Here are a few images and a woodworking plan link mentioned in the episode.
While in New York, Logan found me a auger bit extension. This one is the 15"-long version of the Yankee 2150. Just what I was looking for.
This week's TV show project is this Wall-Mounted Workbench, originally from ShopNotes magazine.
I've taken some time to get back into my desk project. While breaking down some rough-sawn white pine, I came across several bullets embedded into the planks. Here's one that shows where it entered and how the tree reacted to it.
Transcript
Fondly remembering the days of .txt files and working in MacWrite ...
Phil Huber (00:03.69) It's that time again. It's the ShopNotes Podcast episode number 267. I'm your host Phil Huber joined by Logan Wittmer and John Doyle. We're all here back from a spring break hiatus. All the stories on this episode, we're going to be talking about retooling your breakfast. Old tools trips we've taken.
bullets in your lumber, and more. You're to want to buckle up for this one as we get started.
All right, let's get started with some comments and questions from last episode. And this one is a great one to start it off. QuartersawnMDF writes, it's great to hear that Logan will be at the Northeast Woodworkers Showcase in Saratoga Springs this weekend, looking forward to it, which is like a soft pitch.
Logan Wittmer (01:16.921) Really?
Phil Huber (01:30.04) for Logan to give us a little wrap up on that show.
Logan Wittmer (01:34.402) You want it now?
Phil Huber (01:35.894) Yeah, go right ahead.
Logan Wittmer (01:37.344) All right. Yeah, good show. So I was in Albany last week for a photo shoot and then Saratoga for the Northwestern showcase, Northwestern or Northeastern Woodworkers Showcase that they put on. It was Saturday, Sunday. Lots and lots of people stopped by. I talked to so many people over the weekend. Lots of people. I think I was telling you guys this earlier while we were filming.
Wherever that's like that's our show. So like the IWF, AWFS, know, all those shows, like those are industry shows, but like these are our shows. These are the people that walk up and like, Hey, I listened to your podcast every week. And I'm like, I'm so sorry. Or like my wife listens to you when I watch your show all the time. I'm like, ma'am, I am sorry. Find your husband friends. so it was, it was very cool. Talked to a lot of people.
I did a couple demos, spent some money, and got to judge the gallery, which was pretty cool. So lots, I think there was 300 and some entries in the gallery. So yeah, it was super cool. I apologize if I don't remember everybody that stopped by, because there was lots of people.
Phil Huber (02:52.782) Okay.
Phil Huber (02:58.968) So a blanket hello to everybody who was there. in previous episodes, you've talked about trips to large southern states that you despise visiting. But this time you had a totally different report from upstate New York.
Logan Wittmer (03:02.315) Blanket, good to see you.
Logan Wittmer (03:17.131) Texas.
Logan Wittmer (03:22.505) Yeah, I love upstate New York. Like, I don't know that I've ever actually been quote upstate New York. done New York City a lot. I've done Rochester and Syracuse, but like don't think I've ever, I know there are some people that will argue that Saratoga Springs is not upstate New York, but.
I'm going to call it upstate enough for me to know that I like it. there are the, the people are pretty cool. the scenery is beautiful because it's like, you're in the foothills maybe like, let's call it foothills, guess. lots of trees, lots of forest, lots of timber.
Lots of history. lots of old like driving down, you know, the highways. It's like old house after old house. So after, know, like, that house is built on this little stream. Like you could see that it used to be like a mill, you know, drove by a couple of houses that had like giant, you know, around here, you see the big white, water stones like for sharpening, like farm implements and stuff or whatever.
Phil Huber (04:41.041) yeah.
Logan Wittmer (04:41.876) I'm like, I'm driving down the road. I'm like, I can see it coming. I'm like, that is the biggest AM sharpening stone I've ever seen. And then when I passed it, I could see it had to been five foot in diameter buried in somebody's front yard. Square hole in the center of it for a drive shaft. But when I passed it, you could see the, the scallops on the face. So it was a grindstone for like grain. Just, I mean, just super cool. Like, yeah, I, then I.
Phil Huber (05:06.965) okay. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (05:10.991) I made the mistake of telling my wife, like as I was there, like, I can really live in upstate New York. And then all of I'm starting to get bombarded with Zillow listings from her on upstate New York listings. And she's like, why is it so reasonable? And there are a lot of places up there that are pretty reasonable. So.
Phil Huber (05:30.979) All right.
