Tabla de contenidos para August 2023 en Woodworker's Journal

There are some woodworking tasks that seem to require extra hands and even X-ray vision. One of those examples is installing drawer fronts. I’ve mounted thousands of drawer fronts using a bunch of different techniques, some better than others. But as I become more mature and my grip strength gradually erodes, these Drawer Front Installation Clamps from Rockler (item 54804; $39.99) have become my go-to system. The clamps hold drawer faces securely to the drawer boxes for final positioning, but even so, their thin steel frames allow you to close the drawer far enough so you can confirm the drawer front’s registration. And while the pressure of the clamps is sufficiently robust to hold firm as you are driving screws into the drawer face, they do not mar the wood’s…

Cantilevered Coffee Table This cantilevered coffee table is from a class I took at Marc Adams School of Woodworking taught by Taeho Kwon. It uses eastern joinery and fist tenons that go all the way through the walnut slab. The base is cherry and made from an air-dried beam that started out at 10" x 10" x 8' long. It is inspired by a Nakashima-style bench. Because of the beefiness of the joinery, the coffee table can support many hundreds of pounds at the far end from the post. Joseph Paul Via the Internet Hickory and Walnut Table I just finished building this small table for my brother’s cabin. It has walnut legs and a top made of many glued-up pieces of hickory and walnut. The embedded, curved “veins” extending…

Flat Veneer? It All Depends. After slicing, each sheet of veneer is laid flat and put through a dryer. Most straight-grained and many figured veneers will remain very flat after the process is completed because cells in the wood fibers release their moisture in a relatively uniform manner. Contraction and shrinking remain relatively uniform across the sheet. Burl and highly figured woods, however, have grain that travels in many directions. As the sheet dries, it shrinks at different rates, causing some areas to buckle and others to bulge. With such movement, it’s a wonder that some of the woods yield any usable veneer at all. Jonathan Benson Woodworker’s Guide to Veneering and Inlay Fox Chapel Publishing; ISBN: 1565233461…

One of the biggest frustrations among cordless tool users is that every tool brand has its own proprietary batteries that only work with its tools. Nothing is cross-compatible. Well, here in the U.S. and Canada, that’s about to change in 2023 for 15 cordless tool brands, thanks to a new alliance called “AMPShare — Powered by Bosch.” Within this alliance, Bosch AMPShare-branded 18-volt batteries will power Bosch tools along with select tools made by FEIN Power Tools US, Rothenberger USA and 12 other brands. Those include HONSEL, Ledlenser, Mato, Medmix Cox and MK, Orgapack and Signode, PerfectPro, Steinel, Bosch Rexroth Corp, Titan and Wagner. This AMPShare platform launched in the EU in 2022. Bosch explains that AMP-Share — Powered by Bosch batteries are rebranded COR-E18V batteries that deliver optimal power-to-weight…

Cabinet/Card Scrapers One of the most useful, versatile and inexpensive items, which should be in every toolbox, is the ordinary cabinet scraper. Few are aware of how to use this workhorse correctly, and even more do not know how to sharpen it. I would like to share how to make this ancient tool perform magic in situations where much more expensive tools struggle. Scrapers are a whole class of tools used by woodworkers and woodturners. While we strive to bring the edge of planes and chisels to a polished, acute edge, free of burr, we purposely bring the edge of a scraper to a tiny, well-defined burr and then proceed to use the tool by dragging the burr against the wood. It is the burr that does the cutting, and…

Fine-tuning Bevel Angles, Dowel Diameters Sealing Edges with Joint Compound Painting MDF or particleboard creates smooth surfaces on the faces of these sheet goods but not on their sawn edges. The edges are much more porous and soak up paint like a sponge. To remedy this, I thin joint compound for drywall with a little water and rub it into the edge with my finger. Then I lightly sand it. The joint compound seals the edges so they absorb paint more similarly to the smoother faces. Randy Wolfe Hoover, Alabama In Praise of Parchment Paper I have been making 3D cutting boards like this lately. Gluing multiple flat pieces together, edge to edge, has been a challenge, because they can stick to whatever is underneath. I have tried various non-stick…

