🪚 Stuff Every Woodworker Should Know: Training Guide

Noise and hearing protection

Noise can damage hearing permanently. NIOSH says a workday averaging 85 dBA is hazardous, and that damage cannot be healed.

OSHA sets a legal limit of 90 dBA averaged over an eight-hour day. At 85 dBA, employers must start hearing conservation and make protectors available.

The noise reduction rating printed on a package often overstates the real protection a person gets, so fit testing is useful.

Wear earmuffs or plugs before the saw starts, because hearing loss is permanent but preventable.

Wood dust and lungs

Cutting and sanding create airborne wood dust. OSHA says it may cause allergic breathing problems and cancer.

Fine dust is the real problem because the smallest particles stay airborne the longest and get deep into the lungs.

Old dust bags captured only particles larger than 30 microns and let the finest dust escape.

Use dust collection and a good mask, not just a broom, to control fine dust.

Eyes, clothing, and body

Safety glasses for woodworking should meet ANSI Z87.1. Everyday eyeglasses do not count as safety glasses.

Use side protection because wood chips can fly into the eye.

Remove loose clothing, ties, and jewelry around power tools. Tie back long hair, and use non-slip footwear.

Hand tools and cords

Dull tools are more hazardous than sharp ones because a dull edge needs more force and slips more easily.

Never use a chisel as a screwdriver. Its hardened tip can break and fly off.

Never remove the third prong from a power tool plug, and never carry a tool by its cord.

For heavy shop tools, use thick lower gauge cords such as 10 or 12 gauge. A smaller gauge number means thicker wire.

Guards and anti-kickback parts

OSHA says a hand-fed circular ripsaw must have a hood that covers the blade above the table.

OSHA also requires a spreader behind the blade to keep the cut from closing on the blade.

OSHA requires nonkickback fingers or dogs to oppose the saw's tendency to throw wood back.

SawStop says to use a blade guard and spreader on every operation where they fit, including all through cuts.

Push sticks or push blocks must be provided in the shop for feeding stock past a jointer or saw.

Machines must not restart on their own after a power outage; an unexpected start can catch someone clearing or changing a blade.

Kickback and how to stop it

Kickback is the wood being thrown back at the operator when it binds against the back of the spinning blade.

CPSC found the stock kicked back or jumped in about 40 percent of table saw injury cases from 2007 to 2008.

Fingers were the body part most often injured in those cases, with hands next.

A riving knife sits behind the blade and keeps the two halves of the cut from pinching the blade.

Unlike a fixed splitter, a riving knife rises, falls, and tilts with the blade, so it stays close for every cut depth.

A featherboard must go in front of the blade, not behind it, so it does not pinch the wood against the back of the blade.

Safe feeding and stopping

Push stock on the side of the blade where the fence is. Pushing on the outboard side can make the wood bind.

Never make a freehand cut. Use the fence for rip cuts and the miter gauge for crosscuts.

For through cuts, set the top of the blade no more than 1/8 to 1/4 inch above the workpiece.

If you stop a circular saw cut partway, release the trigger and hold the saw motionless until the blade completely stops.

Circular saw kickback is a sudden reaction to a pinched, bound, or misaligned blade, so keep a firm grip with both hands and stay to one side.

Dull or badly set saws must be removed from service immediately because they bind and raise kickback risk.

Stopping the blade on contact

SawStop carries a small electrical signal on the blade. When skin touches it, the signal changes because skin conducts.

SawStop says its brake springs into the blade path in less than 5 milliseconds.

The reset takes about 90 seconds: inspect the blade, change it if damaged, and replace the brake cartridge.

Coatings like lacquer on blade teeth are non-conductive and can slow contact detection.

Jointer purpose and safety

A jointer flattens and straightens one face or edge. It is not for milling a board to a consistent thickness.

Joint the face first. That flat face becomes the reference for jointing an edge square.

OSHA says a hand-fed jointer with a horizontal cutting head must have an automatic guard over the working side.

Jointer knives must not project more than 1/8 inch past the cylindrical head body.

Use hold-down push blocks when jointing wood narrower than 3 inches to keep fingers away.

Deep cuts increase the chance of kickback, so keep cuts modest.

Router feed direction

A router bit spins clockwise when viewed from above, so feed against that spin to keep control.

For an outside edge, move the router counterclockwise around the workpiece, or right to left along the edge.

For an inside cut such as a cutout, move clockwise.

Climb cutting feeds with the bit's rotation and can grab, making the router climb out of the cut. Use it sparingly, with the work clamped and very light passes.

