We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Welcome to The Splinter Report, where I gather the assorted interesting and amusing things I’ve seen in the woodworking world. This week we’re looking at a massive slab, the month of August, and a homemade jack plane.
Tool News Quick Bites
Milwaukee Launches new charger & power supply: You’d be mistaken if you assumed Milwaukee had launched two new products this week. What they’ve done is actually quite clever — this new accessory allows you to use any M18 batter as a portable USB power supply, and allows you to charge any M18 battery via USB. While it’s not the faster charger out there, it’s a great way to get more use of your batteries with a small footprint.
Random Reddit: Big Wood
Spend much time in the online woodworking sphere, and you’re sure to find people milling massive logs into slabs. And well, there’s Matt Cremona big, and then there’s this:
Reddit user u/Tschinggets posted about this massive 2500kg slab they recently cut. Not only did they have to deal with the size of the log, but there were also complications with hundreds of years of sand and mineral buildup in the wood itself. The whole process is documented on their YouTube channel if you want more details. And for those who are wondering, no, they aren’t planning on making a river table.
From the Archives: August 2000
Usually when I dig through the archives for old covers, I look back into the 1980s and earlier. It turns out that there wasn’t an August edition of the magazine until the year 2000 though. Prior to that, we published every other month starting in January, for a total of six issues a year. For some reason, at the turn of the Millennium, we adjusted the schedule to every other month starting in February. Inexplicably, we still published issues in January and November that year, for a total of eight for those lucky subscribers, before reverting to six issues again in 2001. (If anyone knows why they did that, drop me an email.)
The inaugural August issue featured a handsome secretary’s desk made with gorgeous curly maple. You can download the plans if you’re interested in making it yourself. You’ll also see this graphic design missfire:
I, too, want to build a “Straditional Secretary.”
Video of the Week: Metalworking
Usually, if you’re in need of a specific tool, you’ll go out and purchase it. The more adventurous among us will build tools ourselves. There are quite a few plans out there to make your own hand planes from wood for example. What’s less common, though, is milling a tool from solid metal as a DIY project. Youtuber Artisan Makes is not your average woodworker however — their interests lie primarily in metalwork and machining. When they needed a jack plane for an upcoming project, they decided to make one themself and document everything along the way. The first video in the series is embedded below, and you can find part 2 and part 3 on their channel.
Anything interesting I missed this week, or that you want me to highlight in a future Splinter Report? Let us know on social media or drop me an email at cknoff@aimmedia.com.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
