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The biscuit joiner was invented around 1955 in Europe with the intention it would help cabinet makers using particleboard, MDF, and plywoods in making stronger and more accurate joints using these materials. It was soon discovered that a biscuit joiner could also be used in natural woods too.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/yEsCVi4Rsn4

One of the main purposes of a biscuit joiner for anyone using natural woods was to use it for making connections for aligning narrow boards together to make a wider board. Using biscuits to help keep natural boards aligned for glue-ups became something of a standard but not everyone experienced success with this practice, including me. If you are getting good results, congrats, many people are not and this article is to help assist those who are having problems with getting good results. 

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There is nothing more frustrating than once you begin to get confident with woodworking tools you find that many of the tools you have are slowing you down and in some cases causing your work to un-even or off the square. Welcome to woodworking!  where not everything is as perfect as we would like it to be. One of the challenges of learning woodworking is learning about tools as we go along, and finding out that in most cases "yes" good quality tools can often save us time.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/t67ZW4eR-gE

But many of us don't necessarily have funds available to just go out and buy the best quality tools so we need to figure out how to make the less expensive tools we have already purchased ... work better for us. The first step in the process is understanding that cheaper tools often require more time and effort in order to get good results from them. But there are some shortcuts along the way ...  

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There are many good woodworking tips and it's sometimes hard for us to remember them, but we really don't have to. Our brain will often pop that image back into our mind's eye when we encounter some sort of challenge in the workshop, and instantly, we have a solution.

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Such is the case with Timothy's idea of using the blocks and a simple ratcheting tie-downs for clamping picture frames. I have used a ratcheting tie-downs in the past, but only with special cut corner brackets .. and yes they work fine, but just using the tie-downs with wooden blocks works just as well and is quicker and easier ... 

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Magswitches seem to have an endless number of jigs that can be adapted to them or made with them. In my shop, they have become an invaluable tool for a variety of jigs that save me a lot of time and since I work alone, they are like another pair of hands in many cases.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/5u4OtEKUhp0

This tip was sent to me from John, who has figured out a way to use Magswitches in conjunction with a carpenter's square on the top of his table saw to create a large, perfectly "right angle" assembly station that can be set up and taken down in seconds.
*** Links to other articles and new fence located deeper in this article ***

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 Working with wood is not always an exacting science. Sometimes there are defects in the wood, both visible and hidden and once in a while, we woodworkers make innocent mistakes and most of these issues need to be fixed or corrected one way or another. Most of these fixes are not complicated, but often will take some time and patience to do a good job.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/k2Resximaw0

From time to time woodworkers are called upon to fix problems with wood items like furniture or other home units, that have broken, or maybe we set a tool wrong and made a bad cut ...

More Articles ...

  1. Starbond CA Glue Tips & Tricks in Woodworking
  2. Best Results for Woodworking with Pine Wood
  3. Workshop Tips and Tricks
  4. Secrets the Woodworking Pros Won't Tell You ...
  5. Advanced Edge Jointing Techniques with a Wood Jointer