Workshop Tip-of-the-week Archive

Each week a new tip of the week is posted in the workshop slack channel.  During that week it is pinned to the channel, but it is unpinned when the next tip of the week is published.

Here is the complete archive of all of the tips of the day, sorted so the newest is at the top.

Tip of the Week 4/14/25

Positioning a Rolling Stand

When working with longer stock you’ll probably need to use one or two rolling stands.  You’ll find them by the cyclone switch in the back room.  If you need it for feeding wood into the tool, you probably also need it for where the wood comes out, unless there is already a table there.

To position them, follow two rules:

  •     On the infeed side, it needs to be close enough to the tabletop so that at the moment the stock rolls off the stand onto the table the stock doesn’t fall backward off the table.
  •     On the outfeed side, it needs to be far enough from the blade(s) that the wood can clear the blade and not fall off the table. 

In practice, the position is a bit less than 1/2 the length of your stock from the table or back of blade. 

Be sure the roller is parallel to the front of the tabletop and not at an angle, otherwise the wood will drift to the side.

Be sure the roller is raised enough to exactly meet the wood when it is flat on the table, so the wood doesn’t change its angle to the table when the roller is no longer touching it.  For example, if the roller is too high, the wood will “fall” onto the table when it comes off the roller.

The floors at Ace are not precisely flat, so moving a stand to a new position will almost always require an adjustment to the height of the roller.

I always test roller stand positions by sliding the stock all the way through its entire pathway while the tool is off, just to be sure it won’t fall at any point before or after the cut.

Tip of the Week 4/7/25

The Oscillating Belt Sander

The oscillating belt sander (https://wiki.acemakerspace.org/amt364/) is a great way to shape and smooth wood, especially curves and small pieces.

It can be configured to spin a sandpaper tube, or a belt.  When it is configured for a belt you can use the far-right side of the belt as if it was 1/2 of a sanding tube because it is round due to the roller on that end.

When using this tool, be sure to let the belt drag across the left side of your stock.  Rotate the stock to work the other end so it too drags across the left side.  The goal is to absolutely avoid an accident:  your stock can catch on the belt and be pushed violently left, out of your hands.  You must also not catch your finger on the belt pointing to the right because it can injure or break your finger. 

To make a round end, such as a half sphere at the end of a dowel, rotate the stock while it drags against the belt.  While rotating it, change the angle between the stock and the belt.  It needs to cover all the angles between 0º (parallel to the belt) and 90º (perpendicular to the belt).  If you are rotating the stock and covering all of these angles, it will end up as a half of a sphere, or an ovoid if you sand some angles more than others.  If you stop rotating the stock you will get flat spots.

This sander is a perfect complement to the bandsaw, whose cuts always need to be sanded smooth.  If you cut curves on the bandsaw, this sander can help you smooth any convex curve and any concave curve larger than the smallest sanding tube.  If you need to sand smaller curves than that, the Dremel tool is probably your best choice.

This is one of the few tools that you can safely work small pieces of wood on.  Since it can both smooth and shape, it’s a go-to tool for small projects.

The oscillating belt sander doesn’t require certification, but it is on the cyclone, so be sure to open its gate when you use it.  Also, when you’re done, please vacuum up sawdust on its table and on the workbench next to it.

Tip of the Week 4/1/25

The Crafty Library

Ace has a growing library of books and periodicals about woodworking and other crafts you can do at Ace.

You’ll find the main library in Clean-Fab (above the workshop) between the 3D printers and the Electronics area.   There is also a library of textile-related books and periodicals in Co-working

In the main library in Clean-Fab right now you can find:

  • 89 books about woodworking projects, techniques and tools, including:
  • The entire Time/Life “The Art of Woodworking” series (12 spiral bound books)
  • Most of the “Fine Woodworking On” series of books (13 paperback large format books)
  • A book on Japanese Joinery
  • *THE* book on Identifying Wood, by Bruce Hoadley
  • Books on making games, musical instruments, shelves and much more.
  • Books dedicated to specific tools like the bandsaw, table saw and others.
  • 54 issues of Wordsmith, and 29 issues of Shop Notes, all of which contain measured drawings and step-by-step build instructions

The internet mostly doesn’t contain this content.  There are books from as early as the 1920s.

You can use these books while you are on site at Ace, in any room.  Yes, you can take them with you into the workshop or Co-working, but please take care of them and put them back when you are done for the day.

For learning, research and non-commercial purposes you may be able to take photos of pages for reference or reading while at home under the terms of Fair Use (https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/).  Please do not take library items themselves home with you.

Of everything in the library, probably the most directly useful items are the measured drawings in the Woodsmith and Shop Notes periodicals. 

