Thread: How To Improve My Technique

At least you are having a go!! You can't get shot for trying!!!
Please don't think I am patronising you.
By the pics, I think you need to "get back to basics". My take on electric jig saws is that the have difficulty cutting square. I would put the power tools down and work with hand tools. To follow a line and be accurate with a power tool take a lot of practice!
If you can afford to make the shelves smaller I would "re-do" the cut outs with hand tools. Hand saw to start with then use a chisel to "clean up". In doing these joints again you can concentrate on hand and eye co-ordination. Don't be in a hurry and take your time to keep the tools on the right side of the line. Be critical with each part you are cutting and make the next cut out better than the last one you did. Put a joint together "dry" and have a good look at how it comes together and try to make each joint better as you go.

Yes its back to basics and slow progress but you will be learning. I have used this method with stick welding. Even now after 30 odd years of making things from steel, I still put a critical eye over each weld and endeavour to make the next weld better.

Power tools can make things quicker but at the same time they can make a joint very sloppy in a heartbeat. Just because you have a certain power tool capable of doing a task, its you the operator who determines whether or not that task is cut properly

I will take your advice. The jigsaw (in my hands at least) is not the tool for this job. I could probably do a better job with a ripsaw and all the shelves clamped together as in the photo than I've done with the jigsaw.

Perhaps I should get a tenon saw? I see a man there using a coping saw - maybe I should do that? (Buyer's Guide to Handsaws for Woodworkers (4/13) | Wood and Shop)

Cut the shelves out and then clamp them together and plane them down identical and square.

Crosscut or panel saw or something to cut the corners out and finish up with a chisel?

Something like that perhaps?

Jigsaws are not the most accurate of saws for this purpose. If it was me, I'd use my:

Table saw,
Band saw, or
Make the first one to size, rough cut the rest, and use a bearing guided router bit to with the first one as a template and tidy up all but the inside corner and do that with a chisel.

But in reality, I'd dismiss all of those as 'too fiddly' and rework the design using a biscuit jointer, dowels or even pocket hole screws (in my dreams... so read this as 'nail gun and titebond'!), as using a rebate like that adds nothing to the strength of the join. (rebate the uprights if you want strength).

If I wanted a flush edge, I'd simply glue on an extra bit of timber matching the uprights to create it, which would also hide the edge of the MDF.

I've always found that MDF is one of the more problematic materials to work accurately with handheld tools (powered or not)....but since it's not appearance grade, there's no defect that can't be filled with sufficient application of epoxy!

Another thing that may help whichever method you use to cut MDF, make sure all the tools are very sharp as the board will fracture and break out if not. As pointed out earlier, accuracy using power tools is something that comes from long experience. I recently did a job with a chippy who could cut to any line free hand with an electric saw and think nothing of it. Following a marked line with either hand or machine tools is at first the hardest thing to do and deciding which of three options, leave the line in, leave it out, or follow it dead centre is something that needs to be practised. I like Paul Seller's method of creating a knife wall, look it up on you tube and practise. Blunt tools tend to follow the grain, sharp tools tend to follow the line.

Its hard to tell from the photos for sure but I think the problem might have started out at the beginning of the project when the component parts were marked out and cut from the original sheet of MDF.

In photo 1, all the boards appear to be fairly square on the top end but the angles they present to each other may indicate that the bottom ends are not all cut parallel with the top ends. Either that or the surface they are resting on is not level?

If the component parts are not accurately laid out and cut square, you have no hope at all of making the joinery work, at least not if you want it to all match up and be square.

For even the most basic joinery to work you must follow the basics of preparing your stock and laying out the joint.

Pick an edge of your sheet of MDF and check that it is straight. NEVER assume, not even for a new sheet straight from Bunnings or wherever. Then check that the corner at at least one end of that edge is 90 degrees, then pick one square corner and make all measurements from the edges meeting at that corner.

When you can no longer work from that corner see if you can find another remaining corner that meets the criteria and use it, or cut yourself a new corner that you can use.

As I said at the start, I am not sure that this is where your problem started but the photos make me think it is possible.

Good luck with the project

Cheers

Doug

Accurately marking out using good techniques is something that you need to get right before anything. A combination square can be set to a measurement and that measurement put on all the boards, set the next measurement and do the same without any changes to the square. Laying out each board in total is a recipe for variations and this is what you might have done?? Another trick is to use a steel rule as they tend to be more accurate than a tape and always use the same rule or tape, do not mix the measuring device if it can be avoided. For marking out long lengths on sheets or boards with a tape I lay the tape down and then leaving it there put a square across the top of the tape on the required dimension. This helps to minimise parallex error or tape movement as the tape is effectively clamped under the square.

If i was going to do those cuts with one of the tools you mention it would be a circular saw. Ut i use one every day. Even then i would clean up with a hand saw an or chisel.

Jig saw. I only use it where one side does not matter and may score the front edge with a knife so as to keep a good dront edge. Then i use my saw upside down and watch the blade on the top of the board. In this case i dont care about the bottom. Might be scribing a bench top to a wall or cutting an insert for a sink etc

Great you are having a go.

