Working With Wood : Drill Bits Usage Tips

When working with wood, drill bits play an equally important role with other tools and equipment. A drill with the wrong size and type of drill bits can be a disaster to your wood project. Here are some tips how to choose and how to use drill bits:

1. Choose the type of drill bits based on the type of material you are going to drill. Steel drill bits are the cheapest and they are considered OK for drilling soft wood. Drill bits range then go up to cobalt, which can drill through stainless steel, as well as other hard steels or metals.

2. Choose the type of drill bits based on what you are going to use them for. Normal twist drill bits are used mainly for general drilling. To bore wood, brad point drill bits can be used and they are great at removing wood chips while drilling. A spade bit is similar to a little shovel. It is used for making large openings or holes in woods, starting from 1/2" and above.

3. Remember to check with the drill manufacturer's guides and instructions for specifics and also limitations. Certain drills only work best with certain kinds of bit, because there may be limitations on the drill such as torque limitations that prevent particular bits from being used.

4. Remember not to drill too fast. This can cause the bit to bind up and stop. If this happen, you should take out the bit by slowly reversing the bit and then start over again slowly and steadily. Upon the drill pushing through the wood, work the drill back and forth a couple of times through the hole in order to get rid of any rough spots.

So, before you start your wood working, drill bits should be made a priority and you should choose the right drill bits for your wood working.

Woodworking Tools – Know About Mitre Saw

What is a Mitre Saw? Mitre Saw is among the many woodworking tools available and it is a tool which allow you to make a 45˚ cut. Let’s say you want to make a picture frame. Notice how the four corners of the frame were jointed. Instead of jointing them at a 90˚ angle, it is much better to joint them at a 45˚ angle. The jointing at a 45˚ angle is called mitre joint. Most picture frames you may have seen are done this way. See diagram below.

Why do make we a mitre joint? Generally, a mitre joint is regarded as an attractive joint, particularly for picture frames or other frames. Stronger options may be required in the event the joint depth becomes greater, like dovetail joint.

There are 3 types of mitre saw available. They are Manual Mitre Saw, Mitre Box and Powered Mitre Saw.

1. Manual Mitre Saw. This type of Mitre Saw features a backsaw positioned onto a metal base and it is able to rotate freely. The reason for using a backsaw is because, it provides better precision in cutting. The base of the manual Mitre Saw contains vice clamps where you can lock your wood in position. To fix the angle, you will be using guiding rods attached. This concept is very similar to "mitre box".

2. Mitre Box. The manual Mitre Saw and the Mitre Box is pretty much the same but the Mitre Box come first before the manual Mitre Saw. Mitre Box is no more than an open top box and an open ended with some slots cut in it. Normally, it is made from wood or plastic.

What you do is you place your wood in the box and subsequently place your saw right through the guides and start your cutting. The guides are normally angled at 45˚ or 90˚. Some Mitre Boxes comes with 60˚, 30˚ as well as other odd angles.

3. Powered Mitre Saw. For bigger jobs, powered woodworking tools are the best. As such, for bigger wood jobs, it is more effective to use a powered Mitre Saw. It has a base made of aluminum and a circular saw is mounted on top of it. You can rotate the saw around the aluminum base and lock it into place at your preferred angle.

There are various models available in the market and the sliding type is the most basic model. It can slide along a rail, as such, it can cut larger pieces of wood, larger than its diameter. A compound saw is the popular version. The compound saw allows you to tilt and angle the blade concurrently.

I hope this woodworking tools article shall provide you with the information about Mitre Saw. Remember, in woodworking, tools are very important. So get yourself the right tools.

Use The Right Woodworking Bed Plans For Your Bed Project

To build a good bed, then you must have good woodworking bed plans. Why? Because without good woodworking plans, you are sure to fail in building your bed. Good plans shall provide you with all the guides and details for building a good bed.

