Introduction The creation of a beautiful piece of furniture is one of the most satisfying sensations that any woodworker can feel.
The path to reach that object is however fraught with many hindrances.
So often something goes wrong or does not work out.
Improper Planning One of the major mistakes is not to do proper planning of your project if you work from your own plans.
Wrong dimensions creep into the work quite unseen and can bedevil your best intentions.
Thus taking time in the planning stage is most important.
Equipment Breakage When hard at work a drill point may break off or even the drill giving up the ghost.
You might be working at your table saw and suddenly there is a power outage and you forget to switch off the machine.
Other tools left on the table saw can damage the blade when the electricity suddenly comes on again.
There are so many things that can go wrong and cause frustrations or waste time.
Material Faults After buying and bringing home a nice and expensive piece of exotic lumber and when you do your first cut you find that it is full of wormholes inside.
That is a complete comedown.
When laying out the job there is a weak spot or a knot at a critical structural place.
That would mean going to the timber merchant and buying some more wood.
What a waste of time.
Inaccurate Equipment During work the settings can change on your machine causing inaccuracies that you only notice when it is too late.
For instance, when feeding my radial arm saw too quickly it tends to jam.
If I do not check the setting, such as the vertical alignment of the blade, subsequent cuts are a bit skew and when accurate fits are required, these are not.
This is usually discovered when parts are fitted together and then it is too late.
This has happened several times to me when making frames for paintings.
The miters have a gap on the top face.
That means having to re-cut the miter and hope the painting will still fit inside the frame.
Advice for Beginners A beginner may be unsure from which side to feed in the work-piece.
Feeding it in from the wrong side can mean that the work-piece is ripped from your hand and is flung across the room.
It can even cause injuries.
A tip to remember is to always feed against the motion of the cutting edge, whether it is a circular saw, a planer or jointer, a router or whatever machine is used.
The ONLY machine where you can feed in with the motion of the blade is when doing cross-cuts with a radial arm saw or a sliding miter saw.
Even then the feed must be slow and measured otherwise the blade will jam.
Some people prefer to pull back the handle completely, insert the work-piece and cut it by pushing in the saw.
The reason why the saw can be pulled into the work-piece on a radial arm saw is that the work-piece rests against a fence and the saw moves.
In all other instances this is not the case.
Look at which way the cutting edge moves and feed in the work-piece against the direction of movement, in other words if the cutting edge moves toward you, feed into it.
Never work with your hands near a blade.
One inadvertent movement and an accident has happened.
Use push sticks near a blade and, above all, think about what you are doing and don't fantasize about how beautiful your girl is.
Pay absolute attention to the work at hand.
I have had my share of accidents where the blood flowed, but thankfully no loss of limbs.
Once I had the power go off while doing sawing with my circular saw.
I had put the lock on to keep the blade running and forgot to take it off again.
When the electricity came on again the saw raced across the table and onto the floor, damaging the blade.
Accidents happen so easily.
The path to reach that object is however fraught with many hindrances.
So often something goes wrong or does not work out.
Improper Planning One of the major mistakes is not to do proper planning of your project if you work from your own plans.
Wrong dimensions creep into the work quite unseen and can bedevil your best intentions.
Thus taking time in the planning stage is most important.
Equipment Breakage When hard at work a drill point may break off or even the drill giving up the ghost.
You might be working at your table saw and suddenly there is a power outage and you forget to switch off the machine.
Other tools left on the table saw can damage the blade when the electricity suddenly comes on again.
There are so many things that can go wrong and cause frustrations or waste time.
Material Faults After buying and bringing home a nice and expensive piece of exotic lumber and when you do your first cut you find that it is full of wormholes inside.
That is a complete comedown.
When laying out the job there is a weak spot or a knot at a critical structural place.
That would mean going to the timber merchant and buying some more wood.
What a waste of time.
Inaccurate Equipment During work the settings can change on your machine causing inaccuracies that you only notice when it is too late.
For instance, when feeding my radial arm saw too quickly it tends to jam.
If I do not check the setting, such as the vertical alignment of the blade, subsequent cuts are a bit skew and when accurate fits are required, these are not.
This is usually discovered when parts are fitted together and then it is too late.
This has happened several times to me when making frames for paintings.
The miters have a gap on the top face.
That means having to re-cut the miter and hope the painting will still fit inside the frame.
Advice for Beginners A beginner may be unsure from which side to feed in the work-piece.
Feeding it in from the wrong side can mean that the work-piece is ripped from your hand and is flung across the room.
It can even cause injuries.
A tip to remember is to always feed against the motion of the cutting edge, whether it is a circular saw, a planer or jointer, a router or whatever machine is used.
The ONLY machine where you can feed in with the motion of the blade is when doing cross-cuts with a radial arm saw or a sliding miter saw.
Even then the feed must be slow and measured otherwise the blade will jam.
Some people prefer to pull back the handle completely, insert the work-piece and cut it by pushing in the saw.
The reason why the saw can be pulled into the work-piece on a radial arm saw is that the work-piece rests against a fence and the saw moves.
In all other instances this is not the case.
Look at which way the cutting edge moves and feed in the work-piece against the direction of movement, in other words if the cutting edge moves toward you, feed into it.
Never work with your hands near a blade.
One inadvertent movement and an accident has happened.
Use push sticks near a blade and, above all, think about what you are doing and don't fantasize about how beautiful your girl is.
Pay absolute attention to the work at hand.
I have had my share of accidents where the blood flowed, but thankfully no loss of limbs.
Once I had the power go off while doing sawing with my circular saw.
I had put the lock on to keep the blade running and forgot to take it off again.
When the electricity came on again the saw raced across the table and onto the floor, damaging the blade.
Accidents happen so easily.