The hand cranks for raising and tilting the blade on my General cabinet table saw were getting progressively harder to turn so I decided it was time for a little maintenance. The blade tilt mechanism was particularly in dire need: not only was it difficult to turn the crank but it produced a horrible screeching […]
Tools
I recently purchased a Makita track saw to help cut some panels for cabinets that I was planning to build. Before buying the saw, I read a number of online reviews and concluded that this product offered the best bang for the buck, especially if one is not a full-time carpenter/woodworker. In terms of cutting […]
My Very Brief Experience with a Makita Track Saw
I’ve been the proud owner of a government surplus 1970s-era magnifying desk lamp for more years that I can remember. For most of that time, it sat unused in a closet collecting dust but I finally found a use for it – as a magnifying light for my Dewalt 788 scroll saw! But the trick was to […]
Mounting a Magnifying Lamp on a Dewalt Scroll Saw
I recently decided to try my at intarsia and I quickly realized that it involves lots of sanding. Much of this sanding involves rounding the edges of pieces in order to create a 3D effect and perhaps the best way to perform this task is with either a flex or pneumatic sanding drum. The softness of […]
Intarsia Flex Drum Sanding Station
More than once I’ve found myself in a situation where I needed to drill a hole or insert a screw in a hard-to-reach location but lacked the technology to easily accomplish the task in a satisfactory manner. Typically, these are situations where there is insufficient room to position the drill directly over the hole so I usually resort to […]
Milwaukee and Ryobi Angled Drill Adapters
With the new year upon us, it has me thinking about what I want to accomplish woodworking-wise for the next 12 months. New tools to try, new projects to tackle, new techniques to learn, etc. Here’s what I have so far: Learn to scroll saw. I’ve always been intrigued watching someone cut out intricate shapes with […]
Woodworking Goals For The Year
5 I call this apparatus a shelf deflectometer. It’s used to measure shelf deflection or sag in order to test various shelf construction and loading parameters. (I would call it a “sagometer” but there’s already a device by that name used to measure sag in electrical power lines). The impetus for building it was to facilitate […]
Shelf Deflectometer
A miter saw, also known as a chop saw, is an indispensable woodworking tool for cutting molding, making picture frames, or other applications involving bevels and angled cuts. They also work well for general purpose cross-cutting. In many woodshops, the miter saw has replaced the radial arm saw. There are several different types of miter […]
Miter Saw
A Japanese saw is a thin-bladed hand saw that cuts on the pull stroke, unlike most other hand saws used in the U.S. and Europe that cut on the push stroke. Because they cut on the pull stroke and thus are not subject to compression tension, Japanese saws have thinner, more flexible blades than their […]
Japanese Saw
Handsaws (aka, hand saws) have been around in one form or another for thousands of years. Nowadays, handsaws have been largely supplanted by power saws but a quality handsaw with a properly sharpened blade can still work wonders (plus you’ll get a good workout using it). A typical handsaw has a wooden or plastic handle […]
Handsaw
Most of the heavy lifting in woodshops today is done with power tools but there are many situations where hand tools can get the job done just as well or even better than power tools. Some woodworkers even rely on hand tools exclusively. Roy Underhill of Woodwright’s Shop fame, comes to mind. The eco-appeal of […]
Woodworking with Hand Tools
1 Two of the most commonly used power sanders for woodworking purposes are the sheet sander and the random orbital sander. While either of these tools can be used for many of the same basic sanding tasks, there are some fundamental design differences between them and situations where one is more appropriate than the other. If […]
Sheet Sander Versus Random Orbital Sander
If you cut enough wood, you’ll eventually encounter situations where the saw blade is burning the wood. This usually happens with ripping operations but can also happen with crosscuts. If the burning is really pronounced, it may be accompanied by smoking and a noticeable increase in feed pressure. Although there are a number of causes […]
How to Prevent Saw Blade Burning
1 One day in the woodshop… I was applying a finish to a newly constructed coffee table and I activated my fume control system. This involves opening one of the windows and turning on a fan that is positioned in front of the window to blow fume-laden air outside. It actually works fairly well at clearing […]
Removing Rust from A Jointer Bed
2 When it’s time to adjust the knives in my jointer I usually use a device called the Magna-Set. The idea behind this gizmo is two parallel magnetic bars that attach to the outfeed table and protrude over the jointer knives. With a knife positioned at the top of its cutting arc, that is, top dead […]
Adjusting Jointer Knives With the Magna-Set
After watching Norm Abram effortlessly cut mortises with a hollow chisel mortiser, and reading glowing accounts about them in woodworking mags, I decided it was high time to equip my shop with one of these bad boys. It also happened that I was planning to build several tables with mortise and tenon joinery so this […]
Jet JBM-5 Hollow Chisel Mortiser
A hollow chisel mortiser offers several advantages over other mortising technologies: it cuts a square hole so there’s no need to round tenons, it’s faster than cutting mortises by hand, it’s much quieter than a router, and it’s a dedicated machine whose sole job is to crank out mortises. This last point is a big one […]
Hollow Chisel Mortiser
Although not so commonly seen nowadays, the carpenter’s folding rule was once a mainstay tool of carpenters and woodworkers. This venerable measuring device essentially consists of multiple small 6″ rulers that are joined together on their ends with pivoting hinges that allow the rule to open and close. When fully extended, a typical folding rule […]