LUNT CARPENTRY

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Driving a nail home in two or three hits comes with practice—lots of practice

And anytime you goof and mark a line in the wrong place, be sure to run a squiggly pencil line all the way through the bad line when you draw the correct one. Otherwise, you'll have two lines to choose from when you cut, and—inevitably—you'll sometimes pick the wrong one.

Now suppose you're ripping (cutting with the grain instead of across it) down the length of a long board, or cutting across a full-sized sheet of plywood. Sure, you can mark the V on both ends of the board, so you'll know where to start and end your cut, but your square won't reach all the way across, so how can you mark a straight cutting line between those points? Well, it's time to pull another handy aid out of your well-supplied tool belt: the chalk line . This is a string that's covered with colored marking chalk. Pull the end out of its case, hook its tab over the near V on your board, run out some string (keeping it off the board), line it up on the far V and pull it taut. Then lift the string ( straight up) in the middle (keep it taut now) and let go (Fig. 4). It'll snap down against the board. Lift the string off, winding as you go, and the chalk it shed when snapped will leave a nice straight line that marks the entire length of your cut.

A few chalk line pointers: Get a blue one; red chalk lines are rainproof and practically indelible. Don't use it on wet wood—damp chalk will gum up the inside of the case. If you can't hang the string's tab over a board end, drive a nail partway in at the starting point and hook the tab over that. If you have to mark a long line, have another person snap the middle of the string while you hold the taut end. Need an exceptionally long mark? Have that assistant pin the string down in the middle and then snap the line on both sides.

One more thing to consider before you cut: You'll need to support your board on sawhorses or a table. Don't brace both ends and cut in the middle; the board will sag in and trap your saw blade. Instead, support the long side of the board, as close to the cutting line as possible, then saw off the short side.

You'll have to vary that arrangement if both pieces are going to be long. Otherwise, the free-falling piece will be so heavy it'll break off before you finish cutting and leave a splintery stub. In that case, ask a friend to hold the free end. If no one's around, put a third sawhorse under the falling piece, not at its far end (remember the pinching problem), but near the middle of the falling piece, just a little toward the cut (Fig. 5).

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