The miter saw is the best tool for crosscuts and miter joints. The manual miter saw has been around for quite some time but nowadays you also have power miter saws and compound miter saws. If you are not into woodworking you may never have heard of a miter saw but in woodworking it is a very useful tool. Here is a short miter saw introduction.

If you are into woodworking, you know that it is important to be able to do accurate crosscuts and miter joints. That’s what you use a miter saw for. The basic miter saw is very simple. It is simple a saw suspended in a metal guide. But nowadays you have also electric miter saws.

Note that an electric is a powerful tool, which can cause damage if not carefully used. Always wear safety glasses and hearing protection when you’re operating the saw. Let the blade come to a complete stop before lifting it.

People not into woodworking may be asking, what is a miter joint? A miter joint, sometimes called simply a miter, is a joint formed by cutting two pieces of wood at a 45 degree angle and then joining them, thus creating a 90 degree angle. You find such joints in frames and many other places. Note that although most miter joints are made using wood cut at 45 degree angle, other angles can also be used. The miter joint is very simple but unfortunately also a relatively weak joint.

As mentioned, the manual miter saw is the basic solution for creating miters and doing crosscuts. It is easy to use but in professional workshops it has been replaced with a motorized miter saw. It simply takes too long time to use a manual miter saw. But it is easy to use, just secure the wood in the metal frame, set the angle and start sawing. The old wooden miter box works fine, typically it has one 90 degree and two 45 degree slots. A good metal frame lets you set the angle you want to use. The saw used is generally a normal backsaw.

A motorized miter saw is a much more efficient solution. You have two types of electric miter saw, the standard miter saw and the compound miter saw. In both cases, the saw used is an electric circle saw. The standard miter saw has a fixed vertical pivot and a rotating cutting table. This makes only possible to do horizontally angled cuts.

The compound miter saw can be angled 45 degrees, that is the circular saw, in either direction. Then set to zero degree angle, the compound miter saw acts like a standard miter saw. This makes the compound miter saw a very versatile tool for woodworkers.

A sliding compound miter saw is the same as the compound miter saw but thanks to the sliding arms it can handle larger pieces of wood. But the sliding compound miter saw is more expensive than the standard compound miter saw.

The dual compound miter saw is like a compound miter saw but both its blade and motor assembly can tilt either to the left or to the right. This allows you to cut the wood in the same orientation as it will be installed.

Nowadays many miter saws come with a laser that shows you where on the workpiece the cut will be done. It is also possible to retrofit a miter saw with a laser.

Knowing how to use an electric drill is important. Every now and then a drilling task needs to be done. It is not difficult to use a drill but there are a couple of things you need to know. Drilling wood is fairly straight forward, but it is possible to create a fair bit of damage if you don’t know what you are doing. Like so much else, watching someone who knows how to drill makes it look very easy but first time you try yourself, things often turn out to be much more difficult than expected.

Before you start drilling, you need to make some preparations. Although not completely necessary, you increase your chances of success by doing some basic preparations.

Drilling wood is in most cases easy. Make sure that you have marked how deep you are going to drill. Many drills have a depth control bar that lets you set the depth of the hole. You can buy stop collars but many of them are of poor quality. If necessary, you can use masking tape to mark the depth. You simply wrap the masking tape around the drill bit tightly marking the depth. Once the tape touches the wood, you know the depth is right.

Note that if you are going to drill through the wood, you need to put a piece of scrap wood at the back there the drill bit will exit. Otherwise, the drill bit will damage the wood when it exits. Make sure that the scrap wood is tightly clamped to the wood. If you don’t have any scrap wood, you can try to prevent splintering by stopping once the tip of the bit is just through the wood, but before the rest of the bit is through. Then you carefully drill from the other side. Needless to say, this technique requires that you are good at using a drill.

Before you start drilling, mark the center of the hole by pressing a sharp object into the wood. You want to create a small indentation so that the drill bit does not slip when you start drilling.

Always start drilling slowly and don’t use much pressure. Make sure to avoid slipping or splintering. As a rule of thumb, the wider the hole, the slower speed you should use. By backing off slightly from time to time, you relieve the pressure on the drill bit. This also removes sawdust from the hole. Make sure that you keep the drill straight, otherwise the entry of the hole could become wider.

Note that you can use standard twist drill bits for metal also for wood drilling. But if you are going to drill in soft wood and need crisp holes, you should use high quality drill bits for wood. While spade bits are easy to use, they don’t make very clean holes. Forstner bits are expensive but they make very smooth holes.

