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 Thursday, February 22, 2007
How To: Install a Half-mortise Lock
I’m in the finishing stages of a piece of furniture, my first so-called “brown furniture” piece (not Shaker or Arts & Crafts), since I began with Popular Woodworking magazine. It's a chest and it has two half-mortise locks. Installing a half-mortise lock used to give me fits. I’d end up with the keyhole off center, the lock plate set too deep, or the selvedge set below the surface of the drawer front or door edge. Over time, I’ve developed a series of routing steps that result in a great fit each time. The best tip I can give you here is to use a sharp, small-radius router bit (1/4"). A bit this size allows easy freehand guiding of the router or trimmer.  Begin installing a half-mortise lock by finding the center of the piece (unless you plan to have the lock off center). You may be interested to know that the lock’s key pin is not centered in the lock. I found that out the hard way! So make sure that you place the pin at the center and draw the outline of the lock onto the panel or drawer front. Hold the selvedge flush with the edge of the material. Next, set the depth-of-cut of the router to the depth of the selvedge. But before you rout, use your saw to define the edges of the lock area. By cutting this first you will eliminate the flake-out of the material as the router cuts. Create the recess for the selvedge and clean the ends (the area remaining from the radius cut of the router bit) with your chisels as shown at right.  Now rout the area for the lock plate. Set the depth-of-cut to the thickness of the lock plate. Before you begin to rout, use a utility knife and square to cut the outline of the lock. I like to use a marking gauge to get to the back line – it allows me to square the lock to the edge by running the gauge against that edge. Carefully rout out the lock plate area by hand, getting close to the lines without touching, and finish the area with your hand tools. The lines should cut away cleanly because of the use of the knife and gauge. To lay out for the lock body, position the lock into the recessed area and trace around the outside of the lock body. Make sure that you leave enough material to catch the screws that secure the lock into the panel. Using the trim router, I ran into a small problem at this stage because its base was not large enough.  If your lock is on the large size you’ll have an area for the lock body that allows your base plate to fall into the plate-routed area, off of the panel. To keep this from happening, you can either use a larger router base plate or cut the lock body recess prior to cutting the recess for the lock plate. Generally, it’s not an issue. Now set the depth-of-cut for the router bit to the thickness of the lock body and create the recess. Because this area will never be seen once the lock is installed, you don’t need to achieve routing perfection. Now you’re ready to locate the pinhole for the lock. The key pin protrudes from the lock body and if you rout the body cavity as shown, you’ll have no trouble finding the exact location of the pinhole.  Place the lock into the recess and lightly tap the back face of the lock. This will create a small dimple where the pin meets the wood. Don’t go directly to the exact diameter drill bit for the next step. Instead, use a 1/16” drill bit to cut through to the face of the panel, then drill the appropriate hole coming in from that fac e side. This eliminates the chances of blowout, which can happen if you drill from inside the lock recess.
— Glen D. Huey
Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:44:22 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lie-Nielsen Announces More Hand Tool Shows for 2007
Last year Lie-Nielsen Toolworks held a different kind of woodworking show outside Boston. Instead of being held in a big convention hall, this show was more personal. In addition to Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, attendees got to hang out with Konrad Sauer of Sauer & Steiner, Peter Korn from the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Harrelson Stanley with his Shapton stones and Michel Auriou who makes the excellent Auriou rasps.
I also was asked to demonstrate at the show and sharpened up about 50 card scrapers using the technique I explained in the February 2007 issue. It was a great show, both for the people who attended and the demonstrators. There was lots of one-on-one time, no admission charge and a relaxed atmosphere. These shows are a great way to get your hands on some hand tools and get some tips on set-up and use.
Now Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is taking its show to the West Coast. The first show will take place May 11 and 12 outside Portland, Ore., at Chehalem Winery and Vineyards. The show is being hosted in collaboration with Bridge City Tool Works and will feature John Economaki, Konrad Sauer, Mike Wenzloff (Wenzloff & Sons Saws), Michel Auriou, Kevin Drake (Glen-Drake Toolworks), David Jeske (Blue Spruce Toolworks) and Tom Lie-Nielsen.
