The Tips and Tricks Thread

[Alan Gan]

Not sure if this is an idea that has been posted before or even if it is worth posting. I found it to be very helpful when sanding between coats of Finish. I took some of the pad used for holding lumber from slipping while sanding and cut a small section out. Then rolled a piece of sandpaper over the pad.

This gave me a little spring to the sand paper that prevented sanding through the finish.

[Bruce Page]

Alan, that's one of those "why didn't I think of that" tips. I will file that away for future use!

[Ole Anderson]

Probably obvious to most, but when finishing a large number of panels or drawers in my garage, I put up two sawhorses and lay an extension ladder on top in order to be able to spread out many pieces at one time. I usually lay a tarp down first on the floor to catch any drips. And sometimes I cover the ladder first with a roll of plastic sheeting. Right now I am ready to repaint (with a roller) five large pantry shelves.

[Ole Anderson]

I just finished a renovation of my mudroom which required pulling all of my oak trim, retiling the floor and then reusing the trim. You can't pound 18 ga brads, or even 15 ga power driven finish nails back out of Oak, and you can't pull the nails through, so I had to cut the nails off. Problem is that typical diagonal cutters don't cut flush due to the double bevel. In the past I have used a grinder with a cutoff wheel, but that is a pain. While at my local tool store I spotted as set of FastCap flush cutters. Man those worked like a charm, I wish I had found those years ago. It wasn't until I looked at this ad that I understood what the magnets were for. I left them in the store not knowing. Oh well. They also make a similar cutter with larger jaws for flush cutting the end of veneer edge banding.

[William C Rogers]

I don't know if this is really a tip, but about every 12-18 months I gather all my old finishing materials separating the oil base from water base. This is stuff to old to use on anything good. Keeping separate dump it into a 5 gallon bucket and put it on the wood of my 16 foot trailer with a roller. Just a way to keep it from the landfill. I usually end up with a gallon of each.

[Ole Anderson]

Today I needed to put a bevel on a small scrap in order to use it to support a photo on an aluminum plate. I found a small piece of Ipe that would work nicely, but running that small piece through the table saw required too much of a pucker factor. My push "stick" just wouldn't hold it against the fence. So I stuck a piece of double stick tape to the piece and found that now my push "stick" and the scrap were now one and I was able to rip the bevel with confidence that there would be no kickback. Although looking at the picture, I didn't position the foot of the stick at the rear of the piece, yet all went well.

[Ole Anderson]

Ok, this is only a WW tip if you put liners in your shop trash cans: Kitchen trash bags are always a bit too large and they get pushed into the bin along with the trash. If you pull out the embedded tie, and take up a little by putting a knot in it, the bag will now fit snug and not fall in along with the trash.

[Ole Anderson]

This tip is similar to #6, but even more foolproof. I was making new 3-1/2" square legs for my pool table and made them up using 3/4" oak joined at the corners with a lock miter bit. Anyone having used that bit know how finicky they are as far a keeping the stock up against the bit and flat on the table. So I wanted a foolproof way to do that, short of using a shaper with a power feed. I had an old aluminum angle previously used as a fence that I clamped to the table to positively keep stock up against the fence all the way through the cut. And with the acrylic safety shield that came with my Freud fence pushed down on the stock, it was totally captive as it was fed through the bit.

[Ole Anderson]

This is a pretty obvious tip. If you have a miter saw extended fence with an attached measurement system ( in my case the one from Kreg), you know you can't set the fence at much less than 12 inches. And many cuts on the MS are less than 12 inches. So I just cut a piece of hardwood at exactly 10" as a spacer and clearly marked it so it wouldn't end up scrap. I hang it on the pegboard between cuts.

[Keith Outten]

Ole,

At the top of most Forums is a special thread for Sticky threads. Check it out, you will find a link to this thread.

We did this so we don't end up with 25 sticky threads in each forum which causes people to complain.
I read every thread and post in the Support Forum.

[Rick Potter]

Ole,

I use that same trick on my RAS, to keep me from getting my hands too close to the blade. Works for me, too.

[Ole Anderson]

Ole,

At the top of most Forums is a special thread for Sticky threads. Check it out, you will find a link to this thread.

We did this so we don't end up with 25 sticky threads in each forum which causes people to complain.
I read every thread and post in the Support Forum.

I just thought it odd that there is only one sticky in the GWP forum, the most popular, while in the companion Workshop forum there were 5 that didn't warrant the same rationale. I agree, I don't want 25 stickies at the top of the index either.

[Keith Outten]

Ole,

I'm surprised that since the Sticky threads are open for anyone to use that people aren't sharing their favorite links.

[Rick Potter]

Keith,

Perhaps it is because once a sticky is read, some of us, like me for instance, don't go back to it. We automatically start our browsing at the regular threads, and never think to recheck the sticky's.

[Keith Outten]

You don't have to recheck any sticky threads if you use the new posts option, they will come up in the list of threads that have changed.

The Master Sticky Thread will at least give everyone an opportunity to visit threads of special interest in one place, even if you just check the thread once per week or month.
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