One thing I like a lot about your videos is that they often are very objective about woodworking, giving tips and teaching about actual techniques to get the job done, independent of what the viewer budget is.
As a newbie just trying to make items for my personal use I really appreciate this video. All of your videos are easy to understand. Keep up the great work!!!
Love this video! I think a lot of people get discouraged because they can’t afford a $1500 Saw Stop, when in reality what you said is exactly correct: “what you’re paying for is the convenience”. Well done, sir!
Here's how I aligned my fence. First, i got the blade square with the slots using what's called "Pals". They're used to square the trunion with fine adjustments. Then, after the blade was square, I loosened my fence adjustment screws, (don't remove them, just loosen) lightly clamped my loosened fence to the blade. Then i simply slowly tightened the fence adjustment screws. Works like a charm. Soooo, much easier than any other method i've tried.
Great tips! Never tried the circular saw blade in my table saw, but that'll be good as a backup method. One thing to watch out for is table saws that have a riving knife designed for a full kerf blade like my Delta 36-725. A thin kerf blade won't clear the knife without modifications. My favorite cheap tools are from Harbor Freight, but you have to pick carefully.
I recently paid out on a Makita chop saw. Not the most expensive from their range, but it's a world apart from the cheap saw it replaced. I guess what I'm trying to say is buy the best you can afford. It really does make a difference.
Thanks, Colin. Dealing with some of these issues from cheap equipment has consumed so much of my time as I learn to be proficient in this craft. Thank you for your expertise.
You are a good man Colin, sharing your many years of experience with us weekend woodworkers. Love your channel and have learnt heaps. Thank you my friend. Hope you have a great holiday season.
A couple of comments: The alignment method is awesome, but make sure you use dimensionally stable wood (good baltic birch with lots of layers) so that seasonal swelling doesn't throw that off. The smaller blade is great! Not sure how it makes less sawdust, unless it's thinner, but many of us use cross-cut sleds, and that extra height of a bigger blade is needed. Great tips!
I always use my $5 (on sale at Canadian Tire) skill saw blade on the table saw for cuts in wood that I know are more than likely to have nails or screws in it. Works great and for some reason I haven't managed to chip the carbides yet.
Great comments regarding quality TS blades. For my portable jobsite saws, I found it was worth the investment to get Freud RIP blades, as the bulk of the work was rip cuts. It made the saw do MUCH LESS work to rip the material, with much less scorching. Those saws just don't have the muscle to get effective cuts with combo blades, IMHO. On my workshop saw, I typically keep the rip blade on, unless doing a bunch of cuts with sheet goods.
For your spacer jig idea, I'd think you could also make multiple little cuts in the front edge of the jig. Align it for 2", make a small cut, align it for 2.5, 2.25, whatever, make another cut. Then, once you have a bunch of slots, put your jig in the saw, put the blade in whichever slot you're after, then move your fence to that position.
Those old Marples chisels (blue plastic handle) are great tools. They're made with Sheffield steel; some of the best tool steel in the world. I've accumulated a fairly complete set of them. (The Irwin Marples are not the same.)
Nice Video Colin. I like how you give people confidence to use cheaper tools. Lots of people make you believe it is only possible with brand name tools. Just a couple of points I think are important Thin Kerf saw blades on a table saw are great like you say, but in Europe, they will not work with most riving knives. Of course, you can remove the riving knife, but that adds a level of danger. Also, Diablo is quite hard to find in Europe, but I have great experience with Bosch blades and can definitely recommend them. Also, with second hand planes, there are tons of old wooden planes on the market. Paul Sellers does a great video on how to renovate them. You can just whack them through the jointer and the sole is as good as new. Personally, I love wooden planes and for it is much cheaper to kit out your workshop with a full set.
I think Colin and I are probably close to the same age, but I always feel like I'm getting advice from my father or grandfather! Actually I just recently pulled out my grandfather's planes and cleaned them up, now to check the quality.
Very interesting video. I have both cheap, expensive tools. Most of my hand planes are passed down from my Father. All of my hand saws are also passed down.
