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You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

When gluing up a mitered assembly, I often rely on band clamps to pull the joints together. They’re easy to apply and provide the even clamping pressure needed to keep things square.

The only catch is that the sharp mitered corners of the assembly have to be protected from the pressure exerted by the band. My clamps came with metal corners meant for this purpose, but they often damage the corners they’re supposed to protect.

My simple solution was to substitute more forgiving, corrugated cardboard pads for the hard metal corners, as shown at right. The cardboard pads provide plenty of protection without leaving any unwanted evidence of their use.

You’ll find more great project tips, techniques, and plans at PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

Send for a preview issue of Woodsmith magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

A block plane makes quick work of chamfering the edge of a workpiece. To ensure a constant width and angle, I built the base shown in the photo above. It slips over the plane to make ¼″ chamfers and doesn’t require any setup.

The base is simply two triangular-shaped runners glued to a pair of side pieces. Then cross supports are glued into notches in the front and back to hold the sides together.

Two rare-earth magnets glued into recesses in the runners hold the plane securely in place. A shallow dado is cut in the top of the runners at the mouth of the plane for the exposed iron.

The base is easy to use. With your block plane in the base, position the V-shaped groove formed by the runners over the edge of the workpiece. Then plane the workpiece until both runners sit flush. It worked so well I made a second one for ¹/₈″ chamfers.

You can learn even more simple shop techniques, just go to PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

It always breaks my heart when a project gets its first scratch. But I know that even with the best of care, it’s bound to happen. So rather than stew over a minor blemish, I came up with an easy way to make it disappear.

My repair system started with an investment in an assortment of touch-up markers. You can get these from many woodworking and finishing supply companies. My set includes about a dozen different colors and this gives me a good shot at finding a close match to the project. But the trick is finding the best color match without relying on a lucky guess.

To help make a more informed choice, I created a sample sheet on a piece of clear acetate. The sheet contains a small, labeled swatch from each marker. As you see in the photo, I simply hold the sheet up to the project to find a good match. After choosing a marker and performing a quick touchup, the project looks as good as new and I feel a whole lot better.

For more helpful project tips, techniques, and plans, visit PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

My workshop shares space with the family car. So it’s important that all of my power tools be portable and take up as little space as possible. So I made the fold-up router table you see here.

I made a simple router table top and attached it to a pair of 2×4’s with screws. Then, after removing the top of an adjustable clamping table, I mounted the router table to the clamping table stand, as shown in the left photo above. The table is firmly supported by the clamping table base.

The nice thing about the table is it can be raised and lowered to match the task at hand. Best of all, I can remove the router and quickly fold the table up to store it against the wall whenever it’s not in use (right photo).

If you’d like to see other router table plans, just go to PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

Drilling a centered hole in a dowel can be a challenge. It’s hard to get the drill bit centered and keep the dowel from turning as the hole is drilled. To make it easier, I built the jig shown below.

Build the jig by first drilling a hole the diameter of the dowel in a piece of hardwood. Then just cut a saw kerf through the hole from the end to make a clamp.

Using the jig is simple. Begin by centering the dowel under the bit. To do this, clamp a piece of scrap wood to the table and drill a hole to fit the dowel. Then change out the bit to the size needed.

Next, slip the dowel into the hole in the scrap wood. Then slip the clamping jig over the dowel and squeeze the kerf together with a small clamp. Now you can clamp the jig in place and drill the hole in the center of the dowel.

To learn more essential woodworking tips and techniques, just go to: http://www.plansnow.com/basics.html.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

Whenever I use screws to assemble a project, I hide them under wood plugs. Cutting the plugs and gluing them in place is the easy part of the job. The bigger challenge comes once the glue dries — trimming the plugs flush to the surface.

For me, this is a two-step process. First, I use a small back saw to trim off the bulk of the protruding plug. Then I sand or plane the remaining portion flush to the surface. But my lack of care with the back saw often led to problems. If I tried to cut the plug too close, I would scratch or gouge the surface, making more work for myself.

