Episode 70 – 36” or 52” Table Saw?, Sander Vibration, Wax Removal, & MUCH More!

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Sean

1) Hi all, greetings from Australia. Love the show and appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge with people like me who are just starting out. I have a question about router dust collection. I have recently built a router table and am looking at the dust collection. I have a router lift and round body router installed I am waiting for the port to come for the fence dust collection, but have a question for under table dust collection. What do you recommend here? I have seen something from milescraft called a dust router 1501 that  has a router fence and router dust collection. Currently the router is mounted on a router lift which technically will sit inside a space covered by a door. Any advice welcome - Jamie

2) I just bought a new house with some property and it has

A big detached 2 car garage that will be my new shop. I was planning to get a Laguna Fusion F2 to upgrade my dewalt jobsite tablesaw, but they are backordered until August. I can still find Sawstops in my area so it looks like I'll plop the extra money and save my life. At this point the 52 inch fence is only $100 more than the 36 inch

In your opinion is the 52 worth the money and extra space or is the 36 big enough, I mostly build custom furniture but will be doing all the cabinets in the new house remodel, bathrooms and kitchen as well as bed frames, a master closet, building etc. So a mix of sheet goods and hardwood builds.

I don't have a track saw, I use a circular saw with the bora NGX strait edge system to roughly break sheet goods now.

 

Thanks for the great show I learn so much.

 

Will @ Oleksy wood works

 

Guy

1)I have a question about Festool sanders.  I currently use a delwalt 5" random orbit sander that works well enough.  I have it hooked up to a shop vac that I run with a standard filter and a hepa filter at the same time.  This results in no dust coming out of the vacuum, and it gets most of the dust from sanding coming off the sander itself.  I still have to wipe down my work after sanding which I don't mind.

I recently built a desk and had to sand vertical surfaces for the first time and was surprised at how much harder this was and how numb my hand was afterwards.  It was pretty miserable.

I have the chance to upgrade to a Festool sander and I see several different used models for sale locally.  I was leaning towards the RO 125 because of its versatility but have read that it can be difficult to handle and can vibrate more in random orbit mode than the sanders specifically designed for random orbit sanding like the ETS.

Will one of the Festool sanders actually leave a better finish than my dewalt?  If so, is it better to go with the RO 125 because of its versatility or will a dedicated random orbit sander have less vibration?  Will I see a difference in finish between the RO 125 and an ETS 125?

I am somewhat new to woodworking but I am fortunate enough to have a well outfitted shop.  I have been working on smaller projects like boxes and shoe racks.  I'd like to get into building more desks, tables, cabinets, and doors.  I don't really strip or refinish furniture, so I may not have a need for the material removal capabilities of the RO 125? Thanks Julio

2)  Hello, I've been a fan of the podcast since the beginning and thought I'd finally submit a question. So, I plan to make one of those bath tub trays for my soon to be wife. It will be made with 1 inch thick purple heart wood with various little slots and grooves and routed out sections to place a wine glass, hold a phone or book, put a candle on that sort of thing. My question is what would the best finish be for something like this that is always going to be used on a bathtub and be exposed to water every time it's used even if it's only for short periods of time. I've basically only ever used typical stain and brush on poly/varnish for my projects, but wouldn't mind using a satin oil finish for the look. What do you guys think is the best finish for such a thing? Thanks - Brendon

 

Huy

1) Jonas from Germany here! Love the podcast and the wealth of Know-how you guys provide!

Since you’ve been asking for questions, here is mine:

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around wood movement in general and more specifically around keeping wood straight while still allowing for movement. I am in the midst of building my workbench right now and a couple of questions have come up. I know that wood moves mainly across its width. Is that still the case if you flip  a bunch of boards 90 degrees and glue their face sides together, as is often done for workbench tops? Not sure if that would mean that the top now moves mainly in its thickness or width.

Also, If i wanted  to build my workbench more like a mft (but from solid wood)  with aprons on all sides and less like a traditional workbench.  What would I have to look out for regarding grain direction and wood movement? I guess the long sides/aprons  are not the problem as they Would be Long grain, just like the top. What about the short aprons?

2)  Hello  Guy, Huy and Sean. Over the summer I made one the nesting serving trays from a plan in Fine Woodworking. I used paste wax as my finish. It looked great and really brought out the character in the mahogany. Then I used it for it’s intended purpose on a camping trip. It was much more convenient than bringing the cooking ingredients from the camper to the grill, then I put the plates with the warm food on it to bring to the table. The heat melted the wax. Did I just ruin my piece by using wax as the only finish? Is there a way to remove it and put something more durable on like lacquer or shellac? Is there any finish that I could put over the wax if I fix the affected areas? If I have to remake it, I have enough mahogany left over, but I’m cheap and I ran out of waxed cotton threads for the handles... help me Wood shop life, you’re my only hope!! -Joshua