Logan Wittmer (05:31.931) Yeah. Still hate Texas. Love upstate New York.
Phil Huber (05:37.346) All right, look forward to those comments next week. We had talked about in the last episode, somebody had responded to your tennis elbow with clamps and said, DP Meyer says, at my local sporting goods store, what in the winter is called hockey tape, in the summer is called lacrosse tape? Which is, that's clever marketing.
Logan Wittmer (05:40.725) Ha
Phil Huber (06:07.192) I appreciate that.
Logan Wittmer (06:09.297) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (06:10.67) Another one. Look forward to seeing Logan next weekend in Saratoga. Bonyboard Woodshop says, agree with Logan on Carbides turning tools, that is. I will die on that hill.
Logan Wittmer (06:25.421) Mm-hmm. You will not die alone, my friend.
Phil Huber (06:32.462) Craig Vaughn says, in reference to the question regarding router tables, I do not own one of the traditional router tables. My best purchase is a grisly, lots of numbers and letters, router shaper many years ago. I have it equipped with the router collet, quarter inch or half inch. It's a little workhorse and capable of doing everything from race panels to moldings. This tool, along with a good plunge router for handheld use, is all you need.
Current purchase cost is $750, but still less expensive than a deluxe router table and a good router. I also have a three horsepower ShopFox Shaper that is mainly used for raising panels. However, it is a luxury tool.
Phil Huber (07:23.064) So did you end up selling your other router table then?
Logan Wittmer (07:26.67) Not yet, I have not.
Phil Huber (07:30.744) John, you weren't here for that. Do you have a dog in the fight on router tables versus shapers?
John Doyle (07:38.903) I am lean more to the router table. I guess Just shapers seem like overkill for what I'm doing But if you can get a good shaper for 750 bucks, that is that is a pretty good deal for I Mean compared to what some of the router tables cost nowadays So that's not too bad
Phil Huber (07:44.952) Okay.
Phil Huber (07:59.778) Yeah, I guess what was surprising to me or nice about it is as much as I love a router table, just filmed a course on router table techniques.
About the only downside for me is the noise and being able to have like a stationary tool.
Like that means that you're not using a universal motor. So it's a much quieter, smoother machine.
Logan Wittmer (08:31.897) Have you ever heard mine run when you've been in here? It is so quiet. Yeah. Yeah.
Phil Huber (08:40.824) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (08:41.999) Yep. I know it's like, haven't, I haven't posted mine for sale yet just cause I've been out of town. that's probably, part of what's going to happen this weekend is get it up for sale. the, the, I might've said this, my only, my only reluctance is the fence is so much nicer on the router table than it is on the Shaper. I love my Harvey router table, but I don't love the fence on it.
John Doyle (08:42.442) Yeah, I guess.
Phil Huber (09:05.387) Mm. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (09:11.724) love my Woodpecker's router table fence. I don't love the router table. The tables, I mean the table's fine. It's more the fact that I can't put spindles on it. So part of me is like, could I make the two work together? I don't know.
Phil Huber (09:29.07) You don't know unless you try.
John Doyle (09:29.43) I suppose one advantage of having a
could take your router in and out use it on a handheld base but I'm not about that life anymore I'm not I'm not I'm not a one router guy like that that's a that's a young man's game just leave it in the table get another router get two more routers
Logan Wittmer (09:43.317) I who does that though?
Logan Wittmer (09:52.641) You know, yeah, one, the, the, guy I was shooting with this week, when I was in Albany, he actually had a really cool router table. it was, so Ryan, his name is Ryan Moore. Wiley woodworking company, I believe is his name. but like the, or Wiley wood company, his router table is shot, built one MDF top cabinet base.
but it almost, it's super shallow. So it's only, I don't know. I'd be surprised if it was 20 inches deep, but it was like four foot wide, maybe five foot wide.
Phil Huber (10:31.662) Wow. Okay.
Logan Wittmer (10:33.14) Which is actually like a really nice size because it's like whenever I'm routing something, usually it's long and narrow. It's not often I'm routing up a big panel that I need front to back depth on. And if I do more than likely I'm putting the router bit in a handheld router, right? So I was like, that's actually really nice. Cause it could be, it's like, it's when it's up against the wall, it's pretty low profile. The woodpecker is one I have.
Beautiful table, one of the nicest tables you can buy, I think. But it's big, and I have a big size, it's like 28 by 42 or something like that. It's pretty big, it's just big. So I was like, oh, okay, I kinda like this little narrow router table size.
