Properly Dealing with the Most Common Woodworking Problems:

A Woodworker’s Main Concern

Cracked woods, knots, shrinking and expanding stocks as well as blemishes are some of the very few problems that you might encounter on your woodworks. Learn some tips that are easy enough to understand, so you can avoid problems before they can even occur or yet address them if they have already occurred.

Allowing for Shrinking and Expansion

Trees are typically comprised mostly of water. Anybody who had experience lighting a campfire with woods that are freshly cut can attest to the fact that the green wood is way too far to wet to burn. This is primarily because of the cellular structure of the tree that is designed to allow sap—mostly water—to flow throughout the tree. There are in fact some varieties of wood that literally drip with moisture when they are cut.

Woods that are freshly cut is not practical to woodworking, as they should have to be dried thoroughly. This is the reason why most of the lumber manufacturers either store their lumber for air-drying or even bake it in oven, called kiln-drying. The most ideal stock for woodworking must be in equilibrium with the environment in which the finished project will reside. Here are some few considerations to remember about this concern.

• Wood can either take or return humidity to the air. In some climates and in certain times of the year are a lot more humid than other times. This great difference in seasonal humidity is the reason why dresser drawers and doors stick in the summer time but freely move during winter seasons.

• Pieces of furniture that are at a state of equilibrium with it’s environment when it is manufactured in a humid place, will absolutely undergo a “culture shock” when moved to a dry location. Eventually, the wood will have to give a lot of moisture into the air, in an attempt to equalize with its environment. If you do not plan accordingly when making a woodworking project, cracking is very much possible.

How do woods expand?

Since wood naturally equalize with the humidity of the environment, you must know how the wood will expand. Movement in a piece of stock can occur across the grains of the woods, as opposed to along the grain. That means, a 1x6, which is four feet long, will always remain four feet long. But depending on the moisture content of the stock as well as the air, the thickness and the width of the wood may considerably vary.

How to deal with expansion

• When you plan to build a carcass for a cabinet, each of the four sides of the box must have the grain oriented with the same direction. As such, all of the four sides must grow equally. However, this can cause issues especially when drawers are used in the cabinets, making the drawers difficult to close and open. This is the reason why most cabinet carcasses are built with the use of plywood, which is not affected by humidity as much as dimensional lumbers.

• When you glue up boards for you table tops, one board should be laid with the end grain facing up, the next board facing up, and so on and so forth. This will help balance out any cupping that may occur.

• When you orient a top on a structure like desks, it must be laid so that the end grains of the boards are on both the short sides of the tables.

Properly Drilling Clean Holes

When you try to drill holes with large diameters using a spade, a paddle bit, a hole saw, or some other large diameter bits, the most common problems that can occur is when the bit blows through the back part of the stock, tearing its face and leaving an unsightly concern to deal with. But there are two simple ways on how to solve this very troublesome issue.

• First is to try clamping a block of hardwood at the backside of the stock before you drill them. When the bit is about to approach the end of the cut, it is less likely to blow through with another piece of your woods to drill. But if the stock that is placed on the backside is softer than that of the work piece, a tear out is still likely to occur.

• The second method, the simpler one, is to drill halfway thru the stock until its pilot hole penetrates the backside of the work piece. After that, flip the work piece over and then drill them back towards the front part. With this method, possible blowouts will only occur in the middle part of the stock, as opposed to either edge, leaving a cleaner cut on both sides.

Fixing a Sticky Drawer

• When you desire to build a piece of furniture, like a dresser or a chest of drawer, you should be aware that these pieces must be fully acclimated to the local climate before you start your woodworking projects. Aside from the known benefits of doing so, this will help keep your drawers from sticking because of the expansion of the wood after the unit has been fully completed.

We are not talking here about the use of the commercial mechanical drawer slides, but nothing more than the drawers that are only pieces of wood sliding on another. The moment the wood expands, the drawers will then start to bind, resulting in sticky drawers.

• The best home remedy with this concern is just to rub a candle wax on all the locations of the drawers as well as the carcass where the wood slides. This idea can also be useful for your doors.