The following weekend Lie-Nielsen will have a show at the Joseph Filippi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., (May 18 and19). Guest demonstrators there will include John Economaki, Konrad Sauer, Mike Wenzloff, Larry Williams (of Clark & Williams), Michel Auriou, Kevin Drake, chairmaker Brian Boggs and Tom Lie-Nielsen.
In the fall Lie-Nielsen plans to host similar events in Napa, Calif., (mid-October), New Jersey/Philadelphia (mid-November) and Arlington, Mass., in collaboration with the North Bennett Street School (Nov. 30-Dec. 1st).
For more information, contact Lie-Nielsen at 800-327-2520.
I won't be able to attend the shows in May (I'm teaching that month at Marc Adams School of Woodworking and have an occasional magazine to publish), but I'll be at the Napa show in the fall, and possibly the others.
— Christopher Schwarz
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 9:59:48 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, February 19, 2007
Woodworking Tourist: College of the Redwoods
 Twenty-five years ago, James Krenov started a woodworking program at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, California. I visited the school a couple of weeks ago to do a story on the anniversary for an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking. I spent a day and a half at the school, talking to current and former students and faculty members. One of the questions on my mind on the way out to California was, "What is it like to attend the school?" The Fine Woodworking Program is housed in the building shown above. It's across town from the rest of the campus, part of the California Community College system. Tuition is reasonable for California residents, less than $500 per semester. Non-residents pay $3766 per semester and the program is two semesters long. There are also a number of summmer courses offered, and a few students are invited to attend for a second year. The school receives four applications for each available bench. Qualified applicants are invited to attend by lottery.  Students come from all over the United States and the world, and spend most of their time in the benchroom. There is also a well-equipped machine room and separate rooms for wood storage and breaks. There was considerable variety in ages and backgrounds of the students I talked to. Some were in their early 20s looking at the beginning of their careers and others were older, retired or in a position to change careers. What they all shared was a love for working with wood, and the dedication to pursue it intensely for nine months. Classes meet eight hours a day, six days a week, and many of the students spend a good deal of their evenings in the shop. The instructors are all graduates of the program so there is a good deal of continuity from the days before founder James Krenov retired in 2002.  Students start the year with a series of exercises designed to give them basic skills using and sharpening hand tools. Some come to the school with a good deal of woodworking experience and others are nearly beginners. They start by making "The Perfect Board" and go on to a series of basic joinery exercises and finish the first semester by designing and building a project. Much of the design process as it is taught involves making full size mock-ups of proposed designs. Students tape together cardboard or thin plywood and cobble together pieces of construction-grade lumber in order to get a better idea of how the finished piece will appear, before committing to solid wood. Once the design has been settled, the real work begins, and the level of quality and attention to detail in the finished work is remarkable. I attended a show of the students' first-semester projects and was quite impressed with the level of workmanship. The second semester is devoted to a more complex project involving veneering and/or curved work. When I visited, several students had their pieces well under way while others were still making decisions, modifying their models and puzzling out construction and joinery issues.  There are other intense, high level woodworking programs around the country, but what makes the College of the Redwoods unique is the influence of the style and philosophy of Krenov on the faculty, the structure of the program and the students. This isn't so much a school where you learn a certain set of skills – it is more like spending a year in a monastery where you learn to think and act like the master. Krenov's influence may have lessened slightly since he retired, but it is still pervasive. I was encouraged to see some designs that took Krenov's signature designs in new directions, and some completely non-Krenovian work, such as this chair in the style of Sam Maloof. Several people commented to me that this type of thing wouldn't have been seen 10 years ago. There were plenty of dainty little cabinets with exquisitely worked surfaces, piston-fitting drawers and delicate details. Perhaps the best thing I saw at the school was the camaraderie among the current students and the former students who came by to visit and to see the end-of-semester show. A program like this is an intense one, and going through it in close quarters with a group of congenial, like-minded people could well be one of the most valuable experiences of a lifetime.  To take a year of one's life and devote it to producing the finest work possible is a rare opportunity for most woodworkers. To work in a pleasant shop with friendly folks, away from the pressures of earning a living for an extended period would be a dream come true for many of us. More information about the program is available by clicking here: College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking– Robert W. Lang
Monday, February 19, 2007 2:07:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 16, 2007
Letter: Sticker Shock v. Sticker Marks
Reader Dave Raeside writes:
In one woodworking course that I took the instructor said that he is no longer using kiln-dried wood for his projects, but is only using air-dried lumber. In another course the instructor said that he only buys so-called "rough and ready" lumber for his projects. And, recently I read that one should not use so-called "S2S" lumber. But, another of my woodworking instructors sees no particular issue with "S2S" stuff, as long as you buy it thick enough to "re-mill."
