Using Spacers in Project Assembly

Often in projects you’ll see identical parts needing to be positioned an equal distance apart. You can drive yourself crazy measuring and marking reference lines to place these parts, or you can save some sanity, and a lot of time, by creating a spacer.

For the Shop Class Garden Bench project, we designed the back as a series of 1x2 rails and stiles. Instead of a series of half-lap joints, the stiles are spaced 1 1/2-inches apart to accommodate the rails. To make this easier, we created a spacer jig from a 1x2 that simply butts up against the stock. It’s shaped like a “T” and was made square by using a speed square as a guide, and is simply glued and nailed together.

Later in the project, we attach seat slats that needed to be 1/4-apart. No need to make a jig for this - you can either use a piece of 1/4-inch thick stock, or rip a piece of scrap to 1/4-inch. You can cut spacers as you need them, or do as many woodworkers do, and keep a series of spacers around. Many times you'll have leftover scraps from ripping boards. Instead of tossing these in the firewood pile, keep them in a special stack.

I like to keep a lot of these around, especially after I've ripped 8-foot long boards. For example, a lot of projects call for 2-inch wide boards. After ripping a 1x3 down, I'm left with a 3/8- x 3/4-inch strip. I keep this at 8-feet, waiting until I need the spacer and cutting it to the length I need. If I’ve ripped a 1x3 to 2 1/4-inches, then I’m left with a 1/4- x 3/4-inch strip. You may have varying widths depending on the kerf of your saw blade, so be sure to double check the measurements of this scrap before you use them.

You can also use spacers as stop blocks during awkward assembly. Simply clamp them in place or temporarily tack them to a project part.

Accurate and Safe Miters on the Table Saw

By Bill LaHay

The table saw is probably the most versatile machine in any woodworking shop, but that’s not to say it does everything really well. Crosscutting lumber, especially long boards, can sometimes be a difficult balancing act. Things get even tougher when making angled or miter cuts because the workpiece will tend to shift under the pressure of the cut.

The standard miter gauge on most table saws is part of the problem; it has a smooth metal face that isn’t long enough to support the workpiece adequately through angled cuts. Fortunately, you can improve the situation with just a few shop-built accessories.

First, mill a straight piece of hardwood such as maple or oak, at least 2 or 3 inches wide, and attach it to the face of your miter gauge. (The gauge face will have holes already provided for screws.) Let this wood auxiliary fence extend past the blade, then set the miter gauge for the angle required and make a cut to trim the wood fence to length. This will give you a precise end with which you can align your workpieces.

For even better results, you can modify the auxiliary fence by gluing a strip of sandpaper to the face, and/or by adding a stop-block feature that will prevent boards from shifting while they are being cut. The photo above shows an example of this.

An even more versatile accessory is a miter sled, a wood platform with runners that slide in the miter slots of the table saw. Make the base from quality plywood or medium-density fiberboard so it will stay flat, and use hardwood strips for the runners on the underside. The runners should fit in the table slots with no side play. Attach front and rear wood rails (on edge) to the upper side of the base, making sure they are heavy and tall enough to stay intact when you cut through the plywood. (Be sure to keep any screws, nails, or other metal hardware out of the path of the saw blade.)

At this point, you’ve got a crosscut sled for cutting board ends square. Turn the saw on and raise the blade just high enough to cut through the plywood base and a workpiece, then move the sled into the blade to make the first cut. For miter cuts, screw removable wood cleats to the sled base at 45 degrees (or whatever angle you need). Using cleats on both the right and left side of the blade will make the jig more versatile. Keep in mind, however, that perfectly square corners are virtually nonexistent in a house, so if you are cutting trim moldings, adjust the angles to get the fit tight, whether or not your cuts are a true 45 degrees.

Aside from these useful jigs, there are a few other tips for getting good miter cuts:

• Cut twice, first to make a through-cut within about 1/16” of the finished length, then a light trim cut for the final pass.


• Install the right blade: a crosscut blade with 60 or more carbide teeth and a full-width (typically 1/8”) kerf. Thin-kerf blades tend to flex more under side loads such as miter cuts and so can leave an irregular surface.


• If your saw still won’t produce clean miter cuts, use a manual (guillotine-style) miter trimmer or a stationary disc sander to clean up the ends. Be sure to allow extra length on the workpiece for this trimming.
  
