Nothing Severed Yet

What's up with the Incra jig

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about dovetail jigs. He understood how most of them worked, but the Incra positioning system was a bit of a mystery. Once I explained it, though, he not only got it, but he went shopping for one.

There's two things to understand about the Incra system. One is that it is a router fence, not a jig. Like any router fence, by moving it back and forth, you control how far into the wood the bit will cut. The addition of a small auxiliary fence at 90 degrees to the main fence, though, lets you make short, through-cuts through the ends of boards (like this).

The second thing to understand is the near-perfect accuracy of the positioning system. This took me a while to figure out, but once I did, it was obvious. There's three modes. In micro-positioning mode, you can tweak the whole thing back and forth by a thousandth of an inch at a time. You do this very rarely, usually when you're starting of finishing a project.
The second mode is "free sliding". Doing this, you can move the fence a foot or more at a time. Finally, there's the most important mode, the "lock in". When you've locked in the fence, it takes wherever it was when free-sliding, and snaps to the nearest 1/32 of an inch.

Think about that for a minute. You can make a cut, slide it just about 1" away, and it will snap to exactly 1" away. Then you can move it back to your first cut, and it will snap to exactly where your first cut was. Over and over again, perfect repeatability.

From here, the dovetails are a snap. It's just a template that lets you free-slide to where the cuts should be, and then you "lock in" and hit the cut precisely. It's simple and brilliant. And in case this isn't totally clear, they provide step-by-step instructions that will give you flawless joints every time, even if you don't understand how you got them.

Literally every woodworker I know uses an Incra now, many of them after trying mine out. You should get one too. You'll thank me for it.

Gambling with your woodworking skills

Evidently I'm not the only woodworker who has contemplated building a poker table... actually, judging by this site, I may be the only one who hasn't done it yet. This guy pulled together literally dozens of different websites from woodworkers who've built their own poker tables of all different designs and sizes. Whether your game is five card draw, Texas Holdem, or Blackjack, there's a design for you. Most have instructions; all have pictures. If you're considering tackling a poker table yourself, it's a must-read.

Oh, and did I mention the designs are all free of charge?

Check it out. You'll thank me for it.

PowerTwist Plus V-Belts

In Dan's recent run down on creating a happy table saw, he says that PowerTwist Plus V-Belts are "reputed to be the bees' knees for smooth, quiet running operation". I had to step in a correct this statement... they are not only the bees' knees, but their elbows, toes and other favored insect anatomy.

Being an arrogant engineer by day, I pride myself on understanding how things really work, but these beauties make no sense whatsoever. You'd think that for a smooth running belt you'd want, well... a smooth belt. However, in a twist of logic worthy of Douglas Adams, these belts are about as far from smooth as possible. Fenner claims this is due to "high-tech urethane/polyester composite" and the lack of a "continuous internal mono tension cord", but best I can figure someone sold their soul to make these work.

The belts are constructed of many segments, each about an inch long, that lock together with a twist yet are every bit as strong as a conventional belt. This also means that there is no worrying if the belt is the right length because you can create any length you need by adding or removing links. It also means that in a pinch you can grab the belt off your band saw and size it for your table saw with almost no down time.

This is one of the easiest upgrades you can make to any of your belt driven machinery and gets a lot of bang for the buck. The belts are available in a range of standard profiles to fit any machinery you're likely to run across. Don't try to make sense of them, just enjoy 'em.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com

My tablesaw used to quiver with joy

Tablesaws can be loud, viscious beasts. My old Grizzly contractor saw was so loud that I had neighbors complain when I fired it up. Admittedly it was one in the morning. But still.

These days, my saw hums quietly to itself. I can rip 8/4 maple while my wife sleeps soundly in the bedroom upstairs. If your tablesaw is shaking the shack, here's what you can do about it.

1. Buy a new saw. What a perfect opportunity! "Honey, I want you to sleep better at night, so..." The truth is, a cabinet saw is much quieter than an equivalent contractor saw, in addition to its many other benefits. That's because the base is fully enclosed, the motor is housed, and there's about double the sheer poundage of machined steel on the thing, which damps out a lot of the noise. Plus, new saws are generally in better alignment. Which leads me to:

2. Align your saw. In addition to giving you smoother, straighter, cleaner cuts, tuning up your tablesaw will reduce vibration during the cut, drastically reducing noise. It takes a few hours, but the results are worth the time. You can find instructions here. You'll need a dial indicator, which is worth it's weight in gold anyway.

3. Buy some gizmos. Powertwist belts are reputed to be the bees' knees for smooth, quiet running operation, although I haven't tried one myself yet. Zero clearance inserts keep sawdust and noise down where it belongs, although you get the most benefit from a saw with an enclosed base like a tablesaw. And finally, upgrading to the best tablesaw blade ever invented (or at least the best one I've ever used) chops your cutting noise by ten decibels, ups your feed rate, and improves your cutline, all in one swell foop.

Quit the quivering, vamoose the vibration, and reduce the roar. You'll thank me for it.

Tetris shelves

Brilliant. I want to knock this off for my next project. These guys are selling Tetris-piece shelving. Assemble them however you want while trying not to get that crazy russian tetris music stuck in your head.

T-Shirts! Get your T-Shirts!

Most of us have done something really stupid at one time or another and been glad to come out of it with all our digits. If you haven't than I salute you and say keep up the good work. For the rest of us dummies, commemorate that, err... "moment of clarity" and remind yourself to keep it a once in a lifetime experience.

The back is as shown, and the front has a simple "NothingSeveredYet.com" over the pocket. Take your choice of a range of colors and styles. Infant sizes are even available for the budding woodworker.

