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The Builder’s Notes for any project in this book might spotlight a specialized tool or procedure that is essential for that project, but they also assume that you know the general stuff—cutting boards and driving screws, for example. Chances are that you already have some of the tools required, but as you tackle these projects, you may need to expand your collection. The following information will assist you in both choosing and using your tools.

Hand Tools

No matter how much electricity you have coming into your shop, and no matter how extensive your collection of power tools is, you really do need a few hand-powered tools. You’ll use most of these tools for other projects around the house as well, not just for woodworking.

Your basic kit (Photo 1) should include a few sizes of screwdrivers, both Phillips and flat-blade, a light claw hammer (12 ounces is about right), and a socket wrench with a selection of sockets. Pliers, a couple adjustable wrenches, a hacksaw for metal, and a backsaw for wood round out the collection.

A modest selection of traditional woodworking hand tools will also come in very handy for refining the fit of joints, trimming inside corners of rabbets, and dozens of other odd jobs. (Photo 2) A set of four chisels (⅜-, ½-, ¾-, and 1-inch widths) and a block plane are easy to find and don’t cost a lot. Keep the blades sharp so they’ll always be ready to use.

Handyman’s tool kit

Woodworker’s hand tool kit

Layout Tools

The very first tool you are likely to use on any project is one for measuring or layout. (Photo 3) You’ll probably use a measuring tape most. A 12-foot tape is long enough for the projects in this book, and it is a convenient size to fit in your pocket or hook on your belt.

Rules. For the most part, rules are simple-looking strips of metal, but they are very precise tools too. Once your stock has been cut into rough-length pieces, layout work is often done with a metal rule.

Bench rules range in length from 6 to 48 inches. A 6-inch rule works well for laying out joints and setting the cutting depth on routers and saws. A 6-inch rule often has graduations marked across the ends, which makes setting depths easier.

Perhaps the handiest rule for layout work is the hook rule, available in 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-inch lengths. As with a measuring tape, you hook the end of the workpiece for easy, accurate layouts.

An oddball rule that some woodworkers find useful is the center-finding rule (not shown). It has a zero point at the center of the rule, and measurements reading from that point out to both ends.

Rules are available in a variety of calibrations, including fractional inches, decimal inches and metric. A rule with one calibration on one edge and a different one on the opposite edge is an invitation to confusion. Better to get a rule reading left to right on one edge and a right to left on the other. With that arrangement, you can read the scale, regardless of how you pick up the rule or which direction you need to measure.

Combination Square. This is an excellent all-purpose square, which will get a lot of use. The square shown has a 12-inch blade, but lengths range from 6 inches up to 24 inches. The head, which can be moved and locked at any place along the blade, has machined edges at 90 and 45 degrees to the blade. The primary use of the combination square is as a try square—marking lines across boards, checking for flatness and squareness—but you can also use it as a marking gauge and a depth gauge.

Steel Squares. These all-steel, L-shaped tools have a long “blade ” and a short “tongue, ” which meet in a right angle at the “heel. ” All edges of these squares are graduated in various scales. The largest of the steel squares is the framing square, used by builders for laying out stairs and rafters and other elements of a house’s framework. The smallest is handy for layout work of a much smaller scale.

To use a steel square for layout, you hold the blade against a board’s edge with the tongue extending across the board’s face and mark along the tongue. You’ll use it to make sure the corners are square, and the long blade is useful for determining whether or not a surface is flat.

Sliding T-bevel. For laying out angles, you ought to have this adjustable tool. It has a metal blade with a 45-degree miter on one end, joined to a wood or metal handle with a thumbscrew. Loosening the thumbscrew allows you to change the angle between the blade and the handle. You can lay out angles set from a protractor or transfer an angle from one place on the work to another.

Compass. This commonplace drafting tool makes it easy to lay out arcs and circles. But it can also be used, as dividers are, for transferring measurements from a rule to the work or from one spot on the work to another, or for dividing lengths into equal parts.

Layout tools: A measuring tapes; B sliding T-bevel; C utility knife; D razor knife; E metal squares; F combination square; G hook rule; H protractor; I engineer’s protractor; J pencils; K 6-inch rule; L compass; M shop-made bow.

To ensure your crosscuts are square, use an angle square (often referred to by the brand name Speed Square) as a guide. Hold the square against the work’s edge, then guide the saw along it. To do this with both hands on the saw, clamp the square to the work.

Circular saws make straight cuts, and it’s difficult to alter your direction once you begin cutting. Line up the notch in the saw’s base on the layout line, and guide the cut by watching either the blade or the notch.

Proper blade depth—⅛ in. below the bottom of the work—minimizes kickback by limiting the area of the blade that’s in the kerf. It also reduces the amount of the blade that’s exposed if the saw does kick back.

Protractors. This familiar semicircular measure calibrated in degrees is good for setting a sliding T-bevel or to read an angle from a plan or blueprint, but it is actually less useful in woodworking than an engineer’s protractor, which combines the blade from the bevel with a protractor’s degree scale. With this protractor, you set the blade to an angle on the scale, then use it directly on the work to lay out the angle.

Shop-Made Bow. For laying out curves, there’s nothing so handy as a thin strip of wood from the scrap pile. You can usually bend it to a pleasing arc, then trace along it on the work while it’s held by your assistant. If you’re working alone, you can tie string to the ends—like an archer’s bow—to hold the arc.

Marking Tools. The pencil is the most common and popular tool for marking cut lines, locations for holes, and all other manner of layout markings. A marking knife (or a utility or razor knife) makes more-precise layout marks.

Circular Saw

The circular saw is your basic wood-cutting power tool. If you don’t have a power miter saw and a table saw, you can use the circular saw for crosscutting and ripping stock. (Photo 4)

You may not think of a circular saw as a tool for ripping, but it is essentially an upside-down, handheld, mini table saw. All you need for perfectly accurate rip cuts is a guide. An accessory edge guide comes with some saws, and the plans for a shop-made guide are here.

Clamping short work, as shown here, frees both hands to hold the saw. Operate your circular saw with both hands whenever possible. It is the safest way to work and yields the most accurate results.

The saw’s base has a notch in the front edge, which you can use to follow a cutting line or to make sure you line up squarely at the beginning of a cut. The saw doesn’t gladly change direction, even slightly, once a cut has begun. If you try to correct your course, the saw will shriek, maybe stall, and often burn the sides of the cut. A cutting guide may help you get started straight. With some practice, however, aligning the saw when starting a crosscut becomes second nature. (Photo 5) Clamping a carpenter’s square to the work to guide the saw can be a big help.

Be sure to understand and follow all the manufacturer’s safety instructions when you use your circular saw. Learn to set the depth of cut appropriately, and always clamp pieces that might move during the cut. (Photos 6 and 7)

When you shop for a saw, look at the motor’s amp rating, which is a fairly reliable indicator of power. For saws using 7¼-inch blades, a 13-amp motor should provide plenty of power. A lower-amp motor will bog down when cutting hardwood, particleboard, and other dense materials.

Examine the saw’s base, or shoe plate, carefully. Some saws have stamped-steel bases with relatively small footprints. These are good for remodelers, for whom maneuverability of the saw is important. But most woodworkers do lots of sawing “on the flat. ” Here, a substantial base is a plus, because it’s easier to guide against a straightedge.

Check out the controls and adjustment knobs. See how they feel in your hands, how precisely they function. They should operate easily, lock firmly, and exhibit no play.

Circular Saw Guide

While you can just clamp any straight board to the work and use it to guide the saw’s shoe, getting it offset correctly from the cut line and still exactly parallel with it can be pretty frustrating. This jig solves the problem because you clamp its edge directly on the cut line. A second board on top of the jig guides the saw’s shoe.

The jig takes advantage of the accuracy of sheet goods: the factory-cut edges of a sheet are perfectly straight. Mark the factory edge of the piece that will become the fence, and make sure it is the edge that ultimately guides the saw.

CIRCULAR SAW GUIDE

Begin by cutting two strips of ½-inch A-C or B-C plywood. (Ordinary fir plywood is fine for this purpose, but you do want a smooth surface for the saw to ride on. Don’t use CDX grade.) Cut the first strip, which has the factory edge, 8 inches wide; this is the jig’s fence. The second strip, the base, is 15 inches wide. You can cut the strips freehand; a perfectly straight cut isn’t necessary.

Glue and screw the fence to the base, with the factory-cut edge facing the middle of the base. (Photo 8) Clamp the assembly to a workbench or across sawhorses, with the edge overhanging so that you can cut it without damaging the workbench or sawhorses. Using the factory-cut edge as a saw guide, cut off the end of the wide strip to complete the jig. (Photo 9)

To use this guide, align the edge of the jig on the cut line, and clamp or screw the jig to the work. Use at least two clamps. Set the saw on the jig’s base, with its shoe against the guide fence. Switch on the saw and make a clean, perfectly straight cut.

Mounting the guide to a board for ripping is only slightly more involved. The guide is wider than individual boards, even 1x12s and 2x12s, so you have to screw the guide to the workpiece, and support the free end of the guide with a second board.

Power Miter Saws

Power miter saws have crosscut, mitered, and beveled their way onto the roster of primary woodshop tools, supplanting the loose and cranky radial arm saw as the tool of choice for breaking down rough stock. In addition to the rough stuff, they handle delicate finish cuts, making precise miter cuts, even compound miter cuts, then quickly adjusting back to square.

