Online Extras for the August 2010 issue include a free SketchUp model of the Step Stool project, our free video tour of the Roubo Workbench, a free SketchUp model of the workbench project, our free video demonstrating how to make 4° wedges, a free 3D SketchUp Model of the birdhouse project, a SketchUp model of the dining table project and more. Read more
August 2010 #184
The cover project for the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking is a workbench in the 18th-century style. Andre Roubo first drew it in L’art de Menuisier. It endures as quite possibly the most perfect workbench ever designed. Our version, built by Editor Christopher Schwarz, was built using exclusively hand tools (except for one 6′ rip on the band saw).
Senior Editor Glen D. Huey shows you how to turn a puny half-lap joint into a strong, mitered half-lap joint in just minutes with a router, a straight bit and a piece of plywood.
In this first of two installments from Toshio Odate, discover how to marry Japanese design sensibilities with Western dining table traditions (legs that accommodate chairs) in Magobei’s Dining Table.
Jim Tolpin shows you how to make a footstool perfectly sized to your own body dimensions (your hands serve as the unit of measure) in Design by Foot, Hand & Eye.
Dress up the outside of your shop (or your house) with this easy-to-build old plane birdhouse (the only birdhouse Christopher Schwarz has ever made).
Bob Flexner shows you two methods for filling pores for an elegant look.
In Woodworking with Wee Ones, discover the secrets to getting kids into the workshop (all it takes is free range of imagination – and lies).
George Walker writes about sublime echoes in Design Matters.
Detailed article previews are below. Online Extras (downloads, etc.) for this issue can be found inside each article.
[description]Articles from the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine[/description][keywords]Popular Woodworking Magazine, Magazine Articles, Technique Articles, Project Articles, Tool Reviews, Finishing[/keywords]
Meet ‘The Son of Roubo’ Next Weekend
Normally I don’t like to begin a story with a question (or an adverb), but: What Was I Drinking?
When the Northeastern Woodworkers Association came calling I agreed to bring my handmade Roubo workbench (the one featured on the cover of the August 2010 issue) to its annual Showcase in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
This year the Showcase is March 26-27, and it is one of my favorite woodworking shows, both as an attendee and as a presenter.
The show is one-third education, one-third furniture gallery and one-third selling floor, with high-quality vendors. If you live anywhere in the Northeast, it is definitely worth a long drive. (Bring your spouse, the town is charming and scenic.)
This year I’ll be demonstrating hand-tool techniques (surprise) plus discussing the workbench, where it will be on display in a special exhibit of benches at the show.
So somehow I have to muscle this 300-pound bench into an as-yet-undetermined vehicle and trek 700 miles. I am thinking about installing some heavy-duty casters on the bench plus a trailer hitch. Perhaps not.
But it will be worth the effort. I always have a blast at this show. I spend too much money. I learn a lot from the other presenters (this year Peter Follansbee will be there) and the food in the town is quite good.
Check out all the details of the show on the organization’s web site. And if you can’t attend, you can hear me discuss the workbench on the DVD “Build an 18th-century Workbench,” available now in our store.
— Christopher Schwarz
Video: See a video demonstrating how to make 4°wedges.
Article: read a detailed article on how to flatten a workbench’s top.
Blog: Read all of Christopher’s blog entries about workbenches.
To buy: Purchase a wood visescrew from lake Erie Toolworks.
In our store: Purchase “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use.” Read more
Tool Test: Affordable HVLP
Improve your game with a low-cost spray finishing system from Earlex. By Glen D. Huey Page: 16 From the October 2010 issue # 185 Buy this issue now Finishing is often the “make it, or break it” part of a project. To improve your finishing abilities, it’s time to stop relying on wipe-on and brush-on … Read more
End Grain: New Names for Old Tools
Just keep saying ‘micron.’
By Rob Porcaro
Page: 64
From the August 2010 issue #184
Buy this issue now
Woodworkers who use hand tools to lay the quality touch on their work know what can be accomplished with these wonderful inventions. Along with skill, supplied of course by you, a good hand tool is an exquisite blend of simplicity and sophistication that is capable of sweetening your work well beyond what machines alone can produce.
