Cherry Ridge Woodworks

The last few months, my Freud Premier/Fusion saw blade has been causing some minor frustrations. It’s the blade that’s in my saw 95% of the time. It’s an exceptional blade. As a matter of fact, I’m a fan of all Freud blades and bits. (Their thin-kerf glue-line rip blade is a winner, too.)

Freud® 10” x 40T Hi ATB Premier Fusion General Purpose Blade
Delivers a quieter, smoother cut with a superior finish and extended cutting life. Unique design and special polymer filler reduces vibration above and beyond any other blade for superior performance. Ideal for hard and soft wood, veneered plywood and melamine. Freud® 10” x 40T Hi ATB Premier Fusion General Purpose Blade

The problem I had with it had nothing to do with the quality of cut. By that, I mean the smoothness of the cut edge. It has always cut like a dream. But the problem was I was getting some burning. At first I thought my rip fence was out of alignment. But after checking, it seemed to be aligned just fine. Then I started noticing some burning when crosscutting, too. Today, I decided to take the blade off and give it a good cleaning. It had been a while since I gave it a thorough scrubbing.

But looking through all the chemicals I had on hand, I didn’t have any blade cleaner. I scrounged through our household chemicals and found a gallon jug of ZEP General Purpose Cleaner I had picked up at the Home Depot at some point in the last few years. You’re supposed to dilute this cleaner, but I used it full-strength. I placed my blade in the bottom of a 5-gallon plastic pail with a few ounces of the cleaner. I let it soak for 5-10 minutes then thoroughly rinsed it with water. It removed all the pitch and dirt without me touching it with a scrub brush.

After drying off the blade, I set about inspecting the teeth. I was shocked to discover that one tooth was half-gone. And three or four others had sizable chips out of them.

I was faced with a decision. Should I find a sharpening service that knew how to replace the teeth and grind the blade per Freud’s specifications? Wait…I had used this blade for almost three years. Forget it. I won’t bother with sharpening. I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it.

I needed a blade right away, so I decided to head off to the Woodsmith Store. My old Fusion was a standard 1/8″-kerf blade. But I have a 1-3/4HP saw, so I thought I’d try a thin-kerf blade. Wouldn’t you know, the thin-kerf Fusions were out of stock, so I put my name on the list to be notified when they come in.

But I needed a blade today. Right now. So I chose a Freud thin-kerf combination blade. It was considerably less expensive than the Fusion blade anyway. I have to say, I was very impressed. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t really tell the difference between that and the Freud Fusion. I’ll probably get the thin-kerf Fusion anyway. It’s always good to have at least two good combination blades. Eventually, one of them will need sharpened and you need a backup.

You can’t have too many blades, can you?

I grew up watching my dad building projects and doing a lot of remodeling on our home. He’s a master at using power tools and has built some fantastic-looking pieces. But I never recall seeing him use a hand plane all that much. He learned how to tweak joinery and thickness a workpiece using sanders, jointers, and planers. And if he needed to nibble the end of a workpiece for a tight fit, he’d do it at the table saw.

I remember dad having an old hand plane in his basement workshop. One day after school, I picked it up and tried to use it. After a few swipes and not getting any results, I gave up.

Fast-forward about 15 years. He showed up one Christmas with a paper bag. “Here. I found these in my shop. You can have them.” Inside was a No. 4½ Stanley smoother and a No. 78 duplex rabbeting plane.

I did a lot of research on the internet to figure out how to restore, tune, and sharpen these old planes. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I took those first few swipes on a piece of scrap wood and discovered the magic. I was able to get thin, whispy shavings.

That day changed my woodworking forever.

I learned how to use a hand plane to remove machining marks left by a jointer or planer. I learned how to tweak the fit of a joint using a hand plane. I was bitten by the bug. Next thing you know, I was shopping on eBay for old planes.

Have I given up on power tools? No way. I use the right tool for the job. And sometimes, a hand plane is the right tool.

Rob Porcaro wrote a blog post over on Fine Woodworking’s web site about his philosophy of using hand tools. I agree with everything he says.

It’s nice to drive to the mountains and even drive through the mountains, but it’s not as nice as hiking them. Power tools drive you there, but hand tools walk you through.    –Rob Porcaro

In my 40+ years of woodworking, I’ve managed to accumulate quite a lot of hardware. You know what I mean — all sorts of screws, nuts, bolts, etcetera, etcetera. Most of which sat in a box and was never used. The funny thing is, I was stupid enough to move them when we moved out of state a few years back.

