Clamping Hacks Part 3 - Woodworking Tips and Tricks

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Clamps and woodworking are integral to one another. If you do woodworking, you need to use clamps ... sometimes lots of them. Unfortunately, clamps are often awkward to use, especially when you have coated your wood with wood glue and it starts drying the moment it is spread on your wood and if you don't attach the 2 pieces of wood in a timely manner, the glue will stick poorly, or not at all. And of course, that is the time for you wood clamps to start acting up ... and if you are like me,  always seem to have to be unscrewing the handles and getting them in the correct positions. Gluing could be the most stressful time of woodworking ... at least it is for me and that's why I try to do everything I can to make my clamps more user-friendly because for some reason I never seem to remember to take the time to prepare them for their clamping ahead of time.

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/IBcU_ngqOL

Check out some these ideas to help make clamping a bit less stressful ...

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Making Table Saw Inserts / Throat Plates (Dado & Zero Clearance Inserts) HD

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Alas ... there is no standard in table saw throat plates. There are some manufacturers that are similar but it seems most all make their own versions. While there are many different throat plates or inserts as they are also called, there are also a variety of ways to make replacement ones. In trying to keep things as simple as possible, I will be showing how to make throat plates in a pretty simple way that will hopefully give others some ideas on how they might best tackle this table saw feature for their own saws.

To clear up some confusions on throat plates, shop made throat plates often have their relief cut made by the blade they will be used with making a very close tolerance between the blade and the throat plate, hence the name "zero clearance", but they can also have a wider tolerance in which case they would simply be called "inserts" or "throat plates". All the term "zero clearance" refers to is the distance between the throat plate and the blade.

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/5XQj_AUiYmQ

The main reason to ensure you have and use table saw throat plates is a safety feature. Of course, we need access to the blades for changing them, and sometimes when cutting dado or making sider cuts with dado blades, wobble wheels etc, we need to use a throat plate with a wider space to accommodate the blade.

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Money Saving Hacks for Woodworking: Using Reclaimed Pallet Wood

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We all like to spend our money wisely when purchasing wood, and saving money buying wood means we can end up getting more wood if we spend wisely. 
One of the first kinds of woods that many people think about as being inexpensive, or free in many cases is Pallet Wood. That is wood that you can acquire from picking up free, discarded pallets, which are available pretty well everywhere worldwide.
I have extensive knowledge in acquiring pallets and breaking them down with my involvement in a business plan for commercially making and selling, inexpensive, rustic Pallet Furniture. As part of the business plan, I needed to "prove concept", which involved acquiring the wood and building some sample furniture. What you will read in this article is the information I quickly learned about working with Pallet Wood

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/X-OZsgJ4sic

What I discovered in working with pallet wood is that just because something is free, doesn't mean it's not inexpensive to use ...  

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Make a Dremel Drill Press / Dremel Workstation

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Dremel tools are not always thought of a traditional woodworking tools but I am astounded how many woodworkers one one of these and for me, I am always digging mine out of the cupboard for one reason or another. What I like about them is the portability and how they can do small things with such ease that most other tools are either too big or too cumbersome to use. The one thing I use mine for all - the - time, is trimming screw and nail tips that have protruded through the wood when making things like jigs. I like it when screws protrude through the wood because I know I have a "good bite" on the wood, but having a small sharp tip poking out is a hazard so I always cut them off flush and the Dremel tool is perfect for that.

Watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/yjtDYWJrOGY

More recently I found myself needed a multitude of small, even holes that could be done with the drill press, but I have always wanted a mini drill press for my Dremel tool, so now was a good time to see if I could figure something out for this ...

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