♪♪ It's time for another episode of "The Woodsmith Shop."

On today's episode, we're breaking down the processes that we use every day here in the shop, and it's all to help you better use the tools that you have.

We're looking at the tips and tricks, the shortcuts and the hacks, that we use every day to make our projects turn out better.

There's a lot to learn here, and you're sure to pick up something.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Announcer #2: Old Masters, offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

Announcer: And by... Announcer #3: Kreg.

From the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Announcer: Additional funding provided by... ♪♪ Announcer #2: Titebond wood glues -- the pro's advantage.

Announcer: And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ As much as I'd like to have a dedicated glue-up station in my shop, it's just not big enough.

But one thing that I do have is a cart with some T-tracks that I installed in the top.

It's perfect for setting up hold downs and stops for when I'm assembling projects, or need to use my biscuit joiner, or things like that.

But there's another use that you can get out of those T-tracks, and that's to create a glue-up station making some cradles.

Now, if you use pipe clamps, you can follow along with what I'm working with here.

Each of the cradles consists of a 1/4 inch hardboard base, and on top is glued two pieces of MDF.

Now, the top of the cradle is cut out to match the curvature of the pipe clamp, but if you're using bar clamps, you can see just how you can adapt that.

Then, the cradle attaches to the T-track with a knob and a bolt that slides right into place.

That way, you can lock it down.

Now, when you get set up to glue up a panel, you can just set your pipe clamps in place.

The nice thing is, is that the pipe clamps aren't gonna wobble about.

They're all at the same height, so that you can get the boards set in place and glued up without having to worry about your clamps.

So, if you're looking for an easy way to create a glue-up station in your shop, you want to give these cradles a try.

We all know that woodworker's old adage that you can never have too many clamps.

But what happens when you need clamps that are bigger than what you have?

Well, we have a great reader's tip here that we actually use in our shop here at the magazine quite often.

Let me show them to you.

So, this is a standard sized bar clamp.

It's about 36 inches long.

But when you need to reach a little bit, that's when we have the extend-o clamp.

This is an add-on to most any bar clamps.

What it is is a piece of wood -- in this case, it's hard maple -- that is cut to accept an aluminum extension that allows you to make these clamps really whatever size you'd like.

The wooden bar is simply notched on the end to create this tenon that fits inside of the clamp.

Then, on the top side, we have a groove that's cut along the entire length of it.

And inside the groove, we have a piece of 1/4-inch-thick aluminum.

And that aluminum has -- for lack of a better term -- dados in it, every inch, that allow you to slide the moveable head, and lock in place.

Now, the aluminum is attached to the wooden bar with a couple of counter-suck screws about every foot.

And then, the entire thing is held in to the bar clamp with a pair of bolts and nylon locknuts.

And one of the things I really like about this is you can quickly remove it.

So, if you don't want to store a 7, 8, 10, 12-foot clamp in your shop, you can simply break it apart, and store the two halves separately.

But when you do need a long clamp, you'll be thankful for this tip to get that extra reach that you need.

You know, for most things, I prefer these f-style clamps.

But when you're working with something that has a lot of curves, something like this band saw box, they don't really work well.

I mean, yeah, occasionally you can get them to hold, and the heads pivot a little bit on them, but they always feel like they're gonna spring off, and I never feel like I get really good direct clamping pressure.

Now, something a little bit bigger, you can use something like a band clamp.

And that works well, but a lot of the times those band clamps can actually dent and damage the edges.

So, how do you clamp up something like this, where I'm trying glue this curve back together where this band saw box was formed?

Well, a good tip is to use a piece of surgical tubing.

You can get this stuff at most hardware stores.

And what I like about it is it's grippy and it's stretchy, so I can hold it in place and start wrapping it around the box.

And I can kind of direct that pressure right where I want it.

Once I have a couple of wraps around that tail, you can let it go, and it will hold in place.

And as I get down to the end of the tube, I can... kind of maneuvear that under a couple of these, and hold it in place.

Now, there's a lot of tension on there, and it's directed exactly where I need it.

And because it's soft and grippy, it's not gonna slide off, and it's not gonna damage the work base.

So, the next time you have something curvy to glue up that's kind of hard to clamp, grab some surgical tubing, and give it a try.

♪♪ One my favorite tools in my shop when I go to finish a project is painter's points.

They're great for getting the project up off the bench.

And that way, you can apply finish to almost the entire thing.

And they don't leave any marks.

The problem I have with painters points, however, is I can never find them in my shop when I need them.

So, here's a quick tip to make your own, and they're pretty straightforward.

These guys are just made from 1-inch thick blue polystyrene foam and a screw driven right through the center.