The most basic model is the “conventional ” miter saw, which looks like a circular saw mounted above a small table on a spring-loaded hinge. The saw body rotates from a straight crosscut to a 45-degree miter cut in either direction. To make a cut, you grasp the handle, squeeze the trigger switch, and rock the blade into the stock in a chopping motion. The majority of the saws on the market use a 10-inch blade. Most will crosscut a 2x6 and miter a 2x4 at 45 degrees. It is a simple, functional saw.

To make compound miters, cuts that are simultaneously miters and bevels, you need the more sophisticated compound miter saw. It has a rotating table but also a pivot to enable the head to be tilted 45 degrees (or more) to one or both sides. Size ranges up to 12 inches, and cut capacities are similar to those of conventional miter saws.

The most sophisticated of the miter saws is the sliding compound miter saw. (Photo 10) Like the compound saw, the head assembly rotates and tilts (some models both left and right) for compound cutting. But it also slides forward and back on a rail system, thus increasing the crosscutting capacity to about 12 inches. To make a cut, you pull the elevated blade toward you, pivot it down into the stock, then push it back toward the fence.

To assemble your circular saw guide, nail or screw the narrow strip on top of the wide one. The factory edge, which is on the narrow strip, must be on the inside. (It’s the edge nearest the hammer in the photo.)

Complete the guide by ripping the base to width with your circular saw. Just rest the saw base on the guide base, with its edge against the fence, as shown here. Rip the waste off, and your guide is ready for use.

Sliding compound miter saws offer the largest cutting capacities of all the power miters saws. The motor slides toward the operator, then pivots down into the work and cuts on the way back to the fence.

A good bench-top table saw is essential for some of the projects in this book. The low-price models sometimes lack the accuracy needed for this work, but a mid-price model will be fine.

It takes a steady, practiced hand to make precision freehand cuts with a saber saw. The saw is used for making internal cuts and trimming workpieces that are to be shaped with a template and a router.

The saber saw makes excellent rip cuts and crosscuts. To ensure they are perfectly straight, guide the saw along a straightedge clamped to the workpiece. Don’t push the saw to cut too fast, or the blade may deflect.

As you shop for one of these saws, look for smooth-working miter and bevel adjustments and easy-to-read scales. Miter-saw work will often require frequent setting changes. Large, accessible adjustment mechanisms make a big difference. In addition, detents (or stops) at common angles such as 0, 22½, and 45 degrees are useful. On a sliding compound saw, look for an adjustable depth stop, so you can use the saw to make dadoes and lap-joints.

On the safety front, look for a blade guard that retracts smoothly as you pivot the blade into the work. Look too for an electric brake that stops the blade when you release the on-off switch.

Table Saws

In the typical woodworking shop, the table saw is the queen. Buy a good one early on, and equip it with a first-rate blade, a good fence, and as big an out-feed table as your shop allows.

For the occasional woodworker, the bench-top table saw may be the best model to consider. Serious hobbyists usually opt for the midrange contractor’s model, and a professional will undoubtedly buy a cabinet saw. The prices range from less than $200 for the bottom-ofthe-line bench-top saw to more than $3,000 for a nicely outfitted cabinet saw. There are good contractor’s saws in the $300 to $400 range. (Photo 11)

The edge guide is an inexpensive accessory that’s handy for making cuts parallel with an edge. The guide is attached to the saw’s base. Its shoe rides along the edge of the work, making rip cuts a breeze.

Better edge guides often incorporate a pivot pin, so it can be used as a trammel to guide the saber saw in cutting arcs. There’s just a single pivot point, and you move the saw to adjust the radius of the cut.

When shopping for a saw, look for sturdy handwheels, knobs, and locking devices that operate easily. The blade height and bevel should adjust without any play; a lock should hold the bevel setting. Degree scales should be easy to read, and there should be adjustable stops at 45 and 90 degrees.

On the safety front, the OFF switch must be large and easy to reach. The blade guard should swing out of the way during blade changing. Because it must be removed for some operations, look for a blade guard that’s easy to remove and reinstall.

Buy a high-quality carbide tip combination blade, and use it to do all your cutting.

Saber Saw

The saber saw is “the poor man’s band saw. ” It can be used for straight-line crosscuts and rips, but its forte is the freehand curve. (Photo 12) Because the saber saw’s blade isn’t a loop like the band saw’s, it doesn’t have a “throat capacity ” limitation, so it makes cuts no band saw can. The workpiece can be any width or length. You can cut around the outside of a workpiece, but you can make a closed-loop internal cut as well. With a straightedge guiding the cut, a saber saw makes decent rip cuts. (Photo 13)And because you bring the tool to the workpiece, not the other way around, a board’s width, length, bulk, or weight won’t prevent you from cutting it. With a long blade, it can make cuts in boards as thick as 2½ inches.

The saber saw cuts with a narrow strip of a blade. The number of teeth per inch and the “set ” of the teeth have a lot to do with the aggressiveness with which a particular blade cuts. But so does the oscillation setting of the saw.

When first introduced, the saber saw cut with a straightforward up-and-down action. Known as “straight-line ” action, this is still best for smooth, tearout-free cutting, but it can be slow going on rip cuts and in dense materials. To accelerate the saw’s cutting speed, orbital cutting action has been added. In this mode, the blade churns forward and backward as it strokes up and down, cutting more aggressively, but more roughly. On most saws, you can switch the orbital action on or off; on the best, you can ratchet it on by degrees.

There are two styles of saber saws, the top handle and the barrel grip. The top handle is by far the most common. It has a loop handle positioned above and in line with the motor. A trigger switch is incorporated into the handle. Those who favor this style consider it more comfortable and say it affords increased control when cutting thick or dense materials.

The barrel-grip saber saw doesn’t have a handle. As long as your hand isn’t too small, you simply grip the motor housing. The switch typically is on the side of the housing. Having your hand low and behind the blade makes it easier to feed the saw aggressively, say the barrel-grip’s partisans, and having your hand closer to the work makes it easier to cut tight curves.

When shopping for a saber saw, look for one that has variable speed, adjustable orbital action, a tilting base with stops at 45 and 90 degrees, and a blade-changing system you can deal with.

Also look for a good edge guide. (Photo 14)Some models include a pivot-point feature, making a mini-trammel for the saber saw. (Photo 15)

One last feature to consider is a dust-collection port. While saber saws don’t generate a lot of dirt, their cutting action puts chips in front of the blade, where they pile up and obscure the cut line. Many models have a chip blower to clear them. Some models have a vacuum port so the sawdust can be sucked away by a shop vacuum.

Power Plane

Where hand planes left off, power planes have picked up. Hand planes are still used by fine woodworkers, but few carpenters have ever mastered them, and hobby woodworkers tend to be intimidated by the routine sharpening, tuning, and adjusting they require. A hand plane relies on a sharp iron, finely tuned adjustments of throat, frog, chip breaker, and iron, and lots of muscle to smooth an edge.

A power plane, on the other hand, has a pair of throw away knives and just one adjustment knob, and uses an electric motor to power the cut. (Photo 16) Just set the plane’s front shoe on the work, pull the trigger, and feed the tool steadily—better too slow than too fast—along the wood. The only adjustment is the depth of cut. Turning the front hand-grip alters the vertical position of portion of the base in front of the knives, and that controls how much material can be sliced away. Usually, a single pass can smooth a rough-cut edge.

Unlike a belt sander, which is also used to smooth wood, a power plane does not abraid the surface to remove scratches, dents, gouges, and other blemishes; instead it slices off a layer of wood, leaving a clean, smooth surface. It won’t hog out a hollow if you leave it running in one spot (as will a belt sander), but like that belt sander and a lot of other power tools, it can remove a lot of material very quickly and with little effort. You do have to pay close attention, use a conservative touch, and align the tool for each pass very carefully. Otherwise, you can quickly give an undesired contour to an edge or face.

Routers

The router is woodworking’s most versatile power tool. It will surface stock, cut joints, profile edges, and knock out duplicate parts following a template or pattern. With the right trammel, it will cut arcs, circles, and even ellipses.

There are two types of routers: fixed-base and plunge. (Photo 17) With a fixed-base router, you set the depth of cut and don’t change it while the router is running. The plunge router allows on-thefly cutting depth changes.

Depending upon how involved you get with woodworking, you’ll probably want to own several routers, along with a selection of bits and accessories. Having more than one of these tools is almost essential for doing a few of the projects in this book.

A power plane shaves boards with rotating cutters mounted underneath the body of the tool. The knob on top controls the depth of cut. A quick pass slices off just enough wood to transfer a rough edge into a smooth one.

You’ll probably want to get both types of routers; a plunge router, left, and a fixed-base router, right. If you can only get one, buy the fixed-base model: the low center of gravity keeps it more stable on some cuts.

The fixed-base model is less glitzy, perhaps, than a plunge router, but it is still the first you should buy. And if you feel you can only buy one, make it a fixed-base model. A fixed-base router is generally compact, has a low center of gravity, and is the more stable tool for the majority of the routing you’ll do. Its handles are low enough that you can grip them firmly and still have the heels of your hands braced against the work. Any job that does not require those on-the-fly changes in cutting depth should be done with a fixed-base router. This includes edge profiling and cutting dadoes, grooves, and rabbets.

With the plunge router you lower the spinning bit into the work in a controlled manner, so you can begin and end a cut in the middle of a board. The trade-off is balance. The motor rides up and down on a pair of spring-loaded posts rising from the router base. To plunge the router, you release a lock and conscientiously push down on the handles.

