Lumber haulers

From Thomas,
I am beginning to think about buying a new car. Because woodworking is life, I want whatever vehicle I end up buying to be useful for lumber and material purchases, so I naturally started thinking about a truck. I work in a congested part of Washington, DC, and feel that the utility of a full-size pick-up isn’t really worth the sacrifices – poor fuel economy, difficulty to drive in the city, no trunk, ( or need to buy a locking tonneau cover) etc. Also, being honest, I tend to buy material only about once or twice a month at most.

I’ve been thinking about mid or compact trucks – but these would still have the trunk issue, and frequently have pretty short beds. SUVs with a roof rack have started to seem like an intriguing option, maybe combined with a trailer.

I’d love to hear about what sort of vehicles the FWW crew drives, and your general thoughts on the topic.

Workbench joinery tolerances

From Andrew:

I am building a workbench with mortise and tenon joinery connecting the legs to the tabletop and the stretchers to the legs. When dry fitting such massive joints how do I ensure the joints are not so tight that I can’t get them apart to do the actual glue up? And are there recommended techniques for separating really tight dry fit joints? Any tips you can give me would be much appreciated.

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Cutting thin strips safely and accurately

From Marlin:

My question is about what I want to be a simple task that often turns out to be time-consuming and frustrating. That is; cutting thin, uniform strips of wood.
These could be for accents in laminated cutting boards, corner splines in picture frames, Kumiko pieces, or thin strips for bent laminations.
The issue I always encounter and what I’d like your input on solving is that these strips never come out perfectly uniform. There is always enough blade chatter that the strips do not lay flat to one another but instead show various gaps along their length.
I’ve really only cut strips on my Metabo jobsite table saw with a CMT blade. I’ve used a feather board, made a zero clearance insert, and go slowly but still end up with a lot of hand planning and/or sanding which adds work and makes getting uniform strips a challenge.
Do I need a SawStop? A Bandsaw? A drum sander? How do you get the highest quality cut on strips like this?

Matt Kenney sells plans for a really great thin-rip table saw jig.

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Every two weeks, a team of Fine Woodworking staffers answers questions from readers on Shop Talk Live, Fine Woodworking‘s biweekly podcast. Send your woodworking questions to [email protected] for consideration in the regular broadcast! Our continued existence relies upon listener support. So if you enjoy the show, be sure to leave us a five-star rating and maybe even a nice comment on our iTunes page.