Page 12 - Cutting and Shaping Wood

When you need to cut multiple cross lap joints with uniform spacing, reach for the Rockler Cross Lap Jig. Screw it to your miter gauge and use it with your table saw and a dado stack to cut the half-lap joints for anything with a wooden grid: lattice, wine racks, grilles/mullions for glass doors, and torsion boxes for your workbenches and table tops.

Resawing lumber is cutting the stock lengthwise along the edge. Resawing a board creates a thinner piece of stock. This technique is used to make thin panels, such as veneer, and also to make book match panels. Learn how to choose the best band saw blade

Learn how to make a raised panel door using cuts from your standard table saw. We'll show all the small steps you'll need to make this project a breeze.

This DIY circular saw cutting guide will help you make straight and accurate cuts with your circular saw. Learn how to make this saw guide. You only need a couple pieces of thin sheet stock to make this guide and it will work with just about any circular saw. You can also make the same type of cutting guide for your jig saw.

How to use a hand plane and a miter shooting board to make your corner miters fit perfectly. A miter shooting board, also known as a miter shoot, is simply a jig that guides your hand plane to cut perfect 45 degree miters. This is a great jig to help you make picture frames with nice tight corner miters.

In most cases a band saw blade should be square and perpendicular to the band saw table. Here's a simple way to check your band saw blade and all you need is a scrap block of wood.

Table saw push devices are a key piece of woodworking safety gear. Push sticks and push blocks keep your hands a safe distance away from the table saw blade. You can make your own push stick or push block out of scrap stock. You can also purchase manufactured push devices that serve multiple functions.

One of the best accessories or jigs for improving table saw safety and help prevent kickbacks is a featherboard. A featherboard is a jig with several angled fins. The featherboard is placed just in front of the blade. The fins flex to press the work piece against the fence and prevent it from moving backwards during the cut.

A zero clearance insert or throat plate is one of the best upgrades you can make to a table saw. If you’re having trouble with tear-out on the bottom edge of your table saw crosscuts, or experienced the sudden shock of a narrow piece of drop-off wedging in between the saw blade and the opening in your saw’s throat plate, then you should get a zero clearance throat plate or insert.

The fastest way to crosscut a notch or dado for a lap joint is to use a dado set and table saw, but you can make the same cut using a circular saw and chisel.

A mortising machine makes cutting mortises fast and easy. Learn how to set up and cut mortises with a hollow chisel mortising machine. These tips will help you get great results with your mortise machine.