Which Tile Leveling System Should I Use?

Ever since my wife and I bought our house in 2011 we’ve tackled a lot of DIY projects. The biggest transformations have been the bathrooms and doing the bathrooms meant doing some tile work. If you’re like us, we thought “tile? no sweat!” but then in reality there actually was some sweat. There was even some frustration as we tried to get the surfaces of all the tiles to be flush with each other. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the most difficult project in the world, and we’re still really happy with the work we did, BUT….had we known about these leveling spacers at the time…and had used them…we’d probably be even happier with our bathroom floors.

Fast forward to our family room makeover (we’re mid-project as of this blog entry). We have a brick hearth that needs to be tiled over and we have a small landing by the door that needs new tile. We decided this would be the perfect time to try out some leveling spacers. We bought all the tile from a nearby Floor & Decor and we noticed they had some tile spacers but we also thought, “are the tile spacers from Amazon any good?” So we decided to try the Amazon ones. How did it go? Keep reading to find out! 🙂

How Do I Use Tile Leveling Spacers?

To start, using leveling spacers for tile is very easy. First you spread the thinset and you lay down your first tile. Once the first tile is down you just slide one of the clear plastic spacers under the edge of your tile. Put 2 spacers per long edge, and lay down the next tile. Wiggle it into place, butting it up to your spacer and then you just slide the yellow wedge through the opening in the spacer. The system we bought included a tool similar to a pair of pliers and this tool allows you to push the wedge tightly into place. The wedges have a row of little ridges so they click and stay in place.

What Do I Do Next?

Once you’ve got your tile done, you stand back and look at your work and let the thinset dry for 24 hours. After that, it’s time to remove the wedges and spacers. At first, I thought I was supposed to take out the wedge and the spacer would simply break loose at the thinnest part of the spacer but that’s not what happened! Once your thinset dries and the tiles are permanent, there’s no way the spacers can wiggle side to side and break off. So I thought hmmm….these suck. But then I decided to look at the reviews and other people were saying to LEAVE THE WEDGE IN PLACE and just knock the spacer on the edge with a rubber mallet. So I tried that and voila! Perfect removal! Keep in mind the spacers are a one-time use part. Once you break them off, the bottom stays in the thinset and the top piece gets discarded. The wedges however, are reusable over and over and over. I’ll have links to these items a little further down this page.

So now the two areas in our family room that needed to be tiled ARE tiled and we used these leveling spacers for both areas. I don’t really like tiling in general but now that I know my results are going to be better if I use these leveling spacers, I can at least suck it up and get through it, haha!

We’re currently working on the rest of the family room makeover and as soon as that’s all finished, I’ll put a link to the video RIGHT HERE. Until then, make sure you jump up to the top of this blog post and watch the video of the tile leveling spacers.

If you’d like to try these spacers yourself, here are the ones we used:
DGSL Tile Leveling System: https://amzn.to/3j6oCFz
Extra Spacers: https://amzn.to/3rdA8Sc

*the links above are links to some products shown in this video (via Amazon). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases and any earnings made through these links helps me to be able to continue creating videos like these. I appreciate you purchasing items through my Amazon links!

Thank you so much for stopping by my page. I hope this information has been helpful as you start thinking about your next tile project. Have you tried using leveling spacers? What’s your experience been like? Good? Bad? Did you use this same style of leveler?

If you’re not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, I’d love to have you. You can also follow me on Instagram and see more content. Have a great project!

Handmade Modern Side Table Using Walnut and Glass

A while back I designed and built the Zelo Side Table to replace a ratty old metal magazine holder. I used solid walnut for this piece and it turned out beautifully.

Since making that first Zelo Side Table, I revisited the way I built it by changing up the template a little bit and continued to work out a few bugs as I continued to receive new orders for more tables via my Etsy shop. With each table I built, I was finding what techniques I liked best to achieve my results. It’s been an honor to fulfill these orders, and it’s really cool to know there are a few of these in their new homes in various parts of the country like Washington, Ohio, and a pair of them Tennessee. There’s also a few here in California. Here’s a pair in their home near Oakland:

Recently I had a request to add a glass inlay to a Zelo Side Table. At first I wasn’t sure if I was into it but after a couple emails back and forth, I drew up a quick rendering in Google Sketchup and it got the green light:

For the most part I went about building this version the same as I would any of the others. There were of course, a few modifications that needed to be made so the piece of tempered glass would sit flush in the walnut top. It was a fun challenge that allowed me the opportunity to try something that I might not have tried if I hadn’t received the special request.