Driving screws in wood is easy but also here you need to be careful not to damage the wood.

If you are not into woodworking, chances are that you don’t know what a mortiser is. Far from everyone has heard about the mortiser. Some people call it a mortise machine. While most people know what a drill press is and a lot people know that a router is a woodworking tool, few know what a mortiser is. Here is a short mortiser introduction.

A mortiser is used to cut rectangular or square holes in wood. You can use a drill press or a router instead of a mortiser but it will take much longer time and the result will not be as good. In order words, it is a useful tool for woodworking.

The mortiser is fairly old. It was invented in 1874 by Robert and Ralph Greenlee. Their Greenlee company, the company is called Greenlee Textron after it was bought by Textron in 1986, is still producing mortisers.

The first mortiser was a square chisel mortise which works almost in the same way as a traditional drill press. It combines the action of a drill bit with a hollow four-sided chisel. The drill bit makes the hole while the chisel ensures that the edges are straight. This type of mortiser is nowadays called a square chisel mortiser.

The mortiser quickly became popular amongst woodworkers. It provided a quick and easy way of making accurate mortise and tenon joints. Mortise and tenon joints have been used for ages, despite being simple they are very strong. But cutting out the mortise manually with a chisel and a mallet is a time-consuming task. Thanks to the mortiser accurate mortises can be created quickly.

The square chisel mortiser, sometimes also called hollow chisel mortiser, is the most common type of mortiser nowadays. The horizontal mortiser is a relatively recent invention. It is really a router mounted on its side. So strictly speaking, it is not a real mortiser but it is very good for floating tenons. The chain mortiser is very good for cutting large mortises. They are meant for timber framing and log home industries, not for home use.

Instead of a mortiser, you can use a drill press with a mortising attachment. Unfortunately, virtually all mortising attachments are cumbersome to set up and produce poor results. It looks like most people who has bought a mortising attachment for their drill press, buy a real mortiser soon afterwards. You can, although a lot of patience will be required, use a router instead of a mortiser. Unfortunately, you still need to use a chisel afterwards to make the corners square. If you are regularly cutting mortises, buying a real mortiser is the best solution.

Wood glue has been used since ancient times. Nails and screws are good but in some cases you don’t want to use them, then glue is the only solution. The combination of glue and nails or screws is often used when you want a joint firmly in place. Here is an overview of the most common glues for woodworking.

Animal glue was used in woodworking already in the ancient Egypt. In the ancient Greece and Rome, animal glue was used in veneering and marquetry. Today, you are not restricted to just animal glue, you have a lot of different kinds of glue to choose from. Most of them are much more efficient than animal glue.

The main glue for woodworking is the yellow glue also known as carpenter’s wood glue. It is also sometimes called PVA glue, which stands for Polyvinyl Acetate. But some people make difference between white glue which is genuine PVA and yellow glue which, strictly speaking, is aliphatic resin emulsion adhesive. Just to complicate things, it looks like some producers dye their white glue yellow. So you need to read the labels. You have a lot of brands to choose from. Note that not all of them are waterproof, that is another reason for reading the labels carefully. Another thing to be aware of is that yellow glue has a fairly short shelf life so check the expiration date before you buy.

The yellow glue has a number of advantages. You have a couple of minutes during which you can adjust the pieces without decreasing the strength of the glue. The yellow glue requires clamping. Excess glue can be wiped off using a damp rag or you can sand it off once it has dried. One drawback with yellow glue is that nothing really sticks well to the hardened glue. This makes repairs complicated.

White and yellow glue have similar characteristics, they have about the same strength. The main difference is that white glue dries slower. So if you have something that takes more than 10 minutes to assemble, you may prefer to use white glue rather than yellow glue.

As mentioned earlier, animal glues have been used in woodworking for centuries. Hide glue is still being today used but it is not as popular as many of the modern glues. Hide glue is more difficult to use than white and yellow glue, it is messy. It can be removed with water so it is not suitable for wet conditions.

Cyanoacrylate glue, more popularly known as crazy glue or super glue, is often used for smaller repairs. It is not just a wood glue, it can be used for most materials. The advantage is works very quickly and it is fairly strong. So be careful not to get any glue on your fingers.

Some woodworkers love Gorilla Glue, which is a polyurethane glue. It is very strong and it is waterproof. But it has one drawback, it swells as it dries. It is also very difficult to remove if you get it on your skin.

