Show Notes “Question Time” January 2021
12:41 Introduction
14:16 What are your top five favorite tools?
16:02 Which domestic hardwood is most underused relative to its potential in furniture making?
16:47 How to glue up a workbench top without metal clamps.
18:13 Do you have a preference as to what sort of steel you use in your edge tools?
19:13 For Megan Fitzpatrick: Would you describe how you survive in a hostile testosterone-driven world?
21:32 How do you find your design “voice” in what you create? Is it a natural process? Or is there more intent behind it?
23:36 Do you find much time for furniture projects that you build purely for yourselves?
25:07 Demonstration on riving dry hardwood
28:24 Any obscure modern toolmakers we should be paying attention to?
30:06 What is some of the worst woodworking advice you received?
31:44 How do you get good? How do you progress to the next level?
34:33 Should I buy a combination plane or dedicated planes for grooves and rabbets?
35:51 Chris never seems to back up his work while drilling? How does he prevent blow-out? Are there special bits?
Star-M bits from Workshop Heaven
37:23 Any tips for making a Welsh stick chair into a rocking chair?
38:28 Are there good videos or books on how to take the crispness of your work up to high levels?
40:07 Do you guys miss having people in the shop for classes or open days?
42:11 Can Lost Art Press offer some critique or advice on getting a manuscript ready to publish?
45:07 Can you offer advice on shipping furniture to clients? Building crates? Using LTL services?
46:45 Why are solid-wood drawer bottoms beveled instead or rabbeted?
47:57 Advice for planing out pin knots without tear-out?
49:51 If I have a full set of hand tools, what power tools would you recommend I purchase to make furniture?
51:30 Should I use half-lap joints to join the stretchers to the legs of my workbench?
53:10 How do you find time to shift gears from making furniture to writing?
55:35 What temperature range do you suggest when using hot hide glue?
56:15 When you put a breadboard end on a table, how do you level the breadboard to the tabletop?
57:25 I’m making a field desk and am having trouble with tearout and tool marks on the African mahogany? Any advice?
59:10 What are your favorite woods to use?
1:00:40 What is the minimum air temperature for using your “shop finish” (equal parts varnish, boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits)? Can it be applied outside?
1:02:17 Could you expound on your new children’s books? What age range will they be for?
1:05:29 When I laminate a benchtop, does it matter if the boards are quartersawn, flatsawn or a mix?
1:06:47 What one act of woodworking gives you the most pleasure?
1:07:56 When drawboring a workbench, is there any advantage to using two drawbore pegs instead of one?
1:08:57 What one hand tool would you recommend for a hybrid woodworker?
1:09:20 In your new book on chairmaking, what are some of the tools you find yourself using the most?
1:09:50 Demonstration on making a stick round with handplanes
It works
Actually the sound is pretty decent, no need to apologize.
You are not 2.5 jack planes apart!
I’m in the pod.
seems fine
Dang, Bean ran like hell when you hit that froe!
Will this live video be archived for viewing later?
Yep – and we’ll add “show notes” a bit later today or tomorrow.
Sound was perfect.
This was well done – the cat was the best part – just sayin
Very good thanks for the time!
Excellent live stream session!
Love the informal nature. Sound was just fine. Really.
That was fun!
Well that was fun!
Not at all awful, and more than mildly entertaining. But keep yer pants on, please.
Great job Guys!!
Very informative! Sound is fine.
I rather enjoyed this, and I look forward to the next one.
This was fun and informative, looking forward to next time – thank you!
Will this also be posted? I got a call and missed most of it from 5 favorite hand tools to what power tools…
You can rewatch now (I could at 12:10), but he did say that he would adding timestamps and reposting
It was good to see and hear you both. Nice job.
This was excellent. Thank you both, so much.
I joined about 20 minutes late, so hopefully I can catch the beginning later.
Really, the sound was just great. If I was allowed a request, it would be that you have a closeup for the demo at the end.
Thanks to you both! Very enjoyable. Sound was great.
Really enjoyed it. Loved the banter back and between to two of you.
Sound was fine! Focus was poor (maybe lighting was weak; minimal depth of field?); camera too far from subjects. But thoroughly enjoyable – hope you do many more! Thanks so much.
