11.2: Review Questions

Use these questions to review the major concepts introduced throughout WMT 101.

The questions are not intended to replace machine demonstrations, required safety testing, or hands-on practice.

Safety and Shop Practice

1. When should you ask an instructor for help with a machine or setup?
2. Why are gloves prohibited while operating woodworking machinery?
3. What should you do if a machine makes an unusual sound or vibration?
4. What is a special setup?
5. Why is cleanup considered part of woodworking?

Measurement, Wood, and Lumber

6. How many cubic inches are in one board foot?
7. What is the standard order for writing lumber dimensions?
8. What is the difference between hardwood and softwood?
9. What is the difference between heartwood and sapwood?
10. What is the difference between grain and figure?
11. Why does grain direction matter when machining wood?
12. What is moisture content?
13. What is the difference between plainsawn, riftsawn, and quartersawn lumber?
14. What do 4/4, 6/4, and 8/4 mean?
15. What does S4S mean?
16. What is the difference between bow, cup, crook, and twist?
17. Why should you normally buy more rough lumber than the calculated volume of the finished project parts?

Preparing Lumber

18. What is tearout?
19. What is the main purpose of the radial arm saw in the WMT 101 milling sequence?
20. What are the two primary jobs of the jointer?
21. Why should the most stable side of a warped board be placed against the jointer table?
22. What does the planer do that the jointer does not?
23. Why must a board have one flat face before it is run through the planer?
24. Put these operations in the correct order: straighten one edge, plane to thickness, flatten one face, rough-cut to length.
25. Why is a board left slightly oversize during several stages of milling?

Cutting and Shaping

26. What is the primary advantage of the band saw when compared with a table saw?
27. What is a relief cut?
28. Why should you leave the layout line visible during rough cutting?
29. Why might you drill a starter hole before making an interior jig-saw cut?
30. What is the difference between a rasp and a file?
31. Why should you use several light router cuts instead of one heavy cut?
32. Which stationary sander is commonly used for inside or concave curves?
33. Which side of a disc sander should be used?
34. Why should you avoid skipping too many abrasive grits?

Saw Blades and Table Saw

35. What is the gullet of a circular saw blade?
36. What is kerf?
37. Why do rip blades usually have fewer teeth and larger gullets than crosscut blades?
38. What is the purpose of a combination blade?
39. What is the difference between ripping and crosscutting?
40. Which table-saw guide is normally used for ripping?
41. Which guide is normally used for crosscutting?
42. What is the purpose of a riving knife?
43. What is kickback?
44. Why should you never make a freehand table-saw cut?

Joinery and Adhesives

45. What is a butt joint?
46. How is a half-lap joint constructed?
47. What is the difference between a dado and a rabbet?
48. What are the two parts of a mortise-and-tenon joint?
49. Why are long-grain glue joints generally stronger than simple end-grain glue joints?
50. What three broad factors influence the strength of a woodworking joint?
51. Why should a project be dry-fitted before glue is applied?
52. What is a caul?
53. Why is excessive clamp pressure unnecessary?

Planning a Project

54. What three broad areas should a woodworker consider when evaluating a design?
55. What is the purpose of a working drawing?
56. What is the purpose of a Bill of Materials?
57. What is the difference between finished size and rough size?
58. What is the purpose of a Plan of Procedure?
59. What is relative dimensioning?
60. Why might the partially built project provide a better final dimension than the original drawing?
61. Why are test pieces useful?

Tool Tote and Wood Movement

62. Why is the solid-wood bottom of the tool tote not glued into its grooves?
63. What is a floating panel?
64. Why should opposite sides of a box match each other closely even if they vary slightly from the theoretical drawing dimension?
65. Why should the tote be dry-fitted before final assembly?
66. Why is it useful to fit the handle after the risers have been located on the actual tote?

Sanding and Finishing

67. Why does finish often make surface defects easier to see?
68. What should each successive abrasive grit accomplish?
69. Why is dried glue a problem during finishing?
70. What does it mean to raise the grain?
71. Why must wood be thoroughly dry before finish is applied?
72. Why should oil finishes be applied according to the specific product directions?
73. Where must oil-finish rags be disposed of in the WMT lab?
74. Why can oily rags become a fire hazard?

Board-Foot Practice

75. Calculate the board footage of one piece of 4/4 lumber measuring 8 inches wide × 72 inches long.
76. Calculate the board footage of two pieces of 5/4 lumber, each 7 inches wide × 48 inches long.
77. Calculate the board footage of three pieces of 8/4 lumber, each 5 inches wide × 36 inches long.
78. What is the cost of 6.5 board feet of lumber priced at $9.50 per board foot?
79. A project requires 12 board feet of calculated material. How much should you plan for if you add a 25% material allowance?

