Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Woodworker's Journal

My father used to tell me about going to the movie theater as a young boy and paying 5 cents to watch the latest episode of the currently running serial. Whether it was The Shadow or The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand, Saturday mornings had cartoons, newsreels and the main attraction. Those days are gone, but Rockler, with help from the gang here at Woodworker’s Journal, has started up an even better Saturday morning event! Each Saturday, Rockler features an online demo video that teaches a woodworking technique, builds a small project or highlights a new product. These are fun and informative — but you’ll need to bring your own popcorn. —Rob Johnstone…

Raised-panel Storage Cabinet Here’s a storage cabinet I built for my son from birch and walnut. I used all mortise-and-tenon joints with supporting cleats. The raised-panel doors were made with a Rockler raised-panel bit set, which I love. I have used these bits on a number of projects. Corey J Smith Bristow, Virginia Bench to Porch Swing Conversion Here’s my modification to the June 2020 English Garden Bench project. By shortening the legs, relocating the leg stretchers and adding eyebolts for the chains, your bench design has become a very sturdy covered porch swing in our yard. I built it from cedar rather than mahogany and painted it. It was a great isolation project during the pandemic, and I have had numerous requests to build more. Dan Hendricks Snohomish, Washington…

Cat’s Eye Shimmer in Wood Chatoyance, from the French chatoyer, meaning “to shine like a cat’s eyes,” refers to the depth and shimmer that some woods exhibit under the right finish and lighting conditions. The word was borrowed from the jewelry trade. Think of the semiprecious stone we call “tiger’s eye” and how its colors flip back and forth from light to dark bands as you view it from different angles. The same is true of some quartered woods, like “bear claw” spruce, “tiger” oak and figured maple. Some finishes tend to enhance this effect more than others: We refer to that as finishing to bring out the chatoyance in wood. Michael Dresdner The New Wood Finishing Book The Taunton Press; ISBN: 1561582990…

In an ongoing effort to give back to local communities and future woodworkers, last summer Rockler donated $50,000 to the Hardwood Forestry Fund (HFF) to support 2021 tree-planting projects across the country. Rockler has donated more than $100,000 to HFF over the last 13 years to fund tens of thousands of tree plantings nationwide. These donations have helped subsidize reforestation projects in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and elsewhere. “We’re proud to be able to help grow beautiful, sustainable forests,” says Ann Rockler Jackson, executive chairman of Rockler Companies. “The North Shore and surrounding forests are a treasure. We know this reforestation project will improve the forest stands and give us a healthy, renewable forest for the future.” Since 1990, HFF has planted and managed more than…

Fresh Twists on Clamping, Setting Blades Surgical Glove Improves Grip Strength I often find wooden clamp handles too smooth to grip tightly when applying clamping pressure to a glue-up. Here’s a simple trick that gives me some extra purchase on the handle: I put on a disposable surgical glove. Its rubbery surface instantly improves my grip so I can give the handle the extra twist it needs. Charles Mak Calgary, Alberta Twist Ties Double as Blade Holders Sometimes even four hands don’t seem to be enough to get a band saw blade mounted easily. To make the job less frustrating, I use long twist ties that either come with a new blade or I find in the kitchen. They hold the blade on the upper wheel while I thread it…

Much like woodworking, crafts such as knitting, gardening and sewing gained popularity as the pandemic caused people to spend more time at home. The satisfaction and fun of these home-based hobbies was enhanced by the utility of their results. Crafters have found joy in the practical projects they have completed. In that regard, it’s been a true silver lining in an otherwise troubling time. Here at the Journal, we’ve been watching the sewing trend, and some have asked us to create a practical sewing cabinet to meet the need. Here it is! This sewing cabinet’s compact size is perfect for a small sewing room or apartment, but the top folds open to a generous work surface. Locking casters enable it to be moved around easily, perhaps to take advantage of…

