Innehållsförteckning för July-August 2013 från Woodworker's Journal

DUBIOUS DOVETAILS A funny thing happened when I tried to cut delicate dovetails on my band saw — I made some really awful dovetails. This would not have been a big problem, except we had already designed a dovetailed silverware box for our Small Shop Journal project (page 64) in this issue — and I had appointed myself as the builder. My “small shop” features a band saw, so that was to be my approach. It’s not that I struggle making dovetails. I’ve just never, in 30-plus years as a shop rat, tried cutting them on a band saw. Early attempts (at left — please don’t share this with anyone!) left me less than confident and, with a deadline fast approaching, I wondered how keyed dovetails might look ... and…

Picking Up the Thread Mystery-solving readers bolt down the answer. The owner of the tool presented as April’s mystery, Miguel Angel Hernandez of Veracruz, Mexico, found the item at a flea market. Others found it in their memories. Richard Hill of Fort Collins, Colorado, remembered that his “grandfather had one when I was a kid on the farm. I made lots of homemade bolts from rods for my projects back in the 50s with it.” It is, said David Voight of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, “a blacksmith die.” “Blacksmiths would make rolled threads on round stock to make bolts,” said Marvin “Butch” Ostman of Baldwin, Wisconsin. “The numbers by each opening are threads per inch,” said John Kaiserlik1 of Hawkeye, Iowa. “It was tightened onto a shaft and rotated to form threads.…

I’ve been making Arts and Crafts furniture for many years, and it’s a style that I never get tired of building. This Morris chair design has become a personal favorite and a hit with students in my classes. If you’re comfortable cutting mortise-and-tenon joinery, it’s well within the purview of an intermediate woodworker’s skill set, plus it affords you the chance to try your hand at steam bending the curved arms (see sidebar, next page). Sure, there are easier ways to make the arms by laminating several thin pieces together, but I don’t like to see those glue lines, and I prefer a solid bow arm. The process is more costly, in terms of needing to create a steam box a bending jig or two, but the end result is…

About three paces from where I tested these portable table saws sits my late-model cabinet saw. As a serious woodworker and magazine editor, I can’t imagine not having it. Its powerful 3hp motor, spacious cast-iron tabletop and almost hair-splitting precision makes most other saw options pale by comparison. But all this said, a cabinet saw isn’t everything. The thought of moving that behemoth down the steps to a basement shop sends chills up my spine. I sure can’t toss it into a car trunk to help a friend down the road. My saw takes up a huge footprint of shop floor, and it cost a small fortune. I don’t know of any stationary table saw that sells for less than $700 new these days, and that can empty the coffer…

Contact Information Amana Tools 800-445-0077 Diablo Tools 800-334-4107 Extech Instruments 877-239-8324 General International 888-949-1161 K&M of Virginia, Inc.(PaintHERO) 804-426-4366 JET 800-274-6848 Rockler 800-279-4441 Skil 877-754-5999 The Skil 360 Quick-Select™ 4V Max Screwdriver (item 2356-01) houses 12 of the most commonly used bits in a rotating compartment on the tool and also features the tool industry’s first USB charging capability. Included with the tool are Phillips, slotted, Torx and square drive bits; a bit shifter button on the tool quickly positions the desired bit — illuminated in a bit window — into place, while forward/reverse indicators display the driving direction. The Quick-Select Screwdriver has a 4-volt max motor at 210 rpm. The USB 3.0 port provides new options for charging the tool, such as plugging it into a computer or a car…

Repurpose and Recycle in the Shop Marking Gauge Helps Set Bit Height If you want a really accurate way to set bit height on your router table, start with a wheel marking gauge. Set your gauge to the bit depth you want, and knife a line along the edge of a piece of scrap stock. My gauge has a micro-adjust feature on it, so I can set it to precisely the bit height I need. Use the marked scrap, set alongside your bit, as a height gauge. Raise the bit until it intersects your knife line. Works great! Bill Wells Olympia, Washington Versatile Mobile Base Recently, I built an A-frame clamp rack, and I mounted it on four 3" swivel casters. But, once I loaded the rack with more than…

Built Quick vs. Built to Last Build a Bar, Boys In 8 Hours or Less Kansas City, Missouri, woodworker Kirk Brown had the chance to participate in a cool project last year: in this era of reality television, the George Dickel whiskey company decided to film a “Raising the Bar” bar-building contest at Kansas City’s American Royal World Series of BBQ. Kirk, who normally builds high-end furniture destined for a New York-based clientele, had eight hours to build an impressive bar with his team while competing with other teams. “All of my projects take a lot longer than eight hours, exponentially longer. You can’t make anything really well, really fast — just like you can’t make whiskey real fast.” As part of the whiskey company’s publicity stunt, the teams building…