It doesn't have the new NSY logo yet, but I gave this a test run at the recent Santa Clara woodworking show and it got more than a few big grins.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com

Brushing: A Counterpoint

I hate brushing finishes. I don't dislike it, or prefer not to do it. I flat out despise it.

First, you have to get the thickness of the finish right. Some finishes aren't supplied at brushing consistancy; even those that are often recommend you dilute 25% before actually applying. That means getting another container dirty, with more drips, plus stirring lots of air bubbles into it that you have to deal with later. And remember that you don't want to transfer junk from your brush back into the finish can, so you have to pour out the finish into a separate container even if you're not mixing anything.

Second, you have to deal with brushes. While Brian posted a lovely article about how to make this suck less, there's no denying that it sucks. You have to kick out $15-$20 for a nice brush. Then you have to tug and make sure there are no loose bristles. Then you have to use the damn thing properly (more on that in a minute). Then you have to clean it. Then you have to clean some more. Then you have to keep cleaning, because it's not actually clean enough yet, and if you stop now your brush will be ruined when the finish up near the ferrule (the metal part) dries. Then you have to dry it (making sure that the bristles are properly arrayed--hanging it from a hook is good; wrapping in the special velcro cardboard wrapper it came is probably better, but since you lost it already, never mind). Repeat this a few cycles (usually one in my case) and you'll discover that you actually didn't wash it well enough and it's now ruined, at which point you may proceed directly back to step 1.

Third, you have to brush the stuff on. Brushing poses all sorts of problems, or shall I say, "technique-enhancing opportunities". To put it another way, it's hard. First, you've got to get the stuff on the brush, which requires some trickery of dip depth, swirl approach, de-drip, and other delightfulness. Then, you've got to get the stuff on the item in question. If you're lucky, you're slathering it all over a single, flat surface, with no sides or corners or curves or filligree or anything else that will cause the finish to drip and run. In reality, you often have to double back and "level" the finish, which basically means brush over everything again to smooth out all your prior mistakes.

Fourth, you have the bubbles. These come from stirring, shaking, mixing, dipping, and all the other realities of dealing with a finish in a can. Usually, but not always, the bubbles rise to the surface of the finish and pop, so you don't get a finish that looks like frozen ginger-ale. Usually.

Finally, you have to recoat several times. Each recoat requires a re-stir, a re-clean, and a whole lot more re-annoyingness. If the stuff dries fast and you're ABSOLUTELY SURE you'll be around in time for the next coat, you can just put the brush in a Ziploc bag or wrap it in plastic wrap for a few hours. But if you forget about it overnight... forget your brush.

What's the alternative? I try to use wipe-on or spray-on finishes for my work. Nearly any finish that can be brushed can be wiped; just dilute it with thinner until it's about the viscosity of housepaint. You're using cheaper applicators, you can throw them instead of washing them, it's thinner so you have fewer problems with brushing and leveling, and it generally makes life much easier. You have to use a few more coats, though, since the stuff is thinner.

Consider tossing your brushes. You'll thank me for it.

Brush 101

Finishing can be a pain in the neck. It's also scary, since no one wants to ruin the project they put so much work into. While I can't answer all your finishing questions - or for that matter all of my finishing questions - I want to tell you a bit about the most important part of success for brushed-on finishes: the brush.

Now don't let all the FUD fool you; brushing is a great way to apply many types of finish, and it's not a lot more work than most other techniques. Where most people get into trouble when brushing is either rushing successive coats or using a cheap brush. A brush can last for many years if you take good care of it. A good brush will make the finishing an absolute pleasure, and make the finish come out better. Don't skimp to save a few bucks.

There are three things that make a good brush: long bent bristles, flagged ends, and a fluid reservoir. The picture shows what it would look like if you were to slice a good brush in half.

One of the first things you'll notice is there's a gap in middle of the bristles. No, the child laborers in the Indonesian paintbrush factories aren't smuggling extra bristle material out to pay the rent. Well, maybe they are. But that gap is the fluid reservoir, and it's where the brush holds the finish before it is delivered to the wood. When you dip the brush into the finish, this reservoir fills with finish. This is what allows you to take long smooth strokes while the finish flows smoothly on to the surface.

If you look a little closer at how the gap is formed, you'll notice the next aspect of a good brush. The bristles are one long fiber bent in half at the top--not a whole bunch of short fibers stuck together. This prevents the bristles from falling out as you brush on a finish. Tada! No more cursing about those %#@$! bristles stuck in your finish. It also means that your nice brush won't suffer from premature pattern baldness.

Lastly are the tips of the bristles. Like a professional swimmer's hair, your brush should have a severe case of split ends--or, in the brush biz, "flagging". The purpose of flagging is to split all those relatively coarse fibers that make up the brush into thousands of tiny fibers just where they deliver the finish to the wood. This allows a smooth even coat of finish to be spread across the surface.

One last thing about the bristles that throws many folks for a loop - natural vs synthetic bristles. Natural bristles are actually real live animal hair, and are priced and classified by the animal of origin--badger, for example, being the very top of the line. In general, natural brushes are best for oil and solvent based finishes, but they don't handle water based finishes well. That's because natural bristles will soak up water from the finish and swell, so when you are dealing with water based finishes use a synthetic brush. They'll distrube your water-based finishes more smoothly and uniformly, and they're usually cheaper to boot.

Hopefully this will help you choose a good finishing brush for your next project. Remember that the brush is the last thing to touch the valuable project you worked so hard and so long on, so don't skimp at the end.

Brian Todoroff
Contributing Editor, Nothing Severed Yet
www.nothingseveredyet.com