Knowing how to measure things is one of the keys to improving the accuracy of your work, but taking a measurement and using the result of that measurement to mark your work or set up a tool often leads us down the wrong path, leaving us farther away from making two pieces that fit together just so. Every time the eyes, brain and hands interact with a measuring device and a hunk of wood is an opportunity to make an error, and little errors never cancel each other out, they always combine and multiply.

Here’s an example from a few years ago, making a Greene & Greene style finger-joined drawer. The fingers vary in size and stand proud of the surface about 1/8″. To make the setting for my combination square I didn’t use the numbers. I set one of the pieces flat on the bench, and placed an 1/8″ thick piece of scrap on top. I placed the head of the square on top of the pile, loosened the screw and lowered the blade to the bench top. That gave me the exact distance I wanted (the thickness of the piece plus 1/8″) in a few seconds, and I didn’t have to squint to see any numbers, didn’t have to decide if the thickness was 7/8″ or 55/64″ and didn’t need to add 55/64″ and 1/8″. I set my measuring/marking tool by gauging and moved along expeditiously. I used the square to mark the rest of the pieces. I saved time by not measuring each one, and each mark was in exactly …

I do a lot of routing using templates and bushings. But, quite often the small base on my router doesn’t provide the stability I need for a safe, clean cut. Instead, I figured out a way to make a larger base for my router that accepts a Porter-Cable-style bushing.

I do a lot of routing using templates and bushings. But, quite often the small base on my router doesn’t provide the stability I need for a safe, clean cut. Instead, I figured out a way to make a larger base for my router that accepts a Porter-Cable-style bushing.

The process starts by cutting a square blank of ¼”- thick acrylic or polycarbonate plastic. Next, I worked on forming the stepped hole sized to fit the bushings and locking collar. This requires using a couple different hole saws.

First, start with a 13/8“-dia. hole saw. This forms the “rabbet” or step for the flange around the bushing. The drilling depth should match or be slightly deeper than the flange thickness on the bushing.

Leaving the base clamped in place, switch to a 13/16“-dia. hole saw. This time, you can drill through the base to create the hole for the threaded portion of the bushing. You’ll want to take it slow to avoid melting the plastic. The final step is to install a bushing in the plate and bit in your router to help center the plate over the arbor so you can locate the mounting holes.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/05/10/simple-accurate-router-upgrade/

My shop is small, so mobile bases for my tools are a must. The problem with most commercial bases is that the casters are outside of the tool stand and it’s easy to trip over them. The compact, shop-made version you see here places the casters on the inside of the stand. And what’s more, the design is easy to operate with light foot pressure. Plus, it uses common, inexpensive hardware.

The two overlapping, T-shaped “wings” hinge on ½”-dia. steel rods. The wings are sized to fit inside the legs of the stand. When the wings are in the flat, or “down” position, the legs of the tool stand should be lifted off the floor about ⅛”.

To locate and drill the holes in the legs of the stand, you’ll need to install the casters on the wings and temporarily clamp the wings together. To take into account the ¼” radius of the steel rod plus the ⅛” the stand will be lifted off of the floor, I placed ⅜”-thick spacers under the legs of the stand.

All you do is slide the wing assembly under the stand and mark the legs using the top of the wings as a reference for the hole centers. Then, cut and drill the steel rods and install them, securing them with washers and cotter pins.

With the rods in place, you can attach each wing to the rod with a pair of straps. I drilled and installed a screw through the rod to keep the wings from slipping side-to-side. Finally, I installed a screen door latch to secure the wings in the “mobile” position …

All the careful setup and test cuts you’ve gone through to create tight-fitting box joints will finally pay off when it’s time for assembly. You can see the effect in this project. But you’ll need to work quickly once you apply the glue. You can use a slow-setting glue like liquid hide glue or Tightbond III to give you a little more open time during the glueup.

The advantage of box joints is the large amount of gluing surface the interlocking pins and slots create. So it only takes a small amount of glue to create a solid joint. In fact, you don’t need to put glue on every surface. I like to use a brush to apply a small amount of glue to the top of each pin. As you assemble the joint, the glue will spread to the other surfaces. One more thing: I apply masking tape next to the pins to trap any squeezeout on the inside corners where it’s tough to remove.

I usually cut the joints so the pins are slightly long. This means I won’t be able to apply clamps directly to the corners. So when you’re ready to apply the clamps, you’ll find clamping blocks come in handy. You can see that the blocks give you the ability to apply pressure to close the joint in both directions without interfering with the pins.

When the glue has skinned over, pull the tape off and the glue will come with it. The result is a clean, tight joint that doesn’t require any cleanup.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/04/26/gluing-box-joints/

To strengthen the miter joints in the corners of a box like this one, I add splines. The splines create additional gluing surface and help prevent the miter joints from opening up over time. The hardwood splines are glued into slots cut across the miter joints. The easiest way to cut these slots is at the table saw.

