Question 1: 

From Jordan:
I’ve been offered what seems to be a deal too good to be true.  A gentleman from my church has 600bf of rough sawn cherry, 1000bf of walnut, and 70bf of white oak.  The boards are 8ft long, the vast majority are 4/4 with about twenty boards of cherry and walnut at 12/4.  The lumber is 40 yrs old stacked beautifully in his barn. He’s offered it all to me at $4.60/bf. I’m a novice woodworker that is trying to step up to the next level.  Is this a miracle or is it too much and going to bog me down? 

Dry Your Own Lumber Save money and get a year’s worth of beautiful boards By Dave Spacht #204–Mar/Apr 2009 Issue

Question 2:

From Ken:
I have built a ‘first’ workbench. It was roughly  inspired by Bob Van Dyke’s bench but has some variations. I used only one set of front and back stretchers, attaching them using large bench bolts after watching a video of one of the bench builds out there on the FineWoodworking website. The stretchers are installed up about 1/3 of the way from the floor.  It seems very rock solid so far. Down the road, do you think I will regret having only one pair of stretchers? Will the 5 3/4 inch wide stretchers serve well, or would you have built and installed another pair of stretchers at the top?  

Build Your First Workbench A workbench with an end vise and front vise is easily the most important tool in your shop By Bob Van Dyke #223–Tools & Shops 2012 Issue

Segment: All-Time Favorite Technique

Barry: Prefinishing

John: Flattening a slab with a power planer

Ben: Drawing a line and cutting to it instead of using the CNC

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Question 3:

From Dave:
I’m a first-generation woodworker, but I’ve caught the bug bad. My current shop situation is a mess, dragging tools out of a bulkhead to work outside, but I’m closing on my first house soon. Now I have some options and I want to improve my shop situation. I have a two-car-under garage, 22×22′ and I have 600sqft of finished basement. 

My two options are:

1. Take about 200+sq ft of the basement, rip up the carpet, partition, and create my shop down there
2. Work out of my garage where I’m wheeling tools out and stowing them when complete. I live in New England and taking over even part of the garage permanently is not an option for me in the winter.

While it is nice to have a dedicated shop space, I thought maybe I could take some of the savings from not doing the basement job and get a SawStop with the mobile base that I can wheel out easily and do some major work. I covet that saw and would probably want it in the basement at some point, I may just be trying to justify the purchase a little earlier to myself. I would really appreciate the opinion of some pro’s, I don’t have many woodworkers to ask in my life.

15 Tips for Basement Workshops FWW’s online audience weighs in on muffling noise, stifling dust, adding light, and reducing moisture By Thomas McKenna #202–Tools & Shops 2009 Issue

Question 4:  

From Devin:
So like most people, when I need a run of the mill mortise, I start with the drill press or router to remove the bulk of the waste. When left with the round ends, I square them up with a mortise chisel. Do I have to? I know it doesn’t take that long but if the shoulders cover the round ends of the mortise, how much strength am I losing? It’s end grain to edge grain so it can’t be all that great of a glue surface. The shoulders should still be able to do their job mechanically, albeit with less contact but in the case of say, an apron into a leg, with a sizable shoulder what’s the deal? Thoughts?

Video Workshop: Build a Hybrid Roubo Workbench Follow along as Fine Woodworking’s John Tetreault builds a hybrid Roubo workbench with a timber-frame soul.

 

Recommendations: 

Barry: Get a task light

Ben: Guitar player Lyle Brewer

John: Go observe frogs because they’re awesome