Daily Tip

Jeff – While I was working on a piece last night, I happened to think about your tip page and thought this might be helpful to someone who may just be getting started or perhaps even someone who has been cutting for a while.

I do most of my work in thicker material, either half or three quarter inch.  When drilling all my holes for the piece, it seems there is always a few that I can’t reach with my bench drill press.  For those, it requires hand drilling.  I keep a Dremel next to my saw so I don’t have to run and find it each time.  Now comes the fun part.  Unless you have laser eyes and hands of steel, you can bet the holes you just drilled will be crooked.  When that happens, the blade tends to “jump” when you start the saw and cuts a line that you hadn’t intended or the pattern doesn’t call for.

Here’s what I do on all the hand drilled cuts.  Either mark them when you drill or drill and cut them at the same time.  That way you know which ones you are dealing with.  After inserting and securing the blade and prior to starting the saw, position the wood to minimize the effect of any “jump” that may happen and pull the wood towards you, firmly against the back of the blade.  (You are not trying to pull so hard as to pull the blade out of the saw, just hold it in place.)  Hold the wood in this position while starting the saw and give the blade a couple of seconds to form its own path.  Then you can finish the cut normally. 

This obviously won’t work too well with a spiral but sure helps with at standard type blade.

Feel free to post this if you wish and as always, keep up the good work.