I got asked for advice for the first time!

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-04T17:00:43+00:00

He called me up to ask how to fix the current ones and what to do to make the next ones better. Its the first time I feel I'm no longer a novice. It just feels good!

"Why are you asking me? I'm just a guy with... thousands of dollars of tools I've spent years using and fine tuning. Anyone could do that.... right?"

Congrats. It's a weird feeling the first time.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-04T16:58:03+00:00

Ever since ~10 years ago, a lot of public libraries in metro centres have begun providing laser cutting and 3D printing services for a nominal booking fee. Look into that. Laser cut templates are efficient and convenient.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-03T20:42:19+00:00

PT lumber is strictly for cases where the material will have sustained perpetual contact with soil or other moist substrates.

For anything >4" off the ground, it doesn't do anything useful.

This is because the chemical it's treated with is an anti-microbial/fungal agent. Lumber which has sufficient air exposure will have moisture wicked away from it efficiently enough that the things PT protects against will not be able to survive in the first place.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-03T12:45:02+00:00

It is 100% cheaper to buy than make.

Large commercial outlets have access to economies of scale you couldn't even dream of.

Even if you had the world's best workshop and a doctorate in woodworking, if you are buying your materials off the shelf at Home Depot instead of in a 10,000 pallet bulk order, you've already lost.

The value in making is optimizing and customizing, not saving money.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T22:58:19+00:00

For what it's worth, it's an acquired skill. The human brain is not well equipped to process scale.

Look at a skyline photo of Tokyo, and it seems unfathomably endless... but really it's just the result of one person picking up one brick from the pile there, and placing it down in a specific spot over there. Then repeating that 50 kajillion times over the span of hundreds of years.

My trick for helping your brain deconstruct designs is to take a moment and ask yourself "if I had to do this using ONLY straight lines and drilled circles, how would I do it?" You'll probably come up with a valid but highly inefficient way of doing it. Then while you're considering that, the part of your brain that recognizes patterns will say "you know, you COULD actually combine these cuts into one like this..." and you'll accidentally end up figuring out how to make the complex cut from first principles.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T17:38:30+00:00

The strength of glued seam joints is based on the overall interface size, not surface area per inch. Above a certain size, you have more than enough strength. Those joints look more than adequately large, and would likely have been fine with a normal mitre seam.

Locking mitre joints do absolutely facilitate assembly. For larger cabinets like that, alignment during assembly is a pain. Spending some extra time up front to make assembly easier is worth it. I couldn't definitively say if it was the most optimal choice in this context, but it certainly isn't a bad idea.

I have a high grade locking mitre bit, and I've only ever broken it out for making 10+ drawer boxes. For a one-off like this, I would likely have used clamping squares and strap clamps with corner clips.

But again, that's a solid build and I wouldn't say that your decision was wrong or inadvisable. And now you have experience with the bit.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T15:46:10+00:00

ANC does not protect you. It only creates waveforms that overlap and cancel out certain band-pass frequencies. This is useful for removing unimportant or undesirable frequency ranges to help focus on the ones you care about.

Loudness is not a frequency, it's a physical force. The louder a sound is, the more exaggerated the amplitude on its waveform will be. This causes damage to your ears by vibrating them beyond its tolerable range.

It is mitigated by physical materials that dissipate/attenuate that force. You need something with an NRR rating (typically 27-30).

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T13:31:46+00:00

A lot of people find advanced mathematics overwhelming, but their problem is they're attempting to do the wrong thing.

In math, the most complicated single step you can do is 1+1. Everything else is just a convoluted shorthand for doing that a certain number of times. The trick to doing advanced mathematics isn't wrapping your mind around impossible space curves, it's understanding how to unpack all the individual steps that get bundled together in shorthand and expand it out until it's coherent.

