Tips & Tricks

Flush-trimming at the table saw

I make a lot of utilitarian boxes by simply gluing the
bottom panels to the undersides of the box walls. For
efficiency and accuracy, I make the panels slightly
MOUNTING BOARD
oversized, and then trim their edges flush to the box 3
⁄4 × 21⁄2 × 24"
walls. I find that a tablesaw fence jig works great for the
job. It’s basically a template-sawing set-up that consists
of a guide board that’s glued and screwed off-center
to a mounting board that’s clamped to my rip fence.
To use the jig, clamp it to your table saw fence so
that the guide board sits about 1/4" above the material
to be trimmed. (The offset accommodates materials
of different thicknesses by inverting the jig.) Raise
your blade just shy of the guide board, and set your
rip fence to locate the edge of the guide board just
a hair past the outermost edges of the blade teeth.
To make the flush-cut, feed each box wall in turn GUIDE BOARD Align edge of guide
against the guide, beginning by crosscutting the
3
⁄4 × 21⁄2 × 12" board with outer
(offset 1⁄2" from bottom edges of teeth.
ends to eliminate tearout. Alternatively, if you want edge of mounting board)
an offset cut, simply locate the rip fence to suit.
—Bill Sands, Lubeck, West Virginia

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Attach shaped Cork facing FIXED CAUL

block to suit
Versatile vise jaws
In my work, I often need to secure oddly shaped 1
⁄2"-dia. rod
pieces in my bench vise. To do the job, I devised a
PIVOTING
pair of auxiliary cauls that attach via rods to thick CAUL REAR vise jaw
wooden pads on my vise jaws. One of the auxiliary
jaws is fixed, while the other one can swivel to
accommodate pieces with non-parallel sides.
I began by making a 1"-thick hardwood facing
block for each jaw, boring three equidistant 1/2"-
dia. holes through the edge of each block to
accept the rods. (Through-holes prevent clogging
from detritus.) I screwed the blocks to the jaws,
aligning their top edges with my workbench surface. Screw hardwood
pads to vise jaws.
Next, I used dowel centers to transfer the hole locations
to the underside of each caul. The swiveling caul needs only
one hole in the center, while its mate is drilled to match only
the two outer holes, all 3 of which I then drilled 3/4" deep using the drill press. To finish
up, I glued 21/2"-long, 1/2"-dia. steel rods into the cauls, and faced the caul’s bearing
surfaces with cork to aid gripping. When I need to hold curves and odd shaped pieces,
I attach a suitably shaped block to one or both of the cauls with double-faced tape.
—Bill Mitchell, Hellertown, Pennsylvania

Affix furnace filter to

DIY dust filter intake side of box fan.

I found an inexpensive way to reduce the dust in my

shop using a $20 box fan outfitted with a $5 furnace Duct tape
filter. Affixing the filter to the intake side of the fan
using duct tape creates a sort of cheap ambient air
cleaner that I can place at my sanding station, table
saw, or wherever. It’s best to place the unit in an open
window, but at least avoid aiming it toward walls,
which stirs up latent dust. No, it’s not as effective as
a commercial unit, and I still wear a dust mask since
the filter only captures large particles. However it
sure does prevent working in a cloud of dust. And at
$25 a pop, I can afford to put a
few of them in convenient
locations around the shop.
—Jesse Hodgman
Los Angeles, California

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& Tricks

Quick 2-faced finishing

Solid wood door panels should be finished
before installing them in their grooves
during frame assembly. The fact that the
panel edges will be hidden in the assembled
door means that you can avail yourself of a
neat trick for efficient finishing. Set up for
the job by pressing two widely spaced push
pins into one end of your panel, and one
in the center of the opposite end. Rest the
pinned panel on a pair of 2x4’s as shown,
and apply finish to one panel face. Then
Rotate panel at
grab the pair of pins on one end, and flip this end to finish
the panel over, rotating it on the single pin opposite face.
at the opposite end. You can now finish
the second side without having to wait for
the first to dry. The same basic approach
can be used for any tall door whose top Rest push pins
and bottom won’t show in use. But instead on 2×4’s
of push pins, use nails or screws.
—Tim Markinson, Tulsa, Oklahoma

When to sharpen
saw blades?
It can be hard to know when to sharpen a table saw
blade. If you wait until teeth tips start rounding
over and your work starts burning, you’ve waited
too long. Your best reference is to compare a
current cut against test cuts made when a blade
is brand new or freshly sharpened. Whenever
I get a new blade, I take a series of rips and
crosscuts in both hard and soft wood, marking
the pieces with the date and blade identification.
I then stash them in a cabinet with extra test-cut
stock. When a blade starts cutting questionably,
I clean it with concentrated citrus cleaner, and
then take a few cuts in my stashed test stock.
Comparing these current cuts with my initial
test cuts under a strong raking light shows how
much the blade has dulled. Just as importantly,
comparing the results of a freshly sharpened
blade against your original test cuts indicates
the quality of your sharpening service. n
—Paul Anthony, Riegelsville, Pennsylvania

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IP
CLASSIC T

Finishing turntable
When faced with spray-finishing a half-dozen
Windsor chairs, I realized that I needed a rotating
PLYWOOD PLATFORM
platform. When I remembered seeing a design for 3
⁄4 × 28 × 28"
a turntable built around the concept of one pipe
slipped inside another, I headed to the hardware
store to buy the parts, and found that 3/4" ID 3
⁄4" ID galvanized pipe, 1" ID galvanized pipe
galvanized pipe can nestle nicely inside 1" ID 32" long 24" long
galvanized pipe. (But double-check, because some
pipe diameters vary.) I had one end of each pipe
threaded, and bought the appropriate pipe flanges Drill holes to accommodate
bolt for adjusting height. Nut
and mounting screws, along with a 3/16 × 2" bolt.
Back at the shop, using a scrapwood V-cradle at the
drill press, I drilled a row of 7/32"-dia. holes through Bolt
the larger pipe, screwed each pipe flange to a piece PLYWOOD BASE Pipe flange
3
⁄4 × 24 × 24"
of 3/4" plywood, and slid the pipes together. Voila!
A turntable! To adjust the height for comfortable
spraying of smaller pieces, I simply slip the 3/16"
bolt into the chosen pipe hole, where it serves
as a rest for the bottom of the 3/4" ID pipe.
—Marlon Rappaport, Newport, Rhode Island

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