A few min ago Jesse Mayhew sent me an email confused. He wasn’t confused, he found a labeling error on the bench stool plans.

The Rear leg drilling angle is 17 degrees and the front legs are 8 degrees. Somewhere between version 1.0 and 1.3 the labels got mixed up.

If you miss drilled a seat my sincerest apologies.

There is nothing else wrong with the pla…

Read more

My wife loves birds, not like the obsessed bird watcher but a deep knowledge of them that just rolls out at random moments. She can identify all their calls from the kitchen sink and knows their migratory patterns. She will drop random comments like this morning she says “seems the house wrens are here now” as I’m going out the back door. We met working together in the west indies, her mom would send her messages when certain birds left her Canadian home and she would report back when they arrived at our island. I grew up roaming the woods but for whatever reason birds were never my knowledge base, trees were. But they are interconnected.

Harvesting hickory bark I have had to contend with sap suckers. Not the kind that cut you off in traffic, the feathered kind. In the winter in Virginia we have a Canadian visitor, the Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker.

These little suckers feed on the sap in hickory, maple, birch and other trees with sweet sugary sap. Pecking in they make small holes through the bark and drink the sap that flows in the cambium layer of the tree. These holes (rightly called Sap Wells) are normally inline in rings around the tree causing the bark to undulate out.

But when you strip the bark there is more to the story. In the phloem layer of hickory trees there are the phloem rays. These rays are a corky pith texture that extends from the furrows on the outside of the tree’s bark.

When hand harvesting bark for weaving these rays help guide you on how thick your bark is on the log. As you shave it thinner the ray gets narrower. But these rays are not ideal for the strength of the bark so fewer rays are better.

Because the Sap Suckers sap wells go to the cambium layer they leave a brown scab where the tree heals over the hole. The tree later adds a growth ring covering up this hole only for the sap sucker to make a new hole the next year. And the scars remain in the bark to tell the story.

When we saw these trees into lumber the defects of all those holes healed over, year after year create what we call “bird peck”. This is a defect I see a lot of in sugar maple, hickory and walnut logs here is Virginia.

While I could be frustrated by the Sap Suckers damage to otherwise good bark I have noticed that trees with Sap Sucker damage have much larger phloem rays. These little guys know its easier to peck into those ray’s corky texture and they skip over trees with fewer or smaller rays. Which for me is just another way to identify better trees for bark. Its amazing to see trees that are riddled with Sap Sucker damage growing right next to trees with not a hole in them. Just another way our world is so interconnected and why it pays to slow down and observe.

After hundreds of hours of planning, wrenching and investment we finally had the bark machine purring and ready for a test drive. Our Neighbor has some acreage they have been slowly clearing for pasture that has some hickories so I excitedly stripped a tree one late afternoon for the maiden voyage. Utter failure. I quickly identified 3 main changes that I thought needed to be made to the machine. I got Brian on the phone and he quickly confirmed. The motor was undersized (it was swapped from Brian’s original at some point), The rubber feed rollers needed re-built and there was a missing part. “But your bark seems really stiff,” Brian said. What? Like this is how trees are made man what are you talking about?

Read more

I’ve recently been experimenting with the color purple. Well more of technique experimenting really. The truth is I hate painting. And as good as a nice milk paint or linseed oil paint finish look I dread the process, and the cure time is killer. Maybe this would be different if I had a finishing room and pieces could sit there for weeks while other projects are underway but that’s not my reality at the moment.

The visual effect I’m after is color that will still show the wood grain, specifically in open pore species like Oak, Elm and Ash. I’m also looking for flexibility to mix a variety of colors and tones. So I have been experimenting with dye. There are lots of different dyes available and most of them dilute in alcohol or water as their binder making dry time basically as long as it takes for the water or alcohol to evaporate. For me this is as ideal as it gets for a fast dry time.

To start I reached for the easy solution, Aniline dye. Aniline dyes are easy to use and produce a large spectrum of brilliant colors. However they are notoriously not UV stable meaning UV rays or sunshine breaks down the color over time. I have a carving mallet made by my friend Albert that he dyed a gorgeous purple and stabilized in epoxy. It lives on the window sill above my workbench and after several years the purple has faded to a dull grey color. Before exploring every type of dye I decided to focus on application and see if I could get the results I wanted first. So I just grabbed some Transtint aniline dye.

