Sawmill Creek Woodworking Community Forum

I admit I am a complete amateur when it comes to getting a good finish and the harder I try the greater the frustration. I was asked to build a harvest table from maple which was supplied to me. Back story , her husband fell the trees on the farm, had an ex brother in law mill it, and the got cancer and you know that story. So the worst thing was the lumber was stored horribly. There wasn't a single board in the whole pile that wasn't twisted. That doesn't factor into my current problem... Read more

If you ask most woodworkers what a scratch awl is used for, they will likely say, "scribing lines along wood grain and creating starter indentations to keep drill bits from wandering". There is a third and, in my opinion, the most important reason to own and use a scratch awl. If you value precision work, you will use a scratch awl for marking out. Consider using a knife to mark a point on a tape or ruler ... The problem is that it often... Read more

I have a friend with a little skill 7-1/4" sliding miter saw. Does anyone know if there are any decent negative rake blades out there for saws that small? It only took 25 years of cutting with miter saws for me to learn about using negative rake blades on sliding saws... and know that I know, its what I generally recommend for them. It's amazing what they do to make the saw less grabby and prone to misbehaving. otherwise, what is the best cutoff blade for a saw like that, mostly cutting... Read more

Bubbles continue to form on the clapboard, but only on a portion of one side of the house. This side of the house does get sun for half the day, and it is facing toward a back channel of a river, but is one house in from th back channel. Back of the house get full sun, but no bubbles. Paint used is Benjamin Moore Regal Low Luster. Painter has returned and scraped bubbles off, primed them with Extreme Bond Primer, sanded them, and repainted. Some, but not all of the bubbles, still return... Read more

Bad Axe miter saw. White oak handle. Small. Used once. $265 shipped CONUS.

Purchased in 2022 and never used. 55 degree frog for no. 4 1/2, 5 1/2, 6 and 7 bench planes. $100 shipped CONUS.

Bad Axe tenon saw. Walnut handle. Purchased during Mark Harrell’s ownership of company. 18” filed rip (not hybrid). Originally I had it filed hybrid with a regular handle. I sent it back and had it filed rip and changed the handle to small. And never used it since. $275 shipped CONUS.

Note: I did NOT make this table! My good friend Paul Menchhofer, (artist, woodturner, world-class potter, and occasional furniture maker) designed and built it. All I did was loan some tools, give him some ebony for the wedges, and help him get the finished piece off the workbench! I thought some here might be interested. This dining table is 8' long, ambrosia maple. The legs are attached by long 3/4" maple dowels glued and wedged with ebony. To align the holes he drove a 3/4"... Read more

We had a couple power surges and an outage last night. Our modem/router didn't survive. It was a Netgear N600. Been looking for a replacement and my head hurts. Spectrum recently upgraded our service to 1G. It's still cable not fiber. Can I get by with a Netgear RAX 5 for about $60 or do I need one of the fancier units that are $200. I've read some about DOCSIS 3.1 but have no idea if I need it. I don't mind the $60 but would rather not spend $200.

Walnut box with inlaid lid. The grooves for the top and bottom panels were cut on the cnc router: Built this machine and control about a year ago, cuts aluminum beautifully. Back to the box. . . The pockets for the inlay pieces were cut on the Creality Falcon 2 40W diode laser. Holds depth very nicely. No picture for that machine, it just sits in a big MDF box to control the smoke. The inlays are 3D printed. They are solid, about 1.6mm thick. The pockets are... Read more

Just a long rant about my first experience working with kitchen cabinets... My house is six years old and was a "spec house". The builder built it without a buyer and chose all the options. The cabinets the builder chose look nice. They have a dark finish called "Sarsaparilla". Unfortunately, they are the typical builder grade cabinets made from low end particle board stapled together. Most problematic are some of the drawers. Four of them are very wide; about 26". It's nice to have large... Read more