Hints and tips | Syzygy Woodworks

May 17, 2013May 17, 2013

Quick and Easy Crosscut Sled

I built a crosscut sled many years ago and it has seen a lot of use. However, I have always wanted another crosscut sled set up with the table saw blade tilted to 45 degrees. Although the blade is titled, the principles behind the crosscut sled and its making are exactly the same if the blade were set at 90 degrees. It is a quick and easy project and will provide a jig which you will use in projects over and over again. A very useful addition to your workshop.

The image above shows the materials needed for construction of the crosscut sled.

A sheet of 1/2″ MDF cut to 2′ x 3′.
Two strips of hard maple sized to fit snugly in the miter gauge slots.
A piece of hard maple approximately 1″x 3″ x 12″ for the bridge. This will not really act as a fence, it is solely there to help keep the two halves of the sled together at the front.
A piece of hard maple approximately 1 1/2″ x 2 x 24″ for the fence. It is important that this piece is jointed so that it is perfectly straight.

Set a couple of washers in the miter gauge slots so that the runners are raised slightly above the surface of the table saw. Set the table saw fence at 18″ and lower the blade completely.

Run a thin bead of glue on each runner. Then butt the MDF against the table saw fence and slowly lower it down onto the runners. Using appropriately sized nails, tack the MDF sheet to the runners in a couple of spots.

The MDF sheet can know be lifted up with the runners in place and flipped upside down. Drill, countersink and screw the runners to the sheet from the underside.

Drill and countersink pilot holes for the bridge and the fence. Drill the holes for the fence slightly oversize. Be careful to position these holes so that they are well clear of the table saw blade!

Clamp the fence to the front edge of the sled and attach it with the screws. Also screw the bridge in place at the front of the sled.

Set the table saw blade to 45 degrees. If you are making a regular cross cut sled, then check the blade is at 90 degrees at this point.

Run the sled through the blade and establish a kerf. If you always use the same blade with the sled then this will be a zero clearance kerf supporting the work on the underside and preventing tear out.

The screws on the fence are now loosened slightly and the fence is set so that it is straight and at right angles to the saw kerf. As you can see, my wooden mallet has been well used since I made it.

This was just a test piece from some scrap plywood. It shows how I will be making the tissue box cover. I was pleased with the results. The vertical cuts were all square to the base of the box and all the miter joints fitted together perfectly.

I mentioned in the previous post how I planned on decorating the tissue box cover with some wood turning. The image is a teaser shot showing where I’m going with that.

May 11, 2013May 11, 2013

Continuous Grain on a Box

I’m going to be doing some woodworking on the next couple of posts. My wife asked me to make her a tissue box cover. Considering how understanding and supportive she is of the time I spend in my workshop it is always nice to have the opportunity to make something for her. I plan on making a tissue box cover with mitered joints. I also have an idea to embellish the sides and the tops of the cover with some wood turning.

The situation does remind me of a joke I saw a while back. Two ladies were talking and the one asked “How is your husbands new woodworking hobby coming along?” The second lady replied, “Great! Can I interest you in a $5000 paper towel holder?”

While not technically a box, as the cover has no bottom, I did want to try and ensure the grain flowed around the sides of the box. Getting the grain to flow across three of the four corners is pretty easy. However to get the grain to flow around all four corners does require an additional step. You need to start out with a piece of wood that is equal in length to the front or back and one of the sides. Further, the board needs to be twice as thick as you need the final sides to be.

Here I have a piece of walnut which I have jointed on one face and edge and then planed. It is about an inch thick.

The next step is to resaw the board in half.

Then each board is cut in half.

I have now reassembled the four boards in the configuration they were before the board was resawn. I’ve also labelled each corner. The next two images show how the box is “opened’ and it should be clear how the grain will flow continuously around the entire box.

Please Note: I am making a square box, which is why I cut each resawn board in half. If you are making a rectangular box you will need to adjust the cuts accordingly. Each resawn board should be crosscut in order to yield the front or back of the box and a side. The diagram below illustrates this.

In closing I want to remind readers that you can have these blog posts delivered to you automatically via email. Just go to https://syzygywoodworks.com/news/ and in the right hand column you will see a box to subscribe to the blog.

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013

Silver solder a bandsaw blade

To my mind, one of the biggest factors in getting a good cut on a bandsaw is a sharp blade. Things like blade tension, blade guide set up etc are all important, but if the blade is not sharp you will have tracking problems, the blade will wander within the cut and you will have to force the wood through the cut. However, at $20 and up for a blade it is always tempting to use the blade long past when it should have been sharpened or replaced.

