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 Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The Question is the Answer
There is an old expression that has nothing to do with woodworking, but it has turned out to be one of the guiding principles in my work.
The expression goes something like this: “If you have to ask the question, then you already know the answer.”
I know that it sounds like some nonsense that a smooth-talking corporate trainer might spin to baffle you, but allow me to give you a real-world example of how useful it is in the shop.
As I was building the workbench shown on the cover of this issue it came time to attach the massive 230-pound top to the 100-pound base, and I was facing the task of drawboring the four massive joints.
This extra step was going to require a couple hours of work and serious heavy lifting. I was going to have to fit the base into the top, remove the base to bore the holes for the pegs and then fit it again and remove it again to mark and bore the offset holes in the tenons.
It was about 5 p.m., and it would be so much easier to just drop the top onto the base, let gravity hold everything together and call it a day. The question then flashed in my head: “Do I really need to drawbore the top?”
I’ve found that these questions of expediency are like the old cartoons where the character is getting competing advice from an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Questions such as these always come from the devil on the right shoulder of the cartoon cat (or woodworker).
For years I listened to and agonized over questions such as these. I debated them and tried to see both sides of the argument. However, eventually I realized that all these different questions were really just one question in disguise: Are you going to take a seemingly reasonable shortcut that will save you time now but cause regret later?
• Question: Should I strip the finish off my Morris chair project after the staining highlighted a couple small but disappointing toolmarks near the through-tenons?
• Question: Should I dovetail the rear joints in these drawers for my toolbox? No one will ever see them, and a lock-rabbet will be faster.
• Question: Do I really need to test this familiar joint before I glue it up?
• Question: Do I really need to check the jointer’s fence to make sure it’s still 90° to the bed?
In the case of the workbench, I actually asked the question out loud, and all of my fellow editors heard me and chimed in with advice. One editor said that gravity was more than enough to hold everything in place and that drawboring the top was likely an act of ridiculous excess.
The other editors were on the fence and so we assembled the bench and put it on its feet. The bench looked good all put together like that. It seemed rock solid, like I could park my old VW on it. I was ready to go home and have a beer.
Then one of the editors went up to the end of the bench and gave it several king-size hip checks. Something caught my eye. I looked closely at where the leg met the top and stretchers as the editor gave it a few more hip checks.
Though it was slight, the bench base was wracking with every shove. After years of planing on this bench, this wracking would become a problem. So I fetched my drawbore pins from my tool chest and got ready for a long evening. I had already wasted an hour testing out a question that I already knew the answer to.
As I drove home later that evening (ready for two beers), I wondered if this philosophy could become immobilizing for some. That is, every question could lead to a fussy downward spiral of extra work that resulted in nothing ever getting done. But I don’t think so. Every project is a series of operations, many of which are familiar and don’t generate these questions. But when we stumble into new territory, these questions are the angel on our left shoulder telling us to first slow down and figure things out.
