Shopsmith Forums

Wow that is really nice looking. Can't wait to see your finished project. Great advise on the staining part. I was once told on this forum that a good craftsmen knows how to hide thier own mistakes so look like you are well on your way.

That's a very nice project. Looking forward to seeing the drawers and the finish you choose.

Shydragon, I've never worked in Madrone before, but a gunmaker friend of mine made a custom stock out of Madrone for a customer, and cussed it the whole time. He said it was extremely hard to carve. How do you find it to work with on the ShopSmith? The photo looks great!

Pat, I'm really going to show my ignorance, here. What does a Madrone tree look like? Where does it grow? (I'm assuming on the north west coast) How big do they grow? Do you get the lumber at a retail lumber yard, or mill your own from downed trees?

EDIT: I looked it up on wikipedia. Shoulda done that first. In searching, I found that Madrone is also a breed of short haired pointers. Interesting.

The first time I remember seeing one was about 4 yrs ago. They grow from the coast to about 60-70 miles inland. I guess they can get up to 90 meters and 5-8 ft in diameter.

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I use this product from Rockler. I love the cherry color.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10847&filter=mission

Well, it is nearing completion. Today, I was working on the table top. I needed to cut a 17 degree bevel around both sides and the front. I have the TSIII incra system. So, I had to remove all that, and the router table, and 5" tubes. I tilted the table to the required 17 degrees, ( my first attempt at cutting a bevel, It actually didn't go all that well). I then realized, I was going to have to stand the top on edge. So using the supplied fence from SS, I attached a 6" high baltic plywood to give me more support. Then I practised with some scrap pieces. I was getting some burning, and noticed the fence wasn't snug.

Finally, I thought, I'm ready to try the actual top. Some really heavy burning and saw tooth marks. So, I thought, I would use the conical disc to clean everything up. So, deep in my mind, I had 4 degrees for the conical disc, which I subtracted from the 17 to give me 13 which I set the table to. When I was finished, it looked good, but using the wixey I now had 18 to 19 degrees. It was then, I remembered a post by Dusty that he actually came up with something around 3 point something degrees. So, I checked it myself, and I came up with 3.1 degrees.

I now started to set up the TSIII Incra system, and normal procedure for me, is to bring table back to zero, then lay a straight edge across the table, then install extension table until I don't see any daylight under the straight edge. Then, I slide the 5" tubes throught, and they usually just swish through. This time, I got a clunk, not up and down, but to the side of the extension table tubes. So, now my main table must be out of alignment. It was 4 in the afternoon, I was frustrated that something is out of alingment, not sure how it could have happened, but at that time, I just decided I didn't feel like screwing with it, so quit for the day.

But, it is times like this, all the dinking around to cut a bevel, tearing setups apart, that I wish I had a real table saw. Just venting.

shydragon wrote:Well, it is nearing completion. Today, I was working on the table top. I needed to cut a 17 degree bevel around both sides and the front. I have the TSIII incra system. So, I had to remove all that, and the router table, and 5" tubes. I tilted the table to the required 17 degrees, ( my first attempt at cutting a bevel, It actually didn't go all that well). I then realized, I was going to have to stand the top on edge. So using the supplied fence from SS, I attached a 6" high baltic plywood to give me more support. Then I practised with some scrap pieces. I was getting some burning, and noticed the fence wasn't snug.

Finally, I thought, I'm ready to try the actual top. Some really heavy burning and saw tooth marks. So, I thought, I would use the conical disc to clean everything up. So, deep in my mind, I had 4 degrees for the conical disc, which I subtracted from the 17 to give me 13 which I set the table to. When I was finished, it looked good, but using the wixey I now had 18 to 19 degrees. It was then, I remembered a post by Dusty that he actually came up with something around 3 point something degrees. So, I checked it myself, and I came up with 3.1 degrees.

I now started to set up the TSIII Incra system, and normal procedure for me, is to bring table back to zero, then lay a straight edge across the table, then install extension table until I don't see any daylight under the straight edge. Then, I slide the 5" tubes throught, and they usually just swish through. This time, I got a clunk, not up and down, but to the side of the extension table tubes. So, now my main table must be out of alignment. It was 4 in the afternoon, I was frustrated that something is out of alingment, not sure how it could have happened, but at that time, I just decided I didn't feel like screwing with it, so quit for the day.

But, it is times like this, all the dinking around to cut a bevel, tearing setups apart, that I wish I had a real table saw. Just venting.

Hi Pat!

Venting is good; letting off the steam is what prevents a bad explosion. IMHO, the actual angle is not so important as the consistancy of the angle. I am sure that it will come out beautiful! BTW, I was wondering...how do you use your 5" tubes??? I need to use my 5' tubes for that set up!!!:D

Hi, Pat! Sorry for your frustrations. Trying to ease your pain, Ive got to say there isn't much difference between 17 or 18 degrees on the edges of a craftsman style table top. From the tables I've seen, the bevels really only serve to approach a slightly rounded edge. Sounds like you disk sander did the job for you already. As I remember, when I made a similar table top, I sawed at a slight angle and then sanded to finish the edges.

Please don't let that Wixey drive you nuts. It's really only good purpose is to make accurate set-ups. When you start measuring wood angles with it, it'll get the best of you.

Here's a couple of pics of my table tops - the first one shows tapered edges, the second one square. Really can't testify as to any angles of taper, but don't think anyone would care.

It is not so much the angle that is bothering me, the fact that the table is now misaligned I believe, as the tubes are not sliding through the extension table from the main table. It is possible, trying to snug down the SS fence, I bent something. I hardly ever use the SS fence, mostly the TSIII Incra fence.

a1gutterman.....I didn't follow SS instructions for setting up the Incra Ultra system. I thought it was somewhat lame. I mounted it to a floating table. I start out by sliding the 5' tubes through the main table, then through the router table, then through the extension table. Then I slide the floating table with Ultra system on the tubes to the right of the extension table, with floating table tight up against extension table. At that point, I unlock the Incra system sliding the fence until it just touches the blade getting it parallel to the blade. I move the headstock to the left until I have 32". Once I have done this, I hardly ever move the headstock. I can take the incra off and on, and still have everything aligned, that is until this time. When ever I have moved the headstock, it has been pretty easy to adjust it back to the 32", without losing the alignment. So far, this has worked really well for me, until yesterday. One other thing, I usually have the blade set higher, to compensate for the crosscut sliding table when it is in use.