Quick tip # 19

making a clean cut

[ soundtrack : Evert Taube - Nocturne : Sleep on my arm ]

****

I was using some leftover plywood for a little shop-project; 22mm poplar or aspen or some such soft wood. I needed to reinforce the edges with some proper hardwood, so I glued a strip of beech in a rebate.

I left the beech overlong to avoid fiddling about with the exact positioning during the glue-up — better to saw it flush later.

This might look confusing but is really dead simple! I’m just ‘mirror-clamping’ two identical pieces to save time.

The question is not if I am able to saw off a little overhang of beech, but how well I am able to do it. It’s small games like this that make work interesting.

First, I use a chisel to remove any glue-boogers that might have squeezed out:

Held like this, a 1” chisel is the woodworker’s utility knife — very handy!

Now we have a clean corner to set off our saw in.

Here’s the clou: I use a block of wood to keep the saw up against the edge.

That’s it … just a quick tip.

The little block of wood does a good job — better than your fingertips.

You can also use this method on the bandsaw or table saw; using a (bigger/wider) block of wood to guide your workpiece through the cut and keep it pressed up against the fence — keeps your dainty digits a bit further away from the angry spinny thing.

Woodworking is seldom conceptually complicated; in praxis it consists of a multitude of simple ‘know-hows’. You’ll need to use your brain, for sure — but maybe in ways you are not accustomed to?

****