Phil Huber (11:22.418) Alphita one five eight. my gosh. Is that what the whole life is like a box of chocolates meant? Logan tells us you're going to get the nasty one that has the gooey inside, or are you going to get the nice one with the hazelnut cream this whole time? I thought that forest was talking about those mystery box off boxes that you guys offer occasionally. Will it be setting up shop or maybe bookcases, cabinets and shelves or extreme pointing with Chris Fitch?
Logan Wittmer (11:43.261) It's...
Phil Huber (11:50.392) But now I know it's about the box of chocolates, just like he said. Hashtag Logan Splaining.
Logan Wittmer (11:55.293) Right?
John Doyle (11:58.999) wish there was a documentary of like behind the scenes of the original mystery box that went down here. I don't remember how many years ago that was, but that was a whole drama behind the scenes. was, that's, I mean, that's a story in itself.
Logan Wittmer (12:03.922) God.
Phil Huber (12:11.191) Right.
Logan Wittmer (12:14.067) But I'll tell you what, the shop was never so clean.
John Doyle (12:17.652) Right. didn't stay that way, but I think that's the first time Becky made me cry too. So, not the last. Yeah.
Phil Huber (12:27.18) Not the laugh.
Logan Wittmer (12:27.229) I it was the first, but not the last.
Phil Huber (12:30.83) DP Meyer says, my unattached garage shop is underpowered. Rewiring is probably a giant pain in the... Logan, as the garage is above the house elevation-wise. I wonder if instead of spending the money on rewiring, I purchase a Jackery or a Blue Eddy type giant battery to run power tools. I really only use one tool at a time, plus the cyclone dust collection on the shop vac.
thoughts.
Logan Wittmer (13:03.676) Do not buy a Jackery.
I just have a bias against them because of their marketing campaign they did where it was like, let's send one to every influencer we know and pay them all to do content showing them running a bandsaw out of their truck for six minutes until it dies. I feel like...
John Doyle (13:27.03) Just plug your tools into your car's cigarette lighter.
Logan Wittmer (13:31.141) Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Phil Huber (13:32.354) There you go.
John Doyle (13:33.418) Just make sure you have the garage door cracked.
Logan Wittmer (13:40.39) Like, he didn't say how underpowered his shop is or how it is underpowered, right? So like...
To me, if you're only running one power tool at a time.
with a dust collector, you should be able to get away with that.
When your shop is, when I consider shop underpowered, I'm considering it that I need more amps than what are available. So I need like, instead of, you know, a standard, like a standard house outlet circuits, 15 amps, maybe 20. and if you need more amps than that, a Jackery or battery is not going to do it. Right. It's more like, you know,
you need to upgrade your panel size.
Phil Huber (14:36.428) Yeah, or you need a second circuit so that your tool is running on one and then the dust collector on something else.
Logan Wittmer (14:42.009) Yes. Yes.
Logan Wittmer (14:50.691) Yeah. I understand that the running additional power could be a royal pain in the Logan, but.
Logan Wittmer (15:04.032) think that's the better option.
This is coming from somebody whose dad is an electrician and like I like I can do that myself. So like I'm not like I get it if you're paying somebody like, it's going to be expensive and it's not fun. But like, I think that's just ultimately the best option.
John Doyle (15:24.512) Maybe just unplug your crackpot and the air fryer and just run the tools and then make your snacks after. So.
Logan Wittmer (15:27.779) Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Or just get the battery powered coffee maker.
Phil Huber (15:37.901) Right.
On the Popwood site is an article that you guys ran about using it like four wire jacketed.
wiring and then turning it into two circuits. Do remember that one?
Logan Wittmer (16:01.052) Yes, that was an old one, but yes, I know. Yeah, I've seen that at RAM before.
Phil Huber (16:04.59) Yeah.
Phil Huber (16:09.87) So you could get two circuits if you just basically used your existing one and pulled a new line through it, like another. So that.
Logan Wittmer (16:19.043) Sometimes, yeah, sometimes that's not easy to do, but like if you can, yeah, if you can.
Phil Huber (16:22.254) Yeah, no, I get that. But it's not that there are options to do it where it's not a.
a huge process.
Logan Wittmer (16:33.217) Yeah, see, and did this listener say where their panel was?
Phil Huber (16:40.781) did not.
Logan Wittmer (16:42.005) Okay, because in my mind...
dust collectors gonna draw the most amps.