For years I have thought about the convenience and cost savings of making my own blades up. I always hesitated, worried that it would be difficult or involve expensive welding equipment. Well a couple of months ago, inspired by a Popular Woodworking article by John Wilson, I took the plunge and ordered a Bandsaw Blade Splicing Kit from Lee Valley and 100 foot coil of Lenox Flexback bandsaw blade, and started making my own blades up. I have been surprised at how quick and easy it is. The shop made blades are far cheaper as well, about $8 per blade. My only regret is that I didn’t start doing this years ago.

The image below shows everything that I use to make up the blades.

100 foot coil of bandsaw blade stock.
Bandsaw blade splicing kit including the jib, flux and ribbon silver solder. (Note: this is silver solder, not soft solder that is used for plumbing)
Propane torch.
Gloves.
Toothpick to apply the flux 🙂

First, measure and mark the blade. The blades for my bandsaw need to be 105″. Add about an 1/8″ of an inch to allow for the scarf overlap.

Cut the blade at that mark.

Hold the two ends back to back and touch them to the grinder to square them off. If you are off by a degree or so the fact that the ends were back to back will cancel that out. (This is a similar principle to joint two pieces of lumber at the same time.) You can also use a belt sander to square the ends of the blade and grind the bevel for the scarf joint.

Set the blade in the jig to double check the joints are square when the blade is aligned in a straight line.

Change the grinder platform angle to approximately 25 degrees and grind a bevel on each end. The bevel needs to be about an 1/8″ long. Note, you need to grind the bevel on opposite faces of the blade.

The image and diagram show the beveled edges. The joint is open here to try show the bevel. The joint needs to be closed tight when the flux and solder are applied and the joint is soldered together.

Place some of the flux on each bevel. Cut a piece of the ribbon silver solder the same length as the blade is wide and place it in the joint.

Using the propane torch, heat the blade until the silver solder melts and flows. The blade turns red hot at this point.

Allow the joint to cool. The metal has become hardened and brittle by the heat of the soldering, so it needs to be annealed. Back the torch away from the blade and apply heat for a few seconds, allow the blade to cool for about ten seconds, then back the torch away another inch and apply a couple more seconds heat, repeat this four or five times, drawing the torch back each time.

If the blade breaks during use, then have a look at where it broke. If it breaks at the joint, then insufficient flux or heat was applied during the soldering process. If it breaks within a coupe inches of the joint, then the blade was not annealed properly. If it breaks somewhere else, then the problem was not with the soldering of the joint.

Once the blade has cooled the joint needs to be filed smooth. Both sides of the blade and the back edge of the blade need to be filed and the surplus flux and metal removed.

The finished joint. One final note, check the orientation of the blade before you put it on the bandsaw. You may need to twist the blade inside out to get it orientated correctly. It needs to be orientated with the teeth facing toward you and pointing down.

September 30, 2010

Cutting a Partial Sphere Safely

Putting the final touches on an install that I did recently, I had to cut some bun feet to size. The tile floor had been installed after the vanity cabinets, and the bun feet were now to tall to fit under the cabinet, about 3/8″ of an inch needed to be cut from the top of the feet.

The bun feet were not a complete sphere as they had a flat section. While I was able to put this flat section on the bed of my miter saw, the rounded section of the sphere was up against the fence. The potential for the piece to rotate as I cut it was high. As well as ruining an expensive fixture it could have caused a dangerous kickback. As expensive as the bun feet were, my fingers are worth more, so I needed to figure out a way to hold the bun feet so that the cut could be performed on my miter saw accurately and safely.

A couple of pieces of scrap wood screwed together made a jig which allowed just that. The bun foot is secured to the jig by a 1 1/2″ screw through the jig and into the base of the foot as well as an additional screw through the base of the jig and into the flat section of the bun foot These areas would be against the tile floor and the toe kick so the holes formed by the screw would be hidden after installation. The screws, as with the screws used to assemble the jig, would also be out of the way of the cut so the blade wouldn’t be damaged.

As you can see in the image below the bun foot is now held securely and square to the base and fence of the miter saw. There is no danger of the bun foot moving or rotating in any direction or axis. The jig also allows me plenty of room to hold it with my fingers far from the spinning blade.

The cut complete.

The bun foot installed.

