File this one under: Tricks that everyone knows but me.
Whenever I work against a fence on my drill press, I constantly huff and sweep the table clear of shavings. Why? If even one errant shaving gets between the fence and your work, you can spoil your hole.
I’ve had enough spoiled holes in my lifetime.
A few years ago, Kelly Mehler showed me the following dirt-simple trick and I was reminded of it when I taught a workbench class at his school a week or so ago.
Kelly clamps two fences to his drill press table: One fence is thin and sits near the back of the table. The other fence guides the work. The little space under the fence prevents the shavings from getting between your work and the fence.
It works brilliantly, even when boring out massive amounts of wood, such as when we were making mortises in the legs.
I like tricks like these – no micrometers or gerbil-powered feed rollers.
— Christopher Schwarz