http://woodgears.ca/ An engineer's woodworking site http://woodgears.ca/copy_carver/index.html 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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/ 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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/ 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 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 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/ 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 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 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 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/ 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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/ 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.