Accurate Woodworking Through Precise Measuring Techniques

are you looking for ways to become a more accurate and productive woodworker we'll stay tuned I've got some helpful tips for that and more today's episode of the woodworkers news and reviews is being brought to you by Canadian woodworker serving the industrial and hobbyist woodworking market with high-quality woodworking machinery hand tools and consumables since 1967 visit one of their five locations or their website at Canadian woodworker comm hello and welcome for the woodworkers news and reviews I'm Gord Graf woodworking is much like life itself there are certain experiences or pivotal points that once you've experienced those you're never quite the same looking back over the years as a woodworker I've had three such pivotal points in my career my first pivotal point was understanding the theory of wood movement how it moves why it moves over seasonal changes my second pivotal point was when I took that knowledge and went from working with sheet goods into working with solid materials utilizing frame and panel construction the third pivotal point that changed the way I work wood is the one I want to talk to you about today more importantly how to measure in thousands of an inch don't get me wrong an accurate tape measure is well worth its cost but there are times when you need to go far beyond what a simple tape measure has to offer I know that there are some that may scoff at the idea of measuring in thousandths of an inch saying that it's only wood you don't need to be that accurate but that opinion may change after we're done here let me give you an example of what I'm talking about by examining a simple mortise and tenon joint like all joinery in woodworking the mortise and tenon joint derives much of its strength from how well it fits the difference between a good fitting and an ill-fitting mortise and tenon joint is a mere five thousandths of an inch well what's five thousandths of an inch a piece of paper is around three thousandths of an inch a human hair has a diameter or a thickness of between three and five thousandths of an inch now this mortise is two and a half inches long and it was cut with a inch up spiral bitten router now I've cut three tenants all of varying sizes the first tenant is 245 thousandths of an inch which is five thousandths of an inch thinner than the diameter of the bit I used let's see how it fits seems to fit okay but on closer inspection it's too loose and that's a difference of five thousandths of an inch now the one that I cut that is 250 thousandths of an inch to match the mortise let's see how it fits now that is a nice snug fit the last one I cut was 255 thousandths of an inch five thousandth of an inch thicker than it needs to be let's see if there's a difference that is too tight and that's the difference that five thousandths of an inch makes so if you're looking to produce good quality joinery working to these tolerances is a must now let me show you some of the measuring and layout tools that I use on a regular basis in my workshop to not only increase my accuracy but my machine setup skills as well the first measuring tool on my list has always been the dial or digital caliper available in a digital or dial format and graduated in imperial metric and even fractional increments these calipers have the ability to measure material as thin as a thousandth of an inch and some calipers will even measure in ten thousandths of an inch some calipers even have the ability to translate measurements from metric to imperial and then into fractional measurements all at the push of a button ideal for measuring inside outside and depth measurements these calipers can do so much more coupled with a $10 miter slot caliper holder available almost everywhere the dial caliper now becomes an indispensable set up tool for setting a table saw blade parallel with the miter slot or for setting a table saw fence parallel to the blade you just can't get this kind of accuracy with a tape measure and if you've ever been concerned about how to properly read some of these instruments don't be there's all kinds of digital equivalents out there on the market today a dial indicator and magnetic base is very useful for checking and setting jointer tables and knives aligning table saw blades and fences checking for run out on a table saw Arbor or a drill press and with an inexpensive set of tips these precision tools are even more indispensable a powerful magnetic base is fitted with a two-part articulating arm for positioning the dial indicator at any angle or orientation and a fine adjustment knob allows for precision positioning dial indicators usually have a travel of about an inch and read to one thousandth of an inch and some even more accurate than that extremely accurate digital protractors measure inside and outside angles over a full 360 degree range the readout zeroes at any position and the arms lock at any angle for direct transfer to either stock or saw setting table saw blade bubbles or setting the miter gauge just became simple and dead accurate even though I have a number of precision miter gauges I can take my digital protractor and make this antique miter gauge as accurate as any of my precision miter gauges the accuracy is all in the digital protractor not the miter gauge the tilt box enables me to measure the relative angle between two surfaces making it ideal for setting table saw blades jointer fences and bandsaw or drill press tables I simply place it on the first surface zero out the display to calibrate it and then move it to the second surface to determine its angle my dial height gauge displays graduation in decimal inch fractional inch or metric and provides instant conversion capabilities it has embedded rare-earth magnets and mounts to any ferrous machine table or fence it's ideal for setting the height of a table saw blade or a dataset and it works equally as well on my router table for setting the bit height machinist squares and engineer squares are available in various blade lengths and are usually guaranteed to be accurate to a thousandth of an inch per inch along the length of its blade ideally suited for both layout work and machinery setup like setting a jointer fence to 90 degrees or a table saw blade and a bandsaw blade even a drill press table all to ninety degrees the saddle square is a unique little tool that accurately transfers a layout line from one surface to a perpendicular surface using a regular square to do this work can be difficult but these saddle squares make that job easy and accurate they also allow you to transfer an already scribed line to another face perpendicular to it in QWERTY rules are designed to be used with a standard 0.5 millimeter LED mechanical pencil these flexible rules are great at making layout work fast simple and accurate with their perforated slots or holes at increments of a 64th 1/32 and 1/16 capture a 0.5 millimeter mechanical led pencil in the appropriate slot or hole and slide it along the material using the built in fence as a guide and layout work becomes fast and accurate while I'm on the topic of drawing pencil lines I'd like to show you something there are times when a fine pencil line is not quite fine enough there are marking knives available and I've used several of them but I find one I don't have one handy a utility knife can work equally as well take a look at the difference between a line drawn with a utility knife a 0.5 millimeter pencil and a regular pencil next time you need a real fine line think marking knife or at least reach for a utility knife an accurately drawn line isn't worth much if you can't cut to one side of the line or the other or in some cases even split the line practice here makes perfect there are a number of extremely accurate aftermarket mitre gauges available today and these mitre gauges are a significant improvement over the standard miter gauge that comes with many table saws this incra miter gauge with this protractor style head indexes every five degrees and a vernier scale provides precise adjustment to one tenth of a degree anywhere within its 180 degree range I have never regretted buying one of these mitre gauges they take the guesswork out of cutting angles it's just that simple whether you choose to adopt some of these methods of measuring or lay out is of course entirely up to you but it's been my experience that they have helped me to become a more accurate and a more productive woodworker for the woodworkers news and reviews I'm Gord Graf thanks for watching

Channel: Gord Graff

Views: 180,694

Rating: 4.8282461 out of 5

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Id: TRwEPC37pD4

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2013