Christmas Tools
I try to keep a limited toolset, especially when it comes to hand tools. I love them, but the more edges a person has in the shop, the more maintenance time those edges require. For a hobbyist, that can add up.
Over Christmas, I received gifts cards and money to buy some woodworking tools. Specifically, tools that I had been reluctant to buy before. That stipulation unlocked my decision making. I expanded my chisel set with three Japanese chisels based on the recommendation of Wibur Pan: I got a 1/2" chisel for general-purpose work. Then an extra-wide 42mm chisel and a narrow 3mm chisel.
I've been doing more carving and wanted to expand my capabilities here, as well. My inspiration in all things carving is Dave Fisher. He wrote an article for Fine Woodworking that I've based my tool wish list on. I picked up a #8 10mm gouge. Then I nabbed a #6 12mm gouge to do some chip carving based on the tree he carved on this bowl. In the article, Dave recommends a #6 14mm, but that one was out of stock. So I went with the closest I could get. Both of these are the Pfeil Swiss-Made brand.
Candle Table Complete
Here's the completed view of the candle table Logan built for a local Serbian Orthodox church. As you can see, it fits the space perfectly -- just like Logan knew it would, probably.
Denmark & Sweden Tour
Join Logan and I for a woodworking tour of Denmark and Sweden. There are some fun stops that we have planned. My trip to England was lots of fun last year and this one looks great as well. In addition to the woodworking sites, there will be plenty of time to talk woodworking with us as we ride across the scenic Scandi countryside.
Unofficially, we're in a bit of a friendly competetion with the Fine Woodworking folk and the England trip. Just sayin'.
Transcript
Blah, blah, blah ...
Phil Huber (00:04.764) Welcome everybody. It is the ShopNotes Podcast episode number 259 and we're recording this thing whether Riverside wants us to or not. It's that kind of determination that brings us woodworking podcasts like this to you every week. Thanks for listening everybody. We're going to get started with our usual feedback from listeners and viewers. We're also going to talk about some I don't know shop goings on.
how to deal with winter woodworking and the challenges, many and varied that that presents. We'll talk about some upcoming events that we have going on here at Woodsmith and Shop Notes, little behind the scenes of season 20 of the Woodsmith Shop and more. Thanks for listening. If you want to join in, you can...
Send us emails woodsmith at woodsmith.com. We'd love to hear from you questions comments and smart remarks or you could put them in the comments section on the shop notes YouTube channel would love to hear from you there Don't forget to do all of the things that YouTube wants you to do like subscribe blah blah blah blah blah to help this podcast Get in front of other woodworkers All right, let's get it started
Last week's episode was also pretty varied, so we're going to have a number of questions here. Almost Perfection writes, random question, which is a great place to start. I ran across a board of katalpa at a local Sawyer. My dad has quite a few of these trees on his farm in Western Iowa, and I was always curious what the wood is like. I don't see many of these trees around to begin with, but I
Logan Wittmer (01:47.542) Mm-hmm.
Logan Wittmer (01:53.368) Yep.
Phil Huber (02:00.936) But do any of you have any experience with this wood? It looks like a grayish ash slash oak, but you know it's not when you pick it up as it's significantly lighter and softer. Interestingly, it's considered rot resistant even in ground contact.
My experience with katulpa is a neighbor, just two houses down when I was living in Wisconsin as a kid, the Dornfelds, they had a katulpa tree in their backyard and it had gigantic leaves and like the big long pods in summer. And then oddly enough, this tree,
Logan Wittmer (02:39.19) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (02:49.18) the inside had rotted out and it was filled with concrete.
which I don't know if was a naturally occurring concrete or.
Logan Wittmer (02:58.584) Yeah, it pulls the lime out of the ground. Yeah. Yeah.
Phil Huber (03:02.108) Right, which makes sense because we had quite a bit of like limestone found, you know, the Niagara escarpment ran through my area of the state, so.
Logan Wittmer (03:10.786) Mm hmm. Yeah, so Catalpa is generally seen as an ornamental tree, so you don't usually see him out in the wild. You I mean, you'll see him driving around like the towns and the cities because they have a huge canopy. Those leaves are frickin massive and they provide a lot of shade. I don't think the the pods are.
edible and I don't think the pods are really used for anything when they dry out. They shake like a rattle. I know that. But they the the catapult tree, I'm going to get this wrong, probably. But it is named after, I think, a North American Native American tribe like the Katawa, but something like that. But that's what that's what was named after.
It is a super lightweight wood like this gentleman mentioned. It's good for carving. But because it is rot resistant, they use it a lot for like outdoor outdoor carvings like think of, you know, the eagles and stuff like that. So, yeah, a lot of people right or wrong will call them the Indian bean tree because the Native American
name of it. I've heard them called like the. I want to say the tobacco tree, but that's not right. Cigar tree, I think, because of the bean shape. Interesting fact, when you are not fact really, but experience removing them, if you have to take a catalpa tree down, it's one of those trees that you are in a perfectly healthy tree tied in.
walking on a limb to go make some cuts and all of sudden that limb that is perfectly healthy will just break like completely. Like I would, I have zero analytics to back this up, but I would expect that Kotalpa trees in the areas of where Kotalpas grow are probably more responsible for more changes of pants of tree climbers than any other tree. yeah, the wood is interesting. It almost
Logan Wittmer (05:28.866) And I don't know if this is...
