Knothole Hints and Tips - The latest articles:

Stuck on tape.

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:51:00 GMT

Here's a quick and easy tape holder. I took some strips of wood and glued them together into a T shape. A quick coat of paint and then a cup hook attached to one end to hang the rolls of tape on the wall.

Protect that blade

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:50:00 GMT

If you haven't priced a tablesaw blade lately, you may be in for a shock. You are looking at $40-$50 for a lower priced blade (unless you want to roll your dice with some cheap China import). A good blade will run you $100-200 dollars.

Granted, I may be the only one out there who uses their tablesaw for assembly and layout, but I find it a very good idea to keep the blade lowered under the table surface when it isn't being used. Not only does this protect the blade, it also protects your hands and fingers. Even when it isn't rotating that blade can be sharp.

Get the Point on your pencil

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:49:00 GMT

While I don't make many extensive plans for my projects, I do a lot of rough sketches of what I plan on making. Of course most everyone uses a pencil to layout measurements on a project. Any way, I found it very handy to mount a pencil sharpener on my tool chest.

Keep the blade sharp

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:47:00 GMT

I got some older handsaws from my dad and since they tend to spend a lot of time hanging on my crowded wall, I wanted to protect the teeth from getting dings and dull. I also wanted to protect myself from getting cut on the blade.

I cut up some 1by stock and cut a thin rabbet in the edge. I used the normal tablesaw blade to cut the rabbet which was plenty wide enough to cover the blade. I had an old bicycle inner tube that I cut up to make thin strips which I used to hold the protector on the blade. And in my anal need to categorize I wrote "BLADE PROTECTOR" on each one so I wouldn't use them for some wood project.

Holding your own in the round

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:46:00 GMT

I had a need to drill a hole into the end of a dowel. To hold it I cut some V notches in some scrap wood and used those to hold the dowel. In this case, the grooves could have been more shallow or wider, but what I have here did work.