ShopNotes Issue 61

7/28/2019 ShopNotes Issue 61

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-.-hive ark,T111-newdes~gnhworks as good as rr looks


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Je 61 r------='January 2002wsusnen DonaldB. Pesehke

EDITOR Teny . StrohmanASSOCIATE EDITORS Blyan Nel~on

VincentAnconaCONTRIBUT~NGEDITORS Joel Hess

CraigRuegseggerART DIRECTOR Caw C ~ ~ k n ~ e n

SR. GRAPHICDESIGNER K~ SehultZSENIOR ILLUSTRATORS Roger Reiland

Mark Higdon

A. -- Cutoffs1-.=


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ContentsFeatures

5-in-1 Router Base Plate system-A unique router base plate system makes it easy to use anumber ofshoo-built accessoriesmortis~noia circle cutter I5-in-1R. . System pag-, ,fiush trim ig, edge guide, and benchtop fence and table.Brad Nailers 14A brad nailer can now be standard equipment for everyworkshop. We'llgive you the reasons why and the featuresto look for when selecting one for your shop.

Drill Press Sharpening Wheel 18Usethe low speed of your drill press to sharpenaplane ironor chisel in minutes. Plus, this sharpening wheel features aleather top for honing a razor sharp edge.

Tapping Threads 25 Brad Nailers page.l ) A jig, fifixure,or tool willoften workbetter andmoreaccuratelyby tapping the metal parts to accept threaded fasteners.Here's whatyou need to know about tapping threads.Adjustable Hand Plane 2.6

Thelookandfeel ofa traditionalwoodplanewithsomeof theeasy-to-use eaturesyou find ona metalplane:anadjustablethroat opening and a secure blade-mounting system.

DepartmentsReaders' Tips 4 Sh,arpeningWzeel page

Shop-testedtips tosolve common woodworkingproblems.@shop Talksaws, is one really better than the other7

3aWetakeon the left or right t11tdebate Whenit comes to table

ant(sTool Chest 34In th~s ew department, we take a look at tools we use dayin and day out First up- andwk scrapers

) sources 35Mail-order sources andsupplies tohelpyou build theprolectsfeatured in this issue Adjustable Hand Plane page

No. 61 ShopNotes


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Readers'TipsClamping J$ for Panel Doorspanel doors. Instead of usor bar clamps for this task,up with my own clampingjii, see photo. This jii

~~t morewood- applies even pressure altips free. edges of the door andkeep it flat.And even thot for gluing up doors, it works justas well for gluing up flat panels.Sign up ta receive The jig relies on wedges fora freeshop tip by clamping pressure. The door (oremail everyweek. panel) is trappedbetween acoupleofpivoting arms. Then wedges aredriven in between the arms and a jig. Start by cucoupleofdowelpins creating a tight, piece of plywood for the base. Then bored hole in each of the othereven grip onthe workpiece. drill a row of holes along two edges cornersforthe carriageboltsuseAs you can see in the drawing of the jig, starting in opposite cor- attach the arms, as shown inbelow, there's not really much to the ners. (Ihese will be for the dowel detail drawingbelow.The arms are cut from narpieces of hardwood stock AWEDGE(1%' x 9 -% -THICK

3drilli i a hole near one end of eHARDWOOD) i arm, they can be attached toXB "FLAT ARM base of the jig with carriage boWASHER (13Q x 36' - 3A''-THICKHARDWOOD) washers, andnylon lock nuts../' Before you can use the jig, yoalso need to make a couple of hwood wedges and a pair of do

\% xPCARRIAGEBOLT

-pins. The wedges can be cut otable saw or band saw and the pare simply cut from a hardwdowel and then sanded lightly uthey easilyfit into the holes of theTo use the jig, lace the doorthe base and adjust the dowelpinposition thejaws as close aspossto the edges of the door whiie

Y allowing room for the wedges. Tinsert the wedges and tap themtightly with a mallet. You canwax paper underneath the dooavoid accidentally gluing it to theAfter the glue is dry, just tap outwedges and remove the door.Edwin C.H a c k

Omaluc,NebraNo.


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Quick f i ~ sJA TimSchoppert,of Lexington Park,MD, A fo help guide h~sack saw blade whenmakes a qu~ck nd easy dr~ver it for cuffing fhreaded rod, Dana Craig, ofAllen head screws by simply cutting off Norwood,MA, usesa par of flange nutsthe short leg of anAllen wrench backed up by a couple of hex nuts

r -0 removewiwd plyq, EWerrof New

Glue Bottle Holder

Edge Trimming

I aSways seem to be forgettingwhere I set my glue bottle down lastSo I came up with a quick and inex-pensive solution. I took a plasticcofke cup holder (the ldnd that fitsoveryour cardoor) and mounted it toa block of wood. A couple of Lhooksallow you to hang th e holder on apiece of pegboard. It alsaworks greatfor holding a can of soda pop so youdon't spill t on your workbench.Brad Ocoek

Lakelnnd, F l d

Wiimington.rough the pI w,7rifBhifshb@lOw nd pf i ~ @ l i k

m I built the flushtrim outerjigyou also puts them at a much more con-featured in issue No. 56 and it works venient working height for trimminggreat The oniy problem I had was the edgingflush with therouter.supporting my workpieces while Gil Strubelusing the jig. had some large table Hagmtown,Marylandtops that were too b'g to clamp inmy ,vise or to my workbench.So I cameup with another method.I simplyclamped a couple of 2x2'svertically to my sawhorse. Then I setthe workpiece on edge on the saw-horse, in between the upright 2x2's.(You can add an extra clamp ifneeded.) To equalke th e dampingpressure,I clamped a spacer block inbetween th e ZxZ's, near the floor.Andforlong pieces, I setup a sawhorse ateach end of the workpiece.Setting the workpieces on saw-horses (ratherthan on a workbench)

Send in Your Shop TipsKyou have au- shop tip,we'd Itoco~der feak i r lngtin omarmorer:our pdnt M e M ublimtbns.WJustwrite&m the tipandm;?ikto SkopNotes,&.: Readm'Tw 22(10G d ve" DesMcdm, IAm12.OrFAX it to 5152824741, r send us ane-mail at [email protected] inch& your name, address


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BasePlatesystem In the last ten years, we've featured a lot of router i iL hqNotes. So what makes the jigs pictured heredifferent from the others? Well they aren't just jigs.Instead, they're part of a whole router system. The ideais pretty simple.You startbymaking a replacementbaseplate for your router.Tbis base plate is pretty handy inn assortment of itself. Its large surfacegivesyou a lotmore supportthanandfixtures the plate that comeswith your router. And since it hasto help make straightsides, it's tracksbetter along a fence.router more Butthe baseplate's realfunction is to serveasthe plat-form for the router system. An assortment of five Ve-and ferent jigs can be built- ll of which attach directly too use. the baseplate.Attachingoneof thejigs is simplyamatterof tighteninga coupleof knobs. And the jigs allowyou toperform a variety of routing tasks, fromflush trimmingedging to creating mortises (see the photos above andbelow). There's even a pint-sized router table and fencethat can e set up quickly ontop of a table orworkbenchfor smallrouting tasks.One other benefit of this project is the fact that youwon't have to invest a whole lot in the way of time ormaterials. Aside from some knobs and a few pieces ofhardware, the jigs can be built almost entirely fromscrapsofplywood andhardboard.

WE PUESincethe base plate is the heart of the system, it makessense to build ithtAs you cansee inF i e , he base

plate is just a couple of pieces of '/a" hardboardthatlaminated together. You can start by cutting theseplates (A) to identical size. Butbefore gluing the pltogether, you11need to dosomerouting and drilling.T-Slots-The router jigs willbe attached to the bplate using toilet bolts and Tslots. These slots areated by routing a wide slot in the upper plate annarrow slot inthe lower plate. When the plates are swiched together, the result is aT-slot that's sized to hthe head of a T-bolt, see photo in margin on oppopage. In order for this technique to work, the slots hto be carefully positioned on the plates. Although thare several ways to do this, I opted to cut the slots oroutertable, using afenceand stopblock toposition e


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likeyou see in F i e . Insert Opening - In addition toThe nice thing about using the theT-slots,the completed baseplaterouter table is that I only had one also has a stepped opening for ansetup to make. Once the fence and insert ring (refer to page 13). U estop block are in position, you can the T-slots, making the opening is arout the narrow slots in the lower two-step procedure. But this time, Iplate. gust tlip the plate over to used the drill press rather than therout a slot on each side.) Then, router table. After locating the cen- been drilled,without moving the fence or stop terp0intofeachplate,a3~/z"-dia.hole the two plates ci.block, I changed over to a '/2"-dia. is drilled through the center of the be glued together. Juststraight bit and routed the slots in lower plate, and a 3"-dia. hole is make sure the edges ofthe upper plate. (Ised this same drilled in the upper plate.(Ised a the plates are flush astechnique for making the slots on wingcuttertomake theseholes.) they are glued up.

b!!some of the otherjigs as well.) Assembly - Once the holes have After the glue is dry, you candrillthe countersunk holes for thescrewsthatwillbe used to attach thebase plate to your router. To do this,I simply removed the factory baseplate from my router andused it as atemplate for drilling the mounting _ .. ..-E

holes, as shown in Figure 3a. A T-Bolts.Lig~ ~ ~ ~ , "here's just one t h i i to keep in f i le down the7~ 10") mind when doingthis. Youll need to of the toilet bpayattention totheorientationof the they slide sm

SEE FIG.2 router. The router should be in theslots.2 mounted to the baseplate so that thehandles are parallel with the slots.Thisway, the knobsthatwillbe usedto attachjigs to the base plate won'tinterferewith the routerhandles.When the holes are drilled andcountersunk, you can attach thebase plate to your router. Becausethisbase plate isthicker than the onethat comes with most routers, youmay need to swap out the originalscrewswifb somelongerones.

