Hackintosh 1
Recently I installed the Mac OS onto a generic PC. While there were a few struggles (and I talk about them in my podcast), it really is a great OS. Everyday I seem to learn something new. I actually started out with a Mac Plus and then came back to it when Apple came out with clones. And here I am again!
Enjoy!
To see the rest of the pictures go here.
I know it’s been quite a while since I have updated my site but there have been a ton things going on. The biggest thing from a website perspective is that I have moved everything to a new server. The original server was over five years old and it was starting to die.
I have noticed that since moving the server the website serves up pages in blinding speed. Before the move it took about 16 seconds to bring up a page. Now it take less than a second. I thought it was version or configuration related but obviously that’s not the case.
The thing that’s has me buzzing is that I managed to successfully migrate the server from a physical server to a virtual one and everything worked great! I will talk about the steps that I used and some caveats soon enough. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the improved performance.
In addition, I bought a lathe and have started to turn pens; our bathroom is now completed so I can post pictures soon; and there are a bunch of projects that I have completed that I need to upload pictures for. Having a website that actually works will reinspire me to post more and post more often.
If you are a beginning wooodworker, it can be tricky to know where to start and what to get. Obviously the biggest thing starts with tools. I think everyone already thinks there is an endless supply of money. Go to any woodworking forum and ask what tablesaw you should get with $300. People will completely bypass your budget and say spend the money on a $600-$1000 tablesaw. What if wanted to purchase a jointer? Everyone will tell you to purchase an 8″ jointer. But what if you only have $300 to spend? This almost instantly makes it near impossible to get an 8″ jointer.
So with the limited budget of a beginner in mind, I thought I would compile a list of tools to get a the beginning woodworking.
Ryobi BT3100 $300
Random Orbital Sander $ 70
Workbench with Vise $150
Measuring Tape $10
12 Inch Square $30
Electric Drill $50
Clamps $100
Router $150
Router Bits Kit $100
Shop Vac $70
Total $1,030
I owned the Ryobi BT3100 and thought for the money it was a great saw. It will not cut 2″ or 3″ hardwood all day but it has a decent fence, a sliding miter table, and comes with a decent blade to get you started.
At this price point you cannot dimension your own lumber which will cost you more when you purchase your wood but you should be able to build the majority of items you see plans for.
Upgrade #1 - Bandsaw
If there is anything I would get next it would be a bandsaw. I use my bandsaw as much as any other tool in my arsenal. A 14″ bandsaw with at least a 3/4 hp motor would be the minimum. If you can afford a riser block, get it. For me, resawing was the biggest reason to get a bandsaw. But it can do so much more.
Upgrade #2 - Jointer/Planer
Starting with the bandsaw and moving to the Jointer and Planer, I say start to save up your money to get “the good stuff”. I bought the Ryobi 9″ Bandsaw, a 6″ Benchtop Jointer, and a low end Delta planer. I hated them all. The Ryobi Bandsaw was just too small to do any of the tasks I needed it to do. The Delta TP-305 Planer was a snipe monster. I have a Mastercraft 6″ Jointer which barely does the job. I have since replace the bandsaw and the planer with equipment that does what I need it to. If I had the money, I would replace the jointer as well. If you have already spent the $1000 and decided that woodworking was for you, it now starts to make sense to get good equipment that you won’t outgrow immediately and will last as long as you stay with your craft.
This all said, I would get a jointer and a planer at this point. These tools in combination with the bandsaw allow you dimension rough lumber for your projects. This can save you a ton of money.
Upgrade #3 - Jigs
There are a lot of contenders here.
Kreg Pocket Hole Jig
The first jig I purchased was a Kreg pocket hole jig. If you are new to woodworking, you are going to want to start building something quickly but with a sense of quality. The Kreg jig will let you do this. This jig lets you create a strong joint without a lot of clamps. They are very easy to master and do not require the type of precision that dovetails, mortise and tenons, or the rest of the assorted joints require. I can do a lot more now and so I don’t rely on the pocket hole as much as I first did. That said, there is rarely a project that I don’t use this jig on.
Dowelmax
Dowelmax is a dowel jig. I consider this a step up from the Kreg Jig. It does require a certain amount of precision but it doesn’t leave holes in your project like pocket holes. It costs about twice as much as a full Kreg kit but it can improve the overall build quality of the projects you produce without that much more complexity.
Biscuit Joiner
I have started to use biscuits a lot lately. They are another joinery method which is easy to use. The biggest negative to using them is the requirement for clamps. However, if you are going to be in woodworking you’re going to need clamps sometime. Typically anything that will get butt jointed has the potential to use biscuits.
