So, a number of people have requested that I
do another work shop tour video.
But not much has changed in the work shop since I did
the last one, 2 years ago. So, on this one
I'll focus more on some specific machines and just
explain how I use them. So, here we've got
my main area. And this is sort of like your kitchen work space.
And much like you have a sort of a kitchen triangle idea
where you want a certain amount of distance that should
be not too much and not too little between
your fridge, your stove, and your sink.
To me, the triangle is the tablesaw, the bandsaw,
and the drill press. And, of course, the work bench
which would be like the counter space.
So, this drill press, it's actually a pretty cheap one from
Canadian Tire. Sometimes people ask me, "What are
the specs for it?" and what not.
I don't know. It's not a very
good one. Maybe 1/3rd horsepower.
I don't even have a drill press table on it.
I actually find that sort of thing very awkward
because I end up moving this table up and down a lot.
So, I wouldn't really want anything to get in the way.
And for a backing, I just use a piece of wood.
And just drill holes in that and when it gets too many
holes in it, I flip it over.
Except I've got holes in this side
already. And it's important to me that I can swing this
table out of the way because sometimes
I need to work on the edge of something long so I'll
swing it off to the side. So I get more support that way.
And sometimes I even have to drill right off the edge
for complicated work pieces.
So, no drill press table for me.
You won't see an article on a drill press table from me.
Next we have the bandsaw.
And, of course, I really like this bandsaw because it's
one that I built.
The coolest feature about that one, that's not available
on commercial ones is that the dust all falls inside.
So it doesn't make a mess and you don't have to spin up
the dust collector every time because
that tends to take about 5 seconds before it spins up.
Cool feature about that is I have a sawdust drawer.
So, if I need to clean up some glue squeeze-out,
I always have bandsaw sawdust in this drawer.
And it's continuously resupplied.
Next we have a tablesaw. This is
a Delta hybrid tablesaw, so it looks like a nice
cabinet maker saw. But it's actually built underneath
more like a contractor saw. The only difference is
the motor's on the inside, instead of out the back.
And that means the dust falls into the saw
which is very nice. Quality-wise,
it's about the quality
of a contractor saw. I've had to do a little bit of
tweaking to this one, but now it cuts
to my satisfaction. And it was much easier to get
down here than a cabinet maker saw.
I use the tablesaw with a
tablesaw sled almost exclusively.
I hardly ever use the miter gauge
unless I need to cut a miter.
So, I use that for all cross-cuts.
And that sort of serves as my sliding table.
Sometimes people ask me about building sledding tables
and such. I don't think I'll ever build one because
this solution works really well. I've put like 10 foot
long pieces of lumber on this sled.
And because I've got a really long
cold-ruled steel runner on here,
it's quite sturdy.
So that works for larger work pieces.
If I need to do work on more intricate work pieces,
I'll take the sled out of the way.
And I have another sled
This one is more like a typical table saw sled that
people make. And this is for
small parts. It supports on both sides.
I don't need to make this very large because
if I have large work pieces, I can just use those on my
other slide. And I use that sled quite a lot.
It's very handy.
OK, now moving to the back of the shop,
where I have machines that I don't use quite as often.
So back here I've got my scroll saw.
Which is actually a pretty decent one.
Variable speed, I bought it at a yard sale.
I hardly ever use it. Sometimes people ask me
"Are you ever gonna build a scroll saw?"
I've already got one and I only use it if I absolutely have to.
So, scroll saws are not my thing and I'm not
planning on building one.
It's standing on top of my lather, which I use that
a few times a year.
Most of the time it serves as a stand for
machines that I don't use very much.
Like the scroll saw and the extra little drill press.
Here we have the belt sander that I actually use quite a lot.
Just for sanding things flat.
I don't really have much of a disc sander.
Just a little thing on here.
So, anytime I need to flatten something, I use this.
Or maybe the table here.
And I don't have a spindle sander so any curve
I need to sand, I'll use this part, which has got the
rubber backing with the roller.
So, that sander I use a fair bit.
I have an opening for my dust extractor.
And to let air in there, I just pull this container out
of the hole. So, very sophisticated valve on there.
Then we have a little strip sander I bought just because
I got it really cheap and cost me less than 50 dollars new.
Surprisingly. And it's got a disc sander on there
which I have never actually used.
But the strip sander part is extremely handy for
basically smoothing the faces of gears.
That's what I bought it for and it's the perfect
tool for that job. Next I've got my jointers.
So I've got my 6 inch Powermatic jointer that I bought
more than 10 years ago. And I still really like this machine.
Because it's quite quiet. And then we have
my homemade jointer, which is much more capable
in terms of handling really wide cuts.
It also has a really long bed.
But it can't do revelings, for example.
My main dislike about the homemade jointer is
that it's very loud. So, let's do a bit of a
sound comparison. So, I'm gonna flip this one on and
this one and you'll get a sense of how much louder it is.
So, turning this one on.
It's kind of loud but you can still hear me talk.
Now I'm really have to yell.
I'm gonna turn this one off.
