Up next in 10
How to Cut Wood Wedges Super Fast - Bailey Line Life #7
2K views
Feb 22, 2024
How to make a simple jig to cut wood wedges super fast, plus my great grandfather's original tools. Tune in every Friday for new episodes of Bailey Line Life! READ MY POPULAR ARTICLES ABOUT: Polyurethane Finish - https://bit.ly/powerbuffing DIY Hoop House Plans - https://bit.ly/hoophouseplans Submersible Pump Installation - https://bit.ly/pumpinstallation Air-Drying Wood Tips - https://bit.ly/wooddrying How to Build a Table - https://bit.ly/tablebuilding How to Stain a Deck - https://bit.ly/deckstain Choosing Waterproof Outdoor Glue - https://bit.ly/exterioradhesives How To Build A Wheelchair Ramp - https://bit.ly/wheelchairrampplans FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: https://bit.ly/2T3USuy PREVIOUS EPISODES: https://bit.ly/2EVDuFg WATCH MORE BAILEY LINE ROAD: Winter Tips - https://bit.ly/2rpnUcm Product Tours - https://bit.ly/2L2H54Q
View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video, I want to show you how you can make a simple homemade jig that lets you cut
0:05
wedges for construction purposes. And if you've built anything at all, really, any kind of outdoor project or finishing your
0:13
basement or a little shed or anything like that, you'll know that wedges can be very helpful
0:19
There's often need to fill certain gaps or to raise different parts up, setting doors, all kinds of things
0:29
wedges often come into construction like that. And one way to get the wedges you want is just with some cedar shingles
0:37
I mean, they're already wedge-shaped, so you can just cut them on the table saw the width you want, and away you go
0:44
But there's two problems with this. First of all, you might not have cedar shingles
0:48
You might not want to go out and buy a bundle just so you can do that
0:53
Another issue is that cedar shingles have a pretty specific ratio of thick end to thin end and a certain length
1:03
So as long as you want a wedge that looks like this, then you can get that from a cedar shingle
1:08
But what if you want one that's thicker at the end or longer or shorter
1:13
You're out of luck unless you make your own wedges. And it's super easy to make them with this jig that I want to show you
1:22
You can use scrap lumber. Scrap, one and a half inch thick lumber
1:26
works perfectly for this. So what I'm going to do, is I'm going to use this piece of wood for my jig and this kind of crummy split prone piece of wood
1:38
I'm going to turn into some wedges. So the first step is to cut the length of wood for your jig
1:49
That's the length of wedges you want. So, I mean, I could choose anything. I'm just going to mark this here and I'm going to make my jig long enough to cut wedges from
1:59
from that particular scrap of wood. So I'm gonna pop over to the chop saw
2:05
and trim this off. So the next step is to create an angled notch
2:24
in one side of your jig piece of wood. It doesn't really matter how far
2:28
up the notch goes but let's just make it here and let's make these wedges
2:36
fairly blunt so fairly wide here going to a point at the end this is not the kind of geometry that you could get from a cedar shingle but sometimes you do want to wedge this thick
2:56
That's the notch, the angled notch, that I'm going to cut out of this piece of wood
3:02
I'm going to use a jigsaw for that. So I've got my jigsaw here. I'm going to make the first cut here
3:09
And then I'm going to make an angled ripping cut there to get that notch
3:13
You could do this with a handsaw if you want it too. I did it with a jigsaw, so it's pretty straight, but it doesn't have to be really straight
3:44
The main thing is that it'd be angled like this, because what I'm going to do, when I use this on the table saw
3:52
is I'm going to put my piece of wood in here that I want to turn into a wedge
3:58
and I'm going to push it through the blade. It's all fully supported against the fence
4:03
It's going to cut that wedge shape. And then I'm going to flip it over, and I'm going to repeat
4:08
and I'm just going to keep flipping and sawing and flipping and sawing. And every time I saw, I'm going to get a wedge
4:15
I want those wedges to come to a very fine point. So I think I'll trim off my scrapwood right there
4:23
And it should, depending on the adjustment of the fence, it should yield a wedge that comes to feathers away to pretty well nothing
4:31
I'm all set to adjust the fence. And like I said, I want my wedges to come to a
4:38
a feather edge. So I'm looking down the blade right now and I'm seeing that I need to inch this over just a little bit
4:46
