cts1085

In addition to plastic curtains I have been around those that use screening material as well (think screened in porch) - the screening allows for some air movement but the larger bits are better contained to a smaller area.

I will concur with Todd, I have the 2hp 17" grizzly and can resaw 12" hard maple with no problems.

If it helps - with a router and tramel you can make your own longworth chuck out of plywood, some bolts and a small face plate. If you google you can download free plans to make it - I would start with it and then move to other chucks as needed by your projects.

When ripping long boards on a table saw there is another "trick" that I have learned. Let's say you want to end up with a 4.25" width - make your first rip at 4.5" - this will allow for a little movement, burning, etc. you can go real slow since you don't care about the burning. Then make a second pass at 4.25" - much easier. Also, when using a featherboard make sure the feather board is in front of the blade NOT beside it - if the feather is beside it things go wrong very fast. If you have access to a band saw (or even a jig saw) the initial rip done there and then cleaned up on the table saw works great. Hope this helps! -Tom

Etienne, I am in Forida and we deal with humidity on a regular basis here - just let the clamps stay on longer (i.e. 24 hours or overnight) and you should be just fine. I did my glue-ups in smaller sections just to make sure i kept things aligned - dowels, biscuits, etc. really go a long way to help the glue-up process. Take your time and do dry runs on every step - it is always amazing to me what I can learn about my particular environment that is different from the videos but also interesting ways to accomplish the task. - sometimes a cheap PVC roller on a dowel can make all the difference! Take your time and have fun - I started with the groups but only have about 90% of the top completed - everyone works at their own pace. -Tom

Keep 'm coming!

Timing is everything - My plan is to route the strip today - I will take your advise and give it a whirl... As well as extending the layout marks to the top/bottom of the strip so I know where to cut when the backing strip is glued on. Thank you all for your comments - this is a great build!

For what it is worth - i was able to run the slabs through a Dewalt DW735 13" planner with no problems - just kept it to light cuts and it worked like a champ!

Thanks - I missed those entries - this forum is getting to be a great repository!

If I need to lower the bench height by 3 inches (I am only 5'7") what impact does/should that have on the Chop? Does the Chop get shorter as well?

Sounds like some great ideas! - Maybe an in-line dovetail joint to match the joint on the front??? Sounds like I will have 4 opportunities to try different joints! Thank you all!

I am trying to think ahead on the leg laminations (Great video Marc!) and I was wondering the following: I have a bunch of ~24" 8/4 cut-offs from the top laminations. Can I laminate these and overlap them to make the legs at ~32"? Something where the seams do not line-up of course. Thoughts?

Just some feedback - I just completed my glue-up for the front slab - Tried biscuits and during the dry-fit there was too much movement. Used dowels (4 per joint about in the mid-point of the slab height) and it was rock solid. During the dry-fit alignment was off only about 1/32 off and this was more to the jig I used to drill the holes. With the dowels the glue-up went very smoothly. For the rear slab (more boards) i am going to revise my jig to try and get the accuracy better for the dowels (any suggestions?)

What I have found when milling parts longer than my jointer is to place the material cup-side up. Once it starts to flatten in the middle then after each pass it flattens closer and closer to the edges. This is the process I have been using on the 96" long top boards. Maybe someone else has an idea?

Marc, do you mean spade bits or auger bits? (Maybe an amazon part number reference?)