Here’s a cheap way to make all the finishing “pyramids” you need for supporting parts while they dry. Bevel rip a strip from the corner of a piece of 1-1⁄2″-thick stock at 45° to form a long prism shape. Then, attach an auxiliary fence to your table saw’s miter gauge. Hold the scrap with the wide, ripped edge flat against the miter gauge fence and down against the saw table. If you pivot the miter gauge 45° in both directions, two cuts will create a pyramid. Mark the fence where the outer edge of the first pyramid intersected it. Repeating this process, and aligning the wood with your fence layout line, will produce a small waste piece and then a second pyramid. A three-foot strip of scrap will quickly turn into a dozen or more handy pyramids, all the same size.
-Serge Duclos
Delson, Quebec