No. 61 ShopNotes


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I BABE A(6"10.7- -

/ADJUSTABLE

FENCErz xlo)A router is a great way to createclean,perfect-fitting mortises. But in

.comes in. It has a nair offences thatA Gauges. These straddle the workpiece and guide

set-up gauges the bit ina straight ine.And thejig ismake it a snap to adjustable to allowfor workpieces ofadjust thejig for varyingthicknesses.making different There are only three parts to this

sizes of mortises. jig. The base is cut from a piece of' /z " plywood. It bas a slotat eachendand a large, rectangular opening inbetween, as shown in Figure 1.

A f k ed fence is glued up fromtwo strips of '/z" plywood and isthen glued flush with the backedge of the base. The adjustablefence is a bit wider than the fixedfence, but it has a hole drilled ateach end for a toilet bolt.The mortising jig is mounted tothe router base plate using a coupleof toilet bolts, washers, and a pairof threaded knobs. The toilet boltsfit into the T-slots in the base plateand pass through the slots in thebase of the mortising jig and theholes in the adjustable fence.Set-Up Gauge - To help centerthe router bit between the twofencesof the jig, Iuse a simple setup

FIRST: PLACE SET-UPGAUGE OVER ROUTERBECOND: SLIDEFIXED FENCEAGAINST SET-UPGAUGE

THIRD: SLIDE ADJUSTABLE FENCEAOAINST SET-UPGAUGEAN D TIGHTEN KNOBS

gauge. This is just a narrow piehardboard that is cut to matchthickness of the workpiece youmortising. In the center of thisof hardboard, a hole is drilledmatches the diameter of your robit. Now just slip the gaugeyour router bit and adjustthe feso the gauge is sandwichebetween them v i e ).Once the jig is set up, youstart routing your mortises. Wthe router running, slowlylowerouter and jig down over your wpiece, plunging the bit into theyou've marked out foryour morThen rout the slot. I try noremove more than a '/a" of matat a time. For deeper mortises,need to make multiple passes,eringthe routerbit after each onOne last thing.Although youuse a straight bit for routingtises, Iprefer tousea spiralupcuThe nice thing about these bithat their spiral design pullschips up out of the mortise, gyou a cleaner cut and ma!&easier to see what you are do(See page 35 for sources.)

No


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Hush Ern Jig-akea fnrnitnreDroiect

.out of plywood, I usually add hard-wood edging to any exposed ply-wood edges. And it's almost alwayseasier to make this edging widerthan necessaryandthen trim tflushwith the plywood after it has beenapplied.A router and a flushtrimbitmakes this a little easier, hut it's stilldifficult to balance the router on theedge of the panel you are trimmhg.Thafs because there isn't usuallyenough surfaceforthe router to reston comfortably.With this flush trim jig, the support surface for the router is "built-in." The base of the jig provides awide, fiat surface that rides againstthe side of the panel that you areflush trimming. This makes it a loteasierto hold the router steady.I made the flush trim jig by cut-ting a base out of 1 /~" plywood. Alarge opening is cut on one side ofthe base to provide clearance forthe flush trim bit, as shown inF i e .A sabre saw or band sawcan he used to cut this opening,and then the edges can be sandedsmooth with a drum sander.

Mounting Block - In order to . - .attach the router to the jig, a ?mounting block is added to thebase of the jig. &mThis block is gluedup out of threelayers of '/2" plywood. After thesepieces are gluedtogether, a 3/s'Cdia.mounting hole isdrilled at each end.Then a semicircular -out of the middle of th e fence andsanded smooth. The mountingblock is glued to the base, flushwith the edge.

Handle -To makeit easierto getagriponthejig,a handle is added tothe base. It'smade fromtwolayersofl/z" plywood. The pattern for thishandle is shown in Figure 1. Tocreate the opening for the handle, ahole is drilled at each end of theopening. Then the waste in betweenthe holes is cut away with a sabresaw. Once this is done, the insideedges can be sanded smooth.Finally, to make the handle morecomfortable o grasp,allthe exposed

eages arerounded overa round-over bi tThen the handle is glued andscrewedto the hase of the jig.There's just one last thing to takecare of before using the jig. As youcan see in Figure la, a clearancerabbet needs to be cut in the hase ofthe jig to allow it to travel over theuntrimmed edging. This rabbet canbe cut on a table saw.Touse thisjig,startby installingaflushtrimbitinyourrouter, see insetphoto above. Then attach the jig tothe baseplate using the toilet bolts,washers, and threaded knobs. Youllneed to adjustthe fenceunf3l the cut-ting edge of the bit is just flushwiththe hase of the jig.


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Edge Guide -N w : ENCEW %a PL%wOoDOPTIONALFACE I 5 VPHARDE5ARD I

.An edgeguidefor aroutercan omeinhandyanytimeyouneedtocreatea rabbet or rout a graove. But thisedge guide hasmore to offer thanmost It's designed so it can hehooked up to the hbse of a shopvacuum, l h k d i qmostof thedustandchips. (Youllneedanadapter forthe endofyour shopvacuumhose.)Of all the jigs in this system, theedge guide is probabw the mostbasic. It's just a fence made up ofUvee layers of plywaod, see FIgure blank 2).Then using aband1.To build it, startbycumMCee saw orjig saw, cut a m hewasteidenticalpiecesof '2" plywood.Two insidethe semicircle,After sandingof these areglued together to form the opening smooth with a &urnthe top secfjonof the iq.The third sander, the third piece of plywoodpiece canbesetasidefornow. canbeglued tothe othertwo.Oncethe two layers are gluedup, Tn order to attach the jig to tlmlay out a setni-ckde on one edge, router baseplate, youll need to drillcentered between the ends of the a coupleofholes for the toiletbolts.

VRCUUM H05E

After this his done,a coupleof tarecutalangthebaekedgeoftsimply to help reduce the w'Ihesetapers canbe&with asaw or jig SERV and then ms m o o t l f ~belt sander,Thelaateteptocompletetheto d d l a hale in the bottom fonode of your shop vacuum,brick here is to size the hole 6get adtce hidionfitwhenyou ithenozzleofthehose. (Imade13/8i1n aiam&~;) K the opends&palittlearge,you canwpiece of ducttapearound thenofyourhose tocreate abet& fTo use the jig, simplyattachthe router baseplate lovith thebob, &em, and knobs.adjustthejiiinorouttopositigrooveorprofileony mworkOpblonal Faoe -The openthe fence is sfm large to aUmodate SlotcuUjng bits. Eiut iareusing bibwifh a smaller pyou maywaot to adda facingto reduce the siae of this opThis is just a piece of hardith a clearance notch fomuter bit The face is screwthe fence so it can be remove

N


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Circle Cu t t e rcan cut a circle out of rood layers can be glued together. It's susing many different tools. But a good idea to use the glue sparinglyrouter probably gives you the aroundthe slots.Thiswayyou won'tcleanest, most accurate results of have to worry about coming backanyof them.The trick is to guidethe later to clean up glue squeezeout

routerwith ajig. Once the glue is dry, you can layThis circle cutter is nothing more out and cut the large opening in thethan an adjustable auxiliary base center of thejig. gain, his can bethat attaches to thebase plate onthe done with a band saw or jig saw,router.Thejig slidesin or outsoyou and the opening can be sandedcancutcirclesvaryingfromabout3" smooth 6ith a drum sander.up to 18"in diameter. A pivot pin at PivotP i Asmall nail serves asone end of the jig fits into a small the pivot pin. A hole is drilled in theholein the centerofyour workpiece, jig nearoneedge,andthen thenail isand the router then travels around epoxied in place.this point, see photo at right Using the Jig - To cut a circleThe jig is made up of two layers using thejig, tart by laying out the- ne of plywood and one of hard- circle and its centerpoint on yourboard. This allows you to create a workpiece.Then drill a smallhole inpair of T-slots for attaching the jig. the workpiece for the pivot pin.And to make these slots, I used the Next,a largerhole is drilled at thesame method as in making the T- edge of the circle. This hole will beslots in the base plate. A couple of used as a "starter" hole for your1/2"-wide slots are routed in the router bit, so it should be at leastashardboard plate first. Then a pair of large as the diameter of your routernarrow p/16") slots are routed in bit If you're going to be making athe plywood plate. hole in a workpiece, drill theAfter these slots starter hole inside the circleare routed, the two you've laid out. If you are

making adiskorwheel,drill the holeoutside of the layout line, as shownin Figure 2 below.To rout the circle, carpet tape theworkpiece to a backer board that isclamped to your workbench. m ecarpet tape is important - t willhold the circle in place once it is cutfreefromthe workpiece).Setthe router andjigonthe work-piece so the pivot pin is in the smallhole in the center of the circle andthe router bit is in the starter hole.Now rout out the circle in multiplepasses, lowering the bit about '/a"between each pass.

