Sanding Table Window Shade

I’ve found that when sanding smaller pieces, the vacuum on my sanding table doesn’t create enough suction to pull the dust through the holes in the table. To solve this problem, I mounted a retracting window shade to one end of my sanding table, see below.

Pulling the shade over the part of the table I’m not using reduces the surface area and increases suction.The suction from the table holds the shade in place. When I’m finished, I just retract the shade.

Sanding Pad

Here’s a clever way to fold a quarter sheet (or half sheet) of sandpaper into a pad that eliminates the usual grit-to-grit contact. What’s nice about this pad is the unexposed surfaces won’t wear as you sand with the outer surface. The pad also works great when sanding a project on the lathe. With four layers of insulation, my fingers don’t get as hot.

To fold the pad, first make a single cut to the center of the sheet. Then follow the steps shown below. To expose a new surface, simply refold the pad.

Sanding Jig for Circles

When I need a circular workpiece for a project, I don't try to get it perfect the first time. Instead, I start by cutting the workpiece to rough shape. Then to make quick work of sanding the edges smooth (and getting the disk perfectly round), I use a simple sanding jig and a disk sander, as shown in the photo at right. 

Jig: Basically, the jig consists of three parts: an MDF base, an adjustable hardwood runner, and a pivot pin made from a dowel (Figure 1). The runner slides in a groove cut in the base. This way, you can adjust the position of the pivot pin for different size disks. The work-piece fits over the pivot pin that's glued into a hole in the runner.

Note: The pivot pin can be any size you need. I have a set of runners with different size pivot pins. But depending on the dowels you use, you may find the fit a little loose. A quick way to solve this problem is to wrap the pivot pin with masking tape until you get a snug fit.

Setup: Using the sanding jig couldn't be much simpler. Start by clamping the base of the jig 1/16" from the face of the disk sander and just to the left of the center, as shown in Figure 1.

Sand Disk: Then just fit the workpiece over the pivot pin and slide the runner forward until the edge contacts the workpiece. At this point, all that's left to do is clamp the runner in place and sand the disk by rotating it clockwise (Figure 2).

Sanding Disc Guard

I have a combination belt/disc sander, and more than once I've nearly caught my sleeve in the rotating disc while trying to sand something on the belt. To prevent this from ever happening, I came up with an idea for a slip-on guard to cover the disc while I'm using the belt.

First I cut an arch shape that goes around the perimeter of the disc from a section of 2x6 (You’ll have to size this piece to fit your sander.) Then I attached a couple of small cleats to each end of the arch. One cleat rests on the disc sander plat-form to position the guard at the right height. The other extends down the side of the platform to keep the guard in place.

Next, I made a cover to hide the disc. I placed the completed arch assembly on a piece of hardboard and traced the profile down to the platform cleats. Then I cut out the cover on a band saw and glued it to the framework. Finally, I sanded the edges of the cover flush with the frame.

Now whenever I use the belt system on my sander, I simply drop the disc guard in place. When using the disc sander, I hang the guard on a nearby wall.

Flip-Up Non-Skid Mat

Whenever I'm sanding small pieces or using a hand-held router at my bench, I like to use a non-skid mat. The problem is that I can never seem to find my mat when I need it.

Here's a simple solution that keeps the mat within easy reach at all times. Simply attach it to the back edge of your bench with a thin hardwood cleat and a few woodscrews, see drawing.

When you need the mat, just flip it up on the benchtop. And when you're done, it's no trouble to flip the mat back down out of the way, letting dust and chips fall to the floor.

Dust Hood

A sanding table with a dust collector works great for keeping a shop clean while finishing a project. But with smaller pieces of wood, a lot of dust still floats up into the air, escaping the dust collector ports in my table.

To solve this problem, I use a plastic window well cover that I purchased at a home center. The hood-like cover traps all the dust in one area, which allows the dust collector to better remove it from your table. When I’m finished sanding, I store the dust hood under my bench out of the way.

Cove Sanding Block

The best sanding block is one that matches the shape to be sanded. So recently when I had to sand some cove molding, I made some custom sanding blocks from 1½"- thick foam insulation. You can use a hand saw or a band saw to cut the shape. Here's how I made the blocks.

1. Trace profile

First butt the foam block against the molding and trace the profile.

2. Rough cut profile

Use a band saw (or hand saw and file) to cut the profile to rough shape.

3. Sand profile

Smooth the profile by rubbing it across a piece of sandpaper stuck to the workpiece.

