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Tools and Safety

Pre-cutting of the thick planks

The planks are very heavy so that they can't be put on the circular saw bench. Thus I pre-cut the planks directly on the ground using a  circular saw  for professional use.

Sanding

There are lot of cheep sanding tools - but my experience is that there is no good work using this tools. I recommend machines for professional use as well


You'll never have enough clamps...

Finish

To get well finished pieces of wood I use the circular saw bench like shown in the picture below. I recommend to use different high-quality  saw blades. In addition, In addition, I recommend a band saw. Those saws do not cut very precisely but  very efficient.

Above the circular saw bench, below the planing machine. Left used to get suitable thickness, right to get squared pieces of wood. These machines are from Metabo. Even if they are not yet professional it is possible to get very good results.

Using staples and compressed air

Staples can be very useful to fix veneers. There exist serveral electrical devices to get staples into the wood. If you have a compressor you can use special devices using compressed air. I use two different devices: One for nails and narrow staples, another for extra wide staples suitable to fix veneers without damaging their surface. 

Measuring moisture of air and wood

The moisture of the wood depeends on that of the air. To measure the moisture of the wood I use a quite simple device - a prefessional one would be very expensive.

Measuring the moisture of the air (left) and the wood (right). The recommended range of the wood's moisture is  8-12% . In my case it is a little bit higher due to the lack of a heating in my building. 

Safety and cleaness

Even if you are working with wood only in your spare time it can be dangerous: The dust from oak is quite unhealthy, so a good mask to clean the air should be used. Dependend on the machine I work with I use the half-mask (machine connected with a vacuum cleaner) or a full-mask (machine not connected).


On the left hand side a good maks from Protect: It contains two filters to clean the air. On the right hand side a one-way mask. Those masks do not work properly. Thus the shwon mask remains in the plastic box...



Full-mask (left), filter against gas and dust (right).

In addition, I strongly recommend to use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the huge amount of dust and wood shavings.

Special Question: Epoxid

Modern Epoxid-Resin is a very good material. But it has to be handled with care:

  • The given rates for the mixture of hardener and resin have to be followed as well as possible. Therefore I recommend to use a digital scale.
  • I addition it is clear that you should use suitable gloves, especially when you are working with Actone.
Equipment to handle expoxid properly.