Makerspace Days
Faith’s membership at New Haven’s Makerspace, MakeHaven, is crucial for what we do.
I would classify most of our tools as “above average hobbyist” level - a DeWalt table saw and planer, a Rigid compound miter saw, and two Bosch routers: one full-size with a plunge base, which we mainly use in a router table setup, and one palm-size. Plus a bevy of various other Makita, DeWalt, and Milwaukee drills, angle grinders, jigsaws, circular saws, Dremels, and whatnot. Two of our benchtop tools, made by the Cleveland-based company Wen, are of lesser quality, but they serve their purposes. The Wen band saw is extremely limited, but suitable for a few specific tasks. The Wen oscillating belt and spindle sander turned out to be an inexpensive game changer. We love that machine.
What we don’t have:
A jointer is a crucial first step for milling raw lumber. At a minimum, you need two clean, square surfaces on a board to turn it into usable pieces for projects. The issue is that, for reasons I won’t bore you with, raw lumber is often bowed or cupped, and what table saws and planers do is provide a facsimile of those bows and cups when you try to rip or plane them. You need to start with two perfectly flat surfaces that are at a 90-degree angle to each other, and you can’t easily do that with just a table saw and planer. It’s technically possible with what we call jigs, but that’s another post. The point is, you need a jointer to go from raw lumber to woodworking accuracy, and good jointers are expensive.
MakeHaven has the jointer of all jointers. There’s a popular upscale power tool company today called Powermatic. You see their recognizable gold-colored planers and jointers in all the fanciest YouTube woodworker videos. Powermatic is the contemporary iteration of the erstwhile manufacturer of the colossal, industrial-strength, semi-Art Deco-style 16-inch planer at MakeHaven, whose behemoth base reads “L Power & Co, Phila, PA.” How they hoisted and navigated this massive, beautiful piece of machinery into the basement of 770 Chapel Street is a fabulous mystery to me. But there it is.
It’s hard to describe the exact variety of fabulousness of a machine like this. Acquiring our DeWalt planer for the barn opened up entirely new doors for us. But it screams and whines like an infuriated infant when we run wide stock through it, sometimes throwing temper tantrums. The beautiful irony of the L. Power & Co. super-jointer is that it’s so big and powerful that it makes cleaning up the hugest hunks of raw lumber feel like a gentle caress.
Makehaven’s planer is no schlub, either. No whining or temper tantrums. It’s more like, “Thank you for allowing me to help you today, and best of luck with your promising project.”
We primarily purchase raw lumber because it’s less expensive and because we’re always on the lookout for interesting wood. MakeHaven is a vital asset for us when it comes to preparing the wood for project-level milling.
Plus, they provide educational resources. Faith has earned “badges” in laser etching, CNC, and all the other woodworking tools. See our “Event Coasters” listing for an example of how that worked out for us. There’s so much more than that. Faith has used MakeHaven for making pottery, sewing, linographs, and a bunch of other stuff. We buy lumber from there, borrow tools from their tool library, and marvel at all the cool things other makers are making.
Makerspaces are cool. If your community doesn’t have one, start one. We couldn’t do what we do without it. If you’re a small craft business or want to support them, support a local makerspace.
