Diary of a Woodworker

Ripping Thin Strips of Wood on the Table Saw

2012-07-11T20:29:00.001-06:00

At some point, we all need to rip a thin strip of wood for some project. Maybe you want to make some edge banding for a plywood shelf? Perhaps you need a runner for a drawer or jig? Whatever the project, there are a few tools and techniques to consider in order to cut thin strips safely on the table saw.

A Splitter Prevents Kickback

Of all the safety tips, one of the most important is to make sure you have your splitter or riving knife installed. A thin strip of wood is much more likely to bend or flap around as it comes off the blade. A splitter or riving knife will keep that strip from connecting with the back side of the blade and kicking the board back at you.

Use a Zero-Clearance Insert

When ripping really thin strips, there is a danger that they could fall down the gap between the blade and the table saw throat plate. Not only would this ruin the piece, but it creates the potential for kickback. In this case, make sure to make and install a zero-clearance insert for your table saw. This is a handy accessory to have for a variety of tasks, so it's worth taking the time to make one now.

Wider Strips Can Use the Fence

If the pieces you need to rip are not too thin, you can do so using the table saw's rip fence, as usual. Just set the fence to the width of the strip you want to rip and run the piece through. As you get to the end of the board, make sure to have a push stick ready. If your splitter has anti-kickback pawls or some kind of guard, you'll need a push stick that is long enough to push the piece past the back of the blade while still keeping your fingers well away from danger.

Use a Jig For Very Narrow Strips

It may be that you cannot move the fence close enough to the blade to get the thickness you want. The anti-kickback pawls might be in the way, you don't want to risk damaging the fence, or it's not possible to make a push block thin enough to control the strip as it goes past the blade. In these situations, it makes sense to build a ripping jig.

A thin ripping jig consists of two pieces: a short runner that rides in the left miter slot and a wider flatter piece with a slot cut in it and a point on the blade end. The slot allows the jig to move left and right, adjusting the width of the cut. The idea of a ripping jig is that the thin strip is cut on the left side of the blade. The majority of the board is between the fence and blade, where it is easy to control and the cut-off falls harmlessly away on the left.

For the jig to work, start with a board that has has parallel edges. So, first, prepare the board as usual. With that done, place the jig in the miter slot and adjust the distance between the blade and jig to the desired thickness of the cut. Slide the jig back so that it's in front of the blade. Now, place the board on the table with one edge against the jig and slide the fence up against the other edge and lock the fence in place. Remove the jig and run the board through the saw. Re-install the jig and repeat the process: board against jig, fence against board, remove jig and cut.

An Alternative: The Band Saw

If you don't have a table saw or you don't feel comfortable ripping thin strips at the table saw, the band saw is a viable alternative. Using the band saw can even have a few advantages. First, it doesn't have the kickback potential of the table saw. Second, stock can be pushed or pulled through the blade safely, reducing the need for push sticks. Finally, because the blade is quite a bit thinner than that of the table saw, there's lest waste, allowing more strips to be cut from a single board.

The main downside to using the band saw is that the final cut tends to be a bit rougher than that of the table saw. To account for this, cut your strips a bit wider than you need and run them through the thickness planer. This not only cleans up the rough edge, it also ensures the pieces are a consistent thickness. If you're cutting a lot of strips, joint both edges of the board, cut a strip off each edge and the re-joint each edge with the jointer set at about 1/64 inch depth of cut.

With these tips, it is possible to rip thin strips safely and consistently. What do you do to cut thin strips for your projects?

Pushsticks, Pushshoes and Pushblocks

2011-09-29T20:18:00.000-06:00

I like to keep my fingers firmly attached. So when I'm using power tools, I often reach for some kind of push stick or block that will keep my hands well away from the spinning bit or blade. There are several varieties of push sticks commonly used with power tools. Today I'll discuss the most useful as well as how to make them yourself.

Push sticks should be considered a disposable item. While I don't go out of my way to run them through the sawblade, they do get chewed up over time. So while you can buy push sticks—and I own a few—you can save money and easily make them yourself from scrap you probably have laying around the shop.

Push Stick

A push stick is, as the name suggests, a stick that you push some wood with. It is usually about 12 inches long and has a notch cut in one end which hooks on to the corner of a board.

Push sticks are mainly useful at the table saw, such as when you're ripping thin pieces. The push stick lets you push the thin strip past the blade when the gap is too narrow for your fingers to fit safely.

While push sticks come in handy from time to time, I don't like them as well as other pushing devices. By the nature of their design, they only grab a very small area at the end of the board, providing little control other than to push the board forward. As a result, I only like using push sticks in combination with other safety devices such as featherboards.

Making a push stick couldn't be easier. Start with a piece of solid wood or plywood about 12 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch thick. Though if you are ripping thinner strips, you could use 1/4 inch plywood or hardboard. Trace a curve or sand down the corners of one end for a handle so that it's comfortable in your hand. On the other end, cut a 90 degree notch that is about 45 degrees to the end, making a "V" in the end of the push stick. Drill a hole in the stick to hang it and you're done!

Push Shoe

While a push stick is useful to have, I find that I use a push "shoe" much more often than a push stick. The push shoe is much better at controlling the wood as you push it past the bit or blade. As the name implies, this is a push stick that looks a bit like a shoe. Typically 8 to 12 inches long, the push shoe has a short "heel" at the back. This heel at the end hooks over the end of the board while the majority of the shoe sits on top of the stock. This allows you to hold the wood down while you are pushing it through the machine. A push shoe also provids some measure of lateral control, helping to keep the work against the fence.

Some push shoes, especially commercial versions, tend to have a "V" groove along the length of the bottom. This allows the shoe to fit over the corner of a board allowing you to push down and sideways at the same time as you push the board through the machine. I find this especially useful at the router table or when edge jointing smaller pieces with the jointer. In both cases, you typically need to hold the stock firmly against the fence and the table at the same time. Having a groove in the bottom of the push shoe provides this control while keeping your fingers clear of the spinning blade.

To make a push shoe, start with a blank that is about 8 to 12 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide. Cut a long notch one of the long sides 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, leaving a "heel" portion about 2 inches wide. You want the heel to be short enough that it won't drag on the machine table as you push the wood through. Round over the corners on the top side of the push shoe. If you want, cut a nice profile on the top of the push shoe. Cutting the push shoe in a "D" shape is common, though not necessary.

Push Blocks

A push block is a variation of a push "shoe". It is typically wider (3 to 6 inches) and may or may not have the hook at the end. Pushblocks typically have some kind of rubber or other grippy surface (e.g. sandpaper) to keep the block from slipping as you push the wood through the tool. This is especially true if the block does not have a hook at the end. Push blocks are typically used at the jointer when face jointing, but they are also useful when working with wider boards at the router table or when cutting dados at the table saw.

Sometimes push blocks will have a hook on the edge, allowing you to catch the end of a board when pushing it through the tool. This can be useful at the jointer. I typically use the two different styles of block when face jointing. The front block allows me to hold the work down and pushes using friction alone. The rear push block has a hook on the end to make it easier to push the wood over the cutterhead.

A push block starts with a piece of wood about 4 inches wide, 6 inches long and 1 to 2 inches thick. A cutoff from a 2 by 4 makes a good blank for a push block. Drill a hole in the block and glue in a dowel to use as a handle. If you like, you can angle the hole to provide a more comfortable grip on the handle. To add a hook on the end, cut a piece of hardboard or plywood about the same size as the end of the block. Drill a couple of holes and screw it to the end of the block. If you make the holes oversize or make them slots instead, you will be able to push the hook up and use the block with or without the hook. To finish off the block, glue a piece of sandpaper or some kind of rubber material (old mouse pads work well) to the bottom of the block.

These are the push blocks that I use around my shop. Hopefully this will help you make your own and keep your hands and fingers out of harms way! Is there a style of push block that you like to use?

Whirlwind as a Potential SawStop Competitor

2011-02-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Look out SawStop, you've got some competition on the way! A woodworker and inventor by the name of David Butler recently launched a website to demonstrate his new table saw safety device, the Whirlwind, in order to convince one or more manufacturers to incorporate the device into their saws. The Whirlwind is a flesh-sensing technology built into the blade guard which shuts off the saw within one-eighth of a second, well before the your hand can come in contact with the blade.

The technology is still patent-pending (though they expect the patent to be issued soon) and there is not a product available to buy yet. Therefore, details are still somewhat sketchy about how the Whirlwind works. However, after watching the various videos on the Whirlwind website, it appears that the idea is to incorporate sensors into the blade guard. If your hand strays too close to the blade, the system shuts down the saw and stops the blade before you have a chance to contact the blade.

The Whirlwind website points out a few benefits of this new technology:

The blade is not damaged when the safety mechanism is triggered, allowing you to continue working right away.
Supports saws with a standard American splitter as well as those with a European-style riving knife.
Integrated dust collection.

