Innholdsfortegnelse for Dec/Jan 2019 i Woodsmith

Here in the Midwest, like much of the country, family gatherings and dinners with friends are a common occurrence. And my house is no exception. I love to host friends and family, and I especially enjoy preparing good food for them. My favorite part of these evenings is the time when guests are arriving, the food is cooking, and I have a chance to step away from the kitchen to enjoy a glass of wine and a few light hors d’oeuvres with my guests. If you’re anything like me, however, the light snacks before dinner are always an afterthought. This usually involves rounding up a clean cutting board and knife to slice cheese for everyone. That’s where having a designated cutting board and cheese slicer like the one shown here…

The phrase “campaign furniture” describes furniture that was, historically, designed to be knocked down and packed for travel. This furniture was taken on military campaigns and added some comfort to the evenings. Drawing on those roots, we’ve designed this leather-back chair as a permanent fixture for your home. And, it’s sure to become your favorite seat at the end of the day. LEATHER SEAT AND BACK. The first thing you’re likely to notice about this chair is the hide that is used for the sling style seat and back. The seat is suspended using a series of slots and dowels. We enlisted the services of a local leather shop to have our seat made. But, if you’d like to try your at hand making your own, we’ve included a few…

Charles Eastlake was a nineteenth century architect, furniture designer, and author. His work is the inspiration behind the table you’re looking at here. The distinctive look came about between two better-known style periods — the Victorian and the Arts & Crafts movement. Its stylings are not as ornate and complex as the Victorian period. But, as you see in the photo above, the details are more energetic than the subtle profiles of Craftsman furniture. MATERIAL DECISIONS. Early versions of this table were built using the plentiful supply of walnut that was available at the time. Later iterations were often done in oak. To throw some spice into the mix, we chose African mahogany. As you can see in the images here, the marble top contrasts well with this choice of…

Almost every woodworking project starts out as an assortment of parts. When those parts are straight and square, fences and stops can be used on tools like a table saw or band saw to create accurately sized parts. But it’s not unusual for some parts to have curves, cutouts, and other key details that typically can’t be taken care of with a simple fence setting. And when those shaped parts need to be identical, you need something else in your toolkit to deal with them. That’s where patterns and templates come in handy. They’re life-savers for accuracy, repeatability, and saving time. PATTERNS Although the terms pattern and template are often used interchangeably, I consider them to be different. In my shop, a pattern is nothing more than a two-dimensional representation…

At the heart of many shops is the table saw. There’s a good reason for this. When it comes to multi-tasking, no other tool has the street cred that the table saw does. From ripping full sheets of plywood to creating a fine set of box joints, there are few that rival this tool. My table saw’s duties don’t end there. It’s also my second workbench. I often call upon it to act as an assembly station or a secondary worksurface. While the saw is up to these tasks, they do take a toll that often shows up on the top of the saw. Glue, stain, rust accumulation and random dings all combine to impede the saw from performing its core duty — cutting wood safely, accurately, and smoothly. Not…

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 left margin for contact information. BOX JOINT JIG (p.12) • Rockler Box Joint Jig . . . . . . . . . . . 59032 XL Box Joint Jig . . . . . . . . 50322 CHEESE SLICER (p.16) • Cheese Slicing, LLC 5" Slicer Wire . . . . . . .CW-GRY5 Both the cheese slicer and cutting board were finished with a coat of mineral oil. CAMPAIGN CHAIR (p.26) • Tandy Leather Adjustable V-Gouge . . 31811-00 Overstitch wheel . . .…

Air Filter Remote Holder I recently installed a new air filter in my shop. The new system includes a remote to control the fan. However, I knew that something small like that could easily get lost in my workshop while I worked, so I came up with the remote holder you see here. THREE-PIECE CONSTRUCTION. The holder consists of three parts — a plywood spacer that’s sandwiched between two layers of hardboard. The plywood spacer has a cutout to cradle the remote, and the front hardboard acts as a lip to keep it in place. The crown in the back piece of hardboard provides a place to attach it to the wall. I also added a finger notch to make it easier to remove the remote from the holder. This…

Sticky Plugs. Max Doyle of Hazelton, IA, didn’t like how plugs would roll off his band saw table as he cut them free. To solve this problem, Max uses a piece of painter’s tape over the plug faces. Then, after he is done cutting the plugs, he peels the tape back and pulls the plugs off as he needs them. Saving Fence Adjustment. William Aulick of Cincinnati, OH, was changing bits in his router table and needed to keep the same fence setting. To solve this, he registers the fence location with two clamps. With the bit changed, he can slide the fence back to the clamps and the same position.…

Box joints are an excellent choice when it comes to decorative joinery that also provides a tremendous amount of glue surface. Plus, there’s a number of ways to create the machine-cut box joint slots — ranging from the table saw to the router table. For the majority of the box joints I make in my shop, I routinely use a shop-made jig to support the workpiece while cutting the box joint slots on the router table. However, a typical shop-made jig only allows you to make one size of box joint. So a new jig needs to be made each time you change to a different size box joint. Because I turn to box joints quite often for my projects, I thought it was about time I gave a commercially…

Rout Rod Groove. Using a cove bit in the router table, rout a shallow stopped groove in the handle of each frame blank. Cut the Frames. At the scroll saw, cut out the slicer frame. Stay to the waste side of the line and use a fine-toothed blade. Stopped Hole. With a brad point bit, carefully drill a stopped hole in the end of the slicer frame for the wire end. Cut a Slot. Grab a hand saw with a thin plate and cut a kerf in the slicer frame, cutting half way into the stopped hole.…

