Thanks for sending that along. I think I'm definitely going to try that out. Appreciate you taking the time to give some advice.
Looks like I'll finally have my new desk done this weekend. I just have 1 more coat of wipe-on poly to apply, let dry, and then apply the finishing wax. Should have it done tomorrow. Frame's all welded up and painted (3 coats of a hammered finish metal paint, with 2 coats of a clear coat for protection), and despite some ugly welds and not enough time spent grinding the finished product, it's plenty good enough for a desk frame for my office.
Finished my first major woodworking project ever tonight. Did it entirely on my own with some help from my wife with the stain and poly coats. Here it is with the new chairs (didn't build those). The swoosh in the picture of the table top is a shadow from the lamp above, otherwise I'm super happy with the finish. The best part? Every frame joint is square and the table is perfectly level at every angle. It satisfies my OCD nicely. I also 100% appreciate every second my dad made me spend with him while he built things when I was a kid, because I used everything I learned and then some. I'm hooked now, and already have some other projects in mind. Thanks again for the guidance, Nett. Your desk is also coming together nicely.
You did a great job there, dude... you should be very proud! And I know what you mean about being hooked... it's so incredibly therapeutic to build stuff... and I find that when I'm waiting for something in the current project, I'm sketching and planning the next bunch of stuff in a sketch book I keep in the shop. For instance, this desk is step 1 of about 20 for my office remodel. Once this is done, it's being set up in the family room, and I'm moving all my computer gear out of the office and onto that desk. Then I'm gutting the office... doing new hardwood floors (resawn myself), new electrical, lighting, ceiling fan, drywall/paint, built-in cabinets, computer rack, cable management, etc. Then it's on to new bedroom furniture...
So I'm looking to buy a jointer and also a planer, and thought "ya know, maybe we could do a 'here's what I've got in my workshop' list". So, who has a planer and/or jointer, and what else do you have in your shop?
I have one of the typical Dewalt DW735 planers, and a cheap King(?) 6" jointer. Both are more than capable of doing what I need doing... as long as they are set up correctly. That was the bitch. Getting the jointer properly tuned/configured took a lot longer than I thought it would, but ever since I went through the hassle, it's worked quite well for me. Changing blades on it is a bit of a bitch, as you kind of have to re-tune the jointer to ensure everything is all good again, but it's not enough of a pain (yet) to justify the cost of moving up to a spiral head cutter. Honestly, my advice is to buy the cheapest ones you can find right now, and see how much you actually use them. When you find your work is to the point that it is demanding better than what the cheapest tool can provide, then re-evaluate.
Desk base is done and moved into the spare room. Next up is to build a top hutch with shelves, integrated lights and power, and hang a whack of monitors off of them. Then I’ll move everything out of the home office, gut it, and do a full reno. Fun times.
Not sure how many people use an RSS reader (I use Feedly), but just wanted to give a friendly heads up to a website I've found insanely useful for the last year or so: ToolGuyd They post about tool deals as they come up, which is great during the holiday season, but the true value of that place is in the knowledge on tool reviews. They have connections with all the big names so TG gets the fun stuff before it goes to stores, and then put it through it's paces and give you all the detailed specs. The comment section is filled with people who actually use those tools for a living, so it's a great place to learn a lot without having to sort through the typical internet idiots.
Looking to get an impact driver. Curious what y'all's opinions are. I'm obviously looking at the B&D just because I already have so many batteries. Ryobi because I've heard some good reviews on here. DeWalt's impact driver is a little more expensive, as are their batteries, but the reviews on it seem to be solid. Local lowes has a good deal on Hitachi's. Any opinions?
Yeah, pick one brand and invest in it.... don't mix and match. You're not a pro contractor, so you don't need the best of breed, especially when you need all new batteries and chargers to feed it. If you do find you're using it enough to break it, then upgrade to something better... but otherwise, it's more of a tool than you are. (only in the literal sense). (zing!) I picked Ryobi a few years ago as my go-to battery-powered tool, and am not at all sorry for that decision. I have 2 of their impacts that I use all... the... time... and they're solid. By far, the biggest investment is in batteries and chargers, and I love the fact that I have 5 chargers lined up on the bench and about 10 batteries... that feed all of my portable tools, from grinders, to a glue gun, to drills, to impacts, to recip saw, to circular saw, to jig saw... even the bluetooth radio, all run off the same batteries. I never have to worry about running out of batteries, or keeping them charged up... which is very, very handy. And for shits and giggles, this is why I bought the glue gun:
That was my thinking in switching to Dewalt. I have a ton of B&D batteries and some basic yard tools but I’d like to transition to Dewalt, which is a brand I’m just super familiar with over the years and in a bit of superstition is the only brand of tool that hasn’t injured me yet. Yet. The miter saw might change that. *crosses fingers*
I have the Ryobi 18+ system and it works great. I will say certain tools of the system chew through batteries (see: angle grinder) but I bought corded versions of the stuff that kills the batteries.
I'm trying to figure out how to make a corded adapter that would plug in like a battery for when you need extended time.
I can buy 2 4ah batteries for the cost of just the transformer required to run the tool... never mind everything else required. Just sayin.
By the way... I bought a Porter Cable 6" jointer. Gonna do some work with it this week and see how I like it. The wife bought me some roller stands for in feed and outfeed, I can already see they are going to be handy.
Very cool! Enjoy the jointer, and I highly recommend watching this video: It really is amazing what a properly tuned jointer can do... when I got mine, it was a bit out of whack, but still very usable, but I had no idea there was anything wrong. As time went on I found that I was getting better and better, and finally there were weird alignment issues in my glue-ups that were pissing me off because I thought I was doing it pretty well... turns out that the jointer was ever so slightly out of alignment. About an hour of fucking around and getting it as close to perfect as I could, and it made a very noticeable difference. More and more I find that I'm paying attention to proper setup and tuning of the tools... like my new band saw... spent about an hour getting it tuned up properly, and it's working perfectly. And then there was tonight... I was working in the shop and got frustrated with my DeWalt 735 planer... it has always kind of acted up... never really fed right, had crazy snipe... never really got solid results from it that it seems like I should have. I ended up ripping it right apart and found that one of the roller block bearings was cracked right in half... probably right from day 1. It put one end of a roller out of alignment and lower than the others... and put a weird strain on the roller gears. I've had to replace 2 of those gears in the last 2 years, and thought it was just from taking too much of a bite.. and those gears are cheap fuckers and a known week point (so much so that there are aftermarket replacements for them). It's almost like they made them that cheap so that they were a mechanical fuse in the system. Regardless, the fucked up roller bearing was undoubtedly the root cause of the problems I've been having. So now I get to pick up replacements tomorrow from the DeWalt service depot here in town... I opted to get 2 new rollers and all 4 bearings, as it seems worth doing while it's all apart. Until then I have a bench of wood waiting to be prepped...
ftfy B&D battery-powered drills & impact drivers will start to sloooow dowwwwn when the battery gets weak. Dewalt will come to a dead stop and quit. I've worked with both, and I've found that B&D batteries tend to last longer through occasional use, but the Dewalt tools themselves are clearly built better. ymmv