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This is just a quick one minute video I made up for promotional purposes. I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. Its all footage from previous episodes. I would also like to thank you all for voting on both Digg and Podcast Alley. We are actually Number 1 under the video podcast category on Podcast Alley right now!!! Let’s keep it going as long as we can!! Woo hoo!!! And I will have the next video up by the weekend. Thanks everyone!!!

Marc

Vote for me, ya Digg?

January 6, 2007 | Filed Under Blog | 2 Comments 

Howdy pardners. I am sure many of you are aware that The Wood Whisperer is listed on a few sites that rank podcasts based on votes. But for those that don’t I figured I would mention it. We are listed on both Digg.com and PodcastAlley.com. In both cases, you will need to register or give your email in order to vote. I suppose that increases the integrity of the results.

On Digg, just click on the Podcasts tab, register, and search for “Woodworking” and you should find The Wood Whisperer. Then just click “Digg It” to vote. On Podcast Alley, click “Vote”. Also, keep in mind that Podcast Alley’s votes are reset on a monthly basis. So if you remember, try to vote every month. I will try to remind everyone about voting on a monthly basis, but I am sure I will forget.
Also, there is always a link to my Podcast Alley entry at the bottom of the middle column under “Other Stuff”, in case you forget.

And what, you may ask, is voting going to do for us? Well, I have no idea. lol. But my hope is that by ranking higher on these lists, I have a much stronger case to present to potential sponsors and advertisers. And how does that benefit you?? Well, the more support the show gets, the closer I get to making videos on a regular repeating schedule. As it stands now, I get them out whenever life permits.

So if you have time and you are a devoted Wood Whisperer fan: exercise your democratic right and VOTE FOR ME!!!

Thanks Boys and Girls.

PS. Hurt my back moving plywood recently. Note to self: Remember proper lifting techniques. UGH!
Marc

Climb-Cutting - Safety Email

January 4, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Question of the Week | Leave a Comment 

I just received an email that reminding me of a very important topic that I wasn’t able to go into detail on in “A Cut Above” (Part 2), and this is climb-cutting. Here is Jonathan’s email:

“I had always read you route counter clockwise so the router is actually pulled into the table by the spinning bit. Then on part two of your cutting board series, I noticed you said you routed your cutting boards clockwise to avoid tear out. Is this just a specific method for end grains or does it really make a difference which way the router goes?”

Here was my reply:

“Hi Jonathan. It does indeed matter which direction you choose to rout. Whenever possible, you want to rout counter-clockwise when doing an outside perimeter (and clockwise for the inside perimeter of something like a picture frame). But there are times when the grain doesn’t exactly cooperate, and going in the counter-clockwise direction creates major chip-out. In many of those cases, your best option is to take light cuts and to climb cut (clockwise). Now this can be dangerous when you are removing a bunch of material, because it can actually throw the workpiece away from the router. So you will notice that my first pass is a very light one. You dont want to remove more than 1/8″ on that first pass. Once you have that nice clean starter cut, you can resume removing stock in the counter-clockwise direction.

Climb-cutting is something to be used judiciously and I wish I had more time to go into detail in the video. But let it suffice to say that I usually do it as a last resort. If small incremental counter-clockwise cuts dont get the job done, then I climb-cut. Always keep in mind though, the less stock you remove with the bit, the safer it is to climb-cut. But please be very careful when you do this operation.”

Episode 7- A Cut Above (Pt 2)

January 3, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Projects, Video | 18 Comments