However, there appear to be a few downsides to this technology that I can see:

Because the technology is built into the blade guard, there will be times when you aren't protected by the system. Some examples include: using a tenoning jig, cutting box joints, or any operation involving a non-through cut on a large or tall item (Though there is a solution for things like dados).
The blade doesn't stop immediately. The high speed video shows the blade rotate about 4 times before coming to a stop. If someone were pushing something through the saw quickly, it seems to me that there is still the potential (albeit a much smaller chance) for injury.

Some have grumbled about the tactics SawStop has used to try and get its technology adopted my other manufacturers. Having a competing technology emerge, such as the Whirlwind, should be welcome news to SawStop's critics. Even if you are not interested in the politics surrounding the SawStop, having an alternative should help bring the price down for everyone.

It will be interesting to see if any manufacturers pick up this technology and incorporate it into their saws. I'm looking forward to what other ideas will appear in the future to improve the safety of table saws.

So what do you think of the Whirlwind? Do you think it's a viable alternative to the SawStop?

Laser Guided Hand Saw. Really?

2011-01-17T08:31:00.002-07:00

Lasers are all the rage these days for woodworking tools. From miter saws to drill presses to levels, manufacturers have been adding lasers to all kinds of tools. Now, here's the latest: a laser guided hand saw.

Yes, I'm quite serious. Sears is now selling a laser guided hand saw. A laser line is projected from the saw handle on to the wood to show where the saw will cut.

Great! Now I know where the saw will cut! It doesn't matter that the saw is resting on my layout line! Do people really have that much trouble lining up their hand saw with a line on the board that they have to have a fricken laser beam on their saw?

A laser line for a hand saw doesn't even guarantee a square cut, as it might on a miter saw. With a miter saw, you can make a tick mark where you want to cut, line up the laser, and be quite sure that the cut will be square (or whatever angle you set the saw to). With a hand saw, you still have to draw a layout line across the board and follow it in order to get a square cut.

Now I'm not saying lasers don't have their place in woodworking. As I aluded to before, I can definitely see the value of using a laser to line up a drill bit or miter saw blade with a mark (though I, personally, don't have any tools with this feature...yet). Once the tool hits the wood, it better be spot on, as there's no going back. With a hand saw, the process is slower and it is easier to correct a mis-aligned cut as you go.

Maybe I'm becoming old fashioned, but a laser guided hand saw falls firmly in the "gimmick" camp for me. What do you think? Have you used this saw? Did you find the laser helpful?

Delta Machinery Sold to Taiwanese Company

2011-01-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Popular Woodworking Magazine is reporting that Delta Machinery, owned by Stanley Black & Decker, is being sold to the Taiwanese company, TOTY. As part of the sale, the company is being renamed to Delta Power Equipment.

If you've been doing woodworking for any period of time, you've likely heard of Delta Machinery. Founded in 1919, Delta has been producing woodworking equipment for over 90 years. Many people probably know the company as one of the main sponsors of The New Yankee Workshop, where their popular Unisaw was at the center of the workshop and used in most every episode.

While nothing will likely change in the short term, I look forward to seeing what this means for the company in the future.

What do you think of the sale of Delta?

How to Avoid Tear-Out

2011-01-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

Have you ever made a cross-cut on your table saw only to have it splinter? Or perhaps you're putting the final edge on a table top and a chunk breaks away on the final pass? Knowing when tear-out can occur is the first step in understanding how to control it. In this post I'll discuss some of the strategies you can use to avoid this problem in the future.

Tear-out typically occurs when cutting across the grain (e.g. crosscuts, dados, drilling holes, etc.). When the blade or bit exits the board, it can cause some of the wood fibers, which are all lined up in the same direction, to tear away. We can use this knowledge to avoid the tear-out in the first place.

Sharp Tools

The easiest remedy for tear-out is to make sure that your tools are nice and sharp. A sharp tool is much more likely to cut a wood fiber than try to push it out of the way. Think of what would happen if you were to hit a piece of grass with a sword versus a baseball bat. Obviously, the sharp sword will cut the grass, whereas the bat will just knock it out of the way.

Backing Board

In our analogy of cutting the piece of grass, even the sharp sword is likely to bend the piece of grass before the cut is complete, possibly breaking it in an unexpected place. However, if you put the piece of grass on a cutting board, the strand is supported while you make the cut.

In much the same way, a backing board of some kind provides support to the wood fibers as the bit or blade exits the wood, allowing the fibers to be cut cleanly. How this support is provided depends on the tool being used.

Table Saw

On a table saw, the blade cuts down and towards you as you move the wood through the blade. This means that support is needed on the surface of the table and along the trailing edge of the board.

To support the wood as the blade exits the bottom of the board, use a zero clearance throat plate. You can buy these, ready-made for your saw, or make your own out of some scrap plywood. As the name suggests, the first time you use the insert, you raise the blade through the insert, creating a slot that is exactly with width of the blade. When wood is passed over the blade, the fibers are now supported by the throat insert as the blade exits the bottom of the board.

As the blade exits the trailing edge of the board, support is provided by adding a sacrificial fence to your miter gauge. This is nothing more than a piece of scrap wood or plywood, taller than the height of the blade, that is screwed or clamped to the miter gauge. As the cut is made, a slot is made in the backer board, allowing the blade to pass through but providing support to the wood fibers on either side of the cut.

A panel cutting jig, combines these strategies into one unit. The base of the jig provides support similar to the zero-clearance insert and the rear fence of the jig provides the same support as a sacrificial fence attached to your miter gauge.

Miter Saw

A miter saw is similar to a table saw, but in reverse. The blade exits the wood along the table and the fence. The strategies are almost identical to that of the table saw.

To support the wood along the table, make a custom throat plate for your miter saw. Alternately, place a piece of 1/8 or 1/4 inch hardboard or plywood on the table of the miter saw.

To support the wood along the fence, add an auxiliary fence. Again, 1/8 or 1/4 inch hardboard or plywood is a good choice here. Use something cheap since you will likely be replacing it on a fairly regular basis.

Router

When using a router, the forces applied to the wood are only in one direction: perpendicular to the axis of the bit. This means that tear-out can occur in two ways when using a router. When routing along the long edge of a board, tear-out can occur every time the cutter exits the edge of the board. When cutting perpendicular to the grain, tear-out occurs as the bit reaches the edge of the board.

If you are using a router table, tear-out that occurs when routing along the grain can be controlled by adding a zero-clearance insert to your fence. The bit is then raised into the insert or the fence is rotated into the bit, creating an opening that exactly matches the profile of the bit. This provides the support needed to keep the wood fibers from breaking and tearing away from the board.

When routing across the grain, support is provided by adding a scrap to the point where the bit will exit the board. On a router table, this takes the form of a push block. The block is used to push the board through the bit, but it also provides the same support provided by the sacrificial miter gauge fence on your table saw. For hand-held routing, the support is provided by clamping a piece of scrap to the board where the bit will exit the cut.

Drilling

Whether you're using a drill press or a hand held drill, the strategy for controlling tear-out is the same, place a piece of scrap against the board where the bit will exit the wood. On a drill press, this can mean a replaceable insert or just a scrap piece of wood under the work. For a hand held drill, this might mean clamping a scrap under the board on your bench (which also protects your bench).

Order of Operations

Sometimes, the order you make your cuts makes it irrelevant whether you get tear-out or not. If you order your operations correctly, any tear-out that does occur will be removed by a subsequent operation.

For example, imagine you're making a raised panel or putting a profile on all four sides of a table top with your router. If you make the cross-grain cuts first, any tear-out that occurs will be removed when you cut the profile on the long grain sides.

If you are cutting dados across the grain, you might make the board extra wide. Any tear-out that occurs while milling the dados will be removed when you rip the board to it's final width.

Plywood

The veneer on plywood is usually quite thin and very prone to tear-out. While this can often be dealt with using the same measures as for solid wood, there are some additional strategies to keep in mind when working with plywood and other sheet goods.

Sharp Tools: I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: Use a sharp blade or bit. This is especially important with plywood and other sheet goods. The veneer has very little support and will tear or chip easily if the blade or bit is not sharp.
Lots of Teeth: The more teeth a blade has, the less likely it is to chip or splinter the plywood veneer. Manufacturers even make blades specifically for cutting plywood. It is not unreasonable for a table saw plywood blade to have upwards of 100(?) teeth or more!
Scoring: If all of the other methods discussed here still don't prevent the tear-out, it is sometimes useful to make a scoring cut with before making the real cut. To do this on the table saw, raise the blade only 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch above the table and make one pass, cutting a shallow dado in the plywood. Then raise the blade to the normal height and make another pass.; Some high end table saws include the option of adding a scoring blade, which allows you to make the scoring cut and regular cut in one pass. This is a special blade that is really two saw blades, one in front of the other. The leading blade scores the plywood while the rear blade makes the cut as usual

Tear out is a normal part of woodworking, but if you anticipate when it might occur, you can control and avoid it. What strategies do you use to avoid tear-out?