Fixing could be done with a router and fence if that is an option available.

Hand saw is prob best as already said in orher posts

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

For all the advice we give it really comes down to practise, get some off cuts and try marking and cutting with your chosen tool until you get two that are the same. Enjoy the learning, there is much enjoyment to be had from success.

As others have said: jigsaws are far from accurate. You'd be better off marking and cutting by hand - it's a good basic skill to perfect

Yep, it is just as said.. my basic marking out and cutting is at fault and it culminates in bad technique on the jigsaw which is the wrong tool anyway.

I haven't worked off one straight edge on the sheet of MDF from Bunnings - I've assumed the sheet was square and all sides parallel.

Then I've been sloppy putting my edge on the pencil lines - making perhaps a 2mm difference across the width of the board on the cut.

And then I haven't held the saw vertical and I've undercut sometimes. I'll post a pic showing the saw tooth effect I get now when I put those edges together.

I am now trying to figure out a jig to guide the router across the clamped bunch of shelves so's I can use it to cut the rebate. Or at least make a defining first cut at each end.

Maybe I should forget that and go straight for the hand saw. Which I might well do. And saw the rebates all in one across the clamped bunch.

But first I'll put the planer on the clamped bunch and get them all the same size and orientation by which I mean parallelogram or whatever they are if they're not square any more.

Planers are a hassle for me too. I keep taking off too much at one end. You've got to get the hang of lifting it off the end or clamping some waste wood on there or something, don't you? And you don't get any satisfactory shavings. And you don't get the sweet sound of a plane either. Grumble, grumble.

Might finish up reverting to the hand plane as I was taught in school all them yonks ago. But I like to try and get some little bit of mastery on all these modern machines. When you can use them you sure get something done quicktime.

I vaguely remember the tedium and sheer work of drilling lead holes by hand and then screwing screws down into them. We must have had strong wrists in them days.

I took a quick look at a bit of one of that guy's videos. The man with the knife fence. I'll
be looking at some more of them. He's easy to take.DSCF7613 (Small).JPG

Originally Posted by abrogard

Yep, it is just as said.. my basic marking out and cutting is at fault and it culminates in bad technique on the jigsaw which is the wrong tool anyway.

I haven't worked off one straight edge on the sheet of MDF from Bunnings - I've assumed the sheet was square and all sides parallel.

Then I've been sloppy putting my edge on the pencil lines - making perhaps a 2mm difference across the width of the board on the cut.

Sheets of MDF or ply are generally straight and square, but sometimes not, so as I said earlier never assume.

Now take your narrowest board and straighten one edge, make the opposite edge parallel. use your square on the first edge you straightened to establish 90 degree corners. Make the remaining boards the same size as the first one by following the above procedure.

Now mark out your joinery but always reference from your original straight edge. If you reference from the opposite edge it will double any error in establishing the parallel edge.

I will tell you a little story about what happened to me several years ago. I was cutting a rectangle out of plywood on a tablesaw with a fence that I knew to be dead-on square. When I finished and checked it, the only square corner I had was at the start of the last cut. Due to inexperience and probably a bit of unclear thinking at the time, I proceeded to go around that piece of ply about three times to square it up but of course it just got worse.

The only thing I can think of that would have caused this is if there was something small like a piece of sawdust deflecting the fence a bit for the first three cuts.

Little things like that can be enough to ruin a project or cost you lots of time and, even worse, materials.

You will probably waste a bit of MDF sorting this one out but MDF is cheap and experience is valuable so you will finish up in front.

Good luck with the project

Doug

instead of trying to fix all the panels by clamping together and making the same size etc etc. just fix the smallest shelf to the point you are happy with. Then use that piece as a template for a flush trim bit in a router. just use clamps to hold the two pieces together and move the clamps as you go around or use double sided sticky tape to hold the two parts together temporarily. it will leave a internal radius in the corner of the checkouts which can be squared up with a chisel or even your jigsaw.

Here is a video which shows how to make a guide to use with an electric handsaw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIeIZdrbz-Y
The guide you want is about 1 minute 20 secs in from the start. Check your sheet for square and use the guide to correct any problems. Be very careful as it is still easy to cut out of square using a guide, been there and done that and users of saw track systems use all sorts of tricks to get square sheets.

If it is any comfort to you, you are not alone. Making beautiful things is very satisfying. It is also very difficult and can be very frustrating, especially when you compare the wonderful object in your imagination with the raggedy object on the work bench.

Three things have have helped me.

Firstly in keep constantly in mind the fact that I improve constantly.

Practice is invaluable. In 2015 I set my goal to cut perfect through and half blind dovetails. So I made heaps of them. Never got a perfect one but I got very close.

Lastly, I am in it for fun. I don't make any money out of it. If stuff does not work out then there is always next time. If anybody else does not like it to bad. In my shed I am answerable to no man. I am my own boss and it turns out I am a kind and forgiving boss.