When sawing wood, take time to consider which side of the material will be facing up. Keep the good side up when you are using a hand saw, scroll saw, band saw or radial-arm saw. Keep the good side down when you are suing a portable circular saw, table saw or sabre saw. The principle is to have the tooth of the blade first break through the rough side of the board or panel.
Making perfect dovetail joints can involve some shop practice, so consider starting out with a less-expensive jig that is designed for making only one or two types of joint styles. Then you can later work your way on up to the more expensive and versatile jigs that will let you make up to four or more styles of dovetails. With any dovetail jig, try to avoid using a router that is very light; heavier routers will produce crisper and cleaner cuts.
Sawdust build-up can create heat and friction when you use a hole saw. One solution is to drill a smaller hole inside the area to be cut out that will allow the sawdust to escape. Size the relief hole according to the size of the larger hole. If, for example, you are cutting a 3-in. hole, drill a 1-in. relief hole. Don’t drill the hole too close to the center, which you need for the saw’s pilot bit.
Don’t start a saw motor with the blade touching the workpiece. Let the motor reach full speed before it begins the cut.
Often carpenters will make quick work of cutting fiberboard sheathing by making their cut marks with a chalkline instead of a carpenter’s pencil. Hook the end of the chalkline on one end, hold down the other end, and snap to make the line. The same idea can be used on other sheet material.
If you need to hacksaw through a fastened pipe or rod, but the space above is cramped, try this: Remove the hacksaw’s blade, straddle the pipe with its frame from below, then reinstall the blade upside down. The teeth of the saw will cut through the pipe from the opposite side. In many cases this trick will allow you to complete a cut that would be otherwise impossible.
When cutting up small pieces for a project, an easier way to doublecheck for accuracy is to measure a number of the pieces at once. If you have four pieces which should be exactly 8 in. long, lay them end to end and measure. This multiplies small errors hard to detect on only one piece. For example, if the four pieces measure 32-1/8 in. instead of 32, then you know that each of the pieces is 1/32 in. too long.
Before you glue up wood for a project, examine the parts. If at all possible, start out with cleanly cut, perfectly straight boards of the proper thickness. Take out any bow or warp before you begin your gluing work. By using straight and true stock, you won’t have to force the boards in one direction or another, and you won’t have to get into tricky, complicated clamping set-ups.
If you’re using a handsaw and find that a board you have just cut is 1/16 in. or 1/8 in. too long, here’s a way to re-cut the board without making a mess of things. Find another board the same width and clamp it over the top of the board you want to trim. Then mark the cut line on the top board and make the cut. The kerf of the top board will keep the saw in line for a perfect cut below it.
When you need to duplicate multiple measurements on a larger project, it can be helpful to use a length of 1×2 or similar stock as a story pole. Cut or select a piece that is longer than the longest cut required. Carefully mark the height, width, depth and length of various parts onto the 1×2. The story pole will speed up marking for cuts, and matching parts will be cut the same.