After this, you’ll begin to figure out what you need based on the type of projects you enjoy making. If you’re a cabinet maker, maybe you need a dovetail or dado jig. I didn’t mention how useful a router table can be. And there is something incredibly satisfying about using a hand plane to create “shavings”.
PS - I actually wrote this while on vacation in Mazatlan this past March. I believe that Ryobi has since discontinued the BT3100. You can find them used fairly easily but next on the list would be the Ridgid TS3650 10″ Table Saw. This will add a bit more to the overall budget but I think it’s a good saw for the money (in US funds).
With the new equipment cabinet completed, I could go to work on getting the rest of the shop cleaned and organized. I moved a bunch of stuff to the shed or outside on the side of the house. I then proceeded to sweep, vacuum and dust. Since I don’t have an air filtration system in the shop I routinely open up the garage doors and blow out the dust with the air compressor (a trick I saw at the Wood Whisperer).
A (Reasonably) Clean Shop
A Clean Shop 2
Next up on the list is to make another cabinet for under the workbench. I still have a bunch of small tools that I would like to organize.
I can’t tell you what a difference a clean shop makes to my mindset when I go out there. With a few more tweaks I am hopeful I will be able to keep it this way.
Happy Veteran’s Day!
Tim
The last two months or so, the shop has been a mess. Partly this is due to not having a place to put all of my lumber but the bigger part is I have had no place to put the larger equipment. Recently in one of the woodworking magazines they built a shop cabinet that housed the same type equipment I was trying to organize. They built it with spruce and peg board. I had some left over melamine (melamine that just happened to match all of the other cabinets in the shop) so I went to work with a design. The biggest decision was how wide to make it. The widest piece that I planed on putting in the cabinet was my sander. It measured 30 inches. I did want it to be too tight so I added 2 inches. The depth is 24.5 inches and the height is 70 inches. With this out of the way, it was pretty easy to create a cut list.
Now how to put this all together? I just bought the Dadowiz at the Calgary Woodworking Show but decided to hold on using it. I could have used biscuits or pocket holes. Melamine does glue to itself so biscuits were out. Pocket holes would have worked but I thought dowels would be stronger. I have a few dowel jigs but the ones I considered for this project were the Dowelmax and the Veritas 32 Cabinet set. I must say that working with the Veritas 32 was a little frustrating in the last project but I thought I would give it another try. I did try to use the Dowelmax in this project but because the basic jig is an inch (I believe) and the melamine sheets were 5/8″ it was too frustrating to try and compensate.
Drilling Holes with the Veritas 32 System
If you get this jig aligned correctly, it works great but in the last project it took forever to get everything aligned. And in the worse case scenario, it wound up horribly off. This time instead of just relying on the gauge head I also used some Trim Gauges. I purchased these at the Calgary Woodworking Show as well. While in my mind they were a bit overpriced, they were extremely helpful in making sure I had the correct alignment throughout the piece. I would get a good measurement with the Veritas Head Gauge and then follow this up with the Brumley Trim Gauge. This sped up the process immensely. I still want to build some specific jigs to go along with this tool but the Trim Gauges worked really well until I get this done.
(Note: I was off about 1/8″ for the whole project which for shop equipment I can live with.)
Veritas Head Gauge and Brumley Trim Gauge
Drilling all of the holes took a couple of hours which I then followed up with ironing on the edge banding for the case. I should mention I used Pocket Holes for the foot boards. With the case upright you can’t see them and they were easier to use then dowels would have been for the two bottom boards.
Viola!
The Completed Cabinet
With the cabinet complete was I able to instantly improve the size of my shop. All of the large portable tools now have a place to live with easy access to the workbench when they are needed. There is really no artwork to making this but I did get better working with the Veritas 32 System which will serve me when I want to use it next.
In the latest Wood Magazine they had a plan for an Ikebana Vase. It looked great and didn’t look it would take long to do.
Ikebana Vase
It actually took a couple of days to do. As is now my practice, I started by making two. One is the practice one and the other should end up as the final.
One thing that really helped was the Wixey Digital Angle Gauge. It’s so easy to set the correct angle — in this case 45 degrees. This makes for better and more accurate joints. I have a jig for doing 45 degree cuts on the table saw however it was always an uncomfortable cut. The table saw is a left tilt one so in the past I would make some cuts on the left side and other on the right side. One small change I made was to use the jig in the right miter slot. This allowed all the cuts to be made on the right side of the blade. This ends up being much safer and much easier to duplicate cuts.
I am very pleased with the way this turned out and have more wood cut to make another two (just in time for Christmas :).
Enjoy!