So, what's a fellow to do?
Your question is a great one. My answer, however, will not be definitive I’m afraid. I think it is, for the most part, a white wine vs. red wine question.
There is great advantage to using air-dried lumber in some cases. Some species, such as walnut and redwood, are steamed during processing to migrate some of the color from the heartwood into the sapwood. The result is that the boards have less color overall. I think steamed walnut looks rather flat when you compare it to the air-dried stuff.
However, air-dried wood is less likely to be stable and acclimated to its environment because of the unpredictable nature of the drying process. As a result, you need to be more careful about moisture content when using air-dried wood. Check its moisture content carefully to ensure you don’t have any surprises ahead.
You also need to be more careful with air-dried wood when it comes to mold and fungus. Kiln-drying kills these organisms; air-drying does not. Also, when it comes to softwoods, kiln-drying will crystallize the wood’s resins, making the boards less sappy and nasty on your tools.
As I see it, the rest is up for debate. The kiln-drying people say their wood will have fewer drying defects. The air-drying people say they can get the same yield when drying is done with care. The air-dried people say their wood is superior in that the kiln-dried stuff has a “dead” feeling. I’ve never experienced this, however.
I work with both. Instead of judging the wood by the process that dried it, I judge the wood on its grain, figure, defects and moisture content. If the boards meets all those criteria, I’ll buy it and use it.
On the subject of rough lumber v. S2S or S4S, this is a question that is more about your tooling and your time.
You’ll save money if you buy rough lumber, but you’ll need heavy-duty tools to process it and allow more time in your schedule for processing. You’ll also face more surprises with rough lumber (both good and bad) because beautiful figure and ugly figure can be obscured when the board is in a rough form.
If you buy surfaced stock, you’ll be better able to judge the figure of what you are buying and it will take less time when you are processing it, but it will cost more and you do need to be more concerned about warping, twisting and bowing. Surfaced stock that has been poorly processed or stored will be more warped. So buying over-thick stock is a typical fall-back position.
So this debate also comes down to judging the stock in front of you. If you are looking at rough stock, you need to develop an eye for picking out good figure in rough material. If you buy surfaced stock, you need to be acutely aware of twisting and warping. And you have to consider the time factor.
— Christopher Schwarz
Friday, February 16, 2007 9:45:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Hoverpad
Welcome to the age of the Jetsons. Flying cars, moving sidewalks and floating furniture were the norm when I was a kid watching my Saturday morning cartoons. We didn’t think that time would become a reality, but it has.
General International has introduced woodworking to the Hoverpad – a futuristic mobile base for your workshop tools. What is it? How does it work? Is it for your shop? All are great questions.
The Hoverpad is a hard plastic base that is less than 1" thick and can lift a tremendous amount of weight (The 18" x 24" pad will lift 600 pounds and the 29" x 29" pad will lift up to 1,200 pounds. The smaller pad is priced at $170 while the larger is $250). Under the platform on which your machine rests is a series of rubber bladders that inflate to lift the weight. (They are much like the bags used to raise large pieces of fallen buildings during emergencies.) As the bladders inflate they also push air through fine holes on the bottom. That air lifts the pad slightly off the floor to allow you to maneuver the large loads around your shop. It works just like a Hovercraft.
