Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct/Nov 2018 i Woodsmith

Way back in Woodsmith No. 65, we featured a child’s rocking horse as our main project. (It’s the one you see in the photo above). That rocking horse turned out to be one of our more popular projects, and we still get requests for the plans and patterns for it nearly 30 years later. I think a lot of woodworkers enjoyed building it for their children or grandchildren. Despite its popularity, I’ve always felt that particular rocking horse design seemed a bit “wooden.” The legs are straight and stiff, and there’s not much life or animation to the horse. So when we decided to do another rocking horse in this issue of Woodsmith, Chris Fitch, our creative director, wanted to develop something with a little more motion to it.…

Straight and square — these are the normal boundaries of the woodworking world. It’s a standard that provides order and structure. But we all love shaking things up a bit. Throwing a curve (or a circle) into the mix is one sure way to add spice and variety to a project. Combining a trammel with your router opens the gate to making smooth curves and circles of any size. And it does this in a safe and controlled manner at the same time. As you know, a router is a tool that spins a cutting bit at high speed. It’s important to always keep control of the tool. Using a trammel is a hybrid of the two classic ways you operate a router. It’s fixed in place, like being attached…

Woodworkers are typically a very giving group of people. Sharing handcrafted projects with others is the ideal way to show you care. So it’s no surprise that small projects, like this candle centerpiece, are so popular. It can be built in a short amount of time and makes the ideal gift for a friend or loved one. WOOD OPTIONS. The beauty of small projects like this is that they give you the chance to use some special wood species because of the small amount of material required (main photo and left photo on the next page). And this project even lets you experiment with the orientation of the grain, as evidenced by the same two photos. CLEVER DESIGN. This centerpiece is designed like a golden spiral, with a stair-step configuration…

Many of us have hobbies beyond woodworking. Whether it’s fly-tying, model making, or jewelry making, they all require a place to work. Providing that work area is where this hobby station wins the day. The main feature that attracted me to this project is that it’s portable. After you’re done working with it, you can simply close up the drawers and trays and store it away. That doesn’t mean it isn’t stable, however. The wide footprint and large worksurface make this a rock-steady platform to work on. STORAGE OPTIONS. As someone who enjoys fly fishing and tying flies, I can appreciate that the storage on this station is geared to hold all those little parts and materials that you need close at hand while you’re working. The four swing-out trays…

Stopped Dadoes. Using a shop-made T-square as a fence with your router lets you make stopped dadoes in the case sides. Mortise for Hinge. A router and jig make perfect mortises for the hinges in the case sides. Tongue Time. Cut rabbets to create tongues on the ends of the case parts. Then trim the shoulders as needed. Notch in the Top. The four corners of the top are notched for the legs at the band saw. Arc Layout. Trace the arc pattern on the top and shape it as you did on the side stretchers. Stopped Dadoes in Top. To rout the stopped dadoes, carefully lower the router into the cut and rout until you reach your layout lines.…

There are a number of terms that help describe hand saws. And being familiar with them will help you understand the two basic types – the back saw (photo above) and the panel saw (photo at right). While they share some basic elements, it’s pretty easy to see the key difference. A back saw has a piece of slotted or folded brass (or steel) along the spine to give it more rigidity. This is important for making accurate cuts with the thin plates used for back saws. The downside is it limits the depth of cut you’re able to make. Since a panel saw doesn’t have this spine, you can “bury” the blade to make deeper cuts. This comes into play when working with larger workpieces, like panels, and you’re…

The “hook” of a blade is simply the angle at which the teeth lean forward (or back) when looking at the blade from the side. Blades are available in a range of hook angles. If the teeth lean forward (so that they face into the cut) the blade is said to have a positive hook angle. If the teeth lean backward, the blade has a negative hook angle. Most saw blades for woodworking have a hook angle ranging from -5° to 20°. Determining which hook angle is best really depends upon the type of saw you’re using and the work you’re doing. Miter Saw. If you’re buying a blade for either a sliding compound miter saw or a radial arm saw, you’ll want to choose a blade with a low…

