I decided to get started building some stuff with wood. I've selected for my first project the Sturdy Work Bench. Tonight, I went to Home Depot and picked up a pine 2x4 to "practice" on, along with some basic tools—a saw, a mitre box, a square, and some other stuff. No power tools, yet, but give me time.
Anyway, as I was looking at the 2x4, a silly question came to me. Most of the ends are smooth, but the cut ends are very rough. In the even that these are exposed at the end of a project, do you just sand them down?
Sorry—this is a really inconsequential question. I'm pretty far away from building anything that will require proper finishing. But I figured there was no harm in asking.
Thanks!
claydowling
Mon, 06/11/2012 - 19:20
Ends
What is the miter box you purchased like? Is it a plastic frame, or a saw sliding in a metal frame, or a wooden frame for your back saw?
Except for very fine joinery saws, the ends from hand sawing are always slightly rough. Traditional wood joinery techniques solved this problem by not showing the ends of boards. If that doesn't make sense, look at mortise and tenon joinery.
When you have to show the ends of boards, you can clean them up with a hand plane on a shooting board. It's kind of complicated to describe in a forum post, but there are good videos and articles about how to build them and use them. Here's a picture of mine: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=374623545882671&set=a.133534716… But you'll need other pictures and some instructions to completely understand what it is.
djdrysdale
Mon, 06/11/2012 - 19:49
The mitre box is just a
The mitre box is just a plastic frame. It was cheap, and I just wanted something very basic for now. I just want to be able to cut the cheap pine 2x4x4 up and practice putting pieces together--it won't need to look nice.
Thanks for the information. A friend will let me use his power saw—am I right to infer from your explanation that this won't create such a rough edge? And, does this mean that when I do build something, I should make sure that any exposed ends are machine-cut, unless I want to hand plane them?
claydowling
Tue, 06/12/2012 - 18:43
Avoiding the box
I didn't like my plastic miter box very much. I do have a Craftsman miter box that works pretty well, similar to the Stanley miter boxes. If you get a little instruction on the use of a backsaw, you're likely not to need the miter box unless you have a specific angle you need to recreate. For smaller projects, like a table, this works a little better than a powered saw. No setup time and won't take a finger.
A good blade on a quality saw will leave a clean cut. But that kind of thing costs, both for the saw and the blade. A circular saw won't give such a great end, but a miter saw or table saw would do it if properly tuned.