Woodworkers, need tips.

[Erni]

So I dont do a lot of woodwork and cant set up a worshop for the rare times that I do. But I do have a couple of closet updates I need to do, and may end up doing a custom shelfs and maybe a murphy bed for my daughters room update. (Turned teen, and the hello kitty themed room needs to be changed).

I can work with small pieces just fine with my 10" chop saw, have some air nailers, drills etc. I dont have a table saw, and dint really have room for one.
Here are the problems:
1. Larger pieces give me problems. Like making straight cut with the circular saw on a piece of ply or larger board.
Do I buy a clamp one straight edge, or a curcular saw sled, or what? Is buying precut pieces from a lumber yard the better choice here?
2. Handling larger pieces. Dont have room for a dedicated table. End up using a plastic picnic table, which is wobbly, and a BD folding stand, which is too small. Do I need to make a collapsible table, which will be a pain to store?
3. Joining. Dont have a system picked out and not sure which one will work for 95% of general joinery. Pocket screw jig, dowel and screw jig, biscuit joiner, routing for finger joints?
4. Finishing and staining. A can of poly is probably a great choice here, or should I brush? Staining always looks bad. Any hints on how to stain well?
5. Glue. White carpenter or the foaming gorilla types?
6. Any other tips you can share on making things easier?

Thank you.

[NFATrustGuy]

Your list of questions is perfect. I have all the same questions and will be watching this thread in hopes of learning something.

Rod

[encorehunter]

Check out Kreg tools. They have screw jointers and circular saw attachments for working with full sheets of plywood. They can get pricey, but are very small for storage. I have built a lot of things with the jointers and they are very well made. Maybe Stodg73 will chime in as he has extensive experience with them.

[Tim K]

Long cuts - use a guide. Make one or buy one.

Joining - biscuits for edge joints, pocket joint for everything else. Dowels and finger joints are a PITA.

Staining procedure: Sand to 180g. Flood the surface with stain and let it sit for a minute or two. Wipe off the excess. To get even staining, you must have excess stain. Don't stain hard-to-stain woods. Some are easier than others. Oak, Alder, Cherry, Hickory are easy. Most of the other common species are splotchy and require different techniques. Poly sucks because it dries so slowly, but it's a brushable finish so it's popular.

Carpenter glue. Gorilla glue blows. Too messy.

[Fromk]

I'm in the same situation as you. I do this kind of work just rarely enough that don't invest a whole lot in tools.

It was a tad pricey at $30 each but these metal saw horses have been a great investment and I use them all the time. Very adjustable and heavy enough that they make a very stable platform. Then they fold up flat and lean up against my garage wall. http://www.homedepot.com/p/34-in-Adj...3801/206261852

My neighbor got a cheaper table saw a while back and I don't think I'd recommend it. It's too hard to get the fence at a true right angle and the measurements always seem to be a tad off. I think investing in a better circular saw and the right guides would have been a better choice.

For the joints I can tell you that making them with a handheld router is near impossible to do well as an amateur.

That's all I got. Hope some of it helps.

[JohnnyEgo]

You can do a lot to make life easier with the tools you have and about $100.

First off, go to Home Depot or Lowes. By a sheet of 2" thick rigid insulating foam. Lay it on the ground. Put your plywood on top of it. Congratulations, you have full support to break down a full sized sheet of ply. Later, if you want to get fancy, glue it to a cheap piece of ply and you have yourself a multi-purpose work table.