That should work fine right there. And my, the operation will involve me pushing this through
4:54
cutting a wedge and pulling it back and then flipping over the wood and repeating it
5:08
So I got some really nice wedges here My only complaint would be that the ends didn come quite to the point that I wanted to
5:34
So I'm just going to nudge that fence over a little bit closer to the blade and I should
5:38
get the feather pointed wedges that I really want. So I'm all done
6:06
I've got the wedges I want. Here's the feathered edge I was telling you about
6:11
These are quite short and squat. Sometimes you need wedges like that
6:15
I could make them as long and as thin as I wanted
6:21
This is probably thicker than you'd want for. general purpose wedges but I just wanted to show you how you could do it
6:28
and keep this jig, drill a hole in it hanging on the wall
6:31
and make up another couple of jigs of different proportions and you get some really good result. Lots of times too when you're using wedges
6:41
just a little tip. If you have a space to fill, I don't know maybe you're building
6:44
a basement wall, partition wall and you need to make it shorter
6:48
than the height that it fits in because you have to be able to tip it up And so you've got a gap to fill at the top of the wall
6:56
You shouldn't just use one wedge for project. You should use two because taken together, they will form parallel sides
7:04
So you can slide one against the other and it fills that gap. If you put some glue on there on all sides
7:12
then it's going to lock in nicely and hold it really well. So I certainly like wedges
7:16
Why don't you give it a try and let me know how it works out for you? I don't want to leave you with too much of a negative note after my last rant, so I want to
7:26
show you something that I like that I think is positive. In 1902, my great-grandfather came to Canada from Northern England
7:35
He sailed on a ship called the SS Tunisia. He landed in Quebec City, which is kind of the end of the shipping line at that time
7:44
And then he made his way inland and eventually settled in the southern Ontario area
7:49
When he arrived here, he was a fully trained and certified cabinet maker
7:55
He did that work his whole life. He worked in a shop as a cabinet maker
8:00
But as a sideline, he built houses too. And you can see a number of quite nice houses in Toronto that he built
8:08
In the days when a home builder did everything There was no subbing out A home builder did everything from the foundation to the peak of the roof the last shingle to go on and even to the extent of mixing paint from raw materials on site he left us with his tools and that what we got here
8:31
And I've had a connection with these. This is the very first woodworking tool I ever used
8:37
when I was seven years old, my grandfather, so his son, I should mention my great-grandfather's name was Robert Maxwell
8:45
and his son Ken Maxwell, my grandfather, taught me how to use his plane
8:49
He showed me how to sharpen it, how to set it up, and I planed wood for the first time with us
8:54
and sort of felt the magic of woodworking at the time. There's some other things here, but this is particularly precious to me
9:02
This is the stamp that Robert Maxwell used. to mark his tools. And if you look at the good old plane here, let's see, this is probably
9:14
can you see that? Robert Maxwell there. And we've got some more here. This carving gouge
9:22
we got there. This one has his mark two. I don't know if you can make that out there
9:32
I've used this plane as well, this rabbiting plane. It makes a little groove a certain distance from the edge of a piece of wood
9:46
And I've used this for projects where I just wanted to use hand tools only. This is his sharpening stone
9:54
A couple of little nails here at the bottom so that you can hook over it here over your bench
9:58
And it's not going to slide anywhere as your... Sharpening the blades. So a little bit of legacy from a time when
10:08
manual skills training was taken very seriously. And I just thought you might like to see this and
10:16
let's just finish up by using his stamp. This is a chunk of cherry. This is some leftover handrail I made
10:24
And let's just see how this works here. Thanks for joining me again this week
10:38
Subscribe, like, hit the notifications bell so you know when I put new videos out
10:44
And be sure to check out my website. The information's in the description box
10:48
You can sign up for my newsletter there. Almost 30,000 people get it every Saturday morning
10:53
They love it, and I think you will too
#Construction & Power Tools
#Crafts
#Home Improvement