---

Answer Key

1. Whenever you are unsure about a machine, setup, material, or procedure, and whenever an operation requires instructor approval.
2. Gloves can become caught in moving machinery and can reduce control and dexterity.
3. Stop the machine safely and notify the instructor.
4. An operation outside normal machine use that requires instructor approval before operation.
5. A clean shop reduces hazards, protects equipment, improves workflow, and is part of professional practice.
6. 144 cubic inches.
7. Thickness × Width × Length.
8. Hardwood comes from broad-leafed angiosperms; softwood comes from coniferous gymnosperms. The terms do not directly describe physical hardness.
9. Sapwood is younger outer wood involved in water transport; heartwood is older central wood that no longer conducts sap.
10. Grain describes the arrangement and direction of wood structure; figure is the visible pattern created by grain and other characteristics.
11. Cutting with favorable grain generally reduces tearout and improves surface quality.
12. The amount of water in wood relative to its oven-dry weight, expressed as a percentage.
13. They describe different orientations of the growth rings relative to the board face.
14. Nominal rough hardwood thicknesses: 4/4 = 1 inch, 6/4 = 1 1/2 inches, and 8/4 = 2 inches.
15. Surfaced four sides.
16. Bow curves along the face lengthwise; cup curves across the face; crook curves along the edge; twist places the corners in different planes.
17. Additional material is needed for defects, milling loss, random widths, grain selection, test pieces, and possible mistakes.
18. Wood fibers lifting and breaking ahead of the cutter.
19. Rough crosscutting lumber to approximately the needed length.
20. Flattening a face and straightening/squaring an edge.
21. A stable surface reduces rocking and allows the jointer to remove the high areas until a flat reference surface is created.
22. The planer makes one face parallel to the reference face and brings the board to controlled thickness.
23. The planer follows the surface placed against its table. If that surface is warped, the planer may simply produce a warped board of even thickness.
24. Rough-cut to length → flatten one face → plane to thickness → straighten one edge.
25. Oversize material provides room for flattening, squaring, smoothing, and final fitting.
26. The narrow blade allows curved and irregular cuts.
27. A cut into waste material that helps divide the waste and allows the blade to follow a curve more easily.
28. The line preserves the intended final shape and leaves material for later refinement.
29. The starter hole allows the jig-saw blade to begin a cut inside the workpiece.
30. A rasp removes material more aggressively; a file generally cuts more finely.
31. Light cuts improve control, reduce stress on the tool, and usually produce a cleaner surface.
32. Oscillating spindle sander.
33. The downward-traveling side.
34. Each grit must remove the scratches from the previous grit. Skipping too far can leave deep scratches behind.
35. The space in front of each tooth that provides room for chips.
36. The width of the cut produced by the blade.
37. Ripping produces larger chips that need more space for removal.
38. To provide a useful balance between ripping and crosscutting.
39. Ripping runs generally with the grain; crosscutting runs across it.
40. Rip fence.
41. Crosscut sled or miter gauge.
42. It helps prevent the kerf from closing around the rear of the blade and reduces kickback risk.
43. Loss of control in which a workpiece is thrown by the saw with considerable force.
44. The workpiece must be controlled by an appropriate fence, sled, miter gauge, jig, or other approved guide.
45. A simple joint in which prepared surfaces meet directly.
46. Approximately half the thickness is removed from each of two overlapping parts.
47. A dado is located within the surface of a board; a rabbet is an L-shaped recess at an edge or end.
48. Mortise and tenon.
49. Long-grain surfaces provide more effective adhesive contact than a simple end-grain connection.
50. Mechanical properties, adhesive surface area, and grain orientation.
51. To check fit, alignment, squareness, clamps, and assembly sequence before working time becomes limited.
52. A temporary piece used to distribute pressure, maintain alignment, or protect a surface during clamping.
53. The goal is full contact between mating surfaces. Excessive pressure can distort the assembly, damage the wood, or cause parts to shift.
54. Function, appearance, and construction/craftsmanship.
55. To communicate enough information about the project's size, shape, parts, and construction for it to be built.
56. To identify the required parts, materials, quantities, dimensions, and material requirements.
57. Finished size is the required completed dimension; rough size includes additional material needed for milling and fitting.
58. To organize the construction operations into a logical sequence.
59. Determining dimensions from relationships between actual parts rather than relying only on numerical measurements.
60. Normal machining and assembly variations can make the actual project a more accurate reference for later-fitting parts.
61. They allow setups, joints, cuts, and techniques to be tested before risking finished project material.
62. The solid-wood bottom must be allowed to expand and contract across the grain.
63. A solid-wood panel held in a frame or grooves while remaining free to move with moisture changes.
64. Matching opposite parts helps the assembly remain square even if the finished dimension varies slightly from the original plan.
65. To verify all joints, the bottom, risers, handle, squareness, and assembly sequence before glue is applied.
66. The actual riser spacing provides the most useful final dimension for the handle.
67. Clear finish increases contrast and often reveals scratches, glue, dents, and uneven sanding.
68. Remove the scratches produced by the previous grit.
69. Glue can prevent finish from penetrating evenly and may appear as a pale or uneven area.
70. Lightly wetting the wood so loose surface fibers swell, allowing them to be cut off after the wood dries.
71. Moisture trapped in the wood can interfere with finish performance.
72. Different oil products have different formulations, application methods, drying times, and coat requirements.
73. In the approved red metal oily-rag waste container with a lid.
74. Drying oils cure through oxidation and generate heat; piled oily rags can accumulate enough heat to ignite.
75. 4 board feet (1 × 8 × 72 ÷ 144 = 4)
76. Approximately 5.83 board feet (2 × 1.25 × 7 × 48 ÷ 144 = 5.83)
77. 7.5 board feet (3 × 2 × 5 × 36 ÷ 144 = 7.5)
78. $61.75 (6.5 × $9.50 = $61.75)
79. 15 board feet (12 × 1.25 = 15)