My Old Table Saw Is Better Than My SawStop… Except for One Thing

A jam-packed show, mostly unscripted, with one real piece of news: the flaming Powermatic PM2000 is finished, and after a poll that went the other way, Marc is keeping both table saws.

The flaming saw is done, and both saws are staying

The PM2000 has been fully torn down, cleaned, lubed and reassembled, and the built-in retractable mobile base has been repaired with new bolts ordered from McMaster-Carr and cut to length. Marc still thinks that caster design is a poor one, and it will never move as nicely as a saw on a dedicated mobile base, but it sure looks better without one bolted underneath.

That left the real question: what happens to the SawStop? Marc ran a poll and most of you said keep the SawStop, largely because you do not have twenty years of attachment to a custom Powermatic. The counterargument in the chat was the one that matters, that other people work in this shop during classes and a SawStop is the saw you want them touching. So the plan is the head to head layout, two saws facing each other, Frank Howarth style. Electrical drops, dust collection, and accessories that only fit one of them are all still unsolved. That is a future video.

Also on the bench: the maker space bay went from two receptacles to five, in blackout, with the conduit and junction boxes painted black, the old red Craftsman cabinets repainted, and sconces added. And a palate cleanser project, a walnut keyboard tray with a wrist rest cut on the Shaper Origin, which saved about 150 dollars over the Etsy and Grovemade versions.

“The Long View” with Greg: your shop is never big enough

Greg’s second universal truth of woodworking, after everyone wanting a pie safe course in the Guild, is that the shop always ends up feeling too small. He has about 750 square feet, it tripled in usable size when the mechanic tools left, and he filled it in a couple of years anyway.

His framework is worth stealing. There are three kinds of space: capacity, which is how much you could physically store, work space, which is your in feed and out feed, and human space, the room to stand back and look at what you are building. Most of us do not have a space problem, we have a stuff problem. He sold a CNC that had been collecting dust for years and the shop immediately felt bigger. Also, he hopes Marc keeps only one saw.

“The Long View” is produced by Greg Batt.

Card scrapers, scraping planes and the right burnisher

Marc has tried scraper planes and did not enjoy them, mostly because he could never get the angle right. His recommendation instead is a cabinet scraper in the style of the classic Stanley number 80, the Veritas version being the one on his bench. Two hands, much easier on your finger joints, and the adjusting nut flexes the blade so you do not have to camber it to avoid digging in at the edges.

Sharpening one is simple if you stop overthinking it. Hone the 45-degree bevel, flatten the back like any plane iron or chisel, and then turn the hook. A jagged, fatigued edge will not take a good hook no matter how you burnish it. For burnishers, he uses a Crown and an AcuBurr with V notches, both of which Nicole dropped into the Amazon shop during the show.

Butt chisels exist, and they are the answer

For hinge mortises inside a small cabinet or a jewelry box, where a bench chisel is simply too long to fit, the tool you want is a butt chisel. Short blade, short handle. Wood River and Narex both make sets, and for an occasional job, a cheap set kept sharp is perfectly fine. The better answer, when the build order allows it, is to cut your mortises before assembly.

Machines: helical heads and jointer choices

Faint witness lines from a helical cutter head are normal, a slight scalloping that shows up under side lighting and tends to be more pronounced on conversions and budget machines. If you can start at 180 grit and clean it up in a couple of passes, do not worry about it.

On parallelogram versus a traditional floor model jointer, with money set aside, the answer took about fifteen seconds: buy the parallelogram. Better jointer, easier to calibrate, holds its settings. And the upgrade Marc wishes he had made sooner is the jointer and planer, specifically a wide jointer with digital vertical adjustment. At 12 inches, 95 percent of the boards he mills get flattened without being ripped down first, and that changes how fast the whole shop moves.

Honey locust for a workbench top

Honey locust is dense and wear resistant, roughly hard maple territory and possibly a bit harder on your tools. If you have some sitting outside at 12 percent, get it into the shop, sticker and stack it, and let it reach equilibrium somewhere around 7 to 10 percent before you mill it. Then build the bench. Wood that came off your own son’s tree is about the best material a bench can have.

Finishing a butcher block counter that gets sterilized

For maple butcher block counters in a pharmacy that get wiped with alcohol, the familiar route is a wiping varnish: a couple of coats of Waterlox or General Finishes Arm-R-Seal, applied with a maker pad, builds a genuinely protective film.

The more interesting option is Clean Armor, an optically clear UV-cured finish. It cures almost instantly under a UV lamp, or in sunlight if you are willing to move the piece; it does not yellow, and it is a what you see is what you get finish: whatever the surface looks like when you hit it with the light is what you have locked in. Marc could not get the glass-smooth result he wanted without spray equipment, which is why he did not pursue a partnership, but for a fast, durable utility counter under an install deadline it is a strong fit.

Odds and ends

A Milwaukee track saw burning birch plywood is most likely a tooth count and feed rate problem rather than a brand problem, and going too low on tooth count in plywood trades burning for tear out. Keep oil finishes over oil paint and water over water on a painted benchtop. Trim tenon edges with a chisel or a file, they are not critical. The best glue for dark woods is Titebond Dark, which Nicole also added to the Amazon shop. And on burnout: fewer active projects, written lists, one thing at a time. The looming pile is the problem, not your work rate.

Announcements and links

• New Woodworkers For a Cause auction items from Bloxygen, Calavera Tool Works, Rockler, MicroJig, Wall Control, Titebond, and Tallahassee Tung Oil, with Woodcraft still being finalized.
• No community build this year. Build what you want, share it with the Woodworkers For a Cause hashtag using your personal account, submit the details on the WFC website, and you’ll be entered to win a tool, plus you’ll get a code for a free PDF plan.
• Marc’s Mid Century Modern Table course in the Guild starts October 2, build along style with weekly live hangouts.
• True Grip clamp pads are 20 percent off with code CLAMP20 at twwstore.com. Rubberized cork, self-adhesive, fits pretty much any parallel clamp on the market.
• We will be at the Woodcraft event on Saturday the 26th from 9 until 1.
• Giveaway winners: Dennis Nahorny, Beach3408, MFKD999, Russ Nealy 4104 and George Household. Email nicole@thewoodwhisperer.com with your address. US only.

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