NOTE: ROUTCIRCLES INMULTIPLEPASSESOF

1WORKPIECEBLANK


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Table& fenceCompared to the other acces-sories, its a littlehard to tbinkof this router table and fenceas a "jig."But it uses the samebaseplate that all the other jigs do. Therouter (with the base plate) justdrops into the table, and the fencebolts to theT-tracks.

And although the tablemay look alittle small, the fencefeaturesa support wing on each end that allowsyou to handle longer pieces, seephoto. And the whole thing can beclamped down right on top of yourworkbench when you want to use it.Then stored underneath the benchor on a shelfwhenyou're done.Table - The table is really just

an oven box that suvvorts therouter and base plate.-The base from '/z" plywood. A couple ofplate fits into a shallow recess on dadoes are cut in the bottom to holdthe top of the box, and the router is the sides,asyou cansee inFigures 1suspended beneath it. and lb. Icut these on the table saw.

To make the table, I started by A rabbet is cuton the end of eachcutting out a bottom and two sides side piece to support the base plate

and router. To ensure a snugbetween the router base plate athe sides of the table, it's importto size these rabbets carefullyyou take a look at Figure la, yonotice that the base plate actusits proud of the sides of the routable by l/q'f. Q ended up makmy rabbets 1/4" x 1/4".)

Before gluing the sides intodadoes in the base, I cut a coupltriangular-shaped braces to hstiffen the sides of the router taAfter you've cut these out, youglue everything ogether.In addition to the braces, sofacing stnps also help to stiffenthe router table. These plywstrips are glued to the edges ofsides and extend down overedge of the base. At the top ofrouter tabletheycreatea lip, lockthe base plate in place.

The last piece to add is a w osupport. This is simply glbetween the two sidesattbebackthe router table, flush withbottom of the rabbets. It helpskeepthe sidesfrom buckling in.Fence - W i t h e able compl

you can tart making the fence. Tfence is just three layers of plywthat are glued together. It is secuto the base plate with toilet bowashers, and threaded knobs


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wing is attached to each end of thefenceto serveas outfeedsupport.AS you can see in Egure 2, themain sectionof the fenceis madebygluing up two long pieces of ply-wood. The third layer is actuallymade up of two shorter piecesthat are glued to the bottom ofthe longer pieces. These areglued flushwith the ends ofthefence, leaving a gap in betweenforrouter bit clearance.Once all the layers are glued up,you can drill a couple of holes inthe fenceforthe toilet bolts that areused to attach it to the base plate.Then a small, semicircularopeninrr

FENCELAYERS

-for router bits is centered on thefront edge of the fence Figure Za).This opening can be cut out with aj i i saw or band saw.Finally, the suppwt w i n g 8 areadded to each end of the fence.These are simply cut to size andglued in place. They not only support longworkpieces,they also helpto guide the fence so it travelssmoothly as you slide it back andforth overthe topof the table.Insert Ring -The large openingin the router base is convenientwhen you're using the router in a

band-held position. It allows you tosee what you're doing a little better.But when you're using the router inthe router table, it's safer to have a

ARE 'flPLYWOOD

smaller opening around the routerbit So Imade an insert ring that fitsinto the opening in the base plate,just likeyou see in Figure3.The insert ring is just a piece of'/a1' hardboard. It's cut out on thedrillpress,using awing cutter. Startby carpet taping a hardboard blankdown to a backer board that isclamped to your d d l press, asshown in Figure 4. Now adjust thewingcutter o cuta diskthatwil l fit in

the opening in your router baseplate. The keyis to sizethe disk so itfib in the opening snug but not tootight (Iad to make a couple ofdisks before I got the wing cutteradjustedjust right)Tocreatethe openinginthe insertring,thewing cutteris readjusted tocuta smaller (I1/?-dia.) bole Figure5). Of course,you canmake up sev-eral insert rings with openings ofvariousdiameters.

A Fence. Thadjustable feslides in theon the routerplate.

No. 61 ShopNotes 13


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M stwoodworkersprobablywouldn't consider thebrad nailer shown inthe photo abovea necessityIt's somethingthat's more often associatedwith produc-tion cabinetshops or trimcarpenters.And that's too badreally. Having a brad nailer in your shop canmake yourwoodworking easier,faster,andmore accurate.How often have you had to hammer in a few brads tohold a piece of trim or to hold the back of a cabinet inplace while the glued dried?With a brad nailer it onlytakes a fewseconds.And you have onehand freeto holdthe workpieceinperfectposition asyou work.Need to get into a tight place (like the inside of a cabinet) that's all but impossibleto dowith a hammer?Grababrad nailer, andit's a snap.Plus,you don'tbave to worryaboutan errant hammer blow damagingthe workpiece.One area I use my brad nailer quite a bit is when Ineed to build a jig or fumue. With a few well-placedbrads, Ihave ajigor furturethafs readyto use-no needto wait for any glue to dry. And for shop cabinetsandstorage projects, brads eliminate the need for any

clamps. Just add glue and then nail in some brad"clamp"everythingtogether.You'll even find a few uses outside the shop. Bnailers are handy for light-duty carpentry work,installingtrim around the house.Price & Availability - Okay. By now, you mighinterested in hding out a little more about brad naiAnd one of the fvst tbings you might be asking is wcanyou get one and how much is itgoingto cost7Thdays, just about any home center or hardware storehave a halfdozen or more brands. And they're notexpensive.Dependingonthe featuresithas (moreonlater),you canh d radnailers priced from $70to $1Air Requirements - As you may have guessebrad nailerisn'tthe onlythingyou11need.A compressrequired to provide the "power" to the brad nailer.don't worry. Almost any compressor that can proabout 2 cubic feet of air per minute (CFM) at a presbetween 70 - 125 pounds per squareinch @I) wil l wh e .And ifyou don'thaveacompressor, hosesameh

14 ShopNotes No


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centersoften have "kits"that includethe compressor,brad nailer, and theccessoriesyou need togetstarted.Driving a Brad - Regardlessofthe brand,allbrad nailersoperate inbasically the same way anduse sim-ilar terminology. (See Brad Nailer

Anatomyat right.)Once you connect the hose fromthe aircompressorto anairfittingat 6-the back, compressed air i%s the Ibodyof the nail&andthe areaabove 1the cvlinder insidethe head. , ,

AIRCHAMBER

As you squeeze the trigger, thecompressed air is released throughthe head ualue, driving the pistoninside the cylinder downward withtremendous force. Attached to thebottom of the piston is a driver rodthat shears a single brad off a clipinstalledina springloadedmagazinealong the bottom of the nailer,driving and countersinkingthe bradin the blink of an eye.Once the piston reaches the endof its stroke,the pressurizedair sur-rounds the lower part of the piston. brads that range in length from 3/s" there are a number of other differ-This forces it back to the top of the to a maximumof11/4" or 11/2". encesthatmake brad nailsquite abitcylinderas the air expels out of the But for the kind of work I do, I differentthan a typicalh ish nail.exhaustport. prefer the second category. These For starters, abrad nail is smallerBrad Nails - This is an amazing brad nailers will handle brads from in diameter (18gauge).So itleavesaprocess consideringthe wide range 5/s" (or 3/4") up to 2". The longer lessnoticeablehole inthe workpiece

ofbrad lengths you can install in a brad lengths allow me to perform a that is much easier to till.nailer. Brad nails come in lengthsas wider range of tasks, whether it's And ifyou take a close look at theshortas 3/8" to as long as 21/8". installing small trim around a tip,you1seethat it's moreblunt thanBut there aren't any brad nailers project, securely fastening face a typical finish nail. This way, as ifsthat can handle the entire range. In frames to a cabinet, or installing driven in, it doesn't act like a minia-general,brad nailers fall into two dis sometrim aroundthe house. ture wedge and split smalltinct categories. The fvst drives Other than their lengths, allbrad pieces of trim ormolding.nails look pretty F~nally, he glue holmuch the same. the brad nails together in the cli

As I mentioned, helps increasethe grippingstrethey come in a of the brads. As it'sclip wbich is a workpiece, the glue heats up and brad nailersglued-upstrip of melts. As it dries, it helps 'lock" handle a widnails, as shown everythingtogether. of nail lengthinthe margin. One last note on brad nails. Most often in two dThis clip con- manufacturers will tell you to use ranges- /8"sists of around only their brand of fasteners.And I or 5/s" to2".100brads that fit tend to stickwith thatintothemagazine But in a pinch I have used fas-(seephotoatleft). tenersmadeby othermanufacturersBesides the without any problems. Just be sureloam Loading brad nails iseasy and convenient. fact that they to test the fastenem in a couple of