I’ve always used Domino joinery for the Zelo Side Tables. The first time I ever used a Festool Domino was at the Jory Brigham course I took a few years ago. Such an invaluable tool for the modern woodworker!

I use a simple jig (made from mdf scraps) to cut out my slots with my Dewalt router with the appropriate plunge base and bushing set. I’ve experimented cutting out these slots with my cnc, and it works perfectly but really only makes sense if I’m building multiple tables at the same time. Earlier this year I was building 4 Zelo Side Tables at the same time and cutting slots on the cnc was definitely the way to go. But if it’s just for 1 table, maybe 2, then the jig and plunge router is my choice.

Once it’s all glued up, the tedious task of sanding is next…

….but when it’s all said, done, and finished up with Odie’s Oil, you get something like this:

So that’s the latest and greatest on the Zelo Side Tables (for now). I do have plans to put together a video creatively documenting the build of one of these heirloom pieces of furniture, so be sure to jump over to my YouTube channel and subscribe so you can see it when it goes up!

Thanks so much for stopping by! In addition to checking back here on the blog occasionally and subscribing on YouTube, you can also follow me on Instagram (IG handle: @stuffsethmakes) . See you on the next one! 🙂

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases and any earnings made through these links helps me to be able to continue creating content like this. I appreciate you purchasing items through my Amazon links!

Using a Crosscut Sled for Building Furniture

I’ve been meaning to build a bigger crosscut sled for my tablesaw for a long time. I have a small sled that I made a while back, but it was sort of a quick and dirty build and has developed a little wiggle. That means the runners under the sled aren’t as snug as they should be, which can result in cuts being less accurate than they could be. That sled is also too small for a lot of projects so it was time for a shop upgrade. Here are a couple photos of my old sled and my hand for reference so you can see the size. I also marked it up for a previous project. Now it’s ugly, haha!

I’m not going to go into much detail about the build of the new sled since it’s a very basic design covered in a lot of other YouTube videos (see my links at the end of the entry). I did however add some spare Rockler T-track and hold downs I had and this allows me to keep the material safely in place while making cuts.

large crosscut sled for making furniture

You may also notice I cut the track about a couple inches short. The reason for this is so that there’s still a little room to insert a hold down or other accessory. If I cut the tracks to fit exactly, I wouldn’t have been able to get the hold downs in there!

Instead of this being a “how to build a woodworking crosscut sled” article, it’s more of a “here’s a couple ways how I use my new crosscut sled” article. I’m currently in the middle of building a couple Zelo Side Tables, and by building a larger crosscut sled I’m able to ensure that the back of the leg is square to the feet so once the table is complete it will sit flat on the ground. With this sled it’s also easier to get an identical distance from the crotch of the table leg to the end of the feet. I achieve this using a little piece of scrap wood. I cut a radius/profile on the scrap wood that matches the crotch of the table leg.

scrap wood for a stop block to make furniture

Next I can line up how much material I want to remove from the feet, put my stop block in the crotch and secure it in place with one of the hold downs. Now I can make my cut, then remove the workpiece and simply slide the next one into position and I know the cut will be exactly the same every time over and over.

Now that I have the feet squared up to the leg, I need to cut the whole leg to it’s final length. This crosscut sled is big, but it’s not massive and the legs are still a little longer than the sled itself. Since I can’t use the stopblock on the sled itself, I use the fence of the tablesaw to get my final length. I figure out the length I want and move the fence to that mark. Then I take a piece of scrap wood, in this case I know the scrap piece is 1/2″ thick, and clamp it to the tablesaw fence (any appropriate size clamp will do, but I like these Jorgensen Quick Clamps) and then move the fence over to the right another 1/2″ to compensate for the 1/2″ piece of scrap wood. This piece of scrap wood has now become my stopblock.

Now when I put my table leg against the sled fence, I can slide it over until the foot hits the scrap wood I just clamped to the tablesaw fence. When I make my cut, the the scrap wood piece stays put while the table leg moves forward away from it, and now the feet are not sliding against any surface that could possibly cause friction or binding resulting in a messed up cut or even injury to myself. The tablesaw fence is pretty smooth and the chances of the workpiece binding are probably pretty slim but why risk it? Call me old fashioned but making repeatable cuts safely is cool to me, haha!

So there you have it. Me, using my new diy crosscut sled. Obviously, cutting these walnut table legs like this is not the only thing to do with this crosscut sled, it’s just what I happened to be working on at the moment and wanted to share it with you! I’m looking forward to making tons of other cuts and finding other interesting and creative ways to clamp down various parts and jigs and whatever else a unique scenario may call for.