Sandpaper Alignment Jig I’m one of those woodworkers cursed with having to wear bifocals. So it’s really tough for me to get the holes in the sanding disks lined up with the dust collection ports on a random-orbit sander and to get them back in the container they came in. The simple jig shown here solved both problems. A JIG FOR LOADING & STORAGE. The jig is built using a couple of small parts of hardboard, along with some dowels. Using a sanding disk, I marked the location of the dust collection holes on both the pieces of hardboard. One will become the top and the other will be the base. After drilling holes in each, I installed dowels into the base holes. To aid sliding disks on, I rounded…

There are several styles of trammels available online, from local home centers, or woodworking supply stores. Most are made from plastic, some of which are shown below and in the photo at right. These trammels come predrilled to fit various types of routers. A series of measured holes on the other side of the trammel are used as the pivot point. This lets you cut a circle to your desired diameter.…

In this article, the organizer along the back edge is designed to hold spools of thread and a slot to hold standard tools that would be used for tying fly fishing flies. A second option for the organizer is shown in the inset photo on page 22. This organizer is designed to hold bottles of paint and glue. It also has various sized slots and holes for different tools that are used in modeling. The number of options for the organizer are endless, so customize it to suit your needs.…

Lay Out the Curve. The rocker arch has a gentle curve along each edge. I used a flexible strip of hardboard as a straightedge to draw this curve on one of the long-grain strips. It’s much easier to do this now before bending the pieces. Clamp It Up. Apply glue to all of the strips and, starting in the middle, place clamps around the form to draw things tight. Square the Ends. After the glue dries, clamp the arch to the miter gauge to square the ends. Cutting the Curves. Rotate the arch through the band saw blade to cut both sides of the curve, then sand it smooth. Body Mount. Trace the curve from the arch to the body mount and cut it at the band saw, as well.…

Woodworking tends to be a retreat for most of us. Spending time in the shop is our relaxation and alone time. But the more I look at woodworking forums or pages on the internet, I notice a recurring theme — a lot of us aren’t actually alone in the shop. Many of us enjoy the quiet companionship of a furry friend. Whether it’s a shop dog, cat, goat (no joke, I’ve seen pictures), or anything in between, there are some considerations to keep in mind to keep your shop buddy, and yourself, safe and comfortable. NOISE LEVELS. It’s common knowledge that you should protect your hearing against loud noises. And if you think about it, both canine and feline hearing is much more acute than your own. This means that…

A typical carpenter’s saw has a 26"-long plate. Add in the handle, and the saw gets to be pretty large. That may be fine for most shops. But for my traveling shop, it was too much. I was planning to deal with small workpieces, but I still needed the ability to cut parts to length and rip them to width. For me, that made panel saws a better choice. Panel saws are smaller than a typical carpenter’s saw, making them easy to use around the shop (or on the road) when cuts don’t require a larger saw. Their smaller size means they fit well in a traveling toolbox, but they’re substantial enough to cut through most hardwoods with relative ease. To handle both ripping and crosscutting tasks, I selected the…

Most of the materials and supplies you’ll need to build the projects are available at hardware stores or home centers. For specific products or hard-to-find items, take a look at the sources listed here. You’ll find each part number listed by the company name. See the right margin for contact information. ROUTER TRAMMELS (p.12) • Jasper Tools M270 Circle Guide . . . . . . . . . . . M200 Circle Guide . . . . . . . . . . Model 300 Pro Circle Guide . . . M400 Circle Guide . . . . . . . . . . . The Jasper Tools web site has a directory of retailers that sell their products. Trammels and circle cutting jigs are also available from Rockler and…

Junk Mail Spreader. Dennis Volz of Denver, CO, saves old gift cards and promotional cards out of his junk mail to use as glue spreaders. To dress up the edge for even glue spreading, he uses a pair of pinking shears to cut a serrated edge on the cards. Rack Helper. Dana Meyers of Des Moines, IA, uses a large hose clamp to tighten up the rack on his drill press. By attaching the clamp in the middle of the rack, it tightens down the distorted rack and keeps it from spinning or slipping when he moves his table. Don’t Lose Drivers. Lou LaFrate of Vail, AZ, was frustrated when he had to keep searching for the correct driver every time he picked up a box of…