And if we listen, then the next time we encounter the same problem there won’t be any questions – just action.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Tuesday, May 01, 2007 9:34:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Shop Projects-Part 3-Beaded Frame Joints
 Last week I discussed laying out the face frame for a cabinet I’m building for the shop. I’ll be updating the blog as work progresses on this, and for those of you keeping score at home, here are links to pdf files of my shop drawings. Backbench Plan & Elevation.pdf (40.49 KB)Backbench Sections.pdf (54.66 KB)What the drawings don’t show is the detail of the beaded face frame. Instead of applying the bead as separate pieces after the frame is assembled, the bead is an integral part of the frame. It takes some effort to do this – where one member of the frame meets another, the beaded edge is mitered and cut to meet the end of the adjoining piece. I think this looks better than applying the bead later on, and I would rather not miter and nail four individual pieces around the inside of each opening. The grain and color will match, and I don’t have to worry about glue squeezing out in the groove next to the bead. To make these cuts, I use a router with a flush-trimming bit and the two templates shown below.  The template on the left is used for the open-ended cuts on the ends of stiles. The template on the right is used where rails go between two stiles, or where intermediate stiles go between the top and bottom rail. I made the jigs in much the same way as described by Bill Hylton in our April 2007 issue for making the frame joints. The beauty of making these jigs is that once they’re done, the balance of the joinery goes quickly.  This closer view of the template shows how it works. The horizontal piece that goes below the workpiece is an exact pattern of the cut I want to make. The two small fences hold the template to the work. There is a bit of forgiveness in the jigs. If the straight cut doesn’t quite match the edge of the groove in the beaded stock, blue painter’s tape can be used as a shim on the fence of the template. After clamping the template and the work to the bench, trim the solid wood away in the cutout.  My left hand is holding the base of the trim router down on the stock I’m cutting. If the router bit tilts during the cut, it can cut a notch in the face of the piece beyond the joint. The other thing that can go wrong is that the wood can blow out as the router bit exits the angled notch in the template. To prevent this, I make the first part of the cut as a climb cut, moving the router from right to left. Moving against the bits rotation removes material in little nibbles, rather than big chunks.  The inside corners of the angled notch aren’t cut by the router bit, so I prefer to use as small a diameter bit as I can find. This leaves less material to be removed with a chisel. Make the chisel cut before removing the template. Holding the back of the chisel against the angled portion of the template keeps the chisel in line. One hand holds the chisel against the guide, and the other pushes in. The opposing cut is made the same way.  The ends of the pieces that meet these joints are mitered back from the point on the face of the stock where the groove next to the bead meets the end. I add a wooden extension to the table saw miter gauge so I can line up the piece with the saw kerf. When the sweet spot is found, I clamp a scrap of wood down to act as a stop.  I cut several extra pieces of beaded frame stock to make test cuts to tweak the templates and the miter gauge stop. When everything is set, the joint should look like the photo above, and cutting the joints goes quickly. Of course, I still need a way to physically hold the parts together. In the past, I’ve used pocket screws, or milled mortises and tenons. For this cabinet, I’m going to give the new Festool Domino a workout. — Bob Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Tuesday, May 01, 2007 8:49:02 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Shop Projects – Part 2-Face Frame Layout
 New stands for our benchtop power tools are on my "to do" list, but I'm still waiting for the 2x4 material to come to equilibrium with our shop environment. In the meantime, I'm forging ahead on another project, a cabinet that will go below the windows where my current bench is. My style of working is to have the workbench accessible from all sides rather than up against a wall. I like to have a secondary horizontal surface behind me as I stand at the bench to put tools and parts on. The cabinet under this surface will be about 8' wide with banks of drawers on each end, and four doors below drawers in the center. While the tool stands I'm planning will be simple, I'm getting a bit carried away with this cabinet. It will be four plywood boxes on the inside, but the outside will have cherry panels on the ends, and a cherry beaded face frame with inset doors and drawer fronts. It will look like a typical built-in cabinet from the early 1900s, similar to pieces in my book " Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors." I haven't built any casework in a while, and I guess I'm missing the process. I'll document my progress in the blog, and I'll be sharing some of my methods for working accurately and quickly. I like the look of beaded face frames, but I think the method of applying the beads on the insides of the frames after they are put together isn't the best way to do it. It saves some layout work, but it ends up being a lot of cutting and fitting. I also don't think it looks as good as milling the bead as an integral part of the stiles and rails. The layout work is tricky, but I have two secret weapons – cheap clamps and a Starret 6" adjustable square. In the first picture, I have the long top and bottom rails clamped together, so I can lay them both out at the same time.  