Yeah, it has like a oaky look, but it looks like oak and mahogany kind of had a fun night at the bar. And it's also along the same lines as like Kentucky coffee would look. So it's kind of all that same ruddy brown with open grain, you know, so I've never used any nor have I saw it any.
Phil Huber (05:50.686) okay.
Phil Huber (05:58.494) Mm-hmm.
Logan Wittmer (06:02.998) The stuff we find here in Des Moines, that's Catalpa.
Logan Wittmer (06:11.218) in my experience, they tend to, get, the trunks get pretty big. And they tend to fork pretty low. I mean, not like ground level, but like you got the butt flare that comes up a couple of feet. So that's generally, you know, four foot diameter or something like that. But then you have a crotch, maybe eight foot up.
So like all of a you have this log that's really big on one end and a fork on the other end. And it's just, we don't mess with them usually. So.
It's interesting that you found some at a sawmill though. I'm guessing it was a small sawmill.
Phil Huber (06:58.462) which I mean would be kind of cool.
Logan Wittmer (07:00.471) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (07:02.566) And it is fun to be able to use materials that you don't typically find.
Logan Wittmer (07:09.666) Yeah, is, go ahead.
Phil Huber (07:10.12) But I mean, if he's got some available from his dad's farm in Western Iowa, why not?
Logan Wittmer (07:18.062) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It is a native tree. So I say that it's used as an ornamental, but it is native to North America. It's the north. It's the I think they're technically like the northern katalpa tree, which makes me think that there are other species of katalpa, but I don't know that for a fact. So.
Logan Wittmer (07:45.366) John had one loaded up during that whole thing. I could see it on his face.
John Doyle (07:51.396) Yeah, I'm just... keep it to myself.
Phil Huber (07:51.656) Well...
Logan Wittmer (07:55.039) Okay.
Phil Huber (07:57.778) Michael Thompson says, the Goonies legendary classic, the last star fighter, great film, Apple dumpling gang, how could you get bored with Tim Conway and Don Knotts? Now, if you really want to blow their minds, watch the John Cusack film, Better Off Dead, one of the all time greats, and let's not forget Spaceballs, and Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan. In my house, they are also referred to as emotional support water bottles.
because we were talking about water bottles in the dishwasher and their proliferation.
Logan Wittmer (08:27.528) yeah, we were.
Yep.
Phil Huber (08:34.718) TG Atkins says, what construction method we hate feels like a setup for a shop Smith joke, which breaking news. Apparently shop Smith does have a new owner.
Logan Wittmer (08:43.703) Mm-hmm.
Logan Wittmer (08:49.826) Yes. There were lots of people that sent us emails, like surprised you guys haven't talked about this on the podcast yet. We recorded these once a week. That news broke last week after we recorded. Thank you.
Phil Huber (09:00.136) What? Record it, right.
And as important as that is, that wasn't the kind of...
breaking news that demanded like an evening edition that we were gonna do a... Yeah. Yeah. But yes, we did find out from several folk, thank you for sending us that information. And to be honest, I'll be interested to see how this all shakes out with a new owner. know, anecdotally and totally...
John Doyle (09:16.441) Emergency podcast. We got to get together and talk about it.
Logan Wittmer (09:33.463) Yeah.
Phil Huber (09:40.57) only adjacent related, the town where I live in, not far from us was kind of a strip mall shopping plaza kind of thing that when we moved there was mostly empty and came to find out that it was just owned by some sort of faceless, corporate
John Doyle (09:51.989) Thanks
Phil Huber (10:08.21) real estate investment trust kind of a thing. So they were just looking for their payments among a wide portfolio, and then that was it. So it sat there and then got sold to a local developer. And within six months, they did a little bit of a refresh. And for the past, I don't know, probably eight years now, that thing has been full to the brim with tenants. And there's cars in there all the time. So
Hopefully what we have with a new shop Smith owner is a similar kind of thing. Somebody that has some new energy and excitement about doing what shopsmith does.
Logan Wittmer (10:52.012) Because as we have said, we like to poke the shop-smith people, but we don't want to see them go out of business. Because who are we going to make fun of then?
I mean, there's plenty to make fun of, they're the easy ones.
Phil Huber (11:03.486) Right, Yeah. Master Ranger says you have to raise them right. The 80s were the height of culture in the US for movies and music. Show them what's good so they'll recognize what sucks. Also 100 % agree with Cups and the Dishwasher to quote the great Ivan Drago, if he dies, he dies.
Phil Huber (11:29.566) Marshall Flyer says Logan mentioned ordering carbide bandsaw blades directly from China. Is there a link we could use to order these as well?
