Dan Shapiro's Blog

One of the good things about being a woodworker is that you can whip out great gifts with very little work. This afternoon my neighbor gave me a great suggestion right up this alley. Blocks!

There are two kinds of engineering in this world. One kind takes place at a desk with a pencil and paper. The other takes place when you walk into Home Depot and jump on a wheelbarrow to determine if it can move the three-man rock in your yard without collapsing.

Many ebay sellers are spelling-impaired, and their confusion is your gain. With less competition driving up the price, there’s real deals to be had.

Don’t buy a whetstone; read this.

If you’re near Seattle and need a hookup, shoot me a mail.

Buy a dual cartridge respirator, not a dust mask.

You can turn the dust from your Random Orbital Sander of Eternal Happiness into instant liquid wood. Just empty the catch-bag into a ziploc for later. When you have a gap to fill, just add about 3 parts Titebond (or other caesin glue) to one part sawdust, mix, and snip the tip of the bag…

Let me summarize this way: a $400 table saw with a new 80-tooth blade cuts better than an $800 table saw with a crappy low-tooth-count blade.

“The Random Orbital Sander is the single best-bang-for-the-buck powertool out there. Maximum Chaiminess factor. It’s 99% of the sanding goodness you’ll need in one, handy, under-$100 package.”

Nothing Severed Yet: a quick introduction