Just release the magazine, lay a clip inside (above), come in a con- pieces of scrapbeforeusing them toand then slide themagazine forward to lock it in place. venient package, assembleyourprojectNo. 61 ShopNotes 1:


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Features & MaintenanceKnowing that the basic operation ofanybradnailer isidentical,what'sthebest way to go about selecting one?As with many tools, it often comesdown to a few select features. Forbrad nailers, there are a number thatI've foundtobe prettyuseful.Safety - One of the k t fea-tures" I look for is a safety system.With compressed air drivinga smallnail,you certainlydon't want to inad-vertently Ere the brad into a projector,more importantly,intoyourself.To avoid this, allbrad nailers cur-rently manufactured have oneoftwosafety systems built-in - dualtrigger ora restrictivenose safety.Dual Trigger - Ona dual triggersystem, squeezing the h t riggerdisengages the safety that preventsthe brad nailer from fuing. Thisallows you to squeeze the second

trigger to Ere the brad.Althoughthistypeofsystem works h e ,once the Erst trigger is ,depressed,you canErebrads at any h e -whetherthenose of thebrad nailer is aeainst aworkpieceornotNose Safety - Abetter choice is a 1 dfety. A nose-mo~,,~~dafety preventsrestrictive nose safety, nailer from f'ring inadvertentiy And apad (leflike the ones shown at some nailers prevents the nose from dentingright This type of workpieceas itreds, unlikeastandardnose(rsafety prevents youfrom fkhg a brad until the spring- are two types of nose safeties:loaded nose is depressedagainstthe tact iringandsequentialfiring.surface of aworkpiece. ContactFire - Inacontactf

When you're ready to drive nailer, the safety and trigger caanother brad, you11need to lift the activated in any order. So younose off the workpieceto "resef' the depress the tip and then p dsafety. Just keep in mind that there trigger. Or you can hold the triin and "bump" Ere the toolpressing the nose whereverwantto drivea nail.

Thisfeatureisfine if accuracycritical. But as a woodworkermore concerned about placingbrad right where I want it-drivingas many brads aspossiba shortperiod of t h e .Sequential Fire - That'swprefer a sequentialfvingnailer.- - ,djustment. A mechanical deptha d j ~ s t n , ~ , , ~,Kea thumbscrew is where the nailer will notfire

(left)or sliding tab (right)makes fine tuning how deep the nail is set easier you press the nose againstthe wthanhaving tomodulate the amount of air coming from the compressor piece k t nd then pull the trig

bfad nailsbutalsacrownstaples n avariety ef len&s CSzn to 19. ifnotm ewhetheryou're morelikely to need a nailer or staplerorwould I&e both capab&s in onetool,aw m W m t o a lmightbejustwhatyodre Iookbg -fo.

TheniceXblngabouttheseoolsisUlatthere isn't anythingto d j s t onthe tool when you wed to changefroin nails to stapIes.Just map the

you'll pay extrafor this feature. Butyou mn often pick one up for justaboutthe same priceaseither of thein Wu a l ools- r m d $125.Asyou mightguess, you don't getsotnething for nothing. The down-side to the dual capab3ity is you'llhaw to settle for shortto mtd-lengthfa$tewm. And the f iver rod oftenleaves a larger indentation in thworkpiece when ym're sling brads


17/36

Once you lift the nose off the work-piece,you have to releasethe trigger'nd then press the nose back downagainbeforethe nailerwill fire.Depth of Drive - Driving thebrad just below the surface of aworkpieceis critical.Todothis accu-

rately on many brad nailers, youbave to spend time adjusting the airpressure at the compressor.But I consider a depth of driveadjustmentonthe tool a "must-have."As you can see in the photos on the - ,dm Clearing.Bradnailers that requireyou todisassemble thenose withanAlienopposite page, a depth of drive wrench (left)can be a big hassle whenyou need to clear a am. Butclearinga amadjustment allows you to change is an easy task ona brad nailer with a quick-release latch (right).how fa r the brad is driven into theworkpiece- ithout having to walk release latch that operates from the prevents the seals from drying outback andforth to the compressor. side or front of the nose. It's the and deteriorating.Note: Some minor adjustments fastest and most convenient way to The problem is the oil mixeswithmay need to be made at the com clear ajam fromthe nailer. the compressedairthatexhaustsoutpressor when you change to a dif- Before clearing a jam with either the nailer. This cancontaminate theferent ength brad. system, it's important to always workpiece and cause problems laterClearing a Jam - If you plan to remove any remaining brads from when you apply aE s h .use a brad nailer day in and day out, the magazine (and disconnect the One option is to select an oi?lessit's worth giving some consideration gun kom the air box). S i he nailer.Buttherearen'tmany available,to how easy it is to clear a jam. Just magazineissp--loaded, itcan ject andthey're usuallymore expensive.likeitsounds,this iswhen abrad gets a clip across the room (or into your Instead some manufacturersstuckmthe nose of the nailer instead face)onceyou release the nose. exhaust he airoutthe back or makeof 6ring into the workpiece. Combination Tool - One last the exhaustports adjustable @hot0As you can see in the photos "feature" to note is that some brad below).Thisway, you can direct theabove, there are basically two "sys nailers wil l perform doubleduty. air awayfromthe workpiece.terns" for clearing a jam. One These combiiation tools are Conclusion - All in all, it's bard

requires an Allen wrench to disas designed to drive brads and crown to think of a reason not to buy abradsemble the nose. So even if it only staples. Fora little more information nailer. They're a safe, maintenancejams once, thiscanbe a real hassle. onthese tools, refer tothe boxat the free tool. Tbey make the task ofI prefer a system that offers a bottom of page 16. driving a brad nail easier, faster andhinged or spring-loaded quick Care& Maintenance -With few more accurate- hether it's in themoving parts and no motor, it would shopor around the house.be easy to assume that a brad nailer Sothenext timeyou're atthehomeis maintenancefree- nd for the center, stopand check out the latestmost part it is. But like most tools, brad nailers. You just might decide

I thereare couplethinrsvou candoto it's time to add oneto your shop. ba

A fewdropsofoi1,n thefittingpriortoeach usekill keepyour bradnailerfiring smoothly each timeyouuseit.

keep a brad nailerworkinglikenew.As with any air-poweredtool, it's agood idea to keep excess moisturefrom getting inside. Now, you couldusean in-lineflter.But I'vefound thatsimplydrainingthe tank on my com-pressor on a dailybasis worksjust aswell. (And I bave to do it to maintainthe compressor anyway.)But the most importantthing is toadd a couple drops of oil every day 1.(or at least each time you use it), as A Ewhaust Redirecting theair (andshown in the photo at left. This oil) fromyou and your workpiece iskeepsall he parts movingfreelyand easywithanadjustableexhaustport

ShopNotes 17


18/36

aveyou ever tried to sharpena chiselon a grinderand watched as the blade %shed from silver toGet mzor sharp yellowto blueinjust seconds?Thathappensbecausethehollow-ground frictionfrom the fast-spinninggrindingwheelcausestheand plane bladeto heatup andloseitstemper.And onceitdoes,theirons with your tool losesits a b ' i o hold an edgeandis ruined.So what's the solution?A slow-speed grinder is onepress' answer.Becausethegrindingwheelspinsslower,there'sless chanceof ruining a toolby overheating t But slow-speed grindersaren't cheap. Sowe decided to come up The grinding"wheel" on this j i i is really a large

with our own version. Instead of a slow-speed motor, made out of two layers of MDF (mediumdensityfhowever, the sharpeningjig shown here uses a toolyou board). Cloth-backedsandpaperis glued to the rimprobablyalreadyhave inyour shop- drillpress. the wheel is chucked up in the drill press. By sethe drill press to its lowest spyou have a slow-speed grindersharpens your tools quicklymuch lessrisk ofburningthema pivoting arm holds both chand plane irons at the proper aso you endupwith a perfed, hogroundbevel, seephotos at left.This j i i not only sharpenstools, it alsohas abuilt-in honinture, as shown in the inset pabove.Apiece of leatheris mouto the top of the wheel ancharged with rouge or honingA Versatile. The shamenina ;lo features a tool holder that can accommodate pound. The stroppiw action o. - .. -chisels as well as plane irons.A couple of knobs and a steel clamping bar hold ieather imparts a highly polithe tool firmly in place while it is being sharpened. edgeto the bevel of the tool.