Keyhole Slot Template and Bit Keyhole slots are a nomuss, no-fuss solution for hanging plaques, mirrors and picture frames on the wall. All you need is a single screw, driven into a wall stud (for hanging heavy objects) or into a wall anchor (for lighter-duty situations), to get the job done. Unlike those thin metal sawtooth hangers, which depend on a couple of tiny brads to hold them in place on an object and could pull out, a keyhole slot offers as much strength as the wood fibers have to provide. Keyhole slots separate themselves from both sawtooth hangers and other options like D-rings and picture-hanging wire by their subtlety, too. The slot enables whatever you’re hanging to rest flat against the wall. It doesn’t tip the object away from…

New Sanding Tools, Compact Lid Separator Featherboards are simple shop essentials, but occasionally there’s room for incremental changes that can make these important safety devices even more versatile and easy to use on your table saw, band saw or router table. Rockler’s Adjustable Double Table Featherboard (item 62008; $31.99) offers a number of helpful improvements. First, the device features two featherboards and a pair of stackable risers that enable it to exert pressure both at table level and 3" above it. Higher lateral force is ideal for resawing or raising panels vertically. The featherboard slots provide 5½" of adjustment range to suit a variety of machine designs and blade/bit-to-slot distances. Rockler has redesigned the expandable aluminum miter slot bars for a more tenacious grip, with less effort required to lock them…

Chop-chop! A dozen readers took a swing at identifying Charles Darling’s hatchet-type tool in the April issue, and this time around, opinions were varied. “The tool is a woodcarver’s adze,” declares Ed Mlot-kiewicz. Gary Borer, agreeing with him, explains that it’s used in carving and shaping log projects and chair seats. Three of you suspect it might be a gardener’s mattock. “It’s intended for small roots and weeds,” says Mike Strange, who thinks it might be a small version of a grubber’s mattock. Brad Devens calls it a cutter mattock instead. And Rick Sheldon explains that “the hoe end can be used for digging up dirt, pulling up rocks and chopping tough grasses, vines or small roots. The axe end chops larger roots and vines.” Bill Hammon thinks this tool…

Fabled Oak Tree, Fabulous Tables I an Kirby is a famous woodworker, educator and wood scientist with a CV longer than my arm. He is also a close friend of mine. He turned 90 years old last year, and at that event another longtime friend, Sam Talarico of Talarico Hardwoods, gifted some oak with a curious history to Ian. Ian told Sam he did not want the lumber. But Sam gave him the wood anyway — what are friends for? Along with the lumber, Sam included information about the oak tree’s history. The Sacred Oak of Oley This ancient and impressive oak tree is located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The county was home to Daniel Boone’s parents and Abraham Lincoln’s grandparents. Daniel was born in the Oley Valley in 1734…

Hemlock: A Construction Lumber Mainstay At Lumber Capital Log Yard, we specialize in rough-cut hemlock lumber. Hemlock has been used for building throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada for centuries. Our area is abundant with 100-year-old barns made with hand-hewn hemlock timber frames and hemlock lap siding. Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), also known as Canadian hemlock, has a relatively low Janka hardness of 500 lbf (pound-force) when dry. Mature trees are between 65 to 100 ft tall and 2 to 3 ft in diameter. Hemlock often grows on north-facing slopes where it experiences harsh winter conditions. When the growing area is also overly wet, the logs can get a defect called shake. Shake is when the growth rings begin separating, which causes the lumber to have linear cracking. It’s one…

Festool Kapex KSC 60 Miter Saw The competition among major power tool brands for supremacy in the cordless miter saw market is fierce, and those without at least one battery-powered option hardly stand to be taken seriously anymore. So it’s no surprise that Festool would eventually unveil a cordless contender for the American marketplace. Now it has, in the form of its KSC 60 Cordless Sliding Compound Miter Saw. While some might wonder what’s taken so long, Festool doesn’t make a habit of being hasty about R&D, just to throw its hat in the ring with other contenders. And in most instances, we end users are the better for that methodical, Germanic approach to product development. This new saw also sports the “Kapex” name, and Festool’s venerable Kapex corded KS…

Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C Rubio Monocoat products have become very popular with wood-workers. As the name implies, Rubio claims that a single coat of their product will be sufficient for woodworking applications from flooring to fine furniture. Considered a “hardwax oil,” it is made from a blend of plant-based natural ingredients. The company claims 0 percent VOCs with no solvents, which is desirable for many woodworkers. One Coat? The hardwax oil does go on with one application, but there are caveats. First off, after sanding to 150-grit, you need to get rid of the sawdust. After vacuuming the swarf away, Rubio suggests using their Raw Wood Cleaner to remove the tiniest dust particles. Some woodworkers use mineral spirits as an alternative. If you believe in raising the grain with…