How to become a BETTER Woodworker.....with geometry

hello fellow woodchopper Ruth Chad here and I'm gonna show you on today's video how you can become a better woodworker with geometry yes that subject you probably told your high school teacher I'll never use well here it is and we're going to use it right here in the shop now I know that there are a lot of computer programmers out there that can show you how to do some of this geometry such as like Sketchup but if you're out in the field or if you're just in the shop and don't feel like walking in turn the computer on here's some real easy applications to help you get through some problems so the first one that I have to deal with many times is if I'm building a table or a counter I'm gonna want to round the edge of that corner now what's the first thing we usually do we usually go and find ourselves some can put it on there and draw it and cut to that line but ones if I don't want the curve there one was if I want it bigger ones if I want the curve to come out here did I keep looking for more cams that fit that no I'm gonna use my compass now keep in mind this compass is probably not going to be highly accurate because I taped a marker to it but you'll be able to get the ideas and the steps to do it so the first thing I'm gonna do is like I said this is where I think I want my arc to be and so I'm going to set my compass to that from the corner and at the corner I'll make a little mark here I'll make a mark there now I'm gonna lift the compass up and I'm going to place it on that mark and I'm gonna make a semicircle out here I'll do the same to this side now I should be able to put the compass right on that X and draw the curve now you'll notice I didn't move the compass at all on this once I set that first measurement the rest took care of itself and this does a couple of things not only do I now have that per could curve but also if I draw a line from the corner through that X I've divided this angle perfectly so I found like my miter cut now of course this was 90 and we all know that a miter cut is 45 but one's if this first angle was something like 83 degrees by using the same set up I can find out exactly what that miter cut would be all right let me show you another application this would be in the case of like this little folding book stand that I made here and you'll notice that I have a nice like s-curve going along for the legs and let me show you how that is laid out and how I did it and by the way if you're interested in making this folding book stand which is made out of one single piece of wood not too well I put a link in the description below for that video but let's show you how I do that so I'm just gonna draw a line at any length here and let's say that I want my s-curve to be a little smaller up top and a little bigger here at the bottom okay I'm gonna tackle this from two different points here first I'm just gonna look at this section right here this part of the line and I'm gonna set my compass so that the compass is wider than halfway all right doesn't matter what just randomly just so it's wider than halfway of this part of the line and I'll make a little semicircle out here and I'll do the same to the other end okay and I'll do the same method with this section the line I'll set it just somewhere more than halfway now I'm going to connect these two ex points here now this already has done two things for us one it's given us the exact middle point of this section of the line and it makes a perfect 90 degrees in there as well so that's another feature to this trick here's how I'm gonna make the s-curve so I'm going to on that X I'm gonna set my compass from the X to that first line and it should swing me over there we go to the second point all right and I'll do the same to the top one there we are a nice beautiful s-curve but let's say that that's bigger than you want you want it a little softer okay no problem we'll just extend these lines out and wherever I put this on that wine I should still hit both points but you can see now that it's a little bit softer of a curve so you get the idea you can custom that any way you want very cool all right the next thing I want to show you is when I make these little stools now I built a stool just like this on Scott Phillips show the American woodshop and we have so much information that we did we couldn't show it all in the 30 minute episode so what I'm gonna show you now is actually a tip that had to get edited out and so you'll notice on the seat I have these three different positions for where the legs come through and these are each equally spaced how do I do that well again geometry to the rescue so let me just put a point here on the board and I'm gonna make a circle now once again without changing the setting on the come I'll make a mark well this use this okay and now I'm going to pace off that's gonna pace off with it so I got one two three four five six right back where I started so you can see I have these three marks and they're all equally spaced and I can do a couple things with that I can draw those out to the center or I can connect them pretty cool stuff all right let me show you another tip let's say that I want to make an octagon and I want those perfectly the same size the flat spots well here's how I can do that so I have my square and I found already the center of the square just by connecting the corners together now with my compass I'll go from each corner and I'll set the compass to the middle and I'll draw an arc and I'll do this on all four corners so once again by not changing the compass setting on this just going from the corner to the middle and making these arcs I now can connect these lines so there you go I can cut that out and I'll wind up with a perfect octagon so there you go if you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe to our Channel and if you'd like to see more videos on this subject of geometry and woodworking leave some comments below because I have some tips on how to make a better cabinet doors how to layout drawers for dressers a whole bunch of things that geometry could be applied to you and your shop so if you'd like to see more just let me know on behalf of myself and safety Dan hey we want to thank you for watching and go dance now people [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Chad Stanton

Views: 200,156

Keywords: chad stanton, popular woodworking, geometry, math in woodworking, woodworking math, dan kine, make something, countertops, american woodshop, make a stool, become better, sucessful ways of woodworking, triangles, easy math, woodworking secrets, woodcraft, folding bookstand, roubo, problem solving, woodworking solutions, easy woodworking

Id: IAGf2aEtPEA

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 23 2018