So as this one was going, you couldn't even hear the
other jointer. It's that loud because it's based on the guts
from one of these small thickness planers.
And those thickness planers, they use
universal motor. And those motors, unfortunately,
are always really loud. Just like this one.
(Inaudible)
So, next we have my homemade Pantorouter machine
over here. Let me just move this out of the way.
That's the nice thing about a light homemade jointer
is I can wheel it around.
And this machine is for mortising tenon joints.
But the funny thing is, I haven't
actually built anything,
any sort of furniture lately. Mostly I've been building
little machines and stuff like that.
And mortise and tenon joints are mostly for furniture.
So, I haven't actually been using this machine
very much lately. But it is a very handy machine.
I keep in here a lot of accessories in the cabinet.
And this sort of roller on the cabinet is also a cool idea.
I built this cabinet actually originally before my slot
mortising machine so it fits both machines.
And the machines kind of interlock in here.
2 marbles that are stuck in holes.
And when I put the machine on here,
It catches the marbles and locks it in place, so it doesn't
slide off. So that's actually
a very cool idea. I didn't want to have a pin sticking out
the top of the cabinet, just in case I wanted to use it for
something else, so I can take the marble out.
And then I can put something else on it.
After I built the Pantorouter, while there is actually
a router Pantograph on here. A lot of people ask me if
that could be used for making letters and
carving type of things. So, my next
creation after the Pantorouter, was my router Pantograph.
And the cool thing about that machine is it doesn't
take up a lot of space.So my router Pantograph
is in here.
And when I'm not using it, I just pull all of the pins
out of the links and all the pieces actually fit in here.
I don't have a dedicated base for it, so I just always
put the parts in the drawer.
Like this. This is the main link that mounts the router
for example. And it already fits in there.
It's a fairly compact machine.
Sometimes people ask if it can cover things that are
meter by meter and no it can't, because that would be
a gigantic machine. But the machine actually does
manage to span
this whole tray with the follower. So I can put
my letter templates in here and
the Pantograph, at least the follower link, can actually
follow something that large.
Of course any sign that you're gonna carve is gonna be
reduced by a factor of 2, so it would be this wide.
You can scale this machine up a little bit if you multiply
all the links.But you don't want to scale
on it by a factor of 2 because it gets too sloppy.
So I showed off some half scale copy carving with
the Pantograph machine. And after that
a lot of people asked, "How do I set the Pantograph
to 1 to 1?" because they wanted to
copy 1 to 1 objects. But with the Pantograph like that
it can only reduce, it cannot do 1 to 1. So,
you cannot use the Pantograph as a copy carver.
But people asked enough about copy carvers
that I eventually decided to build one.
So, here we have my copy carving machine.
which I built just recently.
And it's based on parallel motion so we have the
router here and the follower here.
And you can move side to side, up and down
and you can also tilt. And then we can move
back and forth.
So this allows some nice copying
and with the tilting of the router you can get at
it from different angles which really
improves the flexibility of what you're doing.
Now a copy carver, unfortunately,
is always gonna be
a fairly bulky sort of prospect because the copy carver
has to be at least twice as wide as whatever
maximum size object you're gonna copy.
So, if you want to put an object this wide on it,
you have to be able to put the original here,
the object here, and then you still need room for the rails.
So, it's gonna be a bulky machine.
I originally designed this machine to have it's own
plywood base but then I realized I don't actually need
to have a dedicated plywood base for this machine.
Because I can just clamp the rails to any sort of
workbench or surface so I just clamped it to my old
tablesaw here and clamped another piece of plywood
to mount the stock to. So the whole thing is actually
not really that bulky. So, to take the whole thing down,
I just have to take the router out here.
And I'm taking the counter-weights out.
And now we just have
this thing here, which is really not that much bulk.
So this is essentially the core of my copy carving machine.
And once I've stored it that way,
all I've got is
And once I've stored it that way, all I've got is
these 2 rails and a piece of scrap plywood. So
the copy carving machine is really not something that
requires a lot of storage space.So, it's actually
much better than the commercial units in that way
in that you don't have to dedicate a lot of workshop space
to the copy carving machine.
So, with my copy carver taken off the table
I have the tablesaw back and the other thing
I use this table saw for is to put my router lift on the
extension wing. I've already got a router lift on the
right side of my other tablesaw. So, when I designed
this tilting router lift, I had to put it on this one.
And that's very handy because it's mobile.
And ideally I would have a dedicated router table for
tilting router lift but, I just don't have the room for it
in my workshop. So mounting it on here works just
fine.
And, of course, it can be used straight too.
So, this tablesaw is on a mobile base.
So I can roll it around.
And I actually made a video about this mobile base.
The cool thing is the saw right now is lifted on the base
and I've got a lever here and when I put that down,
now these wheels are loose and the saw is actually on it's
legs. So that's the ultimate way of locking the saw in place.
Very handy to move the saw around, although I have to
admit that most of the time I don't bother locking it.
Because if I'm just doing light work, it's not like the saw
is gonna move on me.