Logan Wittmer (11:39.566) So I replied back. I think. Yep, I think I replied back. I think there's a couple of Margaritas before I replied back, so I think it's a coherent response. I emailed, I messaged my contact at CG Good or C Good Saw Company is the company I was ordering from in China. The lady I worked with, Gloria, she's a dead end now, like her email.
John Doyle (11:40.406) It's on the dark web.
Phil Huber (11:43.922) Yes.
Logan Wittmer (12:09.026) bounces and her Facebook messages bounce. So I have reached out to the company to see who I can order them from. So I will let you know when I find some because I have I would like to make another order. So.
Phil Huber (12:27.23) Alphita158 says, kids these days is what I say every time Logan starts explaining something.
Phil Huber (12:38.302) cutting board cleanup, where's the dog? And always spay and neuter your pets. And Randall Horst says, you'll slide into a thought crime on the straws. I had to look at my phone to make sure it was shop notes and not Charlie Kirk. Happy day.
Phil Huber (12:55.998) All right then, as always, we enjoy the comments.
in many different ways. We enjoy those comments.
Phil Huber (13:10.258) So anyway, by the time this podcast releases, it will be a pretty cold weekend here in central Iowa. So much so that the weather folk are already trying to brace us all for this. In that there's been news stories about it almost to the like blizzard kind of things where it's like, make sure you get like your
toilet paper, milk and eggs, all taken care of, that kind of thing. They've even begun advising middle schoolers that they're gonna have to wear winter coats.
Logan Wittmer (13:38.487) Mm-hmm.
Logan Wittmer (13:45.998) That was a good one. I liked that one. Yeah. The local news station was like, you know, make sure you have your coats mill schoolers. That means you too.
John Doyle (13:49.141) No!
Phil Huber (13:51.678) you
Phil Huber (13:59.454) That's how you know it's really gonna be cold. anyway, since I've had my garage insulated now, still waiting on some drywall to get installed in the ceiling. But I've noticed how much of a difference it makes in my space and in how much more effective my little electric heaters are in working. That being said, Logan, you're still kind of battling
Logan Wittmer (14:01.102) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (14:29.35) with some cold weather issues in your shop too.
Logan Wittmer (14:32.386) Yeah, I. For the last couple of winters, I've had issues with the water freezing. It doesn't freeze if it gets down to, you know, 10 or 20, it freezes when it gets down to zero. And I have pecs in the shop, so the freezing lines aren't that that big a deal, really. And it's never to the point where it's like a foot section frozen. It's like an inch. Right.
So I what I've been doing is battling this thing before winter set in on one of the nice fall days. I spent a little bit of time. I thought it was freezing where it runs. The water runs along my exterior wall on the inside of the wall. So installations between it and the exterior wall. And then it makes a 90 degree turn into the bathroom. And that that 90 degree trick.
degree turn after that is where all my sinks are. I've a sink in the shop. I've sick bathroom, toilet and shower. I thought it was freezing right in that corner because I knew when I built that corner and I did the water and I insulated and stuff, I knew that there was maybe a thin area of insulation in there. So before the winter set in, I pulled the steel off the outside of the building, cut the tie back back back and I kind of looked at it.
John Doyle (15:47.382) Thanks.
Logan Wittmer (15:57.996) And I could, I identified a couple of spots where the insulation had pulled away from like the posts a little bit. So I kind of reinstallated, kind of put a little bit of extra insulation, some rigid pink foam in there and kind of buttoned up the best I could. Well, long story short, I have continued to battle it as it's gotten colder and colder. And what I did is the last time, well, the first time it froze this winter,
I went into my little utility room on the storage side of the shop where the water feeds from, and I cut the elbow there. So I cut the pecs and I ran my electrical fishing tape down the line to see where it was plugged. Just run the, run the fishing tape down the line till it hits the ice market, come into the shop and see where the blockage is. Okay. And then not from the inside of the shop, I started pulling off paneling and I was like,
There's a there's a little hole I missed like didn't see that one. So I've kind of been playing whack a mole with this. The last time it froze on Saturday, I think it was I don't know, negative 10 out something like that. The same thing happened. I cut the line again, ran a fish tape down it. Then I got smart and I said, OK, if I'm going to continue to play whack a mole here, here's what I'm going to do instead of just having an elbow.
going from my water, my water manifold into the wall. I put a T there and then off, you know, the T is acting like the elbow, but then off the other side, I ran a ball valve. So now if the water freezes, I just shut the water off, open up the ball valve and I have a straight shot down the pecs line so I can see where it's freezing. Seems ridiculous, but I've been fighting this issue. And the other day,
yesterday, two days ago, when I was on the way into the studio to film water or no, I take that back Monday. I was not filming. It also froze again. And again, we're just freezing in little sections. So I started peeling back the paling and the wall, my shot, the lower quarter of my wall is it's a framed wall. But then on the outside, I have a layer of OSB.
Logan Wittmer (18:25.964) And then I have shiplap on the outside of that. OSB is stapled with narrow crown staples onto the studs. I got in there and I was actually able to peel off the entire sheet of OSB with the paneling attached. So right now, the almost the entire wall where my water lines are at has no paneling on the bottom side of it. I just have big four by eight sheets of.
