by Lew Larason
When Terry Beitl was 16 years old he helped build houses. After his graduation from high school, he attended college, from which he graduated with a teaching degree. However, because he was unable to find a teaching job, he started working in the home improvement business to make a living. That was in 1976. As an accomplished woodworker he’s been in that field since.
Terry is a fine cabinetmaker. Between his talent and his joy of teaching, he has taught cabinetmaking classes. “I taught five weeks of learning followed by five weeks of doing. No one ever had an injury.” He has crafted accurate reproductions of Chippendale, Queen Anne and other period furniture. With his close attention to detail, he has created some fine examples of classic furniture. He applies that same attitude toward all of his woodworking. Therefore, he presently is creating wainscoting and crown moldings with the same attention to detail as he does his furniture.
Terry’s workshop is on the second floor of a Pennsylvania bank barn located in central Bucks County. The space is open and airy. It gives him a lot of room and has a well worn, comfortable wood floor. Among his power tools are an 8-inch jointer with a long bed, a 10-inch table saw with a lot of extensions so he can handle large pieces of wood, an 18-inch thickness planer and a 13-inch open-end sander. With the open end, he can run a wide piece of wood through the sander, then turn it and run it through again. This way, he can sand a panel up to 24 inches wide.
Terry has all of the standard small hand tools such as planes, chisels, mallet, hand saws and so on. He also has a drill press, a band saw and a special tool: a five horsepower, five speed, 1 ¼-inch spindle power feed shaper. This is an essential tool for creating the moldings he designs. The shaper can cut crown molding up to 5 inches wide, as well as any of the narrower moldings he wants to make. Since he has a good supply of shaper cutters, he can handle most designs. However, if he needs something he doesn’t have, he has a new cutter made. Then he has it in stock to use again in the future.
When Terry needs crown molding wider than 5-inches, he uses Fapon. This is a specially fabricated material that he can purchase. It is available in several sizes and is pre-sealed with a primer for painting. In addition, it can be cut like wood.
Another tool that he finds indispensable is his electric miter saw. This is used for cutting 45-degree joints when fitting such things as crown moldings. The tool is mounted on two 10-inch diameter pneumatic tire wheels that allow him to take it up standard 8-inch stairs easily. This is necessary when he is adding wainscoting and crown moldings on a second or third floor. Although it’s easily moved and compact, it opens to workbench height and has extensions on both sides that can be used to rest long pieces of molding for stability. He commented, “This tool sure beats the old miter box and back saw.”
A few years ago, Terry designed and patented a special tool, the Dovetail Master. It is an implement that works like a morticing machine, but cuts dovetails instead of square holes. This labor saving tool cuts dovetails faster and easier than can be done by hand or by the standard router dovetailing. The end results look better than the router cuts. Both home and commercial woodworkers will find this tool an improvement and easy to use. For more information and details about the “Dovetail Master”, check out Terry’s website www.TJBcabinetry.com.
To finish reading about Terry Beitl go to page 51 of our Fall 2012 issue.