A measured drawing not only shows the sizes and amount of wood you will need, but sometimes also how to lay pieces out efficiently, and with the correct grain direction.  They list the hardware and fasteners needed and other material details.  And, they provide instructions, tips and warnings to guide you toward success.  They are intended for beginners and intermediate woodworkers looking for accessible projects.

What would you like to find in the Crafty Library?  You can check on-line to see if it is already there: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12A6ofsjagc3sP5XueK1nrkwNN-eoECdMIntPE2IUxLA/edit?usp=sharing

Read more on the wiki here:

https://wiki.acemakerspace.org/craftylibrary/

Tip of the Week 3/24/25

You can learn a lot about woodworking on YouTube

About the only things you won’t find on YouTube are Ace’s policies for using tools and the workspaces.  But you can learn all about woodworking techniques, tools, and special projects like musical instruments, toys, furniture as well as finishing and much more!

Here’s a list of some of my favorites.  Please reply in a thread with your favorites and I’ll put together a list of everyone’s recommendations.

General Woodworking

https://www.youtube.com/@TheSwedishMaker

https://www.youtube.com/@StumpyNubs

https://www.youtube.com/@acutabove_woodworkings

https://www.youtube.com/@Lincolnstww

https://www.youtube.com/@WorkshopCompanion

https://www.youtube.com/@WoodworkersJournal

Tool & material tests & reviews

https://www.youtube.com/@PatrickSullivan

https://www.youtube.com/@731Woodworks

Wood Lathe

https://www.youtube.com/@AndyPhillipWoodturning

Musical Instruments

https://www.youtube.com/@NicolasBras

Some Great Videos

Here are some great videos that cover essential knowledge about woodworking.

The Workshop Companion’s entire “Woodworking Knowhow” playlist:

  • https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx7nYfZqLp-GT5denQCLWLq2eLUS7IosZ

Lincoln Street Woodworks on wood joints:

Stump Nubs on the oscillating multitool:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUnRJbS-Qk4

Patrick Sullivan on glue strength:

Tip of the Week 3/17/25

One set of tips for Table saw users, one set for the Track saw users

Table Saw Tip

If you remove the splitter and safety guard, for example for a dado cut or to use a sled or other jig, use the plastic keeper so you don’t need to move the nuts very far to tighten them up.  Tightening them keeps them from moving, which makes it easier to get back in alignment when you put the splitter and safety guard back.

You’ll find the keeper resting across the two bolts that hold the splitter in place, just on the left side.  If it’s missing, please either use /asset or let me know and I’ll print another.

Track Saw Tips

The track saw (wiki page: https://wiki.acemakerspace.org/amt222/) is a great alternative to the Tablesaw for rips in all kinds of wood up to 2” thick.  It needs no certification. It cuts all the way through your workpiece, so you need to arrange for a gap under it so you don’t cut into our workbench.  Here’s some tips for easier use and better results.

  • If you’re cutting off an edge, the sheet can hang over the edge of the workbench and you can cut over empty space (but don’t hit the vise on either side, please).
  • If you’re cutting in the middle, you only need 1/2” to  3/4” gap – just make sure the depth of cut doesn’t go beyond the gap.  If you don’t need the full width of the sheet, you can cut 2” wide strips off the side of your sheet and use them as long supports under your main sheet.  You can cut them in half and take the strips home with you for future use.  At only 4’ they should be easy to transport.  See tip above for a simple way to cut strips off the edge.
  • Use blue tape on both sides of the wood and cut through the middle of it for the cleanest possible cut.

Tip of the Week 3/10/25

Where to get tools and materials nearby Ace

MacBeath Hardwood, 930 Ashby Ave, Berkeley

(510) 843-4390

Hardwood, Tools, Finishes, Cabinet Hardware, Drawer slides, Blades

Ace members get a 10% discount on all purchases

Ace Makerspace

Plywood Sheets, Bamboo Plywood, Drum Sander Grit, Dust Masks

These are all on-site and are for sale to members only:

Truitt & White, 642 Hearst Ave, Berkeley

(510) 841-0511

Redwood, Douglas fir, MDF, Plywood and other composites, Common Hardwoods, fasteners, tools, blades and construction supplies.

Ponderosa Millworks, 2210 Union St, Oakland

(510) 250-9656

Milled slabs of various species: https://ponderosamillworks.com/

Z and E Slabs, 1417 4th St Berkeley, CA 94710

(510) 559-6900

Hardwood slabs

Peroba, 112 Ohio Ave, Unit 1, Richmond

(415) 993-9055

Reclaimed wood and live edge wood

https://www.perobareclaimed.com/

Ashby Lumber, 824 Ashby Ave
Across 6th street from Urban Ore and MacBeath Hardwood

(510) 843-4832

Like Home Depot, but smaller and better organized

Urban Ore, 900 Murray Street, Berkeley

(510) 841-7283

Across the street from MacBeath Hardwood

Used furniture, tools, materials, doors, drawer slides, some of everything

https://urbanore.com/

Tip of the Week 3/3/25

You have a right to make mistakes

A mistake is when you cut a piece of wood the wrong length, or at the wrong angle, or plan a project in a way that cannot be assembled, etc.  An accident is when a tool does something unwanted and potentially dangerous.

