Beginner with questions

[Dr.BenHarris]

I am a total woodworking novice and am just getting started.  I have tried several woodworking projects in the past and all have met with very limited success.  I am currently working on what I hoped to be a "simple" platform bed project for my daughter that is essentially three narrow "bookcases" lying on their sides to make the frame of the bed with some internal supports later on.  The material the plan calls for is 3/4 plywood and the plans just call for butt joints with screws.  My first assembly attempt was not good,  the "cabinet" diagonals were way off and it seemed to visibly lean.  So in typical fashion I felt like the answer would be more tools so I purchased the festool 1400 router and tried my hand at dado cutting and rabbets for the assembly hoping for the best.  My second attempt today was just as bad as the first maybe worse.  I have the new TS55R eq saw on order but I did all the cutting of the plywood with my circular saw and a homemade edge guide.  I am certain that the precision is lacking with that setup.  I am now the proud owner of an MFT3 table, a new rotex 90 sander a dust a ct 26 dust extractor and the OF 1400 router with plywood dado bit set and the new saw is on the way. I am starting to wonder if I have made a mistake in jumping in with both feet so quickly to my new hobby.  I have a couple of questions I hope someone can help me with.

What books or DVD would be helpful for someone in my shoes just starting out and interested but rapidly becoming frustrated with my own lack of skill?
Do you think I should just re purchase several sheets of plywood and recut all the pieces with the new saw to see if the added precision of the rail will help with the construction of boxes that actually come out as boxes and not rhomboids.
Any suggestions on beginner projects to build that might help with skill building and lead to some success?

I am an OB/GYN so I do surgery for a living,  precision is important to me so I think that is one reason I am becoming frustrated with how imprecise my woodworking is to this point.

Thanks for any help anyone in this community can give me.  I really love the tools they are fantastic I guess I just need to get better with them.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Don't fret, we all started there at some point.  Festool makes great tools, but you still have to develop some basic skills to use them.

As an example, to make a square box, each board has to be exactly the same length as the board opposite it.  The best way to achieve this is to cut them with the same setup.  Typically this means a "stop" to hold the beginning of the board and a cutting tool always located at the same point.  The Festool table will give you the "cutting tool always located at the same point" and ensure that the cut is square.  Set up a card table or saw horse off to the side and clamp a board to "stop" the workpiece at the right point.  All boards cut on this fixture should be exactly equal length.  To ensure that the sides of the boards are parallel, cut a short piece the width of the final cut and use it as a marking gauge.

Screwed butt joints don't provide a lot of stability.  You will get that when you attach a "back" to the box.  A quick way to ensure the assembly is square is to measure diagonals.  If the diagonals are equal, you probably have a square.

I'm not aware of a beginning woodworking text that uses Festool tools.  Suggest you get a good text such as Peter Korn's Woodworking Basics to  learn the principles then view videos on Festool's You Tube channel that demonstrate use of the tools.  Festool offers some great training, but its very hard to get in as classes fill up a few minutes after they are announced.  Check out classes at Highland Hardware in Atlanta.

Also, find a Festool friend in your area for advice, we love to talk.  And ask questions here - there's a huge amount of expertise on the board.

Finally, I can't resist quoting a favorite woodworking teacher "Yeah, learn from your mistakes, but don't make that your whole education."

 

[peter halle]

First of all,  [welcome] to the FOG!  I bet that you are counting down the days until May 1.  Every single one of us was at your point at some time and we have some of the greatest eyes, ears, and fingers on the internet here that will surely give you as much help as you can stand.  I suspect that some of the newer Festoolians will offer especially pertinent advice.

Whatever you do don't get discouraged.

One great source of information is the Festool YouTube channel:  Festool.tv    I might suggest that whereas you have gotten your MFT/3 and are waiting for your saw, you do a search there on the MFT/3 and calibrating it.   I wish I lived closer so I could give you a weekend's worth of help getting comfortable, but....

Don't be afraid to ask questions - you are among friends here.

Peter

 

[peter halle]

I see Jesse types faster than I do  [big grin].

Peter

 

[Sparktrician]

To answer your question, you might look at Taunton Press for books on woodworking and construction in general.  You mentioned beds.  You may want to look at "Beds" for some inspiration.  The one on the cover is just so beautiful.  As Peter mentioned, we all learned to crawl before we could walk, so nobody here is a stranger to the concept.  You couldn't be in a better place to ask questions, no matter how stupid you may think they are.  Jesse mentioned the Festool end-user training.  It's fantastic; not unlike drinking from a fire hose.  Get on the email list for class announcements, and if you see one that strikes your fancy, jump on it RIGHT NOW.  They fill up in minutes after announcement.  There are only six places in each class, so move out smartly.  And welcome to the FOG. 

[smile]

 

[erock]

Hello Dr. Harris  [welcome]

  I remember my first true woodworking project.  I was around 23-ish.  I had a Craftsman circular saw, cordless drill, jigsaw and a couple misc. hand tools.

The first project I tried to tackle was a huge built-in entertainment center with a corner section that the T.V was in.  So it was the main focal point  [eek].

I used MDF and poplar.  I had a feeling it wouldn't be perfect so I planned on painting it from the start.  So needless to say, it wasn't perfect.  I wish I had

pictures of it to look back and laugh at it, because over the years of learning my skills have improved.  So much so, my wife had enough trust in me to build

our kitchen cabinets.  When I told her I wanted to build the kitchen cabinets she kept saying "as long as they don't look like that entertainment center" 

[embarassed]. 