Most woodworkers eventually get around to adding a dedicated surface planer to their arsenal of shop tools. It’s typically not the first piece of equipment most of us buy, but certainly not the last, either. After all, creating workpieces of a consistent thickness is a critical benchmark for achieving quality projects. But let’s face it, even a full-size planer won’t address every planing job, particularly when dealing with short pieces of stock. That’s where the Safe-T-Planer, made by the Stewart-MacDonald Company (StewMac), comes to the rescue. This simple attachment turns your drill press into a mini planer, capable of planing small parts and workpieces with beveled or faceted surfaces (more on that later). And while it certainly can’t be considered a replacement for a full-size planer, it’ll tackle enough tasks…

Outside Edge. With the pattern attached to the top blank, cut the outside edge to define the pieces. Move In. Move to the middle to cut the inner curve. A couple of relief cuts are helpful to complete this process. Sand Smooth. It’s much easier to sand the entire assembly before cutting the individual top pieces free. Complete the Top. Cut the top pieces apart at the band saw. A trip to the disc sander cleans up the ends.…

There’s no children’s toy more iconic than the wood rocking horse. It’s the one toy that most children will remember well into their adulthood. I have great memories of the hours spent on my simple store-bought horse, pretending to ride the range and herd cattle. But our version here is nothing like what I had as a youngster. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES. One of the first things you’ll notice about this rocking horse is the unique rocking mechanism the horse body is mounted on. Instead of a couple of simple rockers, our horse sits atop an arched support that glides back-and-forth with the aid of a couple bent-steel rods. And all of this is fixed to a solid framework to provide exceptional strength and stability. The other thing that stands out is…

Cut Out the Body. Remove the bulk of the waste for each half of the body before gluing them together. Be sure to stay about 1/4" outside of the layout lines for now. You’ll remove the rest of the waste after gluing up the halves. Glue the Body Halves Together. Spread a liberal amount of glue on the body halves and clamp them together. The extra waste material left around the edges gives you a little wiggle room. Finish Cuts. Go back to the band saw to remove the rest of the waste around the body. Drill Eye Holes. The glass eyes are recessed in a pair of shallow holes on either side of the head.…

One of the best parts of building a project is creating the joinery. It doesn’t really matter what joint it is, either. My enjoyment comes from carefully forming the joints and seeing the parts come together and the project taking shape. Since I added a mortising machine to my shop, I go out of my way to incorporate mortise and tenon joints into projects. There’s an element of fun in making square holes. And the completed joint is as classic and tough as they come. MORTISER BENEFITS. There are any number of methods to make mortises, such as drilling and chiseling or using a router. The main reason I selected a mortising machine is that it forms consistently sized mortises in a short period of time. At the risk of…

Most woodworkers I know combine hand tools and power tools in their shops. But when it comes time to size parts or deal with joinery, they typically turn to their table saw, band saw, or router. That was pretty much how it worked in my shop – until I chose to retire and made a lifestyle change, selling my home and shop to do some cross-country traveling. I wanted to continue woodworking though. I already had most of what I needed for the tasks I expected to tackle. But I lacked a way to break down stock, bring parts to final size, and create rock-solid joinery without access to the usual power tools. What I needed was a set of hand saws suited to those tasks. My challenge was deciding…

Cutting Long Tapers Long and lean legs with a gentle taper add beauty to the display cabinet on page 28. The “lean” part is the result of tapering the leg. The best way to address this challenge requires the table saw sled you see in the main drawing below. It has a series of cleats to position the leg blank at the proper angle. To hold the blank in place, a couple of toggle clamps are attached to tall blocks. The blocks for the clamps, and the rest of the parts as well, are plywood. I started by making the base. One edge runs along the rip fence, while the other is against the blade of the saw. After sizing the cleats, draw the taper on one of the leg…

Hobby Station. Organize all of your hobby or crafting supplies with this customizable workstation. Step-by-step instructions can be found starting on page 22. Candle Centerpiece. Need a gift idea for this holiday season?This tealight candle centerpiece might just be the perfect solution. Complete plans start on page 16. Rocking Horse. You’ll light up a young child’s face when you build our take on this classic woodworking project. We’ll walk you through the construction beginning on page 40. Display Cabinet. Don’t let the elegant appearance fool you — this modern cabinet packs plenty of storage, as well. The woodworking challenges will satisfy the most discerning craftsman.Turn to page 28 to get started.…