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Let’s start with what a layout stick is (in case you didn’t get it from the earlier post). A layout stick, or story stick/pole, is a full-sized sectional drawing of what you want to make. Your woodworking project can be as simple or complex as you like. The more complicated the project, the more useful a layout stick becomes. It can also get pretty confusing so you should find a way to organize the sectional views that makes sense to you now and will be easily interpreted in years to come. I’ve used layout stick for everything from this simple footstool we make in our Woodworking Fundamentals 2 classes to full blown kitchens (including my own).

From our good friends at earlyamericanfloorcloths.com

The best part of a layout stick is, once you’ve got the layout finished and double checked all the measurements, you won’t need your ruler anymore throughout the building process. Since the layout stick is drawn full size, I take my dimensions directly from the stick itself. No rulers. I’m not sure how it works in your shop but around here the more often I use a tape or rule the greater the chance of making a mistake. When cutting parts to size I can square and end, hold it to the stick and mark off the length without ever thinking about the numbers. 

With any layout stick you want to make sure every measurement in your project is shown at least once (preferably only once but this usually isn’t possible for every part of a project). In the case of the footstool, my stick shows the thickness of every piece of the stool as well as the width, length and position of the part in the end piece. I even show the taper layout of my legs.

From my stick I can gather size and placement of my joinery (in this case mortise and tenon). I first used the stick to cut my rails to width and length. Once cut to size, I used the stick to mark off the shoulder to shoulder measurements and cut my tenons.

After the piece is complete, I can actually double check my overall size prior to glue-up to be sure I didn’t miscut something. I can hold my dry assembled piece against my stick and make sure I have the proper overall height, width and depth. 

You’ve heard all your life “Plan your work and work your plan”. Layout sticks give you that edge. You can work through all the dimensioning and joinery in your head and on the stick before you ever pick up a piece of lumber. For me, on some extremely complex pieces, my layout stick has saved me more time and money than I would have ever guessed. Just the idea of being able to envision how a piece goes together before I actually do the work is invaluable. Once you’ve started using layout sticks in your work, you’ll wonder how you got along without them.

This is a preview of Episode 3.
In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to create a layout stick
• How to select and layout rough lumber for your woodworking projects
• Basic joinery techniques

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First, the video. It’s graphic so be aware of this BEFORE you hit play.

Well, wasn’t that fun? I can still see the router flopping all over the bench top with abandon in my mind. Does that mean we woodworkers should give up our tailed routers? Absolutely not.

Although that may be the reaction of many, those less reactionary should seriously look at what he did and how we should never do that ourselves. It’s like any mistake, you need to learn from it. Everyone talks about tablesaw accidents but routers, especially the new larger horse power models, can cause some serious damage if used improperly.

Now, let’s discuss Matt’s analysis. His first mistake he points out is complacency. In other words he just didn’t think about what he was doing.

I don’t think he meant it that way when he created his video but that’s what it boils down to. He listed within his section on complacency several things to illustrate how he was complacent. Being tired was one of the major things he pointed out and he is correct to do so. When you’re tired, it’s time to quit…no matter what you’re doing, how you’re doing it or what your deadline may be…stop, get some rest and attack it when you’re fresh. While this is a big factor, I just don’t think it’s his biggest mistake.

He gives the example ‘I’m just going to use the tool this way just this one time. What’s the worse that can happen?’ This implies that he thought about the use of the router and chose not to do it safely. I think he’s correct in his “complacency” argument which means he never stopped to think about what he was doing. In the video he had the router set up, the board in place, picked up the router and turned it on and started routing without a thought to what was happening and why. We’ll get to that shortly.

His next section was on misuse of the tool. And while this too was a big contributing factor to the accident, it still wasn’t the biggest. He points out that he’s using the wrong router for the task and he’s once again correct but he didn’t go far enough. His trim router was made to “trim” things off. It’s in the name! What he failed to do prior to turning on the router was think about the operation he was performing and what were the potential problems.

Matt’s last section was about body placement. Again, I think his analysis was on the right path but he stopped short of reaching the goal. He works hard at trying to get you to understand his body position wasn’t being effected by camera placement. I’m sure it wasn’t. Personally, I didn’t see where he was over-reaching to the point it would cause this accident. What I saw was, he didn’t think about what could happen and what would be his escape route if something catastrophic happened.

This all brings us to what I saw and what I think he could have done to avoid this accident. Let’s look at the four major things I think he did wrong.

First, he was taking too big a cut for the size router he was using. This jibes with his idea of switching to a full sized router rather than a trim router but even at that, the cut is just too big to take in one pass given the rest of this setup. I wouldn’t attempt such a deep cut (look at how much router bit is projecting beyond the base of the router) in one pass with any router. One of the things I want you to walk away with from this is, a larger router isn’t going to make the process inherently safer. If Matt had used a 3-1/2 horse power router, he would still have had problems taking such an enormous cut.

