Rasps, spokeshaves, carving tools, sanders, drill presses, clamps, and 1:1 templates

Published on November 03, 2026

Shape wood on paper drafting sheets with rasps, spokeshaves, carving knives, and gouges, sand and rout curved outlines, bore on drill presses, laminate blanks in bar clamps, draw spline curves, and print 1:1 full-size PDF templates.

Sawdust now models a full suite of shaping, sanding, drilling, and clamping tools across My Shop and the workbench: wood rasps, spokeshaves, carving knives, carving gouges, an oscillating spindle sander, a 5-inch random orbit sander, benchtop and floor drill presses, and parallel bar clamps. Alongside the new tools, you can draw smooth splines with the Curve pencil, saw two-view compound profiles on the Bandsaw, rout curved outlines against a pilot bearing on the Router Table or Handheld Router, build with round birch dowel stock and six new adhesives, and print 1:1 full-size templates on paper.

The Rasps tool open on a curved poplar forearm, showing the paper drafting sheet with six shaping modes, a dragged stretch along the top outline, a 3/8-inch roundover section drawing, and the 3D rasp preview below.

Hand shaping tools: rasps, spokeshaves, carving knives, and gouges

Open the Chisel family tile in the Build tool rack (or browse My Shop -> Tools) to work wood with four kinds of hand shaping tools. Each catalog tool carries its real dimensions, store links, and published minimum concave reach (the tightest inside curve the tool can follow):

Wood rasps: The Rockler 6-Piece Wood Rasp Set (included in the starter Tool List) follows inside curves down to a 3/16" radius, working with the half-round rasp's crowned face.
Spokeshaves: The Bench Dog No. 151 Spokeshave (also in the starter Tool List) and Stanley No. 151 Spokeshave fair long convex and gentle sweeps with a two-handed draw stroke.
Carving knives: The Flexcut KN300 3-Knife Starter Set (in the starter Tool List) and BeaverCraft S15 Whittling Kit reach right into sharp inside corners (0" minimum radius).
Carving gouges: The Flexcut Craft Carver 11-Piece Set (SK111) and BeaverCraft SC05 Palm Gouges pare swept hollows, coves, and sculpted forms.

Every hand shaping tool opens on a paper drafting sheet laid over a dark walnut board. Instead of forms full of text dropdowns, you pick what to do from six small pencil drawings on the left of the sheet and set every dimension or stop directly on the drawing:

Round over: Click the top, bottom, or both corners of the cross-section drawing to round or square them, and drag or click the radius leader to size the round. Pull the orange dot on the plan outline to round only a stretch between two points (leaving a square shoulder for a hinge tongue or tenon), or close the dots together to go all the way around.
Egg: Carve a blank into a smooth three-axis ellipsoid sized directly on the side, top, and end views.
Turned: Shape a revolved profile along any of the blank's three axes by dragging station radii, sliding stations along the blank, or clicking + to add a station.
Sections: Define elliptical cross-sections at stations along an axis, seen from the side, from above, and end-on. A section's center can sit off the axis (such as an upturned nose), and the surface fairs smoothly between stations without bulging past them.
To lines: Pick any face on the unfolded six-face cross and draw a profile curve across the pad (or click a line already pencilled on the board). The sheet hatches the waste side; click the X on the hatching to flip which side is removed.
Between lines: Click one of the twelve edges on the isometric box, choose Flat, Round, or Cove, and draw or pick a guide line on each of the two meeting faces so the bevel, roundover, or cove widens, narrows, or fades out along the edge.

The Sections shaping sheet showing side, top, and end-on cross-section drawings with draggable station dots and an axis selector above a carved basswood nose.

The Hand Saw and Chisel now use the same walnut-bordered paper sheet. You pick Crosscut or Rip on the hand saw, and Recess or Chamfer on the chisel, from pencil tiles at the top right, drag orange dots on the cut line, kerf bottom, or recess walls, and click any pencilled number to type an exact dimension.

The redesigned Chisel paper sheet on a dark walnut board showing Recess and Chamfer tiles, draggable orange dots on the recess walls and floor, and shop notes along the bottom margin.