Thank you for stopping the video before taking your pants off.
Very entertaining and I would like to see more of these. Although I’m no authority on things A/V I thought the sound was fine, but the lighting seemed a bit too dark. Again, great first effort – Thank you for making it!
Thanks, that was fun! Sound quality was excellent. And Bean is faster on three legs than I am on four, or two.
That was great!! Thank you very much.
Sound quality was great. Would have liked a close of Chris working. I’m inspired to get a No. 5 and a router plane now. Awesome work!
Chris and Megan,
I just finished watching your live Q&A and it was fantastic and i would like to say that:
1) Megan, I love Sugar Pine too. I have a mill and was fortunate enough to secure 20,000 BF in Central Washington and mill it. Thank God I love Sugar Pine!
2) AND, I purchased “Grandpa’s Workshop” for my 5 year old Granddaughter for her birthday and spent several sessions reading it with her. Weeks later I introduced her to the Shop. We are ready for more of the same, books and shop. Watching children’s interest and character grow is the most satisfaction i can ever know.
Suffice to say, “Keep up the great work”, it’s surprising how much we all relate even beyond woodworking.
Sincerely,
Robert K.
Great talk, guys. 🙂
Thanks for showing how you use that stepped block, Chris, I had tried to guess and the best I could come up with was an awkward planing stop. Oops, archaeologist fail! I definitely think my next project, after finishing my Dutch-ish toolchest and a major project for the hubby, will be a low bench. The kids always want to hover while I’m at my bench, and this will double as seating when I’m not using it.
Thank you both so much for a most enjoyable hour! And I now know that I should go with single rather than double drawboring pegs, so thanks again!
I hope you will find that this was worth the trouble enough that you will want to repeat it.
Cheers,
Mattias
Instructions were unclear: Sit on a block plane and put shaving in a cat’s bed?
Joking aside, that was a very enjoyable broadcast!
This was really great, please keep doing these.
Also I think you’ve convinced me I can sell my lathe.
Have you watched the Jenny Alexander chair video? Well worth it. She designed her chair and process to be done without a lathe.
Watched the whole thing with out falling asleep! Good job!
Well done! Exactly what I hoped it would be. Time well spent. Only suggestion – you need more cats.
There are 5 cats here – the legal limit for the county (seriously). Bean is the only one who spend significant time in the shop.
Worked out really well. Like many others, I thought that the sound was perfect. Next time, maybe zoom in on you guys a little bit more. Come on, don’t be shy, you guys look great!
Informative, folksy, friendly. Good job by both. Froe splitting of the KD piece and pointers about the grain was helpful. Demo of rounding the piece on the bench was helpful. So, it was a good thought to intersperse dialog with simple demos. I hope you find it to be a good business decision to continue your live sessions. Next time, how about burgers on the grill with chilled Braxton? Unfortunately, covid19 will be with us for a long time.
Next one will be be all demonstrations.
Sheesh, it seems like the whole country is demonstrating.
Hey, thanks for this!
I enjoyed it myself. Was down to earth and to the point. Sound was totally fine to me.
To Bean: “If that thing had nine lives, she just spent them all” movie quote…
Enjoyed it! Very entertaining and I learned too. Looking forward to the next one.
This was very enjoyable, please keep it up. I never go away from a Chris or Megan talk without learning something.
Enjoyed this morning’s talk. A possible better answer to the chamfered drawer bottom is that it is stronger chamfered than if you rabbet the edge. I can get into the engineering explanation about shear stress concentration if you really are interested. I am going to guess that it might be a carryover from timber framing/carpentry. Floor joists when using timbers are chamfered where they fit into the sill for the same reason. Back when carpenters built houses and furniture. Anyway, probably really only makes a difference for drawers carrying a heavy load and especially for the front edge which is with the grain. I am only guessing on the rationale, but I am a firm believer that those that came before us were pretty dang smart. Looking forward to future streaming!
Didn’t work for me just a blank screen nothing to select.
Excellent presentation. I hope you can work out a way to have a second camera for close-ups. Demonstrations from across the room are OK, but we’ve gotten spoiled by that new-fangled YouTube thingie.