Application

With a choice of alcohol or water I’ve opted to use alcohol so as not to raise the grain which would add sanding steps. Denatured alcohol is readily available for me here in VA (it is banned in many states). But a high proof grain alcohol Like Everclear will also get you there.

Mixing the dye is as easy as poring a few table spoons of alcohol into a paper cup and adding 4-6 drops of dye. The dye is very strong so you do not need much. I test a bit on a scrap to check its intensity and tone and then simply wipe it on my piece with a rag. It dries almost instantly so it goes quickly. If a spot dries as a weird drip simply run back over it with wet dye to smooth it out. Once I have a coat on I let it sit 5min and then decide if I want a second coat to deepen the color. Which then is just wiping on another coat.

Once its dried the next step is getting the dye locked in so it does not rub off on your hands. For me shellac works best for this. While I don’t particularly care for shellac as final finish I love shellac as a grain sealer. It is a fast way to lock things in. Virtually any finish will bond to shellac as a top coat which makes it ideal. With shellac also being alcohol based you do have to be careful with the first seal coat not to get a run as it can leave a streak in the dye.. For me rather than cutting and dewaxing shellac just to seal the grain I’ve been simply using aerosol shellac and doing 2 coats lightly buffing with a scotch bright between coats. If mixing and using shellac is new to you Mike Mascelli recently wrote a great article in Fine Woodworking that will get your started.

Once the dye is sealed you can top coat with anything you like. I do my normal wiping varnish top coat with no issues.

Waxes

Once the top coat is dried I normally do a buff with paste wax. Another element of exploration is colored waxes. With ring porous woods like I’m using in my chairs the grain despite being sealed off is still fairly open. You can get a second variety of color tones by using colored waxes that sit in the open grain contrasting with the dye color similar to a glaze. This is generally known as cerusing. Applying it you push it into the open grain and come back to buff most of it off the surface leaving it behind in the grain for a color contrast.

One of my favorite waxes is Lake One I was introduced to it by an employee of mine who does antique repairs. Lake One has 7 different colors and dries very hard. Unfortunately it is now very difficult to find in the US but hands down is the most durable wax I’ve ever used. Liberon is another great wax with a more limited color selection. I particularly like their black wax and their liming wax for a white wax. For the broadest range of colors I use Gilders Wax, It uses acrylic pigments and metalics to achieve the broadest range of colors available in a finishing wax that I am aware of.

Oxides

While I’m very happy with my process so far I realize the Transtint aniline dye is not color fast and will fade over time. The most color fast dyes are oxide dyes. Oxide pigments are made from ground up minerals making them very color fast and resistant to fading. Mixol has a selection of oxide dyes designed for exterior use which seems to be the most straightforward off the shelf option. After ordering some the first thing I notice is the evident grit or fine pigment powder in the dye. In mixing it with the alcohol I have found it works best to put the dye in the cup first and then slowly work in the alcohol to prevent that fine pigment powder from micro clumping.

It does not penetrate quite as deep as the aniline dye but builds up a nice strong color.

How well do these hold up to UV? Well I did these color samples with both Transtint aniline dye and Mixol oxide dye on Ash. They are sealed and top coated then cerused with black wax. I’ve set them in my office window sill this past fall which gets a good amount of sun and am actually surprised. The Transtint colors have slightly faded but the Mixol oxide is still as strong as day one. We shall see how they hold up over the next few years.

So far I think this is a route I’ll keep exploring.

In November I wrote about discovering “Bacteria Oak”. One of those wonderful learn the hard way lessons that cost you several thousand dollars. It was not my first time either. I had a similar more expensive fuckup last year learning about Laurel wilt blight bacteria in Sassafras. An easy response to things like this is to become discouraged or depressed but when I was a child every time I played video games my mother would come say “go do something constructive” and so those words often come to mind. I believe the best default to things like this is to respond with curiosity.

Not a self loathing false curiosity where I spiral into the “if I only would have” self talk. Where I rehearse all the ways it could have gone differently.

But a genuine research kid in the science lab type response where I search for better understanding of what happened. Its not about simply not repeating the same mistake twice. But I have found that deeper understanding builds a well of knowledge that helps you make better decisions in adjacent endeavors as well.

This past week the guys were building a new coal bin and used a bundle of the 8/4 bacteria oak for the bin walls. After end trimming these boards I could not help but admire the extreme example it was of wood movement and so I thought I would share my snap observations. Seeing how the wood responded helps solidify our understanding of how wood moves and better inform choices we make when building with it.

