JULY/AUG 2005
Volume 48/Issue 4

IN THIS ISSUE
Project Articles
• The Heirloom Cradle
• The Spirit of St. Louis Toy Airplane
• Making All-Purpose Wooden Boxes

DEPARTMENTS
• Ask Smitty
• Owner’s Gallery
• Letters from Owners
 
Academy Notes
Properties of Cabinet Lumber
 
Service Pointers
Bandsaw Service Pointers

What's New
Lift-Assist

EDUCATION
• Find A Shopsmith Woodworking Academy Near You
• National Woodworking Academy in Dayton, OH

ONLINE CATALOGS
• Online Accessory Catalog
• Request Printed Accessory Catalog
• Online Replacement Parts Catalog

MARK V INFORMATION
• Find A Shopsmith
MARK V Demo Near You
• Request MARK V Information Package

LINKS
• Links Worth Visiting
• Free Woodworking Tips

FEEDBACK
Contacting Shopsmith

Copyright 2005.
Shopsmith, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

ASK SMITTY!
Here are the questions . . .
and SMITTY’S answers for this issue!

Mattress Dimensions
 
From J. Wren via email:
 
I love the four post bed plan in the July/August issue of Hands-On and have decided to build one. However, I would like to make my bed king-sized. What are the right measurements for king-sized mattresses?

Here's a link that will provide the correct measurements for all mattress sizes. Given these dimensions, you should be able to modify your plans accordingly.

http://www.originalmattress.com/products/dimensions.asp

Jointer cupping problem
 
From Dale Carter, via email:
 
I have a jointer that I purchased quite a few years ago and it has worked very well until just recently. I have done everything I know to eliminate "cupping". The infeed and outfeed tables are level or parallel with each other and the knives are equal in height with the outfeed table. I use a Rotacator to set my knives and then I joint or grind the knives so they are all equal.

The downside of the Shopsmith jointer is ..." There is no outfeed table adjustment"

I would appreciate your input.

This sounds like a knife setting/position problem. I have to assume that the "cupping you refer to is end-to-end not side-to-side on the board. This is caused by the knives being set too low in relationship to the outfeed table. I don't know what a "rotacator" is. It sounds like you're using this to somehow grind the knives in the cutterhead while in the jointer using the outfeed table as a reference.

This is nothing like how we describe how to do this in the manual. Because our jointer does not have an adjustable outfeed table, the procedure in the manual must be followed. When the knives are set properly, they MUST be .003" to .005" ABOVE the outfeed table -- not even with the outfeed table.

Chosing the right saw blade
 
From Arnold G. via email:
 
Which saw blade do you recommend using for cutting MDF?

Any hard, composite material with a high glue content such as MDF, particleboard, flakeboard, etc is best cut with a carbide tipped saw blade. Ordinary steel blades will dull very quickly when cutting composite materials.