Straight bits (left to right): ¾-in. two-flute; 3 in. long ½-in. two-flute; ½-in. two-flute; ⅜-in. two-flute; ¼-in. solid-carbide up-spiral; ¼-in. two-flute on ½-in. shank. The bearings at left fit onto the ½-in. shanks.

Pattern bits: (left to right): 1⅛-in.-dia. 1½-in. cutting-length; ¾-in.-dia. 1½-in. cutting-length; ½-in.-dia. 1-in. cutting-length.

Flush trimming bits: ¾-in.-dia. 2-in. cutting-length; ½-in.-dia. 1-in. cutting-length.

These bits are useful for softening the edges of seat slats, armrests, and tabletop edges. Useful roundover bits include: ⅜-in.-radius r.o. bit; ¼-in.-radius r.o. bit; ⅛-in.-radius r.o. bit; and a chamfering bit.

Strange as it may seem, that seemingly huge router is guided by the bearing on the end of the bit. The router is spinning the bit, but the bearing is controlling the cut and preventing it from straying.

To guide a router across a board to cut dadoes, use a straight board as a fence. To correct for imperfections in the base’s shape, keep one spot on the base against the fence, rather than see-sawing the tool as you cut.

The edge guide guides the router for grooves and mortises. A state-of-the-art guide, like the Micro-Fence shown here, has very tight tolerances and secure lockdowns, and adapts to several brands of routers.

At rest, the handles are 4 to 6 inches above the work, and even in the middle of a cut, with the router plunged to the max, you may have difficulty bracing the machine because the handles are so high above the work.

Nevertheless, a plunge router is ideal for cutting mortises and stopped grooves.

Weight and bulk are the main drawbacks of a powerful router. A router rated at 1 to 1¾ horsepower, regardless of type, will tip the scales at about 8 pounds. A powerful 3-horsepower model can weigh as much as 18 pounds. Because a big machine often is too unwieldy for common handheld operations, many woodworkers end up with an easy-to-maneuver 1½-horsepower model for handheld operations, and a plunge router of similar size for mortising.

The collet is a tiny, but vital, part of the router. Although it weighs only an ounce or two, this is the part that holds the cutter on the end of the motor’s armature shaft. Four types are in use, the best of which is called the self-releasing collet. The double-taper collet and one-piece collet are OK and are still used on older designs. The worst type is the split-arbor; this is the sign of a cheesy router. The collet is integral to the motor’s armature, and if the collet is damaged, you must replace the armature.

It’s best if you focus on routers that come with both ½- and ¼-inch collets. Large diameter and very long cutters especially should have ½-inch shanks, and you need to get a router that will take them. At the same time, avoid models that don’t provide a true ¼-inch collet, but use a sleeve to fit ¼-inch shanks in the ½-inch collet.

COLLETS

SELF-RELEASING

DOUBLE TAPER

ONE-PIECE

SPLIT ARBOR

COLLET TECHNIQUES

GETTING A GRIP 25O

Always insert a bit’s shaft well into the collet. If you need to slide it out a little to make a cut, always keep at least twice the thickness of the shaft inside the collet to avoid excessive bit vibration.

Routers cruise at 22,000 rpm, a speed that’s fine for bits less than 1 inch in diameter but way too fast for 2- or 3-inch-diameter bits. Electronic variable speed (EVS) is an important feature on the more powerful models. EVS allows you to dial back the router’s rpms, making it safer to use large-diameter bits. It also provides a “soft start ” feature, which brings the motor up to speed gradually, eliminating the disconcerting jerk of accelerating from 0 to 22,000 rpm in a split second. Finally, EVS maintains the router’s rpms under load.

EVS is seldom available on low-horsepower routers, in part because it isn’t needed on them. They aren’t suited for use with the large-diameter bits.

Aside from bits, you should also buy an edge guide and template guides.

An edge guide attaches to the router and slides along the edge of the workpiece to guide the bit. It is particularly useful for cutting rabbets and grooves, and, with a plunge router, for cutting mortises.

Template guides, sometimes called guide bushings or guide collars, are essential for doing template and inlay work. Many router jigs—half-blind dovetail jigs, for example—call for the use of template bushings to guide the router. You will need them to build some of the furniture in this book.

Router Bits

The most important part of any routing operation is the bit. The more bits you have, the more you can do different jobs with the basic machine.

There are zillions of bits out there, made in the United States, Canada, Italy, Israel, and Asia. They’re sold in hardware stores and building centers, and you can buy them through mail-order catalogs or on the Internet.

Virtually every bit made and sold these days has a carbide-tip (or is solid carbide). In every performance aspect, bits with carbide cutting edges are superior to high-speed steel bits. An extremely hard material (close to the hardness of diamonds), carbide is relatively insensitive to heat, so it won’t lose its temper when it gets hot.

The drawbacks of carbide are brittleness and high cost. It is those weaknesses that spawned the carbide-tip bit. The shank and body of most bits are machined from steel (because it is strong and inexpensive), then slips of carbide—the cutting edges—are brazed to the bit.

The cost and quality of router bits range widely. One manufacturer’s bit may cost two or three times what a comparable profile made by another manufacturer costs. The difference may stem from where the bits are made or how they’re made. It may stem from how they’re marketed. When shopping for a bit, look for visible signs of quality: the thickness of the carbide, how evenly it is brazed to the bit body, and the smoothness of the cutting edge. These aren’t necessarily the most important aspects of bit quality, but they are things you can see. If they’re poor, the likelihood is that the invisible aspects will also be poor.

Of the quality aspects you can’t see, the most critical are the roundness of the shank and the overall balance of the bit. You can’t tell about the bit’s balance until you use it. If the shank isn’t perfectly round, or if the bit isn’t perfectly balanced, it will vibrate. When you cut with it, it’ll chatter. Vibration is hard on the router, the bit, and the cut. Straight bits make most dadoes and mortise cuts. (Photo 18) For trimming parts to match templates, you’ll need pattern and flush-trimming bits. (Photo 19) Roundover bits are used for softening edges and adding edge treatments. (Photo 2)

Using a Router Safely and Effectively

Before you jump into router woodworking, you should know some basics that will make your work safer, easier, and more satisfying.

The most important is that a router is almost never used without some sort of guide, such as a pilot bearing. (Photo 21)The guide can be as simple as a straight board for the base to ride against. (Photo 22) Some routers come with an edge guide to guide cuts. (Photo 23)

Even before you switch on the router, it’s essential to know in which direction to feed it. You need to know so you can put the fence in the correct place, for example, or so you can stand in the right place and be prepared to move in the correct direction.

Where you position the T-square in relation to the cut depends on which router and bit you are using. Make a setup gauge for each bit-and-router combination you use for cutting dadoes.

One well-placed clamp is all it takes to secure the T-square to the work, and the work to the workbench. Butt the crossbar of the T-square to the edge of the work, slide the guide into alignment, then clamp.

ROUTER T-SQUARE

Suppose you haven’t thought about this at all. You chuck a bit in the collet of your new router, and take it for a spin. You notice that the router seems to want to go in a direction, so you let it. Hey, you think, this isn’t too bad. Then zziippp, the bit suddenly grabs and GOES, pulling the router and you along. You’ve just been introduced to the most fundamental of router feed direction rules:

Move the router opposite the way it would go if you let it.

If you do let the router go where it wants, you’ll probably do OK ... for a while. But sooner or later the dynamics of the tool will really surface. If you are profiling an edge, the bit will push away from the wood, leaving you with a ragged, uncompleted cut. No harm done, really. You just climb back on that horse and finish the cut. But if you are forging across a board, guided by a fence, the cut will veer away from the straightedge, going where you don’t want it, very possibly ruining the workpiece.

All commercially available routers turn the same way. If you hold the router with the bit down, in standard handheld operating orientation, the bit will turn clockwise. With an unpiloted cutter and an unguided router, the rotation of the cutter will drag the tool to your left as you push it away from you. As you pull it toward you, it will veer to your right.

You can use this dynamic to your advantage. Because you usually use a guide, feed the router so the cutter rotation pushes it against the guide.

AVOIDING CHIP-OUT & TEAR-OUT

TEAR-OUT PROBLEM

Cutting edge chops across grain, lifting wood fibers.

Avoid problem grain.

Cut on the board’s edge, rather than the face.

CHIP-OUT PROBLEM

Wood fibers splinter as cutting edge exits wood.

A shallow cut in the same direction reduces chip-out.

A shallow cut from the opposite direction also works.

From this statement come more specific ones, such as, “When you push the router the fence must be on the left; when you pull, the fence must be on the right, ” or “When you rout around the outside of a frame, go counterclockwise; when you rout around the inside of a frame, go clockwise. ”

Beyond feeding the router in the correct direction, you can do other things to avoid problems. You must begin with straight, flat stock, with faces parallel and edges parallel, and with faces at right angles to edges. In all the common handheld operations, the router rests on the stock while it works, and its guidance devices typically ride along an edge of the stock. Imperfections in the stock surfaces will telegraph directly into the cuts.

As you set up an operation, you should be as methodical as you can. The more precise you expect a cut to be, the more precise you have to be in setting up. In every case, you have a vertical adjustment to make to the router to establish how deeply the cutter will penetrate into the work. In some cases, you also have a horizontal adjustment to make—setting an edge guide or positioning a guide fence on the work and clamping it. The workpiece has to be secured. Maybe a template must be stuck or clamped to the workpiece.