6 Basic Woodworking Power Tools

2010-12-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

With so many different power tools available, it can seem overwhelming to know what tools you really need when setting up your first shop. Here, I will discuss some of the essential power tools you will want in your shop. Power tools can be expensive, so I'll discuss these in order of importance and some ideas on how to get by until you're able to afford the next tool on your list.

Table Saw

If I had to pick only one power tool to have in my shop, it would have to be a table saw. With a few exceptions, there is very little that cannot be done with a table saw. There are the usual operations you might think of: ripping, cross cutting a mitering boards. The table saw can also be used to cut a variety of joints such as dados, rabbets, and tenons. In a pinch, the table saw can edge joint boards. With a moulding head cutter, you can even cut edge profiles (e.g. quarter rounds, beads, ogees, etc.)

Because the table saw is such an central fixture to most woodworking shops, I'd suggest getting the best table saw you can afford, new or used.

Router

Almost as important as the table saw, the router is one of the most versatile tools you can have in your shop. Used hand-held or in a router table, the list of tasks a router can perform is nearly endless. While you might normally think that a router is mainly used for putting edge treatments on a board (quarter rounds, ogees, etc.), the router is equally capable of cutting mortises, tenons, rabbets, dados, dovetails and just about any other joint you can think of. The router can even be used to surface plane a board or joint an edge, if you don't have a planer or jointer.

Planer

If you've ever tried to thickness a board by hand, a power planer will quickly come to the top of your wish list of power tools for your shop. The planer does one thing and does it very well: make one face of a board parallel with the other.

Ideally, you would like to have a jointer and a planer. However, if you can only afford one, I'd suggest a planer. I find that using hand planes to make the face of a board flat is much easier than making it a consistent thickness. Alternately, it is possible to make a carrier sled with wedges, allowing you to use the planer as a make-shift jointer as well.

Jointer

The first step in preparing wood for use is to get one face of a board flat. This is the job of the power jointer. While it is certainly possible to do this with a hand plane, something I did for many years, the power jointer makes the job go much faster and accurately.

When selecting a jointer, try to get the widest bed you can. Of course, as the width of the bed goes up, so does the price.

Another alternative is to look at one of the European combination machines. These machines may be configured to work as a jointer or a planer, simply by adjusting the position of the tables. While pricey, these machines have the advantage in that your planer is the same width as your jointer. In addition, they don't take up as much floor space in your shop.

Jigsaw

There will likely be a time when you will want to cut some curved parts. Or, perhaps, you need to cut an opening into the middle of a board. In these cases, a jigsaw comes in handy.

Jigsaws are available with two different grips: barrel grip and top handle. Which you choose is really just a matter of personal preference. I tend to favor the barrel grip as I feel it has a lower center of gravity and gives me better control.

Cordless Drill

Whether you are drilling pilot holes for screws, through holes for bolts or dowels, or an access hole to start your jigsaw in, a cordless drill is used in almost every project I build.

Add a jig and you can drill holes for dowel joints. Another jig lets you cut the slanted holes necessary for pocket hole joinery. The number of things you can use a cordless drill for is endless. In fact, you'll probably want more than one. Otherwise, it will tend to migrate into the house whenever you need to hang a picture frame!

That's my list of top power tools. What's on your essential power tool list?

Adjust a Table Saw Fence Using a Dial Caliper

2010-11-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today I found a new use for my dial calipers that I thought I'd share.

I'm in the process of making several drawers for some built in cabinets in my shop. The bottom of the drawers will be 1/4 inch plywood. Of course, 1/4 inch plywood is not really 1/4 inch. It's more like 3/16 inch.

I couldn't use my stacked dado set to cut the grooves in the drawer sides, since there is no way to make it narrower than 1/4 inch. Instead I made two passes on my table saw using my combination blade.

The first pass was easy. I simply set the rip fence to the distance between the bottom of the drawer and the bottom of the dado, set the height of the blade to 1/4 inch (half the thickness of my drawer slides) and made a pass to cut a 1/8 inch groove.

To make the next pass, I could have slid the fence over, made a test cut, adjust the fence, make another test cut and so on until the width of the dado was correct. Instead, I used my dial calipers to move the fence once and end up with a dado the perfect width.

I started by measuring the thickness of the plywood with the dial calipers. In this case, it measured 0.187 inches thick, give or take a thousandth or two. Then I placed the end of the dial calipers against my table saw fence and slid the movable head out until the inside of the jaw was against the miter slot. After locking down the head, I zeroed out the dial. I then opened the dial calipers an additional amount equal to the difference between the plywood thickness and the width of my table saw blade -- 0.062 inches in this case.

Now I could move the table saw fence. I moved the fence to the right, held the jaw of the dial calipers against the miter slot, and then moved the fence until it just touched the end of the dial calipers. A test cut confirms the fence setting and I was ready for the second pass to make my dado.

So the next time you need to adjust one of your tools, think about using your dial calipers, it just may help you adjust things correctly the first time, without a lot of trial and error

Cut Plywood Down To Size By Yourself

2010-11-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Working with plywood brings a set of challenges different than working with solid wood. One such challenge is simply the sheer size of a plywood sheet. Working with a 4x8 sheet of plywood by yourself can be diffult. In this post, I'll cover some of the ways of to break down plywood into more manageable pieces when working solo.

Leave it to the Lumberyard

One of the easiest ways to deal with large plywood sheets is to not deal with large sheets of plywood. Many lumberyards and home centers will, for a small fee, make a few rough cuts for you. The first couple of cuts may even be free. This way you take pieces that are much more manageable to your workshop.

If you have the lumberyard make some large cuts, have a cutting diagram worked out ahead of time. Also, have the cuts on the panel saw made about 1/2 inch to 1 inch oversize. Don't expect the panel saw operator to be able to cut your piece to within 1/64 inch of your final dimension. Cutting pieces oversize also allows you to deal with any tearout and irregularities in the cut at your shop. The blade on the panel saw at the lumberyard may not be the sharpest in the world and will likely leave a rough cut at best.

Circular Saw

If you have a portable circular saw, you can break down plywood into rough pieces using a straight-edge. Some circular saw systems, such as the Festool, are accurate enough that the cuts don't need to be cleaned up on the table saw.

Whether you use a commercial system or a home made straight-edge, the idea is the same: Lay the panel flat on some sawhorses or on a piece of foam on the floor, line up the straight-edge with a couple of marks parallel to the opposite edge, and guide the saw along the straight-edge to make the cut.

After cutting pieces to rough size, you may need to clean up the edge or break it down further on the table saw.

Table Saw

I wouldn't suggest cross cutting a sheet of plywood on the table saw, but it is possible to rip plywood on the table saw by yourself. To do so, it's important that you have a way to support the sheet on both the infeed and out-feed side of the blade. In my shop, I have a large table behind the table saw and I can use my workbench and some roller stands on the infeed side. The main idea is to support the sheet so that you don't have to hold it up in addition to maneuvering it through the saw.

When feeding a sheet of plywood through the table saw, keep an eye on the table saw fence. You want to make sure that you're keeping that edge against the fence. It's very easy for the sheet to rotate away from the fence and ruin your cut.

These are just a few ways to break down a sheet of plywood. What tips and tricks do you have for breaking down plywood into manageable sizes?

Top 3 Router Accessories

2010-10-30T20:11:00.000-06:00

The router is an extremely versitile tool. It can be used to put a profile on an edge, cut slots and rabbets, trim edges and more. With the following accessories, you can make your hand-held router eve more useful.

Edge Guide

When you need to make repeated cuts the same distance from the edge of a board, the edge guide is your friend. Examples include cutting mortises and slots or carving out fluting on columns.

The edge guides attaches to the side of the router, usually via some guide rods that slip into holes in the base of the router made specifically for this purpose. The fence portion then slides along these guide rods to position the router a fixed distance from the edge of the work piece.

Some edge guides are very simple. Just slide the fence where you want it and lock it down. Some edge guides are available with a micro-adjust mechanism, which allows you to dial in the guide fence very precisely simply by turning a knob.

Guide Bushing

A guide bushing is a cylinder that attaches to the bottom of your router, projecting from the bottom and encircling the router bit. The guide bushing rides along a template or jig, allowing you to make cuts that would be impossible to do freehand.

Need to cut a mortise for a hinge? Create a U-shaped template, clamp it to your part and just guide the router inside the "U".

Need to patch a damaged piece of wood or carve out a recess for some inlay? Cut an opening in a scrap piece the shape you need, clamp it to your workpiece and use the router to carve out the wood.

Want to cut dovetails with a router? Chances are, your dovetailing jig requires you to use a guide bushing.

With so many uses for a guide bushing, try to find a good quality set. If the set doesn't come with one, also pick up a centering bit. As it's name implies, a centering bit is used to make sure the guide bushing is centered around the router bit. This is important if more than one point of the bushing will be up against your jig.

Circle Cutting Jig

If you ever need to cut a circle a router equiped with a trammel, or circle cutting jig can be just the tool for the job. Using a router ensures that a perfect circle is cut every time and usually does not require much additional sanding or other cleanup. your router is extremely useful. It produces a perfect circle every time.

