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I know that to get good at something you need to practice, but I just never seem to use my Husqvarna Chainsaw enough to really get efficient at sharpening the blade. I do a good job of sharpening, but I know it takes me much longer than someone who uses the saw a lot.
My biggest challenge is when I have the saw in the field, and inadvertently hit the dirt or some small rocks, I can feel the blade getting dull instantly and have to stop to sharpen it. This is where my sharpening skills need the most help. I find it difficult at best to try and hold the saw with one hand and sharpen with the other. I know there are some jigs you can buy that you can drive into the stump of a tree, then clamp the chainsaw bar to ... but I never seem to be around a big enough stump to use one of these clamps. I am however, very often fairly close to my truck, so why not build a clamping system for the chainsaw bar, that I can fasten to my truck's tailgate, that I can then spend a few minutes and make a good job of sharpening the blade.
I started off by measuring the size of my saw and cutting an old piece of 1/2" plywood to fit. In my case 31" x 15". Next I needed to make a simple rack that would hole the motor and handles from moving around too much ...
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Well, we finally get a chance to use the router circle jig to cut out our round table top. For this we are using a 1/4" pure carbide bit. If you are really not familiar with carbide, it is not like some form of steel. The structure of carbide is that it is more like a crystal. This means it will break before it bends, unlike steel that will take a massive force, bend and bend and then finally break. Carbide bits are much more sensitive to side pressure and if you push them too hard, they snap and are now useless. The good thing about carbide and the reason we use it is that it has a very high boiling point. This means, that unlike steel, you can subject carbide to very high temperatures and it won't melt like steel does. When steel bits melt, even partially they become dull and that's why we like carbide, it stays sharp much longer than similar steel bits.
Remember, the point to cutting this table top is to ultimately use this top as part of our 3-legged pedestal side table which you can see in other related videos.
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Woodworkers are always making jigs. Sometimes a jig is used only once, other times it can be used hundreds or thousands of times. In this article and video we are making an adjustable circle jig for a router that has been designed and drawn by David Cooksey, one of our long-time members. David has been sending me plans and drawings of many different jigs and woodworking objects for some time now and we thought it was high time we let everyone else in on David's great ideas.
Today we are covering this circle jig, and you are welcome to down load your own version of it from our Plans section, and it's free ... and we all have David Cooksey to thanks for this. NOTE, you do have to be a member of woodworkweb in order to access our download section, but that's free too, and then you can access all the other plans and links to plans that we have put together for our members and subscribers. There is a short list of materials that you will need ....
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Woodworking often seems to be about building or making something to do a job you need done, but don't have the tool for. I would love to have a 20 or 24 inch planer, or 24 inch belt sander, unfortunately I would use either so seldom it would not be a cost effective purchase.
So, when I need to plane a board that is too thick, if it is larger than my 15 inch planer, I have to devise another way of planing the board down. There are a few options, you can find a local woodworking shop to plane or sand the board down (for a price), or you can use a hand plane (which is very tedious if it is a large board), you can take the fence of many jointers and make multiple passes, but then you have re-install the fence and adjust it, you could use a hand power planer (but they can gouge the wood if you are not careful) and the last option ... which is the one I opted for is to make a planing jig or planing sled that I can use my router on.
These jigs are not new and have been around in one form or another for years. I you purchase rough sawn lumber from local mills or suppliers, this is something that will be a Must Have in your workshop. Or if you don't have a planer of any size, this allow you to plane and re-surface boards in fairly short order, and do a great job of it.