All of these preparations offer opportunities for something to go wrong. The trick in routing—as in all woodworking—is to get the setup right. If not the first time, at least before you actually cut wood.

ROUTER FEED DIRECTION

Improper feed causes a rough cut.

Correct Feed Direction

T-Square

Dadoes and grooves are fundamental joinery cuts, and they are easy to make with a router and straight bit. But as with every router operation, a guide is needed to keep the cut headed down the straight path you want. A T-square for the purpose is easy to make and use.

The big advantage a T-square has over a simple straightedge is that the setup and clamping are easy. Instead of a layout line the full length of the dado, usually a single pencil mark is enough. (Photo 24) If the fence is perpendicular to the crossbar, you can be sure the dado will be square to the edge. In addition, the crossbar acts as a brace, allowing you to secure the typical T-square with a single clamp. (Photo 25)

To make one, glue and screw two straight-and-true scraps together in a T-shape. One piece, called the crossbar or the head, butts against the edge of the workpiece, and the other, called the fence, guide, or blade, extends at a right angle across the workpiece surface. The drawing “Router T-Square ” here, shows the dimensions for the T-square I used when building the projects in this book.

MAKING T-SQUARE SETUP GAUGE

The mortise-and-tenon joint is used extensively in the projects throughout this book. You’ll use it to attach table legs to aprons, seat rails to chairs, and slats to the frames that form backrests for chairs.

This easy-to-build jig helps you cut all the mortises you’ll need for the furniture projects in this book. Once the workpiece is clamped to one fence, the router rides on the top edges of the fences to make the cut.

Put the workpiece into the jig, and clamp it to the back. If your bit reaches, the work can sit on the bottom of the fixture. A Vise-Grip® C-clamp, which you operate with one hand, makes changing workpieces fast.

Cutting Mortise-and-Tenon Joints

The mortise-and-tenon is woodworking’s essential frame joint. If you want to get very far beyond nailed-together projects, you have to master this joint. This is especially true when it comes to making several of the tables and chairs in this book. (Photo 26) Fortunately, it isn’t all that difficult, provided you have a good plunge router and a couple of easy-tomake jigs.

The typical sequence is to make the mortises, then the tenons. That way, the tenons can be sized to fit the mortises. This is a lot easier than trying to produce a mortise to fit a preexisting tenon.

Routing Mortises

The key to successfully routing mortises is to use a good plunge router, a good edge guide, and a good jig to hold the workpiece.

A useful, practical, and easy-to-make mortising jig is the miter-box-like construction shown here. (Photo 27) The entire jig is made of ¾-inch plywood and is assembled with 2-inch drywall screws.

As simple as it is, you must construct the jig with care. The bottom must be parallel to the top edge of the back, as must the top edge of the side. In use, the workpiece is set in the trough and clamped to the jig’s back. The router is supported by the back and side of the jig, and its edge guide references the outer face of the back. Thus you build the jig so the axis of the router is supported perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the desired mortise. If the side is slightly lower than the back, the router will be canted, and so will the mortises it cuts. If one end of the side is lower than the other, the mortises again will be out of alignment.

To use the jig, you clamp it in a bench vise. The workpiece used to set up the jig and the router must have the full mortise laid out on it, including a setup line. This line, exactly halfway between the ends of the mortise, is aligned with a matching setup line scribed on the jig. (Photo 28) All the other workpieces only need to have the setup line marked on them, so they can be positioned consistently in the jig. The setup of the equipment will guarantee all the mortises will be the same length, depth, and width.

Position the first workpiece in the trough, align the setup line on it with that on the jig, and clamp the work to the jig back. (Photo 29) Chuck the appropriate bit in the router’s collet. Set the router in place, and position the bit over the laid-out mortise. Set the edge guide to fix the bit’s position.

MORTISING JIG PLAN

All Parts ¾" Plywood

USING THE MORTISING JIG, VIEW FROM ABOVE

Clamp the stock, aligning the centerline of the mortise with line on jig.

Position the router bit over the mortise layout, and set the edge guide.

Move bit to one end of the layout, and attach first stop the the fence.

Move the bit to the other end, and attach the second stop. You’re ready to rout the mortise.

Next bottom the bit against the work, zero out the router’s depth adjuster, and reset it for the depth of the mortise that you want.

Finally, set the stops that prevent you from making the mortise too long. (Photo 30) Move the bit so it aligns with one end of the mortise. Butt a scrap of wood against the appropriate end of the edge guide and screw it to the jig’s back. When done correctly, the stop will not allow the router to move and cut beyond the end of the mortise. Move the router to the other end of the mortise, align the bit carefully, then screw a second stop to the jig’s back.

Before cutting the mortise, determine the correct direction to feed the router. You want to feed the router, remember, so that the bit’s rotation will help pull the guide toward the jig. Move the router to the appropriate end of the mortise, switch it on, and plunge the bit about ⅛ inch into the work. Make a cut, and retract the bit. Return to the starting point, plunge the bit a little deeper and make another cutting pass. Keep repeating this process until you’ve cut the mortise to full depth.

If the mortise is intended to be centered on the work, here’s a little trick that will guarantee it will be so. After routing the mortise full depth, unclamp the work and turn it around. Align the setup lines and clamp the work. Rerout the mortise. (Photo 31) While it now will be wider than the bit, it will be centered. You haven’t cut the tenons, and when you do, you simply cut them to the thickness necessary to fit the mortise.

It is difficult to get a clamp onto the short end of a workpiece when the mortise must be near the end. Instead, slide a wedge between the workpiece and the side, forcing the work tight against the fixture’s back.

The side and back support a plunge router nicely. The edge guide rides on the fixture’s back. The block attached to the back stops the router at the end of the cut, preventing it from cutting a mortise that’s too long.

When the mortise is done, turn the work around, and rout again. This makes the mortise a bit wider, but will also center it on the board. Routing it exactly on center in one pass is practically impossible to do.

This jig helps you cut all the tenons that fit into the mortises. You can make it out of scrape pieces of lumber and sheet goods you might have in the shop, and adapt it to cut all the various sizes of tenons you’ll need.

With the work and the jig clamped to the benchtop, you’re ready to make the first cut. The adjustable stop (right) controls the size of the tenon cut into the workpiece (above the stop, underneath the jig).

Lay the jig over the work, and clamp the whole works to the bench. Set the cutting depth on your router, and make the cut. The cut takes just a second or two to complete. The fences and the stop will also be routed.

If you have a lot of identical tenons to cut, use carpet tape to stick a positioning stop to the auxiliary top. With the stop butted tight to the work’s end, the edge of the top should be directly on the layout line.

TENONING JIG PLAN

Routing Tenons

You can also use the router to make the tenon that fits inside the mortise. The challenge is to produce a tenoned workpiece that has crisp shoulders, all in the same plane, all perfectly square. There are two keys: One is using the right bit, the other is using a well-made jig. (Photo 32)

The bit I use is a dado-and-planer bit with a shank-mounted bearing. You can use any bottom-cleaning style bits, so long as the bit has a shank-mounted bearing to guide the cut.

The jig shown above is very simple to make and use. It’s laid on top of the workpiece, with the edge of the jig’s top dead on the shoulder line for the tenon and the workpiece square and tight against the jig’s fence. (Photo 33) The jig and work are clamped to the workbench. With the depth of cut properly set, run a router with an appropriate bit across the work. (Photo 34) The shank-mounted bearing rides on the jig’s top edge, guiding the cutter. The fence backs up the cut, so you don’t get tear-out. If you attach a stop (to position the workpieces) to the auxiliary top, change-over is speeded up. (Photo 35) You don’t even have to lay out the tenons.

The jig can be made using scraps of hardwood and either plywood or MDF. The large top especially must be square and flat. The smaller top helps support the router. The stop is a job-specific fitting; make a new one for each tenoning job, and screw it in place.

Router Trammel

Any number of the projects in this book call for you to cut circles or arcs. The Deck Table’s top is round. The Porch Rocker’s runners are arcs. The most common way to cut circles or arcs in woodworking is with a router and trammel.

Your router may have one among its accessories; sometimes a trammel is incorporated into a edge guide. But when you need a trammel right now, it’s easy to cut out an oversized plywood baseplate, mount the router on one end—just stick it on with carpet tape—and drive a nail for a pivot at the other. (Photo 36) Locate the pivot point by measuring from the appropriate side of the bit hole. (Photo 37)

Two patches of carpet tape (which is sticky on both sides) is all it takes to securely bond a router to a strip of ¼-in. plywood, forming a trammel. Squeezing them together with a clamp improves the bond.

TENONING SEQUENCE

A more elaborate and continuously adjustable trammel can usually be made to fit the same rods the router’s edge guide uses. (Photo 38) One such trammel is shown in the drawing at right. This trammel won’t leave a nail or screw hole as evidence of having been used. The critical part is the acrylic plastic pivot plate, which you stick to the work—temporarily—with carpet tape. The square plate has a hole at dead center. The pivot bolt in the trammel block projects just enough to catch in this pivot hole, but not enough to bottom in that hole and scratch the workpiece. The plastic plate is durable and bonds well to the tape. You adjust the radius of the circle at the router or at the trammel block.

Whatever trammel you use, cutting arcs and circles is the natural turf of the plunge router. (Photo 38) The plunger makes it easy to get the bit into the work, and to deepen the cut after each lap. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean you can only do this work with a plunge router. Especially if you are cutting an arc (as in making runners for a rocking chair), you can begin and end each pass with the bit clear of the work at one end of the arc or the other, and thus could easily use a fixed-base router.

