Tabla de contenidos para October 2019 en Woodworker's Journal

Handy Helpers for Machine Tune-ups Nut Notations There are some nuts and bolts around my home and shop that I need to loosen from time to time, but I can never remember their specific sizes. So, rather than try numerous sockets or wrenches to find the right one, I just mark the correct fraction or metric notation on or near the fastner. Now, thanks to these notes, there’s no trial and error. Joe Colangelo Carrollton, Texas Rip Fence Alignment Jig Here’s an easy jig you can make to dial in your rip fence’s parallelism to the miter slots and blade. It’s just a hardwood runner that fits in the miter slot with a plywood crosspiece glued to it. Make the crosspiece overly long at first, and be sure to glue…

In this third part of my burl series, I’ll overview how to do the final turning of core separations by showing how I dealt with the three bowls I cored out of a cherry burl in my August 2019 article. I showed the harvesting of that burl in the first installment (June 2019). This job entails a thorough understanding of chucking and, while I will use four-jaw scroll chucks in the article and video, a glue block would work just as well. It is possible to keep chucking recesses on the largest bowl in any coring for the simple reason that it must be chucked to core it in the first place. Likewise, a chucking recess may be scraped into the smallest bowl before coring it out. Therefore, these could…

Sometimes a familiar form, such as a low table, can take you by surprise. You know with just a glance that this little project is a coffee table — its height and shape clue you in immediately. But then the details start to catch your attention. Its edges are thick and irregular. But there are also several strong rectangular shapes that jump out at you: the inlaid stripe of ash lumber, the glass plate in the center and the black, tubular steel legs. And then there is the walnut lumber. Thick, live-edged with bark inclusions, its grain wraps around the table, highlighting ble By WJ Staff heartwood and sapwood. Those light and dark colors are amazing — even surprising. We found the walnut at a local sawmill, which is a…

Q I’m looking for the best way to finish this tray so that the bottom surface will be level. Thinking epoxy, but I’m not sure if the cork will create too many air bubbles, and I have never used epoxy before. I’m also considering inserting Plexiglas®, but I’m not sure of its stability and how to attach it. A last possible option is just to brush on a coat of urethane. Michael Krajeski Dillsburg, Pennsylvania A Personally, I’d be reluctant to try an epoxy fill for this application. The ideal circumstance for epoxy is when you can fully access the entire surface of the “pour” once it cures, for leveling/sanding/polishing. With your project, I’d be concerned that the raised handles are going to get in the way of smoothing/flattening the…

Nestled in the rural Appalachian foothills about two miles from Berea, Kentucky, the Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking had been offering world-class woodworking instruction since 2004. That was interrupted in January 2015 when Mehler was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He suspended the facility’s course schedule indefinitely, and its future as a woodworking school seemed uncertain. Still, in dark times, hope can come from unlikely sources. Earlier this year, neighboring Berea College — a top-ranked, four-year liberal arts school and one of eight federally recognized Work Colleges in the country — stepped forward and purchased the school from Mehler, renaming it The Woodworking School at Pine Croft. This past July, Pine Croft received its first class of students who completed a two-drawer Shaker-inspired Side Table, under Kelly Mehler’s tutelage. Berea’s…

Woodworking has both changed and stayed the same over the centuries. We used to make so many things from wood — shoes, buckets, houses, weapons, windmills — a full list of its purposes would be both substantial and amazing. Today, the things we make from wood are fewer, and where we get our wood has changed as well. For instance, I’ve walked into a barn constructed in the late 1800s that was made primarily from black walnut. Walnut was the type of trees found on that Iowa farm, and the farmer built from what he had. In our modern world we often buy our wood products at lumberyards and big box stores, often already milled to specific sizes and dimensions and sorted by species. That’s real handy and useful. But…

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) live for centuries. Life spans of 600 years (some live more than 1,000 years) is not uncommon. In fact, they don’t reach full height until they are 200 years old. So they should not feel bad — anything that lives that long is bound to go bald! What Does It All Mean? A quick guide to terms from the world of woodworking. Case Hardened: An improper kiln-drying condition in which the exterior of a board is excessively dried but its interior retains moisture, resulting in deformation and/or internal cracking. Flattening Agent: A chemical compound added to a wood finish to reduce gloss. Ray Flecking: A desirable pattern on the surface of some quartersawn lumber. Quartersawn white oak is a species noted for its ray flecking. The…

As our lives become ever more digital and on-demand, the need for storage becomes less important than the need for a high bandwidth connection, which was the scenario facing a customer new to a tiny home. With a design brief that called for a compact TV stand with room for a small media collection in a modern style, I immediately thought of a series of cases George Nakashima designed in the 1950s. Although he is more well known for his organic designs incorporating live edges, Nakashima’s earlier work is in the Mid-Century Modern style. While fitting in with the style of the period, these minimalist designs hint at the future direction Nakashima’s work would take. A composite design in this style would also serve my client’s desire for a minimalist…

In searching for new possibilities for scrolled bowls, I discovered two different ways to simulate the types of segmentation associated with lathe-turned bowls. Both methods are easy to learn and far less demanding than traditional approaches. The first produces segmented bowls with solid sides; the second creates open segmentation. Segmentation with Solid Sides My method for creating this type of bowl eliminates the need to cut many small pieces at precise angles. Instead, it relies on stack cutting, a standard scroll saw technique, to create the blank. The basics are simple: two contrasting blanks, typically between 1/4" and 1/2" thick, are attached with double-sided tape. A pattern, consisting of a circle divided into a designated number of segments, is attached; the circumference and segments are then cut to shape. Once…

Two new additions to Rockler’s Lock-Align drawer organizers are these polymer Screwdriver and Pliers Racks. The Screwdriver Rack has magnetic slots that will hold up to 11 screwdrivers in alternating directions. Or, store eight sets of pliers on edge in the Pliers Rack — it has three different slot widths and contoured bottoms that keep pliers from shifting around in a drawer or toolbox. Both racks have end clips that fit into Rockler’s Lock-Align Wide Tray (item 57914), sold separately. The Rockler Lock-Align Screwdriver Rack (item 58265) and Pliers Rack (item 59791) sell for $7.99 each. The Metabo HPT (formerly Hitachi Power Tools) 10" MultiVolt™ Table Saw is the first to offer either cordless or corded operation. It accepts a 36-volt MultiVolt battery that delivers 4.0 Ah of runtime, or…