Carpentry is a very specialized and unique form of design art that requires precision, vision, and ability. It is also quite an easy skill to acquire, and adds a lot of value to the design industry. As a carpenter, it’s important to look after your tools properly so that they can serve you well in the long run while maintaining a curious mind and staying abreast of design trends can help you respond well to your clients’ needs and preferences.
Below are a few handyman Boca Raton tips that you can use to make the most out of this valuable skill:
Use Support Structures
It’s important to have a few benches around where you can safely place equipment like your miter box saw so that it’s safe and easily available. The benches can also be used as outriggers to effectively catch the tips of the lumber as you remove them, leaving your workspace neat and clean.
Cut Upside Down
A great way to cut plywood and trim doors without making cross cuts is to cut the wood with the good side facing downwards, and if both sides are fine, then you can use a fine pencil to score the wood beforehand with a razor sharp or straight edge knife. This will also help you reduce the splintering.
Calibrate Your Tape
Over time, the two spikes at the end of your tape measure tend to get bent due to occasional dropping. This causes your tape measure to make inaccurate measurements, especially when it comes to translating an inside quantity to a length. An easy fix to this problem would be to straighten the spikes using two plies.
Avoid Miters
Creating miter joints can be quite a struggle when the baseboard you’re working on is tall. However, a very common Boca Raton handyman trick to eradicate and even avoid miters involves decorating the inner and outer parts of the corners with decorative corner wedges.
Do Straight Cross Cuts
In order to consistently get those long and straight cuts, fasten a tinny metal straight edge onto a section of plywood or similar material. When you do this, the lowest platen of the saw uses the straight edge as a fence by rising up. To ensure that you’ve got the right length cut, calculate the blade offset, and be sure to practice this exercise on a test piece of lumber first before you attempt it on the material you’ll be using for the final product.
Pencil Marks
As a rule, your finish marks should be accurate arrow points instead of the occasionally curvy marks that often occur when using a pencil mark. One way to avoid this is by knowing which side of the line you’re supposed to be cutting on and ensure that the tip of the arrow is on the correct mark.
Glue and Stain
Be careful not to get excess glue on the woodwork when you’re staining it. It’s important to be careful when working with glue because if you wipe it off using a wet rag it can seep into the pores and prevent the stains from penetrating.
Practice Makes Perfect
Carpentry requires skills and takes constant practice, so it’s always a good idea to use scrap wood when trying out a new cutting technique. This way you will avoid wasting perfectly good wood on the few mistakes you’re sure to make on those first couple of tries. Also, if it’s your first time doing miters, then you’ll want to start by doing them in an area where it won’t be noticeably visible, like inside the cabinets instead of on the main house door.
