doneby

I just saw (pun intended) this blog and realize I'm late but I didn't see this tip offered. Buy a new saw with an EASY TO REMOVE AND REPLACE BLADE GUARD AND RIVING KNIFE. That way you will be much more likely to actually use them. The old guards are largely unusable.
I know that's a lot of bucks but so are your fingers.

While I like the benefits of cabinet grade hardwood plywood what really bothers me and makes me very reluctant to use it is the paper thinness of the finish ply. It offers almost no durability, is very easy to sand through, and splinters quite easily. It might work well for wall cupboards but just isn't durable enough for tops or floor cabinet sides.

On the other hand regular plywood with a much thicker outer ply can work well for shop cabinets or when painted.

A WorkSharp WS3000 and a LieNielson low angle smoothing plane top my list as far as hand tools.

My real dream is a Delta Unisaw equipped with a SawStop blade brake.

Updated my avatar today. And I found a new use for bench cookies yesterday. My wife and I were making sauerkraut and I put the cookies under the food processor to keep it from walking all over the counter while I was shredding 10 heads of cabbage.

Be Prepared! I used Epifanes on a teak swim platform that was mounted six inches above the water on a docked boat six months of the year. It was always wet from wave action. It was wonderful to apply and was certainly an attractive and durable finish. It lasted a full three years in this repeatedly wet environment which is the best I ever achieved with a wood swim platform. But when it came time to refinish I couldn't find a stripper that would touch it and I had several of the old heavy duty but now illegal strippers in my shop. I finally gave up and took it to a local furniture stripper, got a $90 firm bid to strip it, and left it in their hands. After a few weeks, several phone calls, and comments of "we're still working on it" I was told to pick it. When I got to the strip-shop the scowling owner took my $90 and told me to never bring that swim platform back with that finish on it. They also had been unable to find a suitable stripper and had manually scraped all the old finish off - certainly not an easy task because of the slatted design of the platform. I'll have to admit they did a beautiful job.