Mistakes can happen for lots of reasons, and it’s useful to think about why to help avoid them in the future.  But regardless of why, they bring a new set of choices.  You could start over, or you might be able to modify your design, or add more wood, or use a different size for a part not already made, fill a gap with epoxy, etc.   You might not have faced these choices before, but they are often an opportunity to try something new or different.

Mistakes are deviations in your path, but they can still lead to a nice result when you adapt.  Your project doesn’t know what you intended. The needed change might be on your shoulders.

Ace has a culture of respecting everyone’s right to do their work they way they want, so long as they follow our social contracts about sharing the shop and using tools safely.  We don’t “maker-splain” each other.  That means even though one can think of other ways to do something better than the way someone else has chosen, we don’t offer that unless it is asked for.

If something doesn’t look safe, please say “That doesn’t look safe to me.”  That isn’t maker-splaining.  That is looking out for each other’s safety.

We learn from mistakes.  We grow from mistakes.  We thrive on the directions they take us as they challenge us to break out of our habits.  Mistakes lead to inventions and unexpected creativity and beauty.  Please don’t take those things away from anyone else at Ace.

The right to make mistakes also makes it easier to ask for advice from others, because you don’t have to follow that advice, or take more of it than you want.  You can say “Ok, thank you.  That’s enough for now.” Or a variation.  Asking for advice is never an invitation for someone to control your project or your choices while making it.

——

No woodworking procedure requires an accident.  If something cannot be done safely you should find another way to do it.  That might mean starting over with a bigger piece of wood and cutting off your finished piece at or near the end of the process of making it.  Or it might mean you need to use a different tool or technique to be safe.  Or even a different design.

Tip of the Week 2/24/25

Don’t Use Dull Blades

A sharp blade makes woodworking easier, safer and more productive.

I sometimes say there are two kinds of woodworking tools in the shop: chisels and hammers, and everything that isn’t a chisel is a hammer.  Sandpaper is many tiny hammers and no chisels at all.  A file is an array of tiny chisels.   Power tools generally move chisels very fast and with great precision.

What isn’t as obvious is that as a chisel loses sharpness, it becomes a hammer by degrees.   That means every blade on every tool becomes a hammer as it dulls.

Dull blades abrade the surface to some degree, which increases heat and can lead to burning of your stock.  Excessive heat can also soften the steel at the edge, which causes it to dull even faster.  The softening doesn’t ever go away: the softened steel would have to be removed or the blade or bit discarded.

You can tell if a blade is sharp by lightly dragging a finger across the blade – not along the edge because that would slice your finger.  Drag it gently across the edge.  If your fingerprints feel “sticky” the blade is sharp.  If not, the blade is dull.  Be careful as you do this and use only very light pressure, but this works for all kinds of blades of all sizes.

You should test every blade before you use it.  If a blade has many teeth (bandsaw, tablesaw, etc.), you can test a few and visually examine some more for a representative sample.   Once you begin to use it, it might become too hot to test this way, especially if it isn’t sharp.

We share almost all our blades with each other, except that a few people have their own table saw blades (because they already know sharper is better), and some people have their own chisels.

Team shop tries to keep the tool blades sharp, but if you find one isn’t you should tell us by using the /asset AMT### command in the workshop channel to let us know which tool’s blade isn’t sharp enough anymore.

Our workshop has a few rules to help keep our blades sharp for everyone:

  • Avoid woods with a lot of pitch in them, or else clean the blades and table with acetone when you are finished, and then wax the table.
  • No glue ups in the planer! 
  • Only solid wood ever in the planer, no plywood, etc.
  • Always check the upper and lower guide blocks on the big bandsaw. before use – the blade should be mostly between the blue blocks.
  • No curves may be cut on the big bandsaw, ever, for any purpose.
  • Always de-tension the big bandsaw when you are done using it.

Tip of the Week 2/16/25

Tools have limits you must respect

All tools have limits such as maximum depth of cut, maximum angle of cut, maximum blade height, etc.

The risk to you and your project increase as you approach these limits.  Sometimes the risk increases dramatically well before you are anywhere close to the limit.

If cutting a piece of plywood feels normal on a table saw, cutting a 5” thick piece of oak is definitely not going to feel normal.  You will have to modify your technique a lot by going much slower.  If you don’t, the process will fail either by tripping the circuit breaker, lighting the oak on fire, or destroying the blade, or some combination of the those and other less pleasant results.

