Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 175 i Australian Woodsmith

Solving the Swedish yeast ring puzzle after 35 years of pondering happened when I was sitting in a brewery on the West Coast of Canada. On page 36 you can read all about the eureka moment that had me seeing for the first time how a clever Swedish trivet that had graced the dining room table for decades was made. The key to building the yeast ring was a Festool DOMINO machine. Festool has the patents for this clever machine wrapped up until 2027. After that date you can expect clones and the price of this awesome portable mortising machine to fall. We have been weaving woodwork together with dominos for more than 15 years. Over that time, we have pushed the edge of the envelope and got the tool…

SHINWA SLIDING BEVEL Japanese craftsmen think outside the box. Their saws and planes are designed to cut on the pull stroke, they often sit on the floor and use their feet as a vice, plus they use a centre datum for marking out instead of an edge. All very different from the Western ways that have become the default techniques we use. Thinking outside the box is what Shinwa has done with the sliding bevel you see at right. Shinwa makes excellent mitre squares perfectly manufactured to 45°, however sometimes you need angles in between. This is especially the case if you are cutting the right and left stringers for a staircase. What is so remarkable about the design of the sliding bevel shown here is how it flips into…

Woodworking has a number of challenges. None more so than when you have to deal with angled cuts. For most of the projects I build, the workpieces come together at 90°, with an occasional 45° here and there. When I have to deal with angles other than those, I can’t check them accurately with a combination square or easily set up my machinery using the adjustment options offered on the tool. THE SOLUTION. In most cases, you’ll find that a bevel gauge is the tool of choice to solve the problem (photo at left). A bevel gauge is also referred to as a sliding T-bevel, carpenter’s bevel or sliding bevel gauge. Regardless of the name, its purpose is to duplicate an angle exactly, without having to do any measurement. A…

Thirty-five years ago a Swedish neighbour handed me a flat pack challenge. It had nothing to do with IKEA, rather it was two dismantled antique chairs that she had inherited from the family farm just south of the Arctic Circle. It was a real pleasure to cut away the dry rot in the European oak, copy the profiles of what some clever Swede had crafted more than 150 years ago and then re-assemble the chairs. Besides a beautiful smile, my reward was a delightful Swedish trivet. The trivet is a constant marvel. Visitors try hard to work out how it was assembled and are amazed that they can't solve the puzzle. As you will read, I have only recently solved the puzzle myself and have now made several and am…

The siren call of professional-grade gear is tough to block out for home woodworking. Router tables offer a good example. In the past few years, the trend has followed the “bigger is better” line. Even with mobile bases, these continent-sized tools take up significant space in a small workshop. My build-it-yourself approach has several payoffs. In the case of this router table it’s to nestle into a sweet spot for size. The 660 x 460 top is sized for the kind of projects you’re likely to encounter in Austalian Woodsmith. The Hoop pine plywood and plastic laminate that make up the top provide high performance. We used a Kreg plate and lift system that makes bit changes and adjustments easy and accurate. CABINET BASE. Down below, the cabinet is a triple…

BEER CAN SOLUTIONS With no clear glass jars available I decided to have a go at making a brush container out of an aluminium beer can. All it took was a sharp blade and a pair of scissors. As you can see I sliced the top off the can with a blade and then cut four 30mm-long "tongues", folded them in half and then tucked them under to form a safe edge. Who said you can't square a circle! Ross Hughes HOSE SWING ARM UPDATE Orbital sanders are a godsend, which is why I appreciated the swing arm tip from a previous issue (photo below). When I recently replaced the cloth bag on my dust collector, I had an idea. The arm that held the bag looked to be about…

Ten years ago, I was given a Mirka Deros to review and was very impressed with just about every feature of the clever brushless machine and the Abranet sanding discs that came with it. That was until it just stopped! I called the company and they dispatched a replacement, plus a technician to diagnose the problem. The technician asked me how long I had used the machine for and what rpm I had run it at. He opened his laptop and then pressed the Deros sander’s rpm button and ON button at the same time. A clever Bluetooth chip in the sander communicated with the software on his laptop and gave him a history of the machine. It matched both the time and rpm that I had stated. Just amazing!…

Traditionally brewers and dairies used pine pails and tubs to collect milk and brew beer. The pails and tubs would have been washed with water and then placed out in the sunshine and wind to dry and sterilise. The yeast ring on page 36 is made of pine so that it too could be sterilised by sunshine and not impart any flavour to the beer. Modern Swedish ring trivets are made from pine as a nod to this mediaeval tradition. Building a trivet from contrasting timbers was the next step in the adventure. The second trivet I made featured three different species of timber; rosewood, kauri pine and Leichhardt pine. The third trivet was assembled out of rosewood and Canadian white cedar links. Trivet No 2 featured 28 bundles of…

Reversing turning work to better deal with the recesses or spigots/tenons used initially to hold the piece poses more than a few questions. Do you need to? How would you do it? And what’s the safest method? The answers will vary depending on your ability, the type of bowl you’re trying to make and your equipment. Here, I’m going to suggest some of the cheaper – and in some cases free – options available to reversing mounting work. As always, these are just a few types I commonly use and ones that work the best for me. There are numerous other methods of reversing, for example vacuum chucking, but these can be a little on the pricey side, especially for a beginner. EQUIPMENT USED • 6mm bowl gouge • 10mm…

In our next issue we present some chisel tips to make your time in the workshop more productive. We detail how to install European-style concealed hinges and then use this technique when making a fine tool cabinet for the workshop. The garden and our native bees get a hive built in a weekend while the heirloom project is a handmade backgammon board. The designer project is a hall bench with tapered legs. Finally, the lathe gets used to spin colour wheels that will truly amaze you. As usual we feature clever tips and techniques from our generous readers.…

The Festool DOMINO machine has to be the most expensive and well built hand-held power tool in our workshop. The manufacturing tolerances in this German-made wonder are evident when you remove the faceplate assembly from the cutting head (to change cutters). A very pleasing "pop" sounds as the two round alignment rods slip out of the machine head sleeves. One interesting design feature that even the manual does not mention is the aluminium step to the right and left of the faceplate. It is the horizontal centre datum for the cutter. If you draw cross-hairs on a board and then line the lip of the block and the centre datum you will be bang on target! Fundamentally the machine is a miniaturised, hand-held mortising machine. Amazingly versatile and able to…

VIBRATION AWARENESS Mirka has highlighted how easy it is to fall victim to permanent blood vessel and nerve damage when sanding with a random orbital sander. Now that we are aware of the issue it means we need to take extra care centring sanding discs. It also means we need to take even more care centring pad savers and interface pads. Mirka, Festool and Bosch all manufacture thin pad savers and the thicker foam-based interface pads. Available from Carbatec and Best Abrasives. BEVEL GAUGES If you ask Chris Vesper who makes the world’s best sliding bevel he will answer you with a smile. Not only are Vesper sliding bevels a thing of beauty, they are also a delight to use. Other sliding bevels are available from Timbecon, Carbatec and Japanese…