This WoodNet thread shows the progression of table saw ownership… Also it shows why so many WoodNetter veterans suggest that folks skip the contractor saw and go straight for the used cabinet saw…

Here are the results of the poll thus far (8/18/08):
0 Table Saws: 2 people (00%)
1 Table Saws: 50 people (16%)
2 Table Saws: 113 people (36%)
3 Table Saws: 73 people (23%)
4 Table Saws: 33 people (10%)
5 Table Saws: 16 people (05%)
6 or more: 20 people (06%)

That’s 307 WoodNetters who’ve taken the poll thus far. I cherry picked a few of the table saw purchase progressions mentioned in the thread. It really does suggest that if you’re a newbie and you know you’re serious about woodworking for several years that a cabinet saw just might be your best bet. Not always the case, of course, but it appears true for many of the woodworkers at WoodNet…
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I’m a Router Bit Professional!

Router Bit Professional

I passed the quiz with 70%, the bare minimum. Just like high school!

This was a neat quiz from the folks over at ToolsToday: Router Bit Profile Quiz: Do you know your router bits and profiles?

Are you a cheapskate woodworker? Take this quiz to find out the truth It’s 11 fun and easy questions. Share your results in the comments…
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If you’re a potential builder/owner then this post will interest you. I went searching today for free house plans… our sawhorses, workbenches and router tables were such a big hit There’s not too much out there in the way of totally free plans. 6 that I could find anyways.

Free House Plan - The Delafield, a Gracious Country-Style Ranch

Free for a limited time (until September 1st). Designed by Jerold Axelrod, the Delafield is a formal yet gracious country ranch house plan. This balanced, formal plan offers a tall covered porch flanked by beautifully trimmed flat bay windows.

The Laura

2 bedrooms, 1 bath starter home PDF file with 9 sheets printable to 24″ x 36″ paper. Designed to 2006 International Residential Building Code (IRC) and 120 mph wind codes, this plan is permit-ready.

4 Free Green Plans

These folks offer 4 free “green” house plans but you have to pay for any customizations. Also, to download any of the plans you have to join their site. Not a bad trade though - your email address for free plans…

UPDATE: 266 Free House Plans from North Dakota State University

This unbelievable resource comes from Justin in the comments. I’m going to poke around on other college sites and see if I can’t rustle up some more free plans!

Note that:

1) Plans range in age from 1933 to 1988… these are NOT new, stylish home plans. The older homes are designed with coal heat in mind.
2) Downloading PDFs is free. 18 x 24 inch (blueprint-size) plans are $4.00 per page.
3) Not all plans are actually for houses (I realized this after counting…). Some are for garages, some stairs, some for decks. Mostly they are houses though.

Update 2:6 Accessible Homes from NCSU College of Design

Accessible Stock House Plans Catalog — a catalog of floor plans and perspectives for six accessible homes…

Do you know of any other free house plans out there? I mean totally, no strings free too Let me know.

Other Resources:
ToolCrib.com’s Ultimate Guide to Online Home Remodeling DIY Resources
Charles and Hudson

When woodworking newbies get started they post questions in forums like: “I have $500 to spend on a new contractor saw, which one should I buy?” A veteran woodworker always replies that they should take that $500 and invest it in a used cabinet saw. I’ve taken this as newbie tool buying gospel for a year now… until this post from UncleJoe at Woodnet fleshed out the opposing view: “Used tools for newbies - the opposing view.”

The conversation that follows - one of the most congenial I’ve seen in WoodNet in a long time - fleshes out the pros and cons of buying used tools for all levels of woodworkers. The original poster’s (OP) numbered cons are in bold, and the relevant comments are below that.

The best bit of advice I found for newbies looking to make that first big power tool investment is to take a woodworking class or join a woodworking club. “There is no substitute for using a well tuned machine in knowing how it’s supposed to feel, sound, and perform, etc.. As stated new does not mean ready to use. I think anyone starting out in this hobby would do well to seek out a little education beforehand. Whether some evening classes at the local trade school, or Woodcraft type store. Or even just a little once over with a fellow (more experienced) woodworker, would do a lot to avoid not only using improperly set up machines, but also to avoid doing harm to oneself.”
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If you only had one sentence, what advice would you give a newbie woodworker? Mr. Gord Graff over at the SawmillCreek posed this question (in 2003!!) and someone recently revived the thread and brought it back into discussion. 83 responses later I think there’s a pretty solid body of advice there.