TRAMMEL PLAN

To locate the pivot, measure from the bit with a ruler. Remember that the bit cuts a groove, and which side of it you measure from is different, depending on which side of the piece you are cutting.

Trammels are the key to cutting smooth arcs and circles in templates and workpieces. You can make your own trammels out of thin plywood, or there are several companies that make them to fit most routers.

Once you locate the pivot point and screw the trammel to the work, cutting the circle really is quite simple. Note that the arc is being cut in a counterclockwise direction, which keeps the bit in line.

When you are routing a circle or an arc using a trammel, in general you want to feed the tool in a counterclockwise direction. (Photo 39) This will keep you out of trouble. A clockwise feed yields a climb cut, which you don’t want.

This is a safety issue primarily because climb cuts are such grabby, galloping cuts. The worst situation happens when you are cutting a circle from a square. The bit is cutting a groove as it rounds off the corners of the square, but it’s forming the edge elsewhere around the circumference. The bit can dig in and jerk the router as it exits the groove and begins making an edge cut. At the least, it will give you a start. But if the pivot isn’t set securely, it can be jerked out of position.

Feed direction also becomes a quality issue because of chip-out. Chip-out occurs as the cutting edge of the bit sweeps off the wood, taking chips out of the edge. There’s often a temptation to make a climb cut to avoid chip-out. In a climb cut, the cutting edge is sweeping into the wood, forcing the wood fibers in so there are no chips lifting out. A safer approach is to make a light finish cut in the proper, counterclockwise feed direction, to clean up the edge.

Templates

A template provides a quick and easy way to produce multiples of parts with somewhat complicated contours, like a leg with a kink in it, a curved rail for a chair, or a cut-out apron for a table or shelf. You can also use a template to make identical joinery cuts in part after part. Typically, a router is the tool that the template guides. (Photo 40)

Although computer-controlled routers are rapidly taking over such work in production settings, professional woodworkers still use templates to help them create stacks of identical parts. You can consistently contour the edges of workpieces by clamping a template to the blank for the part and then guiding the router around the perimeter of the template. Its bit will machine the workpiece to the same contour as the template. And every part cut using the template will be identical. This is how you make identical back legs for a set of four chairs, for example.

But the technique is a good one to use, even when you only have one or two parts to make. Routers can do very precise work when guided by a template. In addition, the material best suited for templates (medium-density fiberboard, otherwise known as MDF) is inexpensive and easily worked.

You may find it less laborious—not to mention less stressful—to make a template when the part you need for your project has a curved or otherwise complex contour. If you goof, you haven’t trashed a valuable board, you’ve just trashed a cheap piece of MDF.

Once you try any of these techniques, you’ll recognize the ease and reliability of template-guided work. The potential is tremendous.

Two Guidance Setups

There are two different guide systems commonly used with templates in the home shop. In the first a collar or bushing attached to the base of the router rides along the template edge, guiding the router as it cuts. In the second system, a flush-trimming type of bit with a bearing either on the shank or on the bit tip is used to make the cut. The bearing rides along the template. Each system has its pros and cons.

Guide Bushings. This is what most woodworkers think of when template-guided work is discussed.

A guide bushing, sometimes called a template guide or guide collar, is a lot like a big washer with a short tube stuck in it. The bushing fits into the bit opening in the baseplate, and the bit projects through the tube. In use, the tube—called the collar—catches the edge of the template and rides along it. And the bit that’s jutting through the collar makes the cut. Though it is slightly offset from the template, the cut nevertheless re-creates the template contour. (Photo 41)

While some router manufacturers provide a guide-bushing system specific to their routers, most have simply adopted the popular Porter-Cable system. In this design, the bushing drops into a rabbet around the bit opening so it will be flush with the baseplate surface. A threaded section projects up through the opening, and you turn a lock ring onto it, trapping the router’s baseplate between the bushing and the lock ring, thus securing the bushing to the router. With this design, you can often change bushings without touching the bit. In fact, you may not even have to change the depth-of-cut setting. A big plus with this universal design, to me, is that you can buy guide bushings from a variety of sources. You aren’t limited to the range of sizes made by the router manufacturer.

Templates help you make multiple copies of identical parts and give you the chance to shape a part in detail before you have to cut into expensive stock. MDF and some plywoods make good templates.

The advantage a template guide has is that it doesn’t move as the depth of cut is changed. You can make a series of trimming cuts, increasing the depth of cut incrementally, until the full edge is trimmed.

Sometimes a pattern bit isn’t long enough to trim the full edge. First trim around the template, cutting as deep as you can, then remove the template, and make a pass with the bearing riding on the first cut.

The size of the bushing is determined not by the overall diameter, which is the same for all bushings, but by the outside diameter of the protruding collar. You have to use a bushing with an inside diameter (I.D.) larger than the diameter of your bit. Most of the time, you’ll find yourself using a collar that’s at least ⅛inch bigger than the cutter.

You have to figure the offset into the size and shape of your template. The template cannot be the same size as the finished piece. See the “Calculating Offset ” drawing, right, for details.

Here’s an example: if you are using a ¾-inch-diameter bushing and a ⅜-inch-diameter bit, the template offset will be ³/₁₆ inch. Remember, you’ve got to add the offset to each guiding edge of your template. In this example, to rout a 1x3-inch mortise, you’d need a template slot that measures 1⅜x3⅜ inches.

Because of the need to accommodate the offset when laying out the template, setting up for template-guided routing does take extra time.

Pattern Bits. This simplest form of template-guided routing is done with either a flush-trimming bit or a pattern bit. Both have pilot bearings that are exactly the same as the bit’s cutting diameter. There’s no offset with these bits. On a flush-trimming bit, the bearing is at the tip of the bit. On a pattern bit, the bearing is on the shank, right above the flutes. (Photo 42)

Make the template (sometimes called a pattern) exactly the shape you want (limited only by the bit diameter). You don’t even have to make a template in many cases. Instead, make the first of the actual parts especially carefully, then use it as the template and make as many more as you want. They’ll all be the same.

Which System to Use?

Guide bushings offer several advantages over the piloted pattern bits.

Because they work in conjunction with your regular router bits, you save money—no special bits to buy.

But the BIG advantage is that the guide bushing is in a fixed position, regardless of the depth of cut. The bushing’s design allows you to alter the depth of cut at will, and if you are using a plunge router, to change the cutting depth on the fly. Regardless of how much or how little you extend the bit, the guide is next to the baseplate. This makes the system the only one you can use for plunge cuts. The guide is against the template, preventing the dynamics of the spinning bit from carrying it into the template itself as you plunge it into the work to begin the cut. This isn’t the case with a pattern bit. Until the spinning bit has plunged deep enough to align the bearing with the template, you have little control over it.

CALCULATING OFFSET

Although MDF is dense, it is easy to work. You can use a cabinetmaker’s rasp, a file, or sandpaper to refine the edge, bringing it right to your layout lines. It’s handwork, but it goes surprisingly quickly.

Having the right light will help you better see the imperfections and blemishes you are trying to remove when you sand. Set up a lamp so its light is directed across the surface of the piece that you are sanding.

With pattern and flush-trimming bits, on the other hand, the guide bearing changes position with every bit-height adjustment. With a flush-trimmer, the cut has to go all the way through the workpiece on every pass, because the bearing is on the tip of the bit and the template is on the bottom of the work. With pattern bits, the guide is on top of the cutter. Unless the cutting edges are very short or the template very thick (or shimmed up somehow), you can’t manage a shallow cut successfully.

The advantage these piloted bits have is in shaping parts, where you want to make a pattern that’s exactly the size and contour you want. You don’t have to struggle with the offset. The routine, with piloted bits, is to trim the workpiece as close to the template as possible with a saber saw, then make a series of very shallow cuts with the bit, until the bearing comes in contact with the template.

The advantage in tasks like template-guided mortising goes to the guide bushing system. The advantage in shaping parts goes to the bearing-guided bit system. What you’ll find as you go through the projects in this book is that both systems are called into play, and often on a single template.

Materials for Templates

For templates, you want to use material that’s easy to work, stable, flat, and inexpensive. You want something that is available in big pieces, and something that has crisp, dense edges. So sheet goods immediately come to mind: plywood, particleboard, hardboard, MDF.

Plywood works, but it has quite a few disadvantages and drawbacks. It isn’t always flat, and it isn’t always cheap, especially not the grades best suited for templates. When you cut it, the surface veneers chip and splinter, leaving fuzzy, potentially inaccurate edges. Moreover, the edges are not easily worked with a rasp, file, or sandpaper. Plywood often has voids in its interior plies, and when they emerge at the edge, they are hazards. If a bearing dips into one, you’ve got both a botched workpiece and a botched template.

Particleboard also works. It is available in a wider range of thicknesses than other sheet goods, and it is inexpensive. But the “particles ” it’s made of are pretty coarse, and it isn’t particularly dense. Consequently, its edges are tough to really smooth, and they are easily dented by pilot bearings.

Hardboard has the advantages of being cheap, dense, smooth, and uniform. Thicknesses are accurate. But the edges get fuzzy when cut. And the maximum thickness, ¼ inch, is inadequate for a lot of applications.

