April 2013 #203

In “City Sideboard,” the cover story for the April 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, Mario Rodriguez builds a versatile sideboard suitable for the cramped urban apartment. The spare design is a little bit updated Shaker, and a little bit James Krenov. In “Quarter Columns,” Charles Bender teaches you an alternative technique to manufacture this elegant decorative addition – instead of using a lathe, you’ll use a router. Tom Calisto teaches you how to join oblique sides with through dovetails in “Compound-angle Dovetails,” which he uses in a small, handled tote. Christopher Schwarz discusses the resurgent industry in woodworking vises and holdfasts, along with reviews of the tools, in “A Workholding Renaissance.” In “Greene & Greene Inlay,” David Mathias explores the intricacies of inlays unique to each and every piece of custom-made Greene & Greene furniture. Learn how to cut perfect coves with a novel use of the table saw in “Cove Cuts on the Table Saw,” by Gary Rogowski. In “Design a Trestle Table,” famed woodworker Graham Blackburn discusses the elements of this classic style of table, and shows you how to build both a basic version and an advanced model.

In this month’s tool test, we take a look at the “Powermatic PM1500 Band Saw,” the “Hock Tools Scratch Stock,” and the “Bosch Trim Router Plunge Base.”

In this month’s Design Matters, the Windsor form survives trial by fire in “A Chairmaker’s Design Lessons.” Woodworking Essentials asks you to double-check your methods in “Measure, Mark & Layout.” Flexner of Finishing demonstrates “5 Tricks for a Silk-smooth Finish.” And finally Peter Franks talks about his pathological habits in “A Woodworking Disorder.”

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City Sideboard

Contemporary details and materials update this classic form.

By Mario Rodriguez
Pages 20-27

Apartments in the Philadelphia area where I live are in demand and rents are high. The same is true for urban areas all over the country. So for someone who insists on living in town, one solution is to “go small.” The city sideboard is the perfect piece for tight urban spaces and it’s versatile, too. Measuring around 35″ wide and only 16″ deep, it can work as a dining room sideboard, an entry table (with storage) or an office credenza.

Blog: Build a “scissors brace” to help square your casework.
Web Site: Take a class at the author’s school, the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop.
To Buy: “Building Cabinets, Bookcases and Shelves” a book featuring 29 projects. Read more »

Quarter Columns

Forget the lathe; a router table setup makes quick work of these striking architectural features.

By Charles Bender
Pages 28-31

If you want to add a little punch to your next traditional furniture project, try adding quarter columns. They help narrow the look of any piece by drawing your eye inward. This usually gives the piece the appearance of being more compact and vertical, and gives it a more powerful stance.

Blog: Read the author’s blog.
In Our Store: “Carve a Ball & Claw Foot” a DVD by Charles Bender.
To Buy: Charles Bender’s “Cabriole Legs Simplified” DVD.
Web Site: Visit the author’s web site to view a gallery of his work. Read more »

Compound Dovetails

Discover how to join oblique sides with through-dovetails.

By Tom Calisto
Pages 32-35

As an avid sailor and full-time furniture maker, I’ve always wanted to make a proper sea chest replete with rope beckets and a compass rose inlay. The compound-angle dovetails are the only tricky aspect of the sea chest so I designed this little handled tote to practice oblique dovetails. This tote tray is useful around the house and fun to build. The angles of the oblique dovetails offer a challenge.

Web Site: Visit the author’s web site to see more of his work.
Pattern: Download a full-size PDF pattern for the tray divider/handle: Tote_Handle
Web Site: Here’s a good compound angle calculator.
In Our Store: Warm up for compound-angle dovetails with a simpler version of a dovetailed tool tote that has simple angled ends. Read more »

A Workholding Renaissance

After years of decline, the industry that makes vises and holdfasts for woodworkers has come roaring back.

By Christopher Schwarz
Pages 36-40

In my first book, “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use” (Popular Woodworking Books), I urged fellow woodworkers to “fight progress” and “invent nothing” when it came to designing their workbenches.

Boy, am I glad that the tool manufacturers ignored me completely.

Blog: Read “The Kitchen Test” for workbenches.
Blog: Read eight years of articles (free) by the author on workbenches.
Web Site: Visit workbenchdesign.net for bench-building ideas.
To Buy: “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” by Christopher Schwarz.
In Our Store: “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use.” Read more »

Greene & Greene Inlay

Jewel-like details are the crowning touch on these masterpieces of American furniture.

By David Mathias
Pages 41-45

Furniture designed by early 20th-century American architects Charles & Henry Greene is as rare as hen’s teeth. The reason is simple: their pieces were never mass-produced or marketed. Every table, chair, bed and cabinet was designed to occupy a particular location in a particular house of the Greenes’ design.

Slideshows: Watch our PDF slideshows of additional furniture and architectural details from Greene & Greene houses: Greene & Greene Everyday, Green & Greene from a Woodworker’s Perspective and Greene & Greene: Details and Joinery
Blog: Read the author’s blog and view his other photographic work.
To Buy: Previous articles by the author can be found in the August, October and November 2008 issues of this magazine.
In Our Store: Purchase the author’s book, “Greene & Greene: Poems of Wood & Light.” Read more »

Cove Cuts on the Table Saw

Accurately set up for and safely make these versatile curved shapes.

By Gary Rogowski
Pages 46-49

It was the 1970s. I was a young, lost woodworker out cruising the West Coast in search of inspiration, mentors, cool old tools and furniture to study. I found legendary furniture maker Art Carpenter at his studio in Bolinas, Calif. He showed me two things. One was the first and loudest router table I ever saw: a router hanging under a piece of plywood perched atop a 55-gallon drum. He also showed me how to cut coves on the table saw. What the heck was this? Curved shapes cut on a table saw? I was mesmerized by this bit of woodworking wizardry.

Video: Watch the author demonstrate his technique.
In Our Store: Get our 76-page Essential Guide to Table Saws.
Web Site: Visit Gary Rogowski’s Northwest Woodworking Studio site for information on classes and to view a gallery of his work. Read more »

Design a Trestle Table

Choose your own styles and techniques: simple, advanced, or somewhere in-between.

By Graham Blackburn
Pages 50-53

In furniture, the term “trestle” historically referred to a pair of diverging legs wide enough to be self-supporting, and joined at their upper end, sometimes by hinges. Two or more such trestles that support a wide board form a table, which can be easily folded up and moved.

Video: See a free preview and purchase issues of Graham Blackburn’s video magazine, “Woodworking in Action.”
Article: Christopher Schwarz builds an American Trestle Table.
To Buy: Download step-by-step instructions for an American trestle table. Read more »