How I cut solid beech to make a worktop, best saw blade

[@bradleymasson1777]

Thanks Robin. I'm glad I came across your video. I have the Makita track saw. I like it, but I think the Chinese made blade is its weak spot. The Freud looks like a good replacement.

[@ukconstruction]

they really are!!

[@carguillo1]

Hi Robin love the live edge wood and bowl must visit some time and have beer so

[@paulzirker706]

Another great informative and educational video Robin. Looking forward to your 2nd fix series of this fit out. Great work

[@owenoneill5955]

I cut two table tops recently using the 90 degree Festool track jig, parallel cut two long faces first. .nothing of a millimetre out over 1950mm on the diagonal, not too shabby, very impressed.

[@michaelhogwood104]

Fantastic Robin 👌.

[@fardastevie2827]

robin cant wait to see the cabinet and end result but i have an idea how its going to look ....fantastic !

[@tonyharison2058]

Nice job Robin, just been milling some beech, going to pre treat it off the mill so fingers crossed no woodworm while it dries.

[@richarddicktaylor219]

Robin I'm just reading How to Make Impossible Things by Mark Ellison, a New York based master carpenter. It's a very interesting read & after watching most of your videos I think you probably have many similar approaches to solving interesting building challenges.

[@ukconstruction]

Sounds like a good read!! Will get it!! Cheers bro

[@michaelplays2449]

Great video Robin !!! Thanks

[@videostarish]

Nice vid once again Robin..👍 I was a little worried about your new blade hitting any "rogue screws". What I did to my sacrificial tops of my joiner-sawhorses is, I fixed them through with only 8mm holes through everything, & countersunk top & bottom, & forced-in hotglue,so that it created a plastic rivet, so it doesn't matter if you cut through it, & just remove them when the time comes, with a heat-gun...👍🙂

[@Darkest-Light]

Fantastic tip that!

[@sally6457]

Over the years ive tried most brands of saw blade, in my opinion Freud are the best, Bosch blades give similar results but at a much higher price. Freud also use good sized and strongly connected tungsten tips that can be sharpened multiple times. A budget saw with a Freud blade is capable of an extremely high quality finish. Cant wait to see the end result of this project. I hope one day you rent it out on air bnb or similar? 👍

[@I_luv_my_fans]

The government should hire Robin to train young men in these vital skills!

[@Asgardsteve1]

I switched all my blades on the chop saw, mitre saws and track saws to Freud years ago, wouldn't use any others, unless of course a better one comes along lol.

[@josephfidler3716]

Any update on the framing square? I've been waiting patiently for a few years now. Keep up the good work.

[@jimmurphy4083]

Hi Robin, is there any update on the roofing square and the availability to purchase one from you. Love the channel . Thanks.

[@jonesconrad1]

I did something similar, it was walnut ( wasn't live edge or anything ) but my comment is about the tap, I wall mounted it which worked well, just a thought Robin

[@nickhaley4663]

Something I've done with solid timber slabs like that is to inset steel bars into the underside to help keep them flat. Use something like a 15mm x 5mm flat bar, route out a suitable groove in the underside and set the bars in, on edge obviously, with an epoxy resin. I always do this on wide slabs like a breakfast bar, set them at maybe 400-500 mm apart.

[@ukconstruction]

Nice touch!

[@sally6457]

On thinner materials like wide hardwood window boards I always run a few grooves along the grain on the underside. I even tried it on a slightly cupped oak worktop, it worked really well, at the time I worried that it may split over time, 6 years later and still flat and no splits.

[@andrewquinn7822]

Hi Robin from my time at Tech as an apprentice joiner I seem to remember the holes you are seeing are exit holes meaning the lava of the beetle had actually eaten their way out of the timber so the worms had actually already " left" ??? Great work as usual 👏

[@dwalsh3469]

You can put the splinter guard on the ts55 down as well, particularly if not using such a fine blade. I’m sure you know this.

[@Geeraffe]

That’s not a bowl - it’s a curling stone 😮 - looks bloody good but I have come to expect this from Robin 👍

[@dougsaunders8109]

😂

[@nickhickson8738]

Not much room for two large hands but a bit of expensive fun, nevertheless.

[@theofarmmanager267]

My strong advice to anyone thinking of using timber in a house would be to buy kiln dried and not air dried. I’ve been woodworking for over 45 years and learnt from experience that air dried timber will move for 6 months at least after it’s put into an interior. It will check (crack) at will and, if it’s put in a portion where it can’t expand as it would like, is quite capable of cracking plaster. Don’t ask me how I know this. The additional cost of kiln dried over air dried is fairly small compared to the probable pain of it going wrong. I’ve got no affiliation to either but, for kiln dried waney and square edge, I go to Surrey Timbers or English Woodland Timbers. Both south of the Thames but so am I.

[@amiddled]

Depends on the species. In my experience air dried Ash is much more stable than kiln dried.

