Posts Tagged drill
Power Tools: Miter Saw
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Technology on January 1st, 2010
In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
Although the cordless drill and the circular saw are the bread-and-butter of my workshop, my miter saw and table saw are the flashy stars. Anything these tools do can be accomplished with cheaper hand tools, but there’s no denying that they dramatically add to speed, convenience, and precision when woodworking.
My miter saw is a DEWALT DW716 12-Inch Double-Bevel Compound Miter Saw. Now, there are those who say that a table saw is the first “big” power tool a woodworker should buy, but I get far more use out of my miter saw than my table saw. The reason is simple: my construction uses a lot of dimensional lumber, and so I end up doing a lot more cross-cutting than rip-cutting. And cross-cutting is what miter saws do best.
The bigger a miter saw, the larger the piece of lumber it can cut through. I bought a 12-inch saw because it could cut a 4×4 post at a 45-degree angle, and I figured a 4×4 would be the biggest thing I would reasonably need to cut. It can also cut a 2×10 board.
Miter saws really shine for applications like crown molding, where precise angles are important. Honestly, I never do stuff like that, and so this saw is really a little overkill. A bit of money could be saved by going down from a 12″ to a 10″ blade, and by going from double-bevel to single-bevel. This means that the saw would only tilt over sideways one direction, and you’d have to flip the lumber if you needed the bevel to go the other way.
Another variation is the sliding miter saw. This means that there is a set of rails, and after you drop the blade, you can slide it straight backwards about twelve inches. This dramatically increases your ability to cut through wide, flat boards, even with a 10″ blade, and means that a 12″ blade can cut pretty much anything you can imagine. The primary down-side of the sliding miter saw is cost: the sliding version of my saw costs $600 instead of $400 for the non-sliding version. A second down-side is that sliding saws need more clearance behind them, to make room for the sliding mechanism. This may be an issue if your workshop already has a built-in station for a non-sliding miter saw.
The major accessory I would recommend for a miter saw is a stand. Because miter saws are used primarily for cross-cuts, you’ve usually got a few feet of lumber hanging off the ends of the saw. That can make it damn near impossible to hold down against the fence. A miter saw stand has movable stops that support the ends of the lumber that hang off the saw’s work surface. You can buy one
Power Tools: Drills
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Technology on December 13th, 2009
In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
If I had to pick just a few basic power tools, I would probably start with an electric circular saw and a battery-powered drill. In this post, I’ll discuss the drill.
When I wrote about circular saws, I recommended an electric one. For drills, I strongly prefer cordless. For whatever the reason, I have found 18v battery-powered drills to have more than enough power and endurance for my tasks. That, combined with the convenience of a cordless tool, mean that I’ve never wished I had a corded drill.
Drills are used for two things: driving screws and drilling holes. For driving screws, the most basic accessory that I use is a modular driver-head with sleeve. The driver-head has interchangeable bits that allow me to easily switch from flat-head to various sizes of phillips to hex-head, without loosening the drill’s chuck. The extended driver shaft makes it easier to get the drill into tight spaces. The sleeve makes it easy to get long screws started.
For drilling holes, I start with a set of bits in various sizes from 1/16″ up to 1/2″, such as Milwaukee 48-89-1105 1/16-to-1/2-Inch Titanium Coated Twist Drill Bit Assortment in Plastic Index, 20-Piece
For holes larger than 1/2″, of course, traditional drill bits aren’t really even an option, as they pretty much top out at that size. Here’s a decent set of spade bits: DeWalt DW1587 6 Bit 3/8-Inch to 1-Inch Spade Drill Bit Assortment
Lastly, I have occasionally found a set of hole-saw bits to be useful. For one thing, they’re the easiest and fastest way to cut holes up to about 4″ in diameter. I started using mine when I was making self-watering planters and needed to cut a bunch of holes for 4″ PVC in the tops of plastic containers. I had been drawing the circles and cutting them with a jigsaw, which was slow and messy. When I switched to a hole saw, my life got a lot easier.
Shopping for hole saw sets can give a bit of sticker shock. Basically, a hole saw set consists of two mandrels (one for smaller saws and one for larger) and various sizes of saw. They easily run $50 to $100 depending on how many sizes of saw come with the set. The thing is, if you’ve got a specific project in mind, you can save a lot of money in the short term by buying a mandrel and the exact size of saw you need, but you will pay much more in the long run buying the saws individually compared to a set. For example, this set (Milwaukee 49-22-4095 Electricians Ice Hardened Hole Saw Kit, 10-Piece
Oh, and let’s not forget that when you buy the hole saw blades in a set, you get a nice plastic carrying case for them. Now, if only I could figure out how to get the 3.5″ blade that I bought separately into that case. Hmm… maybe I’ll drill a hole in it.