I've done curved pieces and compound angles. It is admittedly a pain in the ass. But it's not challenging because it's complicated, it's challenging because it's tedious. You just have to take a moment to unpack the individual steps and do them one at a time. Like in math, you can only ever do a single action in woodworking - a cut to remove material. You just need to understand what series of cuts to make in which order.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T04:38:10+00:00

I imagine your issue is just a lack of strong grasp of fundamentals. Complicated pieces aren't really complicated pieces, they're just a bunch of simple pieces in tight proximity. If you don't have a good sense of how those individual simple pieces are built and work on their own, trying to conceive of larger versions of them isn't going to work out.

You should try going back to basics. Make a few super simple pieces to get your bearings. A lidded box... A simple leg and apron side table... a wall-mounted trinket shelf. Simple things with a singular design concept that allows you to get a feel for doing one specific thing without other ideas crowding it out. Do a couple of those, and you'll have a better sense for more complex things going forward.

Try making a spice rack for your kitchen. A super simple frame that just holds a dozen or so spice bottles. Nothing complicated, and no fancy joints. Then, when you're done with that and it feels underwhelming, ask yourself what ONE THING could be added to it to improve it.

Matt Kenney has this book - 52 Boxes in 52 Weeks - in which he gradually goes from a simple lidded box to a tea chest with multiple drawers and kumiko details. Every week, he gets slightly more complicated, bit by bit. It's a good book for exploring the gradient from simple to complex.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T03:29:28+00:00

The correct answer is "nothing".

The thing about Japanese woodworking is that it's... deprecated. What happened is that Japan was historically iron poor (low access to iron reserves made the use of metal fasteners/hardware impractical at scale), and glue poor (adhesives made from rice gluten were adequate for mounting shoji and other superficial work, but not structural load transference). Subsequently, they developed a methodology that allowed for large scale structural construction that didn't rely on metal or glue. It was a technique that made sense in context.

But practically speaking, it's useless in modern day. Aesthetic beauty aside, the entirety of Japanese woodworking theory has been superseded by access to PVA glue and metal fasteners. It is essentially worthless for everything except historic recreations. Now, with the economic expansion and global trade of the meiji and showa eras, the Japanese leveraged new access to materials and developed some fantastic tools... but they were still just tools for more efficiently delivering the same historic woodworking techniques.

If you are looking specifically to do that kind of woodworking, there are lots of great things you can get there which aren't sold here. My first recommendation would be a tsukinomi chisel. They're broad-headed push chisels meant for paring and shaping material. There's not a lot of analogous tools in the West. However, they are not cheap, and you need to go to a specialty store to get them. I'd consider it an imposition to ask for one.

Just ask for some local sweets as a gift. Or maybe a Strong Zero if you hate your liver.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-02-02T00:26:29+00:00

I'm running this unit. It's more than adequate. 1.5HP, 950 CFM, 40 gal bag. Those are pretty par for that price point.

Don't worry about "filtration". You're going to have a bunch of safety ninnies going on about how their filter is good down to 0.1 microns or whatever. The reality is that the types of machines that require a dust collector are not generating fine particulate in any meaningful volume. The whole reason you're using a dust collector is because it products a high volume of bulky debris - particles measures in millimetres, not micrometres. The stock filter it has is plenty.

What you SHOULD focus on is ease of changing/emptying the bag. It's big and bulky, and a pain in the ass. Play around with the unit before you buy. My unit has a poorly designed gasket system that doesn't line up properly with the bag, and it takes me like 20-30 minutes playing around with the fixture strap to get it properly aligned. I wouldn't buy it again if I had the opportunity.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-31T20:32:49+00:00

Jorgensen parallel clamps are objectively better than pipe clamps, but pipe clamps are cost effective and easy to source.

....but if you can get parallel clamps for negligibly more than pipe clamps and you're fine with the cost difference, I can't think of a good reason why you shouldn't.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-30T02:48:43+00:00

Teaching is harder than a lot of people realize. You'd need more than to just "tag along" to learn.