[@trickytricky100]

Love your knowledge on woodworking Robin thanks, can I ask please what size Hinge Centring Drill do you use as a all round go to. Thanks Rich

[@BillyMustang101]

I always use negative rake blades in my mitre saw, especially good crosscutting hardwoods

[@therealdojj]

Shades of Arnold at the start to Commando there 😁

[@videostarish]

Yea, nice one..!☺️ It would be funny/entertaining to see Robin getting 'tooled-up' as in Commando, then carrying a HUGE joist somewhere...👍☺️

[@WombleUK]

It doesn't take much to overwork a Festool TS55 it's the most under powered saw I have ever owned. I have tried loads of blades over the years, I really don't rate the Festool blades they lose the edge really fast, stehl blades were ok, key blades didn't seem perfectly circular so gave up on them although the key blades kapex blade (now discontinued) was absolutely flawless. I used the cheap Lumberjack blades for ages & they were brilliant but supply was very sporadic. I have now settled on the Freud blades for nearly all my saws now & the 165mm are only £20 from Screwfix cut really nice & last well.

[@richardstevenson2727]

👍

[@Mikey__R]

Hi Robin, does your sawmill not kiln dry their live edge boards? Or is it a problem with the thickness of the board, rather than the edge?

[@martindorrance8133]

Do you need to adjust the rail for a different blade?

[@dougsaunders8109]

Nice to know the pro’s put there blades in the wrong away around too. I was cursing like a trooper about crap blade burning the cut, worked so much better correctly installed 😁 What finish? Lots of water from the sink with water from your hands.

[@WombleUK]

Carpenter & Joiner for 37yrs here & I still have a brain fart every now & then & put a blade in backwards, usually on my small cordless trim saw where the blade is on the left side of the saw 🤗

[@dougsaunders8109]

@@WombleUK appreciate you honesty. Makes me a, mere DIYer feel so much better!

[@barryford7135]

Tut tut Robin, does your wife know you leave the toilet seat up? 🤔🤣

[@martindorrance8133]

Fred Flintstone would have approved of the bowl 😂.

[@khansk36]

Try and integrate an over flow i flooded a glass sink in customers house with no over flow took me a while to clean up lucky no water went down

[@troyboy4345]

All the fashion atm, those "Live Edge" things

[@Kiss4cooper]

Robin, silly question, how do track saw tracks work? Do they not move out of place simply by surface tension? Edit: just got further in video and saw you clamping as well.

[@db7948]

Exactly that and the have a non slip rubber material underneath

[@Kiss4cooper]

@@db7948thanks

[@garywheeley5108]

Undercut the rip cut maybe ?🤔

[@thetessellater9163]

The woodworm holes only show its HAD woodworm - matured beetles have chewed their way out ! If no further new eggs were laid over the last three or four years, then it would no longer have any larvae chewing away inside ( the 'worm' ).

[@ukconstruction]

Nice information bro, many thanks for your valuable comments!! Its a real mystery when it comes to wood worm!!

[@stephenjervis4426]

Woodworm or beetle prefer timber with higher moisture content, above 20% is the danger zone though I believe they can survive down to about 12%. Nevertheless if the timber is dry one shouldn't need to worry about old sign. If that slab has been 'air dried' for 6 months (cut & stickered outdoors abeit under cover) I'd expect the moisture content in that slab is likely over 30% (particularly since it's spalted). Rule of thumb is a year per inch of thickness to get down to below 30%, aiming to get to low twenties. For interior work you want to be down to 10% or preferably into single digits, meaning air dried stock needs lots of time once brought indoors to acclimatise, and will move during that time... Ideally that goes for kiln-dried stock too (they may get it down to 10% during the drying process, but then the longer it sits in an unheated, humid warehouse the wetter it'll end up). Long story short that slab is way short of where it ought to be. Need to fit sills & the like quicker, quarter-sawn stock is the best, it'll still shrink but it you greatly reduce the change it'll twist or cup.

[@TheSudsy]

I hope the chief executive decision maker and final approver has signed this off...... we all know who she is lol

[@Shane_O]

I’ve done a good few of theses and either kept them indoors (for a few years) or had them kiln dried (relatively easy DIY to do) if they are anyway wet the you can have issues with movement in the piece so check for moisture content on large pieces (circa 12%) well before install. Check out Manor woodwork KZbin channel…. I’ve learnt so much form him and continue to do so

[@locien182]

thing is if someone is spending this much on an extension/addition to a house, spending 150 plus labour on this top for the bathroom is nothing. It's more about the bespoke finish that counts as its not "run of the mill" and will be a talking point when people come over etc this is where the value comes into play, ya never see high-end people fitting a b&q bathroom and when people are round showing them the "new bathroom"

[@straylightc4b]

The leavings of a curling stone make a very poor sink, tap in the way and prone to staining. Bathrooms should not be designed by people that cannot drive a razor blade. Great otherwise.

[@debandmike3380]

all that meticulousness and then you have a snaggy hose

[@MarkUKInsects]

Am I seeing correct? Robin without hearing protection?

[@videostarish]

Pardon...? 😊