Woodworking Tools Videos

Building a Prototype Dust Hood for Sliding Mitre

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For those of you who have chop saws or sliding mitre saws and are not happy with the poor (if any) dust collection capabilities of your system, this article is for you. For other information related to this topic, and to see where I got my inspiration for this project, check out the Forums on woodworkweb.com - Dust Collection section, to read and see pictures of what others have done.
For my saw, I am for ever cleaning up the dust, and even though it has one of those "industry standard" dust collection socks, that actually do (barely) work. I did not want to build a honking large dust collection hood around the saw, but rather something small that would be efficient in dust collection. I have seen the pictures and read the reports from others who have made similar adaptions so this would be my prototype to see if, and how well something like this would work on my saw.

One of the great things with doing prototyping is that you learn things you might not have otherwise discovered and confirm other things you suspected  ...

Fixing an Air Nailer - 23 Gauge Pinner

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Part of being a woodworker is being able to fix, adjust, sharpen and re-utilize. All of these take a certain amount of talent, a little of common sense and a whole lot of self confidence. When ever I find my self embarking on some new repair or method, I always tell myself that whatever I do wrong, it can all get fixed.
And so it was when my inexpensive 23 gauge air pinner died on the first nail on a recent project. The pin jambed in the pinner as it entered the wood and hand to be pulled free. As luck would have it, I have an 18 gauge pinner that finished the job, but that still left me with a broken 23 gauge pinner and the one I seem to use the most because is uses very small, headless pins that once driven into many woods, the nail and hole virtually disappear so it's perfect for temporarily holding pieces together while glue dries and you often don't even need to worry about filling the tiny holes.

Upon putting the pinner back in it's plastic case I noticed there was a spare piston that I had long since forgotten about. There was even 2 Allen Wrenches just the size that fits the pinner, so it looked to me like someone expected this pinner would need to have it's pin-driving-plunger replaced at some point in time. Nice of them to add this component as part of the purchase.

All About Hole Saws Including the Freud Quick Release System

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Hole saws have a confusing name so I don't blame anyone for being unclear about them, I was too a one time. Holes saws are really nothing but another form of drill bit with saw teeth at the bottom for cutting nice, usually fairly clean, round holes.

The good thing about hole saws is you can often make nice holes in hard to get at places, or even places that are impossible with pretty much anything else. I thinking here about plumbing and electrical installs, but holes saws can be just as handy and effective on flat easy to get at places too. Have you ever hand to drill and nice round hole in a door for a door handle or lock? Hole saws make quick, easy work of things like this.

Like most things there is good quality versions and ... well, not so great quality versions, and like many things the price will often tell you which is which. Often the cheaper hole saws are more for one-time or very rare use and often don't have the depth for things like doors and floors, only the better quality saws have deeper cutting capabilities. The biggest bug bear with every hole saw is getting the plug out after the hole is cut.