There are lots of different types of drill bits out there, but those are the ones that I use. Actually, after my first big woodworking project, I bought one more set. In soft-wood, it’s a good idea to pre-drill screw and nail-holes, and in hardwood, it’s mandatory. For the best-looking projects, screw heads should be countersunk below the surface. Screws can simply be driven below the surface of soft-wood, but this sometimes results in stripping the screw and/or breaking off its head, which is a mess. I had this happen enough during the building of the chest that I ordered a set of countersink bits
Finally, here is one accessory for the drill that I have not yet bought, although I have been sorely tempted.
One of the most basic problems I have with a hand drill is getting it to go in perpendicular to the wood. This is, of course, what a drill press is good at, but you can’t always maneuver a piece under construction over to the drill press’s work surface. This drill guide attachment
In the next post, I’ll get to some of the real power tools: table saw and miter saw.
Power Tools: Circular Saws
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Technology on December 9th, 2009
In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
If I had to pick just a few basic power tools, I would probably start with an electric circular saw and a battery-powered drill. In this post, I’ll discuss the circular saw.
The precision and speed of use with a circular saw is not the same as with a table saw and miter saw, but the value for the money is immense. You can get a good circular saw new in the $150-200 range, and used for half that, and be able to do almost any cut you would ever need. By comparison, a miter saw and table saw can easily run $200-300 each, and that’s for bottom-of-the-line models. Table saws especially can run into the thousands.
I would choose an electric saw because I have a little battery-powered one and it dies after, literally just a few cuts through a sheet of plywood. It is clearly under-powered for the job. I think it was intended more for cross-cuts on lumber and trim pieces. Speaking of power, don’t skimp. Cutting through big pieces of 3/4″ plywood takes a bit of “oomph,” and you don’t want the blade binding or the motor struggling.
The value of a circular saw is dramatically increased if you have a cutting guide. The problem with circular saws is that they don’t cut as straight a line as a table or miter saw. When doing long rip cuts, such as down the length of a board or across a sheet of plywood, a little bit of wandering off your line can add up to a lot of inaccuracy. When doing cross-cuts, it can be hard to get the end of the board exactly square.
For cross-cuts, I recommend a Speed Square
For the record, speed squares are actually very versatile and useful tools, that are much more than a straight-edge. Here’s a video describing more.
For rip-cuts, I recommend two different types of guides. If you’re doing a long rip-cut along the length of a board, such as cutting a 2×4 down to a pair of (approximate) 2×2s, or cutting strips of 1/8″ trim off of a piece of 1×4, I suggest a Rip Fence like the one shown below.
This device attaches to the baseplate of your circular saw and runs along the edge of the board, ensuring a straight cut… well, ensuring that the cut is as straight as the edge of the board, anyway. Rip fences like these may be custom-fit to a particular make or model of saw, and not all saws may accept them, so you should look into this before you buy.
For long cuts down sheet stock like plywood, I would choose a clamp-down cutting guide.This is, basically a straightedge between 4′ and 8′ long that you clamp to the sheet of plywood, and then you run your saw against it to make a straight cut. Not too complicated, right?
Now, this is a link to a clamp-down cutting guide that costs about $35, but I don’t recommend it and that’s why I’m not going to put in a picture. I just want you to see what NOT to buy. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with that particular device, it’s just that it costs $35 and you can easily make your own for much, much cheaper. Here are two links (1) (2) to online instructions.
These cutting guides can be as complicated as you want to make them, but I took the simple route. I bought a piece of 4′ long x 1″ square metal stock at the hardware store. This was about $10. The reason I used a metal bar was I wanted to be as sure as possible that my guide was a straight line, and a piece of wood might not accomplish that.
Then I took a left-over piece of 1/4″ thick plywood. I used self-tapping screws to screw the piece of plywood to the piece of metal stock so that one end of the plywood was flush with one edge of the stock. Then I ran the circular saw down the length of the plywood, with the baseplate pressed up against the metal guide bar. This addresses a problem with cutting guides, which is that you have to compensate for the distance between the edge of the baseplate and the blade when you set the guide in place. Putting on a larger piece of plywood and then cutting it off using the metal guide bar itself means that the edge of the plywood is exactly where the saw’s blade is going to cut. Now, when I want to line up a cut, I just place the edge of the plywood where the cut should go, place the saw’s baseplate against the metal guide, and cut. Piece of cake!