When I set up shop in my new location, I decided it was time to sort out all that hardware and get it organized. I had acquired an old, heavy-duty file cabinet that was designed for index cards. This meant that the drawers were only about 6″ high. I thought this would be perfect for storing hardware. To store the hardware, I used some small containers that were used in the days of film photography for holding 35mm slides. They fit perfectly in neat little rows in my file drawers.

So I set about one Saturday finding all the boxes, bins, and plastic storage cabinets full of hardware. I organized all the fasteners by type and size. Woodscrews, machine screws, sheet metal screws, bolts, and everything in between. Each found a home in a little container in the file drawer.

But as I progressed through this reorganization, it occurred to me I had a wide variety of traditional slotted or Phillips-head woodscrews. I’ve vowed long ago to give up slotted screws because the screwdriver always seems to slip at the most inopportune time, ruining or scratching my project. So I set those aside to give away to fellow woodworker friends.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I had used modern woodscrews to repair an antique cabinet. The ones I had grown to like and use are made by GRK Fasteners. I like them so much, I really didn’t see the need to keep any of my traditional woodscrews. So I set the remainder of those aside, too. I did manage to keep all the brass woodscrews, and I have a separate collection of pocket hole screws.

So my friends benefited from my culling of the hardware. I took inventory of the GRK R4 screws I had on hand then purchased additional sizes to round out my collection. I’ve got most sizes from #6 x ½” to #8 x 2″. If I need other sizes for a project, I’ll buy a box only as I need them. The other great thing about these screws is that they come in handy, reusable snap-close containers. And they fit perfectly in my file drawers.

GRK R4™ Multipurpose Star/Torx Screw In addition to a Torx-head design that eliminates cam-out slippage, these innovative self-countersinking bits feature six cutting pockets beneath the head and sharp, saw-like lower threads. GRK R4™ Multipurpose Star/Torx Screw

Why do I like GRK screws so much? Well, first of all the Torx head means I can drive them home without fear of cam-out. I can use them with an impact driver. They’re self-drilling, so you rarely need to drill a pilot hole. (You’ll still want to drill a pilot hole if you’re near the edge of a workpiece or working with hard woods.) Finally, little nibs under the head form their own countersink. This makes assembly go much quicker.

My suggestion is to spend a few hours (or a day or two) going through your hardware and give away what you don’t really need. And step up to a modern woodscrew.

I just finished putting together an antique cabinet that’s similar to the one you see here. It was literally in pieces when I picked it up from the customer. Apparently, at some point in its life, it had fallen off the wall onto the floor. And by the looks of it, this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Someone somewhere in the past had made a pretty poor attempt at repair using dowels. They had even drilled through the sides of the cabinet in a couple spots to insert the dowels into the shelves!

Miraculously, the heavy, beveled glass door survived and is still a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

I had been contemplating for a couple of weeks how to go about a decent repair for the cabinet. The dowels and dowel holes had dried glue all over them. And obviously, the wood was old and cracked in some spots. I had to patch a spot that had broken out from the side near a dowel.

So how do I put this back together? I ruled out glue because most of the joinery was butt joints and glue doesn’t hold well on end grain. And the joints weren’t tight enough to be “glue worthy” anyway.

So I resorted to using 1½” finish nails. Yep. Modern nails. I figured with their small heads and a little dab of wood putty, they would all but disappear. So I got out my Warrington-style hammer and tapped in three nails through the sides into each end of the shelves. I countersunk the heads with a nail set and applied a little wood putty with a cotton swab to minimize spreading it around.

Famowood Wood Filler Made from genuine wood flour, these fillers closely emulate the properties of real wood. They can be stained, sawed, drilled, sanded, planed and nailed, just like the real thing. They show no noti.. Famowood Wood Filler

Oh, I have one other confession to make. I used modern screws to hold the top of the cabinet to the sides. They even have a Torx head. But I figured this was where the point of failure was originally when it fell from the wall, and they’re on the back, so it really didn’t matter. If someone throws a fit, they can replace them with traditional, slotted wood screws.

So there you have it. Modern finish nails and screws used in the restoration of an antique cabinet. You can call the antique police now and turn me in.