So run the dust collector its own line. It might be like simplest way, punch out a new line outside of your house, wherever your panel is and run conduit, you know, run watertight conduit with that new line in it to the shop space, punch it through the wall. And then you have one line for the dust collector.
Logan Wittmer (17:19.362) So I think that's just, yeah. I would feel better about you saying, I want to run all of my tools in my shop off of solar panels and batteries, than off of like a Jackery or one of those. I just don't, I don't know that those are going to be the answer.
Phil Huber (17:19.48) I can see that.
Logan Wittmer (17:41.215) A water wheel, yeah.
John Doyle (17:46.88) garden hose powered water wheel. I think we got something here.
Phil Huber (17:49.838) Like those sump pumps? Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (17:59.595) Thank you, Tim. I have one of Tim's turnings in my collection. Yeah.
Phil Huber (18:07.022) PuppyDocBob says, Logan, the forest gump of burls. Burls are like a box of chocolates. All right, we're going to call out PuppyDoc here for just a second because just within the last week, we found out that the Denmark and Sweden tour that Logan and I are hosting this fall in September was confirmed.
We reached the threshold of the number of people that we need to make that trip a go. So if you've been sitting on the fence, Bob, about attending, because you're not sure whether it's going to end up happening or not, now is the time.
Logan Wittmer (18:45.055) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (18:52.184) Book your tickets.
Phil Huber (18:57.174) We also will not make any comparisons to the fact that the fine woodworking trip to England has not been confirmed yet.
Logan Wittmer (19:06.939) So we got to shuffle them two more people. So we're going to get three more signups for Denmark and Sweden, and then we're going to trade them two signups for one of their signups. So we're just, yeah, yeah, we're just, we're just dealing in seats right now.
Phil Huber (19:11.053) Yes.
Phil Huber (19:19.436) Right. Maybe. Yeah. Right. And maybe a draft pick.
John Doyle (19:25.224) It's travel grab bag. You don't know where you're gonna end up.
Logan Wittmer (19:26.42) Yeah.
Phil Huber (19:32.238) Jeffrey Chapin says, I definitely agree with Logan on the high speed tools. I don't think carbides are bad, just somewhat limiting.
Pen turning is too gadget-intense for a brand new turner. Lots of pieces to buy. I would have them focus on things like wands, spindles, calls, eggs, skill-building turning that doesn't require a lot of specialty items. The other stuff will come soon enough with experience. Second, little lathes are a dime a dozen on Facebook Marketplace. Everyone buys an entry-level lathe that they outgrow them right away. I would encourage them to take a class or attend a seminar if possible.
before buying into a machine.
Phil Huber (20:19.169) Which is interesting because it seems like woodworking especially, there are a lot of ways into a particular.
Phil Huber (20:30.271) specialty like turning like we talked to one the other day.
Phil Huber (20:38.765) So pen turning, one option, or Hogwarts wands, another option.
Logan Wittmer (20:46.801) I will say two things on that. Number one, this, the Northeastern, show case this weekend, there was last weekend, also was held at the same time as the turning symposium there. I don't know. I don't know what the, regional symposium was, there, but, there, the regional symposium was going on. So, like
Doug Thompson tools was there one way lathes were there and in conjunction they had a let's call it a booth like a trade show booth, but it was big and they had, don't know, a dozen mini lathes set up in there where you could go turn your own pen. And there was a line out of that booth the whole weekend to turn their own pens. So.
Phil Huber (21:33.591) Wow, okay.
Phil Huber (21:40.257) Really? Okay.
Logan Wittmer (21:40.988) Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, Jamie Harpster who was on our podcast a couple of weeks ago, uh, was there with plain wellness. His mom went and turned a pen, mama J turned a pen. So yeah, it was pretty cool. Um, the other thing on the one thing there has been a guy on tick tock that I've been following for a while now that is going through like all the ones in the Harry Potter series.
and making handmade replicas of all of them. And it's actually super fascinating and he's doing some pretty good woodworking as he's doing it. So it's like, I don't know if he's ordering the cheap injection molded wands off of Amazon, but they're like these obscure characters that maybe show up once in the movie series.
Phil Huber (22:26.616) Sure.
Logan Wittmer (22:26.843) but they have a glimpse of their wands, so he'll like find it, order it, and then he will actually use the wood that the quote lore says it's made out of. It's kind of cool. It's pretty interesting. You know, I feel like somebody could be running a really high-end Etsy store off of that.