The trick is holding the box at a 45° angle while cutting the slots. To do this, I made a simple jig like the one shown here. The jig is just a short fence with a couple of supports that cradle the box at the proper angle.

The jig rides against the rip fence of your table saw. This lets you use the rip fence to locate the slots on the box. After you set the rip fence for the first slot, simply rotate the box to cut identical slots on all four corners before moving on to the next slot.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/04/19/get-stronger-miter-joints/

This is one case where woodworking takes a less than ideal situation and makes it better!

So I play organ in a band out of Austin, TX called Deadman. My main rig is a 1965 Hammond organ played through a 1970 Leslie speaker. There is nothing like the sound of that combination. There is, however, nothing like carrying it either. The organ weighs in at 325 pounds, and the Leslie is probably half that. But it sounds so nice that I can’t help but to move it around to gigs in order to play it.

Now we’ve been doing some tours through Europe and renting a Hammond and Leslie while there, but the rental costs have been killing us, plus some clubs are too small, so I needed to find a way to help us out there. So I purchased a Nord Electro. It’s a modern keyboard with some decent organ and piano sounds. Not quite like a real Hammond, but it’s an OK substitute for the tour. I wasn’t too happy with the plastic look, so I decided to make a wooden case for it so it would look more like the Hammond.

In order to keep it light (to avoid airline fees) I made it out of cedar, and it really worked out well for that. In it’s flight case, it weighs only 32 pounds—that’s 1/10th weight the Hammond!

Since the Nord Electro is made in Sweden, I’m wondering what the Swedes are going to say …

My collection of pliers was just thrown into a drawer with the idea that I’d build suitable storage for them “some day.” I finally grew tired of rummaging through the drawer every time I needed a pair of pliers. Here’s my solution. It’s just an L-shaped stand with a slotted rack at the top to hold the tools. The rack is tapered so the pliers stay put. And I made the base extra wide so it could stand up on my workbench.

Building The Stand

To build the stand, I cut the base and back to size first. Then I added a rabbet to the base and glued the two parts together. Next, I built the rack assembly. Since the grooves in the front and back of the rack need to align, I cut them in an extra-wide blank first. After I ripped it in half, I cut the bevels on the rack front. To finish up, I cut hardboard dividers to size and glued up the assembly. A couple of screws through the back hold the rack on the stand. I added L-hooks so it could hand on pegboard. The base of the rack allows me to take it with me in my shop. With this new caddy, my pliers are always right at hand.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/04/12/handy-tool-stand/

I needed a way to trim hardwood edging flush with plywood panels. Balancing a hand-held router on the edge isn’t very stable. So instead, I turned to my router table. The solution is the tall router table fence you see here. The fence slips over my existing router table fence, so it’s quick and simple to attach without using clamps or fasteners.

The secret behind this fence is that the front face of the fence is about ⅜” shy of resting on the table. This provides clearance to slide the wide edging under the face of the fence. To build the fence, I just glued all the layers shown in the drawing together after I cut a small opening on one face for the router bit.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/04/05/flush-trim-router-fence/

Whenever I make doors with glass panels, I use thin strips of wood called stop to hold the panels in the frame. The quarter round stop is mitered and tacked in place so they give the door a finished look. And if I ever need to replace the glass, the stop comes out easily.

Start with a Blank

Working with pieces this thin and small can be a bit of a challenge, though. The secret is to start with a larger blank. To make this glass stop, I began by planing a wide blank to final thickness (¼”). Once this was done, I routed a roundover on both edges of the blank. To complete the glass stop, I simply ripped it free from both edges of the blank at the table saw (Figure 2). A push block helps to safely guide the workpiece past the blade. Now it’s ready to be cut and fit to the frames.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/03/29/securing-glass-panels/?autostart=true

I use my router just about every time I’m in the shop. I wanted a place to set the router down without waiting for the bit to come to a complete stop. So I built this router stand. As you can see, it has an opening in the top with a tray on one side for bits and a drawer on the other side for router accessories.

I kept the construction simple, so it was fast and easy to build. The main part of the stand is made from ½” Baltic birch plywood. You can cut a piece of plywood to size for the base and then rabbet the edges. Twin dadoes evenly spaced from the edges hold the dividers. The top is identical to the bottom except for a U-shaped opening. After you cut the back, two sides, and dividers to size, you can glue up the stand. The final piece is a hardboard template that’s cut to fit around your router base.

The tray and drawer are sized to fit the openings in the base assembly. I rabbeted the front and back of the drawer to fit the bottom and sides (left side view drawing), then glued the drawer together. The bit tray sits in a dado cut in the front and back of the drawer (right side view drawing). Now I have a handy place to keep my router at the bench.

Source: http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2012/03/22/router-stand/