Thought you may be interested in this it’s a router station I made primarily for machining tenons & dovetails on longer boards. I found mounting the dovetail or tenon jigs on a standard bench a bit limiting. The unit is 42″ high by 38″ wide it allows me to keep my two dovetail jigs , Tenon jig & accessories in the same vicinity, saving space in my small shop (18 x 18) & provides a very comfortable working height. The top & base are 18″ deep so I can leave two jigs mounted back to back and the mounting boards are simply clamped down making it quick to remove or swap a jig. The whole thing is made of some old oak scraps I have from an old church it’s about 300years old it’s mounted on locking castors & is surprisingly stable. I have been building a couple of loft beds for my grandchildren & they presented a problem of machining tenons on stock of 78″ x 1 1/8″x 7″ The tenon box is made as a slide on fit (not too tight) score round the stock with a marking knife & simply line up the score mark with the edge of the channel & using a template bit cut the tenon cheek in a couple of passes, flip the board & repeat, once the router depth is set they can all be cut accurately. The jig is held in place by clamping in the center of the mdf this flexes enough to grip the stock. The black knob you see on the picture was an adjustable stop but I found it a bit inaccurate hence I score round the shoulder. It solved a problem for me & I hope it may be of use to others. I have seen similar jigs but not with a means of supporting the routers on both sides, the router can’t tip and you get perfect tenons every time.

Welcome back to Wood Talk Online. The woodworking season is underway and your emails are rolling in as we speak. So if you have a question, comment or some feedback regarding something you’ve heard here at WTO send us an email at woodtalkonline@gmail.com or call us at our voicemail (623) 242-2450.

Marc starts us off with a inside look at his and Nicole’s recent visit to the Podcast and New Media Expo where they had a chance to rub elbows with fellow podcasters and meet some new “friends”. This leads us to our next subject where we talk about Marc’s recent article for the Wood Talk Online website regarding shop setup, so as soon as you get a chance, head over there to check it out.

Of course you’ve got questions and we try to answer them. Our first email comes from our longtime listener Skee who seems to be having a couple of different problems. First of all he’s having a staining problem on a project he’s refinishing. Apparently after letting the stain sit for 2 days it’s still not completely dry and comes off easily on his rag, any ideas what could be wrong? Skee’s second question is how to remove 1/16″ of thickness over a 10″ length on both faces of the same 8′ board without the aide of a dado blade.

Steve sends us an email curious about how and where people do woodworking when they don’t have a dedicated shop, especially when you’re tight on space and live in a small apartment? Oh yeah and throw into the mix the fact that your spouse isn’t as convinced as you are that a shop works great in the living room.

Both Jeff and Marc (different Marc, same spelling) have questions about building exterior projects. Jeff’s looking for answers on which materials to build a deck or gazebo with that won’t void his termite contract and Marc is concerned about the effect of cutting composite materials on his saw blades.

Fred offers us some feedback on using his dovetail jig for making tight through dovetails and also shares his painful experience with making dovetails in plywood. And last but not least, it’s time to giveaway another Woodslicer Resaw Bandsaw blade from the great folks over at Highland Woodworking. So a huge congratulations to Brent Conaway, this month’s winner!!

And here are some great links for setting up your shop, courtesy of FineWoodWorking.com:

Smart Shop in a One-Car Garage- Space-saving solutions for a small work area

A Layout Kit for Small Shops- Modeling in two or three dimensions is a lot easier than moving around your heavy machinery to get a shop plan you like. By: John Yurko

Workshop Tour: An Efficient Garage Workshop-With wheel-mounted tools and cabinets, a two-car garage transforms into a versatile workshop

Rock-Solid Plywood Bench-Build this simple but versatile workbench in a weekend for less than $250. And you don’t need a jointer or planer. By: Cecil Braeden

An Island Workshop- A central island for power tools, work surfaces, and dust collection makes the most of this two-car garage shop. With Alan DeVilbiss

All About Lumber Storage

All about Tool Storage

Most of you know by now that my schedule has been a little packed lately due to a long series of commissions. I promised you that once they were over, I would be able to focus nearly all of my efforts on The Wood Whisperer. And now its time to deliver. I am finally on the last of that series of projects and will be done within the next 7-10 days. This particular episode represents a taste of whats to come. With some new editing software, a new camera, and a little more knowledge and experience on my part, we are able to offer higher quality videos and higher quality content. The new format of the show represents what we would like to think of as “Season 2″. I hope you enjoy it.

I would have to say the most commonly requested episode so far has been dovetails. Handcut, machine cut, through or half blind……..you guys love your dovetails! Well, I have held off for a while because I wanted to make sure I did the process justice. This particular episode is a glimpse into the world of machine-cut through dovetails. Even though the episode is 30 minutes long, I feel like I just barely scratched the surface. The devil is in the details! And each jig differs in those little details. Fortunately, there are some common elements to all these jigs that make this episode useful to anyone, regardless of what jig you use. I happened to use what I consider to be the best jig on the market: the Leigh D4R.

No matter what jig you use or even if you cut them by hand, there’s no denying the “cool factor” surrounding dovetails. If you haven’t made them yet, they are easier than they look and it is certainly worth your time to learn the process. So watch the video and find out what it sounds like, when dovetails cry……….

***Error note*** Thanks to Steve and Brian in the comments section for bringing this to my attention. During the filming of the podcasts, I was using “props” for my cuts and consequently was not as careful with my organization as I should have been. Now you see why I use props. lol. I accidentally reversed the pins and tails. My rule is to cut the tails in the sides and the pins in the fronts and backs. I did the opposite in the video. I guess thats what happens when you are focused on filming and getting the right shot, instead of making proper dovetails. So don’t get confused. As long as you remember the rule (and you don’t try to make a show out of everything you do), you should be fine.