Belt Sander Face Extension

When sanding the edge of a wide workpiece on my stationary belt sander, too often I wind up with an edge that’s either rounded or out of square. To keep the stock square to the sanding belt, I attached a fence to the side of my sander. It’s just an L-shaped piece of plywood that’s screwed to a couple of support arms.

To attach the fence to my belt sander, I drilled and tapped some holes on the back side of the sander and then bolted the arms in place. Note: You may have to use shims to position the fence at a 90° angle to the sanding belt. Now to get a square edge, I just hold my workpiece against the fence as I run it over the sander.

Squaring Gauge

If you're used to checking square on a cabinet by comparing the length of the diagonals, you know it can be difficult to get the end of a tape measure over the corners of the project once the clamps are in place. You could place the tape inside the corners, but this makes it hard to get an accurate reading.

I solved this problem by making an adjustable squaring gauge, as shown in the photo above.

The gauge is simply an adjustable length of wood that I can use to compare the inside diagonals of a cabinet. By sliding the pieces together or apart, I can adjust the length to fit a variety of different projects. An L-shaped hook at each end fits precisely into the corners, and a small cam device allows me to lock-in my first diagonal measurement.

The gauge consists of upper and lower extension strips that are held together with a sliding dovetail joint. (I used a 14° dovetail bit to rout the groove and then used the same bit to sneak up on the size of the matching tongue.) The cam is an irregular-shaped piece of hardwood (see pattern) that fits in a slot in the upper extension. Simply raise the cam when you need to lock the gauge in place.

Spindle Sander Jointer

I don’t have a jointer in my shop, so I came up with a way to use my oscillating spindle sander for jointing edges. I just made a simple “jointing” fence. The fence is nothing more than a straight board with a U-shaped cut out to fit around the drum of my oscillating spindle sander.

To create an offset between the front and back of the fence, I shaved about 1/32" off the “infeed” side of the fence, see detail below. (The deeper the cut, the slower you’ll have to feed the work-piece.)

To use the fence, simply clamp it to the top of the sander so the drum is flush with the “outfeed” edge of the fence. Then feed the board along the fence past the sanding drum.

Splined Miter Joint

When I'm making picture frames, I like to "beef up" the mitered corners of the frame with a spline. As you can see in the photo, using a contrasting wood provides an opportunity to highlight the joint. Or you can make it nearly invisible by using the same type of wood. Either way, the spline adds a lot of glue surface that really strengthens the joint.

JIG - To cut the kerf for the spline, I use a shop-made jig that straddles the rip fence on the table saw, as shown in the drawing below.

Screwing two supports to the face of the jig at a 45° angle to the blade forms a “cradle” that holds the glued-up frame securely in place. All you need to do to cut the kerf is set the frame in place and make a pass across the saw blade. (I use a rip blade to cut a flat-bottomed kerf.)

ASSEMBLY - Once the kerf is cut, you can glue in the spline. After gluing and clamping the joint (see detail), remove the excess material with a handsaw and then sand the spline flush.

Slip-On Clamp Blocks

When edge gluing boards, I use scrap blocks to distribute the clamping pressure and avoid marring the edges. But sometimes the blocks shift out of position or fall to the floor before I get the clamps tightened. To solve this problem, I made a number of U-shaped clamp blocks that slip over the edge and stay right where I put them.

The secret is a piece of self-adhesive weatherstrip (see inset) attached to the top and bottom of the "jaws" of each block. When you slip the block over the edge of the workpiece, it compresses the weatherstrip and creates the needed grip.

Making the clamp blocks is easy. Especially if you start by gluing up a couple long pieces of hardboard to a piece of ¾"-thick stock. After attaching the weather stripping, all you need to do is cut the individual blocks to length.

Shop Made Clamp

There are times when you just don't have enough clamps. Here's an easy-to-build clamp that you can build from scrap that will work great for most projects. What's unique about this clamp is how the pressure is applied. Instead of tightening a threaded screw, you'll tap a wood wedge between the clamp and the workpiece.

The clamp is easy to make. It's simply a long wood rail with clamp heads at each end. One clamp head is fixed and the other is adjustable to accommodate different size objects.

I used a 1/2" dowel for the pin, which allows the adjustable clamp head to pivot as you tap in the wedge, as shown in the detail. The farther you tap in the wedge, the more pressure it applies against the workpiece.

