5 Quick Workshop Hacks / Woodworking Tips & Tricks
- Read Time: 7 mins
- Hits: 10808
Woodworking often require many steps and a good deal of patience in order to turn out usable and attractive projects. Woodworkers are always doing things to their workshops to make the process of building more organized which in turn helps us enjoy the woodworking process more. All woodworking shops are different and so modifications in one shop do not always transfer to another, but what does transfer is the idea .. the idea that things can be made more efficient, which in turn helps the woodworker.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Mrp75vxVXQ4
I am always making small modifications to my workshop, many of them I don't even think about until a visitor comments tha they like what I have done with some mod ... I always seem to be working at making things easier ... like electricity ...
Planer Jig / Router Planer Sled with Clear Plastic Base
- Read Time: 5 mins
- Hits: 21295
Some of the jigs I make are jigs I wished I had made a long time ago, and this is one of those jigs. Yes, I did make another jig similar to this a few years ago, but this one seems easier to use and adjust, and the bonus is that with the clear plastic base, even with sawdust flying, I cans still see farily well what I am doing.
For the construction of this jig I decided on using a better grade of 3/4 inch plywood. I didn't have enough longer pieces around so time to go out and purchase a full 4 x 8 sheet.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/bm9SDuWIAk0
I starte off by using my circular saw to cut strips off the 8 foot side of the sheet. I cut 2 of each of the following 3 inch, 2 inch and 1.5 inch, these would form the rails that the carriage would slide on, I also cut one more 3 inch that would serve as the sides of the carriage. I also found I did not have any clear plastic chunks bit enough so off to the plastic store to snoop through their cut-off bin to see what I could find ...
5 Workbench Hacks
- Read Time: 3 mins
- Hits: 15395
The workbench is not really considered at woodworking tool, but it is probably the most used article in the workshop. Imagine trying to do woodworking without a workbench or table or other similar assembly station. It's no wonder that workbenches have so many designs and so many accessories. I'm sure there must be thousands of different workbenches out there and every woodworker does some modifications to their own workbench to make it work better for them.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/McO3AdPilTE
Right Angle Frame
This workbench accessory was born from the need to assemble picture frames. I needed something that would ensure the picture frames corners were square so that the frames would come together with nice tight corners ...
Make a Table Saw Circle Cutting Jig
- Read Time: 4 mins
- Hits: 21698
In the world of woodworking, so much is "square" ... it's nice to make things that are round once in a while, and if you have a table saw, yes, even a table saw can make round blanks. The first time I ever heard of this, I thought ... that sounds dangerous, but then it was explained that to start off with, all you really do is make a buch of series of straight cuts until the wood is almost round, then finish up the last bit by just skimming the all those straight cuts ... a pretty simple concept really!!
Watching on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6TCFzoRVo1k
Like a lot of jigs, the circle making jig for the table saw can be made fully adjustable with all sorts of variable stops and clamps. The one that I elected to make is the simple version that might be for a one-time use, of for a limited number of round blanks. If you were going to make many, many, circel blanks, you might want to opt for a more complex version. For mine ... I started off with ...
5 Quick Table Saw Hacks / Woodworking Tips and Tricks
- Read Time: 4 mins
- Hits: 46330
For most woodworkers, the table saw is easily the workhorse of the wood shop. It is such a versatile and powerful machine, we ask it do do many thing and with a few more accessores and a tiny bit of innovation we can make the table saw do even more, and make it quicker and more accurate in the mean time.
The first hack is a simple one but it really helps make a good job when you are cutting thinner plywoods that tend to want to droop under the table saw fence. A simple matter of clamping short borad under the fence so part of it sticks out the inboard side, and now you have a quick, easyily made holder for those extra wide boards that won't hold them selves up against the fence when you want to cut them
Making a Dovetail Spline Jig for the Router Table
- Read Time: 7 mins
- Hits: 20370
Adding detail to box corners really makes them stand out and helps to reinforce the edges as well. Adding Dovetail Splines is one way of adding detail but it does take a degree of patience, and you need to select the correct accessories and woods to make this job go smoothly and by reading this you will see some of the challenges I encountered and what you can do to help eleviate them.
Watch the video on Youtube Here: https://youtu.be/Te0NsctAtb4
The first thing that needs to be done is to make the jig. I made mine from good quality 1/2" plywood. I cut a 4 inch wide strip and after cutting that strip in half I had 2 - 1/2"x12"x4" strips. I glued the edges together at 90 degrees, making sure that the angle was exactly 90 degrees, you can see all the clamps I used to do this, I used my doweling jig to ensure the edges were aligned. My plywood was slightly bowed so I needed to ensure that the angle was correct and the wood was straight.
Page 59 of 102