On a router table, always feed the workpiece opposite the bit rotation.

When routing freehand with a template, remove stock in small increments of 1/8 inch or less.

Installing router bits safely

Switch off and disconnect the router from power before installing or removing any bit.

Only use a bit with a shank that matches the installed collet. A mismatched shank may loosen and become a projectile.

Never tighten the collet without a router bit installed.

Planer, band saw, and drill press hazards

A planer hazard is hands being pinched between the stock and in-running feed rolls if the feed system is not guarded.

Planers also have kickback and noise hazards, and hands can contact cutting blades while adjusting them.

On a band saw, adjust the blade guide post to match the stock thickness. The most common band saw injury is blade contact.

After tightening a drill press chuck, remove the chuck key right away so it cannot be thrown.

Clamp the workpiece to the drill press table before drilling.

Dadoes and rabbets

A dado is a three-sided channel cut across the grain so a shelf or divider can sit in it.

Keep dadoes no deeper than one-half of the board's thickness.

A rabbet is a two-sided, open-ended recess that runs along the edge or end of a board.

Rabbets often hold cabinet backs, shelves, or glass. Never cut one deeper than two-thirds of the board's thickness.

Strong traditional joints

In a mortise and tenon joint, the mortise is the slot or hole and the tenon is the projecting member that fits into it.

Kreg calls the mortise and tenon one of the strongest and most reliable joints for furniture.

Traditional timber frames join timbers larger than 5 by 5 inches with hand-cut joints such as mortise and tenon.

A dovetail joint locks with angled tails on one board and pins on the other.

Dovetails are classic for drawer box corners because the interlocking design resists pulling apart.

Leave at least 1/4 inch at the narrowest part of a half pin for strength.

Pocket holes, biscuits, and glue

A Kreg pocket-hole jig guides the drill bit into the wood at about 15 degrees.

Pocket-hole joints are driven together with self-tapping screws, and the screw head sits in the pocket.

In a biscuit joint, matching slots are cut in both boards, and an oval-shaped wooden biscuit is glued in.

Biscuits can swell and cause misalignment if they are exposed to moisture.

Titebond III is waterproof and approved for indoor and outdoor use plus indirect food contact such as cutting boards.

Do not use Titebond III under constant submersion or below the waterline.

Accurate measuring and marking

A true rectangle has equal diagonals. Measure corner to corner both ways to check square.

If the diagonals differ, the piece is racked. Ease the longer diagonal inward until the numbers match.

A marking knife makes a crisp, fine line with no real width, so a chisel or saw can register against it. A pencil line has width.

Story sticks are shop-made strips marked with a project's key dimensions. They transfer sizes without reading a tape.

Plywood sold as 3/4 inch usually measures closer to 23/32 inch, so measure the real sheet before cutting dadoes or rabbets.

Always measure from the same reference face; switching sides adds small errors.

Sanding before stain

Sand in the same direction as the wood grain. Cross-grain scratches show up when stain soaks in.

Sanding removes the glaze from hot planer blades that can keep stain out of the pores.

For a typical furniture project, start with 100 or 120 grit and then use 220 grit before staining.

For a darker stain color, use a coarser 150 to 180 grit for the last sanding so the wood absorbs more color.

For a typical furniture project, sand with 100 or 120 grit first, then 220 grit before staining.

Conditioning and clear finishes

Soft or porous woods like pine, fir, maple, and aspen can soak up stain unevenly. A pre-stain wood conditioner helps prevent blotchy color.

Match an oil or water-based conditioner to the stain, and apply the stain within two hours after the conditioner.

Water-based clear finishes like Polycrylic usually dry crystal clear. Oil-based polyurethane adds warmth and depth.

Use a synthetic brush for water-based polyurethane and a natural bristle brush for oil-based polyurethane.

Lacquer applied on a cold, damp day may blush, showing a whitish, cloudy haze from trapped moisture.

Lacquer dries so fast that dust specks settling in the finish are not a problem.

Oily rag fire safety

Rags soiled with linseed or tung oil can heat up as the oil dries and ignite in a pile.

A soiled towel, heat, and air together can start a fire. The warning also covers cloths soaked with vegetable cooking oil.

Hang oily rags to dry outside or put them in a self-closing oily rag disposal can. Do not leave them in a loose pile.

Store oil-based finishes and solvents in a metal cabinet.

Chips and sawdust with an oily finish have even combusted inside dust collectors.