  

Shop Tip. You can modify a miter sled to make it even more accurate. Instead of individual wood cleats for angles on the right and left side, mount a right (isosceles) plywood triangle on the sled. Align the long edge of the triangle against the rear rail, and have the 90-degree point aiming forward, centered on the saw blade. Then cut mating workpieces by positioning one on the left side and one on the right side. The advantage here is that even if the jig is off slightly, cutting from both sides will compensate for the error. The two miter cuts might be 44 and 46 degrees respectively, but they will still form a perfect 90-degree corner when assembled.

Wood Conditioners

By Bill LaHay

Wood conditioners provide a partial sealer coat on the wood surface so that stains penetrate more evenly and yield a more uniform color or appearance.

Why are they necessary? Basically, because wood is an inconsistent material. Two boards from the same tree, or two sections of the same board, can vary in porosity, color, and density — all of which will affect how the wood reacts when a stain is applied. Pine, fir, spruce, alder, birch, and maple are among the light-colored wood species that are prone to this uneven coloring, sometimes called splotching.

Wood conditioners are essentially thinned varnishes that fill some of the tiny pores and crevices between the wood fibers. These spaces are where the color pigments collect when a stain is applied, and they are not distributed evenly throughout the board’s surface.

As a result, areas with more porosity collect more pigment and thus take on a darker, more intense color. Also, areas where the wood fibers change direction tend to be more porous and absorbent.

When a wood conditioner is applied, the varnish solids settle into the wood pores and partially fill them, preventing excess amounts of stain pigment from gathering there later in the finishing process. Manufacturers and even wood finishing experts differ in their guidelines for how long you should wait to stain after using a wood conditioner, but as a rule, allowing the conditioner to dry or cure overnight will make it more effective. If you apply stain while the conditioner is still wet, the pigment is more likely to blend into or even penetrate the sealer coat. The photo to the right shows one solid board with half stained using a conditioner (left), and half stained without a conditioner (right).

If you can’t use a wood conditioner on your project or want even more control over the wood tone and color, you can use a gel stain, which due to its thicker consistency won’t allow the pigment to settle into the wood pores so readily.

By blocking pigment penetration, the use of a wood conditioner means the stained wood will not only appear more uniform but also lighter in color. As with any finishing technique, practice on some project cutoffs or scrap wood of the same species and similar density. Also, be aware that a hardwood-veneer plywood face will stain lighter than any solid wood trim you might apply along the edges, because the glue line behind the veneer will block pigment penetration. To compensate, you might have to apply a wood conditioner to just the solid wood edging.

Finding the Center of a Circle

Several projects for Lowe's Creative Ideas for Woodworkers have called for round edge-glued panels, such as this Child’s Nightstand project. For proper positioning, it's important to find the center of the circle.

On a square piece it’s quite easy – just mark a line from across opposing corners or center points on the edges – the intersection of these lines will be the center.

There are a dozen ways to do this, but we've found the following steps to be about the easiest and fastest way to find the center of a circle.

1. Position a framing square a few inches away from one edge of the circle, and use the square as a guide to mark a line across the width of the circle.


2. At the points where this line meets the edge of the circle, draw perpendicular lines using that extend across the width of the circle.


3. Beginning where the perpendicular lines meet the first line you marked, mark two diagonal lines that extend across the circle and meet the ends of the lines you marked in step 2.

As is the case with a square work piece, the intersection of these diagonal lines marks the circles’ center.

Woodworking is all about taking a raw material and creating something new, especially in different shapes and sizes. As woodworkers, we spend a lot of time shaping wood by removing what’s not needed.

But, many projects are created by moving the wood into shape. Bending wood is almost a craft unto itself. Water is often used as a way to do this, either via steam or by simply soaking the wood to weaken the fibers and then secure the wood to a form. Another method is laminating thin strips and clamping them to forms and jigs.

Another method is kerf bending, and it’s a method we’ve used on a couple of Woodworkers projects. Check out the Demilune project, and the Art Deco Vanity Dresser. Both incorporate this technique to create curved fronts for these projects.

It’s a relatively simple process. You are doing nothing more than making a series of cuts that are the width of a saw blade (kerf). Do this across a span on a piece of plywood stock and you have created flexibility.

Now there are a couple of rules. One, you must make the cuts deep enough, but not too deep. In a 3/4-inch sheet of plywood you can slightly cut into the last ply before the veneer ply.

Two, you need to space the cuts properly. About 1/8-inch apart works well.

