Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2021 i Woodsmith

Make it a set. As a woodworker, we have so many possibilites to take familiar projects in a different direction. Take the humble bookcase. We’ve featured dozens (just take a look at www.WoodsmithPlans.com). When a new bookcase plan came up on the schedule, we decided to work it into three-piece home office collection that started with last issue’s desk and wall cabinet. The challenge is coming up with a design theme that looks good together without being repetitive. Of course, the bookcase looks great on its own, too. We’ll be featuring this set in season 15 of the Woodsmith Shop later this fall. Speaking of design, I got to play designer a bit, myself. The router table fence on page 48 is my own creation based on a shop need.…

Apron Helper. Carol Roy of Grand Rapids, MI Carol found herself switching between a drill bit and driver on a recent project. Instead of putting the bits in her apron pocket only to get buried in dust, Carol used a pair of magnets clipped to her apron. That way, Carol can snap the bit, driver, and screws on the front of her apron. Foam Painter’s Points. Seth Deitrich of Port Hillard, MA needed a few painter’s points when finishing a project. Seth utilized some polystyrene scraps he had laying around his shop. By driving a long screw through squares of foam, they create the perfect, quick painter’s points. The foam holds the screw so it doen’t fall over, and you can support the piece without marring the freshly finished surface.…

Crafting joinery and connecting pieces of wood into larger assemblies is the part of woodworking I enjoy most. Learning different joinery methods can enhance your enjoyment of woodworking and even open up new possibilities. I gravitate to a few well-practiced techniques as a result of this searching and learning. With this in mind, let’s take a mid-level look at a joinery category I call wood insert joinery — dowels, biscuits, and dominos. THE SPECTRUM. For a frame of reference, let’s string out our options on a line. On one end are simple joints: nails, screws, glued butt joints. On the other end are more complex wood-to-wood joints like dovetails, mortise and tenon, half laps, etc. Wood insert joinery lies closer to this traditional end. Project parts are joined with pre-made…

Depth Hole. Use a Jacobs chuck and a drill in the tailstock to drill into the blank. This sets the target depth for the inside of your funnel. Use a fairly large bit — about %/8" works well. Guideline. Measure and use a marker to draw a line where the bottom of the funnel will be. Start The Hollowing. Working from the center out, start hollowing the funnel with a square carbide tool. A very light touch will cut beautifully, while a heavy cut will chip the resin. Straight Cut. When you’re down to depth, use a round cutter to make a finish cut inside the funnel. Make light cuts in a perfectly straight line from rim down to the center point of the funnel.…

Let’s take a trip back to the early 19th century, where Thomas Day, a furniture designer and maker, was in his prime. Born into a free African-American family in Virginia, Day had set up shop in Milton, North Carolina and was a skilled craftsman of some renown. Today, Thomas Day’s furniture and architectural work is easily recognized through out the South and his work has been showcased in museums across the country. INSPIRED. Taking inspiration from his work, we’ve designed and built this daybed. Made from rich walnut, it calls forth some details that Day was known for. Those details are namely, the ogee curves in the back rail and ends, along with the details on the feet. And while these details may look challenging to create, a handful of…

The story of this router fence weaves three strands into a fun-to-build project. The first strand consists of a compact router table featured in ShopNotes magazine. Ken Munkel designed it for small routers and it works phenomenally. The table plans include a fence that rides in T-track in the top. It’s designed with sliding, adjustable faces. For the second thread, I recently built a version of that table to go with a new compact router for my home shop. The only shortcoming (in my opinion) of the table is that the fence isn’t easily adjusted in fine increments. Sure, you can use a mallet to “micro-adjust” the fence. But I wanted a little more control. The final strand is Pat Warner, a furniture maker and grand admiral of router jigs…

When it comes to woodturning, I often get asked about carbide tools and if I recommend them to a beginner. My answer is almost always the same: “If you want an easy-to-use tool and don’t want to learn to sharpen, then yes, use them.” However, that’s not to say that they don’t have a place at a traditional turner’s lathe (I consider myself a traditional turner). So here, I want to dig into some of the finer points of carbide turning tools, how they’re used, and how you can use them at your lathe. THE BASICS. As you can see in the main photo above and at left, carbide turning tools look a little different than traditional cutting tools. A carbide tool consists of a handle with a steel bar.…

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen some form of “river” furniture — epoxy blended with wood to create a piece of furniture. That idea is often used in wood turning, and is what we used for the martini glasses on page 22. Here, I’ll guide you through creating these amazing, wood and cast resin blanks. STABILIZE FIRST. To get the best casting possible, it’s best to stabilize the wood you’ll be casting. Stabilizing fills the cells of the wood with a resin to keep it from expanding and contracting. It also makes it a little easier to turn, in my opinion. To do this, start by baking the wood at 220° for 24 hours. Allow the blank to cool in a sealed bag. This removes almost all moisture from the…