Just Added

I was just about to wrap up this post but then another unique opportunity presented itself to use the sled creatively. A few days ago I needed to make some picture frames for some rustic wood art my wife made.

I made the frames with mitered corners but the frames I made were fairly slim and modern in style and I felt they could benefit from some extra structural strength in the form of splines added to the mitered corners so I whipped up a quick spline jig to use with the crosscut sled.

fast and easy spline jig for the crosscut sled

Making this particular spline jig took a couple minutes to brainstorm and about 10 minutes to make. I simply used some scrap plywood I had in the shop, and threw it together using some glue and brad nails. As you can see from the photos, I made the bottom piece capable of being tightened down using the hold downs in the t-track. You just set the blade height based on your frame corner (making sure the height of the blade won’t cut through to the inside of the frame unless you want to make extra work for yourself later) and then set the spline jig in the sled the distance away from the blade that you want the spline to be away from the face of the picture frame (does that make sense?). When you’re positioned, just tighten the hold downs. Now you can bring your picture frame onto the jig and I like to clamp the frame to the jig to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.

fast and easy spline jig for the tablesaw

Make the cut, and repeat on the other corners. For these particular frames I did 2 splines on each corner. Once I cut the first set of slots, I just flipped the frame over and repeated the process. Now I had 2 spline slots on each corner, the same distance from the front and rear faces of the picture frames. To finish everything off, I ripped some thin strips of the same wood (which in this case was red oak) then cut little triangles and glue them in place. Once the glue dried I cut off the excess with my flush cut saw, sanded it smooth and that was that!

I apologize for not having a better photo of the splines. Adding the spline jig info to this blog entry was sort of an afterthought and this rustic wood art order was already on it’s way to it’s new home in Tennessee! But you’ll just have to trust me when I say the splines are there and my quick and dirty spline jig worked great 🙂 Additionally, to hold the art in the frames, I finally added a point driver to my tool arsenal and I can’t believe I waited so long to do it. Back in high school I worked at Michael’s Arts & Crafts in the custom framing department. We had a few point drivers in the shop there and it made life so easy! Who would’ve known that 25 years later I’d finally be buying one for myself, haha!! Based on price and reviews I went with the Logan Dual Point Driver Elite and I’m super happy with it. If you’re looking for an easy way to secure your artwork in the frames, get a point driver!

I already know a couple things about this particular style of spline jig that I would do differently if I were to make another one just like this. I still want to make a “real” spline jig and maybe I’ll make that soon as I do have some other custom picture frames to make for a future project. I kind of like Michael Alm’s spline jig and also David Picciuto’s version. Maybe I’ll do a mash-up of both and see what comes of it, haha! I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out my video at the top of this entry and you can see the crosscut sled in action.

If you’ve been wanting to build your own regular crosscut sled, there are a lot of other videos on YouTube that tell you how to build a crosscut sled. Some of them try to pack a lot of bells and whistles into it while others keep it more simple. I like the simple approach and found Matt Cremona’s video and Jonathan Katz-Moses’ video to be what I mainly referenced.

Thank so much for visiting! I hope you’ll consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and following me on Instagram. See you there!!

Using Router Bits, Templates and Jigs To Make Beautiful Serving Boards

You may remember a modern serving board I designed a while back called The Monroe serving board. I had a few of these boards in my Etsy shop and my wife and I took some with us when we did our first craft show last year. The boards have proven to be a popular item and because of their unique shape and overall design they also struck a chord with a chocolatier up in the PNW.

I was asked if I could make three dozen of my Monroe boards, half of which would be the regular size I’d made before and the other half would be a mini, approximately half size of the original.

In order to make the process as streamlined as I could, I needed a way to reproduce these over and over. “Well Seth, don’t you have a cnc machine?” Yes I do, but it’s not really as easy as all that, and I’ll explain why in a moment. I needed to do these manually, one at a time, and a couple templates and jigs would be the way to go.

To start off, let me explain why I don’t think using my cnc is the right option for this project. When I bring the raw walnut lumber in, I trace the templates onto the walnut so I know how many I can get out of that piece of walnut. I trace them out in the best grain direction while avoiding knots and cracks. This is why I can’t use the cnc. I COULD use the cnc if I was starting with flawless walnut lumber but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to create a new g-code file for every single board.

So templates it is! I made a basic template for the large size and the small size. This template allows me to cut out the Monroe boards using a Freud pattern bit at the router table.

To create the dished out recessed area on the Monroe boards, I used a bowl and tray router bit from Whiteside. This router bit has a flat end with a radius, and also has a guide bearing. In addition to the template I made to cut out the shape of the boards, I made another template where I’ll follow the inside shape with the bowl and tray bit.

