide bearing really gets in the way, so here's how I flatten the top of a router bit. http://woodgears.ca/table_saw/shirt.html Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST I had the theory that a zero clearance insert would provide some protection if one's shirt got pulled into the table saw, so set out to do some experiments. Turns out the insert makes no difference, for reasons other than I had expected. http://woodgears.ca/reader/jensen/tenon.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:50:00 EST A tenon jig inspired by my Quick-set tenon jig. Like my tenon jig, it has two stops, instead of a dial indicator, it uses a rack and pinion, and the stops are actually on the dial itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIQd_wlp2Gc Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:50:00 EST A reader sent me a link to his very complicated and novel pneumatically driven clock. The author does mention that this invention is not patentable, as patentable inventions must be "useful". But plenty entertaining to watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVf05Gs9gnI Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:15:00 EST Alain Vallaincourt has posted another video on his YouTube channel, this time a longer one, in two parts, about making a Tack box (a sort of chest for horse riding accessories) http://woodgears.ca/router_lift/wilmots.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:20:00 EST Timothy Wilmots's tilting router lift. That paint job sure makes it look nice. Maybe I should paint more of my machines! http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/resaw.html Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:30:00 EST (Sorry - posting this again - had the wrong URL the first time!) From time to time, people ask me for advice about blades drifting while resawing on a bandsaw. So I wrote up an article explaining the physics of it and why the blade has a tendency to wander. http://woodgears.ca/workshop/party.html Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST Recently used my workshop as a party room for a dinner party. A workshop, if cleaned up, makes a great room for an informal dinner party. http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/steel.html Thu, 9 Feb 2012 14:20:00 EST Kuldeep Singh posted some pictures of his pantorouter made from steel on woodgears.ca facebook page. He graciously allowed meto put together a short article about it for woodgears.ca http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/pingear.html Mon, 6 Feb 2012 07:30:00 EST Ron Walters's experiments with making lantern and ring gear combination. Very neat looking gear! http://woodgears.ca/tv/index.html Mon, 6 Feb 2012 07:30:00 EST A bit about shooting the TV episode of the local TV show Regional Contact about woodgears.ca. The show aired locally in October and January. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/planer_sharpener.html Sun, 5 Feb 2012 10:20:00 EST Showing how to use one of those planer blade sharpening machines. http://woodgears.ca/home/stair_treads.html Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST Installing some new stair treads on top of the old stairs at a friend's place. Turned out nice, but more involved than the stair and riser kits made it look. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/pipe.html Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST A method for making long hollow tubing out of wood. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/accuracy.html Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST After six months, and a change of seasons and corresponding change in humidity, time to give the homemade jointer a checking over to see if it's still accurate. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/rick/index.html Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST Based on my bandsaw version 2, with some modifications, such as using the upper wheel mount from my 14" bandsaw design. http://woodgears.ca/reader/pekka/bandsaw.html Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:31:00 EST Pekka Svinhufvud sent me some pictures of bandsaws he built back in 2006, including a write up on how he built his second bandsaw. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/glue.html Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST After discovering that plywood nicks jointer knives, I was curious to see if the wood glues I normally use might also cause problems. http://woodgears.ca/horizontal_boring/reuter.html Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST Carlo Reuter sent me some pictures of his very nicely built horizontal boring jig. http://woodgears.ca Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:30:00 EST It seems that google reader is not picking up every story from my RSS feed. For example today's story just didn't appear in google reader. Sorry, I have no insight into how google reader works, so I don't know how to debug this. http://woodgears.ca/router_lift/index.html Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST Built a tiltable router lift. This really opens up some possibilities for making molding using inexpensive router bit sets. http://woodgears.ca/reader/rt_condo.html Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:45:00 EST Rebecca Thornley sent me pictures of the pantorouter she built. She lives in a condo and doesn't have a "workshop", so the dining room has to make do. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/plywood.html Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST My homemade jointer did a nice job of cleaning up edges of birch plywood... Until I discovered a series of nicks that exactly matched the plywood http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/winder.html Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST A neat little gadget for winding wooden clocks using a cordless screwdriver. http://woodgears.ca/tenon/opie.html Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Harlan Opie sent me some picutres of the quick set tenon jig he built. Some clever mods for mounting and unmounting a caliper. http://woodgears.ca/jointer/mike/ Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST Mike Bourbonnais sent me some pictures and a writeup about building his jointer, which is based on my homemade jointer design. A nicely built machine! http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/wheeler/more.html Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:20:00 EST Jim Wheeler sent me some pictures of an update of his massive 18" bandsaw, adding an equally massive set of trunions to allow the table to tilt. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/trunions.html Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST I went into a lot of details on bandsaw construction with my 14-inch bandsaw series. But one thing that series didn't cover is trunions (the 14" doesn't have any), so I went into that in some more detail with this article and video. http://woodgears.ca/sketchup/ Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST Four tutorial videos on getting started with Google Sketch. http://woodgears.ca/sander/kyle.html Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST Kyle Scott sent me some photos of his homemade belt/disk sander that he built for a total of $15 in material costs. http://woodgears.ca/cottage/foundation.html#icelens Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:25:00 EST Came a cross some "ice lensing" while raking my yard. Ice lensing is a very interesting formation of ice that can open up whole layers of ice within the soil, accounting for most of what we know as frost heaving. http://woodgears.ca/pantograph/circles.html Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST A neat way to cut small circles with a router. Using the techniques to make some round lids for glass containers I use in the kitchen. http://woodgears.ca/reader/jensen/ Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:00 EST Lars Jensen writes about his experiments modifying his dust extractor and his shop-vac to use a thien baffle. A Thien baffle works much like a cyclone separator, but is flat instead of conical. http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/dust_extraction.html Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST Four videos by Ron Walters showing how to optimize the dust collection efficiency on some of his stationary machines. http://woodgears.ca/tool_holders/zimmerman.html Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST David Junior and Jean Lana, from Brazil, were inspired by my "a clever tool chest hinge" article, and designed and built some very clever worksite tool chests http://woodgears.ca/gear/laser.html Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:21:00 EST I had the opportunity to try out a laser cutting at Ottawa's ArtEngine lab. Made a video, naturally. http://woodgears.ca/reader/contreras/index.html Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:50:00 EST A format style table saw, using a handheld circular saw as the motor unit. http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/cnc.html Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:20:00 EST An experiment to see who can cut a gear faster - me on my bandsaw, or Michael on his CMC mill http://woodgears.ca/mm2/sanders.html Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST Brian Sanders sent me pictures of his version of marble machine 2.1 Based on my plans, yet using very different methods to build. Beautiful machine! http://woodgears.ca/lathe/homemade.html Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST Beri used the head from a small drill press as the headstock for his homemade lathe. Cheaper than buying a lathe. http://woodgears.ca/sander/beri.html Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST A simple disk sander built using a motor from a concrete mixer http://woodgears.ca/cider/index.html?r Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:20:00 EST I built another apple grinder, similar to a previous one I built in 2003, but this time taking lots of photos and video of the construction, with a detailed writeup. http://woodgears.ca/reader/alain/index.html Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:05:00 EST Alain Vaillancourt sent me some pictures of some of the jigs he built from his plans. He's also made a nice video of building his clamp rack (further down in the article) in English and French. http://lumberjocks.com/armand/blog/26345 Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:25:00 EST I thought I was crazy when I built my own jointer, but Armand Pedroza just sent me a link to his own shopmade jointer, loosely based on my design, which he posted about on lumberjocks.com http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/reader.html Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:00:00 EST Pictures of two more reader bandsaws, and some notes about their experiences: Luis Segura Yupari's bandsaw, and Dave NOrton's bandsaw http://woodgears.ca/mortise/drillpress.html Sun, 06 Nov 2011 09:10:00 EST A simple technique for mortising on the drill press. The key is a short bit, and rigid clamping. http://woodgears.ca/router_table/ Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EDT Pictures of Dejan Kovac's router table. Dejan also sent me the cad model for his router table, so I have spent some time turning those into a free set of plans.