Shrinkage Direction

The first thing to notice is the shrinkage direction. The rift and quartered sections on either side of the center shrunk in thickness 1/4”. This extreme amount of shrinkage was more drastic because that was the only section of the board that dried in the kiln. The edges and center stayed wet as they were infected with the bacteria. However this drives home the reminder that quarter sawn material shrinks in its thickness. In fact when we saw quarter sawn we saw 1/8”-3/16” thicker than our desired thickness to account for shrinkage in the kiln. Also take note of the cup in the center section. This is a good example of how shrinkage happens along the growth ring so cupping in a board always flattens out the curvature of the growth ring making the cup go in the opposite direction of the rings.

Honey Comb

You can see honey comb cracking in the center. Honey comb defect happens when the outside of the board dries faster than the inside. In this case it is because the bacteria is bonding the water molecules in the pectin layers. The air is drying the exposed surface but the core is not giving up its water causing a large moisture differential between surface and core. Believe it or not this defect most often happens in the air dry stage before it ever goes into the kiln. Too much airflow dries the outside off too fast and the honey comb occurs. This can also be caused by a too aggressive kiln schedule that dries the material out at a faster rate than it can release its water.

Mineral Stain

The black/grey areas are mineral stain or mineral streak. This is a color defect caused by the tree concentrating the minerals it absorbs from the soil in a certain area, often around damage. This is often a sign the tree was stressed and is typically a simple color defect most present in Oak, Cherry and Maple. What I did not realize is that mineral stain is always present in bacteria oak trees. You can have mineral without the bacteria but never the bacteria without the mineral.

Wet/dry areas

For context the dry areas of the board measure 7-8% moisture content. The wet areas are 19-22%. This shows how effective the bacteria is in holding onto the water even in a 160 degree kiln. This relates to processing lumber from trees that have already died. For example a standing dead tree. Once the tree dies and decay starts. bacteria begins binding the water so that the tree can rot and decompose. If it did not then the tree would dry-rot or petrify rather than decompose which would keep the trees carbon from returning to the atmosphere. This helps inform how we choose to process material. For example a standing dead tree that has not become punky though the boards may seem solid they may have trouble drying out. Especially since a tree that died standing was obviously stressed and likely had bacteria set in while it was still alive.

This also effects things like firewood. In America its common to cut dead and standing dead for firewood however this material makes the worst firewood as it never completely dries out causing it to burn inefficiently leading to bunged up chimneys and more air pollution from unburned carbon. Those dead trees are often better left in the forest to decompose feeding the forest with organic matter and habitat. Firewood taken from living trees that need thinned out to create more sunlight on the floor for new growth make better fuel that will more completely dry out and burn more completely.

Enough of my geeking out. Stay curious my friends and respect trees. They are our elders if you will.

Read more

Time for assembly. This is the point where you will want to finish sand or scrape any surfaces smooth and ready for finish.

For glue I recommend Hide glue or another glue of choice with a long open time such as FishStick Glue from Lost Art Press. This allows you plenty of time so you are not rushing. Titebond extend is also a reasonable option. I assemble lots with just yellow glue mostly when I’m busy and don’t want to heat up the glue pot but if something goes wrong you’re screwed. Truth be told doing the photos for this post I used the Titebond III on the bench and had it go wrong. If you like living loose and remaking parts that’s cool but otherwise wait and get a long open time glue.

Read more

I spent the last two weeks chipping away at this Dutch tool chest. Early last fall I was randomly added in a group chat of 2 very generous individuals asking if they could commission a carved tool chest that would be raffled off for Plane Wellness. I of course accepted, not only because I love carving and chests but because I believe in the mission of Plane Wellness and as one of their instructors was thrilled to be involved.

The Chest is a dovetailed case of curly walnut with quarter sawn walnut lid and fall front panels. I used hand forged hardware and rose head nails with a birdseye maple interior to brighten it up inside.

The piece became a collaboration with none other than my boi Albert Kleine. Albert designed. crafted and inlayed the lid marquetry panel on the lid that I shipped him.

As a nod the Megan Fitzpatick author of “Dutch Tool Chest” the flower petals are blue which I then mixed a matching blue paint for the carving.

