Steve Batie: Rules for all-thumbs workers

Most woodworking rules of thumb aren’t written down. You learn them as you go along.

You don’t get a pamphlet with your first hammer, and they won’t be among the directions for your circular saw.

Because they’re not, we here at HouseWorks Central thought we’d make up a little list for you, our own private …

Woodworking rules of thumb

Now, before we get into this, I want to address the readers who write to complain whenever I mention a “rule of thumb.”

It’s often believed — and as often discredited — that the term derives from the maximum diameter of the stick with which a man once was permitted to beat his servant, slave or wife.

That’s obviously not what we’re referring to here.

But another theory holds that the term originated with 17th-century woodworkers (yea for us!) who used the lengths of their very convenient thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things.

And that’s just the sort of thing we’re talking about.

So here we go:

Measure twice, cut once: This probably is the oldest rule of woodworking — and one that will save you a lot of waste.

I habitually hold my tape in my left hand to mark with my right. That means I’m reading the numbers upside-down. I can’t tell you how often I’ve cut on the 39-inch mark instead of the 36-inch mark, then had to go back and chop off that last hunk.

Which brings me to:

Start big: When you’re cutting a bunch of varying lengths of wood, cut the longest ones first. You always can make a long piece shorter, but it’s wicked hard to make a short one longer.

Righty tighty, lefty loosey: Virtually all nuts, bolts and screws are threaded so that a right turn (clockwise) tightens them and a left turn loosens them.

(The few things that are reverse threaded — such as the nut holding the blade of a table saw and the one gripping the flush handle on a toilet — are made that way so the action of using the item won’t continually loosen the nut.)

The 3-4-5 rule: Based on the Pythagorean Theorem (you thought you’d never need geometry again, didn’t you?), you can assure a perfect right angle by measuring three inches or feet along one leg, four inches or feet along the other and then adjusting until those marks are five inches or feet apart.

For something really large, like the footings for a house, use a multiple: six, eight and 10; 15, 20 and 25; etc.

Diagonals: If the corner-to-corner measurements of a rectangle are equal, its corners are all at right angles.

Safety first: Before you switch on a power tool, take a good look at where your hands and feet are. Maintain a wide stance and a both-hands grip. And clean up the floor under you. You don’t want to trip on a cast-off when you have a router in your hands.

Grain matters: It’s always easier to chisel or plane with the grain and, in fact, nearly impossible to do so against it, so arrange pieces you’ll have to smooth later to take advantage of wood’s inherent characteristics.

In that same vein, grain can work for you. Before nailing joists, for example, “crown” them: Sight along each one to determine its natural curve and make sure that curve is on the top side of the joist. This makes a nonsagging floor a lot more likely to result.

When gluing up several narrow boards to create a wide one, alternate end-grain (first up, second down, third up, etc.), which makes it more likely the resulting surface will be flat.

Never lift what you can slide, never slide what you can roll: And  never roll what you can get someone else to move for you.

Send your home repair and remodeling questions to: HouseWorks, P.O. Box 81609, Lincoln, NE 68501, or e-mail: houseworks@journalstar.com.