Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2014 i Woodworker's Journal

What’s Your Wood Choice? SO, WHAT DID YOU MAKE IT OUT OF? It’s the first question that we woodworkers will ask after you tell us: “Hey, I just completed an end table!” (Or chair, or coffee table, or kitchen cabinets.) We want to know what species you used and we want to know why you chose that type of wood. There are lots of reasons for the question: it will help us visualize the piece, it will give us an idea of how hard you had to work to get it done, and it will help us ask you a few more questions. (What finish did you use? Mortise and tenons? Did you stain it?) And we also want to know because it is one of the first questions we…

A Mica Mystery? What’s This? This tool belongs to Ray Elish of Brecksville, Ohio. Ray acquired it from the estate of his late father-inlaw, who became a hardware store owner in the 1880s. Do you know what it is? Send your answer to stumpers@woodworkersjournal.com or write to “Stumpers,” Woodworker’s Journal, 4365 Willow Drive, Medina, MN 55340 for a chance to win a prize! When Gary Saunders of Economy, Indiana, responded to the December 2013 mystery tool, he commented that, “This tool was old when I started to work for the International Harvester dealership in 1963.” Gary wasn’t the only one who knew that the tool belonging to Jeffrey Saylor of Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, is a mica undercutter. “It is used to relieve the copper chips from the mica insulators on commutators/armatures…

Mackintosh meets Mission in this early 20th century design by Charles Limbert. Simple construction and subtle details combine to create a sophisticated bookcase. Charles Limbert (1852-1923) began his career as a furniture salesman before founding his own company in 1894. The company transitioned with different tastes in furniture styles — the 1916 ad shown at right features pieces with Italianate influence — but its heyday was during the Arts & Crafts era. Another 1916 ad, shown below, pictures a living room furnished with Limbert pieces featuring exposed joinery and a rustic look. The Limbert Company, in fact, supplied some of the original furnishings for Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon Hotel. Charles Limbert built his company on a line of Arts and Crafts furniture that,…

These compact but capacious racks will keep your clamps orderly, and all you need is one 4 x 8 sheet of plywood to make them both. Each consists of four deep channels for storing rows of pipe, bar or quick-grip clamps over angled braces. Their back panels span two wall studs for strength, and the pair will shelve upwards of 80 or more clamps. French cleats make wall-mounting both sturdy and easy. It’s a lot of storage for $50 or so! Here’s how to make them. Cutting the Parts to Shape In order to squeeze both racks from one sheet, follow the Cutting Diagram, above, carefully. Start by ripping the sheet into four, 111/4"x 8-ft. strips. Crosscut two 281/4"-long blanks from two of these strips to form the racks’ back…

We all have certain “tried-and-true” products that we wouldn’t soon part with in our shops. Here are seven of our senior editor’s favorites. Rob’s assignment for me this issue came as a question: “What tools would you absolutely not want to be without?” He was hinting at a “deserted island” scenario. And, it was a good muse, because it’s made me search the shop for those tools that really deliver, project after project, as opposed to others that are either used less often or basically ubiquitous. After 13 years on staff, I’ve tried many variations of tools, and the really good ones stand out over time. Here are seven of my favorites. Kreg True-FLEX Featherboards Power tool shops need featherboards for accurate and safe machine setups, and Kreg Tool Company’s…

The ability of ammonia fumes to react with tannin to change wood’s color is age-old wisdom. Nowadays, it’s a quicker, cleaner process than in times of yore. Safety Warning: Strong ammonia is virulent, so wear goggles, gloves, long sleeves, and a good respirator, and even with all that, limit your exposure. Get the fuming chamber set up, suit up in safety gear, quickly pour the ammonia into a bowl, seal the fuming chamber, and leave the area. Our ancestors knew that if you bury white oak in manure, it will turn dark, not from the color of the manure itself, but from the ammonia fumes manure releases. Today we use quicker, cleaner methods for fuming our wood projects. Why Fuming Works The fuming process is a chemical stain: we apply…

Add-ons and Workarounds Nail Returns Clamp to Service The sliding jaw on one of my small bar clamps lost the ability to engage the bar and became unusable. To salvage the clamp, I drilled a hole all the way through the jaw and several evenly spaced holes along the bar. The clamp can now be used through its full range by inserting a nail through the sliding jaw and into any of the holes in the bar that offers the capacity I need. Jim Moorehead Barrigada, Guam Doweling Jig Doubles as a Drill Press Whenever I need to drill a hole into the end of a long workpiece that won’t fit on my drill press, I use my doweling jig instead. I clamp the jig to the workpiece and drill…

Remote Retreat Turns Trees to Guitars When a logging project at Holden Village, a Lutheran Christian retreat in the mountains of Washington, included trees along the edge of Railroad Creek, a frequent guest recognized some as Engelmann spruce. David Olson, a former spruce forest ecologist and a guitarist and luthier, knew that Engelmann (Picea engelmanni, aka "white" spruce) is prized by luthiers for its rich, mature sound and clean, white complexion. David also knew Steve McMinn, founder and owner of Pacific Rim Tonewoods (PRT). PRT supplies nearly all of Taylor Guitars’ spruce as well as serving companies like Gibson and Fender. Steve is "fussy" about the logs he buys, traveling the entire West coast from Alaska down to harvest only about 550 logs a year. Since Engelmann logs tend to…

