The Tips and Tricks Thread

[Ole Anderson]

I have the Leigh D1600 jig that is being used to make dovetail joints on several drawer boxes for my kitchen remod. A couple of things that helped me:

• The dovetail bits were a 8 mm shank. I had a 5/16 x 1/2" collet adaptor that worked well to adapt the 8 mm shank to the 1/2" router collet. 5/16" = 7.9375 mm.
• The 621 uses the left knob to tighten the plunge mechanism. Once you have the depth set, tighten that knob about as tight as you can get it. I didn't and my first use of the router unplunged it so that the dovetail bit ate the brass bushing. I had to get a new one from Highland Woodworking. http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/s...spx?find=leigh
• My first use of the jig generated copious amounts of sawdust. I opted to get the Leigh vacuum and router support, well worth it. Bought that also from Highland Woodworking.
• My kit did not come with the 12 degree dovetail bits needed for 5/8" drawer sides. Infinity Tools were one of the few places I could find them in the states. http://www.infinitytools.com/?key=gp...IA6g#&panel1-1
• When routing the pins, the manual recommends removing the material in 3 or 4 passes. I found that by marking 2 lines on the jig templates with a sharpie and peering over the top of the router (using eye and ear protection of course), I could get some repeatability on doing it in 3 fairly even passes. A small thing but when you are routing a hundred or more pins, doing 300 vs 400 passes can be a a big help.
• I could have used my shop vac for dust collection but opted to utilize the dust collector. As I had the Leigh jig clamped to my router table, I just connected a section of 2-1/2" vac hose from the Leigh dust collector to the 2-1/2" inlet on the side of the router table that normally services the rear fence collector. Worked fine.
• Using two layers of 1-1/8" particle board and a large forstner bit I constructed a router "landing pad" that allowed me to set the router down with the bit extended.

[Kelly Craig]

I bought a Powermatic 14" band saw several years back. It's turned out to be a great purchase. One of my complaints was the position of the goose neck light. Bending it to where it did its job pushed it to its limits. Also, it got in the way of the tension release and I had to move it each time I opened a cover to change blades. For that reason, I took a deep breath and tackled moving it. The only reasonable place was the blade support bar you adjust for different thicknesses of wood. Of course, this mean drilling and taping a hole in a sensitive spot.

Using high tech methods (a drill bit sized for the threads and blue painters' tape to set the dept), I drill holes, then tapped them. Now, the light works wonderfully without all the aforementioned issues.

[Ole Anderson]

Here is another one with a twist: I have at least 24 pieces of plywood I need to add solid wood edging to, mostly shelves, but some cabinet bottoms too. I even joined Woodworkers Guild yesterday to see two recent premium videos regarding applying edge banding. Both left a lot to be desired. I needed something quick that made sure both edges stood proud of the ply. After ripping solid edge pieces at 7/8" I laid two shelves (10-1/2" wide) on my parallel clamps with two pieces of edging in the middle to mark the locations of the edging on the clamp rails. Then I took about 10 wraps of painters tape at 4 locations around the bars that would support the shelves a bit less than a 1/16" above the clamp bars, with the edging sitting directly on the bars. Stand the shelves on edge, hold together with a spring clamp and slather both edges at once with glue. Lay them back down with the two pieces of edging back to back and tighten the clamps. The shelves act as cauls to apply even pressure along the glue line. I added a clamp in the middle for shelves longer than 28 inches. All I need to do is scrape excess glue at 1/2 hour, when I pull the clamps and run on edge across my flush trim bit on the table with a tall fence. Hit them with a palm sander and I am done.

Phase II: The upper cabinet tops and sides will be edge banded with hot melt veneer roll stock. I've done a little bit of this before on Oak with mixed results. Borrowed my wife's iron, set it on hottest (cotton/linen) and heated it in 3 passes at about 6" per second applying good pressure (to copy David Mark's terminology) , then hit it with a J-roller. When I purchased the roll of 250 feet of veneer I also got a fancy knife trimmer for the long edges. It didn't work worth a darn as it wanted to follow the grain. But the router table flush edge trimmer works as good on the veneer as it does on the solid wood edging. And to trim the ends of the veneer I just set it on a piece of hardboard on my workbench, veneer side down, and flush cut it with a 1" chisel and mallet. Hey, I am back having fun after spending the afternoon stewing over finishing eight drawer boxes with 5 coats of wipe on varnish.

[Jesse Busenitz]

New guy here, but I'm enjoying all the tips. I just got a 6x80 sander and was trying to figure out where to store all the extra belts, and then I got the idea of using a metal gallon can, and screwing what nomally is the bottom to the wall. It works great as it won't kink the belts and I put in a half moon block inside the can and made a little cubby to store misc in.

[Rick Potter]

My wife is off work for a while, and is helping with the kitchen cabinets. She has been doing the staining and finishing on the current crop for the last couple weeks. She stained a dozen panels before I woke up the other morning, and started finishing them the next day. When she got done varnishing the second coat (wipe on) she noticed the Red Oak panels were not red at all, just brown.

After a bit of soul searching we finally figured it out, she had not stirred the stain before using it. This was the same can she had use the previous day, but I stirred it before use, and she did not realize this. The stain worked great, except the reddish tint was not there, and it was easily missed till we put the panels next to some previously done. Luckily, except for two shelves, the panels are all on the inside of cabinets, and will not show once the drawers are in, so we let them go. The two shelves that are in a bookcase type unit we sanded, re-tinted, and will finish again tomorrow. Whew, no harm done.