It seems that whenever you want to make a replica of an existing piece, even something as simple as a barrel, there can be lots of upfront work to do. Most of that work has to do with measuring parts exactly and keeping track of how they interact. But that’s just not the case with this little gem. This planter is made out of cypress, and has the look of a barrel that’s been salvaged from a previous life and resurrected for a new duty — holding floral decorations in the corner of your patio. Which is a perfect use for cypress. Cypress is easy to work and is a durable option for fences, patio furniture, and birdhouses. You know, outside stuff. If all those angles you see in the…

There are all sorts of ways to cut circles out of plywood or lumber in your shop. In my shop, the band saw and jigsaw jump to the front. The problem is that they both leave you with rough edges to contend with. I don’t mind sanding and smoothing curved edges, but there’s a way to avoid all of that work — your router. Well, your router and a trammel. As you see in the photo above it doesn’t always have to be a fancy setup to give you a perfect circle with a finished edge. This simple trammel is nothing more than a piece of hardboard with a block glued to it. The block has multiple pivot holes for predefined circle sizes. BUILT TO LAST The trammel you see…

When it comes to cutting bevels, I often turn to my hand plane if the angle isn’t critical. When the bevel needs to be accurate, such as gluing up a staved container (like the planter on page 26), my table saw can’t be beat. Getting a clean, accurate bevel are easy to do with a couple of steps. Here, I want to walk you through some of the steps I take to get accurate bevels every time. DITCH THE SAW GUIDE. Most, if not all, table saws come with angles pre-marked on the saw, and you can tilt the blade following these guides. Forget them. Sure, you can calibrate your saw and set stops for the angles, however if you’re off just a fraction, your angle isn’t going to be…

Diamond Sharpening Stone. If you’re the type of person that orders a new cutter before you need it, then I’d like to shake your hand. I usually discover that my edges are dull before I’ve ordered a new one, however. Luckily, as you wait on a new cutter to arrive, you can stretch a little extra life out of your carbide cutter with a diamond stone. By rubbing the top of a standard carbide cutter on a diamond stone, you can freshen up an edge. It won’t be as sharp as a new cutter, but it’s often good enough to get by until your replacement cutter arrives.…

Size the Base. Start with a piece of hardboard that is longer than the leg blank and more than twice the width of the blank. Set the saw blade at 80° and rip the first edge. Layout the Leg Blank. On an extra-wide leg blank, draw a centerline. Measure and mark the width of the top and bottom of the leg. To layout the outside edges, draw a line between the two marks. Fitting Side One Stops. Align layout marks with the beveled edge of the jig base. Hold the blank in place and glue the stop blocks to the jig base. When the glue is set, make the cut. Fitting Side Two Stops. Spin the jig and the workpiece 180° and align the other layout marks with the edge.…

On occasion, sequels work out just fine. Like the Godfather Part II, right? This bookcase, a follow-up of the desk and shelf from last issue (Wood-smith 253) might not be as powerful of a second act as that, but it’s above average in several categories. As the photos here reveal, this is more than a bookcase. It starts out at the top with generously sized shelves. But as you continue down the bookcase the tiered openings get deeper, expanding your storage options. Lastly, there’s the large drawer in the bottom of the case. It’s attached with full-extension drawer slides that make it easy to open and close the drawer. And the full-extension feature provides access to the whole drawer. Like the desk, the bookcase is made of hard maple for…

One of the keys to a successful woodworking project is assembling all the parts into a whole that stands the test of time. More often than not, some type of adhesive is used to hold everything together. And one glue that’s stood that test of time is hide glue. I know what you’re thinking, hide glue is for traditionalists, or maybe you’re thinking it’s too troublesome to use. Well, I’m hoping to give you enough information about its uses and advantages to give it a shot on your next project. WHAT IT IS Hide glue has been used by furnituremakers for centuries. It gets its name from the fact that the glue is made from the collagen protein found in animal hides (horse or cow hides). Traditional hide glue is…

Vertical Jig. One of my favorite jigs for the table saw is a vertical clamping jig, such as you see here. With a jig like this, you can extend the limits of your bevel cutting abilities and make more acute angles (detail ‘a’). This jig is also dual-purpose if you have a right-tilt saw. Because the left wing of the saw doesn’t have the same capacity as the right, you can still cut bevels on larger panels by holding the panel vertically. Then, you can make the cut and allow the waste piece to fall away without becoming a kick-back hazard. For plans to make the vertical jig, go to: Woodsmith.com/254…