For the bandsaw, any table angle is a bad idea as gravity causes the stock to wander resulting in cutting mistakes.  The limit being 45º is simply more bad; the only non-bad angle is 0º.

The jointer can be set to very large depths of cut, but that is for making rabbets, and not for jointing wood.  It is generally better to make rabbets with a router instead, so only the first 1/32” of adjustment is actually valuable for jointing.  And, within that range, 1/40” is probably the best choice for most woods, and anything less than 1/64” probably will bounce the wood and not joint it.  There is a very narrow useful range for jointing within a very large range from 0 to 1/2”.

The planer can accept wood as thin as 1/8”; however, if the planer catches raised grain or a knot, such thin wood can also explode and damage the planer.  Just because it can go that thin doesn’t mean it is equally safe.   Thinned wood often warps unexpectedly, increasingly so as it gets thinner.

Small pieces of wood are the most dangerous when used in large power tools.  Don’t do it.  Don’t bring small pieces of wood to big power tools. Use a smaller tool.  Big wood: big tool.  Small wood: small tool.  Any procedure that requires you to hold a small piece near a dangerous blade is unacceptably dangerous. 

You can always make a jig that secures your smallish work piece and then manipulate the jig with your hands, slide the jig along a fence, etc.  The table saw sled is an example of one such jig: you can clamp a smallish piece of wood to the back of it and cut it on the table saw.

I like making small things because they take less wood and less sanding, but where possible to do the work on larger stock and make it small as the last step, where the small piece is really an off-cut and I am not holding it as it is produced: I’m holding the bigger piece from which it was cut.

Tip of the Week 2/3/25

Calibration is a Myth

Most people expect fences and tables to be 90ºs to the blade(s) or exactly parallel, but you can only be sure if you have personally checked it before you use it. 

Tools like the table saw, jointer, bandsaw and drill press all come with an expectation that they are squared and calibrated.  But, the table saw blade angle is commonly changed for beveled cuts, so it is notoriously not vertical.  And, when people use it for dados they sometimes do not put the splitter/safety cover assembly back in alignment with the blade, which could leave the machine unusable or unsafe to use!

About once per month at Workshop Care Night we check and adjust the alignment of some of the tools.   That doesn’t last any longer than the first time someone changes it – hours or days.  Then all bets are off.

How to do it

If you adjust the angle of a fence or blade it is crucial that you put it back to the way people will be assuming it is configured.  Here’s how:

  • For the table saw and jointer and bandsaw: you can use a machined 90º angle on a carpenter’s square, or other bona-fide measuring device to square the fence to the outfeed table.
  • For the table saw and bandsaw you can cut across a scrap of wood and rotate one half by 180º along their mutual axis – the two freshly cut ends will be touching.  If the cut was exactly vertical the result will be a straight piece of wood.  If it has an angle, it is twice the alignment error.
  • Please don’t adjust the drill press table angle.  Clamp your wood at an angle instead.
  • The compound miter saw has locking stops at the normal calibration points, so it is easy to leave the blade vertical and squared to the fence.
  • The router table doesn’t need to be calibrated, because it is always adjusted for each use.

Tip of the Week 1/27/25

Dust Management While Working

Here are two things you can do to reduce the amount of dangerous suspended sawdust in the air while working in the shop.

  1. Capturing sawdust at the source isn’t just smart woodworking, it’s Ace’s policy. Use a shop vac with a suitable fitting when sanding with any machine to capture dust at the source.  The fittings are in a white plastic bucket under the bench on the panel-saw side.  They go with the flexible hose coming out of the blue dust separator connected to the shop vac under the router.
  2. Vacuum off the blue Jet Air Scrubber filter in the room you’re working in (at least).  If it isn’t blue, it definitely needs to be vacuumed, because it is preventing air from getting into the air scrubber!
  3. Use the crepe rubber block (near the drum sander) to clear sawdust from sandpaper or sanding cloth to extend its life and make it more effective, which reduces the time spent sanding.

Tip of the Week 1/21/25

This week’s tip of the week is about our new workshop “Tip of the Week” program.  Once per week there will be a pinned post to the workshop channel about an issue or a tool. 

These will each contain information that team shop wants you to have to help you and the shop.  Sometimes it will be to clear up ambiguity, or to announce a change in policy or procedures, or a new tool, etc.  We will never use the tip of the week to shame someone.  If you were not following or breaking a policy in the past and you learn better from one of our tips, then yay! It doesn’t mean the tip was aimed at you personally.

You can reply to any tip of the week in a new thread to ask questions, get more information, push back on a policy, ask for examples, etc.  We’re a volunteer organization so your input as a member matters a lot!