  If you want to produce a better product then think about buying new plywood.  But, also, think about buying a couple sheet of MDF and make a practice

piece.  Try cutting some less expensive sheet goods to get familiar with the new Festools.  By making test pieces you can note where you may have make

a mistake or maybe see some thing you would want to change.  Also, make sure you give yourself some good detail plans.  Either on paper or with sketch

up. 

  At any rate, don't give up.  We all spent a lot of money on fire wood ! [wink]

Eric

 

[Dr.BenHarris]

Thanks for all the encouragement.  I will sign up to be notified of any upcoming classes I am sure they would be good.  I like the suggestion of using MDF or something a little cheaper to get some good practice making the cuts and dados with.  I guess I will just need to keep on practicing. 
[crying]A little more firewood never hurt anybody.

Ben

 

[RDMuller]

You might see if you could hire a FOG member in your area to tutor you for a day with the Festool tools on the project you are working on.  You should come up to speed fast and exceed your expectations.  Don't let frustration cause you to drop your interest.

 

[Old School Carpenter]

[welcome]

Not much to add, Fine Woodworking/ Tauton press won't steer you wrong for starting out. Don't get discouraged, I've been working wood for over 30 years now ( over half of that professionally), and not a day goes by that I don't learn something new.

Mike- precision firewood maker

 

[semenza]

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the FOG!  [smile]

First of all be sure to stick around here and ask questions. Especially since you are using Festool tools. I guarantee that any tool , or woodworking  problem or task you are having trouble with can be sorted out by our members. There is a ton of info and help available here.

You have a good selection of tools to work with. Take the projects one step at a time and get each step right on track, and check it before moving ahead.

You mentioned precision .....  how well equipped are you in the measuring, marking, department?  Accurate , consistent tools are really important in this area.    Three words to keep in mind when checking your pieces as you make them .... square, flat , straight.  It's  a must  in order to get things to fit together properly.  Methods to make sure that like parts are exactly the same are important as well.

Seth

 

[Kev]

[welcome]

You can read a lot and get a lot of very valuable info, but practice is your best friend and you can't beat making test cuts. A big problem can just be getting to know your tools ... not just your power tools, but all of your measuring and marking equipment. You could be making perfectly accurate cuts - but your measure and mark process could be the problem.

A good project can be to make a simple one foot square box, using a few different jointing methods - it's not too expensive on material and it's easier to work with small things initially - but not too small !

Good luck with it and if you have ongoing problems, come back with the very specific issues and I'm sure one of us Foggies (or more) will try and help.

Kev.

 

[Jeff Zanin]

Hello Dr. Harris and welcome.

There are a number of techniques that correct / compensate for difficulties with materials, measurements and other issues.  Some of these are "classic and noble" such as reveals, mouldings, panels, etc. and some are "crude and rude" involving clamps that pull things into square, mallets, various abuses of sanders, hidden blocks, spacers and fasteners, etc.

None of these are peculiar to Festool but I suspect most of them are used by all woodworkers at various times to salvage projects or work around various difficulties that arise.  As a hobbiest / craftsman (as opposed to production / factory) woodworker you can often use your imagination and make changes to a design or technique to overcome limitations of equipment, space or other capabilities.

Hopefully this type of compensation and cover-up is in contrast to the work of an OB/GYN, so this way of thinking may not come naturally to you, and also hopefully you are a bit of a perfectionist.  But even in your clinical work I suspect there are tricks and techniques that are learned mainly from experience and applied in accordance with the situation.

Kev's idea of some practice projects such as boxes is excellent, I still have a small box I made 40+ years ago – it is not a thing of beauty but at the time I was quite proud of it, and I am still using it.

Jeff

 

[dicktill]

Hi Doc and welcome to FOG. I am fairly new here too, and also to woodworking.

Although the author recently got some real bad press here in another thread, I have found Sandor Nagyszalanczy's book "Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes" to be quite helpful. Available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Avoiding-Woodworking-Mistakes-Nagyszalanczy/dp/156158097X.

Good luck, Dick

 

[fdengel]

I'm skeptical of the strength/durability of a screw-based box joint in this particular application, but that being said...

I often have had trouble making angled joints between wood due to clamping setup - the wood tends to slip out of alignment during the process depending on how the clamps are set up...

Measure your pieces carefully before trying to join them by clamping the opposite pieces to each other (just flat) and checking the edges to make sure they meet up smoothly (that one piece does not overhang the other on any edge).  As long as the pieces match up exactly, a trick to help with clamping at an angle like that is to use extra, square-cut pieces of wood (or metal or whatever) between the two pieces (one at each end - sometimes you might only need to use one), and clamp the two pieces separately to those extra pieces.  That extra piece will help to align the pieces you are trying to attach to each other and hold them still in the right spot.  I found a page showing this technique using a red "corner clamp" (different from what Kreg makes as a "corner clamp") in basically the same way; scan down the left side to see this under the "Assembly" title (for me right now the browser is rendering this as the last picture along the left edge of the page): http://www.newwoodworker.com/basic/buildbox.html

Not sure if that is what you were already doing or not, but it might help depending on what you are currently working with.

Of course, the ultimate way around this is a Domino... but we don't all have those yet  :'(