One of the little-known uses of the adjustable square is to use it as a gauge for making repeated measurements. This is the location of one of the intermediate stiles in the face frame. I have the square's blade set to the actual width of the stile. My first line is obtained by measuring, and I'm using the square to gauge the distance for my second line.  Setting the distance is incredibly easy. Here I'm setting the blade to the exact width of the bottom rail, so I can lay out the end stiles of the face frame. With the blade loose, I set the head of the square on the rail, drop the blade to make contact with the surface below, and tighten the knob. I'm holding the rail upright with two clamps – one attached to the rail and the other attached to the first clamp and my work surface.  I then hold the stock of the square against the end of my stiles and mark them with the pencil against the end of the blade. The beauty of this is that in a matter of seconds, I have made an extremely precise measurement, and transferred it to a new location. The best part is I didn't need to use a ruler or tape measure or deal with any numbers.  After marking the location of the top rail, and the vertical space of the drawer opening, I need to mark the location of the bottom of the rail that runs below the top row of drawers. Instead of measuring, I hold a piece of my rail stock against the pencil line, and mark the opposite side. When I cut my joints I'll stay between the lines, and I'll get a good fit. I didn't need to look for a tape measure (or my glasses to be able to see it) and I didn't have to deal with any pesky fractions.  The intermediate stiles will share locations for drawer rails with the outer stiles. I can mark them all at once, as I did with the long top and bottom rails. Because of the beads, the top and bottom of these stiles are offset from the edge of the rails by the width of the bead. Once again I just slide the blade of the square where I want it to get the distance from the edge of the board to the edge of the bead.  I mark this on the end of the stiles, then use that mark to line up the intermediate stiles with the outer stiles and clamp them together in a stack. In the photo below, the outer stiles are on the bottom, and the intermediate stiles are on top. You can see the offset to the right of the clamp.  Now that I have all the stiles connected with clamps, in the same orientation and location they will be in in the finished face frame, I mark the locations for the remaining cross rails. There are a lot of parts to the face frame, and if I want to keep the openings square and the joints tight, a good layout is critical. By ganging parts together, and using the adjustable square as a gauge, I can be confident that it will all fit together – even if the width of my parts varies from what I planned. It also took far less time than if I had measured every location individually. Next time, I'll be cutting the joints to miter the beads and hold the corners together. – Bob Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Tuesday, May 01, 2007 8:34:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, April 26, 2007
Using Nails in Woodworking
When you began woodworking, whether you’re a beginner or an accomplished artisan, did you expect that you’d use nails in your work? I didn’t. I looked at nails as something too common to use in better work. I searched for ways to join carcasses and mouldings that used anything but nails. Then, I visited the museums and began studying furniture construction.
Nails are present in many of the most treasured pieces of American furniture that line the walls and stock the backrooms of our museums. Wonder why? Nails are great connectors and, unlike screws which hold parts fast, nails allow for seasonal movement. As the woods expand or contract the nails bend to accommodate the movement. That’s a good thing. It’s what helped keep those treasures in their best condition. If the nails didn’t bend to allow for seasonal adjustments, cracks would result in cross-grain construction.
A Bit of History
Originally, nails were hand-forged. The process to make nails was slow and hard work. Nails were expensive.
Around 1750 the process of shearing nails from steel plates was developed. These nails are known as “cut” nails or “square” nails and within the next century, cut nails dominated the markets. Unlike hand-forging, machines made cut nails reducing the expense to the woodworker. One machine would shear the nail while a second would form the nail’s head. But they were still expensive.
In fact, in pre-1850 America it was common to burn dwellings that were to be destroyed in order to collect the nails from the ashes. If the nails were simply pulled from the building, workers could damage them.
By the beginning of the 20th century wire nails, those most used today, were developed. Round steel wire is cut, a head is formed and the end is sharpened to a chisel point all in one machine. Thousands are produced per minute. (Read more about wire nails including sizing, at appaltree.net/aba/nails.htm.) That’s progress, yet we continue to use the cut or hand-forged nails in furniture. Why?
Installing Nails
 If you’ve ever driven a wire nail into wood I bet you’ve had the wood split.
That’s because the chisel point of the nail drives or forces through the wood fibers, splitting the fibers along the way. One of the best tricks to learn when using wire nails is to flatten the nail’s point to lessen the possibility of splits. It’s contrary to regular thought, but it works.
Cut nails have that flattened point built right in. As a result, these nails maneuver through the wood fibers, twisting and turning as the grain directs. No splitting. But even better, as the nails twist and turn they are actually gaining a stronger grip in the wood. So, cut nails hold better versus wire nails.