The idea is very simple. Attach a replacement baseplate to your router, insert a pin into the base at a distance from the router bit equal to the radius of your circle (taking into account the diameter of the router bit and whether you're cutting a hole or a disc). Place the pin in a corresponding hole in the workpiece and just spin the router around.

These are just a few of the many accessories available for your router, but with just these three, there are very few things you cannot do with a router.

What are your favorite router accessories?

Woodworking Shop Layout Basics

2010-10-04T21:12:00.000-06:00

The way a woodworker's shop is arranged is as personal as the woodworker. However, there tend to be some basic tips to keep in mind when laying out your workshop. This post will explore some of the things to consider when laying out your shop.

Workflow

One of the main things to consider is the flow of materials and parts through your shop. While this is of greater importantance if you're trying to run a business (time is money and all that), its also worth thinking about if you're a hobbiest. Your time in the shop may be limited, so minimizing the time spent moving stuff around and maximizing the time doing stuff can be important.

For example, the first thing most woodworkers do when starting a project is cut lumber to rough size and prepare it for use (face jointing, thickness planing, etc.). For this set of operations, it is useful to put all of the tools used near one another: the jointer, planer, chop saw and table saw.

If you make a lot of frames or other parts where you are mitering pieces together, it may make sense to have your miter saw near your workbench.

When you're cutting joints for a project, keep track of the tools you go to time and again and put them close to your workbench. If you're always at the table saw or drill press, make sure that those tools are near the work bench.

Tool Height

Remember to think three-dimensionally when arranging your shop. Most shop layout programs only show you a top down view of your workshop. Often, with a little creativity, tools that would otherwise need a lot of floor space can be placed closer together by arranging their infeed or outfeed areas such that they avoid interfering each other.

For example, the outfeed for my surface planer passes underneath my drill press table. A jointer can often be placed right next to a table saw because it's beds are lower and does not project above the surface of the table saw.

On the flip side, instead of arranging tools so they avoid each other, placing them at the same height can also have benefits. A classic example is to set the height of a workbench or assembly table the same as your table saw. This allows you to use the workbench as an infeed or outfeed table, such as when working with large sheets of plywood.

Assembly Space

Finding a place to assemble your projects can sometimes be a challenge. You need enough space to lay out your parts, clamps, glue, mallets, etc. as well as room for the final assembly. Depending on the size of your shop, you can employ several strategies:

Use the table saw. If you think about it, the table saw has a rather large work surface. If you cover it with a piece of plywood or cardboard, there is plenty of room to work on.
Use the floor. If your project is large, trying to assemble it on a bench might just be an exercise in frustration. Consider clearing some space on the floor and assemble your project there.
Use a folding table. Many times, you just need some temporary space to assemble a project, but not often enough to justify a permanent space in your shop. A folding table or two makes a great assembly table. And I'm not talking about a wobbly card table but the heavier duty tables with the flip down legs.
Build a knock down table. A pair of saw horses and a piece of plywood also works well as a temporary table. And the whole thing comes apart and is stored in a very small space when you're not using it. This is especially true if your saw horses fold up.

Wall Space

While it is always nice to have additional square footage in a shop, most woodworkers will tell you that wall space is an equally precious commodity. Placing a machine up against the wall means that you can no longer hang something there or place an assembly there, out of the way, while the glue dries.

In addition, placing too many things up against the wall may make it difficult to get to an electrical outlet when you need to plug in a portable power tool.

At the very least, consider putting your tools on wheels. This way, they can be pulled away from the wall when in use or when then need to be moved out the way. When you're done, you can just roll them back into place.

Part Storage

In my workshop, one of the things I always struggle with is where to put the parts for my project while I'm working on one of them. Having a place to put your project parts that is safely out of the way should be a consideration in your shop design.

Separate Bench. Sometimes, all you need is a separate workbench near your main bench. Project parts can be laid out on the auxilliary bench while you work on one of them at your main workbench.

Roll Around Cart. If you have the space, a roll around cart is a great solution for part storage. Parts for a project can be kept on the cart and moved from machine to machine or to your workbench. No need to pick up a set of parts and stage them at the next tool, hoping that you don't drop them or bang them into something on the way there.

These are just a few things to consider when planning your own workshop. Several excellent books have been written on shop layout and design, so I've only hit on some of the highlights.

What do you consider important when designing a woodworking shop?

Software: Cutting Board Designer

2010-09-20T20:44:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has attempted to make an end grain cutting board has probably discovered that it can be difficult to get the pattern right. Figuring out how wide to make each strip and where to put a half strip can be tedious to downright difficult. Fortunately, there is now a software program that helps with designing end grain cutting boards.

With CBDesigner, you enter the width of your strips, the number of slabs you have, and a number of other options. The program then shows you what your cutting board will look like. In addition it calculates the number of strips you need to crosscut and other details helpful in constructing the cutting board.

So the next time you want to make a cutting board, check out CBDesigner and get back to making sawdust!

Getting Started With Hand Planes

2010-09-14T08:44:00.000-06:00

Maybe you are looking for an inexpensive way to get started in woodworking. Perhaps you're looking to add some hand tools to your arsenal of power tools. No matter what your situation, there are a few types of hand planes that belong in everyone's toolbox.

In this article, I use generic names for the planes (e.g. Jack Plane) instead of specific numbers (e.g. Stanley No. 5). I do this because every manufacturer has different naming and numbering of their products, sometimes within the same manufacturer! For example, a Stanley No. 5 and a Stanley No. 605 are both be considered jack planes.

So here is my list of useful planes, listed in order of importance:

Block Plane

A good plane to get started with is a Block Plane. This relatively small plane has quite a few uses around the shop. A block plane is great for creating small chamfers, cleaning up end grain, trimming miters, thicknessing or smoothing small or thin pieces, and more. Any operation where you need to remove a small amount of material is a great use for a block plane. In addition, because they are so small, a block plane fits easily in a tool box for use at a job site.

Block planes are available as low-angle and "standard" angle. The angle here refers to the angle formed between the bottom of the plane and the bed the blade rests on. Low-angle planes typically have a 12° bed angle and standard block planes have a bed angle of 20°. In both cases, the blade has the bevel up, which allows you adjust the effective cutting angle as necessary. However the typical 25° grind on blades gives an effective cutting angle of 37° and 45°, respectively. I would suggest a low angle plane as the smaller angle is ideal for cutting end grain, a task a block plane is used quite often for.

Jack Plane

As the name suggests, the Jack Plane is a "jack of all trades" bench plane. A jack plane can be used for everything from flattening or smoothing boards to trimming end grain. If you can only have one bench plane in your workshop, a jack plane is the one to get.

As with the block plane, jack planes are available in low-angle and standard angle models. The standard angle is usually has a bed angle in the 45° to 50° range and the low-angle is around 12°. What you choose really depends on what you plan to do with the plane. I've had no problems using an older Stanley No. 5 plane with the "standard" 45° bed angle. However, if you plan on smoothing end grain cutting boards or trimming the ends of boards regularly, a low angle jack bench plane is probably appropriate.

Smoothing Plane

A Smoothing Plane is used for the final..er...smoothing of a board. Many people consider the smoothing plane to be the last step of surface preparation, avoiding sanding completely, before applying a finish.

A smoothing plane is one of the shorter bench planes. As such, it doesn't ride along on the high spots of a board and will follow any imperfections much better. In addition, the plane is typically set to take a very fine cut in order to avoid tear-out and leave behind a nice, even, smooth surface.

Smoothing planes typically have the same bed angles available as with the Jack plane. However, many prefer higher angles (45° to 50°) on a smoothing plane, as the higher the bed angle tends to perform better on highly figured wood.

Jointer Plane

The Jointer Plane performs the same task that a power jointer performs, making the face or edge of a board flat. They typically have very long (20 to 24 inches) beds. This keeps the plane from following any dips and bumps in the board and only cut off the high spots.

When preparing stock by hand, the jointer is usually the last plane used to flatten the face of a board. It is also used to straighten the edge of a board and make it square to the face. Sometimes, it is helpful to use an add-on fence in this latter case to help keep the plane square to the face.

Shoulder Plane

Unlike the previously mentioned planes, the Shoulder Plane is a bit different. The blade of a shoulder plane goes all the way to the edge of the plane allowing you to plane along an inside corner. This makes a shoulder plane ideal for trimming the shoulders and faces of tenons when adjusting them to fit a mortise.

In addition, some shoulder planes also have the ability to remove the toe, or front, of the plane. This allows you to plane all the way into a corner such as when you need to clean up a stopped rabbet.

Since shoulder planes are used with end grain almost as often as long grain, they typically only come with a lower bed angle. However, these planes are also usually a bevel-up design, so the effective cutting angle can be adjusted by grinding the blade at different angles.

These are the planes that I would suggest you start with. There are certainly many more types of plane out there, allowing you to cut mouldings, smooth curves, and more. Once you've become comfortable with these planes, any future plan acquisitions should be based on performing a particular task in your workshop.

What planes are on your "must have" list?