Now that I’ve criticized how he did it, let’s take a look at how it could have been done better. First off, regardless of what router he chose, he should have tried to take that pattern cut in several lighter passes. I’m not talking at this point about how much material extended beyond the pattern. I’m talking about how far the bit projected beyond the base. It looked as though he was using a top mount pattern bit to make the cut. In spite of the name, it’s the wrong choice. If he would have thought about how far the cutter extended beyond the base, he might have realized there was no way to control the router once he made contact with the wood.

The better choice would have been to use a guide bushing and take the trim cuts in smaller bites (3 or 4 at least). I know that means making several trips around that pattern but I’m sure the extra 15 minutes would have saved him hours (if not days) of pain. Even with a trim router, this cut would have been a lot safer and manageable with a guide bushing and shallow cuts. He just needed to think through the process better.

Starting on end grain is another problem he had with this accident. Trying to take such a deep cut on end grain at any time is just asking for trouble. And he found it. Again, shallower cuts and starting on side grain (where the grain direction is going in his favor) would have been the better choice had he thought about it.

My next bone of contention is going to cause some controversy, I’m sure. Let me just get it out…I don’t like those hockey puck bench things. Matt mentions that they’re safe ‘you’ve seen the demo with them using a belt sander on a board on top of them and it doesn’t move’. In the inimitable words of Col. Sherman T. Potter…horse hockey. I’ve never liked the pucks nor the mats for routing. There’s too many directional forces at work for them to be secure. Using a belt sander on a board that’s on top of the pucks puts a fair amount of downward pressure on the work. That’s what keeps it “securely” in place. I say “securely” because I’m not standing behind a person using a belt sander with a board on those pucks, are you? Think about it, a bit too much dust between the puck and the board and a drop in downward pressure and you’ve got a rectangular frisbee on your hands…on in your stomach or face.

Let me say this in no uncertain terms. Clamp your work securely to your work surface. If you stop and think about it for a second, no matter what I’m doing, if I have my work locked into a vice or clamped to my bench it isn’t going anywhere.

Matt pointed out how he was going the wrong direction. When I watch the video, it looks like he was doing that from the start. It was my first reaction when I watched the video. It looked like he pushed the router into the work and then decided to move the running router away from himself. At that point it grabbed the end grain and became a rocket instead of a router. I’ll take Matt at his word that he actually intended to go the right direction and accidentally caught the work while trying to back up to his starting point. I just thought it too important to not point out here…DO NOT CLIMB CUT WITH A ROUTER. It’s spinning far too fast and has too much horse power (that little Rigid has a one horse power motor) for ANYONE to control. Matt’s climb cut wasn’t intentional but the inability to control the tool was exacerbated by the depth of cut. The base of the router being so small also contributed to the bit contacting the wood when he didn’t intend it. If he would have thought about what he was doing more, he would never have backed up with his router.

One of the last things I see that Matt did wrong was he used his hand to help secure the wood to the pucks. See my rant on the pucks to understand why I don’t think Matt thought this process through enough. It’s just a couple of paragraphs back so you should be able to find it quickly.

In all of this, I’m not trying to bash my friend Matt Vanderlist. I’m trying to point out Matt’s biggest mistake. It’s one I talk about frequently here at the school, the Acanthus Workshop. If you’ve taken a woodworking class here I’m sure you have heard me talk about it. Matt’s biggest mistake was he didn’t think.

He shut off his brain and used a tool that, for all the reasons he and I have given, wasn’t right for the job. He also didn’t think about how the tool was going to react to coming in contact with the workpiece. He didn’t think about where the tool, the work or the cutter might end up if something when completely wrong. He didn’t think about how to keep his hands out of the path of the cutter when something did go wrong nor did he think about how he can’t move fast enough to avoid injury. He didn’t think about the fact that he was tired and NOT THINKING.

No matter what tool you are using, whether it be hand or power driven, you need to think about what you’re doing. You need to think about what the potential dangers are of the operation. You need to think about how you can position yourself to receive the least bodily injury possible should something catastrophic happen. You need to be alert and focused on the task at hand. In other words, you need to think…constantly. As sad as it may be in some cases, your brain is your biggest safety device. If you aren’t willing to use it, give up woodworking and take up crochet. Think about it.

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You need to be logged in to access this area of the website. Please log in or click the “Membership Registration” tab above to register.

Not sure if you want to commit to a membership? Only interested in this one episode of the show? Well, you’re in luck, my friend. This episode is available for individual purchase but you must register for at least a free membership.The price for this episode of the show is $7.95.

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You need to be logged in to access this area of the website. Please log in or click the “Membership Registration” tab above to register.

Not sure if you want to commit to a membership? Only interested in this one episode of the show? Well, you’re in luck, my friend. This episode is available for individual purchase but you must register for at least a free membership.The price for this episode of the show is $7.95.

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