One of the donors who commissioned the chest Eric O’grey donated tools that go with the chest. Truthfully more tools than will fit in it so the winner will need to build 2 more chests to fit the 138lbs of pristine hand tools.

I am bringing the chest with me this coming weekend to Hand Tool Haven (yes you should come) you will be able to touch and feel it there. The Raffle for the chest and all the tools is being hosted on the Can I Have It Vintage Tool Auction and Sales Group. The raffle (or waffle as they call them in the group) will run from May 17-21 and all proceeds go to Plane Wellness in their work to provide woodworking classes to those struggling with their mental health. If you are not on the group I encourage you to join and read the rules for “waffles” ahead of time so you understand how it works. I have participated in this group for years and though it can be overwhelming with all the group rules everything is done professionally.

This was a fun build and I am excited for whoever becomes its new owner. I hope it gets covered in dust, grime and shavings in a shop not sit on a shelf to be admired.

If you can share this post around to help spread the word in support of Plane Wellness. The donors hope to raise $20,000 in the raffle but I’m confident it can do more.

Shea

Now that all the rung mortises are drilled lets move on to making rungs. With all four legs fully seated in position, measure the length of each rung using the same method used for the dummy rungs and cut 1.25” square rung stock to those final lengths. Before shaping the footrest and rungs we will cut the tenons. There are multiple ways to achieve this, I personally like using the lathe.

Read more

Rung time. All the rungs and the footrest us a ⅝” diameter tenon. These are all drilled 1-1/6” deep. I recommend using a good quality brad point bit, I personally like the brad points from Lee Valley you will want one that has sharp side spurs but not a crazy long center spur. Sharp Side spurs prevent tearout and the center spur should not be so long it pokes through the leg when drilling the side stretchers. You will also need a bit-extension. The most straightforward one is to buy a ½” diameter drill rod and a ½” coupling from an industrial supply like McMaster Carr it will cost you about $30.

18” long 1/2” rod: https://www.mcmaster.com/5936K72/

1/2'“ Shaft Coupling: https://www.mcmaster.com/6412K14/

We will drill all the stretcher mortises and then measure the exact rung lengths before cutting them to length and making the rungs.

Read more

Now let’s set the seat aside and move on to legs. Here I am using Ash however any strong hardwood is suitable. Red Oak is a great choice to get started as is Elm and Hard Maple. The more critical piece with the legs and spindles is making sure you have long straight grain from one end of the leg blank to the other without any extreme run out.

Read more

We are going to start with the seat. These posts will be to the point and I plan after the main set of build posts to follow up with alterative methods for various stages for those who do not have the same tool kit as I do. Specifically the seat drilling and cutting tenons.

Read more

Thank y’all for your patience as we finalized the bench stool plans. Matt did a wonderful job on these and I’m excited to jump into the build posts. The plans are live on the website HERE and as promised the coupon codes are

Read more

For those that followed along, supported and built a hearth stool I purchased a box of the Popular Woodworking issue #287. The Hearth Stool was featured on the cover and the article is a condensed version of what I covered here on the blog.

These copies are free to you as a paid subscriber as a thank you for your support. I have put them on my website a…

Read more

The resounding question everyone keeps asking me is “what happens to the log after you strip the bark” this is honestly the most complex logistical problem we have had to solve and also the one that impacts the price of the bark the most. It is also the biggest ethical conundrum I have about using bark in general especially at scale.

Read more

Things are warming up here in Virginia, the trees pushing their buds and the dogwoods are blooming, all signs that bark season is almost upon us. I’ve written about Hickory bark before but its been awhile so if you want to get up to speed these three posts should do it;

When the Sap Runs

Working With The Seasons

The Journey Home

I find myself up to my elbows in old grease and sap residue as I finish re-assembling the Boggs bark machine. My brothers Drew and Gabriel (the blacksmith and machinist in the family) have been helping me remake parts and sharpen blades and Jo has been preparing for the operational logistics of the harvest. We have 3 large tracts of hickory secured for harvest with well over 100 trees and so once the bark starts slipping it will be game on.

The purpose of this post is to answer questions everyone has about how this will work and how they can purchase bark.

Our objectives

I was planning to blog more over the winter on the machine but what I did not realize was that the machine itself has a fanatical fan base. Word spread quickly that we had it and I had people flooding my email with questions and asking for priority access to bark because their third cousin twice removed met Brian at a yardsale in the 80s. I also had people randomly showing up at the shop demanding to see the machine because they drove hours unannounced for that reason. So I laid low, I had a busy winter and didn’t need that chaos.