Phil Huber (22:48.674) Maybe.
John Doyle (22:48.823) source like dragon heart string or unicorn hair like where do get that
Logan Wittmer (22:53.624) I don't know, because he is like putting that type of stuff in there, obviously not. I mean, you know, hard to find a unicorn in North America, but like, he's putting stuff in there like that is, yeah. Yeah. After the gnomes hunted them all down.
John Doyle (22:58.548) Yeah, yeah.
Phil Huber (23:02.657) Anymore.
John Doyle (23:03.816) Right. Yeah, it's restricted.
Phil Huber (23:08.162) Yeah. Frickin' gnomes.
Jim Carroll, last comment here. There are three types of turners. Pen turners, wood turners, and scrapers. Learn to turn with proper tools, even doing a pen with a roughing gouge. It's not that hard. Carbide is only good for resin turners who add the resin to their blocks of wood or some Australian hardwoods like Gigi. Learn to turn and sharpen properly and you will never have the need to buy those other tools.
Logan Wittmer (23:46.819) I didn't mean to bring in such controversy on that. Damn.
Phil Huber (23:47.01) Hot take.
John Doyle (23:49.942) Yeah, geez.
Phil Huber (23:52.621) Yeah.
We welcome all comers on questions, comments, and smart remarks. You could send those in on email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com, or better yet, subscribe to the Shop Notes podcast on our YouTube channel, Shop Notes Podcast, and leave the questions and comments right there. We read them all. It's a great way to engage with what we're doing.
Phil Huber (24:22.604) All right. Now, before we started recording, we'll call it during our mic check. Logan, you were talking about your breakfast this morning, the scrambled eggs. No, it's not scrambled eggs. Eggs. lunch. OK.
Logan Wittmer (24:39.36) Well, no, was my lunch. It was like right before the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. I got home from filming today. Hungry. to eat something. I've been on a very, very low carb diet for a while. So super high protein, super high fats. Not doing the whole carnivore thing anymore because I just like vegetables too much. like, so my lunch every day pretty much is five fried eggs.
soft fried, so over easy eggs, in butter, only the best Kerrygold butter in this person's house. But, spiced it up a little bit today, usually it's salt pepper, call it good, usually add an additional protein on top, like chorizo or something. But, today I was like, ain't got any of that, because I've been out of town for a week and I haven't done any grocery shopping. But you know what I have?
I have everything bagel seasoning. Technically, technically it was not everything bagel seasoning. I do have everything bagel seasoning, but I was trying to, I'm very much like if something gets low, I find stuff to use that until I could throw the container away. I get a lot of satisfaction throwing an empty container away. So like, I'm like, look, the everything but the bowl rice seasoning is low. I'm going to use that.
which is like, mean, it's basically everything but the bagel seasoning, except it has some seaweed and maybe ginger in it as well. It was so good. Phenomenal.
Phil Huber (26:16.801) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (26:18.24) So, yeah. I had to hide the plate from Goose because he likes to lick anything that has food on it. So it's currently hidden in the bathroom. I gotta remember to bring it in when we're done podcasting.
Phil Huber (26:34.825) or put like a little tiny dishwasher in the bathroom.
Logan Wittmer (26:39.089) you know, they do make countertop dishwashers.
Phil Huber (26:43.841) Yeah, just saying. You could tuck it in the cabinet underneath the sink.
Logan Wittmer (26:46.367) Yep.
Logan Wittmer (26:51.295) Yeah. Or in the bathtub.
Phil Huber (26:55.137) Right? Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Logan Wittmer (26:55.797) put it in the bathtub. Drain it right down the drain.
Phil Huber (27:02.189) It feels like a Kramer making food in the shower kind of thing. I don't know. Seems weird.
John Doyle (27:06.356) Garbage disposal in the shower.
Logan Wittmer (27:08.948) Yup, yup. You know, occasionally I will have nights where I'm like, hey, you know we're doing tonight? We're doing prison cooking. When it's like, I don't know if you guys ever watched any of the prison documentaries where it's like, you know, hey, here's my, here's how I make a grilled cheese in my prison cell when, you know, all we have is, you know, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cheetos and maybe a little bit of Spray Pam.
John Doyle (27:31.083) Yeah.