You can read the whole thread here: Giving just one piece of advice, what would it be…

Much of the advice centers on safety - as it should. There’s more to getting started in a lifelong hobby than safety (but not too much more…). Anyways, here are the top 10 bits of wisdom as selected by an esteemed body of woodworking professionals (ok, not really, just me , followed by links to more newbie and safety resources.

As always I’d value your input - what sentence of advice would you give to a new woodworker?

So here goes, Top 10 Bits of Wisdom for Newbie Woodworkers:
1) If you have children turn off the power at the main and lock the box when you are not in the shop.
-Michael Stafford

2) Always unplug each electrically powered tool after you have used it.
-Frank Pellow

3) When you buy quality tools, regardless of price, you only cry once.
-Greg Hines, MD

4) SQUARE! Square squares. Square tools. Square fences. Square stock.
-Carole Valentine

5) Never, never allow yourself to become impatient to finish a project.
-Tom Veatch

6) Keep the glue bottle full.
-nic obie

7) Anything worth killing a tree for is worth doing right.
-Tyler Howell

8) When you get tired, QUIT! When you get tired you quit thinking, you hurry and you either foul up or hurt yourself.
-Ed Hardin

9) Forget measure twice cut once, that’s good advice for framers and masons. Calculate sizes for accurate work from actual work pieces and story poles. Ever try to measure dovetails to lay out pins? Ever try to measure a mortise with a ruler to cut tenons? These are extreme examples to illustrate that a ruler is a crude and mostly arbitrary device, so use it as such and sparingly so. Rulers and pencils are the quick road mistakes.
-Peter Quinn

10) Quit asking questions and go cut some wood!
-David Giles

11) Bonus safety tip:
if you think that what you are about to do seems like it may not be safe it probably isn’t.
-Ace Karner

I saw one other bit of advice in which a woodworker asks himself each time before he begins a cut on any machine “is this safe?” If the voice (yes, you have a voice) says “no” then you need to rethink. Developing and listening to your safety intuition was a major point of advice I discovered when working on our safety guide to the most dangerous woodworking power tools.

There are many more gems like these in the SawmillCreek thread: Giving just one piece of advice, what would it be…

More Resources:
Tools For A New Woodworker? - Question of the Week from Marc Spagnuolo. A good place to start if you’re just getting started.
Best Router for Beginning Woodworker?
ToolCrib.com’s Ultimate Guide to the Top Ten Most Dangerous Woodworking Power Tools
The Seven Golden Rules of Power Tool Safety

This is a huge post… Really I think I went too far. Surprisingly (??) most of the bulk is in the “Good Enough” Harbor Freight tools section. To find these tools I looked in forums where metal workers, woodworkers, farmers, gardeners and mechanics discussed the quality of items that they’ve bought from Harbor Freight. I read well over 1000 individual forum posts to harvest out the good enough, the bad and the abysmal tools and materials from Harbor Freight. I would very much value your input - comment it or send an email to gfrench@toolcrib.com.

Even though there are lots of tools in the “good enough” category you have to remember - buyer beware! You always get what you pay for, especially at Harbor Freight.

Sections of this article:
1) Developing Your Harbor Freight Shopper Philosophy
2) Top Ten Things NOT to Buy at Harbor Freight (Humor)
3) Derogatory yet Slightly Loving Harbor Freight Nicknames
4) My Harbor Freight Prediction: Prices Way Up Soon… End of the HF?
5) The List: Good Enough, the Bad, and the Abysmal
6) Harbor Freight Tips and Tidbits
7) Harbor Freight Resources Used in this Article
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In our recent article on trouble shooting wood burn on a table saw, reader and tech/power tool/DIY blogger Jude asked: “So where can you get a blade sharpened? I’m forever burning lumber and think my setup is pretty squeare.”

My first thought was Scott Whiting, who’s an active and respected member of Woodnet. (Here’s Scott Whiting’s blade sharpening rates over at WoodworkersZone) As a Woodnet regular I see him posting a lot and offering great feedback and advice.

My second thought was… well, can you do it yourself?

In this short post I share what I learned on sharpening carbide tipped saw blades yourself and then provide a list of potential saw blade sharpening operations for you to try out.

DIY Carbide Tipped Table Saw Blade Sharpening
My first recommendation on DIY blade sharpening is that you don’t fool with it. For one thing I read that blade sharpening is a trade skill. In addition, carbide tipped blades have complicated and exacting angles that must be perfect for safe operation.

Time and again I read warnings that people NOT try to sharpen their table saw blades on their own. And lots of reminders that you try cleaning your table saw blade first… From what I picked up sharpening yourself is kind of like doing home dentistry. Possible, but not recommended.