That said we realize there is a pent up demand for hickory bark and so I want to make clear our objectives for this season:

1. To fine tune the harvest process to ensure we can continue it sustainably.

This objective will be our main focus. Developing the supply chain means not only rebuilding the machine but working with the forest service and land owners to secure timber, ensuring we have the manpower for harvest teams while also running our existing lumber business, and developing our process. This will be no small task and though we have kept our schedule as open as possible it means you may see many of our material kits slowly go out of stock for a few months while we figure out a balance. Bark season is only 2-3 months.

2. To ensure the bark is fairly distributed to all those who would like some.

There are craftspeople on all economic levels and we are committed to not releasing bark in a way that some may hoard it because they have the resources to do so.

Timing

We are gratefully in the position that we do not need to sell bark immediately to make payroll, this means that from when we start harvesting to when bark is available may be several weeks. I would anticipate the first drop being available in the middle of May. Pestering us before then will only be an annoyance.

Distribution

Teachers

When bark is ready to be sent out the first people who will be given access are teachers. I have a list of post and rung teachers who would like bark for their classes and they will be given the first priority (after we send Eric and Brian gift packages of course). They will be capped to 2,000’ lineal feet per teacher and those orders will be filled first. Teachers play a vital role in keeping the craft alive and they expose the most people to the material, we are committed to making sure they are taken care of.

If you are a teacher you may email me at Alexanderbrothersva@gmail.com and I can add you to that list. If you do not know me personally you must include class listings or other proof that you are in fact teaching classes along with a reference or two otherwise I will not add you to that list. Basket weaving and art instructors are welcomed as well.

First Drop

The first drop of bark will be made available to the paid subscribers of this blog. I will have a post behind the paywall explaining that later on. But paid subscribers will be given at least a day to buy from the first drop before the public is notified. It will then be on our website for all.

Events

We will have separate bark inventory to sell in person at both Hand Tool Haven and Handworks.

This is inventory separate from the teacher and first drop stock. If you attend one of these events you can get some there.

More drops

The remaining inventory we will be dividing into drops made on the website spaced out every several weeks. We are doing this to make sure we have stock in the winter for those of you who may take on a new commission or build a chair in those months. We want people to still be able to get bark without waiting till spring. These drops will be made unannounced and based on our inventory levels.

Cost

The bark machine produces both a first and second cut bark meaning there will be two different qualities available. Machine bark also is a much superior and consistent material when compared to hand cut and allows you to weave right off the machine which avoids the labor intensive dressing of the bark in the shop that hand harvested bark requires.

We have not established pricing yet as part of establishing our process is sustainability and we will need to track expenses to make sure the new market price is set in a way we can continue to harvest. Much of this is based on paying land owners fair value for timber. What we pay needs to offset what they could be paid selling the same trees for other uses (more blogs on this topic later).

At this point we estimate the price will be in the range of $0.75 - $1.50 per lineal foot of material.

How to get notified

There are three ways to get notified about bark

1. You are a teacher and to get on the teacher list, see above.

2. You are a paid subscriber of this blog, there will be an early buying period.

3. You can subscribe to our Chair Making Material email list. This is where all drops will be announced.

I hope this helps answer questions, feel free to ask any unanswered questions in the comments.

A few posts back we talked about wood moisture. That post covered basic wood moisture theory surrounding how wood dries out and reaches an equilibrium. For a woodworker understanding that theory is extremely important. Once we understand how wood moisture behaves we then need a way to measure it.

There are three main methods to measure wood moisture content.

1. Pin meters

2. Pinless meters

3. Oven test

I am going to walk through all three so you can hopefully make an informed decision on which method is best for your workflow.

Oven Test

The oven test is the most accurate form of moisture measurement and it is on the principles of the oven test that moisture content (MC) is predicated on. To refresh our memory lets run though again how MC % is calculated.

MC is calculated by taking the weight of the water in the sample divided by the dry (bone dry zero water) weight of the wood cellulose multiplied by 100 for the MC%. let’s say a 100gram wet sample after being taken to bone dry weighs now 82.5 grams that was 17.5 grams of water. 17.5 grams of water divided by 82.5 grams of cellulose ×100 would be 21.2% moisture.