OSB with paneling on it. And I have I'm sitting here looking at the lines. I could see a couple of spots where insulation pulled away. I yesterday morning came out here and my cold water line was frozen again. And what it what it is is a cold air falls, right? Hot air rises, cold air sinks. So there was somewhere up in the wall that the insulation had pulled away and it.
was spilling cold air down the inside of the wall on top of the lines. So I've been playing whack-a-mole long story longer. I've just been playing whack-a-mole. I'm at the point where I'm leaving the paneling off. It's supposed to get really cold this weekend. I'm just going to let it ride, see what happens because I don't have the paneling attached right now. The shop's heated, obviously.
Got radiant floor. I don't turn my mini splits on for heat if I if I'm here to keep the wood fire going. It's not super cold in the shop. It was yesterday morning when the line was froze. It was like 56 degrees in the shop, 50 degrees in the shop and like that. So, yeah, it's just it's one of those things. John John made a good point yesterday when I was in the studio is like, you know, almost like you need to put.
pipe insulation around it. like, well, I guess now that I have everything exposed, I definitely could. The problem that I, or the thing I'm trying to think about is I have those water lines are situated towards the inside of the wall. So the water lines are sandwiched between my paneling and my insulation. I'm relying on the radiant heat from the shop through the wall to keep them thawed.
Logan Wittmer (20:43.19) So it's almost like I need half insulation just on the backside of the lines. But I don't know, it's just one of those things. I just keep fighting it. I think we're going to get to a point that I'll have it fixed. All this is to say, I told my wife last weekend, I just wish I would have spray foam this shop like that's my biggest regret at this point. I know why I chose not to. It was a twofold thing of
pricing and there is some discussion on spray foam insulation and steel buildings. Like it's not actually long term. It's not a good thing for the steel buildings because it can trap moisture and stuff. And I wanted the access of with the Perlins and the way the Perlins run stuff. It's very easy for me to pull a new electrical line. Like if you get it in between the steel and the Perlin, you can just run that line wherever you want. So I still know why I
Didn't, but just wish I would have done it. So.
Phil Huber (21:51.87) All right, there you go.
Logan Wittmer (21:53.078) Yeah, just obnoxious. Just one of those things.
Phil Huber (22:02.334) there. Anyway, if you have any advice for Logan, we'd love to hear it. Whether he ends up taking it or not.
we'll read it out. John, you got anything else? The pipe installation I thought was a good idea.
John Doyle (22:20.604) Yeah, that's I was kind thinking about the spray. Like, could you spray foam just that area? But then, like you said, once it's foamed in, then it's kind of trapped and you can't do much or run anything in that area. So yeah, I'm kind of where Logan is. I would just keep playing Whack-a-Mole for a little bit until I get sick of it and then go to the next thing.
Logan Wittmer (22:42.2) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (22:46.636) Yeah. Well, yeah, you know, the other thing I thought of was everything's exposed right now. If I bought a they make water line heaters, so they're like you you lay them along the pipe and then you insulate around it. So basically you're like quailing this this heating element around the pipe, right? Everything's exposed. I could just add one right now.
Phil Huber (23:09.018) yeah.
Logan Wittmer (23:17.582) It would, you know, if I got a 75 footer, I could wrap all the way around both of the pipes the whole way. But I don't know, I to me, that feels like a pain where I have to then continue to.
plug it in when the, it's gonna be 20 degrees out or below. A lot of them, a lot of those heaters have a little thermostat on them that you make sure is touching the pipe. And then when it senses it's below 50, it turns on. But the problem is like, I'm insulated, I'm 95 % insulated. It's the 5 % that's causing the issue. So.
Phil Huber (23:41.597) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (24:01.102) 95 % of the pipe is not freezing. It is just these little inch sections. And to the point where when it does freeze and I get access to that pipe, it's it's literally five to 10 seconds with a heat gun and it it thaws and it goes. So it's just yeah.
John Doyle (24:24.466) I wonder if you could just, I was gonna say, put pipe insulation or spray foam around those areas that are the problem, if that would help or...
Logan Wittmer (24:35.34) Yeah, I did. So I did some expanding foam around the around some of those areas when I when I had the steel on outside of the building off. The the my fear, and it hasn't come true yet, but my fear was that there's something called thermal bridging where. Like wood is a terrible insulator, what is an awful insulator?
So where I have these water lines going through a six by six post, they actually, yeah, think they're, they might be eight by eight posts. There's no insulation. I mean, it is an eight by eight post and through that eight by eight post, there's no insulation on the outside of it. So my fear was that I would get thermal bridging through that where that's the area that would freeze like where the post is. And you can't insulate that. There's nothing to do there. So.
My other thought was, you know, if this is continues to be an issue, do I just run the lines on the inside of the shop then? You know, just do copper lines, mount them to the ceiling and run them through the shop, which should be fine. It wouldn't be that big a deal.
Phil Huber (25:48.637) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (25:53.888) I just would rather not look at them.