To use the bit, you use it mounted in a plunge router. I use the Bosch 1617EVSPK with the plunge base installed and I plunge it down a little bit at a time, allowing the bearing to follow the template. In my case, it took 3 fairly conservative passes to get to my final depth and the bowl and tray bit leaves a nice radius edge along the bottom. Whiteside sells the bowl and tray bit with a 1/2″ shank with 1-1/4″ cutting diameter as well as a version with a 1/4″ shank with 3/4″ cutting diameter. I have both but the larger one removes more material faster 🙂

bowl and tray router bits from Whiteside

I also drilled a hole in the template so that I can use an awl and mark where the “beauty mark” will be. For the finger hole in the handle I have another little template I slide over the handle and mark the spot so I can drill it out using a forstner bit later.

To cut the Monroe boards to their final lengths I set up a quick angled stop block. Using that stop block allowed me to make the angled cuts quickly and easily. After that I soften the sharp points over at the oscillating sander, and then I use a roundover bit to address the edges all around.

The next little jig I made and used is actually more of a sled that I use over at my HE&M 782XL metal cutting bandsaw. The “beauty marks” were brass rod on the original but on this order they’re stainless steel. The sled I made has a runner on the underside so it can slide forward and backward in the track on the bandsaw table. This sled allows me to insert the steel rod into a hole with a stop on the other side so each cut is the same length. As I slide the sled forward, the cut is made and I’m left with little stainless steel cutoffs. Cuts like these can be a little risky but this sled also allows me to keep my fingers safe during the cuts. Now I can epoxy the beauty marks into the boards.

The final jig or template (sorry I don’t really know if this would be considered a jig or a template, haha) is a small piece I screw into the opposite side of the bowl/tray template. This piece is for the alignment of the branding iron. With this piece screwed in place I can be sure the branding iron lands in the same place every time, and I have this setup for the large boards and the small boards. Now I can fire up the torch and brand the boards!

Finally, the Monroe boards get dunked in a tub of food grade mineral oil. Once they’re wiped and dry I use Walrus Oil brand wood wax as a final finish. The Walrus Oil wax is a great option for finishing any kind of wooden kitchen utensils, serving boards, charcuterie boards, end grain cutting boards….all that good stuff! Then I can screw in the little rubber feet and they’re done!

walrus oil wood wax on walnut cutting boards

I hope this information has been helpful! I’ve got an in-depth video that may be extra helpful to see all this information in action. Check out the whole video about using templates, jigs and router bits here, and I hope you’ll consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. and also be sure to follow me over on Instagram. I’ve got a lot more video content coming up and I would love for you to be able to see it!

More than one time I’ve heard people in the maker community say something like “sometimes we’ve gotta make the things in order to make the things!” That is so very right. I think I love making those other things just as much as I love making the things I set out to make in the first place! I’m excited to share this info with you and maybe it will give you some ideas when it comes to designing your own serving boards. The following links will take you to some items in my Amazon storefront that I used on this project. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, and any earnings I make through the following links will help me to continue creating content to share here and on my YouTube channel. I appreciate you all purchasing stuff via my links!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back for more!

JET JDP-15B Benchtop Drill Press – Heavy Duty Tools in a Small Shop

I have a small workshop. Well, it seems kind of small to me anyway. It’s a 2-car garage with a washer and a dryer taking up valuable floor space, and also a water heater over in the corner…yes, taking up more valuable floor space. I understand that a lot of people are working in a much smaller shop than me and I’ve got to commend them for their organization! Every time I see somebody working out of a 1-car garage or maybe something even smaller, I’m always amazed at how well they have things organized.

Anyway, this isn’t a blog post about shop organization. It’s a blog post about my newest addition to the shop, the JET JDP-15B benchtop drill press, woohoo!!! This big beautiful beast is a welcome addition, and it’s replacing my old, much smaller Ryobi drill press:

I knew this thing was going to be bigger than my old one, but it didn’t hit me just how much bigger until I pulled the parts out of the box and started assembling it. Assembly of the new drill press was super easy, and if I wasn’t filming it for my YouTube channel (see the individual link below) I probably would’ve been done assembling it in about 20-30 minutes. There are also a couple parts of the assembly where two people are recommended but you may be able to get away with it by yourself depending on whether or not you ate your Wheaties that day.

There are a few points to go over here, but I want to make sure you check out the video too. I’m very happy with how the video came out and I’ve already had a lot of viewers tell me how helpful it was for them when making their drill press decision. I had my wife help me by being my camera operator for most of it and she did a great job. She’s hired, haha! Here’s a link to view the finished video of the unboxing, assembly and some testing of the JET JDP-15B drill press:

Here are some key features to point out about the JET JDP-15B drill press.