GRK R4™ Multipurpose Star/Torx Screw
In addition to a Torx-head design that eliminates cam-out slippage, these innovative self-countersinking bits feature six cutting pockets beneath the head and sharp, saw-like lower threads to drive through a variety of materials smoothly, without tearing. Available in several lengths and sizes. Torx/Star-head driver bits also available. GRK R4™ Multipurpose Star/Torx Screw

In this post, I promised to provide an update on how my plan worked for using a threaded rod to anchor a newel post.

Overall, my plan worked, but not without some minor nuisances that always seem to happen in a home improvement project. I drilled a hole through the upstairs floor tile to accommodate the threaded rod I had epoxied into the bottom of the newel post. I shoved the rod into the hole then trekked down to the basement. Darn! The threaded rod was too close to the joist to install the large fender washer I had wanted to install. And after reviewing the situation a little closer, I decided to add some blocking to allow me to keep as much length on the threaded rod as possible. I figured this would provide more stability for the post.

You can view and download the SketchUp model below that illustrates what I did.

So I spend about a half hour cutting up some scraps of plywood to add as blocking under the post. After gluing and screwing the blocking to the joists on either side of the rod, I installed a washer, split locking washer, then a nut and carefully tightened it down. I had some help upstairs to keep the post from twisting while I tightened the nut.

It worked as planned. The newel post was solid and the customer was happy. All I had to do was glue the handrail back in place.

Stairs and Railings Step-by-Step Projects Book
Creative Homeowner presents this step-by step guide to designing and building various types of staircases and railings, including straight stairs, deck stairs and L-shaped staircases with a landing. A host of color drawings and photographs illustrate the directions. Stairs and Railings Step-by-Step Projects Book

Those who know me at all know that I’m a big fan of SketchUp. It’s a free, powerful, and easy-to-use software program that lets you design in three dimensions. You can see some of the models I’ve created by clicking here. I’ve also created a most of the SketchUp models you can download as Online Extras for ShopNotes magazine.

There’s a blog (knockoffwood.blogspot.com) I ran across that uses SketchUp to create free plans of “knock-off” furniture. Ana White takes her ideas from Pottery Barn and other catalogs and creates plans so that you can recreate the same style in your garage or basement workshop. And she uses SketchUp to generate the plans. Go take a peek at what she’s done.

And if you find something you like, let me know and I can build it for you! Just use the contact form and we’ll see what we can do.

Gorilla Wood Glue

It’s bad enough that I have to pry off old, dried wood glue from the bottle tip before I use it. But during a glue-up, the last things I want to see are chunks of rubbery goo come out of the bottle.

I had recently tried another brand of wood glue made by the same folks that make Gorilla Glue polyurethane glue. I thought perhaps that I had purchased an old bottle of glue. But when the second bottle of glue still had small chunks in it, I began to wonder.

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I received a phone call the other day from a gentleman in his 70’s. He went into a lengthy discussion about how technology has replaced craftsmanship. He was referring to a lot of magazine articles and TV shows that use digital calipers, digital angle gauges, and other high-tech devices for measuring and machine setup. To paraphrase his comments, “When I was working in the shop, we cut to fit. We didn’t need a measuring tape.”

He has a point. One of the mistakes a lot of beginning woodworkers make is cutting all their parts to the exact dimensions shown on the plans. Then as they assemble the project, they wonder why their joints have gaps or the parts don’t fit.

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When I was a youngster growing up, my dad had a Sears Craftsman radial arm saw, a Rockwell radial drill press, and some old table saw. And they were all in a very wet, and sometimes flooded basement. But he and I managed to do a lot of woodworking in that basement.

When I was first married, I moved into a small 1½-story home with a basement. No garage. Guess where I decided to put my shop? Yep. In the basement. But I couldn’t afford a lot of tools. I did manage to buy a new Craftsman table saw. (In the small town where I grew up, the only source for woodworking tools was Sears.) But the table saw was the only new tool I owned.

My first router table was a 2×4 base with a plywood top. I think it was in one of the first issues of Woodsmith magazine. Oh…my Craftsman router was the one other new tool I eventually purchased. (more…)

I got a call from a family that needed to know how to fix a loose newel post on their stairway. This is the post at the bottom of the stairway that anchors the handrail. It’s a pretty important structural component in the handrail and baluster assembly.

Actually, the post was more than loose…it had been removed. They had put in a new ceramic tile floor and the contractor had taken a reciprocating saw and cut through the screws that had secured the post to the floor. They wanted the post put back in place. But the problem was, there was a ceramic floor tile located where the post needed to be. How would I go about anchoring the post securely?

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