18 ShopNotes No


19/36

LEATHERCANBECHARGEDWITHROUGEAND USEDTOHONETOOLSN m ETDRILL LARGEDIA.PRESSAT LOWEST WHEEL CREATESSPEED

ARM PIVOTSONBOLT 220 -GWCLOTHSANDPAPER

THUMB SCREWTHREADS INTO

KEEPSWHEELFROMSPINNING

WASHER ACTSSPACER BElWEENHEELANDBASE

ARM SERVESAS TOOL RESTAND PIVOTSINTOWHEEL

WASHERPROVIDEB INCREASEDBEARINGSURFACEFOR LOCK NUTPRESSTABLE

NYLONLOCK NUTFASTENSARMTO BASE AND

PINARE'EPOXIED

'No.61 19

WHEELSHAFTIS SUPPOEED BYFLANOE

(2) #E. x I"FhW m d s c m* (4) #8 9 / ' Fh Wood5waws(2) # 1 0 S x P T h umb 5 m 5* (f) ' ~ ' x ' / sUB t a a l late {35J~"J* i '/al'x 3'V Hm Bolt(1) a/d"'ylan Lock Mu t


20/36

F E A T U R E P R O J E C T

3/*"-D!A.\BASETOP HOLE

rhis drill press sharpening jig con-sists of three main assemblies-A PivofhgTml sharpeningwheel that is chucked upReat Theplvotjng in th e drill drillpress, apivoting arm thatdeslgn of th~sool holds the tool to be sharpened,and arest allowsyou to base that supports everything.

out the arm to Because the base will be used to a plywood base pane1 (A) and a Once th e holes are drilleexam~neour assemble and true up the sharp hardboard base top (B ) to identical Forstner bi t can be used to dr

progress whtie ening wheel, Imade it tirst. size.There are two holesinthebase. shallow C/aI1-deep) counterborsharpening. If you look at F i e bove, you One is for th e flangebearing and the th e top of the plywood panel (FT

can see thatthe base is nothing more other is for ahex bolt thatwiu serve lb). This is for the flange ofthan a piece of 3/41' plywood covered as th e pivot point for th e arm of th e wheel shaft bearing. Once thwith a piece of l/p" hardboard. jii. 'Ib make sure these holes line up done, the hardboard and plywSandwiched in between these two perfectly, I taped the two layers of panekcan be screwed together,piecesisabronzeflangebearing.The th e base together on the edges th e bearing trapped in betwshaftofthesharpeningwheelwiuride before laying out and d d h g the them. But I didn't glue thesein this bearing once the jig is com- holes. (lust used a few strips of pieces together. This way youplete.ButI'mgettingaheadofmyself. masking tape to hold the two panels get at the W e earing in caseTo make th e base, start by cutting togethertempomrily.) ever need to replace it.Arm - With th e base compyou can begin making the armth e jig. The main purpose ofarm is to serve asatoolrest Ch# or plane irons can be clamped toarm and then held against%- rotaijng sharpeningwheel,Th e arm (C) is cu t from a b-%;zp glued up out of three layers ofNUTE:ARM14 1GLUEDU P FROM wood (Fllgure 2). I h cu t to a%"PLYWOOD shape with a band saw or a jiiThen a hole is drilled at eachOne of these holes is for th e he xthat attaches the arm o th e bAnd the other is for a steel rod

ShopNotes No


21/36

will be used to clampthe tool that isbeing sharpenedin place.To complete the you1 needto do a litle metalworking. But don'tworry There's nothing too involvedhere. Mostly just some sawing,drilling, and tapping (and there areeven a fewtips on tappingat the endof this article, see page 25).There are three metal parts thatyoull have to make for the arm.The first is a tool support. This isjust a small, thin piece of steel thatis screwed to the end of the arm.The edge of the chisel or plane ironyou want to sharpen will rest onthis support, like you see in thephoto on the opposite page.

Imade the tool supportbycuttingoff one of the legs of an Lbracket(also known as a mending plate).You can indthese at most hardwarestores.The nice thing aboutusing amending plate forthe tool support isthat the mounting holes are alreadydrilled. But youll have to make two

SUPPORT FROML-BRACKET %" x 3"L-BRACKET

FIRST CUT

separatecuts with a hacksaw to cutthispiece outof the Lbracket, asyoucansee in Figures3 and3aThe tool supportis screwedto theend of the arm, flush with thebottom. When it's in place, you candrill a hole through the supportandinto the arm as shown in Flgure 4.Keep in mind that youll need tomake this hole deep enough to pro-vide clearancefor the thumb screwthat is addedlater (Figure 44.The tool is held in place by aclamp plate. Turning a couple of

thumb screws tightens the clampplate against the tool, holding itfirmly in place. The thumb screwsare threaded into a steel post that ismounted near the end of the arm.To accommodate different widthsof tools, there are two positions forthe top thumb screw.You can ut the clampplate from apiece of steel stock (Steelstock canalso be found at most hardwarestores.) Then drill three oversize(V4"-dia.) holes for the thumbscrewsas shown in Figure 5a.The clamppost iscutfromapieceof steel rod. It also has three holesdrilled in it, but these holes aresmaller and are tapped to match thethreads on the thumb screws. Tohelp support the steel rod whiledrilling the holes, I used a V-block.(For more on drilling and tappingthese holes,please turn to page 253Assembly - Once you've fio-ished work on all the metal parts,you're ready for some assembly.The ann is attached to the basewith a hex bolt, washer, and a nylonlock nut Figure la). Just makesure that you don't tighten the nutdown all the way. The arm shouldpivot freely, but shouldnt have anyup and down play.To add the tool clamp, fvst pushthe rod into the hole in the arm sothe tapped holes face forwardmgure 5). (Note that the postdoesn't bottom out in the arm.)Youll have to check and make surethat the bottom holeonthe post linesupwith the holeyou drilledearlierinthe tool support, as shown in Figure5a. Then simply add the clampplateandthumb screws.

No. 61 ShopNotes 21


22/36

It. Useautility knife to cut a

scarf joint in thesandpaper Thenthe sandpaperto the wheel withcontact adhesive.(See page 35 for

sandpapersources.)

WheelWith the base and arm complete,you can concentrate on making thewheel. There's nothing complicatedabout the wheel - t's simply twolayers of MDF that are gluedtogether and then epoxied to a steelrod that serves as the shaft.The important thing is that thewheel runs true. Later, I11 sharesome tips on how to go about this.But for right now, start by cutting acoupleof oversizedpieces of M D F ~ O ~the wheel. These can be glued upinto a squareblank (Figure 8).Leather -The top of the wheel iscovered with leather to allow you tohone your tools after you've sharpened them. I used a small piece of

vegetabletanned tooling leather(see page 35 for sources). Theleather canbe cutwith a utility knifeand glued to the blank with contactadhesive. Don't worry about cuttingthe leather to fit the blank exactly-you'll be Lrimming off the excesswhen you cut the wheel.Layout - After you've glued theleather down, turn the blank overand mark the center. Using a com-pass, lay out a l0"dia. circle around

the centerpointBefore cutting out the wheel, thehole forthe steelrod is drilled in theblank.This is a twwstep procedure.Fmt, a deep, 3/a1"dia.counterbore is

ddled in the blank @gum 8a).Then a '/ztldia. hole is drilled therest of the way through the blankand the leather. The oversized coun-terborecreatesa "well" thatwillholdthe epoxy around the l/z"-dia rod.I didn't want to rely on epoxyalonetohold the wheel tothe rod. SoI decided to use a cross pin throughthe rod, as you can see in Figure 7above. In order tohold the crosspin,

a shallow groove is routed inbottom of the wheel blank (Fg9a). I made this groovewith a hheld router and a simple fence,you see in F i e below.Cut OutWheel - When yofinished making the hole andfor the rod and cross pin, youcut the wheel out of the blankband saw @gure 10).Try to cuclose to your layout line as

TH CONTACTCLAMP FENCE TOWHEEL BLANK TOROUT SLOT FOR

MADE FROMTWO LAYERS


23/36

sible, but make sure to stay on th ewaste side of the line.meel s m-,hait thatpasses through th e wheel is a pieceof 1/2"-diateel rod (also availableathardware stores). &r cutting it tolength, youll need to drill a cross

hole for the pin. To help hold the rodwhile drilling it, I made a simple V-block for my drill press. Then Iclamped th e rod and block down tomy drillpresswhile drilling he hole. 4 Adding theEpoxy. Carefullyspoon theepoxy aThe cross pin is cu t ko m a piece around theshaftandcrossp~n,ett~ng tooze into thof 3/16"dia. steel rod. After slipping "well" created by the counterbore. You cathe pin into the cross hole in th e ternporanlymask off theshaft with a p~ece f tapeshaft, test the fit of th e shaft andcross pin in the wheel. When clamped it toth e drillpress table and scrapedflush, he wheel needs to beeverything fits, you're ready to chucked up th e shaftwhile gluing it trued up. To see how I did this, takeepoxy th e shaft into th e wheel. in place, see photo above. And to a look at th e box below.The last stepEpoxy -There are a f e w t h i i o ensure a good hold, I used a slow- is to glue a strip of sandpaperaroundpoint outhere.First,toge t the wheel setting,high-strengthepoxy. the edge of th e wheel, see photo inas square to the shaft as possible, I Once the epoxy is dry and margin on opposite page.

