Innehållsförteckning för February/March 2020 från Woodsmith

A few months ago, I received a visit from Ted Kralicek, the retired creative director for Woodsmith. For over 35 years, Ted designed and built many of the projects that have appeared in Woodsmith. After retiring, he moved to Bentonsport, a historic river town in southeast Iowa. Ted has recently set up a woodworking shop in an old building, where he teaches and does demonstrations of 19th-century woodworking. As part of these demonstrations, Ted designed and built his own shavehorse. (That’s Ted in period costume with his shavehorse in the photo above.) If you’re not familiar with the shavehorse (sometimes called a shaving horse) it’s a traditional work-holding device used by chairmakers and other green wood furniture makers to hold stock while shaping it with a drawknife or spokeshave. Although…

GO ONLINE If you have an original shop tip, we would like to hear from you and consider publishing your tip in one or more of our publications. So jump online and go to: SubmitWoodsmithTips.com You’ll be able to tell us all about your tip and upload your photos and drawings. You can also mail your tips to “Woodsmith Tips” at the editorial address shown on page 3. We will pay up to $200 if we publish your tip. THE WINNER! Congratulations to William Aulick, the winner of a $100 Lee Valley gift card.…

A hand-held router is a great tool for cutting dadoes and grooves, especially on large or wide panels. The key is using a straightedge and a properly sized router bit. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to use a number of methods and jigs for routing dadoes. Each has its benefits and drawbacks but in the end, the results speak for themselves: straight, tight-fitting dadoes that look factory-made. CLAMPING STRAIGHTEDGE One of the simplest ways to get straight dadoes every time is to use a clamping straightedge, as in the photo on the previous page. These clamps quickly adapt to the width of the panel and lock securely without the need for additional clamps to hold them in place. CALCULATING THE OFFSET. The main disadvantage of using a straightedge…

The clean lines and sculpted look of this mellow lamp harkens back to an optimistic time. Fifteen pieces of wood and a dash of Scandinavian styling is the recipe for this project. I chose mahogany for this lamp, because it plays well with the shade that you see in the photo. You’ll make the shade, but it isn’t as daunting as it might seem when you follow the steps that we highlight for you. We’ll get to that later. For now, let’s start with the legs. LEGS.As you see in the main drawing on the next page, the three legs that define the shape of the lamp are each made up of two parts. The longer upright piece is tapered on the outer edge. The inside edge remains square to…

A Posts (4) 2 x 2 - 35 1/4 B Sides (2) 3/4 ply. - 16 3/4 x 33 3/4 C Small Fillers(2) 1/4 x 1/4 - 1 1/2 D Large Fillers (4) 1/4 x 3/4 - 1 1/2 E Lower Side Trim (2) 1 x 1 1/4 - 16 F Dividers (5) 3/4 ply. - 17 1/2 x 34 1/4 G Drawer Divider (1) 3/4 ply. - 6 1/2 x 17 1/2 H Back (1) 1/4 ply. - 32 1/2 x 33 3/4 I Wide Edging (2) 3/4 x 2 1/4 - 32 J Narrow Edging (3) 3/4 x 1 1/4 - 32 K Divider Edging (1) 3/4 x 1 1/4 - 6 L Lower Trim (1) 1 x 1 1/4 - 32 M Feet (4) 2 x 2…

Some woodworking tools thrive with straight, flat surfaces (think hand planes) while others are meant to cut loose a bit. Draw-knives and spokeshaves fall squarely in the second camp. As a result, these tools can be a joy to use and open up a new dimension to your projects. Their freeform nature can sometimes create an intimidation factor for new users. I also believe that spokeshaves and drawknives can be unfairly thought of as simply crude or rustic tools meant for “country-style” projects. Instead, my goal here is to introduce these two tools and show how you can use them in a variety of ways from coarse to refined. DRAWKNIVES While drawknives and spokeshaves are like cousins, it pays to look at them one at a time. Let’s start with…

Often, the size of parts is relative to the size of a project. For example, when building a table, the parts are large. Likewise, when you start to scale down projects, such as the model train in Woodsmith 245, the parts get smaller. When dealing with these small parts, the table saw might not seem to be the best tool. However, with some proper setup and technique, you can use your table saw to tackle these small parts. Here, I’ll take a look at some of the best practices to make safe and accurate rip and crosscuts on the table saw. RIP CUTS The first type of cut we’ll look at are rip cuts. Ripping small parts to width can be tricky. First, you have to feed the workpiece safely.…

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. NAILS IN THE SHOP (p.10) • Rockler Wrought Nails . . . . . . . . . 32366 • Tools for Working Wood Cut Nails . . . . . . . . BT-FFIN.XX PET BED (p.20) • Amazon 28"x 18"Bed . . . .B015ELWK6G The pet bed was finished with a couple coats of clear lacquer. SHAVEHORSE (p.26) • McMaster-Carr Flange Bearings . . . . . 6338K422 • Woodcraft 1"-6 Threading Kit . . . . . . 12T15 The shavehorse…

More Uses for Lignum Vitae I worked for Allis-Chalmers Turbine Division, formerly S. Morgan Smith, and we supplied many lignum vitae bearings for hydroelectric power plants. The pattern shop for the company stocked lignum vitae logs to produce these bearings. The shafts ran on the end grain of the wood, which proved to be the longest-lasting way to make these bearings. (The pattern-makers also made “night sticks” for the local police officers who walked the beat.) The bearings were shipped to the plants in wet sawdust or coated completely in paraffin wax to keep the wood from checking. At the powerhouses, the bearings were stored in mesh bags and kept submerged in water until installed in the units. Just thought you might be interested in the bearing side of this…

Chamfering Edges. Jared Huber of Appleton, WI, found a new use for his card scraper sharpener guide. Jared realized that the 45° fence on the guide was the perfect tool to chamfer the edges of thin parts. The file leaves a smooth surface and the fence on the guide creates a consistent chamfer. Wrap Your Clamp. Beth Reik of Godley, TX, got tired of cleaning dried glue off her pipe clamps. After trying a few options, Beth found that cling wrap was the perfect protection for her clamps. The cling wrap is easy to apply and when it gets glue on it, it’s quick to remove. Now, Beth always has clean pipe clamps for her projects. Push Pop Beeswax. Keven Bell of Jasper, MO, uses beeswax in a lot of…

Working in a small shop, I used to view a shop stool as just one more thing to get in the way of getting a job done. But as I’ve aged, I’ve come to appreciate having a stool more and more. And not just for sit-down tasks. Having a place to take a load off your feet for a few minutes really does make spending long stretches of time in the shop more bearable, as well as enjoyable. This is not just a shop stool, however. The casual styling makes it suitable for a kitchen island or tall table, as well. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of making it yourself. Ours is crafted from walnut and hickory, but just about any hardwood will do. And as an added bonus, this…

As a kid, I spent hours opening and closing the vise on my grandfather ’s workbench. It had wood jaws, a wood handle, and best of all, a large wooden screw. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by projects with wood threads. Deep, V-shaped threads spiral around the outside of a wood cylinder. And these threads mesh together with threads inside a hole (right photo below). But to be honest, I’ve always been a bit intimidated about building a project that required cutting wood threads. To prevent the threaded parts from binding, the threads would have to be identical — inside and out. And that sounded complicated. As it turns out, I was right about one thing. To get the threaded parts to fit together smoothly, the size and spacing…