Preparation is the Key

Being prepared in life for anything that comes your way can go a long in the success that you have. For instance I also enjoy working out and eating right (for the most part).  Now keeping in fairly good shape is preparing for “life”.  Outside in the real world when the unexpected comes my way, like tripping (seems to happen more often than not, …don’t laugh) I find that I’m able to actually catch myself before something important, like my face, hits the pavement.

Woodworking Preparedness

Preparation in woodworking is no different.  I recently taught a class on Basic Box Making.  A lot of the questions revolved around, how can I get the joints so tight? How can I ensure the lid closes properly or drawers move in and out smoothly?  How when I glue everything up, I can’t get the sides front and back to line up or everything seems to be off.  My friend, all of these questions plagued me in my early days.  But I’ve found that preparing your materials is the key to having a successful worry free project.

I usually work with rough boards from the lumber mill.  Everything needs to be worked in some way or another.  Creating straight and true edges using the jointer and planer are some of my first preparations.  Squaring everything up, creating a flat surface on one side using the jointer prior to sending the piece through the planar is not only smart but important having the thickness on plane with both sides.  Taking this board now to the table saw and using a sled designed to crosscut, I square up both ends.  Now call me old fashioned, but I actually check and DOUBLE check all sqaureness (is that a word) using traditional squares that are true.  Leaving an edge and a side not square is a recipe for disaster! Believe me, I know!  So it’s easy to discuss a few of these first initial steps to bring all things square, but let me show you in a video here just what I’m talking about.