That was an appropriate way of using the word in expensive.. The word cheap sounds less durable. But with this video you have assured many of moving ahead with woodworking irrespective of the cost of tools and equipment. Great video..
Some may disagree, but years ago I stopped buying high speed drill bits, and have only purchased cobalt bits. They are getting less expensive over time, and can drill thru armor plate, can be sharpened when needed (as opposed to titanium coated bits). The only difference is the point angle is less acute at 135 degrees,which has never been any kind of problem for me at all. They hold a sharp cutting edge FAR longer than HSS bits and being able to use them for metal or wood makes them more versatile.
You didn't mention keeping your saw blade clean. Cleaning the blade is the best method for making clean, clean and non-burning cuts, especially if you are cutting softwoods.
I'm completely guilty of this one. Spoiled by many years of almost exclusively cutting MDF, I know I need to research this in-depth, but never remember to do so unless I read a comment like this somewhere as a reminder.
While watching your idea for a fence-setting jig, I thought that not only could you have several different sizes, but you could also use one of the jigs in combination with various sizes of setup blocks to create even more fence settings. All you would need to do is run the setup block along the jig to make sure the spacing is the same all the way, then use your clamps to tighten the fence in place. Seems like a few setup blocks is a good addition to any shop!
One point that wasn't mentioned in the video is if you use a smaller diameter blade in a table saw which has a riving knife then you will probably need to remove the riving knife. This is because the kerf of the smaller blade will likely be narrower and the work would get jammed on the riving knife. Obviously using a table saw without a riving knife increases the risk of kick-back.
I bought my table saw only about six months ago. A cheap one with cheap blades. Only now, from the second half of October I started to learn to work with it. I want to buy more types of blades for it. At least one with more teeth, one with special teeth (which don't mind so much going through nails when I am using reclaimed wood. And for resawing I'd like to have a blade with a thinner kerf. The blades can have a smaller diameter. It's possible to remove the riving knife. But I think I should replace the original one by a thinner one. I don't want to be without a riving knife.
Little tip for spotting cheap steel on used chisel..have a small stone in your pocket and run across the surface of the chisel body. If it scratches real easy walk away. Too soft and it won't hold an edge..Sometimes even new chisels won't be wrapped so you can check them the same way..
Hi Colin, thanks for all your wonderful content. I just upgraded my mitre saw to a Bosch BOSCH GCM 8SJL. It takes a 216mm blade. What 80 tooth cross cut blade would u recommend for this saw, I lots of precise fine cuts... thanks for any advice and greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪
Thanks Colin, always great advice and well presented, such a pleasure to watch your videos. Stay well and safe through the holidays and wishing you all the best for 2021.
Just remember that if you're changing blades from a 10" to a 7 1/4", and you use the riving knife on your table saw (as you usually should) you may have to change out to a thinner riving knife as the little skil saw blades are usually thinner than the 10" blades. I switched to a 7 1/4" blade once without removing the stock riving knife and couldn't figure why pushing the stock through was so hard!
You might mention the difference in the blade rotation with using a circular saw blade on a table saw. Always look at the rotation markings on the blade to know which orientation when installing in your table saw. Not sure everyone caught that.
you can use a marker pen on the plane base, after sanding there should not be any marker visible, did similar as an apprentice engineer with engy blue instead
Thank you for all your excellent videos, Colin. One question: I have a miter saw that also uses a 10" blade. Would you recommend that Diablo blade for the miter saw also?
Awesome Colin, I’ve been watching you for a while and these videos are perfect for people like me who can’t afford to go all out for their tool budget lol. I love the 7 1/4 blade trick and I’ve been using it for a while. Depending on manufacturer they also seem to have a fairly flat kerf that’s been getting me by until I can buy a glue line blade
Sears used to sell an 8” cast iron top table saw that was a worthwhile little saw and it used the 7.25 blades very efficiently. Too bad that went away. It was ideal for many non-professional wood workers. I used to have one that I used as a job-site saw that saw lots of service until the bearings went out and I couldn’t find replacements.
Can you do a video on an easy way to make a fence that lines up and locks easily on the cheap harbor freight saws? I bought one but all the fences want a new top on the fence and all that.