Phil Huber (27:36.514) There was a story about that in this last week's Milk Street radio podcast where it was about a guy who makes food. It kind of fascinating. Anyway, was thinking that Logan's idea that everything bagel seasoning on eggs was a genius. I had thought of doing, I'm an oatmeal fan.
and thought of doing like a savory oatmeal with maybe everything bagel seasoning on that, because I think that could be good.
Logan Wittmer (28:14.129) Yeah, I'm a huge oatmeal fan, but I really like the salty and sweet oatmeal. So oatmeal, again, Kerrygold butter, only the best. Brown sugar, sea salt, and bacon, crumbled up bacon. It is like the ultimate, so good.
Phil Huber (28:26.026) Okay.
Phil Huber (28:43.469) All right. I did a recipe the other day was sticky date oatmeal. So it had dates made with it and then brown butter and then sprinkled with kosher salt over the top of that. And that was fantastic. A little bit of cardamom in there. Yeah. All right. What this has to do with woodworking, I don't know.
Logan Wittmer (28:49.474) yeah. Yup.
Logan Wittmer (28:59.185) Yeah.
Okay, all right. Yeah, love me some dates too, yeah.
Phil Huber (29:09.163) But we're holistic here. We embrace the whole woodworker on the Shop Notes podcast. You want to be, yep.
Logan Wittmer (29:14.224) Yep. Substance included.
Phil Huber (29:20.693) All right, John, you want to fill us in on what we've been doing for filming this last couple of days? Cause you were deep in it for a while.
John Doyle (29:28.576) Yeah, well, since we didn't podcast last week, we had a full slate of filming last week too. You were doing your router table online education class, which was a follow-up. You'd had, it was several years ago, you'd done a router table class and this was kind of the follow-up, the sequel to that. So we got through that. of techniques, lots of...
Phil Huber (29:50.879) Right. Yeah.
John Doyle (29:57.493) little jigs and joinery and all kinds of stuff on that. And then Ben Strano went down and helped with that. And then he shot a TV show making a ukulele. I say ukulele. What's he say? Ukulele? What's the correct terminology? Ukulele, as they would say in the Polynesian area. So that's something different. We haven't done too many musical instruments.
Phil Huber (30:13.311) ukulele? yeah
John Doyle (30:24.22) the TV show so that's a that was a fun project that he was able to come in and do so got through both of those things last week and then started back up with the normal cast and crew we're doing a wall mounted workbench so it's been it's always it's always fun getting in the the dimensional lumber and like you said today straight off the hoof and
prepping that and hopefully it's not too wet and doesn't curl up and warp. But it's worked out well so far and we're gonna add another workbench flat surface to our video studio shop. Because just run out of stuff or places to stack stuff. So we need more. but, I don't know.
Logan Wittmer (31:04.377) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (31:15.489) Yeah, right.
Logan Wittmer (31:19.351) I thought it was going well until Phil called out my sawing technique on my Chamfer.
John Doyle (31:24.02) Right. Yeah. It was kind of like, you seriously going to do it that way?
Logan Wittmer (31:25.401) Jeez, I've never felt so judged by Phil in my life.
Phil Huber (31:26.679) What's in?
Logan Wittmer (31:32.271) That's kinda... What are you saying? And it seemed to work out just fine, didn't it?
John Doyle (31:36.148) And it's funny that he Yeah, it's like that was It was just like that was the line like of all the things we've seen you do that was like crossing the line that way
Phil Huber (31:39.072) It did, it worked out.
Phil Huber (31:49.474) I just.
It's one of those things where it's a horizontal brace for what will be the workbench top. On the underside, so it's two pieces of 2x stock laminated together. So 3x6, yeah, not quite. And the underneath edge of that was chamfered just to eliminate a sharp corner where you're going to smack your knees on or something like that.
Logan Wittmer (31:52.108) You
Logan Wittmer (32:07.031) Yeah. It's like three by six.
Phil Huber (32:21.55) And it's essentially a one inch wide chamfer. And I was on the control board and Logan marks out the side, does the layout for the chamfer and was going to cut it with a handsaw, which we had talked about before we started rolling. And it was one of those things where
In woodworking, there's like eight ways to do everything, right? So I was totally in my head seeing how I would do it. And then all of a sudden, Logan just veers off totally the script that I had playing in my head. And it just kind of, it was surprising more than anything else because I just didn't see it coming.
Logan Wittmer (33:04.396) Well, okay, so and here's here's my philosophy on this okay it was
So if you're chamfering the corner of three by six stock, okay, it's a one inch chamfer. So at a bias that's maybe what, an inch and three-eighths, inch and a half total cut length or total face on that chamfer. If I stand that on edge and I drop it down like you were talking, Phil, nothing wrong with that.