Behind me, another mobile tool.
My bandsaw. And this one is actually just
on top of a dolly. This is my first homemade bandsaw
and it's kind of an obsolete machine in some ways
because I have a much better design of bandsaw now.
But I still use this bandsaw because it's my only 18 inch
bandsaw. It's got a really big motor on it.
So, I never run out of power. So, even though
I've got better designs, the saw still works just fine.
And, the fact is the mobile base is very handy.
Because a lot of times I'll cut something large
and I'll hit a wall, so I might be cutting along and hit
the wall, take the saw while it's running,
move it around just so I can get clearance.
A saw on wheels that moves around can be maybe a
little bit unsafe because they can, maybe move
unexpectedly. But I've so often moved the saw
right while it's running because I needed more room, so
it's actually kind of a handy feature. People have
sometimes also asked me about a re-saw fence
for the bandsaw, about building a special one.
But, I've actually got a really nice solution. So...
Long way back here I've got the re-saw fence.
When I originally made that fence, I made it like this.
And then I found that if I stuck it in here, that's a
really good spot for it. Only problem is
the next time I wanted to use a re-saw fence
all I could remember was that I found a really good spot
for it but I couldn't remember where it was.
So it was only by chance that I found it again
because when I was looking for it, it just doesn't look like
it's a separate part. It looks like it's part of the bandsaw.
This re-saw fence can be used in 2 ways.
So, if I wanted to re-saw something really high,
I'll put it on here, like so.
And it's got a bit of a notch here for the blade guide to
fit into if I don't need to go quite as high.
And then for less tall objects, if I only want to re-saw
something that's this high, it's best to have the blade guide
closer to the blade so, for less higher cuts
I just flip it over. And now I can come down much
further with the blade guide.
So, that's a really handy way to use a re-saw fence.
And I just attach that to the table with clamps.
I don't do that much re-sawing and if I do, I don't need to
move the fence that much. So, that's my re-saw
fence. I don't think I'll ever build a better one because
this one does the job.
So, back here I've got a machine that I have not been
using that much lately. This is my
slot mortising machine.
And I made a stand for it on top of another machine
that I really don't use very much, which is my
horizontal boring machine. So, I'm using the
horizontal boring machine, which is down here
as a stand for my slot mortising machine.
So I've got it locked right now but if I
loosen the knobs for the stops,
then we can move around.
So, the slot mortiser is actually
a really great machine for
cutting mortises. It's better at it than the Pantorouter
is because you don't need a template and it's much
quicker to set up. It's also really handy
to set up 1 machine for mortising and the other machine
for tenoning. So that if you then find you
screwed up a part, you can always go back and
the machines are still set up so, it makes sense
to have both machines. But as I mentioned
just before, I haven't been doing a lot of
furniture with mortise and tenon joints lately
so I haven't been using this machine very much.
And I've got these 2 boards here which make
this whole machine rest on top of
the table for my horizontal boring machine.
And I have not used that machine very much.
The horizontal boring machine is really good for
drilling operations where you would set something up
with the fence and do repeated operations.
But, if I need to drill something really accurately
I will just mark it very
carefully, center-punch the holes,
and then the drill will naturally
fall in the center-punch.
So that I can actually drill more accurately than the
chuck of the drill press. So, I haven't really had
a need to use the horizontal boring machine
very much. And I don't do a lot of series
type operations where I need to make 20 parts.
So, it's not really worth setting up the horizontal
boring machine for a job.
It's a cool machine but unfortunately I don't use it
very much.
So then, back here we've got some more machines.
So, let me just move my tablesaw out of the way.
So, as you can see I don't use these machines very much.
Here's my radial armsaw.
It's really more of a dust gathering machine at this point.
I hardly ever use this machine. I do all the cross-cuts
with a sled on the tablesaw.
So, hardly worth using.
I have a miter saw which I almost never use.
Although I was experimenting with this saw
a little bit recently. Somebody was asking
me about how to do the miter joints if I
want to have something like an octagon. But,
I want the pieces at an angle.
So, I worked out the math for that recently
and the saw is still set for that particular joint.
So that worked our really nicely and I should do
an article on that at some point.
But I haven't got time for it right now.
So that's it for the woodworking machines in my
workshop.
Another very important thing that you don't really see
directly in the videos is the lighting. It's really
hard to get the lighting just right. And you need a lot
of light. So I have a lot of lamps in my workshop
that I can move around, like this one.
Or this is actually a Porter light.
And here's another one. And I just use these
with daylight balanced compact fluorescent bulbs.
I really can't use incandescent lights in here
because incandescents just create
way too much heat. and it would just get way
too warm in here. So, when I'm shooting video
I'll usually have 5 or 6 of these actually going
at the same time. Just to get good even lighting
of what I'm shooting. And that's part of the
magic for making good videos.
It's not how good your camera is. It's how good
your lighting is.
And that's all I can think of in terms of showing my
shop. So, I hope you enjoyed this little tour.
Maybe I'll make another one in a couple years time.
That's all.