Adjustable Center Finder Jig / Center Marking Jig
- Read Time: 3 mins
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It seems I am forever needing to cut a board into equal halves. I always have a tape measure handy, but sometimes it's just quicker and more accurate to use a center finding jig to find the center of a board, especially when they are strange widths ... like 13-9/16. Oh sure I can stop and figure this out in my head ... of use the metric scale, or just grab my center finder jig and have it done in a few seconds ... and anyway, it's fun to make these jigs and see if there are ways we can make them better and more useful.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/54IMIBnKEnw
This version of the center finding jig has been around for many, many years but I have never seen an adjustable version ... not that there aren't some out there somewhere, just that I have never seen one.
5 Quick Thickness Planer Hacks - Woodworking Tips and Tricks
- Read Time: 4 mins
- Hits: 30697
Thickness Planers are one of those woodworking machines that only has one job .. to take our wood and make it evenly thick from end to end and there really is very little else it can do. Despite this limitation the thickness planer is a needed machine and with a bit of innovation we can give a little bit of extra work to help it pay it's way ...
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/XnfMAL8BwTA
Here are a few tips and tricks you can try with your planer to get some better end results ...
Quick and Handy Drill Press Angle Base Jig
- Read Time: 3 mins
- Hits: 12806
Depending on how much you plan on using a jig will determine who much time you want to invest in making it. Some jigs that I use a lot I have put a lot of time into and made them with some built in features that make them easier and more accurate to use. This drill press angle jig is one that I will seldom use, so I want it to be sturdy but I'm not going to invest a ton of time into features to make it more usable. I have a pretty good hunch it will not get a lot of work because the number of times I have had to adjust my existing drill press table in the past 10 years, is about 3 times. Part of the reason for that is because who ever designed this drill press did a super poor job of making the adjustable table anything but easy to adjust ... but never mind, the new angle jig will solve that too.
5 Quick Gluing Hacks - Woodworking Tips and Tricks
- Read Time: 6 mins
- Hits: 10499
Every woodworkers does some degree of gluing because gluing in most instances does such an excellent job ... glue joints are almost always stronger than the wood they are holding together. One of the most popular glues is commonly called Yellow Glue (even though some of them are white), Carpenters Glue (even though carpenters seldom use them anymore) but is actually PVA glue or Polyvinyl Acetate. It has been around for over 100 years and changed little during that time ... why mess with success.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Fr515p5uPJw
PVA glues ... as good as it is, does leave us with some problems. One of them is stains when we are gluing boards together ...
2 Handy Circular Saw Jigs: Cross Cut Jig & Ripping Jig
- Read Time: 5 mins
- Hits: 21402
The circular saw for some workers, like carpenters, is often their most used tools, and they even wear them out, For woodworkers it might also be their most important tool especially if they are new to woodworking and still working on a collection of power tools. For me, it was the second power tool (after my corded drill) that I purchased, and even though I no longer have that circular saw, to this day I still use my circ saw quite often for breaking down sheets of plywood to manageable sizes before running through the table saw, and even for longer boards that just need to be shortened so they are easier to maneuver in my workshop.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/l0xkvxMUE7M
The first 8 foor ripping jig for the circular saw that I made is probably 20 years old and despite the fact I have gone through 2 circular saws since then, I still use that jig to this day .. that's how handy that jig is for breaking down sheets of plywood ...
5 Measuring Hacks - Woodworking Tips and Tricks
- Read Time: 6 mins
- Hits: 17992
One thing that is constant in woodworking - there is LOTS of measuring and working with numbers and woodworkers have devised many different ways to quickly do things that doesn't involve sitting down with a calculator or trying to work out some complicated math. And first up are tape measures, probably one of the tools we use the most in the workshop, or at least I do. I am always measuring ...
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/TOve6oVPKVw
For years I always heard the refrain ... measure twice, cut once and for some reason that always bothered me and there are many time I measured twice and still cut the wood too short. I hate that!! Then one day I stumbled upon a tape measure that when I hold it in my left hand (because I always hold the pencil in my right hand) and low and behold, all the numbers were right way up. I didn't have to try and work the numbers from upside down. That was one of the turning points in my woodworking ...
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