In ordm f o t th e wheel to run as down to th e base of th e sharpening jig several light passes (no more than l/s!.smoothlyaspossible, I decided,to true and th e drill press table. deep), lowering the.bit after each pass.it,up on th e dFill press after it w as T h e wheel is trued by raising it up You're really just shaving off materiaepoxied to th e &aft. 'fo do this, I used a and down as it spins past the rotating from the high spats of thewheel.rauter and a simple jig. router bit. At first, this may seem a little The second thing o remember istoThe wheel-truing jig i s just a three- unusual (and perhaps a little intimi- go slowly. The drillpress should b e run-sided plywood box that supports th e dating}. But it works quite well. ning a t its slowest speed. And yourouter, see drawing at lower right. The However, there ar e some important should also lower th e wheel down ontorouter is mounted to th e front of the jig safety points to keep in mind. the outer bi t very sloauly. If themuterand then th e whole thing is clamped First and foremost, you need to take bi t s k t s o grab o r th e wheel starts tochatter?Slow down on th e feed rate ortake a lighter pass.After several passes, youll wind up

with a smooth, trued-up wheel. Nowyou'reready toglue on the sa n


24/36

Set-Up

A HoningCompound. Beforehoning theedge ofyour tool on the

wheel, charge theleather wrth honing

comoound

Settingup thejig on your drill pressis pretty straightforward. Start byplacingthe shaftinth e bearing of th ejig and then setting the jii on th etable of your dliu press. Now raiseth e d r iU press table up so that youcan tighten the drill press chuckaround th e shaft ofthe wheel.After you've tightened the drillchuck,you can clamp th ejigdown tothe drillpress table. Then you'll needto lower the drillpress table a coupleof inches. This will give you theclearance you need to raise andlower th e wheelwhile sharpening.Bevel Angle - W1th the jigattached to your drill press, you'reready to clamp your chisel or planeiron in place for sharpening.This j i i s designed to grind a 30"bevel (approximately). In order toset up your tool for grinding at thisangle, all you have to do is position

the arm so that th e front edge is %ally, tighten down the thflush with th e front edge of th e screwsto hold th e tool inplace.base, just as you see in P i e 1. That's allthere is to i t @youThen insert the tool under th e to change th e bevel angle slightclamp plate, resting on th e tool s u p you have to do is slide th e tooport Now slide it forward until the ward or back a little bit bebevel just contacts the wheel. clamping it in place.)

SharpeningSharpening a tool with this ii moving across th e-couldn'tbemuch easier.All you have face of th e tool whileto do is hold th e tool against the sharpening (Step 1).wheel with gentle pressure whiie And you don't need tomoving the wheel up and down. (and shouldn't) press the tool too wheel with rouge or honingThere are just afew things to keep hard against the wheel. Let the sand- pound, see photo in margin. Tin mind. First, make sure that your paper do the work you can hold th e tool againsdrill press is se t to ru n at its slowest Honing -After you've sharpened leather and strop the edgespeed. Second, keep the wheel the tool, charge th e leather on the mirror-likepolish (Step 2). &

... . KEEP WHEEL. . ~ MOVING UP A N, DOWN WHILE/ . SHARPENING

1While lightly holding the tooi against the revolving wheel,move thewheel up and down in a smooth motlon Check your progress fre-quently tomake sure the tool rsn't overheating 4 After charging the leatherLhoning compound, stropedge until it shines 11kea mirr24 ShopNotes No


25/36

TappingThreadshen makingthe SharpeningJig @age 18) and Hand

Plane (page26),you'll need to drillafewholes and then tap them.Tapping is nothjng more thanusing a special tool that's designedto cut threads inside a hole. Butdon't worry if youhaven't done thisbefore. It's an easy process usingthe steps detailed below.Layout - Start by markhg the

locationof each hole. Tokeep the bitfrom wandering as you drill, you'llneed t o make a dimplewith a metalpunch, as seen in Step 1. Note Ascrap (ora pair)with a V-groove cutin it makes a handy holder.

Drill Hole - Now you're readyto drill the hole. The thing to keepin mind is that the h a l size of thehole shouldbe slightly smallerthanthe diameterof the tap. This leavesenough material for the tap to cut

threads. (Note: Each tap has a

speeitic size "pilot" hole.)Also, depending on the h a l hole

size, it's a good idea to drill a seriesof progressively larger holes (Step2). This prevents the bit fromheatingup and possiblybreaking.

Since I was using a 10-32 tap, Istarted with a 3/3z1'-dia. rill hit andfinished up with a 5/3z"-dia. bit.Adding a drop or two of oil as youdrill allows the bit to cut smoothly.

Chamfer - Before tapping thehole, there's one more thing to do.Tohelp center the tap, I liketo cut aslight chamferin the rim of the hole,asillustrated in Step 3.Tap Threads - Now you'reready to fit the tap in a T-handledwrenchand add a few dropsof oil tomake it cut easier (Step4).

To keep the tap from binding asyou cut the threads, the goal is tostart the tap straight. Then,with alittle downward pressure, rotate

the tap clockwise about a half-turnuntil it starts to cut (Step 5).Aftercutting a fewthreads, back the tapoff o allowthe waste to dropfree.

Although it's tempting to cut thethreads all the way down,you couldstress the tap and break it. So it'sbest to only do a half-turn at a timeuntil all the threads are cut.

Clean-Up - Finally, run the tapthrough the hole a couple of timesto clean up the threads and clearaway any remahhg shavine.&

I

Step 1. To prevent the bit from Step2 Startby drillingasmaNhole. Step 3. Tohelp center the tap, usewandering, use a metal punch to Then increase the hole size using a countersink bit to cut a slightcreate a dimple in the rod. progressively larger drill bits. chamfer around the rimof the hole.

straight up and down. Thenadd afew drops of oil to the tap threads.

Step5.With the tapstraight up and down, begin cutting the threads (left).After eachhalf-turn,back off the tapa quarter-turn tociear thewaste (right).Thenust repeat theprocess until the threadsare cut all the way through.

No. 61 ShopNotes 25


26/36

N thing quite compares to thelook andfeelof freshlyplanedwood- nless of course it's the sat-isfactionof creatingthatswface witha hand planeyou've made yourself.LEVER CAP

THROATPIECE

But don't worry Makingthe handplane shown above isn't all that d i -cult.As you can see in the Exploded-ew below, there areonly sixpieces.Inaddition, the design improvesonacouple things I've always foundlacking in many wood planes.Adjustable Throat Opening -Fist, there's an adjustable throatopening where the blade projects

.APE EXPLODEDVIEWOVERALLDIMENSIONS:8"Lx 2%emW SWH

v-SIDE

:RossPIN

through the bottom of the plandependingonwhetheryou're mthick or thin shavings, adjustinsizeof the opening is a snap.Lever Cap - The other dence is how the blade is heplace. In most wood planes, awedge holds the blade insidplane. ~ u t"borrowed"an ideasome of the metal planes I havadded a wood lever cap, as shothe photo above.Blade - These design imp

ments won't matter much idon't have a good blade installeI used a 11/z1'-wideblade mantured by the Hock Companymade of highquality steel andan edge extremely well.sources, refer to page 35.)Note: For a handy way to qusharpen plane blades and chtake a look at the DrillSharpeningWheel on page 18.

SIDES& MAINBODYI started on the hand planmaking the sides andmain bodAs you can see in Figuresides (A ) and main body (B) atofinalwidth andthicknessbut1ong.Thentomakethe piecesealign duringassembb, I cut theend of eachpiece at a 45" anglehe only thing that's criticais the thickness of the blank fmain body. Since I used a ll/z"

ShopNotes N


27/36

blade, I sized my blank to a thick-ness of 19/1611.ThiS way, there's just alittle extra room to adjust the bladesidetosideduring use.All that's left to do beforestarting the assembly is to cut themain body to final length. To dothis, I cut the front of the body at a45" angle to match the back end.This provides a general-purposecutting anglefor the blade.Assembly -Now, you're readytostart assemblingthe sides and mainbody. To make it easy to align theseparts aca r a t e l~ found it best toassemble the plane one piece at atime. Besides making the assemblyless hectic, it's easier to check thateach piece is straight and squarebefore you tighten the clamps.S i c e the sole (bottom) of the T BODY DRIESplane rests on the workpiece duringuse, it's important okeep it as flat aspossible. So I used the top of mytable saw as a reference to align thebottom edges of allthe parts.To start the assembb, glue themam bodyto oneof the sidesfirst,as.llustrated in F i e 1.Then clampthem together so they're flush alongthe back and bottom edges. Whilethe glue dries, you can begin workon the pieces thatmake up the front Both thefiust body (C) and Urool With the (of the plane piece (D ) are cut to width to match body resting y %.Front Body &Throat- As you the thickness of the main body on the throat (146"x 10""". .#-rnICIC HARcan see in Figure 2, the front ofthe (I9/t6"). And I cut them to hnal piece, align theplane consists of two pieces: a front lengthwith a 62" angleat oneend,as angled endsof bothbody and an adjustable throat s h o w n i n F i e 2. the front body and throat piece sopiece. The front body is glued in With the pieces cut to size, you're there's a small gap (5/16'9 betweenplace between the sides- ut the ready to assemble the rest of the the throat piece and mainbody. Thisthroat piece isn't.This way, you can plane. The idea here is to use the is where the blade will comeslide the throat piece back and throat piece as a spacer to raise the through the sole of the plane.forth tovary the size ofthe opening front body to the proper height as After clamping the front body inin the bottom of the plane. you glueit in place place, remove the throatpiece. Thenonce the glue is dry, you can attachPATkm ENLARGE200%) the other sidepiece.Pattern - F d y , I u& sprayadhesive to attachthe patternshown

