What to Do with Slippery Glue

Sometimes you have a simple project where you just want to glue a couple of pieces of wood together.  You might not want to mess around with a bunch of fancy joinery, but you probably do want the alignment of the two pieces to be correct.  So you draw some lines on one piece to show where the other piece should go.
Then you smear some glue on both pieces and slap them together.  The glue is so slippery that you can't keep everything in position while you apply a clamp, and even if you could, the squeezed out glue has covered up your lines.  Bummer.
So what you need to do is start over, but this time before you start slinging the glue, clamp an alignment block right next to one of your layout lines, but on the opposite side of the line from where the glued-on piece is supposed to go.
Now you can glue and clamp the parts together and be confident that, as long as the part you're gluing is in contact with the alignment block, it will be in the right place.
Don't forget to remove the alignment block and clean up the excess glue before it hardens!

Adjustable-Width Vise Spacer

If you want to hold a big panel or something in your vise, sometimes you have to clamp it off to one side of the vise because the vise hardware gets in the way. When you do that, it's a good idea to put a spacer in the other side of the vise to keep the vise from racking.  So you have to find something as thick as your workpiece to use as a spacer, then hold it with one hand while you hold the workpiece with your other hand and then somehow snug up the vise with your nose or your knee.

Growing a third arm would go a long way towards solving this problem, but I hear that takes a long time. Also, people who aren't quite as tolerant as they should be towards biological diversity will point and laugh and look at you like you're some sort of three-armed freak.  So that's no good.

Maybe you would be better off to just build this little gizmo.  It lets you make any size spacer you need by rotating the leaves in and out of the way. The 3/4" thick blocks on each end of the bolt keep the thing from falling through the vise while you position your workpiece with one hand and tighten the vise with the other.

Table Saw Kick-to-Stop Safety Switch

I’ve been meaning to make this thing ever since I got my table saw about three years ago. There’s a little pin on the back of the vertical piece that rides against the saw’s tiny stop button. So, by kicking the paddle with my knee, I can turn off the saw without having to look or fumble around for the little button. I figure it will be lots more convenient than the way it was. Heck, it might even save my bacon someday if I need to turn the saw off while both hands are busy trying to keep a workpiece under control.

I didn’t want to drill holes in my saw to mount the paddle, so I just stuck it on the cabinet with some 3M mounting tape. If the tape holds, I’m in business. If it doesn’t, then I’ll break down and drill a couple of holes for some bolts.

Made from scraps of poplar and 1/4” plywood. Tastefully finished with latex paint.

Living Without an End Vise

My workbench is sort of a multipurpose table that I use for lots of different things. As a result, it doesn't have many of the features of a real woodworking bench.

For example, there are no dog holes, partly because there are drawers immediately below the top that would interfere with dogs and holdfasts, and partly because I really don't want to be dropping little parts through holes in the work surface when I've got the vacuum cleaner torn to bits for repair. Likewise, there is no end vise on my bench, because about half the reasons to have an end vise go away if there aren't any dog holes nearby.

"So," you ask, "what manner of ridiculous kludge do you use when you want to plane or scrape the surface of a long board?"

On the end of the bench where a real woodworker would have a real end vise, I arrange a thinnish board against end of the workpiece, a small wedge to push the thinnish board in the direction of the workpiece, and another board clamped to the bench to give the wedge something to bear against.

Then on the other end of the workpiece where a real woodworker would have a dog hole, I just clamp another thinnish board to the bench that the workpiece can butt up against. With all this in place, a quick tap of the wedge will secure the workpiece for almost any operation, and a quick tap in the other direction will release it.

Convenient? Not especially. Effective? Surprisingly.

Aluminum Bandsaw Table Insert

One of the guys over on the WoodTalk Online forum was complaining about the cheap plastic table insert in his bandsaw.  I had the same problem with mine some time ago, and solved it by using my wood lathe to make an aluminum replacement that fits better than the plastic one did, and is a lot less flimsy.

WARNING!!!  This article describes a procedure that might be considered outside the normal use of the tools involved.  If you elect to try this yourself, you are responsible for your own actions.  If anything described here doesn't seem safe to you, don't do it!

To begin, you'll need an aluminum blank that's at least thick enough to sit flush with the bandsaw table when the completed insert is installed.  Thicker is okay, but try to find stock that's as close to the correct thickness as possible.  Cut out a square of the material that's slightly bigger than the hole in the bandsaw table, and carefully mark two perpendicular center lines on it, as shown in the picture.