All of the necessary components are confined to the center of the pads. This defined area can’t be altered without ruining the pad, but the outside edges of the pad can be cut and shaped to fit your machines after you have walked through the steps to properly locate and balance the machines on the pad. Just mark the desired shape, then use your jigsaw or table saw to cut the pads.
How it Works
How the air gets to those bladders is where I have an issue. Air is let into the pad through a small hose barb located at the center of the pad; a small tube must be fed from that barb through the tool to a location outside the tool. This means that the ability to use the pad for some tools is dependent on drilling access holes for the tubing -- not a problem with some shop equipment, but quite a job with others. We had no issues with our band saw, but if we wanted to use the pad under our jointer or planer -- two of the heaviest tools in most shops -- we would’ve had to make adjustments.
The air travels through a series of fittings that regulate the pressure before reaching the bladders. The packaging from the company is complete with all the necessary fittings including Teflon pipe tape and a coiled air hose with a blowgun for moving any floor debris out of the way as you move your tool. Caveat: Before bothering with the fittings, you should first test the smoothness of your floors with the suction cup included with the kit. The pads don’t work if you have a textured floor or many gaps, cracks or saw cuts in the floor’s surface. And if it doesn’t pass the test, you can return it.
Now back to the fittings. The important components are the ball valve and flow controller (excess pressure can damage the pad so you shouldn’t bypass the fitting by attaching the pad directly to the air supply). Once the supply of air is attached to the fittings through the air inlet, the ball valve is opened and the flow control is adjusted to fill the pad and lift the tool. Too much air caused our band saw to hop gently -- something that you don’t want to have happen with a 600-pound machine.
Another concern I have is that you’re directed to permanently attach these fittings to your machine. Accurate drilling is required to perform the installation and you have to position the fittings so as not to be in the way as you use the tool. This is not something I would want to do for each machine in my shop and it certainly limits switching the pad from machine to machine.
But, once everything is hooked up correctly, the Hoverpad works as described.
Is the Hoverpad for your Shop?
“Yes and no” is the answer, of course. If you’re a tool collector you’ll have to have one. It’s just that cool! If you’re an everyday woodworker on a restricted budget, chances are that a traditional mobile base will do the trick. The Hoverpad is at least twice as expensive as most standard mobile bases. But if you find your shop sharing valuable real estate, and you have to move your machines frequently to make everything fit, this is an product worth looking at.
So the bottom line is, I want a Hoverpad to impress friends and neighbors. But because I need to only occasionally move my equipment, mobile bases are my first choice – I’d need too many Hoverpads to place under all my machines, and the cost would be prohibitive. Besides, more tool manufacturers are adding integral mobile bases to their tools and that is a nice benefit.
— Glen D. Huey
Thursday, February 15, 2007 1:05:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, February 12, 2007
Woodworking Tourist-Northern California
As with most woodworkers of my generation (getting old, but not ready to admit it) James Krenov was a huge influence on my work and on my thinking. In the late 1970s his books appeared and presented not just techniques, but a philosophical approach to working with wood. In 1981, Krenov moved to Fort Bragg, Calif., and started a woodworking program at the College of the Redwoods.  Part of the California community college system, the woodworking program is housed in its own building where Fort Bragg ends and the redwood forests of Northern California begin. Krenov retired from active teaching five years ago, but the woodworking program is thriving, with several former students now doing the teaching. I just returned from a trip to the area, and there will be an extensive article on the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking program in an upcoming issue of the magazine. The Fort Bragg area is also home to two excellent toolmakers, and one of the coolest woodworking shops I've ever seen.  I'll be writing in depth about all of these in the next few weeks on the blog, with today's entry taking a quick glance at the highlights of the trip. The picture at right is the bench room at the school. Twenty or so students share the area, and at the time of my visit they were getting started on their second-semester projects. The students are of all ages and from all walks of life. Their common bond is that they are driven to work with wood, and they have committed to spend at least nine months, working six days a week in this unique program. Some students are invited to complete a second year, and there is a real sense of camaraderie among the current students as well as former students.  