Proper installation of square nails requires drilling a pilot hole. The size of the drill bit used is equal to the median width of the nail. And the pilot hole isn’t as deep as the nail. If you drill the pilot the entire length of the nail you’re creating a path for the nail and that lessens the twisting as the nails are driven, reducing the holding power of the nail.
Drill through the piece that is being attached, such as a backboard or a face frame, but only slightly into the second surface – the shelves or case sides. The shallow hole in the second surface helps guide the nail, but leaves enough wood intact for the end of the nail to grip.
Because square nails are wider in one direction than the other, it’s important to drive the nails correctly. Always orient the wide section of the nail with the grain. If the wide section is across the grain, splitting of the wood is likely because you’re wedging a piece of steel into the wood.
Nails that affix backboards to the cases (I like hand-forged nails for this task) are simply hammered tight to the surface while the heads of cut nails are set flush or slightly below the wood’s surface. Do you fill those recessed nail holes? I did at the beginning of my career, but now I allow the years of wax, dirt and the other age-adding impurities to fill those holes.
That’s my story. But, there are as many theories to installing nails as there are types of nails. For a bit different technique and point of view check out editor Christopher Schwarz’s article “Build Furniture with a Hammer” (MAR06WM_HAMMERS.pdf (427.89 KB))in our sister publication Woodworking Magazine.
— Glen D. Huey
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:12:59 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Art Director in the Woodshop?
 The art director in the woodshop? Yes, it’s my shortcut route to the color printer. But I have stopped a couple of times to actually try some woodworking with some trepidation and lots of assistance — the “tornado table” in 2005 and the “eggcrate shelves” in 2006. That’s it. I’ve been immersed in woodworking publishing for many years. I know the words of the craft and greatly admire the projects that come out of our shop, but my fear of power tools keeps me in my cubicle. Last weekend, I stepped out of my layout and design world and found my way to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill near Lexington, Ky., where I put my hands to work making authentic Shaker oval boxes under the instruction of the master, John Wilson. The day-and-a-half workshop included both lecture and hands-on woodworking, resulting in a set of five Shaker oval boxes for each participant to take home. Happily, no prior woodworking experience was required!   My awareness of being surrounded by Shaker-constructed buildings on land tended by men and women who were consciously applying their spirituality in their daily lives brought a thoughtful approach to this woodworking novice. Although the noise produced by power sanders and drills was considerable at times, there was a meditative quality as I performed the repetitive steps for making each box. I could imagine the Shaker woodworkers in their quiet sunlit shop making the same repetitions, and I could feel the satisfaction they must have felt as I finished a box and set it aside.  I have to confess that I had a little trouble with some splitting veneer as I bent one of the box sides around the form. In my haste to move on to finish the other boxes, I forgot about the replacement veneer soaking in the hot bath, and discovered too late that I only had four completed boxes. So now I have some work to do here in the Popular Woodworking shop to complete my set. My finished cherry boxes are sitting in a row in the sunny windowsill of my cubicle. I see areas I can improve, but as I hold a box in my hands and touch the smooth surface of the wood, I feel a part of the fellowship of woodworkers — that sense of pride in the completed project and satisfaction taken in the process of making it. Many thanks to John Wilson, Pete Baxter, Ray Pait Jr. and Steve Coultas for your guidance in my woodworking baptism, and to Dennis Acevedo whose photographs of the workshop are shared here.
— Linda Watts
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:46:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Workbench Design Seminar July 14
Designing or purchasing a good workbench is one of the most vexing problems facing woodworkers. The correct combination of materials, overall dimensions and vises is the difference between a workbench that will add speed and fluidity to your work and one that will stand in your way of doing anything with ease.
For the last 10 years, I've been studying workbench design, construction and use; and I've built more than 10 different workbenches to test the theories and historical research. I've written a book on the topic that will be published in late 2007, but you can get a preview of the work at a seminar devoted to workbenches at 10 a.m. July 14 at the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine.