 Next, lay out the shape of the insert on the blank.  You can do this by scribing lines directly on the aluminum, or you can make a drawing on paper and glue it to the blank, as shown in the picture.  However you do it, be careful that the image of the insert aligns accurately with the centerlines you put on the blank in the previous step.

Find two small screws that you can use to secure the blank to a scrap of wood.  Then select a bit just slightly larger than the screws' diameter, and drill two mounting holes in the blank.  Place these holes in the area that will eventually be cut away to form the slot for the bandsaw blade.

Now mount a scrap of wood on your faceplate.

Install the faceplate onto the lathe, and if necessary, face off the outboard surface of the wood so it is smooth and flat.  With the lathe running, locate the center of rotation and use a pencil to place a small dot there.

Next, draw an arbitrary centerline through the dot.  Then rotate the scrap exactly ninety degrees and draw a second centerline perpendicular to the first one.

Now align the centerlines on the aluminum blank with the centerlines on the faceplate scrap, and attach the blank to the scrap with the two small screws.

You do NOT want to use your wood turning chisels on the aluminum!  Instead, grab an old file and grind a point on it similar to that shown in the picture.  You'll want this to be fairly small; mine is about 1/16" wide.

Now set the lathe to its slowest speed and use the modified file to cut a groove in the blank that's just outside the perimeter of the insert.  Make sure you're wearing eye and face protection, and go at it easy, with very light cuts.

Continue by making the groove deeper and wider until you finally cut completely through the aluminum and into the wood, leaving only the round insert mounted to the faceplate.

Use a normal turning chisel to remove some of the wood from around the outside of the blank, so that you can then use a regular file (with the lathe running) to clean up the edge of the insert.  Be careful at this point that you don't go too deep and hit the screws that are holding the scrap to the faceplate.

If you have an accurate way to measure the diameter of the insert, continue filing until you reach the correct size.  Otherwise, "sneak up" on the fit by repeatedly filing a little bit and then removing the faceplate from the lathe so you can test the size of the insert against the actual hole in the bandsaw table.

When you have the diameter correct, use the modified file to cut a little rabbet around the perimeter of the insert so that it sits flush with the table surface when installed.  Again, you may have to "sneak up" on a good fit by repeatedly removing a small amount of material and then checking the insert against the actual hole in the bandsaw table.

Now you can remove the insert from the face plate, cut out the slot for the bandsaw blade, and clean everything up with a bit of sandpaper.  This is what the top side of mine looks like.

And here's the bottom.

Easy Edge Clamping with Regular C-Clamps

Next time you need some edge clamps, and don't feel like spending $34.99 each (!) for a bunch of these, grab some of your regular C-clamps and some wedges, and set them up like this:

How to Not Mount Things on Your Workbench

When I made my first workbench, I bolted my grinder to one of the front corners and my mechanic's vise to the other. You know, where they'd be handy. Well, they were handy enough, but they were also in the way a lot of the time.

So when I made my second workbench, I mounted both the grinder and the vise on some little wooden platforms instead of directly to the workbench. That way, I can clamp them to the bench when I need them, and put them elsewhere when I don't.

The funny notches in the platforms make it so "elsewhere" usually means hanging from French cleats on the shop wall.

Mess-Free Varnish Applicator Pads

I'm a big fan of the Wood Whisperer DVD where Marc Spagnuolo explains his wiping varnish technique.  If I remember correctly, Marc suggests old T-shirts as the material of choice for making the applicator pads.  Well, I'm still wearing my old T-shirts, thank you very much, so I decided to try paper towels instead.

I was a little bit worried that the paper towels would fall apart fairly quickly and leave fuzz and lint in the finish.  As luck would have it, though, they didn't.  A lot of that probably has to do with the brand (Bounty) that I'm using.  For the record, I haven't tried any other brands to see if they might be better or worse.

The Bounty towels come in sheets that are 11" long and 6" wide.  I stack two of these sheets on top of each other, then fold them in half twice the long way to make a pad that's 6" long and 2-3/4" wide.  Then I fold that in half twice the other way so the end result is 2-3/4" long, 1-1/2" wide, and about 1/2" thick.

Finally, I stick the whole thing in one of those black, heavy-duty binder clips.  The binder clip keeps the pad all folded up and makes it very easy to control.  And best of all, the handles mean you don't have to hold the sticky, varnish-soaked pad with your fingers.

This trick works best if the pad is just a little wider than the binder clip, so that the pad is supported by the clip along its full width.  If you want a wider pad than the one described, you can fold the paper towel differently and then use a couple of popsicle sticks to increase the effective width of the clip.