How to remove nails easily

• Working with recycled stocks is economical but time consuming because of the fact that you will have to remove all the nails that are protruding from the stocks. Using a hammer or even a pry bar are the most common ways on removing them.

• For a quicker method, use a pair of Vise-Grip style locking pliers. Its jaws should be set to a width where they just lock down onto the nails.

• Place the pliers by the end of the nails perpendicular with the stocks, and then roll the pliers over the rounded back edge of the pliers. The rounded edge will prevent the stock from denting, so the nails can easily slide out from the stock.

• To keep the stock from denting, place a thin piece of scrap wood under the pliers as you slowly twist them. Avoid having the square jaws mark the stock by beginning the jaws about 1/8” above the wood before you lock it onto the nails.

Keep in mind also that by doing this, you are prone to any untoward accident. So you have to be careful in removing nails for you to avoid incidents.

How to remove broken screws

• If the screw breaks just right above the surface of the wood, you cannot actually extract it without gabbing its end firmly with a good pair of vice grips and pliers, and then wounding them out of the hole.

• If the screw is used for holding power, and it is broken just below the surface, it is better to leave them in place, patch the holes instead, and fasten another screw near the broken one.

• If you have to remove the screw, there are a couple of methods. There are broken screw extractors that are made available from woodworking supply stores near your areas. The most popular one is that small metal tube with teeth cut into its end. The extractor is then inserted into the drill and a sample is taken from the wood that is around the screw. A wood dowel is then glued into place and a new replacement is fastened into the repair.

• You can also try to dig around the screw until you can actually grab the end with a pair of those needle nosed pliers or vice grips. The scar that is remained can then be drilled out, and a similar plug can be used to replace the defect.

• Try using a plug cutter to cut matching plugs from pieces of scrap woods to match the grains of the wood. If you try to install a hinge and one of the screws accidentally break, try making use of epoxy to solve the problem.

• As much as possible, do not try to save more of your time by drilling in a second screw next to the first one. Most often, the second screw can twist in the holes, or worse, press against the first and can cause the wood to split.

Tips to Avoid Breaking a Screw

• Always make it a point to drill a pilot hole in the hardwood

• If you are to attach a hinge using brass screws, don’t forget to attach the steel screws, before you replace them with the brass.

Removing Screws with Stripped Heads

• Try to use a pair of vice grips so you can grab the head and then twist it back out.

• If the head of the screw is just below the surface of the wood, use the proper size of the screwdriver as well as the hammer so you can firmly set the screwdriver into the head of the screw.

• With the right downward pressure, carefully back the screw out until you can finally grab it using pliers or vice grips.

Tips to Avoid Stripping a Screw’s Head

• Choose the proper screwdriver sets that match with the screws

• When driving the screws, make it a point to avoid tipping the grill accidentally.

• As much as possible, maintain an average yet firm downward pressure so you can keep the head seated on the screw. You can also pre-drill pilot holes for the screws.

Keeping your saw tables clean and rust-free

• Most saw tables are made from cast irons and are highly susceptible to rusting. Most of the time, these units are delivered with their special protective grease that needs to be thoroughly cleaned before using them. It is actually a good idea to apply some protectant to the tables before you start to use them. There are a number of lubricant and protectants that are available in the market, all of which are specially designed for table saws.

• Anyone who specializes in tools for fine woodworking should have the different varieties of protectants to choose from. But if you do not have anything at home the moment you set up your table saws, you can go through your garage shelves and find some old can of car wax.

• The wax that is specially designed for your car’s finish, the carnauba-based paste wax, can perform similar task on your table saws. Just rub it on with a damp sponge and then leave it to dry for a few hours. You can then buff it out with a buffer, or even with a clean cloth. If you feel the necessity, you can apply for another coating but be sure to remove all of the wax from the miter gauges. Do it every month so you can have a clean and rustproof table saws.

• Keep in mind that it is not advised to use silicone-based products on your table saws since they can leave some residues behind that can interfere with the finishes on selected types of wood.

It is then necessary for you to have at least a little knowledge of everything with woodworking. Though there are still professionals out there that can help you with some concerns, nothing still beats an average woodworker who knows some do-it-yourself tricks that can be pleasurable in as much as it can be learning.