With Woodworkers Safety Day coming up this Wednesday, May 1, it’s the perfect time to take a moment to assess your shop’s safety plans and procedures.  Remember that one moment of inattention can lead to an injury that can leave you sidelined from woodworking for weeks, months, potentially forever.

This week, let’s take a look at devices that give you more control and keep your hands farther away from the blades and bits we work with… push sticks and other devices. Whether cut from a simple piece of scrap plywood or elegantly designed devices such as the GRR-Ripper push blocks, these tools can help keep your fingers out of the danger zone and have you work with more confidence.  Do you use them regularly, or do you just keep them around the shop to make you look more safe?


 

Our workshops are very much like fingerprints. Each one is unique to every woodworker. Whether you are shoehorned into a small corner of your basement, or have a separate, dedicated building with tons of space, your shop is an expression of your woodworking style, your living conditions and the amount of money in your bankroll. Sometimes we love it, other times… well…

This week, I want you all to come clean and let us know how you feel about your shop space. Whether it’s the perfect place for you to make sawdust, or it’s a rat hole you would abandon at the first opportunity, let us know what you think.

Getting involved in electronics can be tricky business.  Every time a new technology is invented, processor speed increased or new storage medium is heralded as the next great thing, your computer, stereo or television is one step closer to needing to be upgraded.

Fortunately, this isn’t the case when it comes to woodworking tools.  Power tools built in the 1950′s still slice through lumber and planes and chisels more than a century old still slice and dice joinery as well as they day they were made.  And, they can still do their work despite the fact that many of these babies sat languishing in some cellar or out building for decades before being brought back to life.

This week, let us know how old the oldest tool is in your collection.  Power or hand tool – it doesn’t matter. The one caveat is that the tool still has to do work for you in a your shop – no living room display case models are allowed.

Hand tool woodworking can be a real joy. When your tools are sharp.

If not, well, it can be one of the most frustrating experiences you can have in your shop.

And, just as in woodworking, there are many ways to get from a dull worthless tool to a sharp performer. My friends at Tormek have helped me out with a sweet T-7, but I have tried lots of different methods over the years. From simple sandpaper stuck to plate glass to more expensive options… I’ve done most of them.

So, this week, it’s your turn.  What is your preferred method of getting your cutting tools into fighting shape?

When I was a little kid, my mom used  to dress me in these clothes called Garnimals. It was a brand of clothing that allowed kids to dress themselves and have some kind of matching look. Basically, if you wore your tiger pants and tiger shirt, the darned stuff would match. It was supposed to be fool proof…

While I can’t find Garanimals clothes for adults to help me dress in the morning, I have noticed that some woodworkers would like to have a Garanimals system for their tools. They tend to want to buy their tools in sets or from the same manufacturer to ensure they look alike. I mean, come on. If you mixed a green Festool track saw with an orange Fein dust collector… ugh…

Or, heavens forbid, you didn’t get your chisels all from the same set from the same manufacturer.  I mean, could you see how the clashing could affect your work?

This week, tell us – do you have to match your tools, or does it even matter to you?

Dovetail joints are a classic way to join the corners of a project.  They look timeless and offer great strength.

As mass production of wooden pieces came into play, manufacturers found it easy to lose the slope on the pins and tails and modify the joint into a box joint.  This was used on utilitarian projects as well as finer furniture and still remains an option for woodworker today.

Just as with the dovetail, there are many ways to make a box joint.  Table saws, routers and even hand tools can form the interlocking fingers and make a strong and attractive joint.

This week, let us know what is your preferred method of cutting box joints.

It never fails.  You get through the final assembly of your project and it looks absolutely gorgeous.  Then, it hits you like a ton of bricks – how are you supposed to get your hand holding a piece of sandpaper inside those tiny and intricate openings to get a good smooth surface, and how are you expected to get a smooth finish in those nooks and crannies?

The ideal situation would be to have finish the pieces before you got to this point in the project, but how were you expected to quell your excitement during the assembly process?

And, then there’s the concern of getting finish on areas you need to glue up… will the glue stick to that kind of finish, or will the project fall apart?

This week, I want to know your thoughts on prefinishing project pieces before you get to the point of final assembly.  Is this a routine practice or not for you?