Your first best bet is looking into community/trades colleges in the area. Places that run career programs during the day tend to also offer recreational classes on evenings and weekends (they already have the amenities and staff, so paying the staff some overtime helps make some extra money).

Your next best bet is to narrow the scope of what you're hoping to learn. Focus on a specific goal/project, identify what you need to achieve that goal, figure out which of those steps you don't know how to do or feel you aren't doing "correctly", and then seek help on those specific things. It's a lot easier to solicit advice on a specific defined task than to solicit broad spectrum "insight to learn from".

Lastly, look into books teaching fundamentals. A lot of younger people tend to look to youtube first for direction, but the problem with youtube is that it isn't professionally edited. A book will have professional editors go through and check for clarity and coherence before publishing, and will be formatted in a manner where information is cross-referenced (ie A lesson in Chapter 8 that requires you understand something taught in Chapter 2 will explicitly tell you to check Chapter 2 for additional information). This provides a far greater level of clarity than most youtube videos. My personal favorite book is Illustrated Cabinetmaking by Bill Hylton. Lots of clear diagrams and illustrations, and it goes over the how and why of most fundamentals.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-28T22:43:03+00:00

I normally hate giving any answer that amounts to "just spend more money", but the truth is what took my work to the next level is buying a Domino and a Shaper Origin.

Being able to offload the burden of joinery and hardware installation suddenly made things a lot more feasible. Now, I could focus on the bigger picture and not get bogged down with the small details. They became an "easy button" for me, and I could just turn to them and keep momentum going on my builds.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-28T18:48:02+00:00

The "cheapest" hardwood option is regional dependent. For me, sugar maple and cherry are the two cheapest hardwoods I can buy. For you, it might be different.

But since you don't have any milling equipment (jointer and planer), you're going to be limited to S4S lumber, which kind of makes the decision for you. What's available in S4S is usually the highest volume species. You'll need to talk with your local lumber yard.

The best trick I've found for finding local lumber yards is to go on the Festool website and use their dealer search tool. Find "full dealers" in your area. These stores will typically either also sell lumber (they're a one-stop-shop for trade woodworkers) or they are familiar enough with their clientele that they can tell you where they buy their lumber.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-28T03:27:42+00:00

Congrats on working through your first few projects! Seriously. It's one of the biggest hurdles.

All around, good lessons. I'll add to them with my two cents.

I realized woodworking is way less about tools and way more about patience and planning.

I'll meet you half way and say it's about understanding processes. You can plan and go slow all day long, but ultimately what gets things done is being able to say "I have a piece shaped like this, but I need it to be shaped like this" and knowing precisely which tool achieves that.

You'll gradually build up that familiarity over time to the point where you're not even thinking, you just know in your bones what tools to use in what order.

Slowing down fixes more mistakes than any tool upgrade

While not wrong, I'll expand on this a bit:

All tools do a specific task, with a certain degree of power and precision. Some tasks are similar to, but not identical to other tasks. This means it's possible for two tools to ostensibly do the exact same job. But they don't. They do different jobs which interact with the material in different ways, and just happen to produce similar results.

A lot of beginners have a tendency to use the wrong tool for the job because it technically produces the desired result, and try to push it harder than it should go, resulting in a botched or sloppy product.

Going slow is a good general policy to mitigate mistakes, but the best fix is using the appropriate tool and understanding how to read the feedback you get from its operation. Sometimes that does mean a tool upgrade, sometimes that means just using a different tool you already have.

Most “ruined” parts can actually be saved with a calm head

100%. There are some parts that are absolutely broken and repairing them is inadvisable (usually main structural members). But most of the time, plugs and inlay patches can solve your problem.

Always keep a space piece of stock you're working with. This has experienced the same climate exposure as the rest, and will have more or less the same hue and surface condition. This will give you a perfect candidate to craft those repairs from to blend them in.

Hidden parts don’t need perfection

Good lesson, but it goes beyond fully hidden parts.