But as is usually the case, a small problem had a simple solution. I dug up a scrap of plastic laminate and made a flush cut shield. The laminate shield has a hole drilled through it slightly larger than the diameter of the plugs. You place the shield over the plug flush to the surface and then saw away without worry (Figure 1). The thin shield allows you to give the plug a very close trim and all that’s needed to finish the job is a little sanding (Figure 2).

For more helpful project tips, techniques, and plans, visit Plansnow.com.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

I wanted to add an auxiliary table and fence to my drill press. But I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So I built the simple drill press table and fence with a replaceable insert you see in the photo above. The fence is adjustable and has a sliding stop.

Table

The table is two layers of ¾″ plywood that are glued together. A dado on the top side at each end holds T-tracks for attaching the fence. Two bottom-mounted T-tracks attach the table to the drill press, as you can see in detail ‘b’ and the photo at right.

Fence

The fence is nothing more than a length of aluminum angle. A slotted hole at each end accepts a flange bolt from the table so you can quickly mount and adjust the fence to meet almost any drilling challenge.

Stop Block

To help position and hold the workpiece, I added a stop block to the fence. It’s simply a block of wood attached to an aluminum bracket. A knob and T-nut, are used for adjusting the block and securing it in position on the fence (detail ‘a’).

You can find even more ways to upgrade your power tools, just go to: http://plansnow.com/toolstandplans.html.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

The easiest way to make a lidded box is to build the box and lid as one piece and then cut them apart on the table saw. This guarantees that the lid will be a perfect fit to the box. With a little modification, this same technique can be used to make a box and lid that mate with interlocking lips, as shown in the photo at right.

This technique for making a box lid is a little different in that you do part of the job before the box is assembled. A look at the two drawings will explain. To create the lip, you’ll need to cut halfway through the sides from both the inside and the outside. As shown in Figure 1, the inside cuts are made while the box is still in pieces. Remember that this first cut will form the “high” side of the lip.

Once the box is assembled, you complete the job with a second series “halfway” cuts that are offset a blade’s width (¹/₈″) from the first (Figure 2). These cuts are positioned below the first cuts. If you hit it right, the lid will separate cleanly and after a little sanding, you’ll have a snug-fitting, lipped lid.

For more helpful table saw tips and techniques, visit Plansnow.com.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

Send for a preview issue of Woodsmith magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

The router table in my shop gets lots of use. But it’s always difficut to make fine adjustments to the fence. So I built the micro-adjuster you see in the photo above using spare parts I had around the shop.

The adjuster is easy to build. Start by drilling and tapping a strip of ¼″ aluminum to accept a piece of threaded rod. And then bend the aluminum strip into an “L” shape.

Next, drill two holes in a hardwood adjusting block. One horizontal hole for the threaded rod and a vertical one for the hold-down. Then you can cut a dado at the bottom of the fence to hold the piece of L-shaped aluminum in place.

Assembly. Put the pieces together by slipping the threaded rod through the adjusting block and adding washers and locknuts, like you see in the drawing and detail below. This allows the aluminum strip attached to the fence to be moved forward and backward one thread at a time when you make fine fence adjustments.

Fence Adjustment. To use the micro-adjuster, you’ll first need to lock down the opposite end of the fence. Then lock down the micro-adjuster by tightening the knob on top of the adjusting block. Use the turning knob to adjust the fence to the desired position. Once the fence is located where you want it, lock down the other end of the fence. Then all that’s left is to turn on your router and you’re ready to go.

If you’d like even more great ideas for getting more from your router, go to: Router Tables at PlansNow.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

My oscillating disc sander has built-in dust collection and it works great — but only when the holes in the sanding disc are aligned with the vacuum holes in the sander’s pad. And this simple requirement isn’t always as easy as it sounds. So rather than rely on a good aim when installing the discs, I put together a simple tool that makes hitting the mark a sure thing.

As you can see in Figure 1, the tool is nothing more than two dowels glued into a small block of wood. The diameter of the dowels and their spacing in the block matches that of the holes in the discs and sanding pad.

To use the tool, you simply place a disc over the dowels and then insert them into the holes in the pad (Figure 2). Slip the disc off of the dowels and onto the pad and you’re ready to go.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

Send for a preview issue of Woodsmith magazine