For those of you who haven’t already skipped this section to move along to the list of blade sharpeners, here are a few of the tips and pointers I found out there.

1) You’re probably going to be better off “touching up” your blade rather than giving it a full on sharpening. If you’re touching up your blades you should still count on sending them off to the sharpeners periodically. And at the expense of dignity I have to admit that I’m ignorant of whether or not “touching up” and “sharpening” are actually the same thing… My impression is that they are different.

2) You will need a diamond sharpener, because carbide is as hard or harder than any non-diamond sharpeners. My limited understanding is that 320g diamond wheel is a good place to start.

3) Mr Scott Whiting in the Woodnet forum doesn’t recommend against doing it yourself, though in a thread on a $75 sharpening machine he says: “Based on what my learning curve was 19 years ago plan on using up about 10 blades before you get acceptable and maybe 100 before you get good. Having somebody teach you would cut that way down.”

4) So from Whiting you can see that getting a teacher would be a really good idea if you’re serious about sharpening your blades yourself. So would having a good supply of dull, inexpensive carbide tipped blades and lots of spare time.

5) This Harbor Freight 120 Volt Circular Saw Blade Sharpener is what started off that discussion I keep referencing here. This is the tool that Whiting cautions you will need 100 blades to get good at using.

6) A Mr. John Paquay offers this advice in his short article Dealing With ‘Dull Carbide’: “Hone the flat, leading faces of the tips, taking care to keep the hone flat against the face of the carbide. Unlike HSS blades, carbide blades cut along the sides the teeth as well as along the tips, so be careful not to round these edges over as you work. Do not attempt to hone the side faces of the carbide tips — those edges will naturally sharpen as the face of the tooth is dressed. When you’ve finished honing the tooth faces with the fine or ultra-fine paddles, you may find it necessary to just touch the top of the tooth with the extra-fine hone. If you choose to do this, again be very careful to just barely polish the carbide. Any more than that and you risk irreparably changing the shape of the tooth. At all times, take care to keep the hone flat against the surface you’re dressing.” His is the only full on “how to” I could find out there. I recommend it for those of you who are going to give sharpening a go.

Also read through Looking for a blade sharpening wheel for little tidbits and pointers.

Again, I don’t recommend that you sharpen blades yourself. If you do, let me know how it goes Good luck and be safe!

Carbide Blade Sharpening Services
I’d like to hear from you if there are any sharpening services you’ve used that you liked that aren’t on this list. Also, what have your experiences been with the companies and individuals mentioned below?

1) Find the Locals
Check your yellow pages, check your hardware stores, ask the local cabinet shops. Go local because you will save time and money on shipping. Some hardware stores outsource though, which will add that shipping cost back on. Try to find the guys who actually do the sharpening.

2) Scott Whiting
A regular contributor at WoodNet, Scott Whiting has made a solid name for himself there and looks like the go-to sharpening guy for many of the regulars. He answers sharpening and blade-related questions with accuracy and promptness. Just the thing you want in a sharpener I don’t have direct contact info for him. You may have to actually join the forum and send him a PM (private message, it’s how you send email to forum members).

Update: you can check out Scott Whiting’s blade sharpening rates at WoodworkersZone

3) Forrest Saw Blade Sharpening
Forrest is the preferred sharpener for most woodworkers. Marc the WoodWhisperer uses them, so they have celebrity endorsement too They sharpen non-forrest blades of all shapes and sizes, not just table saw blades. See also Forrest Sharpening - Very Satisfied Customer it’s not all roses though… check out the thread.

4) Ridge Carbide Sharpening Services
According to a post in LumberJocks, the owner of Ridge Carbide recently contributed to an article on blade sharpening in Woodworkers Journal (WJ got 9th in our recent woodworking mag review) I think that’s a good sign! I saw a number of positive remarks about Ridge Carbide.

5) Dynamic Saw Blade Sharpening Services
A lesser-mentioned but still prevalent sharpener, you should consider Dynamic Saw when you’re considering your sharpening options.

More Sharpening Resources:
Blade and Bit Resharpening
Saw Blade Sharpening
Mr. John Paquay’s Dealing With ‘Dull Carbide’
Tools, Sharpening and Power Machinery
Sharpening Table Saw blades
Sharpening Saw Blades
sharpening carbide blades
Forrest Sharpening - Very Satisfied Customer

Wow! Check out this wood-glue and dowel machine created by a 70 year old woodworker! Your jaw’s gonna drop. Parts of it he patterned after a flyball or centrifugal governor.