The other end of the building is a separate machine room. Both areas of the building have abundant natural light, are clean and well organized. The opposite end of the building contains a room for wood storage and a break room. While I was in town, there was a show of the students' work, featuring projects from their first semester. All of the work was most impressive, and more diverse than I'd expected to see. It's quite an experience to be able to dedicate a lengthy period of time to producing the finest possible work, and the College of the Redwoods experience allows the students to do that in some excellent company.  Fort Bragg is a small town (population approximately 6,000) on the Northern California coast. It's about a four-hour drive from San Francisco and it's one of the most beautiful areas of the country. In addition to the school, it's also the home of Glen-Drake Toolworks. That's Kevin Drake on the right, explaining his process of making handles from tan oak, a tough local species that is mainly used for pulp and firewood. Glen-Drake hammers are the sort of tool that has to be held and used to be appreciated. Kevin is a graduate of the College of the Redwoods woodworking program, and he's one of the most creative, inventive people I have ever met. His Tite-Mark marking gauge is a favorite in our shop here at the magazine, and he has some new products in the works that will likely once again set a new standard for woodworking tools.  Just a few miles away is the home of Hock Tools. Ron Hock was making knives in the area and selling them on the craft-show circuit when he was talked into making custom plane irons by the faculty and students at the College of the Redwoods. Ron has an amazing knowledge of metallurgy, a willingness to help and dedication to manufacturing a quality product. Seventeen years later he is still at it, working out of a modest but well-equipped shop. If you're looking to dramatically increase the performance of an older Stanley plane, Ron's irons and chipbreakers will do the trick. He also offers blades, plans and complete kits if you want to make your own low-slung Krenov-style plane. It's refreshing to see small businesses such as Glen-Drake and Hock Tools succeed. When larger companies are cutting corners and value-engineering, these gentlemen are making great products.  This was my first visit to the northern coast of California, but I hope not my last. I'm a sucker for both the ocean and the forest, and this is one of those parts of the country where the two are in close proximity. On the edge of town the forest starts to get serious, and I was fortunate to be able to visit the shop shared by Harry Van Ornum and Les Cizek. Both Harry and Les have many years of woodworking experience, and they teamed up in 1994 as Four Sisters Woodworking. After five years of operating in downtown Fort Bragg, they broke ground for the shop housed in the building seen at right.  The location is spectacular, but the best part of this shop is the planning and forethought that went into the interior layout. There is an abundance of natural light, a place for everything – and everything is in its place. Raw material enters through an overhead door on one end of the machine room, and proceeds through the shop along an orderly flow of world-class machinery. Not only is it well-equipped and organized, it's also the most pleasant shop I have ever been in. Natural light flows in through skylights as well as through the windows that also provide a view of the towering redwoods just outside.  The other half of the building is a dedicated bench room, keeping the noise and dust from the machine work away from the peace and quiet that makes hand work easier and more enjoyable. Harry and Les both attended the College of the Redwoods, and in addition to their own furniture work, they offer individualized instruction in their shop. You can spend a long weekend, or one or two weeks, learning basic techniques or working on an advanced project under the guidance of these master craftsmen. In addition to the shop, there is also a cabin on the property for the use of the student on a woodworking vacation. There will be a closer look at each of these places in the coming weeks. My thanks to everyone I met and spent time with on this trip. – Robert W. Lang
Monday, February 12, 2007 11:41:02 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 09, 2007
Tool Review: Lie-Nielsen Small Router Plane
When I need to work any recessed area – from a hinge mortise to a stopped groove to a dado – with precision, I like to use router planes. These joinery planes allow you to easily create or clean up recesses to a repeatable and fixed depth.
Unlike bench planes or block planes, the learning curve for a router plane is mercifully short. It goes something like this: Sharpen the cutter as best you can (it doesn't have to be able to split an atom), place it in the tool to take a thin cut. Work the recess until the plane won't cut anymore. Set the tool to your final depth and repeat.