In Show me how, share-page tool views, and build films, hand shaping tools replay stroke by stroke. Each tool checks its 3D mesh against the workpiece so the blade contacts the edge while the handle stays clear of the wood, revealing a half-radius pass on the first lap around the outline and the finished round on the second.

Share-page tool view replay showing the Bench Dog No. 151 spokeshave working the curved edge of a bandsawn forearm beside its paper sheet.

Spindle sander, bearing-guided outline routing, and random orbit sanding

For power-tool edge rounding along curved parts, add the Rikon 50-320 Oscillating Spindle Sander in My Shop -> Tools (paired with Rikon and POWERTEC sanding sleeves checked by drum diameter and length). Open the Spindle sander on any board to round the top, bottom, or both outlines all the way around or between two points, down to a 1/4" inside radius. During replay, the board feeds clockwise against the counter-clockwise spinning, oscillating drum so it never makes a climb cut.

The Spindle sander stage set to round a 6-inch stretch along the top outline of a poplar board to a 1/4-inch radius on the Rikon 50-320.

The Router Table and Handheld Router also gain an Outline work mode. Select a bearing-guided profile bit (such as a roundover, chamfer, Roman ogee, or cove bit, now carrying their pilot bearing diameters) to ride a curved top or bottom outline all the way around or between two points. On the router table, the fence comes off so the workpiece rides the bit's pilot bearing directly, and the geometry engine refuses bits without a bearing or inside curves tighter than the bearing can enter.

Router table tool view showing the fence removed and a curved wooden forearm riding a bearing-guided roundover bit in Outline mode.

To sand flat faces through the grits, open the Makita BO5041K 5-Inch Random Orbit Sander. Pick the faces to sand, select a progression of grits from coarse to fine (40 through 320, with a warning if you skip more than double a grit), and choose whether to record the surface finish or remove a set thickness (such as sanding a laminated glue-up flush). Your project's shopping list automatically includes the matching Norton or WORKPRO 5-inch 8-hole hook-and-loop sanding discs for each grit.

The Random orbit sander stage with the Makita BO5041K set to sand the top and bottom faces of a pine panel through 80, 120, 180, and 220 grits.

Drill presses and round birch dowel stock

Sawdust now models benchtop and floor drill presses in My Shop and on the tool stage: the Rikon 30-100, JET JWDP-12, WEN 4206T, and WEN DP1263V, alongside Rockler and IRWIN Marples Forstner bit sets. Holes over 1/2" require a drill press (drill_large), and each press enforces its chuck capacity and quill stroke depth. On stage and in replay, the drill press raises its table to bring the workpiece 1/4" under the bit and feeds the quill down to your target depth.

The lumber catalog also adds round birch dowel rods in eleven diameters from 1/8" to 1 1/4" (in 36" sticks and multi-packs, plus Craftparts Direct toy axle pegs in the hardware library). Dowel stock carries a true round profile with top, bottom, front, and back reference facets so you can crosscut pins to length, bore cross-holes on the drill press, and glue dowels into blind holes.

The JET JWDP-12 drill press boring a 1/2-inch hole through a round birch dowel on its table alongside the Face, Hole, and Depth controls.

Laminating glue-ups with parallel bar clamps and six new adhesives

When you glue boards face to face to build up a thicker turning or carving blank, Shift-click two touching boards and open the Clamp tile. On the paper sheet, Sawdust draws the two boards end-on with their glue line inked in brass, finds their touching face, and lets you name the resulting blank. Committing the step unites the two pieces into a single laminated part that later saws, drills, and shaping tools work as one piece of wood, while the cut sheet still lays out each individual layer on its stock board.

Glue-ups and clamp steps stage Rockler 24", 36", and 48" Sure-Foot Plus Aluminum Bar Clamps (alongside Jorgensen 36" Cabinet Master Parallel Jaw Clamps and the Work IQ Vise in the catalog), picking the shortest bar length that spans your assembly at one clamp every 6 inches and sliding the jaws tight during replay. Beyond standard PVA wood glue, glue operations can now specify six specialty adhesives: Stick Fast CA (thin, medium, thick, and flexible), Starbond EM-150 medium CA, and System Three T-88 structural epoxy.