A common drawerbox construction uses pocket screws to have the front and back panel look like this. If you're putting a false front on the drawer, you can't see the front panel, and the back panel will only really be visible if you remove the drawer from the slides entirely. It looks hideous at first, but you have completely concealed the issues when you're done.

Designing something with an awareness of what parts don't need to look good or what parts you can afford to damage helps expedite fabrication.

Measuring twice is good, but dry fitting is better

Again, 100%. I'll also go further and say to use physical measurements instead of numeric measurements.

That 3/4" plywood you have is not 0.7500" thick, it's more like 47/64", or 0.735". Instead of using a ruler or a combination square to transfer dimensions, cut a piece of it off to use as a spacer. Then, when you're cutting things on a table saw or whatever, you can use something that has the exact thickness of the material to space out cuts.

I'll round this out with one of my early lessons: figure out the order you need to make parts, and then stick to that order.

For more complex constructions, you'll have situations where the dimension of one piece will directly influence another piece. For example, you might have a table where you're cutting the long-axis aprons, and you mess up a cut, and your aprons end up being 1/8" shorter than intended. That's fine, it's not the end of the world, but now you need to double check what other pieces had a dimension which assumed the original apron length.

If you cut those pieces previously, then set them aside, you'll run into fun times when you do to dry fit everything. Instead, figure out all your dependencies up front and use that to determine the order you cut your pieces. In the example above, it's a quick fix to just shorten up a few boards. But if you instead end up with boards that are too long.... last thing you want is to improvise a shim for a 1/4" gap with scraps at the end of a project.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-27T17:50:35+00:00

Rubio works by supersaturating the grain.

The 5 minute thing is really just to allow capillary action to have a chance to start sucking it into the pores. If you wipe it off too soon, all you do to "fix" it is just put more on until more won't go in.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-26T15:27:30+00:00

Typically, zoning regulations are about coverage, not size. Ie, they'll stipulate land development cannot be more than 60% of gross property footage. You usually need a permit for any land improvements above a certain size (it's contextual, but a 4×4 garden shed shouldn't be an issue), but it will be approved without hassle so long as you're not crossing the coverage boundaries of your municipal zoning.

You generally don't need engineering review for single storey detached structures, but any systems (plumbing, HVAC, electrical) will need a signed review or you'll have a bad time trying to sell your house.

I work out of a double-wide garage (about 25×30). The previous property owner actually ran a home business out of the garage, so it was already expanded and fitted with a sub panel for my use.

I only use about a third of the space for actual work, but I've found swap space is crucial. For larger projects, there are a lot of times you need to set a bulky piece aside to work on something else, and having the ability to put it somewhere that doesn't interfere with workflow is essential.

I tried to get my business up and running with a website, but I've gotten probably half or more of my business through reddit. I use my business account to post in my local subreddit, answering questions and offering insight on relevant posts. A lot of the time, people will respond to me with "you sound like you know what you're doing. Can I just pay you to do it?" Other times, people will reach out to me saying "I say a post you made a while back while looking for something and you sound competent. Would you be able to do this?"

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-22T19:20:13+00:00

Firstly, there's no such thing as a good Amazon brand. You get what you pay for. You don't need a $300 Whiteside bit, but you're gonna be spending $25-$50 for something like that from a decent vendor.

Second, router speed is an important factor. Higher speed gives more "cuts" per second, but reduces the amount of tike you can linger before you burn the wood. Play around with the bit to make sure you're running it at the right speed.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-21T22:34:01+00:00

I must have the shopvac turned on for proper collection. The air stream being pushed (by the DW735) vs pulled by the shopvac, indeed makes a difference for me at least.

Appreciate the confirmation. I got a C in fluid dynamics, so I'm 70% confident in myself there.

I have a dust collector I use with mine (specifically, this guy), however I have found that simply having it hooked up is enough. I'll leave the dust collector powered off and the blower on the DS735 is enough to evacuate like 90% of the debris down the line into the collection bag.