These are kind of cool because the foam holds the screw vertically, and then, you can position them wherever you want.

Then, it's a simple matter of dropping the project on top, and you're ready to finish.

Quick and simple tip to get you finishing a little bit faster.

So, most of the time when I'm working on a turning, I'm gonna send my project up to probably about 600 grit.

So, I'll start at 180, go to 240, 320, 400, and 600 grit.

But there are certain circumstances where I'll sand higher.

One of those is if I'm working with something that is synthetic, like this turned martini glass, or acrylic pens, or anything else I want to get a really high polish on.

And to do that, I use these guys.

And these are little micro mesh sanding pads.

And these range in grits from about 1500 clear up to 12,000.

And most of the time, they'll come with this little color chart.

And this color chart tells you what grit each pad is.

And it's all designated by the color.

The problem is, when I'm turning, this either gets buried, gets knocked off on the floor in the shavings, or I just flat out lose it.

So, what I've started doing, when I get the pads in, I'll take them, and I'll actually mark the edge of the pad with the specific grit that it is.

That way, when I'm turning, I can simply grab the pads, look at the edge, look at the numbers, grab the pad that I need, and keep on working.

So, if you find yourself using these micro mesh pads, just go ahead and write the grit on the edge, and then you can get rid of that chart right away.

So, if you're anything like me, shop storage and organizing your shop is always at top of mind.

And we've seen our fair share of reader's tips on how to organize spray cans.

A lot of them use pieces of PVC or other things like that.

So, we came up with a good challenge for our very own John Doyle, and that was to come up with a good spray-can holder using scraps of plywood that we have in the shop.

And this is what he came up with.

And it works really well.

So, looking at this, it's basically a shelf.

It has a pair of sides, and then it has different shelves in it that have holes drilled to hold the spray cans.

Now, one thing I like about this design is you can make this as big or as small as you want.

If you only want to hold eight cans, then you only make two shelves.

If you want to hold more, make a couple more, make the whole thing taller.

And really, it's pretty simple how it goes together.

The sides are connected to the back with the rabbit, and then, there are some shelves that are held into the sides with some angled dados.

Now, the shelves are drilled to hold the spray cans, and then there's a cardboard cleat that hold the bottom of the can, and keep them from sliding off.

Then, you can mount the whole thing on your wall with a couple of screws.

It's a great way to organize your spray-paint cans so you know what you have and they're easily accessible.

♪♪ My garage workshop doesn't have a lot of space for equipment that I'm not gonna use all that often.

One of those pieces is an outfield stand, but it's still nice to be able to support longboards when I'm working here at the table saw or some of my other tools.

So, I came up with a simple portable solution, and that's this unit right here.

What it does is clamp onto something like a sawhorse, or even a workbench, or one of my carts, and allows me to support longboards all around my shop.

It's pretty easy to make, and I got it by scrounging up some pieces that I had laying around my shop.

There's a base here that's made from a 2x4, and that's what allows you to clamp it to any work surface.

A plywood backer on the bottom supports the riser that goes up and down.

It houses a studded knob and an index pin that keeps the support perfectly level.

Now, the riser itself is a hardwood board that has a slot cut in it to give me the greatest range of adjustability.

The support itself is another piece cut from a 2x4.

Now, I rounded the top and back edges, here, so that a work piece isn't gonna catch on it as it slides up to it.

What's nice is that, with this range of adjustability, I can use it not only at the table saw, but at the drill press, bandsaw, and even if I'm working with long pieces at my bench.

It's something that you might want to build for your shop, no matter how large it is.

So, one of the things that I use my bandsaw for a lot in my shop is to quickly cut turning blanks, like this walnut turning blank.

A lot of times, I just need to zip it down a couple inches to be able to turn a finial, or something like that.

And when I do that, I want a fairly square cut.

If I don't, then, sometimes, my tailstock just doesn't sit right.

Now, I could go grab my miter gauge off of my tablesaw, and run it in the miter slot.

But I don't have time for that.

And I could mark a straight line.

Don't really have time for that either.

So, instead, what I do is I use the blade to mark a straight line for me to get a good 90-degree cut.

So, what I do is decide where I want to cut, and then, I'll just barely nick the turning blank with the blade.

And then, when I rotate that curve up, that mark's a good 90-degree line.

I can then just follow the blade, get a good, accurate cut.

And there we go.

Now, it may not be as accurate as a miter gauge cut, but as long as your table's set 90 degrees your blade, it's square enough for anything I need.

One of the first and critical steps in building a project is setting up your woodworking machines to do accurate work.

Now, one of the tools that we built recently for the magazine is this horizontal router mortising machine.