We are babies at video. We will come along slowly I’m sure.
Nicely done! Enjoyed it greatly, until technical problems on this end precluded watching the last fifteen minutes or so. Thought the sound was fine. Only suggestion—perhaps a little closer to the two of you, to better appreciate your charm and good looks!
BTW, came back later and managed to watch the exciting conclusion to the premier episode of Lost Art Press Workshop Q&A. Loved the demo of shaping a leg with jack & block planes.
Nicely done! Please continue these.
Greg
Fior what it’s worth, here’s a thought, re: the question on whether to use flatsawn or quartersawn lumber for a laminated workbench top.
I am using flatsawn, mainly because that is what I could find in suitable quantities, quality, and dimensions, without scouring all lumberyards within a 500 mile or so radius (but also because it is about half the price of quarter sawn when that can be found).
However, while planing up the set of laminates from flatsawn planks, I’ve come to the happy conclusion that once I glue them together, I will in effect have created a sort of giant quartersawn plank! Artificially so, of course, but still all the endgrain will be running from top to bottom of the top. Furthermore, I have found the laminate edges (which together will make up the top and bottom of the top) to be much nicer and rather easier to plane than the surfaces, something I hope and think will be to my advantage when time comes to flatten the top. And finally it means that I will have some quite pretty grain on the surface of the top, while its edges remain more plain vanilla – and of course the surface of the top will be much the larger part.
Cheers,
Mattias
Hi!
1) To expand on Chris’ comment (around 33:00) — I agree about “making things for the shop” as a form of practice: for example, rather than just “cutting dovetails” — suggest making ad hoc wooden boxes and trays for the shop?
2) Audio is pretty good. If you wish to improve it: you don’t need to necessarily invest in wireless mics — a simple lapel mic (or two) would suffice — e.g. https://www.jaycar.com.au/tie-clasp-microphone/p/AM4092 (but, get a U.S. source). There’s an “inverse square” relationship between volume and the distance to the microphone (e.g. if you’re 3x as far from the mic, you’re one-ninth the volume). That means that halving the distance between you and the mic will quadruple (not just “double”) the volume. So an easy way to reduce the “room sound” (reverb) is just to make your mouth substantially closer to the mic than to the walls and ceiling (e.g. put the mic on the bench between you two — or, use a lapel mic).
3) If using a lapel mic, you can sometimes get clothing rustle — the mic rubbing against the fabric as you move around. To prevent this, try using gaffer tape to tape the mic to the surface of your clothing (but leave the grille uncovered). Gaffer’s tape is a type of cloth tape, but with the amount of tack optimized to not leave residue; also good for shop purposes, such as labelling equipment and project parts; NOT the same as “duct tape”.
4) You might want to explore using a compressor or limiter, to keep the over-all volume level more consistent (e.g. as your distance to the microphone changes). Lots of info online — but basically, a compressor reduces the volume that passes through, beyond a certain threshhold, at a certain ratio (the user typically sets the ratio, but not always); a limiter sets a maximum volume beyond a certain threshhold. Thus, compressors aren’t as absolute as limiters; note that at their maximum settings, compressors basically become limiters.
5) Depending on the angle of the microphone, putting an area rug, towel, or etc. between the speaker and the microphone might reduce the reflected sound from the floor, benchtop, etc. I suspect the impact might be minimal — but, possibly worth experimenting with. 🙂
6) Great info; looking forward to the next one! 🙂
–GG
please dont forget to tell us more about the bits you mention in the video; my ears don’t pick words out of audio feeds now or ever. I have been looking for some good bits.
No, it doesn’t work
Thank you for answering my question! I will definitely put your idea to work.
This was lovely, thanks fo doing it!
Outstanding. Good job. Looking forward to more!
Are these bits the same as Star-M, just not in metric? They’re made by Wood Owl and look like those you’ve posted. tinyurl.com/ss9cx3os
Well, I’m glad I got my order in for a bird-cage awl from Matthias Fenner before you posted a picture of yours on IG, not least because when I ordered mine the other day, he told me that he had an empty production schedule slot that he could fit it into already in two weeks time!
Cheers, and thanks for pointing me/us in the direction of Matthias Fenner Tools,
Mattias