Router planes are simple tools with few adjustments; there's little that can go wrong and they have many uses. Until recently, however, router planes were available mostly on the vintage tool circuit. But that's changing. Veritas introduced its full-size router in 2005 (I reviewed it in the February 2006 issue of Popular Woodworking). St. James Bay Tool Co. recently started offering two small router planes and a larger one (all loosely based on the Stanley No. 71). And now Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has introduced a small $75 router plane that I have been using since the summer and am ready to talk about.
The Lie-Nielsen Small Router plane has some nice curves to it and a wider footprint than the now-defunct Stanley No. 271 small router plane – which looks like a metal Triscuit with a cutter. The Lie-Nielsen looks a lot more like a vintage Phelps Manufacturing Co. router I saw at a Mid-West Tool Collectors Association meeting a few years back.
The Lie-Nielsen is 4-1/8" long, 2-3/16" wide and weighs 7-1/2 ounces. The cutter is ¼" wide, and two additional 3/32"-wide cutters are in the works.
The shape of the body is key because the cutter can be used in two positions. The cutter shown above is good for general all-purpose work, with decent visibility and considerable bearing surface all around the cutter. Turn the cutter around and you are set up for jobs where you need lots of visibility, such as when cleaning up a tricky patch for inlay or when cleaning up a stopped groove or dado. The two squarish wings projecting in front of the cutter are perfect for riding on the edge of a ¾"-wide door stile or rail.
Setting up this router plane for the first time is easier than setting up a bench chisel. The back of the iron was dead flat from the factory and polished up with only five minutes work. When I sharpen the bevel, I don't use a micro-bevel. I sharpen the entire bevel. There's not a lot of metal to remove and sharpening the entire bevel makes it easy to keep the angle consistent. Re-sharpening the cutter is easier as a result.
The tool is pleasant to hold. The curved thumb grips allow you to pivot the tool into the cut, which is how I use it when cleaning out hinge mortises. The wide footprint of the tool is nice (compared to the smaller Stanley version) because you can reach into places with the confidence that your tool is indeed sitting flat on a reference surface. The downside to the big footprint, of course, is that there might be places where you cannot sneak the tool into because the base will get in the way. I haven't had this problem in six months. Get back to me in a few years and I'll have an answer.
The cutter depth is set by a knurled thumbscrew. The thumbscrew has a slot for a screwdriver, which is not necessary to use to lock the cutter in place. The knurling is enough.
If you own a powered router, why would you want this cordless version? Easy. The downside to using an electric router is the round cutter. Inside corners are going to have rounded corners that you'll need to square out with a chisel or (irony ahead) a router plane. Plus, the router plane is easier to balance on the edge of a door or face frame to cut hinge mortises. Electric routers can be tippy when balanced on a thin ¾" edge.
— Christopher Schwarz
Friday, February 09, 2007 1:39:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 08, 2007
"I Can Do That" Manual Updated
 The "I Can Do That" manual has been updated with a new chapter on Material Selection, and with information on the latest tool in the kit – the circular saw. You can download the latest version now at the "I Can Do That" web site (it’s available in both high and low resolution).
In case you’re not familiar with “I Can Do That," it's a column in every issue of Popular Woodworking that features projects that can be completed by any woodworker with a modest (but decent) kit of tools in less than two days of shop time, and using raw materials that are available at any home center.
The free manual (in PDF format) explains all the tools and shows how to perform the basic operations in a step-by-step format. Learn to rip with a jigsaw and circular saw, crosscut with a miter saw and drill straight with the help of our manual.
Our hope is that beginning woodworkers will build skills and confidence as they learn to make the most of that basic kit of tools, and complete projects they can be proud of. And, we try to present projects that are interesting and attractive so that advanced woodworkers will want to build them, too (perhaps with modifications to suit their tools and aesthetics).
An “I Can Do That” book is in the works right now; look for it this autumn. In the meantime, check back regularly for new updates to the manual, and the latest ICDT project. (Here’s a peek at the Shaker Creamery Shelves featured in the April issue – on newsstands at the beginning of March.)
