WoodWorkWeb - Woodworking Community

How-To Align a Table Saw Blade to Miter Slot

Read Time: 6 mins

Before starting any project, it’s important to take a few minutes to make sure all of your equipment has been properly adjusted. Your table saw will give the best results if the miter slot and the rip fence are adjusted parallel to the blade. If either of these are not parallel, your cuts and your finished work will be lower in quality, and the risk of kickback will be increased. Here’s how to make sure your table saw blade is aligned to the miter slot.

Disconnect the saw from the power source: A common sense step that is so easily forgotten when we’re excited to start a new project

Continued ....

How to Make a Barbecue Stand

Read Time: 5 mins

barbecue stand Portable barbecues are handy because they can be easily transported to a variety of events, like birthday parties, family gathering, picnics, camping trips and much more. The disadvantage is that they need some sort of a stand to sit on to make them comfortable to use, but often there is a picnic table or something similar handy to use. Unless ... you want a dedicated stand for them, then you either need to purchase the accessory or make your own, which is what I did.

Initially I was a bit concerned about having a portable barbecue sitting on a wooden surface, but after using my own, on a wooden surface for 2 years not seeing any sign of even paint discoloring, I am pretty confident that wood works fine for my barbecue, others may not, so before you build your own, that will be something you will want to check. Regardless whether or not you use the table for a barbecue or not, it is still a great, solid little table that would be fine as a serving table to hold any number of food and drink items, or what-have-yous.

I started off with the legs, I wanted them to be at least 1" thick, just because a table looks more substantial with stronger legs. All the cross members are 3/4" material.

Building a Small Parts Storage Cabinet

Read Time: 4 mins

I seem to go through phases where I have this need to re-organize my stuff and it's often triggered by an event. Recently I lost the little mounting foot that goes in the head of my small Gorilla Tripod. Oh sure you can buy new ones, and have them shipped to you but most of the ones I saw, with shipping, are about the same price a buying a whole new tripod! Eventually (2 months later) I have found the missing foot and all is well again, but it made me realize I have camera and video gear in at least 3 different places and it's time to get it all in one place ... the workshop where it is being used.

The real problem with all these bits and pieces is that they are currently being stored in little plastic rectangular trays, which work ok, but they take up a lot of shelf space because you can't store something above them like you can with a little cabinet with drawers. And that was my motivation.

I had some other ideas along the way, like having something with a Dutch Door or half door so that if you had something lying in front of the little cabinet, you could still open the door without knocking something on to the floor. I also liked ....

Making Wooden Signs - Video Collaboration

Read Time: 5 mins

I love learning new things about woodworking, and it seems that every day I learn something new. I especially love it when I find people who are doing things that are outside of what we normally expect, and wooden sign making is one of those areas.These are the kinds of people I like to highlight because they work hard and give freely of their information and knowledge.

For years I have assumed that really the only way to carve signs of any quality was to use a CNC machine, connected to a computer running special software, that can take quite a while to learn how to use. Some time ago I was shown that, with a little bit of practice, some fairly common tools and little bit of instruction, it is possible to makes some outstanding wooden signs.
Eric and Dave Rhoten, the father and son team, have spent many successful decades in the wooden sign making industry and are now showing how everyone how they can make their own wooden signs on their website davesigns.com and their YouTube Channel oldave100.

It seems like they have made about every kind of wooden sign that anyone has dreamed up because between them they have an enormous wealth of information. They are frequently releasing new videos that answer viewers questions on sign making and give tips, ideas and suggestions on the best way to make wooden signs. (and scroll down for direct links to their 2 videos on making the woodworkweb sign) ...

Important Viewer Information

Read Time: 4 mins

When ever I get a number of similar questions, it tells me that there are a lot of other people out there who have the same question, but just haven't asked it yet, it also tells me that I may not have explained something clearly so it's time for me fix that, so here goes. There are 2 main questions I have had repeatedly for ... well ... a long time and I should have addressed them earlier instead of trying to answer emails and messages one at a time.

Question #1 - How do I know when you are releasing a new video? ... great question.
The answer is, I try to release a new video every Thursday morning (not I am not always successful at that goal). The BEST way to know when I release a new video is to go to my YouTube Channel and right next to the "Subscribe" button, is a little round GEAR. If you click on that GEAR it will pop up a new little window with a check box ... if there IS a check mark inside the box, it means you will receive an email every time I release a new video, with a direct link to that video. If there is NO check in the box, it means you will not be notified of any new video releases or any other channel information, so check the little box, then SAVE that change and watch for the next video release notification.

Question #2 - How can I find specific videos you released in the past?
Another good question. Currently I have something like 250 videos online so yes, it can be hard to find one specific video. The best way to do this is to go to woodworkweb.com to do a search for the video.
For every video I release I also write and article about that video. knowing this, it is now easier to find a video if you can recall a key word or a couple of key words from that video that would have been used in the article.
If you use the "Search" box in the upper right area of the woodworkweb.com website, you will be able to find that video by typing in a key word ... hit the return or enter key and every article in woodworkweb.com will be searched for that word or set or words.
To search for a set of words it is best to use quotes " " .
Such as "trim router" or "saw blade". Try NOT to look up words that are used commonly like router, wood, joint etc. as these will give too many responses for you to look through.

With that info you will all be able keep up-to-date with the latest videos, and be able to find older videos in much less time.
Thanks everyone for watching my videos, and to all of you who ask questions and those of you who help me by answering other people's questions ... these are an enormous help to me, so thanks everyone.

Colin

Cutting Cabinet Backs and Box Bottoms

Read Time: 4 mins

Some things in woodworking are just not that exciting and cutting backs and bottoms probably falls quite nicely in that category. So why am I even covering it, because I have had a number of emails and comments from subscribers on the topic and I know if a few people comment on something, there are probably hundreds who also have questions but just don't ask the questions.

So, cutting backs on cabinets or bottoms for boxes is really exactly the same thing. All you are doing is cutting rabbet around insides of the cabinet carcass to allow for the inserting of a back. The back could be plywood, or it could be a series of boards. Either way, the best way of putting these backs on is in such a way that the back of the back - is flush with the back of the carcass or it can even be inset a bit more, but definitely not sticking out from the back of the cabinet of box.

Back in the day when I first learned serious woodworking, we always cut the backs using a dado blade on the table saw. That's just the way things were done then. There wood routers, but they were uncommon, had very few bits and were really still in their infancy, so weren't even considered for this function back then ....

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