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Our Top 10 Beginner Tips!

 

New to Wood Working and looking for those few essential pearls that can help you immediately see positive results in your project quality? Here is my list! Others may have other priorities or wisdom and if so feel free to contribute, if you disagree... get over it, it's only a list!!

• Safety comes first - I know you have heard this before, but trust me nothing takes the thrill out of wood-working as fast as an injury. You will get enough nicks, cuts and slivers without tempting fate for the big one. Please Please wear you safety glasses, use a push stick, and keep your guards in place! That blade guard and splitter on your table saw not only protects you from kick back (trust me it hurts real bad when a piece of plywood rides up on the blade and is thrown back at you!) but it also is an essential aid in allowing your saw to give you an accurate consistent rip cut.
• You need a Planer - probably the most monumental change in my woodworking came about when my wife purchased me a 13" thickness planer for Christmas. You can't make quality projects if your boards are limited to 3/4" and you don't have the capability to insure even those are the same exact thickness! Even the import companies have relatively inexpensive planers, but spend enough to get something that will last. You can also forestall this investment if you have a local supplier or friend that can do this for you.
• Make sure your square is square! - This will lead us into the next tip, but don't assume that combination or T-square is square. Draw a fine line using a razor knife and flip the square over and check that the lines match. I invested in a relatively inexpensive T-square that I checked at the store for square and i keep it safe and use it just to align my saws.
• Align your power tools - See previous step! Using your square square take the time to go through the alignment steps in your owners manual. This is particularly true for your table saw and miter saw. I also don't trust the angle stops on my table saw and every time I go back to vertical I use my square to ensure the blade is 90 degrees to the table. By the way, I am somewhat intrigued by the new digital angle finders but haven't bit yet so if someone wants to contribute a review I would welcome it, otherwise standby!
• Get rid of your miter gauge - Yes you heard me, unless you spent big bucks on your table saw the miter gauge that comes with it is usually too short and has too much slop for accurate cross cuts. I use an aftermarket miter gauge with my saw and love it (check out the reviews section). If your miter gauge seems fairly tight though consider adding a backing strip to it so the end extends just to the blade so you have a stable large support for your cross cuts. For panel cutting though see the next tip.
• Use a Panel Sled - Essentially this is a flat panel with a strip on the bottom to run in your miter groove on the saw and a fence across the top set at 90 degrees. No better way to instantly get square panels for that box or cabinet. You can see one version in my Jigs and fixtures section.
• Check and recheck your fence for square - I eventually replaced the fence on my table saw with an after-market fence (see the reviews), and many higher end saws come with these fences now, but if you have that 30 year old craftsman table saw (actually mine is 40 years and still does great work) take the time to align your fence so it is parallel to the miter slot. Before every cut I also measure at the front and back to make sure it is square as it doesn't take much to cock the fence slightly and ruin a project.
• Use an aluminum straight edge for cutting with a circular saw - The size of my shop is somewhat limited, so I often make my initial cuts on plywood with a circular saw in the garage. I purchased a fairly inexpensive straight edge that clamps to the work piece and can be used either as a 4 foot or assembled into an 8 foot straightedge. You can also use aluminum angle or make your own straight edge with 1/4 inch plywood with a factory edge. But don't rely on that 1 X 4 or other strip to give you a truly straight edge!
• 1/2 inch plywood isn't! - These days most plywood is not really the thickness specified. Usually it is a 1/64th or more thinner. Make sure you take this into consideration when building your projects. For box or cabinet work my preferred method for dado's is to use a clamping straight edge and router ( we will show this tip at a later time). For plywood I have a set of plywood router bits that are slightly undersize to compensate for this. You can buy them separately or in a set of 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 inch.
• Flat and Level is Good! - Lastly now that you have your pieces accurately cut to size and pre-sanded, you need to have a flat surface large enough to clamp up your work while you assemble it and the glue drys. Even if this is a temporary setup (an old solid core door on solid stands works great) having this solid flat surface will insure that your assembly clamps up square and tight.