Woodworking Videos: Index

Free Woodworking Videos for the Professional Trim Carpenter : No Fees, No Registration, No Cookies.

I regret that all the woodworking videos here require DSL or Faster connections to view. Their nature requires decent resolution to be worthwhile to the viewer. Anything less would be a waste of your time. Thank you.

Free Woodworking Videos: Index
Latest addition published 23 July 2015. It's
#11 at the bottom of the list. Check back ocasionally.

1. How much pressure? ( 7 MB, 2 minutes 50 seconds )--------Demonstration of the pressure that Clam Clamps exert on miters as well as a few gluing tips.

2. Video Coping Crown Molding ( 41 MB, 8 minutes 18 seconds)
Video Coping Crown Moulding (14 MB, 8 minutes 18 seconds).
Note: These two links will take you to the top of Crown Molding page where the link to the video actually is. The reason is that there is a lot of text regarding coping that you may want to read before watching the video.

3. Video Drawing an Ellipse ( 19 MB, 640 x 480, 3 minutes 48 seconds )
Video Drawing Ellipses ( 10 MB, 320 x 240, 3 minutes 48 seconds )
This is the first of three videos dealing with ellipses, and shows how to draw them simply and perfectly without strings or formulas.

4. Video Making a jig to cut ellipse. (38 MB, 640 x 480, 7 min. 40 sec.)
Video Making a jig to cut ellipses. ( 20 MB, 320 x 240 , 7 min. 40 sec.)
As usual it takes a long time to describe how to make anything and this jig is no exception. However, it is both simple and fast to make with stuff you already have in your router box.

5. Video Cutting an Ellipse (with a router and jig) ( 6 MB, 1 minute 15 seconds)------ This is the final video in the ellipse series, and as you can see, it takes much less time to cut the ellipse than to describe how to get started on it.

6. Makita Power Planes. (20 MB, 3 minutes, 640 x 480)
Makita Power Planes. ( 10 MB, 3 minutes, 320 x 240)
This short video shows how to modify Makita Power Planes to get a 3/16th or more depth of cut per pass for more versatility.

7. Video Slotting casing for Biscuits. (25 MB, 2 minutes, 640 x 480)
Video Slotting casing for Biscuits. ( 4.5 MB , 2 minutes, 320 x 240)
This short video shows the fastest way to slot casing that I have found, without getting cocked slots.

8. Video Tweaking a Biscuit Jointer ( 7 MB, 2 minutes 57 seconds)-------
Video Tweaking a Biscuit Jointer ( 15 MB)
How to widen the biscuit slot on biscuit jointers, and why this should be done. Tips on biscuit jointing and clamping MDF casing.

9. Video Plugging and un-plugging screw holes. ( 8.5 MB, 4 minutes 40 seconds).
Video Plugging and un-plugging screw holes. High Resolution (38 MB). Same length.
Tips on plugging screw holes and removing the plugs when they break off down in the hole.

10. Recognizing Un-copable crown molding. (5 MB, 3 min. 23 seconds.)
Recognizing Un-copable crown molding. ( 25 MB, 3 min. 23 seconds.

11. World's best and cheapest clamps for solid surface edge buildups. No mar, no rust, no fuss. You make them in seconds yourself from scrap pvc schedule 40 pipe. (5 second advertisement, 1 minute video on youtube). This link will take you off this site.

For you watching, installing the clamps on an angle, as Chuck Miller of "Fine Homebuilding" magazine does, distributes even pressure across the width of the rip beneath. It also prevents the bottom rip from sliding in toward the cabinets after being greased up with adhesive. You don't want the top glued permanently to the boxes beneath. That can be a problem with spring clamps if installed perpendicular to the counter top edge because of the accumulated weight of the handles.

PS> You're welcome, Chuck! And thank you for a great video! Better Faster Cheaper!

12.Clam Clamp Video review and demonstration by "Fine Hombuilding Magazine " Editor Justin Fink using Clam Clamps on casing. Thanks, Justin.

13 Production method of casing by one of my customers. A very informative video well worth watching. The reasons why he uses Clam Clamps are spot on, and why I decided to patent and manufacture them in the first place. Efficient System for Mitered Casing utilizing Clam Clamps. My crew used stops as well, but we cut many dozens of lefts without moving the miter saw setting then many dozens of rights leaving them all an inch or two long - well before any doors were hung. All leg money cuts were square cuts once exact lengths were known. If using plinth blocks for doors, the slight differences in heights were made up with the plinths, so all the legs were the same length, and the guy installing the base put them in under the casing legs. Here's the article. Story pole not required. Thanks, Insider

14. Another video by the above customer using HiPur glue with Clam Clamps. Good information once again. HiPur Glue and Clam Clamps . Thanks again, Insider

The technique of dry fitting the joint first, then half-clamping is the way to do it regardless of the type of glue you use and whether using biscuits/dominoes/ dowels or nothing. If the dry fit with biscuits is too tight or cocked - watch videos #7 and #8 above.

Also, I would keep shims cut on the chop saw (out of scrap hardwood 3 or more inches wide cut square on each end) cut WITH the grain from zero inches to 1/4" or so on the glue-up table. You can set the saw at about 1 1/2 degrees and keep flipping the stock to cut them without moving the saw back and forth. Clamp a sacrificial scrap backer board against the chop saw fence first so they don't go flying and so you can easily see where to place the hardwood for the next cut. It will make face aligning way, way easier and faster on twisted casing. This is especially helpful when casing window walls or sliding doors too big to do on a table and too complex to simply do after nailing the casing onto the jambs in place. Then an unsanded floor with cupped plank flooring may be the only option.

PS: Larger shims cut the same way are also handy when installing crown molding - especially when doing it alone and with large stock. After completing the cope do not cut the other end square, but on a slight angle cut flat on the chop saw bed (not a bevel) so the top end is a little off the wall it abutts.

After putting a nail in the wall or proping a 1x scrap leg under the existing "installed" piece to hold the end of your coped end up to the right height, you can stick a shim between the "square" end and the drywall up at the top plate and pound it in to tighten up the cope on the other end, and also hold the "square" end up without any nails while you tack it a couple studs away from the corner. Uh oh. This is sounding like another crown article.

You can adjust the projection of the installed piece you are coping into downward by pounding the shim in on the piece you are installing. But you can't adjust it upward. So don't nail the square end of your first piece up on the "correct" ceiling projection near the inside corner. Tack nail it a little higher than the spring angle ideally should put it, and down the wall away from the corner, and don't finish nail it until after you've got the piece you are working on up. Thin hardwood shims are handy for lots of thing. Cut a slew of them.

Ad Free Off Topic Videos: Index
1. Cutting steel tubing with the Milwaukee Metal Cutting skill saw. ( 9.17 MB)
Model 6370, 8" blade with 5/8" arbor. Comes with "Endurance" blade - a very good blade. A structural steel fabricator, buddy of mine, turned me on to this saw. The saw turns about 3500 RPM and cuts steel glassy smooth, without burrs and without heating the steel. The blade is rated at 5,000 RPM.

If you can't justify the saw but have an old chop saw or skill saw with the right arbor and RPM range you might want to pick up a blade for the odd job. Eye protection an absolute must!!

2. Catching a schoolie Tarpon on a fly with Captain David Applegate, Forida Keys guide. I had fun taking this one (the video, not the tarpon). Though that would have been fun too.

3. Dolphin on a fly rod 27MB (mahi mahi in Hawaii) with Captain David Applegate, Florida Keys guide. I had fun one this one too, especially since the fly rod was in my hand.
Dolphin on a fly rod 53 MB