Typically a miter saw, table saw and band saw are used to cut objects that sit flat on the bed and have a square edge that will ride against the fence. However, with the use of simple but effective jigs it is possible to cut round and irregular shaped objects. When designing the jig keep these points in mind:

The jig must be large enough to allow you to hold/guide it and keep your hands/fingers away from the blade.
The jig must hold the workpiece securely so there is no possibility of rotation or movement while performing the cut.
Any fasteners used to assemble the jig or hold the workpiece, screws, nails, clamps etc, need to be positioned so that the blade is not cutting into them.

Above all, if there is any doubt in your mind at all about the safety of the cut, then don’t make it. There is no cut that is worth bleeding over!

August 19, 2010

Installing Concealed Hinges

Installing concealed hinges can be a pretty simple process, even using a hand held drill, with the help of a jig. The Rockler Concealed Hinge JIG works really well at positioning the Forstner bit, as well as holding it square to the door frame surface and finally controlling the depth of the hole. Of course, if you have a drill press with a good fence and large enough table then that will work just as well.

The first step is to mark the center line of where the hinge will be positioned. Then position the jig using the alignment arrows and clamp it in place. Note: the clamp is on the underside, or show face of the door. You can’t see it in the following picture and I didn’t take a picture showing it. Sorry, my bad.

Set the stop collar on the bit guide so the bit drills to the correct depth. I like to drill a test hole in a scrap piece of wood and make sure the hole is deep enough to allow the hinge to fit in without bottoming out.

The bit guide is then positioned over the alignment plate. The wide circumference of the bit guide ensures that the bit is held square to the work surface, important when drilling with a large Forstner bit. As the bit guide fits over the alignment plate it also stops the bit from wandering.

After placing the hinge in the hole, check that the back of the hinge is parallel to the frame using a square.

Use a self centering bit to drill pilot holes for the hinge screws.

August 12, 2010

Installing shelf edgebanding

After drilling the shelf support pin holes, the next step was to prepare the cabinet shelving. As the cabinets are to be painted, I just use 3/4″ plywood for the shelves and apply iron on wood edging to the edges to conceal the raw edges.

I like to apply the edge banding to the sides of the shelf first, and then to the front and back of the shelf. It is a small touch, but it means the front edging is overlapping the side edging and so there is less chance of any joint being visible when viewing the installed shelving.

The first step is to secure the shelf in a vise. Then, using a pair of scissors cut a piece of edging about an inch longer than needed. I don’t have a dedicated iron for this job. Up till now I’ve managed to sneak my wife’s iron out to the workshop, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog either so I think I’m safe! I set the iron to the “cotton” setting. That would be the hotter setting, although I’m not much of an expert when it comes to irons. Slowly move the iron over the edging so that the adhesive melts and sticks the edging to the shelf. As you do this make sure the edging overlaps the shelf slightly on each side. The edging is 13/16″ wide so you should have about a sixteenth overlap on each side of standard 3/4″ plywood.

Then, apply pressure to the edging using a veneer roller.

Using a pair of scissors, cut the edging on each side, leaving about an 1/8″.

Using a double edge trimmer, trim both edges flush to the plywood.

Using a veneer trimmer, square off the ends of the edging. This is a pretty expensive tool and for a long time I was reluctant to buy it and so used to use a utility knife for this part of the operation. I must admit that once I purchased the veneer trimmer I was pleased with how much cleaner the cuts were and how much quicker I was able to make the cuts.

The final step is to touch up the edges using some 220 grit sandpaper. I like to sand at a slight angle to put a small bevel on the edge.

The corner of the shelf once complete.

November 4, 2009

Router feed direction and bit rotation

I recently purchased a set of Rockler’s Bench Cookies. I’ve been reading about them all over the internet and no doubt I’m probably the last woodworker in the world to have purchased a set 🙂 I was excited to try them out and thought I would combine it with an article about router feed direction and bit rotation.

I use a router a lot in my workshop, both hand held and table router. However, I can remember when I got my first router and the learning curve I went through figuring out which direction to move the router when routing by hand or the workpiece when routing on the table router. Hopefully I can help others out and make that learning curve not quite as exciting!

Essentially the workpiece always needs to be feed into the bit, so the first thing you need to know is which way is the bit rotating. Lets deal with the table mounter router first. Hold out your right hand in a classic “thumbs up” gesture. Imagine your hand is the router and your right thumb is the router bit. The direction of the router bit follows the curve of your fingers. In this case, it is counter clockwise. You can see this clearly in the picture below.

