Category Archives: Popular Woodworking

Woodworking Jig

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Woodworking Jigs: Woodworking is a job

For which one requires to work with precision and skill. Mistakes during woodworking may spoil the whole piece. In woodworking, there are some things, which should be done repeatedly. woodworking jigs are tools, which help to do so without many mistakes.

They have been in use for a long time. Even today in the age where automated machinery is available for most of the tasks involved in woodworking, jigs are still very popular and useful for the small wood workers.

Woodworking jigs are nothing but simple pieces of wood. However, jigs made from metals are also used. Nonetheless, the wood jigs are very popular. There are several reasons for their popularity. They are very cheap. They do not damage, moreover, they can be made from the waste wooden pieces. The wooden jigs made from such pieces cost you nothing.

Woodworking Jigs: Different types of jigs.

There are a different types of jigs used for different tasks. For example, the dowel jig is helpful for cutting dowel holes. These holes are very common. Moreover, we have to dig a number of dowel holes during a single wood work piece. Without using woodworking jigs, this job would have been very troublesome and time consuming.

However, with a jig, we just have to place it on the wood and it will guide your cutting tool for creating the dowel holes.

Similarly, one more commonly used type of jig is the dovetail jig. These jigs are particularly used for preparing drawers. They guide the woodworker to give a perfect shape to the different parts of drawers.

The third type of woodworking jigs are the router jig. They are used for supporting and guiding the wood when it moves through the saw. Therefore, it gets a very smooth and regular cut. Moreover, by making proper use of the router jig, the wood can be given very artistic and with a perfect cut. They are widely used for creating edges of the tabletops, drawer faces, etc.

Another type of woodworking jig is the Tenon Jig. It can be used for guiding the table saws. They can be angled in wide range of angles, i.e. 45 to 90 degrees. They are clamped on wood and their grove will guide the saw to provide a smooth and straight cut.

There are a number of uses for woodworking jigs. The first one is that they are the tools that enable a wood worker to do the same job in less time. Plus, they are used for guiding the cutting tools and so they enable the worker to make perfect and smooth cuts.

They are very cheap. They can be very useful for non-skilled people who want to do some household woodworking.

Woodworking Jigs

All About Woodworking Clamps

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Woodworking Clamps: Woodworker’s Important Tool

Woodworking ClampsOne of the many important tools in woodwork would be the woodworking clamps. There are many uses for it and if you’ve taken up woodworking as a hobby or a profession, you’ll still need the clamp regardless of the type of projects you do. It’s mainly used to hold two pieces of wood in place as you wait for glue to dry or to hold your wood as you nail them together. Woodworking clamps can be said to be an extra pair of hands in woodworking.
The said clamps are very important to a woodworker as they are of tremendous helping in joining pieces of wood at a specific alignment. The clamp is basically a set of jaws that are padded and tighten down on wood which clamps it together. The jaws are extendable to open and close to hold various wood sizes and its tightened or loosen with a squeeze grip or a screw twist, depending on the type of clamp you have. Every woodworker needs a woodworking clamp since it’s a very basic tool so you’d be able to find them in almost any hardware or woodworking store or even in basic supermarkets that has a woodwork section. They’re available in all sorts of prices, so you’d definitely find one to suit your needs and budget as well.  Woodworking Clamps


To know what’s out there, you have to understand that there are a variety of clamps available in the market these days. To tell you of a few, there is the pipe clamp which is meant to hold pipes specifically. It uses about an inch or so of the round pipe and has got an adjustable jaw which allows you to adjust it up and down in accordance with the length you need. Then there is also the fixed metal clamp that has a non-adjustable metal bit that is of a fixed length. This clamp is generally the one that has a grip to tighten the jaw. Besides that, there are also specialized clamps which have got a jaw set for corner woodwork instead of flat woodwork. So when shopping for your clamp, think about what you’d need it for as that will help you pick the one you need. Then again, you could just buy them all.