Oven testing is the industrial standard and certified kiln operators use the oven test to do their final moisture checks by pulling sacrificial sample boards from each kiln load and performing oven tests on pieces cut from the middle of those sample boards.

To perform an oven test you will need a small kitchen scale that measures in grams and you home microwave or oven.

Begin by cutting a sample from the board. Ideally the sample should be 24” from the end of the board as boards dry out more rapidly from the end grain. Your sample will be very small with the ideal size being about 1”x1” cross section 2” of length with the grain. Once cut, knock off any fuzz or dust as this falling off in the oven will affect weights. Then take an initial wet weight, it’s important to take this first weight immediately, as after being exposed to the air a sample this small will immediately start drying out.

Now place your sample in a conventional oven (or better yet a laboratory oven) at 212-221 degrees F removing every 20min and checking weight until the sample stops losing moisture. This can also be done in the microwave. I run the microwave for 1-2min cycles and let the piece cool after each cycle. Stand close by and watch carefully as you can easily set the sample on fire. In both a microwave and a home conventional oven. Once your sample has stopped losing weight and cooled you will take the bone dry or oven dry weight and run the calculation outlined above.

This is the most accurate method to measure wood MC

Pin Meters

Next we have pin meters. These meters have small metal test pins that are pressed into the wood and an electronic pulse is sent between the pins to measure resistance. The higher the moisture the less resistance. These meters group different species according to Specific Gravity so they need set based on the wood species.

Pin meters are only accurate as deep as the pins penetrate. Making most pin meter setups only able to read moisture ⅛-5/16” deep into the wood. This makes these meters worthless unless you saw open a sample to expose the core or you purchase a slide hammer setup with long pins.

When these meters are used they are most accurate when the pins are inserted parallel to the longitudinal axis of the wood.

For a pin meter I would recommend Lignomat or Delmhorst; these are the industry leading manufacturer used in commercial wood drying. Both of these manufacturers have replaceable pins of different lengths as well as slide hammer attachments. You can also send off your meter for calibration.

Pinless Meters

Pinless meters are expensive but they are by far the most handy to keep close by for a quick check or to take to the lumberyard to spot check without filling someone else’s wood full of holes (I’ve had customers do this. Don’t be an asshole.).

Pinless meters have a sensor pad on the back of the meter that emits a low electromagnetic frequency signal that measures the wood’s dielectric constant.

There are different pinless meters that read different depths so you will want one that reads ¾” deep if you want to confidently check moisture on 8/4 material.

When using a pinless the meter must be placed inline with the length of the grain for an accurate reading. Pinless meters use specific settings for each specie’s specific gravity giving it a species specific accuracy. It is important however that the surface of the board be dry as surface water can throw off its reading.

I personally use a Wagner Orion 910. These meters are an investment and can save you thousands of dollars in frustration especially if you are buying lumber from backyard sawyers.

I hope this overview gets you off on the right foot on measuring moisture. As always don’t hesitate to comment with questions. And remember the right moisture content is different based on the usage and the environment the wood is getting used.

PS: my recommendations are based on experience and tools I have purchased. I am in no way sponsored by these meter companies.

If you have built chairs before or if you built the Hearth Stool most of this post may be irrelevant unless you like to talk about tools, which to be honest is most woodworkers I know. In most situations I feel tools take center stage and suck all the oxygen out of the room. So I tend to avoid tool conversations altogether.

This in some ways is a place of privilege for me, growing up in the craft. I’m well versed in what quality tools look like and how they perform. I also do not derive any sort of meaning or identity from my tools, they are secondary to the work and only make me a better crafts person to the extent that I know how to use them.

For someone new to the craft this is most likely not the case so I am going to talk about what you will need to build the bench stool. I will keep this post high level to get you started and have other posts coming that we take little dives into alternative methods to my workflow in case you have a tool limitation. If you feel like you are unable to make this stool because you lack a specific tool that is out of your budget please comment and we can talk through it to see if you can accomplish it with what you have.

I am going to link specific tool makers and make brand suggestions. I am in no way sponsored or promoted by these brands or sellers; they are simply the tools I have, use and would buy again. My goal is to simply point those of you who are buying new tools for this build towards tools I know will not frustrate you because they don’t perform properly.

Read more

With the plans almost done, let’s look at what you need for materials. Here is a parts cut-list:

Read more

Read more