But then I got to stay on that line for five inches, five and a half inches straight down. So instead, and you're sawing at the 45 degree angle, right? In relation to the work piece. So instead what I do is I hold that thing in the vice front to back. So, you know, this five and a half inch width is away from me and I cock it at 45 degrees so that my chamfer waist, my chamfer cut line is vertical.
And I just dropped the saw right down that. So I'm basically, I don't know. It made sense to me. was like, that's how I'm like, I, get what you're saying. Cause if I was cutting a miter, you don't cut a miter like that. And that's what a bevel is.
Phil Huber (34:16.79) Yeah.
John Doyle (34:21.802) Right. It's like if you were at a miter saw and you just held that piece up at an angle and kept the saw, instead of turning it 45 degrees, you just went like, I'm just gonna hold the piece up. Yeah. So that's probably why it was unsettling visually, but it worked out fine.
Logan Wittmer (34:31.443) Yeah!
I just went like this.
Phil wanted me to go like this.
Phil Huber (34:40.686) I didn't say I wanted you to do that. was just kind of like one of those, know, like all of a sudden somebody just makes a left turn on something and it was just wow.
Logan Wittmer (34:42.258) I'm
Logan Wittmer (34:49.45) But it was a legal left turn.
John Doyle (34:49.685) Yeah.
Phil Huber (34:53.676) Right, it was, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (34:55.656) So it worked out great. My champers look great. You know, not to touch my own Twinkie or anything, but you know, that's a, you know.
John Doyle (34:55.894) It was like, yeah. Right.
I think it is. My grandma used to say that.
Logan Wittmer (35:05.77) Is that not a standard saying in central Iowa?
Phil Huber (35:07.566) I don't know.
Phil Huber (35:12.142) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (35:12.267) I know!
It was awesome, but here's what I like about that project, okay? It's useful for a lot of people. lot of people, like people love work benches. We've known that. I mean, we know that. 45 years on each of these magazines, we know people love work benches. Chris Schwartz built his career on work benches, okay? Construction lumber, easy to get. You know, you don't have to go to a crazy lumberyard to do it. You can go to Lowe's or Menard's or...
Phil Huber (35:22.477) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (35:48.246) We could film this dang thing in a day and a half. I finished all my filming in like two thirds of a day. Built the entire base. John had a lot of work done. that's all, you know, kudos to John on that.
John Doyle (36:06.774) It's definitely something you could complete in a weekend. You could go pick up the materials at the home center and get this all done in the weekend. So the other thing is, is like, went and bought all the materials. I spent less than $200 and I probably have twice as much like wood as what I needed. I just got a bunch to like, you know, pick kind of pick through or whatever. So it's like a relatively, I mean, cheap project and.
Logan Wittmer (36:10.45) easy.
Phil Huber (36:15.522) Yeah.
John Doyle (36:34.998) And I like having in the garage wall-mounted stuff, because then you can slide all your compressor, all the stuff that goes on the floor can get tucked up underneath of it. So it's kind of a nice thing to have a wall workbench. It's been a very popular project on Woodsmith Plants since it's been around. So I thought it'd be a good one to show. Very achievable.
Phil Huber (36:47.618) Yeah. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (36:50.15) And you can sweep underneath it, which is great.
Phil Huber (37:01.602) Yeah.
Right. mean, one of the advantages of a wall-mounted workbench is the built-in stability that you get because it's wall-mounted. You're borrowing the strength of the wall. You don't have to make this heavy, overbuilt, in many cases, base in order to have a really rigid workbench. It's basically the top couple of ledgers and some angle supports.
all of a sudden it's a really cool project. We've done projects where we've brought in essentially rough sawn lumber. And there's a transformation that takes place between rough sawn pieces and a piece of furniture. But it is interesting to see construction lumber get transformed in that way. Because in order to get the pieces that we wanted, especially to look good for the show,
We ended up with mostly, what was it, 2 by 10s and 2 by 12s so that it would be Douglas fir. And then because of the larger sizes of that, those are usually better quality boards. So like you were saying, John, we can cut around stuff. But to go from stuff that obviously looks like construction lumber and then with jointing, planing, all of a sudden these are
pretty nice looking pieces of wood and it turns into a project that has definite visual appeal. It's not like
Phil Huber (38:42.574) throwing shade without intending to throw shade. You'll see them at secondhand bookstores, the like two by four furniture that doesn't look like two by fours. And you're like, yeah, it does.
