Hey everyone, due to popular demand I've included this supplemental video to go along with episode 24 "Marking Tools". I hope this video helps everyone to understand the topic a little bit more. After watching it, I realized that a few things are off camera as I attempt to display them, but I'm sure you can get what I was talking about so I'm not too worried about it. I promise though that future videos will be better. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the audio version also.

Click To Play

Learning to mark our pieces for both the milling and dimensioning of lumber to the final assembly of the project is an important habit every woodworker should try to establish.  Each woodworker will eventually have their own marking symbols that mean certain things to them.  Whether it's as simple as a line that designates two connecting components or as elaborate as a crazy symbol you saw in some sci-fi movie late at night the most important thing is to be consistant with it.  For me, the main purpose of marking is to help make the glue-up and assembly process less chaotic.  At a time when keeping your cool and knowing where every component belongs, forgetting where a crucial piece really belongs can make or break your project.

Marking for milling and dimensioning is important since the most important step for flat, square components is establishing one flat face and one straight, square edge.  Once those are set, everything else just follows.  Marking these two edges will help ensure that you will reference these edges for all your cuts, thus leading to flat and square components.

Marking tools include Marking knives or scratch awls, marking gauges, pencils and even chalkboard chalk.

Congratulations to this episodes winner of schwag - Steve Schmidt.  If you're interested in winning free schwag send me a note.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!! If you are interested in winning a five piece Pinnacle Tools turning set then send me an email to get your name in the drawing. Woodcraft tools was kind enough to offer this great looking set of tools for me to give away to a lucky listener. I'm keeping the drawing open for a period of two months to give everyone a chance to enter. Names must be submitted by 12:00am October 6, 2006. That weekend the winner will be drawn and then announced on the following episode. It'll be the winner's responsibility to cover the cost of the shipping, but given the value of these tools, it'll be worth it.

Thanks to Shutter Sam Photography for the picture. Check out her work at www.shuttersam.com . Thanks for listening and remember to submit your name for the tool drawing.  Straight grains and sharp blades, Matt

Glue ups always seem really easy, afterall you take the glue, apply it to the wood and then apply a clamp to bring two pieces together right? Well yes, but it's much easier said than done.  Glue ups are the perfect example of Murphey's Law, if anything can go wrong, they will go wrong and they will always go wrong when your hands are so tied, that only divine intervention will be able to save your project. The best thing a woodworker can do to avoid all the hassels and nightmares of a glue up gone bad is to the dry fit.  A successful dry fit gives you an idea of just how much time it may actually take you to put together a complex piece or where a joint needs a little attention.

Gary Rogowski, a frequent contributor to FWW magazine and a great teacher has written several articles all about the glue up process.  The number one lesson he stresses above all others is preparation. Obviously preparation includes a successful dry fit but it also includes often overlooked steps such as:

Check your glue, both the amount and the freshness.  Make sure you have glue sticks for spreading the glue and glue boats for squeezing glue into so that you can use the sticks to spread the glue.  Check that you have enough clamps on hand.  Thin scraps of wood are great for placing between the face of a clamp and your project to help avoid ugly marring marks left behind by overclamping a piece.

Just prior to clamping, take the time to open the clamp jaws so that when your ready to clamp you don't have to worry about the clamp jaws being to narrow. It's often easier to close the jaws then it is to open them with only one hand.  And last but not least, make sure mating pieces are near each other or at least readily marked so that you don't make the mistake of gluing a piece with the wrong face showing or attempting to assemble a joint that wasn't customized for each other.

Just remember, above all things, nothing beats a good fit so take the time to make sure all your joints and edges are machined properly from the start.

How much glue do you apply to a joint?  The right answer according to most experts is always, 'just enough'. How much is 'just enough'? With time you get a feel for it, but ideally there should be minimal squeeze out.  Remember, the most important part of any glue up is using the right clamp for the job.

Thanks for all the great emails and also for all the entries for the Pinnacle Tool Set giveaway, keep them coming.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!! If you are interested in winning a five piece Pinnacle Tools turning set then send me an email to get your name in the drawing. Woodcraft tools was kind enough to offer this great looking set of tools for me to give away to a lucky listener. I'm keeping the drawing open for a period of two months to give everyone a chance to enter. Names must be submitted by 12:00am October 6, 2006. That weekend the winner will be drawn and then announced on the following episode. It'll be the winner's responsibility to cover the cost of the shipping, but given the value of these tools, it'll be worth it.

Thanks to Shutter Sam Photography for the picture. Check out her work at www.shuttersam.com . Thanks for listening and remember to submit your name for the tool drawing.

Straight Grains and Sharp Blades, Matt

This is the second video on the construction of Aiden's Dresser.  Using a crosscut hand saw I rough dimensioned the Cherry stock and show how to easily use and quickly use a hand saw on stock that is too wide for my power miter saw.  Also covered on this video is how I use a No. 7 Jointer hand plane to quickly prep the lumber edge prior to gluing up the panels for the sides and top and then the gluing up of those panels.

Click To Play

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!! If you are interested in winning a five piece Pinnacle Tools turning set then send me an email to get your name in the drawing.  Woodcraft tools was kind enough to offer this great looking set of tools for me to give away to a lucky listener.  I'm keeping the drawing open for a period of two months to give everyone a chance to enter.  Names must be submitted by 12:00am October 6, 2006.  That weekend the winner will be drawn and then announced on the following episode.  It'll be the winner's responsibility to cover the cost of the shipping, but given the value of these tools, it'll be worth it. 

Thanks to Shutter Sam Photography for the picture.  Check out her work at www.shuttersam.com . 

Thanks for watching the video and remember to submit your name for the tool drawing.  Straight grains and sharp blades, Matt

Last episode was all about glue, so it's fitting that we next talk about the tools we use to hold our components together while the glue is setting up...clamps.

Clamps literally come in all shapes and sizes to meet our needs.  Clamps can be as basic as the all purpose pipe clamp to something as simple as a length of surgical tubing.  Based on the clamps throughout my shop and those covered in Andy Rae's book 'Choosing and Using Hand Tools' there are about seven styles of clamps.

Regardless of which clamp style you use it's important to take care not to overapply pressure.  To much pressure can cause stress that will crush wood fibers or at worst break a joint.

I'ld like to thank and congratulate this episode's winners of free schwag;

Darryl Park of Calgary, Alberta  - Delta Tools Banner

Rob Drown of Roseville, CA - Lie-Nielsen T-shirt

Shaun Swanner - Delta tool stickers and bookmark

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!! If you are interested in winning a five piece Pinnacle Tools turning set then send me an email to get your name in the drawing.  Woodcraft tools was kind enough to offer this great looking set of tools for me to give away to a lucky listener.  I'm keeping the drawing open for a period of two months to give everyone a chance to enter.  Names must be submitted by 12:00am October 6, 2006.  That weekend the winner will be drawn and then announced on the following episode.  It'll be the winner's responsibility to cover the cost of the shipping, but given the value of these tools, it'll be worth it. 

Thanks to Shutter Sam Photography for the picture.  Check out her work at www.shuttersam.com .  Thanks for listening and remember to submit your name for the tool drawing.

Straight grains and sharp blades, Matt