%"-DIA HOLE at left to the side of the planeFOR C R O S S PI N(SEE EXPLODED ME W 2). Besides using the pattern toPAGE26) shape the plane later, it also helpsto m t e l y ocate the crosspin that's used to hold thelever cap in place. (Note:Youll need to enlargethe pattern 200%.)No. 61 ShopNotes 27


28/36

Shaping the BodyNow that the basic plane has beenformed, rou're ready to cut it torough shape and smooth the edges. THUMB BCREThen you can add the hardware for

the throatpiecethat allowsyou to adjust the openingforthe blade (seemargin).CuttoRough Shape-

Since hepattern isalreadyin place, cutting the planeta rough shape is just amatter of staying within PIECE1/1611of the lineonthe bandsaw,as showninP m e .To do this, I made a _ .-

series of cuts starting at THROAT PIN' the top of the plane. Then to com-accommodate the plete the shaping, Imade a cutflushth'cknessOf theWith the top of the front body and block to sand up to the line and Shape Front - Here agaiShaww' the throat eased the back end of the plane by smoothout any rough spots. used the band saw to removeOpenJng can be removing apieshapedpiece. Tocompletethebasicshape,there waste at the front of the peasr'y The band saw can leave a rough are twomore todo.And that's ( F i and5a).Tokeepthe thedge, so I used a drumsanderin the to shape the front and back of the pi& in place as you do this, rudrill press along with a sanding planeforamore comfortable grip. strip of tape moss both the th

piece andhntbody of the plane.Shape Back - shapingthe b

of theplanewith theband sawcaaproblem.That'sbecause thereia flat surfaceforthe plane to rideSo instead, I shaped a comfortgrip on the back using a raspfiles, as showninP i e s 6and 6To hold the plane steady w

youwork, it's agood idea to clamin avisewith wood jaws. Then oyou've removed most of the wasandboth endssmooth.An easyto do this is to use a strip of spaper and "bufP the plane as ifare shininga pair of shoes.

TmwPlwOnceyouhave the plane shapedsanded,you can turn your attenback to the throat piece. Althoit's now at dnal size,you stillneway of allowing it to slide backforth,yetstill lock8rdyinplaceTo do this, there's a brass

installed in the throat piece (Fi3).Threads tapped through theallow itto accepta thumb screwpassesthough a slotcut in the tothe plane. As you tighten the thu

28 No


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screw, the throat piece is puUed uptight againstthe plane F i e a).Create Slot - The first step is tocu t the slot. To do this, start bydrilling a series of holes F i e sand 7a). To avoid chipout on th ebottom of th e slot, I like to slip ascrap in place of the throat piece.Once the holes are Wed, use achiselto cleanup the sidesof the slot.Saving th e slot complete makes iteasy to locate the hole in th e throatthat the thumb screw fits nto. Frat,slip th e throat piece in place so it'saligned at th e front and back. Thenfeed th e drill bit throngh th e slot soit's centered and drilla hole into thethroatpiece mgure 8).Just be sure to stop short of thebottom as you can see in Figure 8a.

Although a hole won't affecthow theplane works, it's nice to have asmooth sole without any holes in it.Brass Rod - Th e next step is tolocate the brass rod that acts as a"nur for the thumb screw. Locatingth e hole for the rod is ust a matterof

the centerline of th ehole you just dnlled m th e top of thethroat piece to th e side 9).After transferring the location,drill a 3/a1k l i a . hole for the brass rod@gures 9 and 9a). Before installingth e rod, you'U need to tap somethreads for the thumb screw.To locate the hole for th e threads,I found it easiest to start with anextra-longpiece of brass rod and slip

it in place so itwas flush at on e end.ThenI used the hole in th e top of hethroat piece as a guide to lightlymark the location of th e hole on therod (Figures 10 and 10a).After removing th e rod, drill andtap th e hole. (For more on tappingholes, refer to page 253

With the threads complete, youcan cut the brass rod to length andpress it in place F g u r e 11).As youdo this, make sure the holes in therod and throat piece are alignedF i e la). Finally, B e and sandth e ends of th e rod so they're flushwith the sides of th e throat piece.

P- .TAP BRA55 OD-RE CUTTING 7LENGTH(REFERTO p 25)I ' L


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Lever Cap

9rCap.Unliketypical woodplane,theblade is held inplace by a wood

lever cap andthumbscrew

In many wood planes, the blade isheld in place with a wedgeshapedpiece ofwood. Its no differenthere,but instead of driving a wedge inplace, I "borrowed"an ideafromoneofmy metal planes- levercap.As you can see in Figure 12 andthe Side Detail turning a thumbscrew causes the lever cap to pivotarounda cross pin in the body of theplane. Thiscausesboth the levercapand thumb screw to lock the bladefirmly in place. Plus, it makesadjusting hebladeaneasierprocess.Cross Pin - Before gettingstarted on the lever cap, I took aminute to complete the body of theplane so I could addthe crosspin.Unlike the pin in the throat piece,there isn't anyhole to drill or tap.Allyou need to do is cut the rod tolength and slip it through a pair ofholes drilledinthe sidesof the plane.Drilling the holes isn't diicult.But to avoid chipout, I slipped ascrap in place to provide solid sup-port (l3gures 13and 13a).LeverCap-Withtheholesddl~you're ready to make the lever cap(El.Hereagain,thelevercapisrather

small to work with. So it's a goodidea to startwith an extra-longblankcut tokdwidth andthickness.

The long blank makes it easier todrill a pair of holes in one end of theblank (Elgures 14and 14a).One holeis for a brass rod thats threaded toacceptathumb screw.The otherholewill become a notch that fits aroundthe crosspin installed in thebody.After the holes are drilled, you'reready cut the wedge shape. To dothis, you'll need to make three sepa-ratecuts, syou cansee nFigure15.Just be sure not to remove toomuch as you make the second cutnear the tip. The god is to trim (andsand) just enough so the lever capbarely slipsunder the cross pin.Once the lever cap fits,you canshape the curved end. Then cut a

piece of brassrodto length andsin place.Fina& to acceptthe thscrew,drillandtapboth the brasand levercap F i r e s 16and 17BladeStop - Onething Inotduring the fitting of the cap isthe blade had a tendencyto slidthe bottom of the plane eachyou loosened the lever cap. Tovent this, I added ablade stop.

DRILL PRESS

[FIRSCUT SHOW

30 ShopNotes No


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The stop is nothing more than a the slot in the blade before it has a won'tinterfere with thelevercap.shortlength of d ~ w dhaf fits mto a chanceto slidealltheway out. At this point, the plane is almosthole dnled in the body F1&ures12 'What3 importanthere is thatthe ready to use. But before you start,and 18). (Ised a hand drill to do fop edge of the stop rests below the take a little time to fine tune it, asthis.) The dowel"catches"the top of surface of the blade. This way, t shownin theboxbe lo^ ?&

wit17a rnaller.For a aeopor CLI~ ,ap tne frontbody

NO. 61 ShopNotes 31


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ShopTalkRight tilt or l&? When ifcomes to table saws, whichone is "right?"I used to be cut and dried. Whenchoosing a table saw, the sawblade tilted left or right dependingon th e manufacturer of the saw.Many tool companies like Deltamade their sawsso the blade tilted toth e right Others companies, like

Powermatic and Sean C~a bwun ,had saws where the blades tilted toth e leftThe only choiceyou had waswhich brand ofsaw you bought.But lately things have gotten a hitmore comnlicated. Severalman&-turem are how offeringtwo differentmodelsof saws- ne that tiltsright,th e other that tilts leftSo now you have a choice and adecisionto make. Butbeforeyou do,I've put together a few things youmight want to consider. Plus I'veincluded some information that youcan pu t to use even if you donstplanon p u i - C W anew table saw.Firstof all,whatmakes a saw a lefttilt or right tilt?As you face the saw,the tilt corresponds to thelocation ofthe arbor assembly, as you can seein

Fgures 1 nd 2. So on a right-tiltsaw,th e arbor assembly is on the &htAnd vicwersa for a Ieft-tilt saw. Sowhen does thismake a difference?BeveledCrosscut -Well, one ofthe most common operations thatrequires tiltingtheblade is when youneed to cut a bevel on the end of aworkpiece, To make this cu t youneed to use the miter gauge. Andwhen you do, if s a good idea to havethe blade tilting away from the mitergauge. This way, when the wastepiece is cu tfreeit will rest on the saw

table and no t on top of the spinblade. So de~ending n whichthe blade tiltsyoullhave to apprthis cu t differently.If th e blade tilts to the rightmiter gauge is placed to the(Fgure 3). In this position the mgauge isheldwith the righthandthework piecewith the left.Smcis theway Itypicallymake a crosit feelsperfectlynatural forme.However, if the blade tilts toleft ( F i i e 4), th e miter gshould be on th e right side o