Thursday, February 08, 2007 11:34:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
Tool Review: Acu-Arc Adjustable Curve
Drawing curves and arcs for furniture has always been a challenge. I have a set of French curves that are good for details, but curves that are larger than 10" are a challenge. I have long wanted a set of Copenhagen Ship Curves, but I'm going to have to make those myself or save my pennies for a while.
Until that day comes around, I'm going to stick with using my Acu-Arc Adjustable Curves. This clever product is made from 12 layers of butyrate that are all sleeved together. When you bend the tool into a curve (it has been reliable down to a 6" radius) the tool holds that shape – thanks to friction. Then you can strike your cutline along the tool's edge. If you lift the tool up without too much violence, it will maintain its curve to mark the same shape on other workpieces.
The Acu-Arc excels at marking curves that accelerate – not just simple radii that can be made with a compass. And it's fantastic at smoothing out a curve that you have plotted at several points. It will connect your dots smoothly, which can save time compared to hand-sketching your details.
To use the tool, I'll typically start the bending the tool at its fixed end – where all the layers are bound together in blue plastic. Shape the curve from there out to the end that is unconstrained. Then, when you are ready to mark your line, do it in small sections – don't mark the entire curve at once or you'll surely lose your setting. Press the tool firmly to the work and slide your pencil (or technical pen) along the edge near your fingers. Lift your fingers, move them down the curve and repeat the process.
When you are done with the tool for the day, straighten it out using your fingers.
Acu-Arc makes two versions that are suited for furniture: an 18"-long version and a 36"-long version. These two are available from Lee Valley Tools. There are longer versions used for building boats that go up to 72".
What I like best about these little tools is that they free me from thinking about my furniture with a ruler. It's easy to build austere straight-line stuff if all your tools have straight edges. The Acu-Arc lets you create almost any curve. Then you can lay it on your work to ponder: "Do I like that curve?" That's a difficult task to do with the way so many woodworking magazines show how to draw a curve – a bendable stick, two nails and three hands. No wonder we stick with straight lines.
— Christopher Schwarz
Thursday, February 01, 2007 3:04:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Behind the Scenes: Shooting a Magazine Cover
 We’re at it again. One thing that I knew, but never really had put in context, is that magazines work in the future. Sure I’ve run into it many times when submitting articles and being involved in photo shoots, but it didn’t set in until I started working here on a daily basis. Talk about messing with your head! It’s January and we are now working on the June 2007 issue. The cover shot is the order of the day. Where we are in beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, it is the middle of winter. It hasn’t been a particularly bad winter. We’ve had no huge snowstorms or blizzards, but there is snow on the ground. In fact there were flurries in the air on this very day. Perhaps you see where this is going? We are shooting a summertime picture in the dead of winter. How do you do that? Excellent photographic manipulation along with a few strategically placed props is the answer. The picture above right is the cover shot we were going for– at least one of three possible cover shots that will be presented to our readers after Art Director Linda Watts applies her  skillful hand. Popular Woodworking’s Photographer, Al Parrish has applied his expertise to our wintry shot and made things look quite different. The abundance of white in the picture is two-fold. First we need that area for cover lines (those bold captions that induce readers to pick up a copy at the newsstand.) And secondly, it erases the snowy conditions outside. The next picture is the shot as we see it. It’s a different camera angle from the professional’s point of view. Look closely at the photo. Right above Editor Chris Schwarz’s left arm you can see Senior Editor Bob Lang holding an artificial tree outside the window. What is the reason for the tree? The prop added a bit of summer to the background and gave Al something to clone and paste in Photoshop to build on the summertime theme. As you can see from the picture of Bob holding the tree, we sometimes don’t work to our highest potential. Why is he there? It was a blustery day outside the shop. The wind was blowing and the temperature was in the mid-twenties. The poor tree had already taken a hit for the good of the magazine and Bob  was resurrecting its stand once again. As raw as it was this day, I think Bob should get hazard-duty pay. I can’t wait until the December cover. I wonder how they can make it snow during the “Dog Days” of August. Stick around, I’m sure it will be something to see. — Glen D. Huey
Monday, January 29, 2007 9:19:48 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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