Wood is a tremendously versatile material. For thousands of years, people have made shoes, tools and buckets from wood, dinnerware, weapons, ships, furniture and jewelry … and the list goes on. The scope of its useful-ness is really amazing. This wide variety of applications cannot only require different wood species but also even wood at various stages of seasoning. “Seasoning” simply means the movement of water out of a piece of harvested lumber. Freshly harvested wood that has a high moisture content is called “green.” This term has nothing to do with the wood’s color. Fully seasoned wood is said to be at a state of equilibrium, but even dried wood with a finish applied to it remains hygroscopic, which means it can absorb moisture from the air. Over time,…

Benchtop planers have proven to be effective and versatile machines in professional and home woodworking shops for decades. When comparing the world of benchtop power tools to their more substantial stationary cousins, these portable planers have perhaps the least drop-off in performance among the group, and they’re affordably priced. Now, with the introduction of this all-new model from Laguna, that performance gap has narrowed once again. What’s New Here The most significant advancement in the PX|12 is its QuadTec I cutterhead technology. It uses the same four-sided carbide insert cutters as other helical-style cutterheads but in a completely different and very clever manner. Rather than being configured in a spiral pattern, its 26 cutters are strategically spaced around the 1⅞"-diameter cutterhead in four straight channels that extend the length of…

When Europeans arrived in North America, 25 percent of all trees in the Eastern forests were American chestnut. They commonly stood over 100 feet tall and as much as seven feet in diameter. Chestnut was truly the “Eastern Giant.” American chestnut never exceeded one percent of the nation’s total hardwood lumber output, but it made up 25 percent of lumber sales for the Appalachian region. When cut, the stump would sprout new stems that grew so fast they would quickly overtop oak and hickory. It was said that a squirrel could travel from Maine to Georgia on chestnut tree limbs without ever touching the ground. Then tragedy struck in 1904: a blight was noticed around the area of the Bronx Zoo, introduced by ornamental Chinese chestnut trees planted at the…

April Tool Redux? Readers Hone In Mike Walker’s T-handled tool with five adjustable cutters — our June mystery tool shown at right — prompted a variety of guesses from our devoted Woodworker’s Journal “sleuthers” as to its possible purpose. Several of you believe that it might have woodworking applications. “This item is a good candidate for a dowel threader,” says David Killingsworth. B. Estes and Scott Kapich both suspect that perhaps it’s a countersinking or counter-boring tool of some sort. “This tool looks like it could be a plug cutter or it could possibly cut a round tenon on the end of a board,” offers John Soprano, and Randy Wolfe believes it could be an adjustable hole cutter. A good many of you, however, think this tool actually belongs…

Today’s thin sandpaper often tears in my quarter-sheet sander. When that happens, here’s how I get more life out of the abrasive. I apply a single layer of duct tape to the back of the torn sheet to fix the tear, and I wrap a bit of tape over the ends of the abrasive face where it’s held by the sander’s spring clamps. Adding the heavy tape allows me to continue to use the sheet of sandpaper after a tear. It also increases the thickness of the sandpaper under the sander’s wire clamps so it stays in place while in use. Jim Wilson San Marcos, Texas…

There are numerous reasons for adding a mortise-and-tenon joint to a spindle. The most obvious is that your lathe bed isn’t long enough to handle the length of spindle you need to turn. Provided the spindle will not be structurally compromised by a joint, breaking it down into several shorter components with jointed ends solves the problem. Using a steel pin as a loose tenon and mortising both halves of the joint will sometimes even overcome strength problems. Aside from compensating for short bed lengths, there are other practical reasons for adding joints to spindles. Let’s look at three of them using several pieces of furniture I’ve built as examples. 1. Breaking Down Spindles Makes them Easier to Move Sometimes it’s much easier to move a piece of furniture, such…

Twenty-five years ago, about the only handheld power tools that could run on a battery were drill/drivers. Now, virtually every power tool has a cordless option. If you’ve been bitten by the “cordless” bug like me, you’ve got a bunch of chargers and batteries to organize! I used to store my chargers in a jumbled mess on a shelf, untangling and plugging them in one at a time when duty called. But this little charging cabinet is going to change all of that for me — and I hope it will help you, too! Its upper two back panels are removable from in front, so you can hang those chargers that have T-slots vertically instead of piling them all on a shelf. But there’s also a shelf inside for other…