A SAFE DISTANCEFROM CUT-OFF5

N r n .u GUARDORCLAR INEMOVED IUIWHENCWSSCUmNG &A BEVEL WITH A RIGHT.'IILT SAW,UWNGME LEFTMITER SLOTISSAFER AND MORE COMFORTABLE

ON A LEFT-TILTSAW. US E THERIGHT MITER SLOTAND REPOSITIONYOUR HANDS


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. , .I

blade. Now the miter gauge is held with the blade guard. This makes itth the lefthand.Thismayfeelabit difficult, if not impossible, to use awkward the 6rst few times you try push block safely.it, especially if you're right handed. On the other hand take a look atWith that said, I still wouldn't Figure 6 where the blade tilts awaymake my decision on a right- or left- fromthefence.Now if thepieceraisestilt saw based only on making uporpullsawayfromthe fence,itwillbeveled crosscuts. The other thing simplyrideupthe sideof the blade.that needs to be considered is what Of course the result may be a cuthappens when you need to rip a that'snotquitesixaightButyou havebevel down the edgeof aworkpiece. reduced the chance of anykickback.RippingaBevel-Wheneveryou In mybook, iVsthe safestway to go.make a rip cut with the blade tilted Here again, the direction the sawyou need to think about the relation- blade tilts may affect how wmfort-ship between the blade and the rip ableyoufeelwhen making a ripcut The "Right"Choice - Now thatfence. I prefer to rip a bevel with the To see why, take a look at Figure you know the differences and whatblade tiltingaway from the fence. 7. If the blade tilts to the left, the you need to dowhen you make a ripThere are a couple ofreasons for fence remains to the right of the orcrosscutwitharight-orleft-tiltsaw,this. Fmt, this puts the longpoint of blade and you push the workpiece what's the "right"choice?the bevel (and the face that's most through with your right hand. So In the end,its reallyuptoyou. Soif

likely to be seen) on the top side- makingabeveled ripcutisn't anydif- you're thinking about investing in awherethere's lesschanceof chipout. ferentthan any other rip cut. newtablesaw. itwouldheworthwhileBut more importantly,this is a safer On the other hand, if the saw to doalittlebitoftesting.Here's whatway to make abevel rip. blade tilts to the right, you'll want to I'd recommend.Let me showyou why InF i e , move the rip fence to the left side of With the sawoff andthebladelow-you'll notice that the workpiece is the sawblade F i e ).Now you'll ered,makeafew"pretenb' crosscutsbetweenthe fenceand the blade. Do have to push the workpiece through with the miter gauge on each side ofO Uee how the p F . i s trapped?It yith your lefthand,which may feela the blade to seewhat'smore natural.can't movei nyduecbon. Ifit mses M e wkward onceagain. Then repeatthe processbymaking aoff the table slightly or pulls away There's one other thing to note fewrip "cuts" with the fenceon eachfrom the fence it wil l "wedge" itself here. The rails for most rip fences side of the blade.tightly between the fence and the don't extend as far to the left of the Onceyou've done that,you'll have

blade. As a result, it can bid , burn, saw as they do to the right. This a good idea whether you're moreor cause theworkpiece to kick back means you'll have less ripping comfortable with a right- or left-tiltAnother problem is that on capacity when you position the rip table saw - nd therefore whichnarrow cuts, the fencewill interfere fencetothe left sideof the sawblade. one is the "right? choiceforyou. &FIGURE PERE

NOTE:STAND OFF TO 51DEAWAY FROM PATH OFWORKPIECE BEING CUT

NOTE:GUARD REMOVEDFOR C L A R I N

No. 61


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ToolChestLookingfir a scraper that =can really get the job done.:These carbide blade scraper,are a cut above the rest.

et's face i t There's nothingabout scrapin-paint The quickeritsoverthe betteUnfortunately, most of the scrapel.I've tried ust can't get thejob done.Then one day I came across ascraper that changed all that It wasmade by Sandmk. And I stillrememberthe firsttime I tried i tAsI puUed the tool across the surface,the old, dried and cracked paintcame off in a shower of chips,leaving a swath of clean, barewood behind. I was impressed.

L Finally, a a a p e r that actuallyworked the way it should.Well I've been using thatsame scraper for over tenyears now. Naturally, it'slooking a bit rough andL worn.but it stillworksas

ShupNotesscrapedhis entirehousewith a Sandvik scraper, using onlyone edge of the blade. He stillhasn'tturned the blade around. But if youreally do a lot of scraping, replace-mentblades are available.Another thing that sets thesescrapers apart is their practicallyindestructible design.Theyfeatureaone-piece,cast-metalhead andneckOn the two larger models the car-bide blade is held in place with ametal plate that is screwed into thehead. On the smaller scraper, theblade isscreweddirectly o the head.The system works so well that inover ten vears I have never had a

scraping as pleasant as it caneach scraper is fitted with a lcomfortablegrip thafs as durabthe rest of the tool.As youcan tell, I think theseare topnotch, and they have eaa permanentplace in the ~ h o

Tool Chest. If you're thinking aadding a Sandvik scraper totool chest, I would recommstartingwith the midsize scraphas a 2"-wide blade and isfavorite. One last thing- uyigood tool doesn't always mspendii a lot These scraperscostbetween $15and$20.Note: You mav k d Sanw e ~ a she dayIbought singleblaie slip or loosen up. scrapers under the name Bahci t Since then I've Finaly, to make the task of somecatalogs.&picked up a couple of .er Sand& scrapers asU- largermodelwith aknob

- Amazon.comm . ama z o n . c omHighland Hardwaw800-241-6748LaeV'lleyLWO-871-al63Rwkler800-279-4441Woodsm*h Store800-83550W

onthe head a n d a smallerversionforgetting into tight spots. You can seeall three modelsabove.Sowhat these scrapers sogood?Well let's startwith the blade.It's a solid piece of carbide. So itstays sharp longer than any steelblade could, If the ,bde cuttingedge does become dull, you haveto do is ap he blade around toexpose another sharp cutting edge,How long does the carbide bladestay sharp?Well, one person here at34 ShopNotes No


35/36

S o u r c e sqAKnobs & Toilet Bolts i AHoning CompoundAl lW s ecessm ta attach the var-ious accessories to the router In the bin-1Router Base Plate Systemshownonpage 6 is the few pieces of hardwareshown above. ShOpNotss ProjectSupplies is offering a hardware kit thatcontainstwo tarknobs, toilet bolts, and

Puttingarazor-sharpedge on a chisel orplane blade is fast and easy with theDrillPress SharpeningWheel (page 18).Especially when you charge the leatheron the top of the wheel with a honingcompound It cuts quicklyyetstil l eavesamirror finih on the chisel or hlade.uashers. Call 1-800-347-SlX~o order. '.

p :

A ~ IOUWB~ STo cut a m a r k using the MortisingJigshownh he 6-h-1Router Base PlateSystem (page 6), we found that a spiralupcut outer bit produced a clean cutwith little (if any) earout. These bitsare available in a number of s h(including the '/a" bit shown here). Toreduce vibration, we recommend using1h"-shankbits. Spiral router bits areavailable fhrn most woodworkqstores or the mai-orders o w a s below.

. . _)CL_i . .. ., .-Awl S BMost of the hardware for th e Drill Press Sharpening Wheel&ownonpage 18oanprobab lybefoundatyom' loca l~ j make th e Hand Plane on page 26 might be a little hard tostote.But a f e w i t e ~ l r l m i g h t b e a l i t t l e m o r e d i locate. We did use th e same thumb screws (Part No.The thumb %rem used to lock the blade or chisel In the i 9W79A225).Andweaddedahardened steelwasher (Part No.carriage were obtdned fhrn MGMas&-Car (Part No. 1 98429AOll) fhmMcM&@-Caw. But iindiug a lo& source90079A226).Andwe used 11/$-wide sandpaperroil8 (%@@i) i for the 8/d1-dis.brass rod might take some time. So w e v e pfromRlingspw (Part No. SR811781. vided a mailurder s o m e forthat below.

One t em y o um i gMb e a b l e t o d n d l ~ i s t h e l e a t s The 114'-wide Hock blade we used hali t t le easier to comeattachedtothewhee1,Weboughtavegetable-tannedhlinghelIy by. Itls available fh m ShopNotes PP4jsCt Supplies by c a b @(3 - 6 ox weight) ata local leather company You can alsocheck 1-800-547-6106and requesting PartXo. 6005304 ($28.95). Youwith the~~ mqangl. Weke included their phone can also order it with a chip breaker (which isn't required fa rnumber (andthoseforMeM&-Caff andM-)below. om' design1fromJawan R6oduo~kPart No. 63.001.6).


36/36

Scenesb m heShopa

A Here8 a quick-change outersystem that willstretch there are five must-have accessories that work greatthe capabilitiesof your router: Thecustom base plate and canbechangedin a snap.Step-by-stepplans forprovides a larger surfacearea for better support Pius, thebase plate and accessories begin onpage 6.

Suns,thesehand-bu~ltplaneslookelegantutthey're anexofk wood (left)or a p~ece f highly-figured woodalsohard workers,w~thomeof thesamefeaturesyou'd (r~ght)ou been saving for something special, making

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ShopNotes Issue 61