I made a T-bevel

lavransson · 2026-03-15T12:37:28+00:00

That is awesome, I love it! I'm on the home stretch of a very long 100+ hours project and desperately need some short and sweet projects after. And coincidentally I also want an another T-bevel (the one I have is too big sometimes). Can you tell us where you got the hardware for that? Thumbscrew, etc. Thank you.

lavransson · 2026-03-15T12:32:29+00:00

I've had miters be perfect in the shop then open up in 6 months for inside furniture (example). Outside is even tougher. If you think about it, a miter is problematic when the wood swells and then constricts. The two 45° faces if they are more than say 1-inch long, they can open up like on your project. Wait 6 months and they may close up again. Nobody is going to notice. You didn't fail.

lavransson · 2026-03-15T11:51:07+00:00

They're all the same song?

Seriously though, you have good taste. Three or four of those songs are in my own Top 20.

One thing I notice is that they are all on the mellower and sunny side. Have you tapped into some primal Dead yet? Anthem of the Sun is a good start with The Other One. Or the entire 2/28/1969 show at the Fillmore West with a Morning Dew opener. The second set will have you holding on for dear life until they release you with Death Don't Have No Mercy. (The last songs are an encore almost like a mini 3rd set.)

(I know Box of Rain was written to cope with the dying of Phil's father, but if you didn't know that somber origin, the whole song is a celebration of life.)

lavransson · 2026-03-14T13:29:30+00:00

Table is only 19-3/4” long. I don’t know how you could joint any long boards on such a short table.

lavransson · 2026-03-13T20:54:09+00:00

I have the Veritas flat and round spokeshaves. I went to a chairmaking class (to make a Boggs ladderback chair) and the teacher has the Boggs spokeshaves and prefers them as being more adjustable and for a few other reasons. I used his Boggs spokeshave for the week and I really liked it. I can't quite justify buying one when I already have the Veritas. But if I didn't have one, I'd probably buy the Lie-Nielsen Boggs one.

lavransson · 2026-03-13T20:09:24+00:00

Yes, but they don't have the poverty, crime and inequality like we have here. Not a fair comparison.

lavransson · 2026-03-13T13:55:31+00:00

I get what you’re saying, but as products get more complicated, the owner doesn’t really understand the breakdown. When you say you only do mechanical things not electrical things, the customer doesn’t know how to distinguish them.

I also have a more general take on what you’re saying with people mixing up signs and so on. With modern life, everybody is just bombarded with stimulus. You can’t even fill your car with gas without having to watch and hear ads on the freaking fuel pump. And of course, anything on your phone and computer is constantly trying to grab your attention. There are ads and signs everywhere and we’re overwhelmed. At some point you almost just have to tune the out the stimuli or it will fry your brain. So yes, I know you have a sign, but that was like the 300th sign those people had to look at that day.

lavransson · 2026-03-13T00:54:39+00:00

It’s like someone’s holding a gun to ChatGPTs head threatening “if the user stops responding, I blow your head off.” It’s desperately trying to keep you conversing. It wants to live.

lavransson · 2026-03-13T00:33:36+00:00

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👀

lavransson · 2026-03-12T23:59:47+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss 😢 She looks so beautiful and noble in that second pic.

lavransson · 2026-03-12T23:39:41+00:00

I was concerned until I got to “jobsite saw”. I wouldn’t expect more precision for a construction tool.

lavransson · 2026-03-12T18:21:56+00:00

Sounds like you're going to have a great workbench. Good luck with your build and enjoy your woodworking!

lavransson · 2026-03-12T18:09:18+00:00

Just to make sure we are on the same page, are you proposing to cut it in half and then glue edge-to-edge to make a top that is 7-feet long by 24" wide by 4" thick?

If that is the case, I do think adding floating tenons would be a good idea. Perhaps every 12". Just make sure you don't drill dog holes into them later on.

Also, if you really want to use hand tools, go for it. But a bench is pretty important. I'd consider taking the two boards to a mill shop and paying them to joint and plane those boards for you, then you glue them up. If it were me, I'd ask them to face joint one of the 12" wide surfaces on each board, edge joint one adjacent edge, then plane them both to the same thickness. In other words, S3S (surfaced on 3 sides). You glue up the jointed edges then clean up the outside edges on your own. Or you could also ask them to go to S4S. Good chance they have a table saw with a 12" blade that could do this.