Phil Huber (38:59.726) So that was cool. I'll put some photos on that, of that, especially where that chamfer is on our show notes page for this episode and a link to that plan so you can take a look at it. We have two workbenches in the shop already. Logan alluded to that. So this one is going to be used for us as kind of a workshop credenza, for lack of a better word, I think is a good way to do it where we can
have a fixed place to stage parts. There's a shelf below it that's built into the whole thing, so we have a little bit more storage on site, and also gives us the chance to have a backdrop for some of our images as well.
Logan Wittmer (39:51.011) What I do, I mean, I do like the idea of we were talking about this and we were kind of joking about it because we have a lot of flat surfaces in the shop and they are all full of crap. Um, but I did like the idea that I don't know if Phil said it or John said it, uh, like, Hey, we could mount the machinist vice on that. It's like, Oh yeah, actually that's a really good idea. Like let's do that. That way we don't have to haul that stupid thing out every time we need to use it.
Phil Huber (40:21.442) Right.
And use it as almost like an assembly table or setup table or whatever. There's a lot of reasons to have a secondary work surface in your shop, I think, that make it worthwhile.
Phil Huber (40:46.062) A little project update. I've been working on my desk. Wow. Desk project, again, had to set aside for some other things going on. And I was prepping and resawing some of the two-inch pine boards for the desk. And as I was going through the bandsaw, I heard that distinctive nyeek sound, where you know you hit metal.
And I thought it was maybe some kind of a nail or fastener of some sort. Opened that up and took a look at it. And it turns out that it was a bullet, which was kind of interesting because then you could see on the outside of the board where the entry wound was of it. And then there were a couple of other pieces too that had other bullets in it. And then there was, I showed both of you guys one where it looked like two other bullets must have gone in or something, but
in the milling of those I never found them.
I'm not entirely sure what happened.
Phil Huber (41:57.07) just absorbed by the tree maybe.
Logan Wittmer (42:00.512) I wonder if there's a study somewhere on how far 22 bullet penetrates different tree species.
because I'm pretty impressed how deep those got into that pine. But then I'm thinking about it, like pine's not that dense, especially a living tree, right? But 22 bullets, pretty small. It doesn't have a whole lot of kinetic energy behind it. So I'm like, what happened? Like what's the difference if you shoot a bur oak? Like what's the difference if you shoot a walnut? Like how deep do they go?
Phil Huber (42:23.267) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (42:39.84) I like this could be fun video series. Walk around Logan's timber and let's just shoot trees.
Phil Huber (42:50.52) Yeah, so anyway, cool to find just a little bit of the story of the tree and what was happening. We were trying to figure out where that tree had been taken down and couldn't quite remember it.
Those were boards I was going to use for the desktop, but now I might have to use some other pieces and use those for some of the interior panels where it's not going to be as visible.
Anyway, that was kind of a fun thing. And then while just the old tool update I've mentioned on the podcast before that I've been looking for brace auger bit extension and was having I found a few of them on eBay and Etsy and things like that. But it's always been one word like the price is reasonable and then the shipping basically doubles the price and.
kind of frustrating. The tool haunts that I usually have around here never really turned up anything. But thanks to Logan and being out in the riches of East Coast, old tool availability found one for me. So that was pretty cool. It's the Yankee, what is it, the 2150? Yeah, 2150 15-inch extension. It's kind of cool. got.
was cleaning it up just before we started filming. I'd show that here. I'll put that photo on the Show Notes page. Going to use it for making some chairs coming up.
Phil Huber (44:38.038) And now that Logan's back from all of his travels, can, next week we'll get an update from him on the outfeed table.
Logan Wittmer (44:48.347) Yeah, I better do some work on it so I have an update.
John Doyle (44:53.322) You've got one week.
Logan Wittmer (44:53.851) Right now I got a vent hood on the workbench. That's almost done.
Phil Huber (45:00.065) Almost up.
All right. Love to hear what anybody else has going on as spring springs around the country, which you have for woodworking project. You can send that as an email woodsmith at woodsmith.com or leave a comment on our YouTube channel, shop notes podcast. Like and subscribe, help us to get the word out to other woodworkers. That's it. We're calling this a sauna session.
We will see you next week on the ShopNotes Podcast. Bye.
