Woodworking Demo: Milling (Pt 3)

Jointing
Jointing is done to smooth out and straighten a single surface of a board. Once you have a single straight surface you can straighten out the other sides to create a near perfect board.


Make sure before you run your wood through the jointer to find the direction of the grain and cut along that direction to prevent tearing up your wood.


When pushing your wood through the jointer provide lateral force to keep the wood moving along the jointer blades evenly.


The jointer will only ever take a small portion of the surface off so you'll have to run your piece through several times to provide a clean smooth surface


Once done jointing the first surface of your board to the point where its smooth, joint a edge using the smoothed as a guide surface to provide you with a perfect 90° edge.

Woodworking Demo: Milling (Pt 2)

Rough Ripping

If the board you're using is simply too wide or warped for your use you can rip it (cut down the length) using the band saw.



When making a rough rip cut on the band saw its often more useful and accurate to draw a line through the center of your board and eyeball the cut instead of using the rip fence.


Make sure to feed the wood through the bandsaw with your fingers and hands at a safe distance from the blade.


While most ripping will be done on a table saw, the band saw is also useful for making imprecise rips. On our big bandsaw there is a brake seen here that is used to get the blade stopped after use.

Woodworking Demo: Milling (Pt 1)

Cross Cutting



Using this ancient radial arm saw we cut the boards down to size from 16' to a much more manageable 3' length. While this saw can be angled for miter cuts it doesn't allow for much more than that.



Ancient radial arm saw, older than God according to some theorists, seen just before being put to use. Measure the amount you'd like to cut and mark it.





After you've measured the board, check out the key from the Tool Room and power the saw up.





To operate the radial arm saw, grab the handle with your right hand, push the start button with your left, then pull back on the saw towards you in a fluid motion. The blade is cutting down and away from you which makes the arm very easy to move towards you.





Try to keep your hands away from the blades. Skin and blades don't mix well at all, the blade always wins.