Drilling Blanks. Counterbore the outer blanks of the idler roller. Then, drill the through holes in the rest of the blanks. Shallow Grooves. Create a shallow groove in the face of the outer blanks of the drive roller at the table saw. Removing Waste. Remove the bulk of the waste at the table saw by knocking off the corners of the glued-up blank. Final Rounding. Use the jig at the router table to “turn” the roller, then taper each end to create a crown. Bearing Cap. A circle cutter in the drill press is a quick way to cut the bearing cap to size.…

Basics of the Jig. The two pieces that make up the jig are held together with glue and screws. The fence the bit runs against is wider and longer than the cleat. The cleat holds the jig flush to the edge of the spindle. Shaping the Jig. The band saw is the tool to turn to when cutting the curve to make the cove profile in the jig fence and cleat. After the rough cut is done, smooth the profile with a sanding drum on the drill press. Routing the Coves. Start by clamping the jig to the spindle and take the setup over to the router table. There, use a long flush-trim bit to make the cove. As you’re going, make light passes to avoid burning the spindle.…

Building accuracy into any project requires the right tools. In my shop, my 12" combination square is always at hand for checking my progress in most cases. But depending on the project, a combination square may not be the best choice for the task I’m working on. To solve these challenges and complement my combination square, I’ve added some additional squares to my collection, as you can see in the photo below. They’re not all that expensive, and I think you’ll find they’re a great upgrade to any woodworking shop. (To find out where to purchase these squares, refer to Sources on page 66.) Of course, a square won’t do you much good if it isn’t accurate. The box on the next page shows a simple way to check the…

Sanding Strips. Henry Wittmer of Runnels, IA, likes to cut strips of sandpaper for sanding turned workpieces and curves. To help strengthen the sandpaper and keep it from breaking or ripping, he backs the sandpaper with heavy-duty tape before cutting it into strips. Dust Shield. Leslie Nason of Waterford, WI, was recently installing hardware overhead and the dust from the drilling was falling into his face. To fix this, Leslie drilled through a plastic bottle cap and left it on the drill bit. The cap catches the sawdust and keeps the debris off his face. Standard to Metric. Tom Moss of Bradenton, FL, found that trying to eyeball a conversion between metric and standard on his steel rule was tricky. To convert between the two, Tom folds…

We all use wood glue in our projects and we take it for granted that it’s going to hold joints together. Gaining a better understanding of how glue works can actually improve your results, however. CHEMISTRY AT WORK. PVA (polyvinyl acetate) wood glue is the most common type of adhesive for the woodworking shop. It’s the white or yellow wood glue you can find almost anywhere tools and supplies are sold. But what is “PVA” and what does it mean for the woodworker? To answer this question, I contacted Bob Behnke, chemist and technical services manager at Franklin International, makers of Titebond wood glues. Bob explained that PVA wood glues are basically a mixture of microscopic polyvinyl acetate polymer particles and polyvinyl alcohol that is suspended in water. Glue manufacturers…

While the Rockler box joint jig works great for the smaller sized parts of the tool tote, what do you do when it comes to the big projects, like a blanket chest or large cabinet? Well, it turns out Rockler has that avenue covered as well with their XL Box Joint Jig. As the name implies, this jig not only cuts larger box joints ( 1/2" and 3/4"), it also has a larger base and fence system for supporting much larger workpieces. Instead of attaching the keys to the fence like on the regular jig, the anodized aluminum keys on this jig attach to the base with a couple of screws. But switching between sizes is just as simple as before. And the addition of a front locking fence helps…

Transporting tools is often a necessary evil. Woodworking projects frequently keep us moving around the shop during the build process, and sometimes around the home when it comes time to install our finished pieces. So why not have a tool tote that’s as nice as the projects we turn out? Based around the concept of a traditional carpenter’s toolbox, this version adds a few practical and distinctive details that can’t be found in commercial models. It’s sure to showcase your woodworking talents, as well as the pride you take in your tools. CURVES & COMFORT. This tool tote was designed with comfort in mind. And that starts with the carrying handle. The gentle curve makes gripping the handle agreeable, even when you’ve got it loaded down with tools. In addition,…

Decorating a project like the Eastlake table that’s on page 46 means diving into some historical woodworking techniques. Before electric routers, decorating furniture and cabinets meant breaking out custom planes to dress the edges and profiles of workpieces. A scratch stock is a variant of those custom planes on a smaller scale. While there are router bits that create some of these profiles, you can save money by making these tools for special profiles that you might not use that often. Scratch stock is a name that loosely refers to the wood part that holds a cutter that “scratches” the workpiece. The combination of the two can be used to create many different profiles, from a simple bead on the edge of a board, all the way up to a…

Roller Jig Turning the rollers for the edge sander (page 34) presented a bit of a challenge. Since the blanks are drilled before glueup, getting the blanks centered on the lathe to turn them round would have been difficult. Instead, I used the simple router table jig you see here. It serves two functions: It turns the blanks round, plus slightly tapers each end to create a crown. This crown helps to ensure the belt tracks true. SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION. The drawings below show you how to construct the jig out of plywood. The idler roller blank is fitted with the bearings and shaft (no bearings in the drive roller). The shaft feeds through the ends of the jig. This assembly is held in place with a stop collar at each…