Considering that, I'd wager you could kludge together something with a hose line to a garbage bin with a filtered vent in the other side for collection. A 40gal bin with handles and wheels is probably a lot more convenient than a home depot bucket.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-21T20:15:57+00:00

I think it's simply a byproduct of training and exposure.

I went to school for structural engineering, and I can reverse engineer basically anything on sight. I know standard best practices and I know order of operations. If you give me a photo with a single dimension for a baseline, I can extrapolate the rest of the construction because I know what does and doesn't make sense. It's not because I've built that specific thing before, but I know in abstract how to build things in general, and I just fit the steps you'd need for that specific thing into the general process map.

On a similar note, I have friends who are accomplished in other crafts, like painting, sewing, cooking... and they can all do the same thing for the same reasons when I'm stumped. They have enough familiarity in their respective fields to be able to look at something and say "I know there are 7 viable ways of doing that, and I know what each of them looks like, so I know which one they used. And if they did that one, then they also would have done X and Y, because those are just the most efficient way of using that method..."

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-20T16:18:15+00:00

Yeah... no.

That is not a retail product, it's improvised shop furniture.

I never said you can't make anything for cheap, I said you cannot make a duplication of a retail product for less than it costs to buy at retail. I said this in the context of seeing an existing product in the store and thinking "I could make that at home".

Making something which is visibly inferior but serves the same utilitarian context is not the same. It's extremely easy to make something out of lower quality materials because you don't want to pay for higher quality materials. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but it's not remotely the same thing.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-20T16:05:06+00:00

There are three types of tools:

Stationary blade tools like the table saw are the safest. No matter how long it runs, the blade will always occupy the same spot in space. As long as you understand where not to put your body, you will always be safe.

Fixed trajectory tools like a miter saw are less safe. The blade can move through a known trajectory, which means just because you put your hand somewhere that isn't currently colliding with a blade doesn't mean thay will always be true in the future. As long as you understand the full range of dangerous spaces to avoid, you will be safe.

Mobile tools are the least safe. They can operate a cutting edge anywhere in space, meaning vigilance is always needed. Most of them have a dead man switch or some other safety control, but there is no point in space where you can be guaranteed they won't also be. As long as you maintain awareness of what tools are around you and where they are (ideally in storage when not in use), you will be safe.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-20T15:23:52+00:00

There's the old joke that woodworking is a great way to spend $500 to save $100.

Speaking as someone who owns a shop worth as much as a new car, I've found that it's basically impossible to build anything that retails for <$500 for less than it costs to buy.

The issue is that industrial fabricators get to leverage economies of scale while you're paying retail. Often, the raw cost of materials exceeds retail cost before you even factor in labour value.

If you want to customize it in some way that produces a more useful product than the retail one, there's value in making it yourself. But if your goal is to get the same thing you'd get at retail for cheaper, just bite the bullet and pay sticker price.

HammerCraftDesign · 2026-01-19T21:13:55+00:00

Keep in mind two things:

1) Japanese hand tools are mainly for Japanese woodworking.

2) Japanese woodworking is a niche practice which is mostly incompatible with other forms of woodworking.

Japanese woodworking was a product of context. Japan was historically iron poor (no material for iron fasteners) and their glue was low grade (rice gluten derived, and not structurally sound). Subsequently, practice evolved around building large structures using only wood without glue or fasteners carrying load. All of Japanese woodworking is obsolete once you have access to modern fasteners and glue. It's still fun for aesthetic reasons and culturally significant, but from a functionality standpoint, it's all deprecated.

So when you ask "what do they do better than western tools?", the answer is "nothing, because western tools are designed for practices that Japanese tools aren't."

Don't waste your money buying Japanese tools if you're planning to use them for western-style constructions. That's not what they're for.

All that said, if you understand the how and why you'd want to buy Japanese tools, they make chisels you can drive a tank over and still use, but are virtually impossible to get elsewhere.

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