Logan Wittmer (25:59.084) I don't know. We'll see. I do really like being able to use the bathroom when I'm out here, though, and be able to, you know, fill up the humidifier on top of the stove, like not having the water turned on is a very first world problem. I understand that. But it's very inconvenient as well.
Phil Huber (26:23.026) Yeah, that's fair. It's legit.
Logan Wittmer (26:24.302) We'll see. Yep.
Phil Huber (26:28.83) Speaking of, now that it's been like cold, cold a few times, how's the wood stove been treating you?
Logan Wittmer (26:36.838) what's that? been good. I can get it pretty warm in here. I can get it as warm as, as warm as much wood as I want to put in it. You know, the more wood I put in, the more air I give it, the warmer it gets. it's if I load it up at night, I will come out here to a bed of hot coals in the morning.
and it's pretty easy to get going again. also fully recognizing admitting to the fact that I am burning wood that is not perfectly seasoned and I'm burning some wood. some of the off cuts that I have from the sawmill and stuff is a little damp. know I'm going to have to clean the chimney. I get it. know.
And there is some punky spots on the outside, so some of it just kind of smolders and it doesn't really burn burn. I mean, it disappears by the morning, but like it doesn't put off a ton of heat. It does make me recognize like how nice and satisfying and actually I had a our end grain article in the last issue of Popwood. I talked about, you know, there is something just satisfying about cutting the stacking wood and there's a sense of security about it.
And especially when that wood is like ash or oak and it's like, could just, you know, throwing pine in there, it goes up fast and it goes up hot, but it doesn't last. When you throw oak in there, you're like, yeah, that's the good stuff.
Like you know it. So, but no, I've really liked it. It hasn't decreased my heating bill as much as I would hope.
John Doyle (28:18.788) you
Logan Wittmer (28:29.218) But I am running a couple fans all the time. keep it, I'm keeping the blower on on the stove. I'm keeping the ceiling fan going. I have a, I do have a space heater here in the office that's going cause it doesn't move a ton of air into here. So just keep it, keep it warm for the little princess cat that's in here. So although he does have, I have the democratic chair sitting out there with his bed on it and he, I think he sleeps in front of the fire every night. So it's a great, the honestly, the biggest
Phil Huber (28:56.795) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (28:58.668) thing that I have appreciated about the stove is no scraps left in my shop. I don't have to deal with the scrap bin anymore. Like it used to be like I'd fill it up after dragging it out to the burn pile outside. Now it's like, Nope, just miter saw into the soap, miter saw into the stove.
John Doyle (29:12.879) Yeah.
Phil Huber (29:20.702) Well, that's pretty cool. I know that you've started collecting the scrap bins here at the office and taking those. lovely, lovely.
Logan Wittmer (29:29.133) Yep.
Logan Wittmer (29:33.324) Yep, yep. The one unfortunate byproduct is that it does dry the shop out a lot. When I when I looked at the thermostat in here yesterday, when I was dinking around with the water, it was 12 percent humidity in here. So pretty low.
John Doyle (30:02.038) interested to see how it affects the projects that you've built over the winter come summertime if they'll expand that much more.
Logan Wittmer (30:08.802) Yeah, yeah, like, they? Yeah, do they like expand a lot? Yeah, they might. I don't know.
Phil Huber (30:20.466) So you completed the candle table, right? Sent that off.
Logan Wittmer (30:25.302) Yep, that's installed. so now I have to do event hood for that. they also threw out, I just need to order a sheet of mahogany apply for the backs. They want kind of a backsplash on it, but he's like, you got that CNC up and running. Like, why don't we do like a weird, like filigree thing around outside? I'm like, yeah, that does not sound great. Cause you're not paying me for that.
So for the last three days, I have been downloading a bunch of CNC files that I bought to try to find the filigree because I would probably say no. So, it's it's kind of it. It turned out really nice. Absolutely perfect fit. Like we carried it in and the the kid, I say the kid, the kid that bought it, that was paying his pain for it and donating it to the church, him and his dad helped me get it inside and stuff.
And of course, they're they're talking in Serbian, which I do not speak. And he's like, Oh, my dad said it looks like it's it's really big. And we slipped in the place and their eyes were like, absolutely perfect fit. And I'm like, man, we could have hit that size any better. He's like, dude, we didn't do anything like that was you. And it did. If not to toot my own horn, but man, that fit perfect, which was 100 % planned out.
Phil Huber (31:52.286) Yep. Cause John and I do not remember at all the messages on Teams where you're like, what do you think? Does this seem big enough? How about this? Is it like this? Like yay far.
Logan Wittmer (31:53.966) So I think I took a picture of it, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (32:01.87) Yeah, well, it's like I knew where the I knew where the the doorway, the door opening into the sanctuary was, and I knew where the doorway to the office was. And I had some chicken scratches on like where the trim started and like, hmm. I think this is going to be OK.
Phil Huber (32:26.974) Trust your gut, man.
Logan Wittmer (32:27.244) Yeah. yeah, we, it was a full send is what it was and it worked.
Phil Huber (32:39.198) All right, John, you want to give us an update on TV show stuff we've been doing?