Even if you do not wish to buy any plans whatsoever for your bed project, you will still need to do some sketching to figure out how the end product will be. You will also need to figure out the following :

1. The type and size of your bed. You need to determine what bed is it going to be. A double decker? A king size bed or perhaps a queen size?

2. The design of the bed. How do you want your bed to look like? Modern, classic, European and so on.

3. The materials needed for your construction. What kind of timber or wood do you need? Do you need plywood? What kind of materials do you need for the headboard?

4. The tools and equipment needed. Do you need to have a chainsaw? How about a circular saw? And do you need to have squares?

5. The dimensions of various parts of the bed. To cut the stock or wood to form parts of the bed, you need to have the exact dimensions of each part. Or else you will not be able construct the bed. And even if you manage to do so, (which I doubt) assembling the bed is going to be a problem to you.

6. The steps for building the bed. You need to know the order of building the bed to smooth the building process.

Now, the above you must do. I have been in the construction industry for 20 years and I can tell you that the above is very, very important. Find your self good woodworking bed plans, the ones that provide you with all of the above, and not woodworking bed plans which provide you with sketchy details. That will make your woodworking much easier.

Woodworking Techniques For Butt Joints

What are butt joints? Butt Joints are actually simple woodworking techniques and they are the basic method to joint 2 pieces of wood. It is not very strong compared to other joints, but it is extremely useful in some cases.

When you butt or joint a piece of stock against another stock with glue, that is called a butt joint. Normally, the joint is strengthen with nails or screws.

To make quality butt joint, you need to ensure that both end of the boards or stocks have good contact and to do this, you need to cut them as square as possible. To get the square, you should use mitre saw. However you may also obtained the square if you use circular saw together with a layout square. Remember to set the circular saw blade angle to zero degrees.

Butt joints are woodworking techniques which obtain its durability and strength from the glue applied at the joints. Despite that, there are still some problems with using glue as the only way to hold the joints.

The first problem is, whenever you apply glue to the stock’s end grain, the glue have the tendency to absorb more into the stock, compared to applying the glue to the stock’s side grain. Do you know that the most porous section of a wood is the end grain? So, you might need to apply more glue at the joint.

The second problem is, glue shall not supply much of lateral strength, thus the use nails or screws is highly recommended to make the joint stronger.

In the event you use hardwood for your woodwork project, make sure you drill pilot holes first prior to putting in the screws . This is to avoid the stock from splitting and cause you more problem.

There are in fact a lot of possible methods to join 2 pieces of wood. Some of them might involve advanced woodworking techniques. The simplest method is the butt joint and it can be perfectly sufficient under some conditions.

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Quality Furniture Woodworking Plans

Are you looking for furniture woodworking plans? Where can you get the best downloadable furniture woodworking plans? Have the plans been tried and tested? Finding the reliable plans for your woodworking project is the most vital step in building your own furniture.

If you search the internet, there are plenty of woodworking experts who are willing to contribute their methods and ideas in constructing home furniture. For your info, there is a website which lets you pick from top wood crafters who have designed quality and easy to read plans that will make your work smooth.

Maybe you have been looking for a particular set of shaker coffee table plans which will survive the torture of 3 kids and maybe a dog, but you have not been able to locate plans which address bracing sufficiently. This website is just for you. The plans in this website are laid out very well, all the details are shown very clearly and you won’t have to guess anymore to build your furniture.

Another popular home furniture is file cabinets. You can buy those sold in any department store, but they are flimsy and maybe don’t quite match your décor. Constructing your own classy strong wood file cabinet is a great idea to organize your files at home. This website has all the details about constructing file cabinets.

Making sustainable home furniture can make you relax and also can become a moneymaking project, but if you use the wrong furniture woodworking plans, the finished furniture may look great but it may not survive a durability test. You need to build it right in the first place and you shall not waste your hard work with amateur wood crafters who give poor advice.

Purchasing furniture woodworking plans on the Internet shall help you in constructing your home furniture. You should also listen to experts and use methods which have been tried before to ensure that your labor and time is worth the while.