Flair Woodworks

Find me at Ultimate Tools this Thursday to learn all about Suction Controller, plus lots of other amazing top-tier tools at their annual Oktober Tool Fest event which is one of the biggest woodworking events in the Lower Mainland.

Other reps will be there to demonstrate and educate you on tools from Mafell, Lamello, Mirka, Sia and Robbox. There will also be lots in-store deals you won’t find anywhere else.

Where: Ultimate Tools, 3847 1st Avenue, Burnaby, BC
When: Thursday October 22, 10 AM to 3 PM

I’ve been quietly working on a bunch of cribbage boards this year, including a complete custom board with the longest list of requirements I’ve seen that took about 6 weeks to design. If you have an idea for a custom cribbage board, let me know!

This weekend, I put the finishing touches on a batch of 7 live-edge cribbage boards including one of the curviest boards I’ve ever made and a couple of the largest I’ve made.

My process of making cribbage boards starts with me standing over a downed tree (fallen by a storm or removed for some reason – never cut down for the wood) and deciding where I can get the most interesting cribbage boards. I cut the tree into lengths and bring them back to my shop for processing. I resaw the small logs into boards with my bandsaw and let them air dry for usually two years or more. Once dry, I plane them, giving me the first true look at the actual surface of the cribbage board. Then I lay out the hole patterns, carefully following the live edge and drill the holes. I prefer to layout three tracks, but sometimes there is room for only two. I have also been asked to make the odd board with four tracks. If there is room, I add a scoreboard.

I like making use of crotches where a branch… um… branches out from the main part of the board. The branch makes the shape much more visually interesting and provides some different design options. And, if the board is not too wide, it fits in my standard cribbage board shipping boxes. Here’s an example – Cribbage Board #68 from my latest batch.

Here’s another crotch piece with some really neat figure that I used for Cribbage Board #70. The part of the wood that continued straight was quite narrow, so if the track went down that section, it would require a tight hairpin to get back out. I usually try to avoid sharp corners as it makes the alignment between the tracks look odd. So, for this one, I chose to place the scoring field there instead.

Usually when I cut a log into cribbage boards, I get 2-4 from the same section of log, depending on how thick the log is and what defects are present. I got two boards out of this section and Cribbage Board #69 is the other product. You can tell by the shape, colouring and grain that these two boards came from the same section of log. But they are not identical in shape. You can see that both legs are nice and wide, with lots of room to make sweeping corners. But, the heart of the tree shows in this board as dark lines that I didn’t wish to cross. So, instead, I ran the track around three sides of the board and placed the scoreboard opposite the end of the track.

Head on over to my Cribbage Boards page to see everything from this batch, and other available cribbage boards. Each one comes with high-quality metal pegs made in the USA from copper, stainless steel, and black steel. As always, they ship free across Canada and USA.

I want to address a few of the most commonly asked questions I hear about Suction Controller. If you have others, please ask away in the comments section at the bottom.

Q: Can suction be directed to both hoses, or is it either one or the other?

A: Suction Controller allows full control over how suction is directed to the two ports. The ratio of suction going to each side can be set at any level – just slide it left or right to reduce or increase suction as required. It’s perfect for fine-tuning the suction going to sanders, as too much can cause pigtails and make the tool difficult to control. Or, if supplying suction to two sanders, send 65% to the 6 inch sander and 35% to the detail sander. If feeding suction to the top and bottom of a router, you can use the Suction Controller to direct suction where it’s needed – 70% to the fence’s port and 30% to the top.

Further, Suction Controller can be used with one hose or two. With two hoses, it allows effortless switching between two tools (e.g. mitre saw and sander). With one hose, you can dump excess suction out the empty port so you have just the right amount of suction going to your sander to prevent those pigtails, or suck up all the dust and wood chips off your bench without getting the heavier nuts, bolts, and screws.

Q: How is Suction Controller different from Festool’s Y-Adapter (452898)

Festool’s Y-Adapter is designed to allow you to connect two hoss to a dust extractor. The long neck provides the necessary clearance for it to work with their compact CT MINI, CT MIDI, and CT15 dust extractors which have ports inside the hose garage. However, that long neck makes it stick out a lot from the front of any other dust extractor, including their CT SYS, CTC SYS, CT 26, 36, and 48 models. Made of a single piece of antistatic plastic, it is not adjustable in any way.

Suction Controller, on the other hand, is very compact and protrudes minimally from the front of a dust extractor or workshop vacuum. It is fully adjustable, as mentioned in the previous answer, and is available in either antistatic (CT-Switcher-D or regular (VAC-Switcher-D) models.

Q: My dust extractor already has a variable suction control. Why do I need this?

Many of the better dust extractors do have adjustable suction levels, but sometimes they are stepped and usually they do not go low enough for all situations. Two examples are hand sanding blocks, which require very little suction and with too much “stick” to the workpiece, making sanding difficult; and vacuuming up lighter materials like wood dust and chips and leaving behind heavier items like metal fasteners.

Further, most workshop vacuums don’t offer adjustable suction, and Suction Controller provides a simple and affordable way to add this useful feature to any dust extractor.

Learn more about Suction Controller on Instagram!