Hits: 3796

Tips and Jigs for subscribers in this episode ... just for a bit of a change for us all, an first up was Jeffery with some portable ideas on lighting in the workshop. And almost every workshop I visit, the lighting is between poor and awful. Seldom to I go into a shop that is well lit and bright so having portable lighting is important for

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

quality of work, accuracy and most of all safety. I'm sure some accidents can be blamed on poor lighting and certainly accuracy can lack of accuracy and I have even encountered this first hand when I picked the wrong mark and cut that instead ... 

so Jeffery's thoughts of using rechargeable portable lighting is right on the money. I can also add that head lamps, the LED type are also an excellent idea, and you could still use rechargeable batteries in these. There are lots of ideas when it comes to portable lighting and with the new LED lights, plug-in or battery, they take very little energy and produce good light, there is not reason to not use them.  

Workshop Head Light

Here is the plug-in version like the one I got from woodturnerswonders.com

Byron has been shopping at Harbor Freight it sounds like and discovered a sanding block that would also make a good push block for things like on jointers. I couldn't find such a thing, but what I found was equally interesting and that was a tile grout float (I think that is what they are called) anyway, it has a nice large, flat surface and nice big handle and just as it is, it works as a nice push block but if you wanted to dress it up with some anti skid material you could have really nice push block accessory for table saw (maybe) but certainly for router and jointer. 

Table Saw Push Blocks

Here is a Rubber Grout Float as sold by Amazon, this is an affiliate link for Colin

Next up is Doug's 2x4 push block for the table saw, and I have seen these before and even made them in the past. Doug added a wooden dowel to his, which ... to be honest I am not that keen on. I just find it adds a bit of instability to the push block, it works just fine as a 2x4 push block and some would even argue that it forces the user to lower the table saw blade to the correct height, thus making cutting on the table saw safe.  

table saw jig

And finally we come to Paul's submission the Table Saw Blade Height adapter that saddles the table saw fence, and I really liked this and not sure if I have ever seen his before. I like it because you are not fussing with table saw throat plates and if you make the jig just slightly higher that the table saw fence deck (notice the tiny gap under mine) you an flip it to the other side of the fence and it could stay there, out of the way but hand to use when ever you need it. If you want to add a little bit of ruler edging to it, that wouldn't hurt and you could still custom mark it with masking tape and or using measuring bars as shown below. 

Table Saw Blade Height Adapter

 Measuring bars as sold through Amazon, these are the kind Colin prefers ... link here

I also want to take a quick moment to thank all my YouTube subscribers who email me with their tips and ideas, I love hearing about them and passing them along to other woodworkers ... thanks you all for doing this

Copyright Colin Knecht
woodworkweb