This lamp not only grabs attention and creates ambience in a room, but also adds a touch of elegance to the home decor. MORE ON THE WEB For even more detailed drawings from the builders, visit woodworkersjournal.com and click on the “More on the Web” tab shown above. Accordion lamps provide a vintage yet elegant feel while allowing you to bring the light to the task. In this “international” project, American woodworker Lars Parrington designed and made a stylish pair of accordion lamps after he saw a scissor-arm mechanism built by fellow woodworker Ronald Walters. Here, he and Canadian writer Charles Mak team up to show you the step-by-step process of how you can build one of these unique lamps. Our accordion lamp is 16" long when closed and can…

If your shop gets as cold as a meat locker every winter, maybe it’s time to install a decent heating system. MORE ON THE WEB For links to a heat loss calculator application for smartphones and iPads and to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which compares energy output and current pricing for common heat fuels and appliances, visit woodworkersjournal.com and click on the "More on the Web" tab icon shown above. Climate wise, woodworkers here in coastal California where I live have it awfully good. There are just a handful of scorching days in the summer and only maybe a dozen or so truly frigid nights every winter. Many of the shops I’ve worked in had little or no insulation, and staying toasty in the dead of winter simply meant pulling…

Shop Tools To-Go QUIK LINK NOTE: See Quik-Link at woodworkersjournal.com for web links to all of these products. DeWALT’s line of heated jackets keep you warm, in or out of the shop. They run off of either DeWALT 20V MAX* or 12V MAX* lithium-ion batteries, providing an average runtime of 4.5 to 15 hours. The heating power is transferred from the batteries to the jacket by a USB power source that can also charge up to two USBcompatible electronic devices. An LED controller offers three temperature settings plus preheat mode, and three core body heating zones: left and right chest, plus back. The jacket is available in four styles: a hooded work jacket, soft-shell work jacket, True Timber® camouflage jacket and True Timber Blaze Orange camouflage jacket. Each has a…

Does a Plane’s Sole Need to Be Flat? THIS ISSUE’S EXPERTS Ian Kirby is the creator of the DVD Using a Hand Plane, available at www.rockler.com. Rob Johnstone is the publisher of Woodworker’s Journal. Chris Marshall is senior editor of Woodworker’s Journal. Contact us by writing to “Q&A,” Woodworker’s Journal, 4365 Willow Drive, Medina, MN 55340, by faxing us at (763) 478-8396 or by emailing us at: QandA@woodworkersjournal.com Please include your home address, phone number and email address (if you have one) with your question. Q When we joint a piece of wood, the infeed table is always lower than the outfeed table. Then why do they stress the importance of flattening the bottom of a hand plane? It seems there should also be an offset in the bottom of…

MORE ON THE WEB For a video of the author demonstrating his technique for grinding a secondary bevel on a bowl gouge, please visit woodworkersjournal.com and click on the “More on the Web” tab shown above. Curiously, how a bowl gouge’s cutting edge is ground can affect how well it performs as a turner attempts to make deep, closed forms. To improve the cut, I grind my gouges in a specific way that includes a second bevel. To fully understand the benefit of secondary bevels, we need to first look at how a bowl gouge works and how its grind has changed over time. At the top of the opposite page, we see a traditional bowl gouge of about 1970 vintage. The flute is U-shaped, the edge is square to…

Even this simply made piece of furniture required significant design work. Our author takes you through the process he used to design and build a highly functional, purposebuilt bedroom valet. You can see from the layout drawing below that the room this piece was designed for is small. It was once my library and drafting studio. It’s now a sitting room and guest bedroom. As a sitting room, it’s a quiet getaway in which to sit and read or watch a television program in which no one else has any interest. As a bedroom, it’s small but quite accommodating. The settee folds out to a comfortable bed; the cupboard will take care of hanging clothes and the folding things which go on shelves. The small white open shelves will hold…

Technically a CA glue, this next generation adhesive combines qualities of cyanoacrylate and wood glue to bring you quick cures, long assembly times, sturdiness and versatility. Don’t be surprised if in the near future, Nexabond 2500 becomes your favorite wood glue and the first one you pick up for a host of applications around your shop. After speaking with the folks at Bioformix, the company which makes it, I took some out for a spin, and the glue and I quickly became fast friends. What is it? Technically, Nexabond 2500 is an enhanced, next generation cyanoacrylate adhesive, but it’s a far cry from the cyanoacrylates you are probably used to. This one is specifically designed to work exceptionally well on wood. It does so by combining the best of both…

Small Shop Journal April 2014 74 Woodworker’s Journal Building an Art Deco Cabinet With its curved sides and functional, pullout drawer, this elegant cabinet can serve as a practical bedside nightstand, an end table next to the couch or a freestanding piece. I’ve always loved the Art Deco style, whether it’s used in architecture, jewelry, tool design or furniture. So when it came time for me to build a new bedside cabinet last winter, I decided to create a piece in that style. The design I came up with, shown in the photos and Drawings, has the geometric lines and simple elegance of a classic Deco piece, yet employs modern functionality: instead of having a drawer or door, the cabinet features the kind of sliding pullout often used in modern…