Repairing Loose Tenons

It's frustrating when you cut a mortise only to find out your tenon doesn't fit snugly. Luckily there's an easy fix that doesn't require cutting new mortises.

For square tenons, simply glue a thin piece of wood veneer to each cheek of the tenon (see drawing). I always orient the grain in the same direction to get a strong glue joint, too. Once the glue dries, trim the tenon to fit snugly in the mortise.

For round tenons cut too small, glue on a shaving from a hand plane. Then sand the tenon to fit snugly in the mortise.

Fitting a Mortise & Tenon Joint

No matter what method you use for making a mortise and tenon joint, there’s still a good chance that you will have to do some “fine tuning” to get a perfect fit.

Undercutting The Shoulders. One of the most common problems encountered with a mortise and tenon joint is a gap between the two mating workpieces. This is caused by a shoulder that isn’t perfectly square or cut cleanly.

To avoid this problem, I like to undercut the shoulders of the tenon slightly with a chisel. This allows the edges of the tenon to fit tight to the mating workpiece when the joint is assembled, see top photo.

Removing Stepped Shoulders. Another common problem when cutting four-shouldered tenons is a stepped shoulder. If I run into this, I don't try to correct it at my saw. Instead, I come back after and pare them flush with the side shoulders, see bottom photo.

Molding Alignment Jig

Recently, I was building the cottage-style dresser featured in the June 2002 issue of Workbench. To dress-up the drawer fronts, I attached small strips of half-round molding around the edges. The trick was to position the strips on each false drawer front so that they lined up with one drawer to the next.

My solution was to use a simple alignment jig centered on each false front. This let me wrap the molding strips around the jig so that they ended up the same distance from the edges on all of the false fronts (see drawing).

To avoid accidentally gluing the jig to the false front, I waxed the edges of the jig.

Miter Clamping Tip

Instead of purchasing a special clamp for assembling miter joints, here's a trick that will allow you to use ordinary shop clamps to make the joint.

Start by making a couple of angle blocks (cut at 45°) out of scrap wood. Then glue and screw the blocks to a strip of hardboard, see Fig.1 drawing below.

When you're ready to glue your project, clamp the hardboard strip and block to the outer edges of each workpiece. Then place another clamp across the two blocks to draw the joint together tightly, see Fig.2 below.

If the blocks slip as you tighten the clamp, you can attach some adhesive-backed sandpaper to the hardboard strips to hold the block in place.

Matching Grain Is Worth The Effort

Many of my projects require glued-up hardwood panels. The trick is to make the panel look like a single, wide piece of wood. A bad match of grain can be really distracting, as you can see in the photo, below left. But by carefully matching the grain, the glue joints practically disappear, giving the entire project a more professional look. 

To start with, I always look for boards with the same general type of grain patterns. I flip as many boards as possible over and spin them end for end to see if I can find grain that matches.

Bad Match

One of the boards above has a figured spot where an intersecting branch grew. 

It clashes with the straight grain

Good Match

Even though the color varies slightly, the grain in the two boards matches much better in this orientation.

Masking Tape Clamp

Recently, I was building the Craftsman-style clock that was featured in the November 1999 issue of Workbench.

The long edges on the front and sides of this clock are mitered. So, the trick was trying to clamp up the clock without having the tips of the miters slip out of alignment. To prevent the pieces from sliding, I “clamped” the clock together with masking tape. (The tape also lets you adjust the fit of the miter joints.)

Start with the front and sides of the clock face up on your workbench. After you’ve carefully aligned the tips of the miters, tape the pieces together, leaving a space between each piece of tape.

The space will allow you to see whether the tips of the miters are aligned during glue-up (Fig. 1a).

After flipping the pieces over face down, put glue in the valley of the miters (Fig.1). Then flip up one side and use a small square to hold it in place (Fig.2). Now stand the second side up and tape across the two sides (see photo at top). To adjust the fit of the joint, loosen or tighten the tape.

Magnetic Clamp Pads

Whenever I use pipe clamps, I like to use a block of wood as a clamping pad.

The clamping pad helps prevent damage to the surface of my project when I tighten down the joint. Problem is, it's always been difficult to hold the block in place while I tighten the clamp.

To solve this problem, I attach small magnets to my wood blocks to keep them in place while I tighten the clamp. To secure the magnet to my wood block, I cut a recessed hole on one side of the block (the same diameter as the magnet) and then epoxy the magnet into the hole, see drawing. The magnet holds the

clamping pad in place, leaving me with both hands free to align the clamp on the workpiece.