During this four-hour seminar, I'll present the findings using a combination of historical photos and modern recreations of centuries-old workbench designs. I’ll be demonstrating my latest workbench endeavor, a late 19th-century design from Charles Holtzapffel. And I’ll be critiquing workbench designs from attendees at the seminar – so please bring photographs of your current workbench or drawings of the bench you plan to build. I'll try to show you how to improve your existing bench or alter your design to make it ideal for working with power tools, hand tools or a combination of the two.
In addition to the personalized critiques, all attendees will receive a complete printed plan and drawings for the Holtzapffel bench, which won’t be available to the public until the fall.
If you’ve ever been stymied by the vast number of workbench designs available, this seminar will help you understand workbenches in the simplest terms possible so that the next bench you build (or buy) will be your last bench.
To register or for more details, visit the Lie-Nielsen web site.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Sunday, April 22, 2007 7:00:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, April 20, 2007
Endurance Test: Ray Iles Mortising Chisels
I purchased one of the first sets of Ray Iles mortising chisels that were available in this country in 2005 and they have been in my tool rack since that day, to the exclusion of all other mortising chisels.
How have they held up? First the bad news: I finally had to resharpen a couple of them last weekend. Now the good news: The reason I had to resharpen the tools is I dropped two of them on our concrete driveway. These are tough chisels.
The steel used in these chisels is D2, a tough alloy to be sure. The downside to the D2 is that it's more difficult to sharpen than any other steel I've tried (it's even more difficult than some exotic steel I tried from planemaker Karl Holtey a few years ago). Some sharpening systems don't seem to really be able to sharpen it much, even with a lot of rubbing. Other systems work (such as diamonds and Norton waterstones), but it takes far longer to polish the bevel to an acceptable level.
And when I say acceptable, I'm not looking for a mirror polish that I can use to shave in (not that I know much about shaving these days). I'm talking about just getting a good edge that will make the tool root through the wood like a French pig after truffles.
Once the Ray Iles chisels are sharpened, you're good to go for a long, long time – as long as you keep them off the driveway. So, on balance, I think the D2 is worth the extra effort. I've beaten these chisels into all manner of tough woods, from ash to oak to maple with excellent results (no exotics – that's not my bag). The beech handles have held up almost as well as the steel. The butt of each handle has been dented by my mallets, but I haven't found a single split in any of the handles.
Aside from the hardy steel and the handles, I think it's also important to note that these tools grow on you as you become more familiar with them. They worked great out of the bag, but as I have become more tuned into their subtleties, I've found that I am becoming faster and faster with them. This is probably true of all tools to some degree, but the Ray Iles really are tools that get easier to use the more you beat them. They sure look like simple brutes, but there's actually a lot more there than meets the eye, like a linebacker who can quote Alfred Tennyson. I've written about a lot of these details already; if you'd like to learn more, check out this article I wrote for The Fine Tool Journal that is now posted at WKFineTools.com.
And if you've never cut mortises by hand, I've posted a story I wrote for our sister publication (Woodworking Magazine) that you can download by following the link below.
The Ray Iles chisels are sold by Tools for Working Wood and cost $58 to $98 each. I don't think you need a whole set of the tools (try the 1/4" or 5/16" to start), but you probably will end up opening your wallet and getting the whole set in the end (like I did).
MORTISE_BY_HAND.pdf (2.53 MB)
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Friday, April 20, 2007 7:32:57 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The Work Sharp Tool Sharpener: Is Super Sharp What I’m After?