Don't Trust Your Tape Measure

Every once in a while on the woodworking forums there's a discussion about the problem of laying out and cutting parts accurately, and these talks typically tally time-tested tips like these:

1. Be careful!
2. Be sure to cut on the waste side of the line.
3. Use a knife instead of a pencil for marking.
4. Set up stop blocks for making repeated cuts.
5. Use relative dimensioning where possible.
6. Don't trust that sliding hook on the end of your tape measure.
7. And so on.

Here's one more tip:  For really accurate work, don't trust your tape measure at all.  Period.

"Really?" you say.  Well, yes.  As it turns out, the machine that makes tape measures uses a rubber belt to print the markings on the tape.  This belt can stretch slightly during the process, and when it does, the marks it puts on the tape will be misplaced by however much the belt stretched.  This means that while a particular tape may be perfectly accurate at, say, the 12-inch mark and the 24-inch mark, it might be off by a noticeable amount halfway in between.

Whether this potential inaccuracy actually matters or not depends on what you're doing.  In any case, though, it's a good thing to be aware of and something to think about if you're having trouble.  For much more detailed information, click here.

A Poor Man's Microadjuster

For repeated crosscuts using a miter saw or a crosscut sled or a radial arm saw, nothing beats a stop of some sort for consistent results.  Same thing for some operations on a drill press with a fence. Problem is, setting the stop can be kind of tedious sometimes.  You make a test cut, bump the stop a smidge, make another test cut, bump the stop half a smidge the other way, and so on.

For the price of a drywall screw, though, you can set up a poor man's microadjuster that will eliminate most of the fussing.  Just drive the screw into your stop and use it to register the workpiece instead of the stop itself.  You can then make fine adjustments to your setup simply by turning the screw. A secondary benefit is that sawdust won't get trapped between the workpiece and the stop like it might if the screw wasn't there.

Drywall screws work especially well for this, for a couple of reasons.  First, they're not tapered, which means that they won't become loose in the hole when you back them partway out.  Second, some of them have exactly eight threads per inch.  That means that one turn will conveniently move the screw 1/8", a half turn will move it 1/16", and so on.

File Card Cleans Clogged Sandpaper

"Won't tear!!!"
"Won't clog!!!"
"Lasts forever!!!"

Yeah, right.  Not much you can do when your sandpaper tears or finally wears out.  But when it gets clogged up, give it a couple of swipes with a file card and get back to work.

Face Frame Glue-Ups Made Easy

When you're making a cabinet with a face frame, life can get
real interesting when it comes time to glue the face frame to
the carcass. You need to deploy a lot of glue, get everything
positioned properly, and then apply a bunch of cauls and
clamps, all before the glue begins to set up. After the glue
has been spread, it can be especially tricky to keep the face
frame from sliding out of position as you apply the first
couple of clamps.

So, although a simple butt joint is more than adequate to
attach the face frame to the carcass, lots of people use some
sort of joinery there anyway, simply to help align the parts
during glue-up. A shallow rabbet around the back of the face
frame works for this purpose.  Biscuits do, too.

Both of those options take some extra effort, though, and
neither one adds any extra value to the final project. Here's a
different way to keep the face frame and the carcass aligned
during assembly that doesn't involve any superfluous joinery.

	Make the carcass and the face frame as usual.  Make the face frame slightly larger than the carcass so you can trim the edges of the frame flush with the sides of the cabinet later.
	Without applying any glue, carefully position the face frame on the carcass so there is a little bit of overhang all around the edge.  Clamp the parts together in this position.
	Next, position four temporary alignment blocks in the corners behind the face frame.  Press these tightly against the carcass walls, and clamp them to the face frame only.
	Here's how it looks from the back with the alignment blocks in place.
	Now remove the face frame from the carcass, but leave the alignment blocks clamped to the face frame.

At this point, you can go ahead with the actual glue-up.  The temporary blocks will guarantee the alignment of the parts, leaving you with two hands free to juggle your clamps, any excess glue, and your beer.  Just be sure to remove the alignment blocks before you're done, lest some of that excess glue stick them permanently to the inside of the cabinet.

Low Cost Shop Made Leveling Feet

My shop is in my garage.  The terrain out there is kind of lumpy, with a noticeable slope towards the door.  So when I built my shop furniture, I definitely needed to provide adjustable support of some sort to make up for the uneven floor.

For my first project, I got some fancy feet from Rockler.  These worked great, but after paying about $25 for a set of four, I started looking around for a Plan B.

On my second and subsequent projects, I got by for a lot less money by gluing blocks of wood behind my toe kicks everywhere I wanted a foot.  Then I drilled a hole and embedded a nut in each block to accommodate a carriage bolt.  I potted the nuts in J-B Weld to make sure they would stay put.