John Doyle (32:43.884) Yeah. well, we've almost wrapped up Logan's vanity episode. So I think there's just a few odds and ends stuff. have to shoot on that, but, we even got finish on it. We meaning Logan got finish on it. It is his vanity. So we'll give, him have the honor. So that's nicest. Cause a lot of our projects for the TV show, they don't.
Like we don't have time to show finishing so a lot of times they don't get finished on them. So until somebody wants to adopt it and take it home or we shoot a finishing video. So it's nice that that one got wrapped up right away and we'll go into use and hopefully see water hooked up to it that's not frozen. So that's good.
Logan Wittmer (33:36.322) Yup.
John Doyle (33:38.143) So then, yeah. So that's wrapped up. And then this week we've started on a work cart slash outfeed table slash table saw cart. We'll see how it actually ends up getting used here in the shop. But we're deep into that. We've got the case all built and trimmed out. And now we get to do lots of drawers and.
Phil Huber (33:38.543) water dispenser.
John Doyle (34:07.743) storage options for it. So we are in midseason form.
Logan Wittmer (34:19.519) I mean, I feel like we're kind of starting this season like and five and we're just optimistic that we're going to turn it around.
John Doyle (34:24.532) Right. Yeah, we've set expectations low. We're going to jump over the bar.
Phil Huber (34:25.906) Yeah. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (34:27.746) you
I mean, more, more so that I know, right? Yeah. I think it's more so that we were hoping by this time to have four or five episodes already shot and done, I guess, is where I was going with that. but you know, it just kind of things happen out of outside of our control. We just didn't get the start we wanted. So now it's a sprint.
John Doyle (34:32.33) I mean, this is only our 20th season.
John Doyle (34:47.883) Yeah.
John Doyle (34:55.008) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We always have high expectations and sometimes we get several episodes done before the holidays and sometimes that doesn't happen and we always make it up on the back end. So.
Phil Huber (35:14.078) True story. I think it was kind of interesting in the prep for these last two episodes. So Logan's Vanity, we did pretty much all out of solid wood. There's a few plywood panels in there, but like the case work is frame and panel, frame and panel doors, that kind of thing. And then to see the work that you were doing, John, to help us get started by getting these pieces ready and how much time that took.
Logan Wittmer (35:25.901) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (35:44.19) because we were using some ash from your sawmill, Logan, which has a really awesome color to it. I'll put photo of it in the show notes page just so you can see. But then to do this shop cart, which is, I mean, for all intents and purposes, the same size as the vanity.
Logan Wittmer (36:03.874) Yeah, yeah.
Phil Huber (36:06.43) but it's all Baltic birch with a few pieces of some chunky maple that act as braces and, you know, sheer panels, more or less, how much quicker that was to put together rather than, you know, a bunch of narrow styles and rails and all that kind of thing. Cause like I spent, I don't know, two and a half days of filming at least doing the casework.
on the vanity and was, I don't know, three quarters of a day or day of shooting yesterday. And you had the casework done on the plywood shop cart.
Logan Wittmer (36:48.418) Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because I left yesterday thinking about that. Like, man, like, I wonder if somebody could go into business, like just making shop carts and shipping them. I'm like, they go together really quickly. But then I'm like, well, yeah, I stood there and did the joinery stuff, but like John did all the legwork, like breaking parts down to size and stuff like that. like what on the surface it is like, yeah, this goes together really quickly, but we also have two or three men.
Phil Huber (37:03.228) Ha ha.
Logan Wittmer (37:18.432) or bodies thrown at it, putting it together. So there's that as well.
John Doyle (37:24.883) It's funny because anytime I'm working on like these one-off projects for the show, I often think I could never make any money doing this. Like, it's just not efficient and like, just minor, not screw ups, but like always having to kind of, you know, make it up as we go kind of thing and cut to fit and so.
Phil Huber (37:36.882) Ha ha ha.
John Doyle (37:54.525) Anytime we do these one-offs, it's just like, yeah, I'm glad I do this instead of building them for someone else to try to make money.
Logan Wittmer (38:01.708) Yeah, well, yeah, but I think if you if you think about it, though, right, like you. If you get into a production mode like I would never try it like we're running parts back and forth from the back shop to the to the studio, like if you were doing this production wise and you were in the back shop only and you had two or three guys in there working.
John Doyle (38:16.991) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (38:27.39) And it's like, hey, here's the drawings. Here's how we're doing this. We're not worrying about filming and stuff like I think that's a whole different ball game than what we're doing. Like we are. This is so not the way to do this.
John Doyle (38:33.034) Right.
John Doyle (38:42.046) Yeah, that's true. I'm always running back and forth like to the shop clear on the other side of the building. Cause it's like, well this table saw is set up for the next thing. I got to go to the other side of the building to cut this to length. And it's like, when you're trying to cut it to fit, you're like, I'm a little bit closer. Walk across the building, come back up a little bit closer. So it's like 10 trips before I get it, you know, cut to size or so. Yeah. We're not very efficient in that manner, I guess.
Logan Wittmer (38:42.722) like.