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While you are at Home Depot, go to the shelving section and buy a long piece of melamine coated shelving. Maybe 6' if you can find it. It can be pretty narrow. Melamine shelving is a machined product that has a pronounced 90° face. Now screw or glue it to a piece of 1/4" thick Luan or similar ply panel. Place your track saw up against the 90° edge and cut the panel. What you are left with is a zero clearance track guide at a perfect straight angle to your saw. Place the guide on your cut mark, and that is exactly what you will cut to. You can scale it as long as you want, and it will give you very straight cuts.
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Buy a Kreg pocket hole jig. It is the easiest joint to create and use, and while not aesthetically pleasing where exposed, it is very strong and very fast. Half of my house is held together with pocket screws.
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Glue - Tightbond wood glue is great. I am partial to type 3, but it doesn't really matter. Doesn't take a very thick layer to perform a very strong bond. You just have to clamp it correctly and give it patience.
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Finish - Buy a pack of the blue or green scrubbing pads at your local grocery store. (Scotch Bright). These are the equivalent of fine steel wool, but they hold together better and any bits they leave in your finish won't rust. They will also help knock down some of the fuzz that comes up when you wet the board. Two to three coats of stain, then let dry for a few days. I spray poly now, but before that, wipe on poly was the world's greatest finish. Each coat is about half a coat of brush poly. I would put on two thick coats about thirty minutes apart (flood coats), usually via an old t-shirt. Let them cure for 48 hours, then take a window scraping blade or a card scraper and gently scrape all the surfaces smooth. Scratch it up a bit with 220 grit sand paper, clean it off good, and put the final coat on. This gave me a very smooth finish that doesn't retain dust.
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Bonafides: I spent my first 10 years of very amateur woodworking with little more than a drill, a circular saw, and some patient downstairs neighbors in my apartment complex. Now I have tens of thousands of dollars of woodworking tools. The only difference in output now and 30 years ago is experience and the number of things I can do in a given amount of time.

I built this 20 years ago on an apartment balcony with nothing more than a circular saw and corded drill"


I built this desk not too long ago with a few more tools that made it quicker:


I'll give you two final pieces of advice and an offer:
1. You will never save any money building furniture over buying it.
2. Never offer or agree to build anyone anything for money. It will never be worth it.

Offer:
I live in Windsor, and I would love to be able to save other people interested in woodworking from the years of bad mistakes and hard lessons I learned. So if you want to cut something or try out a particular tool, let me know, and if I am around, you can come play in my shop.

[Irving]

Also, if you buy specialized tools used off of Craigslist, you can keep them as long as you need, then sell them again when you're done, for probably the same price. That will help with long term costs.

[StagLefty]

I have limited room also but several years ago I bought a Craftsman 10" folding table saw. Best investment I made for my shop size.

[buffalobo]

Tim and Johnny pretty much covered it all.

[stodg73]

So I dont do a lot of woodwork and cant set up a worshop for the rare times that I do. But I do have a couple of closet updates I need to do, and may end up doing a custom shelfs and maybe a murphy bed for my daughters room update. (Turned teen, and the hello kitty themed room needs to be changed).

I can work with small pieces just fine with my 10" chop saw, have some air nailers, drills etc. I dont have a table saw, and dint really have room for one.
Here are the problems:
1. Larger pieces give me problems. Like making straight cut with the circular saw on a piece of ply or larger board.
Do I buy a clamp one straight edge, or a curcular saw sled, or what? Is buying precut pieces from a lumber yard the better choice here?

Kreg Rip Cut. It is like a table saw on your circular saw, works very well. Just make sure that you set it up right. Very small footprint...

2. Handling larger pieces. Dont have room for a dedicated table. End up using a plastic picnic table, which is wobbly, and a BD folding stand, which is too small. Do I need to make a collapsible table, which will be a pain to store?

I use 2 fold in half, fold up picnic tables from Wal-Mart, and/or the bed of my truck when on a jobsite for stability. Using a 2" piece of foam board works, I use 2x4's or pieces of 2x4's to support the large pieces, and not cut my tables.(encorehunter)

3. Joining. Dont have a system picked out and not sure which one will work for 95% of general joinery. Pocket screw jig, dowel and screw jig, biscuit joiner, routing for finger joints?

I have a k5 Kreg jig. I use it for almost all jointing, however depending on what you want, you may need another way of jointing.

4. Finishing and staining. A can of poly is probably a great choice here, or should I brush? Staining always looks bad. Any hints on how to stain well?

Depending on what you want. Using a poly with stain works well, just read and follow the instructions on the can. Try doing smaller projects to get better with the product.(burns easier to hide the screw-ups).

5. Glue. White carpenter or the foaming gorilla types?

Gorilla glue, even if you are using pocket holes.

6. Any other tips you can share on making things easier?

Do smaller projects first, get better doing these, build confidence and all other projects will come easily. Learn how to use the tools, hide the pocket holes(no filling), join boards, sanding, etc., get to know your tools to make them work for you, NOT against you.

Thank you.

Answers in blue.