Don't Make the Mistakes I made!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

This thread is a goldmine, I've been through the whole lot and it's been emotional.

I have some very basic advice. I repair the electronics in instruments regularly and have burned myself on a soldering iron more times than I care to admit. It's not a good evening if I haven't burned myself at least twice.

Two bits of advice:

i) Always check the orientation of the cable on your iron. Never try to twist against the orientation because the iron will twist when you loosen your grip and inevitably either burn you, or burn into the wood. This is particularly the case when you're using a chisel-type tip.

ii) Clean your iron and get a new tip when you need it. You'll ruin your solder joints with a dirty iron and you're more likely to try and force it with a dirty tip - leading to frustration, haste and burns.

In terms of woodworking, many years ago at school we had a teacher with two fingertips missing from a bandsaw accident. Needless to say he was adamant that we (as 12-year old boys) used the push sticks - even if it meant taking longer and getting a slightly less precise cut. You can always remove extra wood if you need to.

Further - sharp tools are safer than blunt tools. Never try and force a cut with a blunt tool, you're likely to force the cut and make a mess of it and potentially yourself if you slip. Also, although sharp cuts are deeper, they are less likely to become infected and can be stitched up more easily at the hospital!

 

[bassgod76]

One thing I have recently learned is check the string travel across the fretboard BEFORE drilling the bridge mounting holes to what you measure as the body's center.

Using red threads, I checked this and found that I had to move my bridge just under 1/8" closer to the top of the body to make the strings run down the center of the neck.

The center of the body is in pencil. The red thread is where my bridge center should be.

Bridge moved to the left under 1/8" makes the strings travel straight on the fretboard.

Now all my strings stay on the fretboard!

 

[djtecknick]

jointer advice: almost all jointers will have some degree of "snipe". Snipe is what happens at the very end of a piece of wood in the jointer. It will cut a little bit deeper only at the last portion of the wood when passing over the cutting knives. It naturally happens because at the end of your cut, there is a point where there is no more support for the wood hanging over the knives.

FIX: properly set-up your jointer so that the knives are perfectly flat with your outfeed table. also, take smaller bites on the last couple of passes. Remember that some wood likes to splinter easier too ie: wenge, any rosewood, purpleheart, and padauk.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Routers:

Get a footswitch.

Don't take your hands off of it until the bit is completely stopped. It's quite easy to absent-mindedly brush a finger or arm against the still spinning bit. While it won't be as destructive as the bit spinning full speed with full torque, it can still do some damage.

Tape AND clamp router templates.

Make MDF copies of your expensive-ish polycarbonate router templates. Use 1/2" or 3/4" thick MDF for the copies and they'll last longer than 1/4" or 3/8" thick ones. That way, when your router slips (and it will), you can just make another MDF copy and you don't have to wait for stewmac or bestbassgear to send you a new one.

When using large roundover bits, check the manufacturer spec for the maximum rotational speed and set your router accordingly. If your router doesn't have a speed control, don't use those big bits. Which brings us to the next point...

Get a router with speed control, and 1/4" and 1/2" collets.

Perhaps most importantly: Don't trust bargain basement router bits. They need to be dangerously sharp. If they aren't sharp, they will bog down and burn the wood in a best-case scenario, and break (sending shrapnel flying at high speed through your shop and you) in a worst-case scenario. Freud and Amana bits might be more expensive, but they are so worth it. You will do better, safer work with high quality bits.

Thickness Planers:

The new generation of thickness planers are great. The knives are precision made, cheap, and easy to replace. You don't have to mess around with a lot of set screws and high-precision adjustments. You just attach with 3 or 4 screws and you're good to go. Some of them are even double-sided, so you basically get 2 sets of knives in each replacement pack.

Take your time, and don't remove too much at a time. If you do, you'll be greeted with tearout and splitting. It's better to spend 5-10 extra minutes planing that figured wood than to spend $100 replacing it because your planer shredded it.

Wherever possible, feed the work piece in at an angle.

To reduce snipe (and avoid it entirely on some routers), apply upward pressure to the trailing end as it feeds into the planer, and upward pressure to the leading end as it feeds out of the planer. It really helps.

Also, to eliminate snipe on boards that already have it, feet the piece in several times without adjusting the height of the cutter head. It will shave the wood ever-so-slightly, and in every case I've done it with my Porter-Cable planer, it gets rid of the bothersome variation in thickness on those first/last few inches.

 

[Neek]

When using a router bit with a bearing always check that the bearing is not loose, check that the locking collar is tight if the bearing is mounted on the top of the bit. The bearing on one of my bits started wandering up and down the shaft because the locking collar was loose, and when that bearing wandered off the template it ruined the wood, the template, and my underwear.

Check that the router collet is tightened before every cut. I was cutting a pickup cavity thinking the bit was chucked in the collet properly, but it was slowly slipping out as it was spinning. I was lucky that I noticed before it violently freed itself spinning at 20,000 rpm, but it had cut way deeper than the depth I had intended as a result.

 

[Teddybear]

... turn the router off and let it stop spinning before removing the router. If the spinning bit touches the body or the acrylic template, it leaves a nice scar.

This is very good advice, but don't stop there. Realize that when you turn off most power tools the sound of the spinning motor will silence but the bit, blade, grinding wheel, etc. will continue spinning. It is so very easy, when your mind is on your project, to absent mindedly not realize that the tool is still spinning. I once turned off a surface grinder and, needing to change to a coarser wheel, reached for the wheel in the chuck. I quickly obtained a smooth precise "V" cut into the end of my middle finger. To this day I will swear that the machine laughed at me.