The Basics of Wood Movement

2010-09-06T19:44:00.000-06:00

Anyone who's been doing woodworking for a while knows that wood moves. But what exactly does this mean? Carl Hagstrom recently wrote a great, in depth article about why wood moves and it's effects. I'm not going to try and repeat the points made in this excellent article, but I will suggest some ways to design your projects to account for wood movement. Nothing is more frustrating than spending many hours on a projects, only to have it pull itself apart over the years.

One way to think about wood is as a collection of straws that are all bundled together. It is these bundles that form the grain that you see in the wood. These straws are what allows nutrients from the roots to make their way to the top of the tree and into the branches and leaves. However, these straws are not rigid, like your plastic drinking straw. Instead, they can stretch and swell in response to moisture. When moisture is absorbed into the wood, either from direct contact with water or humidity in the air, these straws tend to get bigger in diameter but they don't grow in length all that much.

By knowing how wood absorbs moisture, you can predict how it will expand and contract over time. Since the "straws" making up the wood get wider, but not much longer as they absorb water, wood tends to expand perpendicular to the grain much more than along the grain. This means that a board will have most of it's movement along the width, rather than the length. Of course, this assumes the board absorbs moisture evenly. Often, one side of a board will absorb more moisture than the other. This means that one face of the board gets wider than the other, causing the board to cup toward the dryer side.

With all this in mind, you can account for this movement when you design your projects. Generally, any time you are jointing two pieces where the grain is perpendicular (cross-grain), you need to think about wood movement. What follows are some common ways to handle wood movement in your projects:

Frame and Panel

In situations where a large panel is needed, but the dimension needs to remain relatively stable, such as a cabinet door, woodworkers have come up with the frame and panel. The frame, because it's fairly narrow, doesn't move much. However, the large panel is allowed to expand and contract within the grooves in the frame.

Table Tops

In the case of a table, it is not usually a problem if the top is a bit wider or narrower. However, the way it's attached to the base needs to take this movement into account. There are a few ways to handle this.

Slotted or oversize screw holes: When drilling the pocket screw holes or through any cross members, make the holes a bit oversize or else cut a slot.
Figure 8 fasteners: There is hardware made that looks like the number 8. One screw goes through one hole and into the table base. The other screw goes through the other hole and into the table top. The fastener is able to rotate as the top expands and contracts
Clips: This method involves cutting a slot on the inside of the table apron. Then, a wooden clip or a z-clip is inserted into the slot and screwed to the underside of the table top. The slot can either be a dado run the full length of the apron or shorter slots cut with a biscuit jointer or router.

Moulding

Often, base or crown moulding is attached across the grain of the sides of a case. Depending on how wide the side panels are, you may be able to get away with using just brads without glue. The nails will flex just enough to allow the wood to move a bit. If the side is wider, it is sometimes desireable to cut a dovetail or "T" slot in the moulding and attach a corresponding key to the case side. The moulding then slides onto the key.

These are just some of the ways to account for wood movement in your projects. What are the ways you design projects to handle the expansion and contraction of wood?

Checking for Square

2010-08-31T08:20:00.000-06:00

A large portion of woodworking is spent making sure things are square. That is, checking that one edge or surface is at 90 degrees to another. For example, you might want to verify that the table saw blade is square to the table. Perhaps you want to make sure or that the face of a board is square to it's edge. Is that case you just glued together square? Is your jointer fence square to the table? In this post, I'll discuss the various ways to check that your measuring tools are calibrated and that your assemblies are square.

Check your squares

Most woodworkers have a variety of squares that are used for measuring, marking and tool setup. These tools are used as the basis for nearly everything you do in woodworking. They're used for machine setup as well as checking that joints are cut and cases are assembled square. If you can't trust that your squares are square, it will be hard to build anything with a right angle.

To check that your square is at exactly 90 degrees, place one edge against the straight edge of a scrap board and draw a line along the other leg of your square. Now, flip the square so that the portion against the edge of the board is pointed the other way. That is, if the two arms of the square were initially pointed to the left and away from you, flip the square so that the arms of the square are pointed to the right and away from you. Line up the square with the first line you drew and draw another line. If the square is accurate, the lines will overlap. Otherwise, the square is off by half the angle between the two lines.

Sometimes, any problems with your square can be corrected. Combination and sliding squares can fixed by carefully filing the flat portion the ruler slides along. A framing square is fixed by puching a dimple in the inside or outside corner with a nail set. Otherwise, you'll need to go shopping for a new square.

Check your miter gauge

To check that your table saw miter gauge is at 90 degrees to the blade, there are a couple of different methods you can use. These methods also work to check the setup of your compound miter saw as well, with only slight variations.

Cut-n-Flip: Take a pice of scrap 6 to 8 inches wide, joint one edge and rip the other edge parallel. The wider the piece, the easier it will be to see any error in your setup. Place one edge against your miter gauge (or miter saw fence) and make a crosscut. Place the two pieces against a straight edge and flip one half of the board away from you so that the two freshly sawn ends are still facing each other. If the miter gauge (miter saw) is accurately set to 90 degrees, the two cut ends will meet without any gap. Otherwise, you will need to adjust your miter gauge by half the angle between the two ends.
5 Cuts: If you need a really accurate setting of your miter gauge, the five cuts method multiplies any error in your setup by five. If your miter gauge is off even a little bit, it will be quite obvious by the end of the process.; Take a piece of scrap about 6 to 12 inches square that has at least one straight edge. Starting with the straight edge number each edge counter-clockwise (clockwise if your miter gauge is to the right of the blade or the workpiece is to the left of your miter saw blade). Leave some room between the number and the edge, as you're going to be cutting a bit off of each edge.; Place the edge numbered "1" against the miter gauge and make a cut along the edge numbered "2". Now place the edge numbered "2" against your miter gauge and make a cut along the edge numbered "3". Repeat the process two more times. The fourth cut should be along edge number "1" with edge number "4" against the miter gauge. Finally, make one more cut along edge number "2" (the same as the very first cut you made).; Using a reliable square, check the corner between edge "1" and "2". If your miter gauge is not square, it should be quite obvious. If you don't trust your square, you can measure the diagonals of your board to see if they are equal. Make any adjustments to your miter gauge (or miter saw setup) and repeat the process until your test board ends up with a square corner after the last cut.

Check your cabinet assembly

Having accurate tools is all very well and good, but what really matters is how square your cabinet assemblies end up. You could have the most accurate squares and jigs made and still end up with a crooked cabinet if you don't check it after you glue it together.

The easiest way to check that your cabinet is square is to measure the diagonals. On a square cabinet, the measurement from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner should be the same in either direction. If not, you have a parallelogram. Adjust your clamping pressure or use corner blocks to pull the assembly square. Sometimes adding a clamp diagonally along the long direction can help as well.

These are just some of the ways to check that things are square. What's your favorite technique to check for square corners? What do you do to correct any problems?

Make a Table Saw Panel Cutting Sled

2010-08-28T08:00:00.001-06:00

In a previous post, I wrote about the two styles of table saw crosscut sleds. Today I will describe how to build a table saw sled with one runner. This is the kind of sled I use most often in my own shop for squaring up panels. It's lightweight, so I can hang it on the wall and it's easy to get on and off the table saw.

Cut the base to size. Cut a piece of plywood or hardboard to form the base of your sled. I used a piece of 1/4 inch hardboard, but you can use whatever scrap you have laying around the shop. The base should be about 2 to 3 feet wide and about the same length. My sled is about 2 feet wide (deep) and about 3 feet side to side.
Make the runner. Rip a piece of hardwood or plastic (UHMW is a good choice) that is longer than your sled base. The runner should fit into the left miter slot without any slop left to right and it should sit just below the surface of the table. I cut the runner just a bit oversize and then fine tune the width with a hand plane.
Position the base. Lower the table saw blade below the table. Place the runner in the miter slot and place your base on top. Position the base so it extends over the blade and as close to square to the blade as you can, but don't worry if it's not exact. Your table saw fence can be helpful to help position the base.
Attach the runner. Drill pilot holes and screw the base to the runner. It can be helpful to clamp the base to the table saw while you do this. If you prefer, mark the position of the runner on the underside of the base, flip the base over and screw the runner to the base. Just make sure your screws are not so long they protrude through the top of the base.
Trim the base. Raise the saw blade, place your base with the attached runner on the table saw and run the sled through the saw blade. The right edge of the saw is now exactly even with the left edge of the saw blade. You will use this edge as a reference when attaching the fence.
Make the fence. Cut a piece of hardwood or 3/4 inch plywood about 2 inches wide and at least as long as your crosscut sled base. I like to make my fence at least half again as long as the base. This allows me to clamp a stop block for repeated cuts while keeping the weight of the sled down.
Attach the fence. Using your most accurate square, clamp the fence to the base with a little bit sticking off the right edge of the base. Drill and screw the right end of the fence to the base, leaving the other end clamped for now. I prefer to put the fence on the leading edge of the crosscut sled, since it allows me to cut panels a bit wider than the size of the base. However, putting the fence on the trailing edge provides the support needed to prevent tearout.
Test and adjust the fence. Place the sled back on the table saw. Cut one end off of a piece of scrap about 6 to 8 inches wide and check the result. If the cut is square, drill and screw the left end of the fence down. Make another test cut to make sure things didn't shift. If all looks good, add a couple more screws to hold the fence in place.

