Pushstick

How to Make a Great One!

After recently receiving many, many requests for a plan for a good, reliable and safe pushstick, I thought it was time to make a page for mine. I saw this pushstick on The New Yankee Workshop some time ago, and I've used it continuously since I made it - if it's good enough for Norm, it's good enough for me! I made one from 3/4" plywood and another from 1/4" plywood for narrower project pieces, but the one shown here will be the one made from 3/4" plywood.

It can be made any size you like, but you want to make it big enough so when using it, your hand is far away and above the saw's blade, but not so large as to be cumbersome.

This design, because of the unit's length along the bottom, allows you to exert some pressure on the leading part of your piece as well as the part which is then passing the blade. The small 3/16" piece protruding on the bottom rear of the push stick, will allow you to safely pull the entire piece past the blade and off the table.

PRINTABLE PDF DRAWING [This drawing is courtesy of Fred Hazlehurst of Union, NJ, USA].
Click on this link Pushstick PDF Plan to see and print the printable drawing. Choose 100% from the menu and you can see and print the actual size plan.

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Cut a piece of 3/4" plywood square to 14" x 9" and trace your pattern onto it, so that the bottom of the protrusion on the pushstick's bottom edge is even with one of the 14" sides. Keep the rest of the bottom parallel to the bottom of the plywood. The front end and back end should be at the ends of the piece. If it doesn't fit "exactly" onto the plywood, it will be close. Remember. the "exact" dimensions of this project are not important. This is one of the very few times in woodworking, where "close is good enough". ;-)

IMPORTANT: Cut the bottom out first
It's important to have the bottom cut perfectly flat. If you start by cutting out the handle, it will be impossible to cut a straightside for the bottom.

Run the top edge of your "squared" plywood piece, along your fence, making a straight cut along the bottom line you traced onto the plywood. When making this cut for the bottom edge, stop about 3" short of the protrusion. Turn your saw off while holding the plywood in place. Wait for the blade to stop and then remove the plywood.

With your jigsaw or scrollsaw, cut up from the bottom to form the front edge of the protrusion. Now again with your scrollsaw or jigsaw, complete the cut for the bottom which you started with your tablesaw so it meets with the cut you made from the bottom. Do a little sanding to clean up the bottom edge.

Cut out the handle and body-top using a scrollsaw or jigsaw. Modify the shape a bit if necessary. NOTE: You can vary the width of the handle to fit into your hand better if you wish.

Roundover all edges and sand them all smooth "BUT LEAVE THE BOTTOM EDGE AS IS". You are now done!

Now put that pushstick to good use an future projects. As mentioned above, you may wish to make another from 1/4" plywood for thinner cuts.

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