MotorT

I agree Justin. Where would furniture production be without machines. No question. I made my first drawer at age 15, my step-father was a Trim carpenter, from Denmark, for the next three years I spent summers installing kitchens, cabinets countertops the whole 9-yards. The drawers were over lap drawers held together with 3 no.6 coated box nails per joint, and when he was done it was a beautiful job. He called them Swedish dowels.

If it works fine do it if it suits your purpose. But I have never seen so much complaining, and, yes, attacking one type of joinery. As I said below I just learned how to make Dovetails with a chisel and saw. I had the same ideas everybody else did, don't need them , too tough and on and on take way too much time. Unless you are under time constraints, have a schedule to meet, is not the purpose of woodworking: supposed to be, fun, relaxing, change of scenery from the "ball and chain", a shop in the woods. But I see people going to great lengths to convince us or themselves that dovetails are not worth the effort, fine, you know whatever 'floats yer boat' but as a joint if it had no merit it would NOT have lasted for a couple thousand years.

Did you know Dovetails date back to before Written history. They have found them in the Pyramids. I have even read that dovetails are antedeluvian, before the flood. So my friends they are not going away, any time soon.

It is what you might call where we came from as woodworkers. Its part of our history.

Melamine for kitchen drawers ? If anyone even considers buying that ought to pay an extra 3000 for that. I've never known anyone slapping a "set of Dove tails" on anything, hand cut dove tails take time, alot more that the machine.

So anyone who bothers to learn to cut dovetails is either Vane, a purist or an Elitist. And that from a Carpenter, ergo, it must be so and the self congratulatory pat on the back. Talk about an elitist attitude ? So you've done your apprentiship and you are done learning, that is a sad place to be.

Semper Fi, Buddy.

Stress?... Now I've heard everything, woodworking is suppose to be fun, creative and relaxing. But Stressful, we are not navigating through Shark infested waters in a Birchbark canoe.

To each his own, Pinned joints are fine. Hell, you can use No.6 sinkers (box nails and call'em Swedish Dowels.) to pin the joints together. I read the article on drawers without dovetails and it is a quick and easy way to put them together, they even recommend trimming off a 1/16 on the bottom to create part of the reveal.

But trying to pass the pinned joint off being as good as dovetails, like comparing a Chevy to a Beamer, it just can't be done the aesthetics just aren't there.

Afterall, it is an alcohol base and after 5 years, maybe it had started to ferment. Stranger things have happened.

I have a Dovetail jig with all the bells and whistles, it can make different size tails but you are screwing around with the setup, practice cuts adjust this knob the move that one and maybe you'll be close. That I think is more frustrating than making a bad cut with a Dovetail Saw, or missing completely and running the Dovetail saw across your finger requiring, time out to get stitches.

Hand cut Dovetails are the essense of Woodworking. They take time to master but with patience it comes. I finally broke down and took a two day class on nothing but Hand cut Dovetails and it was worth every penny. I just finished 7 shop cabinets all the carcases are dovetailed, you can go nuts with sizes and designs on width. I used Roof flashing(aluminum, cuts easy to make templates) The feeling of satisfaction of putting them together with your fist is a true feeling of knowing you have really accomplished something.

Thats how I see it.

Cookies ? What kind are they Chocolate ?

That is nice.

I built it and it is great. In a word very sturdy. In my area I couldn't find 4 x 4's untreated so I used the treated work out fine. The other day when at my favorite lumber company, what do I find untreated 4 x 4's, go figure. The nice thing about this bench if it gets a little loose just tighten it up.

I just added another 144 square feet to my workshop to spread out a bit, was getting a little cramped with a 12 x 16, so now it up to 12 x 28 should be nicer.

Ok...So maybe my approach was all wrong. What are the salient features of the Lee-Nielsen. June 13, I'm taking a Wood working class in Philidelphia, Dove-tails, they recommend Lee-Nielsen, Tite Mark, Two cheerys and so on.

I am a Master Electrician by trade, for 40 years I bought nothing but the best but now I am retired, so I have gotten cheap. Reading the posts above, especially the one about the 'Knock-offs' really brought it home. For example, just about everything that has a screw connection, needs to be torqued to a specification provided by the manufacture. Of course. the higher the voltage the more critical the torque spec., I had just bought a Craftsman screwdriver and the first twist the tip twisted, My Kleins never twisted, disgusted I threw the screwdriver away. Sure I could take it back, but being in business I didn't have the time to waste to drive all the way to Sears for a replacement.

So bottom line, I see the error of my ways.

Chabber, 1/1000 of an inch eh ? Hehehe...

The implication is that Woodcraft took proprietery information and created a cheaper look-a-like plane. In most states that is a serious Offense, with jail time attached. When I worked for E.W.Bliss, all our drawings had a proprietery statement stamped right on the drawings. At one International Trade Show in Chicago, at McCormack Place, the standing rule was nobody took pictures of the other guys machines, etc, out of courtesey to that company and to the ethics of the trade. There were a lot of 'Asians'(there were probably others but the Asians were the most blatant about it) running around with cameras, and even sketch pads trying to get an edge on their competition.

There's an old saying, 'You get what you pay for', but where is that fine line where you are getting your money's worth and actually getting 'ripped-off' for what you're paying. I guess if I were a professional Woodworker I might consider paying $1000 dollars for two planes, but if you are just out of trade school and starting your own business, that's an awful steep price.

As far as China goes get use to it. They just about own this country, and if they decide to get rid of US as a financial burden we will be in really bad shape. America use to be a great competitor until the Government realized they couldn't pay for all it's social programs without first taxing the socks off Big companies that made quality products, hence they moved over seas.

Lee-Nielsen is one of the last quality company's and it shows but I can't afford his prices and buy wood at the same time. And soon it will cost about $1.50 everytime I start my tablesaw.

Can anyone explain why Lee-Nielsen's are so much better than the original Stanley No. 7 or whatever the number is. I know better steel, but at what point are you paying for the name rather than a quality product.

Do the more expensive, (like 500% more that the normal price), Lee-Nielsen ever need to be sharpened ? Or do they last forever, Never Needs Sharpening...But there isn't a piece of steel made that is used for a cutting tool that doesn't need to be sharpened.

So how does anyone justify a $500 dollar bill for a number 7 Jointer or 150 bucks for a simple block plane. We are talking hand tools here and planing wood, not a CNC precision tool machining titanium Airplane parts with a tolerance of +/- .005 of an inch or better.

Another thing is parts ever since Henry Ford most tools and machines with more than one part have replacement parts readily available. If you break a trunion on your table saw do you go out and buy another table saw ? No of course not you buy another trunion.

We are doing the same job our Grand-fathers did 100 years ago planing wood, He made some really nice furniture with the tools he had available and he knew how to take care of them and keep them sharp, regardless who made them.

That looks great. what kind of finish ?

Hey Kevin, look at it this way, it is yours. Your young, You have a shop, a family, a home. You live in Pittsburgh, and the Steelers are in the playoffs and one game fromt the big show. So grab a Rolling Rock and enjoy.

All good things take time.

I was really jazzed about your article until you mentioned
WWW.aarp.org. Nothing about the organization, just that I keep getting letters from them asking me to join.