Epoxy can be used for a lot of materials. Epoxy glue is made of two parts, a resin and a hardener. When the two are mixed together, the chemical reaction creates a strong adhesive bond. The main advantage of epoxy is that it works very well in most conditions. This makes it very popular for outdoor use. Note when using epoxy glue, you are not supposed to clamp the pieces together. Using too much pressure can weaken the glue.

Woodturning is one of the most popular forms of woodworking. In woodturning, it is the wood that is moving while the tools are stationary. The main woodturning tool is the lathe, which rotates the workpiece. Here is a short introduction to woodturning.

Woodturning is a fascinating hobby, and it is even possible to make some money. To beginners it may look like magic, turning a piece of wood into a beautiful object. The good news is that woodturning is fun and it is much easier than most people think.

Woodturning requires a fair bit of equipment. The most important tool is the lathe. A good lathe is expensive but if you are a beginner you can start with a simpler model that has all the essential features. A second-hand lathe can also be a good investment for a beginner. Additionally, you need to protect your eyes and face, the best solution is a face sheild. Most face shields are cheap and comfortable to wear.

For beginners, buying a wood turning tool set is the cheapest and easiest way of getting the most basic turning tools. It is highly recommended that you by High Speed Steel (HSS) tools rather than the cheaper carbon steel tools. Carbon steel tools will not last as long, so generally HSS tools turn out to be cheaper in the long run.

The most important turning tools are the spindle turning tools. This group includes standard chisels and gouges. The roughing gouge is used to form shallow curves. It can also be used for roughing down a square section of wood to a cylinder form. Thus, it can be used as a replacement for the standard turning chisel. A spindle gouge, also called shallow fluted gouge, lets you create narrow concave curves. A beading tool is a versatile tool. It can be used to form grooves and also for projecting dowels and spigots. Additionally, it is used to create tight convex curves or beads.

Skew chisels are not really suitable tools for beginners. They are difficult to use but once you have learned how to use them, you will use them a lot.

If you want to turn bowls, you need some special tools. A bowl turning gouge is a deep fluted gouge. It can be used for almost all of the work. But it will leave turning marks that you have to remove using scrapers. To finish the outside of the bowl, you use a straight edge scraper. A rounded scraper is used for finishing the inside.

The term chuck work refers to hollowing an object that is held in a chuck. Most chuck work can be done using a straight edge scraper or a rounded scraper. A parting tool is to make deep grooves and cutting finished work free from the workpiece.

Woodturning tools need to be sharpened regularly. Actually, some woodturning professionals sharpen their newly purchased chisels before they start using them. The easiest way to sharpen your tools is to use a good grinder is essential. A standard 6-inch or 8-inch double ended grinder is good enough for sharpening woodturning tools. Aluminum oxide is the best material for grinding wheels.

Originally, drill presses were designed for metalworking but the drill press quickly became popular in woodworking shops as well. It is the right tool for precision drilling. Nowadays, you can find good drill presses which are cheap enough for hobby use as well. The drill press can be used for more than drilling holes, you can without much trouble turn it into a sander or mortiser.

Drill presses are rated in inches. This tells you the distance from the center of the chuck to the column. In essence, this determines the widest work piece the machine can handle. Drill presses support variable speeds. Most drill presses have a handle that allows you to change the speed. On cheaper models, you generally change the speed by shifting a belt. In most cases, three pulleys are used, the motor pulley, the jackshaft pulley and the spindle pulley. The motor pulley is driven directly by the motor while the spindle pulley turns the spindle. The jackshaft pulley sits in the middle and increases the range of speeds.

The two main types of drill presses are the floor model and the bench model. They have the same basic design, a base supports a steel column which serves as a backbone and support the table and the motor. The motor drives a spindle which is attached to a chuck. Most drill presses aimed for home workshops are in the 11 to 16 inch range. Typically, they have a 0.5 or 0.75 horsepower motor.

The table can be raised and lowered to accommodate for work pieces of different sizes. Most tables can be tilted up to 45 degrees, making it possible to bore angled holes. The drill press allows you to drill more accurately, in regards to both the location and the orientation of the hole, than is possible with a handheld drill. If you are going to do precision drilling, you need to use a drill press rather than a handheld drill.

Like handheld electric drills, drill presses need very little maintenance. But some models tend to slip out of alignment. The chunk and the table create the most the problems. The most common problem is that the table is not square to the spindle. Fortunately, this is easy to fix.

Vibration is another common problem, especially with low quality drill presses. Vibrations can be caused by a number of components. First you need to find the cause of the vibration. The motor and the pulley, together with the belt, are the sources of most vibration problems.

