Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Make Square

Hi, this is a real short post but I thought you might like to see how easy it is to make an otherwise useless scrap piece of wood into a very usable piece. 

Here we go...

This scrap piece of 1/2 inch plywood will be our star today. As you see there are no square edges and no really straight edges either, a woodworkers nightmare! 
 


The trick is to use a table saw sled, since the sled is fixed at 90 degrees to the blade, we get right angles every time.  Find the most stable edge and place it against the back of the sled. Hold it firmly as you make the cut.
 

Rotate the scrap piece so that the edge you just cut is now against the back of the sled. Hold firmly and make the cut.
 


Repeat the last step...



Repeat the last step, once again... It should be looking pretty square by now.




Check the diagonal measurements... 8 1/16 inches here...


And 8 1/16 inches here...viola! We be square!!
 





And here's a usable piece of 1/2 inch plywood! By the way, I used this piece for a drill press jig I'm working on for my next project post. If you like coffee, check back, you might like what I have up next!
 

Thanks for visiting, I hope you like this post and maybe use this trick to square scrap.

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