- Read Time: 4 mins
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Woodworking has much to do with practicing, and hand tools, especially things like hand planes often require even more practice before we can achieve a high level of results and there is something rewarding in going through the practice and finally getting the "feel" and the "sound" of the plane as the razor-sharp blade cuts through the wood and in the end, you end up with some perfect or at least near-perfect planed boards.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/7JeiXqbsCPg
In the meantime ... for those who are newer to woodworking and have not yet had the time to practice hand planing and other tool techniques, and to help ensure these woodworkers continue to keep inspired, I have developed, or at least maybe re-developed a small jig that attaches to a hand plane that can help in getting nice right-angle edges on your wood.
- Read Time: 5 mins
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Featherboards are both useful and can be considered as a safety tool in some cases too. I use them most on the router table, but they can be used on the table saw, the drill press and other tools as well from time to time. I always think of them as another set of hands to help me hold and steady the wood so I can get a better and more accurate cut.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_n_ncxTbwRM
My original thought was to use some hard foam wheels, but the only ones I could find were too soft, then when thinking about other rubber kinds of wheels, I thought of inline skate wheels ... they are ready almost everywhere at many garage sales and thrift stores for a couple of dollars a pair, which often gives you 3 or 4 pairs of wheels to use.
- Read Time: 7 mins
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Every table saw comes with a miter gauge for cross-cutting wood but often these are not the best for cutting wider boards. The fix for this is for woodworkers to make their own crosscut sleds ... which I also have, and I, of course, overbuilt mine so it can do lots of things and it's accurate, but it also weighs 26 pounds - yes I actually weighed it. It's a hulk of a thing and often way more than I need to do one or 2 simple cuts on a wide board.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/W6JV6gYq_yI
Yes, I have a good quality aftermarket miter gauge, and it works fine, but for wider boards, it's cumbersome to use so time to make miter gauge that is quick and accurate to use ... a speed sled.
- Read Time: 4 mins
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There are a few reasons that you might want to slice wood finely using a bandsaw. For me, it is usually because I have some highly figured wood that I want to try and spread out over a larger area and by making thin slices I can book match the wood, or just use more of it in different areas, but sometimes I am wanting to cut wood in thin strips for a banding job too ... lots of different reasons.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/OXuo7ALndrE
This is a pretty easy auxiliary fence to make, I basically consist of one vertical piece of wood that comes to a point, or it could simply be rounded, either way, the point of a pivot fence is to be able to slice wood evenly over wider pieces of stock lumber.