If you don't mind a gap of 3/4" or so between the toe kicks and the floor, it's easy to turn the carriage bolts with a Crescent wrench.  If you want the toe kicks closer to the floor, use a hacksaw to make a big fat screwdriver slot in the threaded end of each carriage bolt.  Then you can adjust them through a hole in the cabinet base just like the Rockler guys do.

Beyond Relative Dimensioning

Once upon a time, I thought you could draw up a plan for a woodworking project, make all the parts according to the plan, and then have them magically fit together.  After all, that's how they make cars and washing machines and ink jet printers.  The result was, of course, that things almost fit, but not always, and not always very well.

Relative Dimensioning

Eventually I learned the trick of relative dimensioning.  When you're making a cabinet, for example, you should make the carcass according to the plan, then toss the plan aside and make the doors and drawers to fit.  In fact, you should toss your tape measure aside, too, and where possible transfer dimensions directly from the already-built parts to the not-yet-built parts.

The same idea applies to all kinds of projects where the parts have to fit together.  Here's a really simple example.  This is a drill press table.  Minus the T-rack, it's just a piece of melamine with some solid wood trim around the edges.

Just for grins, let's say the melamine itself is 18" x 24", and the trim is 2" wide.  In theory, then, the shorter trim pieces on the ends should be 18" long, and the longer trim pieces at the front and rear should be 28" long.  But rather than try to cut out all five pieces ahead of time and then assemble them, it's much better to do it like this:

1. Cut the melamine to size and rip all the trim stock to width.
2. For the end trim pieces, transfer the actual width of the melamine to two pieces of the trim stock and cut them to length.
3. Attach the end pieces of trim to the melamine.
4. For the front and rear pieces, transfer the actual length of the resulting assembly to two more pieces of the trim stock and cut them to length.
5. Attach the front and rear pieces to the melamine.

If your cuts are accurate, this should give good results.  But they still might not be perfect, for any of a number of reasons.  Such as:

1. Your weren't able to cut the trim pieces to exactly the right length.
2. One or more of your cuts was not perfectly square.
3. When attaching the trim pieces to the melamine, you weren't able get everything lined up perfectly flush.
4. Etc.

So what to do?  In many situations, the only answer is to try to work more accurately.  And that of course requires practice, diligence, patience, care, and all manner of similar good stuff that is not always in abundant supply.  In other situations (and the drill press table just happens to be one of them), a different approach can give better results with less skill.

Cut It Big and Trim to Fit

The trick is to cut your parts a little bit larger than you really want them, and them trim them to their exact size. What I'm getting at here is different than "sneaking up on the fit" by carefully removing small amounts of material until the fit is correct.

Here's how it would work with the drill press table. Start by cutting the melamine piece to the desired length, but a little bit wider than you want. Then attach the end trim pieces as shown at A. Make them a little bit long, and also a little bit wide. Now trim the assembly to its final width as shown by the dashed lines. The result, at B, will have the end trim pieces exactly flush with the melamine.

Now add the front and back trim pieces and trim again as shown by the dashed lines at C to get the perfect result shown at D.

As I mentioned, this trick doesn't apply always, but when it does, it will save you some time and a few headaches.  Maybe you can find ways to use it in your projects.

Bandsaw Table Clamping Pads

If your Taiwanese copy of the Delta 14" bandsaw is anything like my Taiwanese copy of the Delta 14" bandsaw, you've surely discovered how difficult it is to clamp things to the table. The lip around the edge makes it awkward to get a clamp positioned in the first place, and when you do, chances are good that one of the funny webs in the casting is right where you want to put the clamp. So you jury rig something, finish what you were doing, and mumble to yourself, "I've got to fix that someday."

Well, someday for me came a week or so ago, only five or so mumble-filled years after I first got the saw. I grabbed some 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" poplar and made the pieces shown in the picture by hacking away at each one as needed to provide clearance for all the obstacles on the underside of the table. The resulting pieces might have passed for some exotic Japanese joinery had they actually fit together in some exotic Japanese way.

I attached them to the bottom of the bandsaw table using hot melt glue, then reinstalled the table on the saw. A day or two into the "and everyone lived happily ever after" phase, one of the pieces fell off onto the floor. After more hot melt glue and a couple more days, two of the other pieces fell off. Time for Plan B, which was some double-sided foam tape that 3M calls "Mounting Tape".

The coolest thing about the 3M tape (besides the fact that it works) is a little note on the package that says, "Not recommended for use on hard-to-stick surfaces." That can only mean one thing, and that is: "This stuff won't stick to anything that it won't stick to."

I guess we can't say they didn't warn us.