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I can’t sharpen chisels. For years I’ve fought this inadequacy. I’ve had many different sharpening stones and magic devices all aimed at allowing me to conquer the honed edge.  Here’s the trouble. I cannot lock my elbows. I think it’s a genetic situation. I blame my parents (of course I do). Every time I attempt to pass a tool over a water or diamond-impregnated stone I get such a rounding effect that I’m sure were I to continue, the result would be a new type of tool that could remove wood from around a corner. Please, all you hand-tool gurus don’t write to me with directions on how to stand, where to place my arms or how many times to pat my head as I rub my stomach. It won’t help. I want my chisels sharp like my Dad’s. There were times when Dad was sharpening his tools, that he’d have perfect 1/4", 1/2" and 3/4" patches of skin on his arms that had no hair on them at all. I don’t know if he was testing his sharpening abilities – please don’t try this at home – or just showing the young guy a thing or two about woodworking. As a result, I turned to machines. If I can lock the chisel in place or at least hold it square as I move it into the wheel, I can obtain a fairly sharp edge – something that would cut when and where I needed it to. These machines produce easy-to-achieve, consistent results. The water-cooled hollow-grinding appliance became my best friend. Finally, I was able to get my chisels as sharp as Dad’s. But, I wasn’t fond of the messy water and I know that some sharpening experts feel a flat bevel is stronger and holds an edge longer than those that are hollow ground. But with this machine, I could get great results and go back and touch up the edge whenever I felt it was needed.  These past few weeks, Popular Woodworking has had a Work Sharp Tool Sharpener ($200 at many retailers) in the shop for review. Work Sharp is a dry-sharpening system that uses tempered glass wheels and abrasives to put an edge on chisels and other flat tools. And, it has an attachment for sharpening rounded edges, too. It’s a product by Professional Tool Manufacturing (PTM) – the company that delivered the Drill Doctor.  It was time for me to clean up and sharpen my chisels (pictured here with one already through the process). I turned to the Work Sharp and was happy with the results. I followed the methods that the guys from PTM showed us during a demonstration. I started by reshaping my tools. I used a P120-grit, 6" adhesive-backed disc applied to the glass wheel. In a short time, I had perfectly square ends on the chisels and the bevel was a consistent angle (provided by setting the sharpening port). Next, I worked through the P400-grit disc and the P1000-grit disc and finally I reached the Micro-Mesh disc that is graded at 3600. After using the abrasive on the bevel, I flattened and honed the back of the chisel on top of the wheel.  This picture shows the end result of my efforts. I can tell you that the cut of each chisel is very good and I’m well pleased. I do notice a few fine lines remaining after the last phase. I’m planning on pushing sharp to the next level using a 6000 Micro-Mesh. I’ll let you know how it goes. I might even try shaving my arm hair. How about that Dad? (Look for more information on the Work Sharp Tool Sharpener in our August 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking) Here’s a tip: I find it most helpful when sharpening to use a black Sharpie (what else would you use when sharpening?) and color the bevel on the chisel. When you begin the next sharpening phase, you’ll notice the black being removed. This tells you when you’ve worked over the entire surface.
– Glen Huey
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 9:54:22 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, April 16, 2007
Shop Projects - Part 1
I've spent the last couple weeks working out the details for several projects to improve our shop here at the magazine. It's a nice space, but like many wood shops, quick fixes tend to become permanent fixtures. There are a number of areas we'd like to make more convenient, and we have several machines and work areas that need attention. Keep your eye on this blog and the magazine this spring and summer for a detailed look at how we solve some common shop problems.  This is the material for one of the projects. Being from frugal stock, I tend to look for the least expensive way to build things. Last Friday, this stack was 20 "pre-cut" 2 by 4s from the local Home Depot. At $2.38 a piece, the cost of this stuff is about 45 cents a board foot. The price is right, but the moisture content isn't – it's way too wet to be workable. As this reaches equilibrium moisture content with our shop environment it will twist and warp. If I worked with it right away, my project would bend and twist as the wood dried. I've cut the pieces to a rough length, and I've stacked them with stickers to allow air to circulate around the wood. I'm going to monitor the moisture content, comparing it to pieces that have been in the shop for a long time. In two or three weeks it should be dry and then I'll pretend it's rough lumber and mill it straight and square.  While we're waiting for the lumber to dry, let's consider these questions: What do you use for a bench when you're building a bench? What do you put your machines on so you can use them to build permanent stands for them? Several readers wrote about the stands and beams that I used as a work surface in my last blog post. These were the subject of an article in the fourth issue of our sibling publication, Woodworking Magazine. Drawings and instructions for putting them together are in the article. The idea is that the boxes can be used at any of three different heights. The beams span the boxes and provide a level, straight surface. In the photo above, they're holding our sliding compound miter saw.  Here the boxes have been turned to a lower height to serve as a stand for a portable planer. We also use this configuration as a low assembly table. If the boxes are turned one more time it makes an even lower platform. This works well for putting together larger or taller pieces, or for cutting full sheets of plywood to a manageable size. The boxes and beams provide a level surface, and it takes very little time to set these up. A couple well-placed screws will hold it all together, and when we don't need it, the pieces stack in the corner out of the way.  They're also handy when break time comes. – Bob Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Monday, April 16, 2007 4:24:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Use Stop Blocks; They're Dead-on
When you begin a woodworking project and start to move through it, you’ll often come to a number of pieces that need to be cut to the exact lengths. Drawer dividers and shelves are the best examples.