With a 4′ guide I can cut across the full width of a sheet of plywood. If I ever needed to cut the length of a sheet, I could easily make an 8′ guide, but I haven’t yet had to do that. For an 8′ guide, I probably would not buy metal bar stock. I probably would just cut off a piece of plywood and use the factory edge as the guide.
Incidentally, if you’re going to use a clamp-down guide, or if you’re going to do much carpentry at all, you’re going to need clamps. I recommend these as a starting point: Irwin Industrial 12-Inch Quick-Grip Bar Clamp with Bonus 6-Inch Mini Bar Clamp
Next post: the power drill.
Miter Saw Table And Workstation
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading on November 3rd, 2009
For this project, I built a miter-saw table and work-station in the barn. The miter-saw table has a long counter top to the left and right of the saw, level with the work-surface of the miter saw. This allows long boards to be cut on the miter saw without having to fuss with any additional support. The counters double as work-surfaces.
Materials:
- Sheet of 4×8′ plywood, with a veneer top so it looks and feels nice. I
- 2×4x104 5/8″ studs – 8x
- 3″ coarse-thread drywall screws – many
Tools:
- Ryobi BTS21 table saw
- DEWALT DW716 Miter Saw
- Carpenter’s Square
- Black & Decker 18-volt Drill
- Irwin Industrial Tools 12-Inch Quick-Grip Bar Clamp
- 48-Inch Level
- Black and Decker 18-volt Jigsaw (link is to the corded version)
- Two sawhorses (homemade, no link)
Above, you can see a photo of the finished project. I didn’t take many build photos, but the process is basically the same as the work-counter I documented previously. For this one, I didn’t use the technique of screwing a 1×2 to the wall as a level guide. Instead, I set the framed counter top onto a pair of adjustable-height sawhorses and pressed it against the wall where it was to be affixed. I made sure that one end of the countertop frame was at the right height and put a screw through it into the wall. Then I set a 4′ level on the frame and adjusted the other end until the back of the countertop was level. Then I put in another screw so that both ends were attached. Now that the counter top was level side-to-side, I put some more screws in across the back side to complete the attachment of the counterotp to the wall.
I took the sawhorses out from underneath the counter top frame and used a clamp to attach the front of the frame to the side of the sawhorse. This gave me some up-and-down leeway to adjust the front-to-back level of the counter. I moved the clamps up and down until the counter was level front-to-back.
Once I had the counter frame affixed to the wall and level, I measured and cut the legs. I would rather have used vertical legs, because they would be stronger than diagonal legs, but the floor in the barn is simply sheets of plywood over wooden joists. As a result, its’ got a lot of flex, which would compromise the counter’s level. Additionally, the plywood may need to be replaced some day, and I don’t want to be pulling out the counter’s legs when I do it. diagonal legs will allow me to connect back to the floor joist that’s against the wall. This will provide more support than a piece of plywood floor, and will mean that I can replace the floor if I need to without tearing apart the counters.
I put the 4′ level in place where a leg would go and used an angle-measurement tool to determine that the leg would be at a 23 degree angle from the vertical. This was actually the same angle as my basement work-counter. Mental note: counters of approximately 24″ deep at heights of approximately 33-35″ have a miter of about 23 degrees on their legs. That could come up again! I mitered the end of a 2×4 to that angle and then set it in place. I then used the top surface of the table’s frame as a straight-edge to mark where to cut the 2×4 off to make the leg. This method was crude, but it avoided any complicated measuring, and ensured that each leg was a perfect fit. I actually cut the top end of the leg a little short, to keep it from protruding above the table’s top and deforming the plywood.
I screwed the legs of the counter into the floor joist on the bottom and clamped them to the frame at the top. This being done, I removed the sawhorses so that the countertop frame was entirely resting on the legs. I double-checked the level and then screwed the legs to the countertop frame and removed the clamps.
Finally, I cut the plywood to size using the table saw and affixed it to the counter top frame.
Above, you can see the miter saw in its station. The miter saw’s work-surface is exactly 3.5″ above its base, which is the height of a 2×4, making it easy to align the work-surface with the two countertops to the left and right. It’s almost as if they designed it that way! The miter saw has two sets of mounting holes, one for larger bolts and one for smaller screws. I have bunches of 3″ drywall screws, so that’s what I used.
