Making a Heavy Duty Crosscut Sled
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The table saw is agueably designed for ripping wood, that's really whate it is best at, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for other things equally well. For many woodworkers, the tablesaw is first stationary tool they purchase because it is so versatile. Out of the box, they will rip and cross cut (with the appropriate blades) and even cut dado, with a small modification to the throat plate.
With many table saws, the mitre gauges are pretty standard and have small surface that accepts wood for cross cutting, still they work ok. For someone who is doing a lot of cross cutting and wants perfect repeatable results, a crosscut sled is the answer.
Making a Heavy Duty Crosscut Sled
These are relatively easy to make requiring only a few items, such as a good quality plywood base (I simly used a quater sheet of plywood that was 2 feet by 4 feet), a couple of decent quality mitre blanks and lastly a couple of flat boards that can be used for the front and back. The front stabilizer board only needs to be flat on the bottom the inside and outside should be reasonably flat but since this is only to stabilize the sled, it's not important that it be abslutely flat. The back stabilizer board DOES need to be pefectly flat on the bottom and inside as well, so selecting materials for this is very important.
If you have access to thick plywood that is 2 inches thick or better, that is ideal, otherwise you will need to hand pick something that is flat. I found a piece of construction grade, kiln dried 2x6 that was 8 feet long that looked like it would work. When I got it home and cut it in half, one half was off a tiny bit, but the other side was perfectly flat, just what I needed, and it was dry so it's not going to move around on me.
Making Mitre Slot Blanks
- Read Time: 6 mins
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Making jigs is one of the most common tasks for most woodworkers. Sometimes they are simple, sometimes not, sometimes they are used once but often they are used over and over again. Some of the most common jigs are associated with out stationary tools, like bandsaws, table saws, lathes, drill presses and so on. Many of the stationary tools that we use have mitre slots the are used for a few things, like mitre gauges, feather boards and other accessories that utilize this convenient slot.
Making Mitre Slot Blanks
Table saws are often picked on for making jigs where the mitre slots is used and when making jigs, it's ideal to be able to have some mitre gauge blanks on hand, rather than having to stop and make these as well as the jig.
Moisture Meters - Choosing and Using Them
- Read Time: 6 mins
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Surprisingly, many woodworkers do not have moisture meters, and of those who do own them, most seldom use them. With wood being as active as it is, it seems that using a moisture meter to help determine the amount of wood movement would be pretty important. To novice woodworkers, wood movement is something that is not well understood, but it is a very important component of woodworking and needs to be studied by any serious woodworker. As we all know, wood, even after it is cut is constantly either absorbing moisture or giving off moisture. This is the a nature of wood. The absorption of moisture is primarily taken in through the end grain of wood, but some moisture is absorbed through the side side grain as well.
Moisture Meters - Choosing and Using Them
The result of this moisture absorption is that the cells of the wood expand, and can, in some situations, damage woodworking projects by breaking glue joints, expanding doors, having some wood material bow, and generally making your hard created woodworking project distorted at the least and even destroyed in rare conditions.
But as everyone knows who is working with wood, movement needs to be understood in order without the wood coming apart on you or reacting in some way you don't know. Knowing how moisture meters work can help you understand how to use them properly ....
Apps for the Workshop
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Woodworking has traditionally been something we have done with hand tools, then in the last few decades we have moved to using more power tools, now with electronics, it makes me wonder what woodworking will evolve to in the future. To help me prepare for that I have invested in a small Samsung Tablet, which is similar to an Apple iPad. And for those of you who are still wondering about Tablets and iPads they are basically similar to a smartphone or iPhone ... without the phoning capability, but with all the other features.
If you are thinking of one of these units for yourself, you basically have 2 choices. You can purchase any one of several units that use what is called the Android operating system that was developed by Google. Tablets like Samsung, Nexus, Asus, Acer, etc. will use this operating system. Another choice would be the Apple iPad which uses an Apple operating system. The real difference between these units is that Apps that run on the Android units are NOT comparable with the iPad, and of course iPad Apps won't run on Android units. In a very few cases, people have developed an App for both units, but very often it will either be available on one or the other ... for now, but as these apps get more popular, many will be available for both.
Apps for the Workshop
On these smart electronic devices, iPhones and Tablets we can install something called Apps, an acronym that is short for the word application which is simply a small program that allows ...
Using a Commercial Dovetail Jig for Half-Blind Dovetails
- Read Time: 4 mins
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Dovetails have long been associated with quality woodworking and quality furniture. Dovetails look great and add a unique detail that shows the craftsmanship of the woodworker. Traditionally, dovetails were cut by hand using a back saw and a chisel, and in some cases a coping saw top help cut out the unused pieces. If you are a dedicated hand tool craftsman and or are a commercial woodworker and you can take the time to practice hand cutting dovetails, it is possible to get some amazingly accurate and beautiful results. If you are a some-times, novice or infrequent woodworker, cutting hand dovetails is something you may do very seldom so getting nice cut dovetails is much harder to do, and that is why a number of companies have developed and sell, jigs that can help those "infrequent" woodworkers in making quality dovetails.
Using a Commercial Dovetail Jig for Half-Blind Dovetails
Many of the commercial dovetail jigs are similar in their designs and in the way they operate. In most cases they will use a router with a dovetail bit fitted to it, and often these bits are included with the jig. Another thing in common with most of the commercial jigs is that they will only make what are called 1/2 blind dovetails out of the box, if you want to make Through dovetails you may need to purchase additional pieces for your jig. To see pictures of the difference between Through and 1/2 blind dovetails, see pictures further in the article.
Finding Figured Woods
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Woodworkers are always looking for wood that has "figure" or some other anomaly that makes it distinctive. Figured wood is relatively hard to find, as is most wood with some sort of distinction. When it comes to wood that look different there are a few different things to look for and it depends on what you want to do with the wood when you are looking. Wood turners are very often making smaller pieces like bowls, urns, pens and other smaller projects so finding distinctive wood for a turner is very important. Luthiers are probably the highest on the level of looking for distinctive woods because they are always looking for some sort of figured wood for making musical instruments. Wood artists who make smaller projects are also often looking for wood that is different so there is a big call for these kinds of woods.
Very often it is possible to find some of these woods, particularly if you don't need a large volume of it, in something a close as a wood pile. When trees are cut down for firewood, from time to time there are parts of the the tree that are hard to cut with a chain saw, or hard to split with an axe. These pieces or often cast aside, and these are often the pieces that can provide some sort of figure, unique grain structure or even spalting.
Finding Figured Woods
Distinctive woods come in a variety of ways, they can be something a simple as "crotch wood", a term used to describe the way wood grows around the joint of a branch and where it joins the main part of a tree, to something more elaborate as a spalting, which happens when wood gets wet for long periods and fungus grows throughout the wood changing the color patterning within the wood.
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