There are a number of ways to cut these pieces. The one that pops into most minds is to cut or trim the end, measure from that end to the size required, then position the stock at the saw to make the second cut.
That works fine for a single piece – but when you do these steps for a number of pieces, you’re apt to mark the measurement incorrectly or miss the layout line with the saw blade at some time. Either problem results in different lengths in the finished cuts. That’s not good.
I also see many woodworkers attempting to group their pieces and make one cut for many pieces of stock. This, too, is not an acceptable method because the chances of any one piece sliding are high. Not only that, but often the pieces won’t be square to the fence or the ends won’t be flush to one another, and the cuts will be off.
So, you need to find a method to make repeated cuts that bypasses these problems. That method is to use a stop block. A stop block is attached to a fence, or some other part of the woodworking tool, so the end of a board can butt to the stop block, which achieves a repeatable, exact cutting length.
What woodworking tool do you choose? For years, I used my table saw and a sliding panel-cutting jig to make this type of cut. Then, I moved a miter saw into my shop. From that day on I have made all my crosscuts – at least those that are less in width than my saw will cut – on the miter saw. It’s a safe tool that was designed with this type of cut in mind.
How is the miter saw safe for this operation? Simple. You’re working with stock that is surfaced on all four sides (S4S) therefore there is a straight edge of stock fitting tightly to the saw’s fence. The blade is above the stock and as it is introduced to the material, the spinning blade pushes the stock down to the table of the saw and also back against the fence. Everything is snug and fit without any movement of the stock, except from side to side – that’s the woodworker’s responsibility.
Now that we know the best tool for the task begin by squaring one end of each of the pieces that you need to cut to the specific length. Even if they are different widths the setup is the same – the length is what we are going for with this method.
Take the first piece and measure from the squared end to the length that is needed. Mark the stock. I like to mark my pieces with the point of an arrow. This stems from my days in the homebuilding industry.
Next, align the point of the arrow with the left side of the miter-saw blade while the majority of the stock is set to the left of the saw. Look at the saw blade. Generally, one tooth will point to the right, one to the left. Pick one that points to the left to set to the mark. If possible, clamp the stock in position or, at minimum, hold it to keep it from moving. Then, slide a scrap (the stop block) against the squared end of your piece and secure that to your fence or table.
Test the setup by cutting the first piece of stock to length. If the measurement is dead-on, you’re ready to complete the remaining cuts. If need be, make slight adjustments to the stop-block position and check the cut a second time. (Of course this can only be done on stock that is too long after the initial cut, so be right or be long.) Once the setup is accurate, it’s a matter of sliding the squared end of each piece of stock tight to the stop block and making the cut.
There are a couple pitfalls to watch for while cutting with a stop block. First, always make sure that the stop block is firmly attached to the fence or table. If the block slides even the smallest distance, your cuts will vary in length. Second – and this one’s the hardest to remember – as you continue to cut pieces there is a possibility that sawdust will gather at the stop block. If that dust prohibits your stock from making contact with the stop block, there will be variations in the cut lengths. Make sure to keep the area clean and free from dust or chips.
Also, after you make the first cut there sometimes are small fuzzy ends of wood still attached to your stock. If these ends get folded back against the stock and get sandwiched between the stop block and the stock, it will affect the cut as well.
From the first cut to the last, no matter how many pieces are in between, you’ll get consistent lengths if you adopt this method.
– Glen D. Huey
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:38:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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