He built the whole thing so it would be easy to take apart (!!!) and out of various types of hard wood. It even has threaded screws and nuts. I guess we can add this device to the list of things to do with your wood cut offs

According to Del in the video: “It was quite a chore to figure out how to build it.”

From the fellow who posted the video: “An intricate hand-cranked machine made entirely of wood and glue (no metal or other materials). It was designed and built by my friend Del, using many different woods and incorporating a variety of mechanical motions. He has made several other wooden machines, but calls this latest one his crowning achievement. Del is 70 years old.”

I spotted this at BoingBoing.

Woodworking magazines provide great plans, tips and - especially - inspiration for your woodworking projects. In my research into 6 different forum threads I turned up 28 different woodworking magazines, so if you’re a newbie or just looking for something different to read you have a lot of options left open.

Be sure to let us know which ones you read and which ones you leave on the newsstand! You can leave comments or send an email to gfrench@toolcrib.com.

A Note on Skill Level:
Before getting into the top 5 magazines I want to point out that many of the titles reflect different woodworking ability levels. Fine Woodworking for example is widely considered to include plans and tips at a very high skill level. Shopnotes is more accessible for the beginner and intermediate level woodworker. It’s always a good idea to check out a copy at the newsstand or library before you subscribe, even if a magazine ranks highly in our list.

A Mr. TerryB in the RigidForum lays it out well:

“Woodsmith and Shopnotes are very good for tutorials and beginning to intermediate projects. Wood and Popular Woodworking are both good for project plans and techniques - Popular Woodworking at a little more advanced level, I feel. Both of these two are also very good for tool reviews. Fine Woodworking - that’s for showing what’s possible when your skills reach a really high level. It’s beautiful and provides inspiration - but seldom a project that a relative klutz like me can do. It also offers good tool reviews.”

TerryB

Top 5 Woodworking Magazines
Fine Woodworking: 169 votes

Taunton’s Fine Woodworking is widely considered the finest woodworking mag available. I did read comments that some people find they’ve started to get repetitious and that, in recent years, the quality has fallen off some. Still, it came in #1 by a margin of over 100 votes. Look at the other margins and it’s tough to argue that it’s providing some kind of benefit to its subscribers. One note - lots of folks mentioned subscribing online, where you can search and access all their past issues as well as get access to new articles as they come out.
Taunton’s Fine Woodworking
Review of Fine Woodworking

Wood Magazine: 65

From the Better Homes and Gardens publishers comes Wood Magazine, that very narrowly took second place on the list. Check it out if you’re looking for a solid, consistent magazine at the intermediate level of ability. Looks like they have a good forum going too.
Wood Magazine
Wood Magazine Review

Popular Woodworking: 64

Popular Woodworking ranks 3rd on the list. It sounded like another solid woodworking read, with a little something for everyone. Again it sounds like it straddles that novice to intermediate space.
Popular Woodworking
Popular Woodworking Magazine Review (from epinions)

Shop Notes: 49
Shop Notes is a favorite for its focus on jigs and plans. I read high praise coming even from veteran woodworkers. It’s well worth a look. Also it’s owned by the same folks who run WoodNet, one of my favorite forums.
Shop Notes

Wood Smith: 48
Another solid contender. Also a part of the WoodNet forum family.
Wood Smith

11 More:
Woodworking Magazine: 23
This “newer” magazine has really started to make waves in the forums. It doesn’t have any ads. As far as I can tell the editors live and breathe woodworking and writing, so it looks like a great magazine to me.

They also have a blog written primarily by editor Christopher Schwarz, who made it into our list of sawhorse plans in the celebrity section
Woodworking Magazine

Woodwork: 19
Woodwork Magazine seems to have a contemporary feel to it.

American Woodworker: 13
Woodworkers Journal: 8
FWWonline: 2
Woodcraft: 2
Workbench: 2
Cabinet Maker: 2
Canadian Home Workshop: 2
Router Power Woodworking: 2

Everyone Else:
Note - just because these didn’t get as many mentions in the forum threads does not necessarily comment on their quality. Some are just more narrowly targeted.

Canadian Woodworking

Woodshop News
woodworks
Fine Homebuilding
This Old House
Edifice
Furniture and Cabinetmaking
WoodenBoat
Power Tool Woodworking
The Family Handyman
Scrollsawer

Forum Threads Referenced:
Favorite Woodworking Magazine Poll
What Magazines do you get
What WW Magazines do you like/dislike
What woodworking magazine do you like best?
Best Woodworking Magazine
Best Magazine?