Logan Wittmer (38:48.13) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (39:02.851) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (39:07.086) Yeah, or we were, yeah, we were monkeying with some of the, yeah, or like we were monkeying with some of the panels and it's like, they're, they're like just a 60, like just run over to the joiner and you're like, the joiner is all the way in the other shop. I'm like, we have a joiner in here, but there's carts in front of it and there's cameras in the way and there's like all that stuff. You know what I mean? It's like, ah, they got unplugged the table saw and play, you know, the merry-go-round with power cords. So it's like, oh.
Phil Huber (39:35.198) We just need a big 220 power strip. I'm put a bunch of stuff in there.
Logan Wittmer (39:38.814) Yeah. Yep. Luckily that wouldn't be right in the floor in the way. Unlike our current situation.
Phil Huber (39:44.861) Right.
Yeah.
Phil Huber (39:51.336) So anyway, it's been going pretty well with the season 20. Kind of excited about it, being able to celebrate that. We got some fun stuff planned for later in the year. And I think we're going to be launching some season 20 swag too to go with this anniversary year.
So yeah, that's kind of cool. Now, last week, Logan, you had brought up something about Christmas tools.
Logan Wittmer (40:23.894) Yeah, I was wondering if you guys got any Christmas tools, like, did you buy yourself any? Did you guys get gift cards? Buy yourself any shop stuff? John, we know didn't get any Christmas presents.
John Doyle (40:36.233) I got underwear.
Logan Wittmer (40:37.603) So.
Logan Wittmer (40:41.206) I mean, the older I get, the more I like just getting a nice pair of socks or a nice pair of underwear. So.
But Phil, did you get any?
Phil Huber (40:52.318) Wow. There we go. Yeah, I did actually. It was mostly in the form of gift cards because
Logan Wittmer (40:54.763) Yeah.
Phil Huber (41:02.77) Friends and family have kind of realized that.
You know, I love making stuff for other people, but I'm pretty hard to buy for because I know what I want for tools and they don't know what I want. So, several people just got me just either gave me cash or, a gift card and I could get some tools. So with some of my money that I got is I upgraded my clamp collection. So I've.
really like using the aluminum bar clamps that we have here in the studio and actually, yeah, the Dubuque ones made in Iowa here. I had in my shop, I had three footers and then a couple of four footers. And we have a set of two footers in the shop that I on the studio here that I really like using when we're doing stuff.
Logan Wittmer (41:45.25) The Dubuque. Yep.
Phil Huber (42:06.418) And so I splurged and got four of the of the two footers to go with my four three footers. And I think that is a nice, nice collection of capacity. had gotten the 36 inch ones just because I thought, you know, they're not too long and they're they can always be used for shorter stuff. Well, when you use a 36 inch clamp on shorter stuff, it's kind of like
John Doyle (42:20.391) you
Phil Huber (42:35.646) caber tossing in your shop, just trying to move big clamps around and wrestle pieces. having the shorter ones is definitely a plus. And then
Phil Huber (42:52.634) I got a few Japanese chisels with Wilbur Pan's presentation last year in 2024 at Woodworking in America on Japanese chisels. And then having Mike Peckovich in for his TV show episode. I was just looking to get a few chisels to upgrade my collection of chisels. So I started with a half inch one.
that I got.
That was, think, a birthday gift or birthday money. And then my dad said he wanted to give me some money for Christmas for quote tools that I wouldn't normally buy myself because I'm cheap. So I got a 40 millimeter Japanese chisel, which is like a inch and five eighths ish about, right? Let's find out. We'll do this live.
Phil Huber (43:57.01) Yeah. Inch and five eighths, 11 sixteenths, whatever. So kind of a big fatty there. And then I also got an eighth inch chisel. I'll put photos of these. I'm showing them off on the YouTube for people listening on the radio. And then also got a pair of smaller carving gouges. These are the file Swiss made ones. I got an eight sweep by 10 millimeter wide. And then I also got a number six sweep
John Doyle (44:09.948) you
Logan Wittmer (44:19.694) Hmm.
John Doyle (44:25.455) Okay.
Phil Huber (44:27.134) by 12 millimeter.
Phil Huber (44:31.826) And then this one I ground to kind of a curved end, a slightly curved radius on the end to do some chip carving kind of with it based on a technique that I saw my online muse Dave Fisher do on a couple of projects. So that was part of the reason that I got those. So yeah.
John Doyle (44:47.641) evening.
Logan Wittmer (45:00.6) Nice.
Phil Huber (45:01.35) It was fun. still have some, some gift card money left over. it's probably going to go towards something as super exciting as having a couple of backup bandsaw blades, but we'll see. Yeah. I've also been looking at an auger bit extension for my hand brace, just for like some of the chair making things where, you know, using a bit brace is really nice, but if you're trying to drill.
Logan Wittmer (45:14.05) Ooh, exhilarating.
Logan Wittmer (45:25.678) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (45:30.274) through a crest rail or through arms and then into the seat like a standard auger bit just can't reach that far and I want something that will be able to to go through it and to be able to hold the square tang of of an auger bit it's just It's again one of those things where it irritates the crap out of me for all of the like East Coast woodworking people where it's like
Logan Wittmer (45:48.163) Yeah.