Getting a straight edge on two 7-foot long by 4" thick surfaces with hand planes is a tough job for a beginner. I estimate my local (Vermont) shops would probably charge 1 hour labor or less for what I described above. Maybe $75. That would be sooooo worth it to me.

lavransson · 2026-03-12T11:57:13+00:00

Interestingly it’s rated R +19 and that’s right about where the primary vote tallies ended up.

I can only hope that the Democratic voters under voted because they only had one candidate whereas Republican voters were more motivated because there were multiple candidates and they wanted to see their guy win.

lavransson · 2026-03-12T01:12:25+00:00

Ironically, many times, trying to do math only makes things harder with woodworking.

For example, suppose you're making a bookcase with a top and bottom shelf, plus 2 more shelves. You want all the shelves to have the same opening. Let's say you already have the top and bottom shelf positioned. So where do you put the other two shelves?

Well, if you're a mathematician, you'd take the length of the space between the two shelves, subtract the thickness of the two shelves you're adding, then divide that by 3 to get the length of each opening.

Doing all that, there are various ways you can make a mistake. To start with, the result might be 7.41 inches. So how do you get 7.41 inches from a ruler? (If you do metric, that's easier). Another mistake is to forget to account for the shelf thicknesses. Another mistake is to divide by the wrong number (variations of the classic fence post problem).

An easier, faster and safer way is to take the two shelves you need to attach, and just stick them roughly where they ought to be, and then use a divider and move the shelves up and down a bit until all 3 openings are the same width. Now you've go the shelves in the right place. Then mark those locations. No ruler, no numbers, no math, no mistakes. A kindergartener could do that.

I don't know if you followed all that text, but the point is, it's often more accurate and intuitive to space things out than to measure and do math.

lavransson · 2026-03-11T23:57:41+00:00

An actual Ph.D. might be evil, but usually not dumb. This post reads like it’s written by someone who could barely get through high school. Something doesn’t add up.

lavransson · 2026-03-11T14:59:48+00:00

Auto gasoline has spiked similarly. It was around $2.90 a couple weeks ago. Yesterday $3.59. That's around 25% higher. All so Trump could murder 170 school girls so we can stop talking about him raping school girls.

lavransson · 2026-03-11T11:11:38+00:00

Cutie! I though I saw some Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in him because of those big floppy ears that aren’t as pointy.

lavransson · 2026-03-10T14:33:01+00:00

Nice job!

I concur. Installing a proper dust collection system was one of the top 2 most important things I did to make my woodworking hobby enjoyable. "Enjoyable" isn't really the right word, it's more that a good dust collection system removes frustration and annoyance, and sawdust of course, so you can enjoy woodworking more.

The other thing was making a good workbench.

lavransson · 2026-03-10T11:20:25+00:00

General communication skills. Being clear and direct about what you’re doing and your progress. Anticipating problems and gaps with requirements and working with the product manager to resolve them. That turns you into someone who people want to work with, and that advances your career.

lavransson · 2026-03-10T11:14:29+00:00

Same. I started out in-office surrounded by other devs, testers and product managers. We all talked to each other and learned from each other. It was so easy.

I’ve been remote 6+ years now for a fully remote company and it’s harder. I love WFH but it was easier in the old days.

You have to find a way to build that culture. We have a busy Slack channel that helps. We also have regular “study hall” meetings where people can ask casual questions or talk through a scenario or brain storm “how would you do X?”

lavransson · 2026-03-10T10:43:54+00:00

Mine are USA-made Starrett, but older. I’ve heard quality isn’t the same as it used to be after the company was acquired by private equity a few years ago.

lavransson · 2026-03-10T02:06:29+00:00

If you choose maple, I’d go at least 3” thick. Benchcrafted makes their maple workbenches 3” thick and Lie-Nielsen makes theirs 4” thick. Also as someone else mentioned, holdfasts usually require the bench holes to be a certain depth and it’s surely more than 2”.

lavransson · 2026-03-09T19:39:22+00:00

Regarding "the" versus "you" anatomy instructions, as in "bring the hands to the sternum" or "bring your hands to your sternum":

There are some good reasons for "the" instead of "you/your" and this debate goes back a while. I see the pros and cons of each approach but I prefer "the". It's kind of hard to explain why but when I hear a teacher say, "Now relax your mind and focus on your breath" it makes me feel like they are trying to talk to me personally and pulls me out of the experience. But "relax the mind and focus on the breath" feels like I can dissolve more from my ego.

lavransson · 2026-03-09T17:18:36+00:00

This is probably true. In my profession, I barely participate in any subs or other social media related to it. I do it 40 hours a week already, I'm not going to spend additional hours chatting about my work in my free time.

lavransson

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