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Tricks Of the Trade


Gene Howe

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Some of us here on TPWW frequent the Router Forums, so the name bobj3 will be familiar. Sadly, Bob passed away recently. Bob was famous for his jigs and time and money saving tricks. 

In his honor, a fella over there started a thread for what he calls "woodworking hacks". I hope he doesn't mind if we start a similar thread here. And, for those of you who read and post over there, I hope you don't find this thread redundant. Besides, with all the wonderful woodworkers here, I'm sure we'll have many novel ideas to share.

 

I'll start the ball rolling with one of my favorites.

When planing long stock, I used to place a roller stand at the infeed and outfeed sides of my planer. Adjusting them perfectly was time consuming and often inaccurately done. So, while perusing material in Lowes, I spied their Melamine coated pre cut shelving and had an epiphany. Brought home a length, stuck it through the planer, added a stop on the underside and retired the roller stands.  

 

Please jump right in with some of your neat tricks and jigs. 

 

Edited by Gene Howe
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7 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

No picture, sorry. It's 7' long and there's about 3' in front of the cutters, so maybe a foot beyond the front table. The shelf is 12" wide so a good fit for the DeWalt.

I remember seeing that somewhere and did the same thing. you loose 3/4" height adjustment, so have to take that into account, but doesn't matter in most cases.  It does solve any snipe problems too. The only down side is that you have to have enough room in the shop for the extension.

Good tip Gene,

Herb

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I recently read a neat technique* in a Tommy Mac book.   It's on how to cut compound angles without relying on trig functions.   This he used on a hopper tray like you'd use for a serving tray, tool tray or such.  Now this is not for mitered corners, but for corners that you are going to butt, rabbet, or dovetail.
 

Away from home at the moment so I'll try to describe without photos.

 

1. Set your tilt angle.   I chose 15 degrees for my trial. 

2. Rip the edges of your sides at this angle.  Be sure to make a parallegram, not a trapezoid.

3. Make a "magic block"   Grab a piece of scrap, 2x2x8 or bigger.  Bevel rip all 4 sides.   Your result should look like the "hollow" of the tray.

4. Now reset the table saw tilt angle.  Resting the magic block on one edge, adjust the tilt angle of the blade to be flush with the adjacent beveled edge.

5. Using the same magic block flush on the saw blade, adjust the miter angle to be flush with the edge of the block.  You will want to put a piece of wood as a miter gauge extension.

6. Cut one end of each side with the miter gauge on the right side of the blade.  There's not a good way to describe which side to put on the table other than to look at the piece and decide which way the angle needs to go,.  IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHICH EDGE YOU PUT NEXT TO THE MITER GAUGE.

7.  If you are doing rabbeting, this is the time to do the rabbet on two of the corners (long side boards)

8. Once all the cuts are made on the right side of the blade, without changing the tilt or miter angles, move the miter gauge to the left side of the blade.   Make the other end cut.   To do this, put the opposite face on the table.  It helps to put an x on the wood on the up side on the right and another x on the opposite side on the other end.

8.  Make all your cuts on the left side of the blade as described.   It helps to have a stop and do opposite sites against the stop.  If you are doing rabbeting, do them on this side of the long boards, too.

 

Now you should have well-fitting joints.

 

 

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Made this adjustable and extendable TS Mitre Gauge Fence. TS Mitre fence back.JPG

The fence is positioned via the tracks on the back . There is an adjustable stop on top of the fence also mounted on track.P6301907.JPG

The extension mounts in a slot cut in the 2 pieces of the fence before joining. Also placed sandpaper on the front to keep wood from sliding.

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Cheap "Speed Square"..

Speed Square.JPG

Was designed to fit a DeWalt Jobsite saw......can be used just about anywhere, as a rip fence for those saws ( I use a circular saw)

 

Can be used as a crosscut guide.    It can be clamped to a board to guide a saw, or a router..

speed square 2.JPG

That is a hardwood cleat, set at 90 degrees to the long edge   3 pieces of scrap  and a handful of screws.   Accurate?    As accurate as YOU can make it.  Too tall of a fence?  switch out to a shorter one,.....not tall enough, switch out to a taller one.    Maybe someday, I'll add a layer of slick plastic......speed square 3.JPG

I mostly use this to get square crosscuts or rips on wide boards.   tip:   use the "Factory Edge" at a corner of the plywood sheet.    I made mine as a right triangle, for weight.   You can always add a hole to use as a hanger point on the wall. 

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2 hours ago, Dadio said:

Awhile back I needed some 1/8" buttons for plugs. This is the jig I made to cut them from 3/4" dowel stock.

Herb

 

 

 

 

 

It also helps if you put some masking tape over the cut end to keep from wobbling, especially if you are doing plug cutting and have a whole row of them.

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5 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

In his honor, a fella over there started a thread for what he calls "woodworking hacks". I hope he doesn't mind if we start a similar thread here.

Great idea Gene...rather than a thread, would this topic warrant enough activity to support it's own Forum topic? Seems there was something similar on the former Wood site...Shop Tips, Techniques & ????

I was a longtime subscriber to Shop Notes before it "died" which I enjoyed. Still get the weekly e-Tips from Woodsmith...Just a thought before I have to be re-charged. Don't expect much more from me today though.:lol:

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Here is another one. A year or so ago, some company had a sale on Forstner bit sets at a very reasonable price. Once in awhile I need a larger size for one hole,then not need it for awhile and usually that bit cost as much as this set. So after I got them, I found that when I chucked it up it was not running true. Upon examination I found the hex tangs were rough forged and the rest was ground. I tried to chuck them up by turning the bit one flat spot at a time on the tang until I found the "sweet" spot that ran true. Then I marked the shank with a felt pen and marked the chuck to correspond. I did this to each bit  referencing them to the same mark on the chuck and got all of them to run true, so When I pick a bit I can just chuck it up and start drilling.

The bits might be cheap ones, but they cut clean and are sharp. Maybe not production, but work for what I do.

Herb

2015-2016 307.JPG

2015-2016 308.JPG

2015-2016 309.JPG

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