It does a great job of creating smooth, accurate mortises and collecting all the dust and chips because of this fence and shroud up front.

The thing is, though, is that, when I usually do my layouts for my mortises, they're on the edge of the piece.

And that piece then gets put right up against the face, so I can't see it, to set my stops.

So, I've adapted an old technique to use with this newer tool.

And that technique is to create what's called a story stick.

So, what I have is just a thin piece of some scrap plywood that I have.

What I've done is marked the part name that I have for it, so I'm not gonna get it confused.

And I've drawn in both the position and the depth of the mortise that I need to make.

And here's how I can put that to use.

So, I can pretend that the story stick is now my work piece, and I can hold it up against the fence.

And I'll set, first, this end stock.

And what this does is locate all of my pieces, so that, when I need to make more mortises, they're all gonna be registered in the same spot.

Then, I'll bring the bit out a little bit, and line it up with one edge of the mortise.

And I can just eyeball that.

And then, I'll use that to position the end stop on the backside.

Then, I'll bring the bit over to the other end of the mortise, get that lined up, and I can position this end stop.

Now, no matter how many mortises that I need to make, they're all gonna be located at the exact same distance from the end of the work piece, and they'll be all cut to the same length.

For the depth, since I have that base line drawn in, I can line up the end of the bit with that base line, and then set the depth stop on the back side of the fence of the mortise -- of the mortiser.

Now, the only thing left to take care of is the height of the bit in relationship to the table.

And for that, rather than use the story stick, I have, on one of my work pieces, I've marked that location on the end.

So, I can set that in place, line it up, and then make any adjustments to the table height, and lock that down.

With that in place, whether I need to make 1 mortise or 20, they're all gonna be identical.

♪♪ So, during this quarantine period, we thought it would be beneficial to everybody to lock John Doyle in a little closet, and send him back way through the archives.

And he came up with this little gem from an old Shop notes issue.

So, it's pretty cool.

So, we decided to put it together, and include it in an upcoming issue of Woodsmith, because it's a neat little organizer that you could probably use on your workbench, or somewhere in your shop.

The construction of it is pretty simple.

And even though it kind of looks like a Kerplunk game, it actually works really well.

So, there are four corner posts that are made out of maple, and then they have a groove cut down them.

And into the groove is four pieces of pegboard.

Now, what's cool about this is, to create this organizer up top, just cut some dowels to length, and you insert them wherever you want to make a little cubbyhole in top.

And with these guys being an inch on center, you end up with about a 3/4 inch hole for tools to go into.

Or, if you want a little bit bigger hole, you can pull out a row of dowels, and make these holes whatever size you need.

So, this is great to hold screwdrivers, calipers, stuff that you probably want close at hand, but you don't need all the time.

And then, on the back side, we've included a strip magnet And that's good to hold little things like driver bits, acid brushes, or even jigsaw blades -- just things that you might want to keep at hand, but you don't want to get lost in the drawer.

Overall, it's a cool little tip from the Shop Notes archive.

Along the back wall of the Woodsmith Shop, we have a tool rack that Chris Fitch designed.

It's really just two pieces of wood separated by about a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch gap.

It comes in handy for storing all of the small tools -- you know, files, chisels, squares, all that kind of thing.

But with a simple modification, you can use it to store your hand planes, as well.

All you need is a length of dowel.

Here we used walnut, 'cause why not?

And we drilled a hole through the middle of it, and tied a loop of rope through.

When you slip the rope through the slot, you have a loop, now, that you can use to catch the knob on your hand planes.

The hand planes, stored vertically like this, don't take up a lot of space, and they're really easy to get to whenever you need to use them for a project.

So, if you're ready to upgrade your tool rack, try out this simple trick.

So, hand-cutting dovetails has never really been described as a super fast process.

One thing that can slow you down as you're hand-cutting dovetails is stopping to sharpen your chisels.

Now, I found, when I'm doing a lot of dovetails, I can really prolong the edge of my chisels by using a leather strop, Just rubbing the chisel bevel along the strop with some polishing compound really will bring that edge back to life.

And I can really stretch out my sharpening using the strop.

And I've also found that, when I use a holdfast to hold down my work, if I over-tighten the holdfast, or I'm using the pound-in type, they can often leave dents in my work piece.

And that's not a good thing because, most of the time, my work pieces are pretty much finish-already after I glue the joint together.

So, to combat that problem, I've started to put my strop in between my work piece and the holdfast.

And this does a couple of things.

First, it cushions the holdfast from the work piece.

That way, we don't dent the work piece.

And it also keeps my strop right where I need it, so, as I come in with the chisel, I can touch up that edge, make a couple cuts.