Medium-density fiberboard, commonly called MDF, is extremely flat and smooth. Thicknesses are very precise. It is heavy, about half again as heavy as a comparable piece of plywood. The dense, homogeneous character of MDF gives it great stability, making it a particularly fine material for templates. A router bit’s pilot bearing won’t compress its dense edges. Nevertheless, it is easy to quickly shape an edge with a cabinetmaker’s rasp, a file, or even coarse sandpaper. (Photo 43)

It isn’t problem-free, of course. Left unsealed, it will wick up moisture and swell, causing permanent changes in dimensions. But a film finish (like quick-drying shellac or water-based polyurethane) will prevent it from absorbing moisture. Finally, MDF turns to powder when you machine it. I mean POWDER. The fine dust gets everywhere. A good dust mask is a must.

Sanding and Sanders

One of the great mysteries of woodworking is sanding. Everyone hates doing it, yet the typical hobby woodworker wastes a lot of effort on it. He sands and sands and sands, continuing to labor long after the job has actually been completed.

The goal of sanding is straightforward: you want to remove mill marks—those ripples left by surfacing equipment used at the sawmill—and smooth the wood. After the finish has been applied, you want the wood to look and feel smooth.

If you remember anything from this section, remember that you don’t have to sand endlessly, through finer and finer grits of sandpaper. Sand only until the mill marks and other defects are gone and the wood is smooth. The goal is to achieve this as quickly as possible, with as little effort as possible. And when you get there, quit, because you are finished.

Remember, too, that you get the best results with the least effort if you do as much of the sanding as possible before assembly. You’ll be able to clamp individual parts to your bench, where you’ll be able to sand in a comfortable position, with good light, using any sanding tool you want. You’ll also avoid the trials of sanding already-assembled right-angle joints, such as those between legs and rails, without introducing cross-grain scratches.

Sanding Basics

Before you actually begin sanding, you should know a little bit about the gritty stuff—sandpaper—that you’ll be using.

Sandpaper is graded from coarse to fine in numbered grits. The sequence is 60, 80, 100, 120, 150, 180, 220, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, 500, 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000. Don’t be overwhelmed by the range. For woodworking, you should start with 80-grit paper and work grit by grit all the way up to 150 grit. Sanding the bare wood with finer grits—180 or 220—will give it a more polished appearance, but once a finish is applied, it won’t really look any better.

A belt sander is an aggressive tool built to remove stock in a hurry. It’s usually best for smoothing rough boards and removing mill marks. If you get a variable speed model, you can slow it down for more delicate work.

A good pad sander makes quick work of cleaning lumber. It typically uses one-quarter sheet of sandpaper, so this compact tool can get into fairly tight spots and can even sand some parts after assembly.

A random orbit sander has a pad that rotates as well as oscillates, so it smoothes a surface faster. Many models incorporate integral dust collection, actually drawing the dust up through holes in the sanding pad.

There are several types of sandpaper, but for woodworking tasks, you will almost always get the best results with garnet paper, which is orange-to-red in color, or aluminum-oxide paper, which is tan-to-brown. For sanding between coats of a finish, the best sandpaper to use is silicon carbide, which is available in stearated and wet-dry versions. Stearated silicon carbide paper, which is usually a gray color, contains a metallic soap (the stearate) as a lubricant to keep the grit from clogging with sanding dust. The wet/dry sandpaper, which is black, has the grit bonded to the paper with waterproof glue, allowing you to use water or some other fluid as a lubricant.

Whether you work by hand or with a power sander, there are really only two steps to sanding: removing the blemishes, then removing the scratches from step one.

Using a coarse grit sandpaper for the first step is appropriate. But you can reduce the work involved in the second step if you don’t use a paper that’s more coarse than necessary. In other words, don’t automatically hit every board with a 60-grit sanding belt. If you can get the mill marks out quickly with 80 grit or 100 grit, use that instead, and you’ll have one or two fewer grits to cycle through to smooth the board.

You need good light to get good results. Set up a task light at the end of your workbench, and adjust its angle so the light rakes across the work. Play around with it a little, and when the light is correctly set, you’ll be surprised at obvious planer marks and scratches and other blemishes. (Photo 44)

Sand the workpiece with a coarse sandpaper to remove mill marks and the like. Just as soon as they are gone, stop. Brush the dust from the workpiece before changing to a finer grit. Be thorough. The dust will contain grit particles from the sandpaper you just used, and this grit will keep you from getting a uniform scratch pattern with the finer grit. Perform this cleanup after each sanding cycle.

Sand with the next finer grit, working until you can see no more improvement. The goal is to create a uniform pattern of scratches in the wood surface. You will always have scratches, because that’s what the sandpaper does—it scratches the wood. But as you progress through finer grits, the scratches become tinier and closer together and fainter, and in essence, they disappear. So use that task light, and examine the work. Don’t jump too quickly to a finer grit, a common mistake, but don’t obsess over it either.

While you dare not skip any grits if you are sanding by hand, it is fairly common to leapfrog grits when doing the job with a power sander. The sander’s greater speed makes up the difference.

Regardless of your final grit, you won’t remove all of the tiny wood fibers that swell and make the wood rough to the touch if it gets wet. To eliminate these, you need to “sponge the wood ” or “raise the grain ” after your normal sanding. To do this, wet the wood, getting it thoroughly damp. Allow it to dry overnight. Then resand it, using sandpaper at least as fine as the last grit used. Don’t overdo it. All you want to do is remove the raised fiber, nothing more.

Finally, don’t be stingy with the sandpaper. The cutting efficiency of sandpaper declines quickly, and once it dulls, you are wasting your elbow grease. You’ll shorten the time you spend sanding dramatically by changing sandpaper more often.

Sanding Tools

Many types of sanding tools are available. Detail sanders, quarter-sheet sanders, half-sheet sanders, stationary disk/belt sanders, edge sanders, and more. The three sanders, all portables, that make the most sense in a small start-up shop are the belt sander, the pad sander, and the random-orbit sander. With the belt sander, you can quickly remove the mill marks, both subtle and obvious, from lumber off the rack or just out of the thickness planer. The pad sander and the random-orbit sander both can help you deal with smoothing out the belt sander’s scratches

Belt Sander. This common power tool has an abrasive belt mounted on rollers like the tracks on a bulldozer. Between the rollers is a flat platen, and it is this plate the determines how much of the abrasive belt is in contact with the work. (Photo 45) Belts and belt sanders are made in a variety of sizes, and the most common are 3 by 21 inches, 3 by 24 inches, and 4 by 24 inches.

Sanders are made in transverse and in-line configurations. In the transverse style, the motor is mounted crosswise. These models are taller and heavier, generally, than the in-line style. Weight isn’t a bad thing in a belt sander. In the woodworking shop, almost all your sanding will be performed with the machine flat on the work; you lift the tool on and off the work, but when it is running, its weight is supported by the work. The weight stabilizes it and helps it cut aggressively.

Aggressive sanding is what a belt sanders is all about. It can remove nicks and dents, snipe and other mill marks, and general roughness in nothing flat. The trade-off is that belt sanders require your full attention; a lapse in concentration and a wobble can result in a sizable trough or swale instead of a flat, smooth surface.

Pad Sander. The pad sander is much tamer than a belt sander, and in turn, it is much less effective at removing wood. But it is intended to complement an aggressive tool like the belt sander, not compete with it. It’s a sander that you put into play for the last couple of sanding cycles.

A number of models are on the market. Larger ones take a third- or half-sheet of sandpaper. Palm sanders typically take a quarter-sheet of sandpaper. (Photo 46) The low-end pad sanders vibrate, but the better ones oscillate, orbiting between 10,000 and 20,000 times a minute. This orbital motion leaves swirls of scratches on the wood surface, which are all but invisible until you get the finish on. Then, of course, they are very obvious.

Here are some tricks to minimize the scratching. First, switch on the sander and let it build up speed before setting it on the wood. Then, don’t press on the machine, because that slows it down. Keep the sander moving slowly back and forth in the direction of the grain. Finally, finish off the job by hand. Sand with fine sandpaper and a sanding block, in the direction of the grain.

Random-Orbit Sander. If what you want is a glassy-smooth surface, the belt sander isn’t your choice. The random-orbit sander definitely is. The tool combines rotary and orbital actions so it can remove material quickly without being hard to control. Although the manufacturers claim these sanders can produce a scratch-free surface, even when sanding across the grain, it isn’t entirely true.

Random-orbit sanders are made in several configurations, and whichever you buy should be influenced by the work you’ll use it for.

The right-angle sander has the motor oriented horizontally. It transmits power to the sanding pad via bevel gears. If aggressive stock removal is what you need most, this is the model for you. It is more powerful than the others styles, but it also noisy and vibrates a lot. Because the motor is offset from the pad, right-angle sanders aren’t particularly well balanced. Two-hand operation is a must; one hand grasps the motor housing, the other a handle that projects from the gearcase.

The palm-grip sander is, perhaps, the most familiar random-orbit sander, and it’s the favorite of those planning to do mostly finish sanding with the tool. It is compact and is designed to be held in one hand. (Photo 47)

The secret of the random-orbit sander’s scratch-free work is that its pad freewheels on a shaft that is eccentric from the driveshaft. Consequently, the pad’s rotation (or orbit) is totally random; each new orbit cancels out scratches left from prior rotations.

A problem with the first generation of random-orbit sanders was that the sanding pad would pick up speed—rather dramatically so—when it was lifted from the workpiece. Setting it back on the work was dicey; the sander would jerk around, often leaving noticeable swirl marks. The solution is a pad brake. Don’t buy a sander without one.