Runouts are generally caused by the spindle or the chuck. To solve this you need to remove the chuck. If the problem is the chuck, it needs to be replaced. While handheld drills often have keyless chucks, drill presses still use a chuck key. If you are going to drill in large samples, it’s worth investing in a good drill press table.

A lot of people never sharpen their drill bits. Of course, some people don’t know that drill bits need to be sharpen regularly. But many prefer to buy new bits rather than trying to sharpening old bits.

But sharpening is straight forward and it is not necessary to invest in expensive tools or equipment. For most sharpening tasks, a sharpening stone or a grinder is used. For drills bits, a sharpening stone is not especially useful. But a bench grinder is really good for sharpening many different bits. How to sharpen a drill bit depends on the drill bit itself, there are plenty of different types of drill bits.

An Auger bit file is, as expected, used to sharpen auger bits. A single-cut bastard mill file is the tool for sharpening spade bits and the rims of Forstner bits. A small three-square file is used for sharpening Forstner and multi-spur bits.

The cutting edges of standard twist bits should be angled at about 60 degrees. Remember to check the angle as you sharpen the bit. Otherwise you may end up with a sharp bit but which does not produce clean holes. Use a bench grinder, set the bit on the grinder’s tool rest and advance it toward the wheel. Rotate the bit clockwise to grin the lip evenly. Note that you should wipe your drill bits occasionally with oil to prevent rust.

If you don’t have a bench grinder, you can use a commercial bit sharpening jig. They are more cumbersome to use than bench grinders. But when correctly used, they will sharpen your drill bits quickly.

Sharpening Forster bits is a three-step operation, but first you need to secure the Forstner bit in a bench vise. Now you can use a file on the top edges of the rim. Then use an electric drill fitted with a rotary grinding attachment. Lastly, use a single-cut mill bastard fill to sharpen the inside faces of the cutters.

Sharpening brad-point bits is easiest done by securing the bit upright in a bench vise. Now file the inside faces of the chip lifters using a triangular needle file. A spade bit should also be secured in a bench vise. But in this case, you should use a single-cut mill bastard file to sharpen the two cutting edges.

The benchstone is still the best tool for a lot of sharpening tasks but for drill bits it is seldom the best tool. Once upon time, only natural stones were used as benchstones. But nowadays many man-made materials are used in benchstones. Benchstones are generally divided into two groups, according to the lubrication used. Oil and water are used as lubrication. In most cases, you can actually use either one of the lubrications.

Veneering is fairly easy and cheap way of creating beautiful furniture. Veneering dates back all the way to the ancient Egypt. Both furniture and sarcophagi were made using veneers. Veneering offers a number of advantages but nowadays lower cost is the main advantage. By using veneer you can use cheaper wood for most parts and only use beautiful veneer on the visible parts. Furniture made with veneer also use less wood than the same piece of furniture made of solid wood.

Veneers are available in hundreds of varieties. Some of them are as thin as 1/100 inch. By using veneers you can use woods that would be far too expensive to buy as solid woods. Since veneer is thin, more of the tree can be used. The finest logs are sent to the veneer producers. Very little wood is wasted in the production of veneer. Examples of decorative and rate veneers are Brazilian rosewood, pearwood and zebrawood.

A log can be cut into veneer in three different ways, flat slicing, rotary cutting and saw cutting. Saw cutting is not as efficient as the other two methods but is still used for irregularly grained and dense woods. Rotary cutting and flat slicing can produce veneer as thin as 1/120 inch. Wide veneer is best created using rotary cut while long pieces are best made using flat slicing.

Veneering is mostly done using a veneer hammer which presses down the veneer onto a panel. But you can also use a veneer press for this. A veneer saw is used for trimming and cutting of veneer. It has a curved blade and an offset handle. If you are applying more than one sheet of veneer to a panel, tape them together using special veneer tape and before gluing them together onto the panel.

Veneering is easy but requires a lot of patience. One of the most important steps is the trimming. First cut the sheets of veneer to the right size. If you are going to join sheets of veneer, you must make sure that the adjoining sheets of veneer are perfectly square. This is easiest done using a shooting board made of plywood. Place the two pieces of veneers face to face and sandwich them into the shooting board. Make sure that the sheets of veneer are perfectly aligned. Then run a plane along the shooting board to trim of the veneer.

Once the veneer is in place and the glue has cured, you can trim the veneer that shows up beyond the face of the panel. The quickest way to do this is by using a laminate trimmer. But be careful not to tear the veneer. A slower but safer option is to use a mill file.