I noticed you had a Veritas iron in your plane. I bought one for a plane I refurbished and it was quite a bit thicker. The throat opening didn’t seem to be big enough to allow and adequate gap between it and the iron and the frog didn’t have enough adjustment to accommodate the thicker iron. Have you run into this?
FYI I’ve been using Diablo thin kerf blades for years on many of my saws excellent value for home and small shops for business I buy Freud and have a sharpening company that will re tooth if needed those blades will go for years and years with good success
I love running the Diablo 7 ¼ demo demon on my table saw when cutting reclaimed lumber in case I missed any nails, but the problem I have is the riving knife is wider than the blade kerf and it won't feed. Do you think it would be OK to file down the knife to the same thickness as the blade?
Garry not Linda. I don't think I would do that. Check with your saws manufacturer they may have a thin knife available to accommodate thin kerf blades.
Mr. Colin first I must say I have a lot of respect for you and admire your work. I'm from Québec and I have a question for you. Can I use a 7 1/4 blade on a 10 in. miter saw ? I prefer having the opinion of a professional before trying it myself
Greetings Colin. I have what appears to be the same miter saw as you, makita LS1019. I can’t for the life of me get it to cut square. It appears to make a curved cut when doing a full extension cut. Have you experienced this issue? Suggestions?
An interesting question I think is how to compare 10" and 7.25" blades for tooth count! I noticed your 7.25" was labeled as 24 tooth....but I doubt that is comparable to a 10" with 24 teeth. On the 10 inch, those teeth will be moving MUCH faster and will be MUCH more spread out...like 38% faster/further spaced. So how do they compare?
Colin, do you have a tip for sanding 100s of pine or hardwood wooden blocks 35mm x 35mm x 35mm (have a photo but not sure how to send it to you), do you think a compost tumbler filled with sand would work. Thanks for the video lots of good tips
I would lay as many as possible side to side and end to end, making a large rectangle on a flat, stable surface. Then clamp them so they won’t move. Now you can sand one side of at least a hundred (10 x 10 square) of them at the same time. Yeah, it’ll take a while to do all six sides but that’s better than tumbling them IMHO. Unless you want rounded edges....
I've got a Triton compounding slider mitre saw. It always goes out of mitre degree after a couple of cuts. I use a speed square to set it and then after a couple of cuts, it's out again. Any tips on that?
blade is spinning faster its cutting through the material faster, hence less saw dust. the slower the blade moves, the more material it gouges out from blade wobble. the steel in the blade heats up. Cooler blade less wobble, less wobble, less material removed, less material, less saw dust.
One question regarding the smaller blade, I've heard you have to be mindful of the rake of the teeth, table saw blades don't have the same as circular saw blades (positive or negative rake) could anyone clarify?
@@jimthesoundman8641 Ah, well, rust only forms in the presence of both oxygen *and* water, exclude one or the other & rusting is prevented. Obvs, it's easier to try to stop water from coming into contact with your tools than oxygen - storing tools in a tank of deoxygenated water isn't terribly practical. To prevent rusting, wipe tools with an oily rag after every use. If stored unused for longer than a few days or somewhere that temperature & humidity variations produce condensation, eg unheated poorly ventilated shed/garage during colder spells, coat them with a slightly heavier hydrophobic compound, eg grease, wax. The aim is to create a barrier to moisture.
@@DavyHulme Yeah, I wipe everything down with WD-40 after each use, but eventually the rust still forms. So then I have to spend time on my bench grinder's wire wheel. Annoying at best. I was wondering if anyone has found a foolproof way other than oil to prevent rust. I guess I could keep everything in a bucket of evaporust all the time but that would get annoying also.
I don’t think that a smaller blade will be easier on the motor since it has to work harder cutting the lumber. The angular velocity is what it is regardless of the blade, but the velocity of the teeth will be significantly smaller for the small blades compared to full-size blades.
Colin, quick question... What if your table saw doesn't have a riving knife?? Have a friend who gave me a Dewalt 746.. A massive saw, but Dewalt has discontinued that particular part !! Any suggestions??? BTW, love your videos!! Thanks