Despite this, I don’t think hand-tool woodworking gets enough respect in today’s world. For the record, sure, I use machinery in my woodworking. Yes, the machines are high quality, well-tuned, take plenty of skill to use and I wouldn’t be without them. Yet when I discuss the joys of our craft with folks not therein immersed, I am invariably asked which major power tools inhabit my shop. This is especially true of techies, but the same question comes from many woodworking beginners. I don’t seem to earn credibility as a serious woodworker until I’ve cataloged my cabinet saw, 16″ band saw, jointer and so forth. Otherwise, I sense I’m regarded as a dilettante who toys with the sort of quaint tools people used before there was indoor plumbing. Who could produce serious work with those things?
Blog: Read Rob Porcaro’s blog, Heartwood.
In our store: “Handplane Essentials.” Read more
Woodworking with Wee Ones
Kids’ imaginations are inversely proportional to their attention spans.
By David Ross Puls
Page: 58
From the August 2010 issue #184
Buy this issue now
Want to take up woodworking with your kids, but find it difficult to keep them in the shop? I share this desire and dilemma. I sheepishly admit that the diffi culties arise from my needs and notions, not those of my son. He is, of course, perfect in every way.
I believe that all of us old-fart woodworkers need to give up our foolish notions of design, technique, function and even completion if we are to encourage our kids to join us in our ligneous endeavors.
I learned quickly with my son that allowing him to follow his muse was utmost. It also took the pressure off me. He happily does as he pleases and I get to look brilliant with almost no effort. My son, Elvin, and I have clocked a gazillion hours (his count – it has only felt like a couple zillion to me) working on countless projects in my shop. And, I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what many of our creations are. They are of the highest caliber, however, and are of maximum coolness, according to Elvin.
Blog: Read Editor Chrispoher Schwarz’s adventures in the shop with his youngest daughter, Katy.
Web site: Our “I Can Do That” page features projects that are ideal for budding woodworkers (with adult supervision, of course).
To buy: One of our favorite collections of beginner projects is John Nelson’s “The Big Book of Weekend Woodworking.” Read more
Filling Pores for an Elegant Look
Two methods to create a mirror-flat surface.
By Bob Flexner
Page: 54
From the August 2010 issue #184
Buy this issue now
Very few woodworkers or refinishers fill the pores of wood anymore. The process is not well understood and it’s perceived to be difficult. So if the wood has large open pores, the pitting is usually allowed to show.
This open pored, “natural wood” look has even become quite popular and is often promoted in the woodworking literature.
But for some, the natural-wood look creates a less-than-elegant appearance. This is surely the view of companies that mass-produce high-end furniture and most people who buy this furniture. For at least 150 years, in fact, most better-quality, factory-produced furniture has had its pores filled to create a “mirror-flat” appearance.
Better-quality furniture in the past was made largely from mahogany, walnut or quarter- or rift-sawn oak. It’s these and other woods with similar pore structures that look better with their pores filled (in contrast to plain-sawn oak, for example, which is difficult to get flat because of the wide segments of deep grain.)
If you use these woods to make furniture or you restore old furniture and you want the wood to look its most elegant, you need to know how to fill pores.
Articles: Visit the ‘Flexner on Finishing” archive.
In our store: Publisher Steve Shanesy’s new DVD, “The Ten Commandments of Finishing,” is now available.
To buy: Bob’s first book, “Understanding Wood Finishing, ” is available through Amazon.com.
In our store: Bob’s new book, “Flexner on Finishing,” will be available in mid-August –pre-order now! Read more
Old Plane Birdhouse
Every woodworker should spruce up the yard (or the shop) with this simple birdhouse.
By Christopher Schwarz
Page: 52
From the August 2010 issue #184
Buy this issue now
I’ve never been a fan of birdhouses. Why welcome something to your yard that really wants to poo on your head?
Yet, inspiration works in weird ways. While visiting Maine in February I saw an enormous birdhouse that looked like a jointer plane hanging outside Liberty Tool, an ironmonger. I just had to have one to hang above my shop door.
Blog: Read Chris’s blog, which gets updated five times a week.
Projects: Get more free outdoor projects from our web site.
Web site: View many of the common hole sizes for different species of birds.
To buy: More than a dozen instant down-loadable birdhouse plans are in our store.
In our store: Buy “Birdhouses You Can Build in a Day.”
Read more