Tabla de contenidos para April 2020 en Woodworker's Journal

On display until April 12 at Japan House Los Angeles, “HIDA | A Woodwork Tradition in the Making,” brings Japanese woodcraft from its spiritual homeland of the Hida region of Japan to Los Angeles for the first time. The exhibition invites visitors to discover the legendary craftsmen of Hida and their design legacy today, embodied in the work of century-old furniture maker Hida Sangyo Co., Ltd. Located in the center of the country in Gifu Prefecture, the Hida region became known for its woodworking traditions and skilled artisans 1,300 years ago. This fame continues today through innovative design and sustainable use of the region’s forests, particularly the iconic cedar tree, in everything from contemporary furniture to fragrant aromatic oils. Guiding Principles For nearly a century, Hida Sangyo Co., Ltd. has…

Summer is just around the corner, but if you’ve been putting off making some outdoor seating to usher in the warmer weather, this simple Adirondack chair project will help you make up for lost time. The plan doesn’t require expensive or unusual lumber either — we built ours from off-the-shelf cedar boards purchased at a home center. To build a single chair, buy the following six boards: two 1 x 6 x 8'; one 1 x 8 x 8'; one 2 x 4 x 8'; one 2 x 6 x 8' and one 2 x 8 x 8'. Rockler offers a set of seven full-size templates (item 61139) for tracing the shaped parts to build this chair. Or visit woodworkersjournal.com and download a free PDF of gridded drawings to create…

While you can get by as a woodworker without owning a thickness planer, shop life certainly improves once you make the investment! For one, you’ll no longer have to be satisfied with just a few common lumber thicknesses — namely ¾", ½" or ¼". When the time comes that you need some ⅞", ⅜" or any other thickness for that matter, a planer puts you in control. It also expands your lumber buying options, because you don’t have to settle for ordinary pre-milled stock at a lumberyard or home center anymore. With a planer, you can purchase roughsawn boards in any species and from any source you like (even that guy down the road with a portable sawmill!), usually at big savings. And when used with a jointer, a planer…

If you’ve got mom’s old rolling pin in your kitchen, or a tough-as-nails cutting board for that matter, chances are very good that it’s made of Acer saccharum, known as sugar maple to syrup producers or hard maple to us woodworkers. Among some 14 native species of maples in the United States, sugar maple and its cousin, black maple (Acer nigrum), are both sold under the general term hard maple. Hard maple makes up six percent of all the hardwood harvested in the U.S. annually. Only red oak and yellow poplar outrank it. While plainsawn hard maple tends to be pale blonde in color, straight grained and rather plain, it has numerous indoor uses. Whether called to service for kitchen cabinet doors, gymnasium flooring, plywood veneer, various and sundry turning…

A TABLETOP REFLECTING POND? Many of us have used epoxy in our shops for years, but most of us have turned to it for its adhesive qualities. For some time now, woodworkers have been using large amounts of resin in new ways to fill voids and even become an integral part of a tabletop or a turning. The now ubiquitous “river table” should have its own URL on the Internet. This “river of resin” trend in woodworking is replete with its proponents and critics, and that is completely as it should be. Trends come and go and styles change. When I was a young man, we went to great lengths to never show end grain in a piece of furniture. But end grain is now a lovely thing to behold…

An old controversy among woodworkers is whether painting enhances or hurts the appearance of a wooden project. Here’s what you think: Do you approve of painting indoor or “fine” wooden furniture projects? Yes: 9% No: 45% Depends entirely on the project: 46% Have you changed your mind about how you feel about painting indoor or “fine” furniture projects over the years? Yes: 17% No: 81% Occasionally: 2% Have you painted any of your indoor or “fine” furniture projects? Yes: 35% No: 63% I don’t make furniture projects: 2% There’s more online at woodworkersjournal.com Check online for more content covering the articles below: Woodturning (page 22): Band saw features with woodturning in mind (video) Slab “Pond” Table (page 30): Complete build video including pouring epoxy resin (video) Modern Adirondack Chair (page 36): Making templates…

Turning does not require a lot of space because you only need a lathe, some tools, a grinder (and jigs) to sharpen them and a way to reduce wood to usable, balanced pieces that fit your lathe. For a long time, turners have picked a wood-cutting band saw because it fits this last requirement very well and does not take up much space. In fact, even a big band saw has a small footprint. The band saw’s table height is higher than other tools and benches, and you only need enough space to walk around three sides of the table. If the saw had dust collection at all, it was a pathetic little port just below the table. While a good dust collector could pull off some of the…

This attractive entry bench offers a helpful place to sit and change a pair of shoes. You’ll also appreciate its storage capabilities: four drawers can hold gloves, scarves and hats, and its deep chest can stow boots and other seasonal footwear. We built this project>mostl`>from> cherry plywood — you can harvest the majority of the parts>from>a>single>4x8> sheet, plus some ½" and ¼" plywood for the drawer parts. The drawers feature the latest Blum® soft-closing slides. Even the lid offers soft-close conveniences, thanks to a new Aileron> lid>support>s`stem.>Our>“Moer On the Web” video for this project shows how this unique Aileron>s`stem>works.> Preparing the Plywood Panels Follow the Cutting Diagram on page 41 to cut a 4x8 sheet of ¾" plywood into slightly oversized panels for the bench and drawer cabinet. For the…

Backwards Bumper I’m sure I’m not the only one to catch this, but the 1930 Ford on page 20 of the December 2019 issue [“Design in Wood Show Draws 365 Entrants”] has the front bumper mounted backwards. The curve in the bumper should be reversed so the concave side is towards the front of the car. I’ve made many old car models and actually owned a 1930 Ford coupe, and this one is wrong. Paul Blackwell via the Internet Sander Recommendations In December’s Questions & Answers, Sean Johnson was wondering about what benchtop sander to buy. I spend about two hours a day sanding cutting boards. I’ve sold more than 4,000 of them in the past 15 years. Here’s what I own and use for sanders: several 3" x 21"…

Readers Locate Patent Don Swanson’s December Stumpers tool prompted a culinary guess from Doug Wathen who speculated that the wood-and-metal apparatus shown at above right might be “a kitchen tool for coring or peeling fruits like apples or pears or potatoes.” Lawrence Balash thought the object’s purpose is closer to the building trades: “It appears to be a ticking stick.” Robert Rose of Escondido, California, took one of the device’s smaller details more to heart and wished for a clear patent number: “The stamp ‘Reston’ (on it) sounds a lot like a residence, as in Reston, Virginia. The tool looks like it is part of a much larger assembly … Given the time period, and the farming going on in Reston, my hunch is that this is part of a…

There was a time when I would have ridiculed and shamed a woodworker for “painting a perfectly good piece of furniture.” In fact, I may have lobbied to take away their “woodworker’s card” and asked aloud about their parentage and where they were raised — in a very public manner. But with age comes wisdom and with marriage comes painted furniture … at least in my case. The truth is, every piece of wood is not up to the task of being shown off to the world. There are plain pieces of poplar or boring boards of basswood that are just best used inside of a cabinet … or yes, covered with paint. Now, I can almost hear some of you saying, “this little table is clearly made of maple…