Just behind the miter saw, to the left, you can see the 6×6 vertical building support that got in the way of the left-hand counter. The counter top has been cut out to allow the 6×6 to pass through. Rather than try to build the frame of the counter around the 6×6, I simply attached the counter to the wall just to the left of it and then left an extra 12″ or so of plywood hanging off the right side of the counter top, so that the plywood would come up against the left edge of the miter saw. I cut out an opening for the 6×6 with a jigsaw and then put in just enough 2×4 framing to support the end of the plywood that hung off of the counter top. This meant that working around the 6×6 could be done in an entirely cosmetic manner, since the structure of the counter was already secure.
In the photo above, you can see how I attached the miter saw station to the two counters. I simply screwed a couple of lengths of 2×4 to the underside of the counter, one for the front of the saw and one for the back. My 3″ screws wouldn’t go all the way through a 3.5″ 2×4, so I mitered the ends of the boards at a 50 degree angle (the max angle for my saw) to give me a few inches of board where a 3″ screw would penetrate into the counter above. I drove two screws in from beneath at each attachment point, and then drove a third screw in for good measure. The boards were a little too easy to twist, so I put some cross-pieces in, running front-to-back, for good measure.
Building Basement Work-Counter
Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading on October 19th, 2009
Today’s project was building a work-counter in the basement. There was this big wall across from the washer and dryer just begging for a counter.
Materials:
- Sheet of 4×8′ plywood, with a veneer top so it looks and feels nice.
- 2×4 studs – 6x
- 1×2 – 2x
- 3″ coarse-thread drywall screws – many
Tools:
- Ryobi BTS21 table saw
- DEWALT DW716 Miter Saw
- Carpenter’s Square
- Black & Decker 18-volt Drill
- Irwin Industrial Tools 12-Inch Quick-Grip Bar Clamp
- 48-Inch Level
First, I screwed a 1×2 to the wall at the desired height of the counter and leveled it. The countertop could rest on this later during installation, helping it come level more quickly and taking some of the weight. This board was removed after installation of the countertop.
I cut the boards to length using the miter saw and built the frame for the countertop. This was pretty simple 2×4 construction, same as framing a wall, but smaller. I added diagonal corner-braces at two of the corners, ostensibly to keep it square, but mostly because I just bought a miter saw, and I wanted an excuse to miter something.
It’s important to build a frame like this on as flat a surface as possible, otherwise it will be warped. I built the frame on the concrete floor of the basement, because I figured that was as flat a surface as I was going to find. In the end, it was just a tiny bit warped, but not too bad.
After building the frame, I checked that it was square by measuring the diagonals. If the diagonals are equal, the frame is square. It was off by maybe 1/8″, but that was good enough for me.
In the picture above, the frame is resting on the 1×2 that I leveled against the wall. It has been screwed to the studs of the wall. A second 1×2 has been cut and half and is being used as temporary legs. The 1×2 legs are clamped to the outside corners of the frame. A level is placed on the frame to check the level. I raised and lowered the outside corners of the frame, re-clamping each time, until the surface was acceptably level.
Here, I have added the support legs and removed the clamped-on temporary legs. Cutting the support legs was kind of a pain in the ass. It required a lot of marking the board and cutting with the miter saw and then seeing that it still wasn’t quite right and re-cutting. In the end, everything turned out okay, but it took way longer than it really ought to. I could have sped things up with a tool to measure the angle between the leg and the wall, such as this one
I was going to install three legs, one in the middle, but the table seemed plenty strong without a third one, and I omitted it. More leg-room!
Finally, I installed the top. This was cut from a 4×8′ piece of plywood, which I ripped in half using the table saw. I also wanted a backstop, to keep things from rolling off the table, so I took a left-over 4′ length of 2×4 and ripped it in half the long way, to make two roughly 1×4 pieces of wood. This was a bit of a precarious cut, because my 10″ table saw couldn’t cut deep enough to go all the way through the long side of the 2×4 in one cut, so I ended up removing the guard and just doing one cut down one side of the board and a second cut down the other side of the board. This involved a lot of push-boards, as I had no interest in getting my hands that close to the blade (duh). I need to make a feather-board ASAP to make cuts like this easier and safer.
Here’s a photo of the finished counter. I’ve installed power strips using zip-ties and four-way zip-tie mounting bases.
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