Varying types of woodworking clamps

In addition to varying types of woodworking clamps, they also come in different sizes as well. For small and simple projects, you can look into getting the one that is only a few inches big. But if you’re a carpenter who works on large scale projects then there are ones that are a couple of feet big to accommodate the size of wood you would be working with. Clamps are available in every size, so no matter how big or small your project is, you’d most definitely find something suitable in the market. So don’t worry about clamps if you’re working on pieces as tiny as dollhouses or as large as a dining table.
When it comes to you actually hitting the stores to pick up a clamp, it would also be best to bring along a sketch of the projects you make along with their measurements. That way, if you’re completely lost and don’t know which to pick, a store helper would be able to help you find the right one based on your woodwork planning. So if you don’t have one already then go out and get your woodworking clamp.

Woodworking Clamps

How to Make a Homemade Woodworking Jigs

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Woodworking Jigs: A must have in every woodworkers kit.

A woodworking jig is a must have in every woodworkers kit. To put it simply, it’s the one thing that can save you, as a woodworker, a whole lot of time measuring something over and over when you wish to make duplicates of a design. To simply put it; the jig is basically a sort of template that guides you as you make several copies of the same piece from the same material. The common jig can be bought off the shelves of any woodworking store, but being a person who likes to make things from scratch, you can make your own. The things that you would need include a tape measure, circular saw, power drill, chalk line, clamps, a pencil and some paper. Woodworking Jigs

Woodworking Jigs: Your first step would be to start by measuring.

Woodworking JigsUsing the tape measure, find the distance between the inside of the blade on your circular saw and the outside of the base plate of the saw. By adding an extra two inches to this measurement, cut a plywood board by that measurement in width and 48 inches in length. Plywood is fairly easy to cut using the same circular saw, so you shouldn’t encounter any difficulties. If you find it hard to cut out the exact measurements then have a professional help you or use this as a learning process. When you’ve finish with that board, cut out another piece that is 2 by 48 inches.
Using some wood glue, place the smaller board on the right side of the first board and hold them in place using the screws and the power drill. Be careful to drill only enough to accommodate the positioning and do not ruin the wood. On the plywood, measure and make marks on the parts which need to cut off. You can use the chalk lines to guide you but if you have none a marker or pencil could work too. You now have a new homemade jig. Dust it and wipe it down then place the new jig on the chalk line. Trying to follow the measurements exactly, try to align the two inch edge of the jig so that it is on the right side of the chalk line then secure the jig to the wood that you wish to cut using clamps. Woodworking Jigs
Your next step would be to get down to cutting the plywood with your circular saw. You can remove the clamps to finish of the cutting and then repeat the steps again for as many pieces you need that require a straight edge cut. You can use your jig for as many pieces as you could possibly want. The only flaw in a homemade jig is that it might not last as long as you’d like it too because it may fall apart after you saw on it continuously. It would also wear out faster as compared to store bought ones but this depends on the quality of the material used. Woodworking Jigs
So what are you waiting for? Get to it and make your very own jig to save you a lot of time when working on your next project!

Woodworking Jigs

Learn About Simple Woodturning Projects

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Woodturning ProjectsA woodturning projects is basically the process of making a beautiful piece of wooden craft using the mechanical lathe. It’s a great machine, invented many years ago to help the process of shaping and designing wood. It is commonly used to produce long, thin, shapely pieces such as fancy door knobs, bed post, furniture legs, wooden whistles, pens and so on. If you’ve got the interest in woodturning projects then don’t stop reading yet!

Woodturning Projects - The main element in woodturning projects would be the lathe.

So get one, borrow one or think of something else to get your hands on one so that you can play with it and learn how to use it as effectively as possible. To help you get familiar with woodturning projects, you first need to be familiar with the lathe. So have a professional guide you through the mechanics of it or simply pick up a manual and read it cover to cover. You need to know how it works before anything else. Once you’re good with the lathe, put your skills to the test by starting on a small project such as a slim line pen. To make the pen you’ll use the very basics of woodturning skills. All it involves is modifying a square or rectangular piece of wood into a spindle that will be the pen.