Phil Huber (45:59.484) You just pick these up at garage sales and flea markets and whatever. Yeah. Yeah. We have six stores near us that sell old tools.
Logan Wittmer (46:01.74) Yeah, just go to the gas station and get one.
Logan Wittmer (46:07.118) So you know.
Not in the Midwest.
Phil Huber (46:13.886) So anyway, trying to find one of those and it's one of those where can like, I can find some on eBay, but it's like, is this guy real? I don't know.
Phil Huber (46:24.168) We'll see. Logan, how about you?
Logan Wittmer (46:25.272) Nice.
I got to two things. One is shop stuff. Others are shop adjacent. So I have for the last couple of years. Tried to stop buying. Junkie stuff where it's like I would rather have one nice pair of something than, you know, eight that don't last right. So I started getting.
this these ads on Facebook for a company that makes leather gloves in the United States called Vermont Glove Company. So I got I went through, did their online measurement thing. These are, I think, goatskin gloves, and they're just like leather work gloves, right? Like I don't wear them in the shop. This be very clear. I'm not a glove in the shop type of guy, but grabbing lumber.
saw milling, firewood, use them. There's some burn marks on the fingers now. Use them to grab stuff that's in the fireplace or in the stove. They are not cheap. Like I want to say they were well over 130, 140 bucks for the pair. But I my wife, that's what I want. Just one pair of nice gloves. And I have been super happy with them. I got the liners for them as well.
so I have wool liners that go inside. So out cutting firewood stuff like that, like super, super happy with these things. because I have had several like deer skin gloves, just, you know, Menards, I don't generally wear like leather gloves. I've had some deer skin ones that I really like, but they, they just don't last like I two or three days on the saw mill. There holes all over them. so the goat leather is supposed to be better. so
Logan Wittmer (48:23.566) That was my big one that I got gifted to me. I was also blessed with the
How do I want to word this? It was agreed that I would be able to order myself a shop chair.
And so I decided again, this is a Facebook ad that hits me all the time. The Viper shop chairs. I don't know if you guys have seen those. Shiraz had one in his shop when we went to Grizzly. It was embroidered with his name. They so they started in the mechanic space, but like they're nice chairs like they are like five inch casters, laser cut steel frames like.
Phil Huber (48:54.856) have not.
Phil Huber (48:58.338) yeah?
Logan Wittmer (49:12.526) might come on a pallet, I'm not sure. I wanted a good rolling chair. So I was told I was allowed to order one. So I ordered one. Has not arrived yet. They are spinny. I ordered the, I think they call it their counter height. So it will fit the workbench side, you know, pretty nicely. I can roll around in the shop. I have a bunch of chairs out in the shop.
kind of for when people come out here and we're filming out here and stuff. I have one random bar stool out here that is like a blue pleather seat that my dad had ordered as a sample for their kitchen. And he's like, I don't need this anymore. Like this is junky. Like here, take it. So like that one's going to go away. So I'm doing a one in one out type thing now where it's like, all right, that's yours. Go that chairs going. I will have the nice rolly chair in here along with my
Phil Huber (50:03.624) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (50:08.782) know, Democratic chair and the stool we did on the TV show a couple of years ago. Yeah, it's just. It's like, OK, let's just start buying one nice thing rather than have a bunch of stuff that is mediocre quality. Let's just buy one nice thing. So I'm a nice pair of gloves. Got my nice chair on the way. I did buy my a new saw milling hat for wintertime, a Stormy Kroger.
made in Michigan, Stormy Kroemer, you're right, yep, made in Michigan. I bought one of those. Actually, my parents gifted that to me, which is super nice for being outside milling and hunting and stuff.
Phil Huber (50:37.918) Chromer? Yep. Yep.
Phil Huber (50:56.99) I have two friends from upper Michigan and well acquainted with the Stormy Cromer. They're sweet hats.
Logan Wittmer (51:03.448) Yep.
Yeah, everybody, everybody up there kind of wears them. If you're outside, they have a, I almost put on it and came out here today. They have a ear band that is around the hat that you can grab and tuck down over your ears. I feel like the ear band should be a little bit bigger because it just covers the tips of your ears. Or maybe that's the size of my cranium that's causing that issue. But yeah, so.
Logan Wittmer (51:34.872) Didn't get any actual tools, just all kind of shop adjacent stuff. But that's fine, because because usually if I want a tool, just buy the tool, which is a terrible thing to say. It's an irresponsible thing is what it is.
Phil Huber (51:53.246) There you go, that wraps up another episode of the Shop Notes Podcast. As always, you can contact us, woodsmith at woodsmith.com. Check us out on YouTube at the Shop Notes Podcast. Like and subscribe. Leave a review at your podcast platform of choice to help other woodworkers find the show. Also consider subscribing to Woodsmith or Popular Woodworking Magazine or our online membership.
Phil Huber (52:22.206) programs that help keep the lights on here and the shop notes podcast coming to you every week. We'll see you next time everybody. Bye.
