Letting A Woodworking

Imagine walking into a room hearing loud noises, and it being very difficult to breath or even to see. Sounds like a scene from a horror movie, doesn’t it? Well it isn’t, the room that was just entered was probably a woodworking shop. The carpenters in the shop may have been sanding a piece of wood; therefore, it was difficult to see and breathe because the air was full of “dust” from the wood. Although some more professional shops have vacuum hoses hooked up to their sanders to catch the dust, many individual carpenters might not have that luxury causing them to have to wear dust masks, or clean out their noses after a sanding session. Sanding is an important part of building a woodworking project; however, it is also important to measure,

Take cutting a piece of wood for example. Most woodworkers have to draw their pattern on the wood before they can cut it out, and even then they have to use different techniques for different cuts. Here are a few of the different techniques that are used according to “Plain Old-Fashioned Woodworking” by John Vivian: straight cuts – draw a straight line on the wood and cut along that line, curved cuts – draw a curved line on the wood and cut along the line (note that gentle curves will be much easier to cut than tight curves), tight turns – draw a tight turn (i.e. a 90° angle) with a loop on the corner of the turn (i.e. ૪) on the wood and cut along the line, or to eliminate the hole from the loop, draw a tight turn without the loop (i.e. ＞) and cut one line toward the point, then cut the other one toward the point and when they meet the wood should separate completely. Vivian continues that drilling a hole is another form of cutting the wood; however, instead of cutting the wood into pieces, it is having a hole cut into part of it. As Vivian’s article notes, simply draw an X on the wood, with the center of the X where the hole will be drilled; however, if the carpenter is really good then they can just drill the hole without having to draw an X first. While cutting the wood can be fun, it is also extremely dangerous; therefore, it is important to remember to keep

The next step would be to sand the wood. Before starting to sand the wood, it is very important to know how the sand grit scale works. According to Erin Freuchtel, in the article “Woodworking Fundamentals: Learn the Basic Skills - Tuts Crafts & DIY Tutorial,” on the grit scale, 80 is a very coarse sandpaper, and 1200 is a very fine sandpaper. It is also very important to not skip grits, so the wood will be a scratch-free as possible. As stated by Robert Settich, in his book 501 Best Shop Tips For Woodworkers, if a big scratch is found in the wood, sand the entire piece of wood down to the level of the scratch because if just the scratch is sanded, then there will be a dip in the wood where it was sanded more than the rest (156). Settich also states that when sanding, it is very beneficial to use a power sander because it will save time and energy; however, even with a power sander, it is still necessary to sand by hand afterward to make sure that there are no scratches left in the wood (159). Just remember that the finer the grit used, the fewer the number of scratches