Then, when I need to touch it up again, the strop's right there, ready at hand.

So, it's a good way to speed up hand-cutting dovetails just a little bit.

♪♪ As you probably already know, when you're using paper patterns to cut out work pieces, spray adhesive is a great solution.

You can spray it right on the paper, and stick them down in place.

The problem is, when you go to remove them, usually, it's quite the mess.

You can try scraping them.

You can try sanding them.

You can try mineral spirits.

No matter what, it's gonna take a little effort to get them off.

But one of our readers, Dan Martin, had a great solution.

What he does is, he puts down a layer of painter's tape or masking tape, and then he uses the spray adhesive to stick down the paper pattern.

That way, when you get the piece all cut out, it's pretty easy to come back, get underneath that that painter's tape, and you can peel that off, and the pattern comes right up with it.

So, it's a great solution to save a little time down the road.

As you may know, working at your workbench, you can create quite a mess, whether it's sanding, or planing, or, in this case, using your handheld router to create profiles.

And it would be really nice to keep a dust vacuum hose nearby, but it's really hard to keep it from just sliding off the bench.

But one of our readers, Bobby Mink, had a great tip.

He used one of these bungee cords.

It's the type with the the ball on the end, often used for tarps, I believe.

And he strings that up through the dog hole underneath in his bench.

You can see, goes up through the bench.

You can put it around the hose.

Keeps it right in place.

That way, it'll catch some of the chips, not all of them.

But if you're in between routing, you can take your broom, sweep some of the chips in there and keep a relatively clean work surface.

It's a great way to save up some of the mess and some of the time cleaning later.

I've got a little tip for you today, and it combines two of my favorite things in the workshop, and that's, one, using up all the little scrap pieces of plywood that I have squirreled away, and two, wasting time.

So it's a pretty easy project.

You could do it in an afternoon.

But I found that, a lot of times, I have my tape in the shop just sitting on a shelf, or just hanging on the pegboard.

It gets lost.

And it's nice to have it in a specified place, so I can use it at will.

And that's this, where this little tape dispenser comes in handy.

And it just consists of some 1/2 inch plywood.

I got a piece for the back, and then, I have the sides dadoed in.

And I'll take these off, so I can show you the inside here.

But I've just made some slots for a 1/2 inch dowel to sit in.

Just did that with overlapping 1/2 inch holes at the drill press, with the [indistinct] bit.

I made a couple of hubs for the different sized tapes that I have.

I found that, the center of tape, they all seem to be about 3 inches.

And I've glued up some plywood.

You could use hardwood, MDF, whatever you have, just to get about the same thickness as the tape that you have.

So, get that in there.

And then, that can ride on your dowel.

And I was also -- I would also suggest either, like, hot-gluing this, or going this on here, so it's not sliding around.

But then I can put these on here, get my tape on here.

Just know that the tape goes in the over fashion, like toilet paper should.

Don't at me.

There's no debate in that.

So, that goes on.

You can put some spacers in here.

I found some thicker washers.

You could double up some washers.

You can make plywood or cardboard spacers just to keep everything separated, from bumping into each other.

Get that on there.

Dowel slides in the slot.

It'd be nice if these were secured on their hubs.

But you can see, on the bottom, here, that's just a piece of double-up 1/2 inch plywood.

And then, I cut a slight angle on that.

And then, if you've got an extra piece of hacksaw blade, it's great for, you know, making the tape a little bit easier to cut.

So, get that on there.

You got a nice tape dispenser.

You can screw this to the wall.

These holes are spaced out, as well, if you wanted to screw it onto your pegboard with some wall anchors, be a great place to store it.

But it's a nice, easy project.

You can do it in an afternoon, or a few hours, and helps keep your tape easy to find, and your shop organized.

So, I hope you picked up a few ideas that you can put to work in your workshop.

Like always, you can find plans or tips, and more, at our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

It's also a great place to get inspired for project ideas, and things to do in your shop.

And then, we'll meet right back here in the Woodsmith Shop.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Announcer: If you'd like to get more video tips and techniques, sign up for the free weekly Woodsmith eTIPS.

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Sign up at WoodsmithShop.com.

Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith Guild edition, with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith Guild edition, and a free Woodsmith book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition., past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD, or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to Woodsmithshop.com.

Announcer #2: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Announcer #3: Old Masters, offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

Announcer #2: And by... Announcer #4: Kreg.

From the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Announcer #2: Additional funding provided by... ♪♪ Announcer #5: Titebond wood glues -- the pro's advantage.

♪♪ Announcer #2: And by... ♪♪ ♪♪