Congratulations! You are now ready to put your cross cut sled to use. I like to drill a couple of holes into the base so I can hang the sled on the wall when I'm not using it. Then it only takes a few seconds to pull it off the wall and place it on the table saw.

Table Saw Crosscut Sled Basics

2010-08-25T19:52:00.000-06:00

One of the most useful accessories you can make for your table saw is a crosscut sled. A crosscut sled is nothing more than a piece of plywood with one or two runners that fit in the miter slots of the table saw. With a crosscut sled, you can square up panels and crosscut wood boards very accurately. You can make specialized sleds for cutting miters, crown mouldings, dados and more. While you can do all of these operations using the miter guage that came with your table saw, a table saw sled allows you to make the cuts with greater control, accuracy and safety. This post will describe the various styles of sled and how to make one for your own table saw.

When it comes times to make your own table saw sled, one of the first things you'll need to decide is whether to use one runner or two. Anyone who has watched a few episodes of The New Yankee Workshop with Norm Abram is familliar with a version of the one-runner sled. The sled runs either to the left or right of the blade, though the left side tends to be more popular since it allows you cut stock of any length without removing the table saw fence. In addition, this style of sled has a fence on either the leading or trailing edge of the sled. The former lets you cut panels slightly wider than the sled base whereas the latter is a bit easier to control since the blade naturally pushes the stock into the fence.

Two runner table saw sleds have runners that slide in both miter slots at the same time. They usually have two tall fences that support the stock, preventing tearout, and hold the two sides of the sled together.

So which kind should you make? As with most things, it depends. A one runner sled:

Is lighter.
Is easier to make.
Can cut panels a bit wider than the sled.
Does not support the cutoff.
Is more prone to wiggle in the miter slot.

On the other hand, a two runner sled:

Is heavier.
Is more complicated to build (but not much).
Can only cut stock as wide as the distance between the two fences.
Supports the stock on both sides.
Is less likely to have any slop in the miter slots.

To make a table saw sled, you will need just a few parts:

Base. For the base of your sled, you can use anything from 1/4 inch hardboard to 3/4 inch plywood. The idea is to select a material that is flat and will stay that way. Keep in mind that you will be lifting this on and off your table saw, so something like MDF is likely to be too heavy.
Runner(s). The runners that slide in the table saw miter slots need to fit without any slop. A hardwood like oak is a good choice for runner. UHMW plastic is another good choice. If you're handy with metalworking, you could even use aluminum or steel, if you were so inclined.
Fence. For the fence, you can use hardwood, plywood or even plastic. For a two runner sled, thick (8/4) pieces of hardwood or two pieces of 3/4 inch plywood glued together would be a good choice for the fences since they will also be used to hold the two halves of the sled together. For a one runner sled, a piece of 3/4 inch plywood or hardwood would work fine.

In a future post, I'll go through the process of building each style of sled.

What's your favorite style of sled?

The Perfect Wood Panel Glue Up

2010-08-20T20:43:00.001-06:00

There are times when you will not be able to buy wood wide enough for your project (or it would be prohibitively expensive) and it's not reasonable to use plywood. In this case you will need to glue up a panel from a series of smaller boards. In this post, I will describe the process for creating a wide panel that is flat and straight.

Wood Selection

The process of building a wood panel starts at the lumberyard. The wood you select not only determines how the panel will look, but how the wood responds to changes in moisture.

All things being equal, quartersawn lumber is less likely to cup and warp than other cuts. However, these days you're not likely to find wide boards that are all quartersawn. So pick boards that are not already warped or cupped. If the wood is pretty straight to begin with, it's likely to stay that way as you mill it.

In addition, pay particular attention to the color and grain of the wood you are selecting. Unless there's a particular effect you're going for, try to pick boards that are of similar color and grain. Doing so will make it easier to make the boards appear as though it's one, seamless panel. The best way to achieve this is to try and find a single board that you can cut into sections and glue together to make the panel.

Stock Preparation

As in every other aspect of woodworking, how you prepare your wood will affect every subsequent stage of the project. If your boards are not flat, straight and square, you'll find it difficult to get them assembled into a flat panel.

After you've selected your boards and cut them to rough length, face joint, thickness, edge joint and rip to width each of the boards as I as I describe in my post on stock preparation

Arrangement

Once you've selected your boards and cut them to rough length, lay them out on your workbench and deterimine which edges to match up. One rule of thumb suggests that you make sure the growth rings alternate (that is, one board curves up, the next curves down, etc.). Another says that the grain should all go the same way. While these ideas have merit, the most important thing to consider is the look of the finished panel. So if you can get the grain of all the panels to line up in the same direction, great, but not at the expense of the appearance of the panel.

If you bought your lumber in the rough, you will have to face joint and thickness the boards before you can really get a sense of the grain and how to arrange them

Once you have an arrangement you like, draw a big "V" across the joints of the panel or number them so that you can keep track of what order they go in

Edge Jointing

When you place the edges of the boards together, there should be no gap between them. If there is, go back to the jointer and make another pass or two to get the edge perfectly straight.

If you're using hand planes, takes the two boards to join together and fold them together like a book. Then, use your jointer plane to true both edges at the same time. By planing both boards at the same time, any variation in the edge from 90 degress will cancel out.

Some woodworkers like to join panel boards with a "sprung" joint. In this instance, the edges of the board to join are just slightly concave. The idea is that this keeps the ends of the joint tight. To do this, take a couple of swipes with your hand plane in the middle of the board's edge.

The Glue Up

Now that the boards to make up your panel are flat, consistent thickness and fit together without gaps, you're ready to glue the panel together. There are several ways to do this, depending on what clamps you have on hand. In every case, however, you need a flat surface to work on. If your work surfaces is twisted, there's a chance that twist could translate into your panel as well.

Lay out your choice of clamps and place your boards across the clamps and make sure you have everything you need before applying any glue. Squeeze some glue on to both edges of the joint and spread it out to a thin layer. There are glue bottles with a roller made for this application, but I find that just using a small piece of scrap wood works just as well for me. You want to cover the edge completely, but try not to apply too much glue, as it will just squeeze out when you clamp the boards and make a mess.

Push the boards on the clamps and push the edges together. I like to slide the joint back and forth a bit to help spread the glue and create a bit of suction to hold the boards together while adjusting the clamps.

The remainder of the glue up depends on what kind of clamps you have:

Parallel Clamps. If you have several parallel clamps, such as the Bessey K-Body or Jorgensen Clamp Master, the panel glue up is pretty simple. Push the boards down against the bar of the clamp and then tighten up the clamp, making sure the boards stay against the bar as you do so.

Pipe Clamps. Pipe clamps have a few problems that you need to account for during panel glue ups: The jaws are not parallel, the jaws can mark the wood and the bar tends to deflect as you tighten the clamps. The latter is especially true if you're using 1/2 inch pipe instead of 3/4 inch pipe.

To handle the non-parallel jaws, cut some pieces of dowel with a diameter about the same as the thickness of your panel. Place the dowel between the clamp jaw and the edge of the board. This makes sure that the force of the clamp is centered on the edge of the board. In addition, it keeps the clamp jaw from mar the wood edge.

To account for the deflection of the pipe, it is often useful to use some clamping cauls across the panel, perpendicular to the panel joints. To make a pair of cauls, cut some boards longer than your panel is wide. Try to make the edges slightly convex so that, when the pair is clamped together, the clamps will pull the joint flat. Apply some packing tape, painters tape or some other kind of tape to keep the glue from stickiing to your cauls.

By carefully preparing your stock and taking your time when clamping the boards together, you'll have a nice flat panel, ready to trim to width and crosscut to length for use in your project. What techniques do you use to glue up your panels? I'd love to hear any tips or ticks you might have!

Sharpening The First Time

2010-08-17T07:39:00.000-06:00

When you first receive that set of chisels or that new hand plane, you may wonder why they don't work as well as you expected. New tools are rarely ready to use right out of the box. You'll need to spend a few minutes sharpening that plane blade or chisel to get the most out of your new tool.

The first step is to flatten the back of the plane blade or chisel. If both sides of the edge are not flat, the tool won't cut well. I like to rub the back of the blade on my roughest water stone (400 grit) to get a sense of how out of flat it is. If it needs a lot of work, I'll drop down to 80 grit sandpaper glued to a marble tile. Once the back has an even scratch pattern, I can start working my way up through my water stones until I've polished the back on my 6000 grit water stone. While this step can take a while, it only has to be done once, so take the time to do it right the first time.

