Bruce Kieffer, Author at Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To

Rare-earth Magnet Bit Holders

Bruce Kieffer — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 17:13:15 +0000

I screwed these countersunk rare-earth magnets to the back of the cabinet door where I keep my cordless screwdriver. They hold my most often used screwdriver bits at the ready. The magnets have about a 1/8″ projection, which makes grabbing the bits easy. If you adopt this trick for your shop, be sure to gently hand-drive the screws, since rare-earth magnets are brittle.

– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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Grippier Crosscut Fence

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:00:06 +0000

Here’s a simple way to improve the “grip” on any machine fence where workpieces slipping out of place is problematic. Just apply a light coating of spray adhesive to the contact surface of the fence. Allow a week for the adhesive to cure before you use the fence.

The coating will produce a non-slip surface without transferring the dried adhesive to the workpiece. I’ve found this treatment to last for many years!

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Dowel Pin Shrinker

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:11:45 +0000

Sometimes you drill a 1/4″ hole for a 1/4″ dowel pin only to find out that dowel pin is too large for the hole! Most woodworkers try to fix this by reaming the drilled hole with the drill bit. Doing that is a BIG mistake, because that will mess up your dowel joint.

A better solution is to “shrink” the dowel pin just a bit by hammering it through a 1/4″ short pipe nipple. The inner edges of the nipple are sharp enough to cut wood. This trick also works with 3/8″ dowel pins and a 3/8″ short pipe nipple.

– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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Screw Adds Micro-adjustability to Stop Block

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 26 May 2023 15:00:06 +0000

I make a lot of band saw cuts where I need to stop the cut at a certain point. I used to use a block clamped to the saw table, but I had to shift and re-clamp it over and over to find just the right spot. Then it dawned on me: by installing a screw into the edge of the stop, I could add simple micro-adjustability to it. It’s now the contact point for workpieces being cut, and twisting the screw in or out is all the fine-tuning I need to do.

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Score First to Stop Dovetail Blowout

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:30:08 +0000

Dovetail routing jigs are notorious for blowing out the corner of the tail board at the end of the cut when routing half-blind dovetails, because that corner is not backed up by the pin board.

Here’s my simple solution: Use your band saw to make a scoring cut before you rout the dovetails. Set its fence so the length of the scoring cut is slightly less than the length of the dovetails being routed, and set the stop so the width of the scoring cut is slightly less than the width of the dovetails being routed.

Make scoring cuts on all the corners of your tail boards (drawer sides). Now rout your dovetails and there will be no blowout!

– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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Washers Make Handy Radius Templates

Bruce Kieffer — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 18:22:48 +0000

Washers make great little radius templates for laying out corners on workpieces. There are regular washers and fender washers, so the size variations are abundant.

Find the sizes with the radii you want, label them and save them with your measuring and marking tools so they’re readily accessible when you need them.

– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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Sanding Jig Thins Swollen Biscuits

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 15:08:48 +0000

Wood biscuits can swell in a humid shop to the point that they won’t fit in a biscuit slot. To fix that problem, I created this biscuit-sanding jig from a couple of pieces of oak scrap.

I cut a biscuit slot in each piece along the stock’s edge, then glued them together to create a holder for the swollen biscuit. I made the slots in the jig slightly shallower than a biscuit is thick. Now, when I run across a swollen biscuit, I drop it into my sanding jig clamped in a vise. A few swipes with a 60-grit sanding block over the biscuit reduces its thickness so it fits the slot again.

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Oscillating Tool Flush-trim Saw Blade

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 20:38:36 +0000

Here’s how to turn your oscillating tool into a super fast, clean-cutting flush-trim saw. Mount a new 3/4″ or wider woodcutting saw blade in the tool.

Run the saw blade against a sharpening stone at low speed to grind away the “set” (tooth protrusions) on the blade’s bottom face. It will take a few minutes of grinding to remove all of the tooth set.

Once the set is gone, this blade will still flush cut dowels quickly but won’t mar the surrounding wood surface.

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Cabinet Door Sanding Shield

Bruce Kieffer — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 13:00:49 +0000

I’ve built a lot of traditional style frame-and-panel cabinet doors with flat panels. The challenge is sanding the inside edges of the rails and stiles without scratching the panel, whether that panel is prefinished or not. My solution is to use scrap pieces of plastic laminate to protect the panel’s surface as I sand the inside frame edges. Slide the “protector” along as you sand the edges. In the past, I used thin cardboard as my protector, but it wears out quickly. Plastic laminate holds up to sanding much longer.

-Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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Squirt Bottle Approach to Water-based Finishing

Bruce Kieffer — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 20:52:31 +0000

Water-based finish dries fast, so you need to apply it quickly when you are finishing large surfaces. I’ve found that a squirt bottle, paint roller and foam brush are the tools to use to speed things along. Fill the squirt bottle with strained finish, load the roller with finish, squirt finish on the wood surface and use the roller to even it out. Then “tip off” the finish with the foam brush to remove the texture from the roller head. Practice will teach you the correct amount of finish to squirt onto the wood.

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