If the tray portion of this project looks familiar, you might recall that it started out as an online project completed by Rob Johnstone on a CNC Shark machine. But, I don’t have that technology, so Rob asked me to build the same tray and a folding stand to go with it using standard woodworking machines. And, as you’ll see, that is quite easily done with several templates and a router table. The matching aspects, hinge mortises and many curves of this project are much easier to manage with guided router bits than lots of exacting band sawing and drum sanding. So, gather up some nice clear mahogany, and let’s get started. Making Wing Templates There are two approaches to creating full-size templates for the butler tray’s short and long…

I was walking around my property the other day, admiring the majestic redwood trees that grow there in abundance. Although I’ve never seriously considered cutting any of them down, I couldn’t help but imagine how much lumber each of those big trees (many are well over 150 ft. tall and 31/2 ft. in diameter at the base) would yield if they were sawn. Even one or two trees could yield enough lumber for a new deck, a large shed and maybe even a kitchen’s worth of cabinets (hmm…I don’t suppose I’d miss just one tree…). Evidently I’m not the only one thinking about getting lumber from local trees. Nowadays, more and more woodworkers, builders and DIYers are buying and using wood that comes from local trees sawn into lumber at…

This Small Shop... SHOP SIZE: 9’ X 18’ PRIMARY TOOLS: Band Saw Miter Saw Router Table Drill Press Handheld Router Disc Sander Hand Plane Drill/Driver ACCESSORIES USED: Routing Jigs (shop made) Quick Grip Clamps Bench Chisels There are so many choices to make when it comes to starting a woodworking project. What sort of wood should I use, how will I join it, what sort of hardware should I employ (if any)? Of course, the whole thing starts by asking what problem you are solving with this project. (In this case, we needed a storage container for silverware.) And after you’ve got all that decided, you need to figure out how to make it, and do it with the tools that you have on hand (which is at the heart…

Wood, Inserts and Router Bits THIS ISSUE’S EXPERTS Rob Johnstone is editor in chief of Woodworker’s Journal. Chris Marshall is a senior editor of Woodworker’s Journal and author of several books on woodworking. Bill Hylton is a woodworker and author of Woodworking with the Router. 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 I am planning to build a picnic table, and I was interested in your advice on what kind of wood would be the best. I was researching red oak, but that is rather hard to find in anything other than random widths and lengths, and…

Getting the right geometry and a keen edge will make all the difference in the world for your turning output. Last issue, we looked in great detail at bench grinders. This time we will look at an aftermarket jig which, used in combination with your grinder, helps make grinding much more assured. We’ll finish this two-part series focusing on buffers, which are the quickest way to bring spindle turning tools to a keen edge. Although everyone calls them jigs, grinding aids are actually fixtures, but as this boat has left the dock, I won’t try to row upstream in this article. (See explanation at left.) One of the most widely used systems of jigs for sharpening turning tools — and frankly the one I prefer — is made by Oneway…

Recently I needed some door and drawer pulls for a kitchenette I’m building, and this idea for wooden bow pulls hits me. I wondered … can it be done, and would they be strong enough? Off to my shop I go to make a test pull, and I learn both answers are yes! The next challenge was devising a way to make a bunch of them safely, quickly and uniformly. After lots of head scratching, I came up with the steps to accomplish the task, and I found the process to be much simpler than I originally imagined. So follow along and make some for yourself. I chose cherry for my pulls, but any closed-grained hardwood would be fine. Stay away from open-grained woods like oak; they break easily when…

If you don’t have the space or budget for a portable band saw mill, you can still slice up that walnut or oak tree that fell in your backyard by using a chainsaw fitted with a milling attachment. Chainsaw mills such as the Granberg “Alaskan” mill, which sell for between $140 and $250 (not including the price of the chainsaw) provide the most economical way to cut lumber from logs. Their compact size and light weight make them extremely portable, allowing users to cut logs in mountainous or wooded areas that lack any road access. On the downside, a chainsaw mill makes a rougher cut and removes a thicker kerf than that produced by a portable band saw mill. A chainsaw mill attachment mounts to a regular chainsaw that’s been…

Kiln Drying Walnut can be done in a few different ways. Sometimes steam is added to the process either to prevent case hardening or to darken the color of the walnut’s sapwood. Sadly, this can cause the walnut to go gray. In the photo above, a piece of steamed walnut sits next to a piece of solar-dried walnut. The box below them is made from the same solar kiln-dried lumber. We may stain plain light-colored wood, but usually we leave dark wood natural. Walnut can be the exception to that rule, largely because of the way it is processed. Most of the walnut we buy has been wet steamed, a process that turns the very light sapwood into something that approximates the darker (and more desirable) heartwood. Although the experts…