Some random-orbit sanders are designed to use pressure-sensitive-adhesive backed (PSA-type) disks, while others take hook-and-loop disks. The advantage of the PSA disks is lower cost. But the adhesive often degrades in a hot environment, losing its stick. Dust can contaminate it. And on the other hand, the disks sometimes get stuck a little too securely to the sanding pad. Moreover, once the disk has been peeled off the pad, it can’t be reapplied. Hook-andloop disks, on the other hand, can be removed and reused easily.

Clamps

One of woodworking’s oldest sayings is, “You can never have too many clamps. ” Well, OK. But there are so many styles and sizes and specialty designs are on the market, it is almost impossible to keep track of them all. You can easily be overcome with bewilderment.

The clamps used in constructing the outdoor furniture in this book are shown here. While there are less than a dozen styles, most are used in several sizes. It’s enough to foster a sense that you do have altogether too many of the things—until you start to clamp up a big project.

Bar Clamp. The workhorse clamp in any woodshop is the fast-action bar clamp. (Photo 48) You’ll find yourself using them to secure workpieces to the workbench, to mount temporary fences to machines or workpieces, for assembly work, and for countless other tasks.

Quick-action bar clamps

Pipe clamps

Trigger clamps

Corner clamps

Spring clamps

Vise-Grip® C-clamps

C-clamps

K-body clamps

Hand-screw clamps

Cordless drills can handle almost any task that their corded ancestors did, without the hassle of a cord. Most come with two batteries so you’ll always have one charged.

If you’ve already got one, a corded drill will also work fine for these furniture projects. For projects that are assembled in place, such as the Hammock Stand, just use a long extension cord to gain access to the work.

A quick-action clamp has a fixed jaw and an adjustable jaw, both mounted on a steel bar. The adjustable jaw has a threaded adjuster with a swivel foot and handle. You set the fixed jaw on the work, slide the adjustable one against the opposing surface, then turn the handle to tighten the clamp. Many of these clamps are sold with plastic pads to slip onto the contact surfaces on the jaws, so the pronounced tendency of these clamps to dent the work is minimized. Buy the pads separately if they aren’t part of the clamp. In any event, to really protect the wood, you need to slip wood scraps, often called cauls, between the good wood and the clamp jaws.

The two variables in sizing these clamps are the opening capacity and the throat depth. The maximum possible span between the jaws is controlled by the bar length, and capacities range from 6 inches to 36 inches. The throat depth is the distance from the jaw tip to the bar, and it governs how far in on a board the clamp will reach. Typically, the clamp’s overall bulk is proportional to the throat depth; as the throat gets deeper, both the jaw and the bar get beefier. A clamp with a thicker and/or wider bar can exert more pressure with less flex.

The clamps applied across the box in the photo should give you a sense of the range and proportions of clamp sizes. The clamp at the left front corner is undoubtedly the most commonplace size. Its slightly deeper-throated kin at the right front is surprisingly useful because it can reach a little deeper, and clamp a little more securely.

Pipe Clamp. The pipe clamp is used primarily when edge-gluing boards to create wide panels and when assembling cabinets and the like. (Photo 49) The clamp consists of a pair of jaws that you mount on a length of steel plumbing pipe. One jaw, which incorporates a coarse-thread screw adjuster, is threaded onto one end of the pipe. The other jaw is infinitely adjustable along the pipe’s length. Two sizes are available, those for ½-inch pipe (the red one in this photo) and those for ¾-inch pipe (the orange one).

You buy the black or galvanized pipe separately. Buy 18- to 24-inch lengths for small glue-ups, 36-inch lengths for wide tabletops or casework, even longer lengths if you get into making truly wide tables. If you are on a tight budget, you can buy two or three different lengths of pipe for each jaw set you get, then switch pipes according to the demands of the task. To transform short pipe clamps into long ones, use pipe couplings to join two pipes end-to-end.

The black pipe is cheaper and more accurately sized. Because it is slightly softer, the adjustable jaw digs in better and its less likely to slip as you tighten the screw-jaw. Black pipe can leave black marks on the workpiece, which the galvanized pipe is less likely to do.

Trigger Clamp. Largely because they can be applied with one hand, Trigger clamps are very popular. (Photo 50) To tighten one on an assembly or workpiece, you simply squeeze the large trigger incorporated into the pistol-grip handle. This “walks” the adjustable jaw along the clamp’s bar, pinching the work between it and the fixed jaw. This action allows you to hold parts together with one hand, while you apply the clamp with the other. Trigger clamps are available in various lengths up to 60 inches.

Corner Clamp. The ranks of clamps are filled with special-purpose designs. One such, useful in making a project or two in this book, is the corner clamp. (Photo 51) It has a right-angle fence and two screw-adjusted feet, one opposite each face of the fence. Its use is limited to holding two pieces at right angles to one another, hence the name. While the clamp won’t “close ” the joint for you, it will hold it closed while glue sets or while you drive fasteners into it.

Spring Clamp. A light-duty clamp that can be useful is the spring clamp. (Photo 52) The jaws are spread open simply by squeezing the two handles together, typically a one-handed operation. Position the jaws on the work, and release the handles. The jaws close firmly, even on work that doesn’t have parallel faces. Spring clamps are plenty strong for holding things together during layout and assembly, and for glue-ups on small objects too. They are perfect for holding stop blocks, as shown here.

Two types are available. The old standbys are made of metal with slip-on soft plastic pads on the tips and the handles. Composite plastic ones are also on the market. The soft jaws on these are more substantial, providing delicate workpieces with better protection from pressure damage. A range of sizes is available in both styles.

Vise-Grip® Clamp. These may not seem to have a place in woodworking, but the style with C-clamp jaws do. (Photo 53) This clamp works with the familiar locking-grip action. Squeeze the plier handles in one hand to close and lock the jaws. Press the release trigger between thumb and a couple fingers to unlock the clamp, allowing its jaws to swing open freely. The type to use has swivel pressure-pads (and soft-plastic caps for the pads are available); it is available in three sizes (the middle size shown here). The gap between the jaws is adjusted by turning the knurled knob projecting from one handle. Once the gap is established, you can close and open the clamp again and again; the jaws will always snap closed on the work with the same amount of pressure. This feature eliminates a lot of the clamping busywork that accompanies production-like work, such as clamping one workpiece after another in a mortising fixture.

C-Clamp. The oldest style of all-metal clamp, the C-clamp gets its name from its shape. (Photo 54) It exerts enormous clamping pressure. The sliding T-bar on the threaded adjuster allows you to crank it much tighter than if it simply had a spindle handle, like the typical quick-action clamp. One drawback here, of course, is the small contact area; the wood is almost guaranteed to be dented by the pads on the screw and the clamp body, so you need to use cauls. Another drawback is that this type of clamp can be tedious to apply and remove, because the only way to do either job is by turning and turning and turning its T-handle. Quick-action and trigger clamps do most of the same jobs as a C-clamp, and though they aren’t as strong, they are strong enough for most jobs, and they are much faster to apply and remove.

C-clamps are made in a wide array of sizes (lengths and throat depths) and variations. You ought to have a modest assortment of at least the smaller sizes—clamps with 2-inch, 3-inch, and 4-inch openings are shown here. These are great for immobilizing stop blocks, particularly if they are likely to be butted roughly by board after board.

K-Body Clamp. The K-body clamp, made only by Bessey, is a hybrid of the pipe clamp and the quick-action clamp. (Photo 55) It looks like the latter style, but with very blocky, plastic-covered jaws.

To apply the clamp, you capture the work between the two jaws, sliding the adjustable jaw snug. Then you twist the handle to increase the clamp pressure. The main difference is in those flat-faced jaws. They are square to the bar and parallel to each other, and they remain that way even under heavy pressure. Pressure is distributed evenly along the full 1⁷/₁₆ by 5-inch face of each jaw, not concentrated in small pads, as is the case with a quick-action clamp. The adjustable jaw isn’t sloppy; it doesn’t wiggle as you snug it against a workpiece, as does a pipe clamp’s jaw.

The upshot is that when two or more boards are clamped edge to edge in K-body clamps, they are more likely to stay flat and aligned than when you clamp them with pipe clamps. You can use the clamps more easily to help square an assembly because the clamp itself is better aligned. The jaws are much less likely to dent or crush the edges of the work. The plastic shells on the jaws make them resistant to glue.

Not to be overlooked is their stability, the blocky jaws provide secure footing for the clamps; they’ll stand on their own, either horizontally or vertically. You can set them on your benchtop, and they won’t roll over when you lay the work on the bars.

If your drill has a ⅜-in. chuck, you’ll need to buy larger-diameter bits with stepped-down shanks, so that they’ll fit your drill’s chuck. Brad-point bits have a pointed tip to keep them from walking.

Forstner bits cut flat-bottomed, smooth-walled holes. They are great for counterbores in soft wood. The Forstner isn’t really a good general-purpose bit, because it cuts slowly and tends to clog with chips.

The quickest way to drill pilot holes is with a drill-countersink combo. These have a countersink bit fitted over a twist drill bit. You’ll need two sizes for the projects in this book—the 6- and 8-gauge screw sizes.

The trade-off is a substantial price tag, one that’s 30 percent or more higher than comparable sized quick-action clamps, and easily two to three times more than a pipe clamp.

Hand-Screw Clamp. The modern hand screw clamp is a clear descendant of an ancient, all-wood clamp. (Photo 56) In the original version, threaded wooden spindles link two wooden jaws, and by turning both spindles at the same time, you can open and close the jaws.