Obviously the tip is...........stir your stain thoroughly and often, and make sure any helpers know this too.

Rick Potter

PS: Bonus tip.........In case you don't know, always keep varnish stirred, because the flattening agent settles to the bottom pretty quickly.

[Justin Ludwig]

I built a stand for my bench top drill press. I need things mobile in my shop and usually buy castors in sets of 4. The only extra castors I had at the time were 400lb rated ones I bought from Grizzly. I figured 1600lbs of castor ability was a little over the top for a bench drill press. See the pics below for a simple solution at 1/2 the cost. I'll eventually replace these big daddy castors with smaller ones once I need them.

castor-tip_1.jpgcastor-tip_2.jpg

[david milton]

i cant figure out how to post new content on the forum. can you tell me how, or tell me of someone who might be able to help?

[Ole Anderson]

i cant figure out how to post new content on the forum. can you tell me how, or tell me of someone who might be able to help?

David, welcome to the Creek! Presuming you want to start a new thread, just go to the forum you would like to post the new thread in (for example "Project Finishing") and just hit the big "Post New Thread" button on the left side and midway down the screen. You have to be on a forum index page, not already in a thread. That will bring up a fresh page for you to title a thread and post content.

[Rick Potter]

Oldie but goodie.....

The wife bought a very nice carved sign which we decided to put on a solid oak front door. I decided the least offensive way was to hit it with a few 18 ga. brads because they would hardly show, and never come out of the oak. When she got the top of the sign lined up nicely with a window in the door, I put two brads in to fasten it.

Stepping back to admire it, we realized that the bottom, not the top of the sign was the level part, and we were low on one side about 3/16". What to do? If I tried to pull the delicate sign off, the brad would pull through the sign, or worse, break the sign. There was no way the brad was coming out of solid oak. As I got out my thinnest trim puller, and as I was thinking about how it was gonna mess up my nice door, a light bulb turned on, the sun came out, and angels started singing. I remembered a really old tip about sliding the thinnest putty knife under the sign and cutting the brad.

I managed to slide the putty knife in without damage to the door. A couple strikes with a hammer cut the brad with no damage to door or plaque, we left the other sides brad alone, moved the cut side up slightly, gave it a love tap to set the cut brad in the new location, and put in a new one to hold it. Hit it with a brown crayon for the tiny brad holes, and walked away happy. Another prayer answered.

Oh, yeah. The plaque is inscribed....."Prayer Changes Things" .

Rick Potter

[Kelly Craig]

Like many, I have hundreds of sheets of sandpaper that must be cut to fit my 1/4 sheet sander. Using scissors is a slow option and a paper cutter is only marginally better. About thirty years ago, some magazine posted this simple, but efficient cutter and i have been using it ever since.

All it requires is a scrap piece of sheet stock a few inches wider than (a little more than the width of a hack saw blade) and about the same length as a sanding sheet, a hack saw blade, two screws and a couple washers.

To make it:

1) Lay a full sheet of paper on the sheet stock and trace around it with a felt tip. When positioning the paper, leave enough room on each side to mount the hack saw blade, in step 3).

2) Measure half way down the long dimension and draw a line, which cuts the outline of the long dimension of the sheet in half.

3) Mount the hack saw blade with a flat washer on each side, between it and the sheet stock. The blade teeth should be on the line which dissected the outline.

4) Slide a full sheet under the blade so it lines up with your initial outline. Pull down from a corner so the paper is torn by the blade, producing a sheet exactly half the original length.

5) Turn one of the torn sheets over, measure for half the longest dimension and mark a line across.

6) Slide the marked sheet under the blade, with the line showing and the grit against the sheet material until the line lines with the hack saw teeth. Now draw another outline on the sheet goods around the bottom of this piece.

When done, for all future cuts:

1) Slide a sheet of paper, grit out, under hack saw blade, lining it with the full sheet outline and pull down, at an angle across the blade teeth.

2) Spin the cut sheet ninety degrees and align it with the half sheet outline and pull down again.

Sandpaper Cutter-5.jpgSandpaper Cutter-1.jpgSandpaper Cutter-2.jpgSandpaper Cutter-3.jpgSandpaper Cutter-4.jpg

[Joe O'Connor]

I'd been searching for a quick and easy bench hold down clamp when I discovered I already had several. The Irwin quick grip clamps I recently purchased have removable heads and the bar slides right through a 3/4 inch dog hole so all you have to do is take the head off put the bar through the hole and replace the head on the underside of your bench.

[Bill Sutherland]

Hmmm....my Irwins have a little nib near the bottom and that stops the one clamp from sliding off.

[Joe O'Connor]

Hmmm....my Irwins have a little nib near the bottom and that stops the one clamp from sliding off.

Mine may be a newer model. On mine it's the fixed jaw that is removable, there's a small spring loaded knob that unscrews allowing the head to slide off.

[George Bokros]

I have seen bit manufacturers recommend using an o-ring or a small rubber grommet as a spacer also.

I use the grommet, it does not fall out when you set the router down without a bit in the collet.

George

[Greg Hines, MD]

I use a pipe flange, screwed to the underside of the top of my bench, with some large access holes drilled through the top. This allows me to screw in a pipe nipple (usually 12" or 18") into the flange, and use a deep throat pipe clamp head to clamp things to my bench. I spaced 4 of them around my bench top, and generally, use them for clamping down my planer when I need it on the bench. It works quite well.

Doc