To start on this project, you need to make a hole in the blanks and glue in a pen tube into the pen. Use a power drill to make the hole as it’s the best and easiest way to do it. Wait on the glue for it to dry thoroughly before you place the blanks and spacers onto the mandrel. The spacers are meant to give you enough room to work between the blanks and to guide you to deciding on the diameter of the spindles. Next, mount the mandrel into its position by placing it carefully between the head and tail, right in the middle. Secure it in place and make sure that the mandrel and the blanks are placed in the center of the lathe.

To get the shape of your pen, you would need to use a few lathe tools. A roughing gouge or a spindle gouge would work just fine to remove the straight edges off the blanks, giving you the round shape to the spindle. When you have the shape you desire, use the spindle gouge and shape the piece down to its detail but making it a little bigger than what you want the finished size to be. The wood won’t be perfect so rub it down with sand paper working from the 100 grit to the 1200 grit. When it’s as smooth as you want it to be, apply your desired finish and polish.

Woodturning Projects – Learning Process

The learning process of woodturning projects can be quite a tedious one, but remember that when you work with wood, mistakes can always be corrected because it’s very versatile. So, don’t worry, if you’ve chipped off more than necessary, it simply means that you can alter the shape and make the piece more unique. Once you’ve mastered the pen, move on the bigger and more challenging projects for a great experience of woodturning projects.

Woodturning Projects

Different Types of Woodworking Benches

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A woodworking bench is the haven for every woodworker

Woodworking BenchesRegardless of whether they’re woodworkers by passion or by career. So long as they put their hands to work and turn blocks of wood into beautiful pieces of art, a bench is the starting point of everything. It’s where furniture, gifts, art, accessories and decorative items are created; the table where it all happens. If you’re new to the world of woodworking then the very basic thing you should know about would be about the benches.

Different Types of Woodworking Benches

There are many different types of these woodworking benches but they can generally be classified into three groups which are the portable workstation, the ones meant for small scale projects and for people who don’t have a fixed work place or workshop to get crafty in. The second group would be the traditional cabinetmaker’s bench which is large in size ranging from about four to six feet in length. It’s typically used by carpenters who make large scale projects and work in their personal space. The last group would be the utility bench, a modern and somewhat practical choice. It’s not as sturdy or complete as the cabinetmakers one so it requires a lot of additional tools such as vises, clamps and so on.

Build your woodworking benches

Whether you custom build your woodworking bench or you buy it off the market, the most important factor of all is the height of the bench. As odd as it may seem, the height matters the most because many woodworkers spend hours crafting away at the table and more often than not they do it standing up. As time flies while wood is turned into art, you need to make sure that you’re not bent over a table all that neither time nor stretched up, struggling through the entire work process. The height of the table is important as it determines your comfort, posture and quality of your work too. Typically, a woodworking bench is designed between 30 to 40 inches high. So have it customized in accordance to your height if you aren’t of average height. Woodworking Benches

Another important feature of a workbench is the storage space that comes with it. It’s basic knowledge that a woodworker has got so many supplies, tools, wood pieces, pattern templates and so on. For all of that, it’s no surprise if you get to know that they’re not the neatest or most organized people around. So a workbench that comes with plenty of storage space is always a plus. Fill drawers with supplies as well as all the odds and ends, fill cabinets with tools and empty shelves can hold your wood. Your woodworking bench is everything in one, so a lot of thought and planning goes into designing one of these things. Woodworking Benches

If you’re getting one for yourself, look into all the factors and pick the one that would fit you best. If you’d like to get creative, then make one for yourself. You are after all, a woodworker. So make yourself your very own woodworking bench, customized to your every desire.

Woodworking Benches