Three, you can’t bend the plywood too much without taking additional measures. What does this mean? Look at the two projects mentioned above. With the Art Deco Vanity Dresser we‘re doing a very tight bend, so we first remove about 1/3 of the thickness of the wood in the area we’re bending using a dado blade. Doing this keeps the back of the remaining sections of plywood in the bending area from touching each other as the stock is flexed. If those sections were to touch there would be too much force placed on the remaining ply in the kerf cut areas, resulting in visible lines or cracks in the wood.

Four, you need to secure the stock to a form. With the Demilune we’ve created a substructure for the apron and with the dresser we attach the cabinet waterfalls to cleats.

Follow these tips to make successful kerf cuts:

• Make several test cuts first. Practice on scrap plywood to test your technique and get a feel for making these cuts.


• Use your miter fence or a crosscut sled. Go here for a miter gauge fence extension project, and here for plans for a crosscut sled.


• Do not use your rip fence as a guide.


• Handle the stock with care. The plywood isn’t as strong after you’ve made the cuts so you’ll need to carefully move the part. Carry it with the cut side down and don’t bend the stock the opposite way you intend to bend it. You could split the remaining ply.

Use the Right Glue

Like a saw blade or a chisel, adhesives are tools, so the “right” one often depends on the circumstances or materials involved. Still, there are some basic guidelines that apply. Let’s look at glue for outdoor woodworking projects.

First, don’t rely on conventional white (polyvinyl acetate, or PVA) or yellow (aliphatic resin) woodworking glues that aren’t specifically labeled as “weatherproof,’ “waterproof,” or otherwise intended for exterior use.

It’s unlikely that your projects will ever experience stresses as extreme as the test procedures used to rate exterior glues, which can involve repeated cycles of water saturation, boiling, and oven-drying. But these tests help define useful labeling standards. For example, a Type II adhesive such as Titebond II Premium is considered a “weatherproof” glue appropriate for outdoor furniture and similar projects but not for load-bearing structural applications such as large glue laminated beams.

Titebond III Ultimate is labeled “waterproof” because it has passed more stringent requirements for a Type I rating, though it too is not recommended for load-bearing structural assemblies or for below-the-waterline marine use or other submerged applications.

Polyurethane glue adds a little more versatility because it is a waterproof woodworking glue that also bonds non-porous materials such as metal and plastics, so if your projects feature mixed materials this is a good option.

For extreme applications or load-bearing structural use, you would probably have to rely on specialized two-part industrial adhesives such as phenol resorcinol or various epoxies, which require mixing and sometimes careful handling because of their strength and toxicity.

Dust Diligence

The bane of all woodworkers is sawdust. Some revel in its mass and have pride in the mess at their feet, thinking "Look at what I've done!" While it is impressive to see those massive piles, it is quite dangerous. Piling up on your shop floor, it can cause you to slip or trip. Piling up on your workbench, it can cause you to err in assembly. Piling up in your tools, it can be hazardous.

One area that is often neglected is the inside of a table saw. On a contractors saw the sawdust collects (if I don't hook up a vacuum) in the body of the saw. Yes, you should have the vacuum ported to the saw, but it's easy to forget, especially if you move the saw around your shop quite a bit.

Woodworkers always kick themselves when they think about the sawdust piling up in there, especially when they open the back panel and see what's going on. You could almost pick out the projects you've done by identifying the layers of sawdust!

It's funny on the surface, but really a serious issue. Looking at the inside of the saw, there are so many things that can be affected. Take the gears for the angle adjustment of the blade, for example. Sawdust piling up in those can make it difficult to tilt the blade. No matter what the effect, it's just plain messy.

What can you do? In addition to connecting a vacuum or dust collection system to your tools, try to clean up as you go. At each stage of a project, take stock and clean up the dust, chips, and cutoffs. For example, when you're done ripping a set of boards, go ahead and clear off the top of your table saw, and clean up anything on the floor. Piles of sawdust on a shop floor tend to make your footing a bit slick, so it's a safety thing in addition to being tidy. Plus, you don't have to worry about it later.

If you're freehand routing, clamp the end of your vacuum near the work piece and run the vacuum while you're working. It won't take care of all the dust and pieces generated while routing, but it will keep some of the particles down. Then you can just use the vacuum to gather up the remaining particles when you're done routing.

You can also use a box fan set up next to your workbench when you're sanding to draft the sawdust away. Tape a furnace filter to the fan and you've got a makeshift dust collection fan.