MOTOR:

The JET JDP-15B drill press has a 3/4 horsepower motor in it, which is super nice compared to the little 1/4 horsepower motor in my old Ryobi drill press. Somebody on Instagram asked me why a more powerful motor matters if all this is supposed to do is drill holes. Well, a more powerful motor is going to help when you need to hog out larger amounts of material. For instance, say you’re using a large diameter forstner bit. First you’ll change your pulley speed accordingly, but since you’ll be running that large bit at a slower speed you’ll want the power to push through the material. On the Ryobi, I’d run into issues with the bit getting stuck because it couldn’t get through the material. The motor just didn’t have the strength to do the job easily. Now with the extra power of the JET, it’s not a problem.

PULLEYS + SPEEDS

The pulleys and belts are set up beautifully, and are pretty simple to change and adjust. The tensioning knob is such a great improvement over my old drill press and is really easy to lock it just right. With 16 speeds (210 rpm – 3500 rpm) on the JET model, there are a lot more options to make sure you’re properly set up for a wide range of materials and bit sizes.

CHUCK

A big beefy chuck accepts bits up to 5/8″ shank size and includes a spring-loaded chuck key. From what somebody was telling me, you can get different chucks if you so desire. I don’t really know why you’d need to unless for some reason this one broke, but so far so good and I doubt I’ll ever need to put a different chuck in here.

SPINDLE TRAVEL

Another huge improvement over my old drill press is the spindle travel. The JDP-15B has 3-1/8″ of spindle travel. When I’m turning the handle it’s like it never stops, haha! My old Ryobi only had just a hair over 2-1/4″ of travel, so this is a big difference!

DEPTH STOP

The depth stop on the JET JDP-15B is different than what I’ve seen on most drill presses. Usually I see a threaded post with 2 nuts on it, and you turn the two nuts together until they’re tight, and that’s how you lock your depth. With this model, there’s no threaded post and no nuts to tighten together. Instead, there’s a ring on the same side as the handle, and a knob on the handle and setting/locking the depth is pretty easy once you understand how to do it and I explain how it’s done in my video. I recommend you give it a watch 🙂

LIGHT + LASERS

The light is a nice bright LED and the laser is your standard laser crosshair. If the laser should ever work it’s way out of alignment, it’s really easy to adjust. Mine wasn’t quite perfect out of the box, but by simply (and carefully) turning the lasers with some pliers I was dead center in about 10 seconds.

DRILL PRESS TABLE

I LOVE this table. It’s solid cast iron of course, but the feature that I really like are the slots on the table. These slots are perfect for t-slot hold down clamps, but the shape of the slots also allows me to use my Festool quick clamps and I can seriously secure my workpiece to the table using these. I can also use my existing drill press fence in these slots. On my old drill press I had to build an add-on table and install t-track on it in order to be able to use any hold down clamps or the fence itself. Having the track built into the table now means I don’t have to add another shop project to my to-do list! Thank you JET for including this feature! Additionally, when I built my drill press table for the Ryobi, it interfered with the crank handle used for raising and lowering the table. So I had removed the handle and was raising and lowering the table in a very uncomfortable and annoying way. I do NOT have this problem with the JET drill press. Everything is smooth sailing!

NOISE + VIBRATION

It took me a few trips to and from the drill press before I realized something very nice. After using it a few times I had to stop and say to myself “something else is different” but I couldn’t put my finger on it at first. Then I realized when I turned on the JET JDP-15B drill press, and as I’m holding my workpiece on the table, I could barely even feel the motor kick on. It was THAT smooth! There’s virtually no vibration on the table, and the motor runs much much more quietly than the Ryobi. That thing sounds like a small tank is rumbling through the garage, but the JET is nice and smooth.

It probably goes without saying but I’m really happy to have this tool in my shop. As I progress and improve the quality of my builds and projects, I’m trying to progress and improve the quality of my tools as well. I think the JET JDP-15B drill press is one of those “lifetime tools”. If I ever move into a bigger shop and am able to have more space it would be cool to add it’s big brother, the JET JDP-17 (floor standing model) into the mix. Hey, I can dream, can’t I? 🙂

I hope you found this article to be helpful, and I hope you’ll check out my video too, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel if you’re not already a subscriber.
I hope you’ll also check out the Stuff Seth Makes Amazon Storefront if you’re looking for any of the tools I use in the shop or any of the products I’ve used on other projects.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, and any earnings I make through the following links help me to be able to continue creating more videos. I appreciate you all purchasing stuff via my links!