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Hey ya'll! I am a beginner and work (struggle) with a workbench very similar to this one. It is unstable and overall rather a pain to use so if you have any advice on making it more stable/useful I will take it! (I was already considering adding bracing across the sides and back)

But my most pressing question is about these long square bench dogs. What is their purpose? Mine do sit flush with the bench holes, and are generally stored in one of the legs that offers bench holes of the right size. I basically use them to hang PPE ^^

Rebuilding a table. Tbh bought a "custom" table from someone on Fb marketplace that ended up a bit more DiY than "custom." Since I spent way too much money on what ended up being a poorly made picnic table, I decided to fix it myself. Anyway, one of the boards was super warped and twisted so I replaced it and noticed that the replacement looked a bit more red than I thought the others were, but foolishly thought "stain will fix this." Well, I used the same stain the original maker did and it is not fixing it. Any sanding/stain combining/magic I can do to try to get the new board to match the original set. And yes, it is already glued and joined with dowels.

Wood: Pine (wouldn't have been my choice, but was matching what it already had) Stain: Minwax Aged Barrel

Thanks!

My grandma wants this face lightened as it has faded over the years.

As the title suggests, looking for a sander recommendation (orbital). My skil sander doesn’t cut it and I have some mesquite and black walnut just itching to be worked.

I’d love a festool but it’s above what I can reasonably budget. Could folks recommend a great sander in the 150-200 range?

I bought a dining table off FB Marketplace and wanted to freshen up the tabletop. I sanded it a bit and then saw that wipe-on poly was suggested on another thread as a good thing to put on top. I think I've made a a couple of critical errors: 1) the wipe on poly isn't going on smoothly and I'm making a streaky mess, even with applying thin coats with a chamois. 2) Already several coats in, I think now the table should have been just oiled. I pulled out the leaf and it's got a matte looking finish. I'm thinking now that the table is teak, but I'm not sure. Ack. Should I sand the whole thing down again and put teak oil on it? Will sanding it take all the poly off or have I crossed a point of no return and should just try a brush on poly to get it to go on without streaks?

After cleaning a table saw blade, is a rust inhibitor recommended, and if so, any specific types?

I was thinking about trying to make an end grain desktop 55” x 30”. I’m a novice so I wanted to get input before starting.

I was considering using something like 1 x 12 x 6 pine to keep costs down and because I’d hate to blow hundreds of dollars on my first attempt and fail. My thought was to rip 1” strips and glue together.

1. Will it be strong enough or is this doomed?
2. Do I need to mount to a thin plywood or something?
3. Do I need to use dolls or biscuit joints to add strength?
4. If none of those are viable, is it possible to run a dowel through all the boards to add strength?

I’ve seen ideas for plywood end grain too. Would this be stronger?

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Week 4 (Well, 5 if you count the BMW its sitting on).

Steve's course is teaching me skills, but I hate when i find out when finishing that the short cuts I took or when I didnt sand the rabbet slots well enough meant the glue didnt adhear properly, etc.

Still, its working.

I'm using recycled wood to build a work bench table for my basement woodworking shop. So far, I've run all the boards through a planer and ripped them all down to 2 inches.

My next step (I think) is to get all the pieces glued together, clamp the life out of it, and then build a base for it. I'll borrow a friend's track saw to get the table completely square and then use a router to flatten any imperfections and make nice round corners.

Is there anything I am not thinking of or missing that would make my life easier?

Thanks in advance for opinions and feedback.

Not sure if I have an issue or if I'm overlooking something obvious. I am trying to change from a 1/2" collet to 1/4" on my Bosch 1617, and I thought the collet and collet nut were supposed to unscrew as one. You can see the 1/2“ collet (blue) is still on the shaft, and the 1/2" nut (yellow) came right off without it.

The 1/4" unit is happily married, nut and collet (red). Am I missing something? Anyone know a) how to get the 1/2" collet out without damaging it and b) whether it's salvageable, you know, without the terrifying prospect of airborne router bits?

I just finished this shelf after quite a few setbacks. This was the first shelf I've ever the made and my first "real" project outside of a few simple cutting boards and a chessboard where I learned some tablesaw basics.

Every part of the design was based on being within my skillset and looking clean. For example, I don't know how to use a router so the "tracks" that the supports sit in were cut through with a table saw. The end product looks kind of modular, as if you could move the shelves around, but the supports are in fact dowel jointed and glued in place. The Diagonals of the supports I cut by hand because I don't know how to make repeatable angled cuts on a table saw yet!

I need to work on sanding, I just sanded it with 120 and then 220. I feel like it looks good but It could SHINE if I sanded it a bit more. What grits do y'all keep around/use?

I'm also wondering what to finish it with. I had some walnut oil that I used for sealing my cutting boards that I hit it with, but there is probably a better solution given its function..

Please give me any pointers.

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I recently read an old article from the Woodworker's Journal about how to build a jig to do jointing using a table saw. I do not have a jointer and I'm not 100% why I would need this job since I straighten edges when I need to by using a 2' or 4' level as a straight-edge to run my piece of lumber through the saw and get a straight edge to work from. Am I missing something, or is what I'm doing sufficient? Note: I have calibrated the table saw for perpendicularity, parallelness, and alignments. Thanks

It probably sounds like a pretty stupid question but I'm currently building a gaming table with an MDF top. I want to put several yoga mats on top to make for a better play surface but I'm still figuring out how to attach it. I don't think that nails will work all that well because they are visible and can damage all sorts of things, so I'm looking for an adhesive.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to use?

I know that there are some things that I can work on like the stand of the bowl and the inside being rough, but is there anything else that I can improve on?

Also would water rot the wood as I do intend on using this bowl.

Very new to this…. Goal is to refinish a wooden bathroom vanity with a darker stain. Any recommendations on the process?

1)sanding with 150 grit 2) stain 3)paint polyurethane

Is this right? Is stripping required?