For chisels, it's necessary to flatten a good portion of the back, since the back of the blade is used as a reference. However, for plane blades, it's possible to reduce the amount of work by putting a slight back bevel on the blade. Lay a thin ruler (about 1/32 or 1/16 of an inch thick) on your sharpening stone. Lay the back of the blade on top of the ruler as you sharpen only the very end of plane blade. This puts a one or two degree back bevel on the blade and only requires flattening a very small portion, which takes much less time than polishing the entire back.

Once you have polished the back, it's time to turn your attention to the bevel. For a new tool, you probably won't have to do much. Use your favorite sharpening jig or go freehand and hone the bevel on your sharpening stones at the current bevel angle. When you can just feel a wire edge form on the back side of the blade, you know you've sharpened enough and can move on to the next grit. I like to use a one or two degree micro-bevel as it requires much less effort to sharpen the 1/16 inch or so at the tip of the blade than it does to polish the entire bevel.

If you take some time to tune up your plane blades and chisels before use, you'll find they are much easier to use and make cleaner cuts.

Take Time to Sharpen Your Tools

2010-08-09T16:23:00.000-06:00

Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." If you're like me, sharpening your tools is one of those things that is pretty low on your list of things you like to do in the shop. However, if you take time to sharpen your woodworking tools, it does end up saving time in the long run.

Keeping your woodworking tools sharp has many benefits. It makes things more enjoyable, since you don't have to force your tools to work as hard. You'll make cleaner cuts, with less chance for tear-out. In addition, it's safer. The more force you put on that chisel, for example, the more likely it will slip and hurt you, the workpiece or both.

Keeping the blades, bits and cutters for your power tools is also important. A dull saw blade or router bit is more likely to burn the workpiece. The motor has to work harder, shortening the life of the tool. Finally, you are more likely to have to force the tool to do it's job, increasing the potential for a disastrous slip.

Sharpening is one of those things that, if you let it get away from you, will make it harder to catch up with when you really need to do it. Instead, if you sharpen a few tools from time to time, before they get too dull, it actually ends up taking less time. Spending a few minutes to touch up the edge of your block plane blade is much easier than grinding out a bunch of nicks and re-establishing the bevel because you let it go too long.

Here are a few strategies for keeping up with your sharpening chores

If you have room, try to set aside some space in your shop dedicated to sharpening. If everything is already set up and ready to go, it's much easier to touch up an edge and get back to working on your project.
Try to find those natural lulls in the process of building a project. The time spent waiting for glue to dry or finish to cure is a good opportunity to freshen the cutting edges of your plane blades and chisels.
Dedicate a shop session to sharpening. If you only have a little bit of time to be in the shop (i.e. not enough time to make any progress on your current project), consider spending the entire time sharpening some of your most commonly used tools.
Pick a sharpening system and stick with it for a while. By staying with the same system for a period of time, you'll become more practiced and faster at sharpening your tools.

What strategies do you use to keep your tools sharp?

Multiple Methods for Making a Tenon

2010-08-05T08:27:00.000-06:00

Last time, I wrote about some of the ways to cut a mortise. Today we'll discuss how to make the corresponding joint, the tenon. As with the mortise, there are nearly as many ways to make a tenon as there are woodworkers. This post will describe some of the more common methods

Hand Saw

Before power tools came along, woodworkers used hand saws and planes to cut a tenon. To cut a tenon by hand, there are eight cuts that need to be made:

Cut the shoulders. Use a crosscut saw to define the shoulders of the tenon. You make four cuts, one on each face down to the thickness or length of the tenon.
Cut the cheeks. A rip saw is used to cut down each face of the tenon to meet up with the shoulders of the tenon.
Cut to width. The tenon is cut to width the same way as the cheeks.

Once the tenon has been cut, it is usually refined by using a shoulder plane. This is a plane where the blade goes all the way to the edge of the plane body, allowing the cutter to get into the inside corners of the tenon.

Table Saw Tenon Jig

The table saw can be used to make the same series of cuts made by hand when cutting tenons:

Cut the shoulders. Set the height of the blade to the thickness of the shoulder. Using a stop block clamped to your table saw fence, use the miter gauge to make the shoulder cuts. Readjust the blade height for the ends of the tenon and repeat the procedure for the other two faces of your stock.
Cut the cheeks. Set the blade height to slightly less than the length of the tenon. Use a tenon jig to hold the stock vertically while you make the rip cut along each face of the tenon. If your stock is too long to be held vertically, you can use a band saw to cut the cheeks.
Cut to width. If your tenon jig is able to hold the stock securely, you can use the same method to cut the tenons to width as for the cheek cuts. Otherwise, you'll need to cut them by hand or use a band saw or jig saw to cut the tenon to width.

Table Saw Dado Head

Another method cuts the cheeks and shoulders in the same pass by using a dado head in your table saw. Install enough cutters to make the dado head wider than your tenon length. If your tenon is longer than your dado capacity, you'll need to make multiple passes to cut the tenon. Set the height of the dado to the depth of the tenon shoulders.

You use your fence as a stop and guide the work piece through the dado head using your miter gauge. You don't want to use the fence and the miter gauge at the same time since kickback becomes a possibility. Instead, install a stop block towards the front of the fence or slide the fence back (if you have a Unifence). Set your fence so the distance from the left edge of the dado cutter to the fence is the length of your desired tenon.

Slide the wood up against your stop block or fence and guide the wood through the dado head using your miter gauge. If you've set things up correctly, the end of the tenon should be clear of the fence by the time it reaches the dado head. If the tenon is longer than your dado head is wide, slide the piece to the left and make additional passes to remove the rest of the material.

Leave the fence alone and readjust the height of your dado head, if necessary, and repeat the procedure to cut the other two faces of the tenon.

You'll probably notice that this methods leaves some score marks across your tenon, especially if you have to make multiple passes. These generally don't affect anything and are likely to be removed in the process of trimming the tenon to fit anyway.

Router

The router can be used in a table to cut tenons using the same method as when using a dado head in the table saw. The router can be in either a standard router table or horizontally mounted. The latter typically allows you to cut longer tenons in one pass since you can use the entire length of the bit rather than just the radius.

The router table has an advantage over the table saw in that it doesn't leave the scoring marks that the dado head usually does and usually leaves a smoother surface

Another way to use the router is with a jig, such as the Leigh FMT jig for making mortise and tenons. This jig holds the work piece vertically while the router is run around the outside of the tenon, allowing you to form the tenon in one pass.

These are just some of the many ways to cut a tenon. Which method is your favorite? Any popular methods I've forgotten?

Multiple Methods for Making a Mortise

2010-08-03T08:26:00.004-06:00

The mortise and tenon joint is about as old as woodworking itself. Woodworkers tend to be an innovative lot, which might explain why there are about as many ways to make a mortise as there are woodworkers. In this post, I'll summarize some of the more common ways of cutting a mortise.

Chisel and Mallet

The traditional way to make a mortise, before power tools came along, was with a mortise chisel and a mallet. Using a thick chisel, designed to take the stresses of being beat with a hammer, you literally chop out the material to form the mortise. Typically you start in from the ends of the mortise and remove the majority of the material. Lighter paring cuts are then made to bring the mortise to it's correct length.

Drill and Chisel

Another common method involves the use of a drill (powered or otherwise) and a chisel. After laying out the mortise, you use a drill equipped with a bit slightly smaller than the width of the mortise to drill a series of holes along the length of the mortise. A forstner bit is a good choice for this method since it leaves a mostly flat bottom and makes it easier to overlap the holes.

Once the holes are drilled, use a sharp bench chisel to pare the mortise to the layout lines. The idea here is that the drill removes the bulk of the material and the chisel cleans up the mortise.

Hollow Chisel Mortising Machine

At some point, someone came up with a mechanized, one-step version of the previous method, inventing the hollow chisel mortising machine. A square chisel with a drill bit inside plunges into the wood to make a square hole. The drill bit removes the majority of the material and the chisel squares up the hole. A mortise is made by making a series of overlapping plunges into the wood the entire length of the mortise.

There are dedicated machines for making mortises as well as attachments for your drill press. The former typically have a longer arm to get the leverage needed to plunge the chisel into the wood, but they take up additional space. The mortising attachment for your drill press uses a machine you may already own, but it's harder to plunge the chisel. In addition, it's not trivial to switch between mortising and drilling operations with the mortising attachment

Router

The router can be used to make just about every joint in woodworking, and the mortise is no exception. Using a plunge router to make a mortise involves some kind of jig or fence system to guide the router along a straight line and, in some cases, limit it's travel to the length of the mortise. An upcut spiral router bit it usually the best choice here since it tends to eject the chips from the mortise.

The basic technique, regardless of the jig used, is to first make a full depth plunge cut at each end of the mortise. The remainder of the material is removed with multiple passes, increasing the depth of the mortise (about 1/4 inch or so) each pass. Once the mortice is cut, you can square up the corners with a chisel or make your tenons with rounded corners.

The jig to guide your router can be as simple as an edge guide mounted to your router and a way to hold the router stable on the workpiece. If you want something fancier, there are no shortage of plans for more elaborate jigs to make mortises with your plunge router. Of course, there are also, commercial jigs you can buy. Typically, as the speed and accuracy of making the mortise goes up, so does the price.

