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Well said Ron. I agree on all ends of your cutting board comments—go end grain or go home.
I made my mother in law a gorgeous end grain rock hard maple cutting board that was 2.75” thick. She will barely slice bread on it. It’s all I can do not to confiscate it and bring it back to my house.
Hand planning them is fun occasionally. You will break a sweet and you will get hand blisters doing them. I wear leather gloves when planning them. You can’t paraffin wax the plane sole often enough. I can’t wait to start doing them on the DS.
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The drum sander would be a nice addition, but you will need a good DC to suck up the dust....if you aren't set up with one (DC) you might want to pass (or add the DC to your list). As for the shoulder plane, it's a great addition and a tool that really earns it's keep. But I would go small or large, the medium is much more useful.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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Just bought the drum sander and finished putting it together yesterday. Very impressed with it so far, even has digital readout. I don't make huge projects so its plenty big for what I plan to use it for.
"Oh. Um, l-- look, i-- i-- if we built this large wooden badger" ~ Sir Bedevere
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I just used my drum sander to sand to width some figured maple for drawer sides. The planer was tearing out due to the curl, and in this case the DS was the only tool for the job for me as I don’t have a spiral head.
Do you have a spiral cutterhead in your planer? Could be a really nice gift if not.
How about nice square from Starrett or Woodpeckers?
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Just recently picked up a Performax 22-44 drum sander that had literally only minutes of running time. Great choice.
You'll want several widths of shoulder plane. But I think my 3/4" one gets the most use.
Wood is good.
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(02-12-2018, 03:52 PM)ronlaughlin Wrote: Can't speak for you, but can say the shoulder plane does bring me joy. Have all three sizes. Use the medium size the most.
Just my opinion, but the only cutting board worth making is the end grain cutting board. Just about everyone in our family has, and uses one.
I read that the majority of end grain cutting boards in the world are owned by woodworkers and their family members. In the real world professional chefs cut on whatever surface is provided for them and sharpen their knives when needed. Since I am a woodworker and my wife is a chef she will get an end grain cutting board. We both like some of the MTM designs. Building them seems like a lot of preparation of lots of boards at a lot of different thicknesses of, I have yet to see a video of anyone making one without a drum sander. My plan for the summer is to add a shed off the back of the garage, when that happens and i can clear out some stuff out of the garage. I will look at getting a drum sander then.
To answer some of the other questions.
I am in the process of installing my dust collector should be mostly done this week.
My planer is an older model dewalt and don't think it will handle a spiral head cutter.
My woodpecker order should arrive this week. I'm looking forward to it.
How did I survive without a shoulder plane? I was living out of town away from my shop for years. I only had a collection of cheap tools then, a high quality plane would have doubled my tool collection value.
My plan for my birthday is the medium Veritas Shoulder Plane, I think 11/16" would be the best size or my first shoulder plane.
A carpenter's house is never done.
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(02-12-2018, 08:14 PM)photobug Wrote: My plan for my birthday is the medium Veritas Shoulder Plane, I think 11/16" would be the best size or my first shoulder plane.
Late to the discussion, but that would have been my suggestion, excellent tool and quite versatile. You will enjoy it. Free shipping now at LV.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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I love my superMax 25/50. Wood planes suck.
"There is no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people"
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02-13-2018, 08:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2018, 08:26 AM by AHill.)
A drum sander is plenty handy if you know how to set it up and get it tracking right. So many folks set it up so that it's taking too big a bite, and it shuts down too often, frustrating the user. When aligned and fed slowly with very small bites, they are one of the most useful things you'll have in your shop. That said, you have to have a reason to use one. I find them handy for figured woods, shop made veneers, and end grain cutting boards. Shoulder planes are handy as well if you do a lot of tenons. You can also trim tenons with a router plane (which I find more handy than a shoulder plane). Router planes can clean up dados and grooves, hinge mortises, etc.
Still Learning,
Allan Hill
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I don't think I could function without my router plane and shoulder plane!! ;-)
On the drum sander this is one of those things that could be a dust collector, so think about it a lot before buying.
That being said, I have a Grizzyly dual drum and of all the Grizzly tools I own, this one has dissapointed me a bit.
Had to do over, I would bite the bullet and get a Supermax.