The Clamp stage showing two 9-inch pine boards laminated into layer_1_blank on the paper sheet above a 3D preview of two Rockler 24-inch parallel bar clamps.

Curved pencil lines, two-view bandsaw cuts, and blade radius checks

Open the Pencil menu (U) and choose Curve (drawn with a bent wooden batten icon) to sketch smooth spline curves directly on any board face. Click points along your path (clicking within 1/4" of a board edge snaps onto the edge so a saw blade can enter cleanly), and press Enter or click the last point again to finish.

A smooth S-curved pencil mark drawn from edge to edge across the top face of a 1x12 pine board in the 3D workshop.

The Bandsaw's Follow a line mode now lists straight and curved marks on every face of the board, not just the top. When you pick a mark on the front or back face, the bandsaw stands the board on edge under the blade guide so you can saw a two-view compound profile (sawing the plan view on the top face first, then standing the kept piece on edge to saw the side profile). Catalog Timber Wolf blades also enforce their published minimum radius of cut (5/8" for 1/4" x 6 TPI blades, and 2 1/2" for 1/2" x 3 TPI blades), refusing curves tighter than the mounted blade can turn.

The 10-inch WEN BA3962 bandsaw stage in Follow a line mode with an 18-inch pine leg stood on edge to follow side_line on its front face.

Printable 1:1 full-size templates and nested joint articulation

To transfer curved layout lines and carved cross-sections onto real wood in your shop, choose Project -> Export -> Full-size templates (PDF) or click Full-size templates PDF under Publish -> Print. The 1:1 PDF includes:

Curved layout lines and hatched waste: Every pencilled curve prints at exact 1:1 scale on its board face with the face's edges labeled, and any line used by a To lines shaping step hatches the waste side.
Form views and station section cards: Every carved form (egg, turned, or sections) prints side and top profile views with gold ticks at each station, followed by 1:1 cross-section cards drawn inside the blank's dashed end outline so you can cut card templates to check your work at each station.
Automatic tiling with registration crosses: Small templates pack together onto shared pages, while templates longer than a sheet tile across multiple pages with a 1/2" tinted overlap band, circled registration crosses to align and tape the sheets, and a 1" scale check square on every page.

A page from the Full-size templates PDF showing 1:1 side and top views of a carved nose with gold station ticks and a 1-inch print scale check square.

For articulated builds with multi-joint limbs (such as an elbow hinge mounted inside a shoulder joint), open joints now compose from innermost to outermost in the 3D viewport and in build films, and the collision checker sweeps inner joints with their carrier joints open.

Shaping, sanding, and laminating for connected assistants

Connected AI assistants over MCP and Dusty in chat have full access to the new operations and catalog tools:

shape: Name any rasp, spokeshave, carving knife, gouge, or spindle sander in tool_def and pass round (with optional span), form.ellipsoid, form.revolve, form.sections, form.lines, or edge (flat, round, or cove between two marks).
rout_edge with outline: Pass outline: {face: 'top' | 'bottom', span?: ...} with a bearing-guided router bit to rout curved outlines.
sand: Sand faces through coarse-to-fine grits with tool_def: 'makita_bo5041k' (or by hand) and an optional remove thickness.
glue with result and spec: Unite touching pieces into a single laminated blank and pick from PVA wood glue, CA glues, or structural epoxy.
mark with via: Attach arc or bezier segments to mark endpoints so cut_along and shape follow smooth curves.

- id: side_line
  op: mark
  on: { part: leg }
  endpoints:
    - { face: front, at: { length: 0, thickness: 1.5 } }
    - { face: front, at: { length: 7, thickness: 1.2 }, via: { arc: { bulge: 0.08 } } }
    - { face: front, at: { length: 10, thickness: 1.05 } }
- id: carve_leg
  op: shape
  piece: leg
  tool_def: rockler_6pc_wood_rasp_set
  form:
    lines:
      - { mark: side_line, waste: left }

For instructions on watching step-by-step tool replays or connecting your assistant, see How to watch a part's fabrication with Show me how, How to read a Sawdust cut sheet, and How to connect an assistant to Sawdust.