These are just some of the ways to make a mortise. What is your favorite way to make a mortise? Are there any tips you have for making mortises quickly and accurately?

Buying Used Tools on eBay

2010-08-02T08:25:00.002-06:00

Buying hand tools on eBay can be a great way to fill out your hand tool collection. Older tools are generally cheaper than their modern day equivalents and are often just as good. As someone who as bought and sold tools on eBay, I'll provide a few pointers on how to shop wisely on eBay to get good tools at a great price.

Expectations

The first thing to keep in mind when buying tools on ebay is that you're unlikely to find something you can just take out of the box and start using right away. This isn't really the case with new tools either. You'll likely need to give the plane or chisel blade a light honing at the very least. However, if you are willing to put a little effort into cleaning up a tool and tuning it for use, buying used tools on eBay can be an inexpensive way to get great tools.

Search Tips

The mantra at a prior company was, "If they can't find it, they can't buy it." The same could be said for buying tools on eBay. Picking the right search terms can be something of an art as you search for tools to round out your hand tool collection. Sometimes, the search is relatively straight forward. For example, "stanley 4 plane" is obviously a search for a Stanley #4 smoothing plane. But even that will often litter the results with irrelevant results, such as a listing titled "Handle For Stanley No 4 Plane".

Here are some tips for finding things on eBay

Enter only the keywords that are important. eBay will try to match all of the words you enter against the listing. So if you enter the search "stanley no 4 smoothing plane rust free", you'll miss out on seeing listings that are titled something like "Stanley No 4 Plane".
Tell eBay to ignore certain matches. In the example I've been using (searching for a Stanley #4 smoothing plane), the results will often include accessories or replacement parts for the tool you're looking for. This usually isn't what you're looking for, so you can tell eBay to ignore these listings by entering the relevant keywords preceded with a minus sign. You can group together multiple terms with parenthesis. For example "stanley 4 plane -(tote, knob, iron)" will search for listings matching "stanley 4 plane" and ignore those that include the words "tote", "knob", and "iron" in the title.
Consider other brands. When searching for planes, for example, one often things of Stanley planes, as they were the largest and most prolific tool maker in the day. But there were other, smaller, companies making competing products at the same time such as Miller Falls, Capewell, and others. Often their tools are just as good, but they go for much less money since they're usually not as collectable.
Search for misspellings. If the seller has misspelled the manufacturer's name, for example, it won't come to the top of the results and won't get bid on as much. For example, you could search for "stanely 4 plane". This is a good way to find listings that won't get bid up as much
Be patient. New tools are being listed on eBay every day. If you don't find something that is exactly what you want, chance are good that it will show up eventually. Just keep checking each day.
Save your search. Once you've crafted a search that finds the results you're interested in, save your search so you don't have to keep entering it.

Bidding

Once you've found a few tools that match your criteria, save them to your watch list. This way you can keep an eye on them as the auction closing date approaches. If the bidding gets too high, you can ignore that listing and focus on the other candidates you've identified. Before bidding, make sure to do your due diligence to make sure you know what you're buying. If the listing doesn't have many photos or they're of such poor quality that you can't tell anything about the condition of the tool, ask the seller for more. If the seller can't provide better photos, move on to other listings. You don't to bid on a tool only to find that it's fatally broken in a way not obvious in the pictures. Ask questions. If you want to know whether the type 52 wood stretcher has the temporal adjustment knob, and you can't tell from the pictures, ask the seller.

In addition, use other resources on the internet and elsewhere to determine if the particular tool is collectible or just a solid user quality tool. Tools listed as "mint" or "new in box", are pretty and are nice to use, but you'll pay a premium for them. In addition, if you use them to actually work wood, you'll destroy their value to collectors. Sites such as Patrick Leach's site on Stanley tools are a great reasource for determining whether the tool you're looking at is desireable or not

Once you're satisfied that the tool is in the condition you're willing to accept, do not bid right away. eBay encourages early bidding because it helps feed the competition for an item and drives up the price. If you wait until the absolute last minute before entering your maximum bid (a practice known as "sniping"), you're more likely to get the tool for a lower price than if you bid in the middle of the auction. Synchronize your watch to eBay's official time and hit the bid confirmation button when there's less than a minute remaining on the auction. You may still get outbid, but you wont have tipped your hand as to how much you're willing to pay for the item.

For even more thoughts and ideas on how to buy things on eBay, see Ken Rockwell's article on the subject.

What tips do you have for buying tools on eBay?

A Hand Tool Story

2010-07-27T07:44:00.002-06:00

While reading Keith Mathewson's article over on ThisIsCarpentry.com titled Why Hand Tools (Still) Matter, I was thinking of how hand tools were exactly the right tool for the job I was working on in the shop last night.

I'm in the process of making a jig for cutting some evenly spaced grooves for a project I have in mind. A key part of the jig is a series of spacer blocks that I drop in each time I want to make another dado. I wanted these spacer blocks as accurate as possible to minimize accumulated error as I added more spacers.

To cut these spacers, I used the table saw. (Wait, isn't this an article about hand tools? I'm getting there, stay with me) I set the fence as close to the width that I wanted (1 inch in this case) and ripped a strip. Using my dial calipers, I measured the thickness of the piece and dicovered that it was oversize by almost 0.02 inches. By itself, not too bad, but when you combine four or five spacers that adds up to nearly 1/8 inch of error.

I could have fiddled with the table saw fence and cut several more spacers until I hit on the right width. However, I instead went to my bench, pulled out my jack plane and block plane and shaved the edge of the spacer, checking my progress with my dial calipers, until I was within about 0.002 inch of my desired thickness.

Now that I had a spacer that was the desired width, I could use the spacer to set my table saw fence accurately and rip the remaining spacer strips to the correct width.

Had I tried to make my spacer blocks solely with the table saw, I'm sure I would have had to toss a few pieces until I got it dialed in just right. By using hand planes, I was able to get the size I wanted with less time and waste. Plus it was quieter too!

How about you? What is your story about how hand tools saved the day?

My Current Favorite Wood Finish

2010-07-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

Most of my projects, as of late, have been finished in a similar manner. I thought I'd share the process I use to get a nice smooth protective finish for my woodworking projects. This procedure is something I learned reading Michael Dresdner's The New Wood Finishing Book, a great resource for finishing wood.

The first step starts with wood preparation. Anyone with experience in wood finishing will tell you that all the best finishing techniques will come to naught if you haven't prepared the wood properly. For me, this means sanding to 150 or 220 grit. I try to sand as much as possible before assembly, since it's easier to access some surfaces at this point. Just make sure that your sanding doesn't affect your joinery. For example, sand your panels before cutting the dados they will fit in.

The first coat of finish that I apply is typically a coat of boiled linseed oil. This tends to give the wood a nice color, something that is particularly important if you're using a water-based top coat. While some don't like the yellowing effect of most oil-based finishes, I like the warm tones it gives to the wood. Water-based finishes don't usually impart any tint, so a coat or two of oil can replicate this effect to a degree. Just flood it on and wipe off the excess. Make sure to lay out the rags to dry completely or soak in water in a fireproof bucket to avoid spontaneous combustion. Let the oil dry completely before continuing.

For a top coat, I like to apply two to three coats of a polyurethane. I'm currently working through a quart of Deft polyurethane that seems to work well for me. I like to brush it on full strength, but I sometimes thin the first coat slightly with mineral spirits to get it to flow better. Between each coat, sand the finish lightly with 320 or 400 grit wet-dry sandpaper. This gives the next coat something to grab on to for better adhesion.

At this stage, the finish is still pretty rough. The final step is to finish the finish. Before going any further, let the polyurethane cure completely. This usually takes a week or two, depending on the conditions in your shop. The more humid it is, the longer the cure time.

Once the finish has cured, sand the entire surface with 400 grit serrated sandpaper backed by a sanding block. Be careful, especially around the edges, not to sand through the finish. The object here is to level the surface, removing any dust nibs, runs, brush marks and any other imperfections left on the surface. Carefully remove all the sanding dust with a vacuum, compressed air and wiping the surface down with a rag.

Now, sand the surface with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, using mineral spirits as a lubricant. Again, be careful not to sand too aggressively. You're just trying to remove the scratch pattern left by the previous step. Wipe off the wood to remove the sanding slurry and let it dry completely.

At this point, the finish should be looking pretty good. The final touch is to rub out the finish with steel wool and wax. Using some #0000 steel wool, apply paste wax to the finish, with the grain. Don't be afraid to apply a fair amount of pressure. For panels, I like to make short scrubbing strokes at each end and then long strokes across the entire panel. You don't want the wax to dry completely -- the wax is just being used a lubricant -- so work quickly and on small sections at a time. After you've gone over the wood about three times, wipe off the excess wax with a clean rag. To remove the remaining wax, sprinkle a little bit of water on the surface and wipe lightly with a clean piece of steel wool.

This leaves the finish with a nice smooth satin finish that just invites you to touch it.

So what is your favorite finish?