In the descendant, the spindles are metal with wooden grips, and they are threaded through nuts captured in the jaws. The nuts can pivot, so that in addition to simply opening and closing the jaws, you can offset one from the other, and you can adjust them so they are at an angle to one another. The jaws continue to be made of wood, and this makes them much less likely to mar your workpieces. Waxing them from time to time won’t hinder their purchase on the work, but it will prevent glue from bonding to them.

Hand-screw clamps are not all-purpose clamps, but they are particularly good for laminations, the type shown in the photo here. The jaws are long and flat, and thus you can apply intense pressure on broad areas (as opposed to isolated points). In the example shown, the pressure is applied evenly from edge to edge.

Sizes range from the baby No. 5/0, with 4-inch jaws that open a maximum of 2 inches, up to the Papa Bear No. 6, with 20-inch jaws that open to 10 inches. As the jaw size increases, the spindle length does too.

Drill/Driver and Bits

It’s probably the least-expensive power tool in the shop, but it’s used on virtually every project. We call them drills but use them to drive screws as well. You’ve got to have at least one in your shop, and many woodworkers have three or more, in both corded and cordless versions.

Look at cordless models first,(Photo 57) since they have a better combination of features than corded models. (Photo 58) The latter tend to be engineered either as drills or as screwdrivers. Cordless models, on the other hand, combine these functions in one tool. They also eliminate the cord to the outlet, freeing you to move around the shop, nosing in, over, under, and around the project you’ve assembled.

The power of cordless tools seems to be constantly increasing. The first cordless drills depended on 7.2-volt batteries for juice. Then it jumped to 12 volts, then 14.4, and now 20-volt and even 24-volt tools are for sale. With each increase in voltage, you’ll find increases in speed and torque. The more work you expect from your drill, the more you will value the extra power of a powerful battery.

TOOL TIP

You’re going to break a screw or two during the course of any construction project, even if you drill pilot holes. When it happens, use a pair of Vise-Grip® pliers to grab the shank and turn it out of the hole.

Use a plug cutter to make wooden plugs to cover up the screw heads on your projects. The cutter is not easy to use with a handheld drill. Best results come with a drill mounted in a stand or a drill press.

Drill-and-driver sets speed assembly. Chuck the socket into your drill. Drill the pilot hole, then pop the bit holder out of the socket, turn it end-for-end, and reinsert it. The screwdriver bit will now be in position.

Other improvements incorporated into cordless drills include the adjustable clutch and the electronic brake. The former allows you to dial in a torque setting for driving screws; whenthe preset torque level is hit, the clutch disengages and the chuck stops turning. There’s always a “locked-in ” setting for drilling, of course. The electronic brake stops the chuck as soon as you release the trigger. No more waiting for the drill bit to stop spinning before you can position it for the next hole.

Another improvement that seems to have accompanied the cordless drill’s development is the keyless chuck, which allows you to loosen and tight the chuck by hand.

The big shortcoming of the portable drill, of course, is the variable results of handheld operations. If you need a hole drilled at a precise angle, you need to use a guide, either shop-made or manufactured. The doweling jig may be the most-common drill guide, but there are also attachments that help hold a portable drill at an angle.

Twist Drill. The twist drill bit is the all-purpose hole-maker with which everyone is familiar. The same bit you use to drill holes in wood will also work in plastic and metal. (Photo 59) Twist drills are available individually and in sets, in fractional, decimal, wire, letter, and metric sizes, and in several different lengths. The jobber length, which varies from about 2 inches up to 4 inches, is the most common. The big sets, which include all the fractional sizes from ¹/₁₆ to ½-inch by 64ths, all the letter sizes, and all the wire sizes, run to 115 bits. You don’t need anywhere near that many, and probably will find a 29-piece set of fractional sizes (¹/₁₆ through ½ -inch) more than adequate.

Forstner Bit. The design of the Forstner bit combines a tiny center point with cutting rims and chisel-like cutting edges. (Photo 60) The point locates the hole, the rims score its circumference, and the cutting edges essentially plane its bottom. The result is a flat-bottomed, smooth-walled hole. There are times when you need this type of hole, and this is the bit that will produce it for you. I find it does a great job on counterbores in the woods best-suited for outdoor uses (which tend to be soft).

The Forstner isn’t really a good general-purpose bit, because it cuts slowly and tends to clog with chips. You need to withdraw the bit from the hole frequently to clear chips. The range of sizes begins at ¼ inch and jumps in ¹/₁₆-inch increments to 1 inch, then jumps in ⅛-inch increments to 3½ inches. The larger bits can be very difficult to control in a hand-held drill.

Countersink Bits. The most expeditious way to drill pilot holes for screws is with a combination drill-countersink. (Photo 61) These assemblies have countersinkcounterbore cutter fitted over a twist drill bit. You can adjust how far out of the cutter body the bit extends, and you can replace the drill bit. (The bits break readily where they emerge from the cutter body.) The assemblies are labeled according to screw gauges, and for the projects in this book, you really need only the Nos. 6 and 8 bits. The most commonly available styles use regular bits, and they work fine for decking screws, which aren’t tapered. The unit on the left does have a tapered drill bit; it is available in woodworking specialty stores and through mail order.

Plug Cutter. If you want to conceal the screws used to assemble your outdoor furniture, you’ll need a plug cutter. (Photo 62) The cutter bores into the face or edge grain of wood scraps to produce plugs that blend right into the surrounding material. Because the plug is tapered, it’s easy to insert into a counterbore. The deeper into the hole you push it, the tighter it gets. (Dowels don’t work nearly as well, because they aren’t tapered, and because they become unattractive little end-grain islands in your project’s expanses of face grain.) The ⅜-inch-diameter size plug cutter is right for decking screws of all lengths. The style shown here is usually found in home centers, although other styles are available through specialty stores and mail order. The cutter is not easy to use with a handheld drill. Try a drill mounted in a stand or a drill press.

TOOL TIP

Carpet tape is sticky on both sides, so it’s perfect for attaching templates to blanks. Keep a roll on hand, and a pair of scissors right next to it. All it takes is a couple of squares to secure most templates.

Screwdriver Bits. Few people drive screws by hand these days. The cordless drill/driver does it for us, using special screwdriver bits. You can still buy Phillips bits, but power drills tend to chew these up and strip screws. This led to the invention of square-drive screws which are better, but have now been mostly surplanted by star-drive screws which hold the bit very securely and almost never strip.

Drill-and-Drive Set. These sets are handy when assembling furniture. (Photo 63) Instead of using two drill/ drivers, one to drill pilot holes, the other to drive the screws, you need only a single drill and one of these sets. You chuck the tool socket in the drill. A bit holder, with a combination pilot drill-countersink in one end and a screwdriver bit in the other, fits into the socket. Drill the pilot hole, then pop the bit holder out of the socket, turn it end-for-end, and reinsert it. The screwdriver bit will now be at the ready. You can easily make the switch with one hand, while holding the drill in the other.

RESOURCE GUIDE

Bosch Power Tools

S-B Power Tool Company

4300 West Peterson Avenue

Chicago, IL 60646-5999

1-877-267-2499

www.boschtools.com

Manufacturer of power tools and accessories (including router bits); sells through distributors.

DeWalt Industrial Tools Co.

Consumer Service Div.

626 Hanover Pike

Hampstead, MD 21074

1-800-433-9258

www.dewalt.com

Manufacturer of power tools; sells through distributors.

Jepson Power Inc.

90 Grand Avenue. Apt. E1

Hackensack, NJ 07601

201-916-4709

www.jepsonpower.com

Manufacturer of power tools and accessories; sells through distributors.

Lee Valley Tools, Ltd.

PO Box 1780

Ogdensburg, NY 13669-6780

1-800-871-8158

www.leevalley.com

Manufacturer and direct-mail retailer of woodworking tools, hardware, finishing supplies, and more.

Makita

Makita USA

14930 Northam Street

La Mirada, CA 90638

1-800-462-5482

www.makitatools.com

Manufacturer of power tools and accessories; sells through distributors.

McFeely’s

1620 Wythe Road

PO Box 11169

Lynchburg, VA 24506-1169

1-800-443-7937

www.mcfeelys.com

Sells a variety of fasteners, drill and router bits, finishing supplies, and other tools.

Milwaukee

13135 W. Lisbon Road

Brookfield, WI 53005

1-800-729-3878

Milwaukeetool.com

Manufacturer of power tools and accessories; sells through distributors.

Porter-Cable

4825 Highway 45 North

PO Box 2468

Jackson, TN 38302-2468

1-800-487-8665

www.portercable.com

Manufacturer of power tools; sells through distributors.

Rockler Woodworking and Hardware

4365 Willow Drive

Medina, MN 55340

1-800-279-4441

www.rockler.com

Sells a broad range of tools, hardware, and finishing supplies through the mail and operates a number of retail stores.

Ryobi Power Tools

One World Technologies Inc.

P.O. Box 1207

Anderson, SC 29625

www.ryobitools.com

Manufacturer of power tools and accessories; sells through distributors.

Whiteside Machine Company

4506 Shook Road

Claremont, NC 28610

1-800-225-3982

www.whitesiderouterbits.com

Manufacturer of router bits; sells through distributors and on-line.

Woodcraft

210 Wood County Industrial Park

PO Box 1686

Parkersburg, WV 26102-1686

1-800-535-4482

www.woodcraft.com

Retailer of woodworking tools and accessories, hardware, supplies; sells online, via direct mail and through 72 retail outlets.