How-To Guides

Everything you need to start woodworking well and make smart equipment decisions — written for real beginners and improving woodworkers.

Anyone standing at the blade rack trying to work out whether 40 teeth or 80 will cut what is on their bench without burning it or stalling the saw.9 min read

Table Saw Blade Tooth Count Chart: Which Blade for Which Cut

Rip solid stock with 24 teeth, crosscut with 60 to 80, and run a 40-tooth ATB if only one blade lives on the arbor. Grind geometry decides finish quality more than tooth count does, and kerf width decides whether your motor can actually pull the blade through 8/4 hardwood at full depth.

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A turner about to mount a blank who wants a defensible spindle speed for roughing, shaping, finishing or sanding rather than a guess based on how the machine sounds.8 min read

Wood Lathe Speed Calculator: Safe RPM by Blank Diameter and Operation

Multiply blank diameter in inches by RPM and keep the product between 6,000 and 9,000 for general turning, 4,000 to 6,000 for roughing an out-of-round blank, and under 3,000 for anything cracked. A 12in bowl blank therefore roughs at about 400 RPM and finishes near 750. Below half its belt-range top speed, a variable-speed head has already given away half its usable power.

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Someone with a benchtop or floor drill press and a bit larger than half an inch, wondering why the last hole scorched and which belt step to move to.8 min read

Drill Press Speed Chart for Wood: RPM by Bit Type, and the Pulley Position That Gets You There

Small twist bits want 2,400-3,000 RPM in wood; a 2in Forstner wants 300-500 and a 3in hole saw wants 250 or less. Hardwood takes roughly 30 percent off every softwood figure. Since a drill press has pulleys rather than a dial, the second table converts each target into the nearest belt step on typical 12-speed and 16-speed machines.

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A woodworker holding two sheets of abrasive with different numbering systems on the back, trying to work out which is coarser and how far up the ladder to bother going.8 min read

Sandpaper Grit Chart: CAMI and P-Grade Equivalents, and Where to Stop on Bare Wood

Up to 220, CAMI and FEPA P-grades track each other closely enough to swap freely. Past that they diverge hard — a CAMI 400 is roughly a P800, not a P400. On bare wood most work should stop at 180 for dense closed-pore species and 220 for open-pore ones, because going finer burnishes the surface rather than smoothing it.

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Anyone with a side-clamping honing guide who wants the same bevel angle every single sharpening instead of a slightly different one each time.9 min read

Honing Guide Projection Settings: Exact Millimetres for Every Chisel and Plane Iron Angle

Projection equals the guide's effective pivot height divided by the tangent of the target angle. For a typical side-clamping guide that puts a 25 degree chisel bevel at about 31mm of projection and a 30 degree plane iron at about 30mm. Measure your own guide's pivot height once, build a stop block, and the number never changes again.

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A shop owner planning or fixing a dust collection run who needs to know how much airflow each machine port requires and how much of the collector's badge figure survives the ducting.10 min read

Dust Extraction CFM by Machine: Duct Diameter, Static Pressure Loss and What Your Collector Actually Delivers

A table saw needs about 350 CFM at its port for chips and 550 for fine dust; a 15in planer needs 600 to 800. A 4in duct physically cannot carry more than about 350 CFM at the 4,000 FPM velocity wood dust requires, which is why upgrading the collector without upgrading the pipe changes almost nothing.

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A home or garage woodworker deciding which hanging air cleaner to buy, and where to hang it so it actually moves the room's air.9 min read

What Size Air Filtration System for a Shop: Size It by Air Changes, Not by the Number on the Box

Multiply your shop's length by width by ceiling height, multiply by 8 air changes per hour, divide by 60. That is your target CFM. Then divide by 0.75, because every rating on every box is a clean-filter free-air number and the filter starts loading the day you switch it on.

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Anyone standing in front of a rack of nailer collations trying to work out whether the job wants 23, 18, 16 or 15 gauge, and how long the fastener has to be.8 min read

Nail Gauge Size Chart: Gauge, Diameter and Real Holding Power by Job

Gauge runs backwards: 23 gauge is a 0.025 in pin, 15 gauge is a 0.072 in nail almost three times thicker. Use 18 gauge for trim under 3/4 in, 16 gauge for 3/4 in baseboard and casing, 15 gauge when the fastener has to cross drywall into a stud, and 23 gauge anywhere the wood will split.

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Anyone drilling for #4 to #14 wood screws who has had a perfectly good pine setting split a piece of white oak or maple.9 min read

Pilot Hole Size Chart for Wood Screws: Softwood, Hardwood and the Species That Split Anyway

For softwood, drill just under the screw's root diameter; for hardwood, drill the root diameter exactly; for dense species like white oak, hickory or ipe, drill the root plus a 64th. Root diameter is close to 0.68 times the screw's major diameter, which is why a single-column chart works in pine and splits oak.

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Anyone building or refitting drawers who needs to know which slide length fits the carcass and how much weight the slide holds when the drawer is all the way out.8 min read

Drawer Slide Size Chart: Length, Clearance and Real Load Ratings

Measure the clear interior depth behind the cabinet face, then buy the longest even-inch slide that fits inside it. Side-mount ball bearing slides need exactly 1/2 in of clearance per side; undermount runners deduct by brand, commonly 42 mm total. Every published load rating is measured at partial extension, so derate roughly 25 percent for full extension and another 25 percent above 30 in of box width.

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Anyone replacing or fitting European cup hinges who needs to turn one measurement off an existing door into the correct hinge, plate and bore position.9 min read

Cabinet Hinge Overlay Chart: Measure What You Have, Order the Right Cup Hinge

Open a door and measure how far it laps over the carcass edge on the hinge side. That one number picks everything: 19 mm of overlay means a full-overlay hinge on a 0 mm plate, 16 mm means the same hinge on a 3 mm plate, and every 3 mm of plate height removes 3 mm of overlay. Bore the 35 mm cup 21.5 mm in from the door edge, 12.5 mm deep.

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A table saw owner whose cuts have gone wrong and who wants to find the one fault responsible rather than adjusting everything at once.10 min read

Why Your Table Saw Burns, Drifts and Kicks Back: Symptom to Cause to Measured Fix

Burn marks come from four things, in this order of likelihood: pitch on the blade, a fence toed in toward the blade at the back, a blade not parallel to the mitre slot, and too many teeth for the feed rate. Check them in that order, because the first costs nothing and fixes maybe a third of cases. Blade-to-slot wants 0.002 in or better over the blade diameter.

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