Now rotate your right hand into a “thumbs down” gesture. Again imagine your hand is the router and your right thumb is the router bit. The direction of the router bit is still indicated by the curve of your fingers, in this case it is clockwise. You can see this in the picture below.

This “right-hand thumb rule” applies to almost anything that spins, faucets, right hand thread screws etc.

So, moving back to the router table, you can see that in order to feed the workpiece into the router bit, you need to feed from right to left, assuming you are standing facing the fence. By feeding from right to left you are feeding the workpiece against the direction of rotation of the bit. The natural reaction as the workpiece contacts with the bit is to push the workpiece back towards you. By controlling the workpiece, by hand and through the use of featherboards, you prevent this from happening.

Feeding from left to right, the rotation of the bit would grab the workpiece and pull it forcefully from right to left. This can happen in the blink of an eye and the danger is, aside from ruining the workpiece, that you don’t release it and your fingers are pulled towards the router bit.

For the same reason the fence always needs to be positioned so that side of the router bit that is furthest away from the fence is doing the cutting. To illustrate, suppose you need to route a groove or dado that is 1″ wide, but the largest bit you have is a 3/4″ straight bit. Obviously the groove will have to be cut with two passes. The first pass will form a 3/4″ groove and then the fence can be moved 1/4″ in order to make the groove a full 1″ wide after the second pass. No problem.

However, it is very important that the fence be moved in the right direction before the second pass. Moving the fence closer to the router bit would mean that the side of the router bit that is closest to the fence is doing the cutting. Remember the way the bit is rotating? This would cause the bit to pull the workpiece away from you forcefully. The following picture shows what not to do!!

The correct method is to move the fence away from the router bit so that the 1/4″ section of the groove you are removing with the second pass is on the side of the router bit farthest from the fence. The following picture show the correct position of the fence relative to the router bit. By setting up for the second pass this way you are once again feeding the workpiece into the direction of rotation of the bit.

Cuts like this need to be planned very carefully to ensure that the correct side of the router bit is doing the cutting.

Moving back to the hand held router, there are two different scenarios which determine feed direction. Imagine a circular picture frame that you need to profile both the external and internal edges of. Which direction to you rout?

Hold your right hand out again with fingers closed except your thumb and index finger. Imagine your hand is the router. If your right thumb is pointing to the workpiece then your index finger is showing the direction of travel of the router. Take a look at the picture below.

You can see that when routing the outside edge of the picture frame, you need to move the router in a counter clockwise direction. When routing the inside edge of the picture frame, you need to move the router in a clockwise direction.

I have found these two “right hand” memory aids very useful in determining router bit rotation and router feed direction. I hope you do to.

I’ll end the article with a short video clip showing the Rockler Bench Cookies supporting a workpiece I was making some test cuts on. I found they held the workpiece securely and it was nice to have it raised above the table. I did find that I needed to lightly support the workpiece with my inboard hand to prevent it from tipping slightly. I’m sure that if the workpiece was wider or if I had been using an offset base on the router, this would not have been necessary. I can also see the Bench Cookies will be useful for other applications, sanding and finishing are two that come to mind.

In full disclosure, the links are affiliate links. If you purchase anything from Rockler via the links, Rockler will send me buckets of money and I’ll be able to quit my day job and play in my workshop every day. Not necessarily a bad thing 🙂

June 9, 2009April 11, 2013

Drilling for a handle on a drawer

I got this neat tip for marking out the holes on a drawer to drill for a handle from a recent issue of Fine Woodworking. In the course of my work I put a lot of hardware on cabinets. I have a jig for marking the doors and drawers. The typical distance between centers for pulls is 3″. My jig works well for these pulls but even though it is adjustable it does not work as well on some of the pulls where the distance between centers is greater than 3″.

Today I had to install pulls with centers of 5 1/8″. I tried out this method and it worked very well. Relatively quick and suprisingly accurate.

Assuming you are installing a pull with a distance between center holes of 3″. From each corner of the drawer mark in 3″. Then draw a series of diagonal parallel lines as shown in the image. Where they interesect will be at two points 3″ apart and centered on the drawer top to bottom and left to right. Pretty neat. I found that rather than measuring the 3″ from the corner of each drawer, it was quicker to cut a gauge block from a scrap piece of wood and use that to establish the marks from which to draw the lines.