Popular Woodworking Editors' Blog

It’s hard to imagine that someone today could come up with a better Forstner bit – they were first patented in 1874. But today we used a new Forstner from a German company called Horst Miebach that chewed through wood like nothing I’ve ever seen.

The bit – unveiled at the International Woodworking Fair – was set to bore into the end grain of a chunk of white oak. I advanced the bit and it started throwing out shavings that looked like tiny ribbons – very unusual. Even more unusual is that as I fed the bit faster, it just kept diving into the wood. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t overfeed the bit.

The MaxiCut bit – sold under the Colt brand name – has several unusual features that make it work so well. Its exterior rim has been cut away to leave two saw-like teeth to score the perimeter of the hole. This, according to company officials, reduces the build-up of heat. And heat is what decreases the life of any bit.

Also, the cutting lips of the bit have grooves ground into them. These grooves, which the company calls “chipbreakers,” turn the big shavings that are typical of Forstner bits into little ribbons. These ribbons are easily extracted from the hole. This also increases the life of the bit and allow it to be fed faster into the work.

As a result of these improvements, these high-speed steel bits can last five times as long as regular bits, according to Jurgen Miebach, managing director of Horst Miebach.

Another impressive feature of the MaxiCut bit is the shank that you chuck into your drill. The shank has three slight cams ground into it. These cams lock the bit into the three jaws of your drill press’s chuck – or into the drill extension offered as an accessory. The rotation of the chuck locks the bit into place thanks to the cams.

The bits will be available in both metric and Imperial measurements in these ranges: 14mm to 55mm and 1/2” to 2-1/4”. A typical 1-3/8” bit should cost $35 – about the price of a typical premium Forstner.

Horst Miebach has been lining up U.S. distributors for the bits, which should be available in October. We’ve asked for a set to test, and we eagerly await their arrival.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Veritas is just about ready to release two new skew rabbet planes, which cut rabbets both with and across the grain. These full-featured planes are fundamental tools in the shop of a hand-tool woodworker. We take a look at this new plane, which was unveiled at IWF, and take it for a test drive.

— Christopher Schwarz

Today I received confirmation that in a woodworking class, it isn’t only the student that’s handed useful, inspiring information. We spent time this afternoon at IWF with Lonnie Bird. Most everyone knows about Mr. Bird. After nearly 30 years as a woodworker and many years as a woodworking educator and teacher, he has turned to tool design as his latest challenge. And his most recent router-bit design was spurred by a conversation with a student at his school in Dandridge, Tenn.

After building a number of projects with tambour doors and gluing the individual pieces to a canvas backing, Bird had tired of the same issues with each assembly. A student, also building a tambour door, asked if there wasn’t a better method available, maybe a way to join the pieces using no glue or backing. The proverbial light bulb went off in Bird’s mind.

The result of Bird’s design can be seen in both the completed pieces of the tambour and the finished door in the above photo (and on display at the Amana booth at IWF). Two router bits are used to create a joint that slips together to form a ball-and-socket-type joint. The use of these router bits, as explained by Bird, is to begin with stock that’s milled to 1/2" in thickness and about 2-1/2" in width. Next, cut the small ball shape into the stock. He suggests you make a single pass at the table saw to waste away some of the material before running the cut at a router table to save additional stress on the bit.

The other part of the equation is to form the twin tambours (two pieces are cut into each piece of stock) using the second router bit. Cut on both faces of the stock to form the ball portion of the joint. This setup is where you need to make sure the ball end fits smoothly into the slot, then rip the stock down the middle into two pieces.

Admittedly, the joint could be broken when pieces are simply slid in position. But, once the assembled door is installed as a unit, the possibility of breakage is nearly nil. This is an ingenious answer to an age-old problem of canvas and glue. I’ll bet Bird’s tambour doors are not going to have to be reworked after a hundred or so years of use, unlike many tambour doors.

For more on the bits, which cost about $175 for the set, visit Amana's site.

Also in the Amana booth we found another new idea in router bits. This idea is not from the design side per se, but is adapted from the industrial area. Amana has unveiled the In-Tech series of router bits with replaceable carbide insert knives. There are nine bit profiles available and each has a cutting edge that’s a piece of profiled carbide held to the body of the bit with small bolts. When the knives dull, merely install new inserts and you’ve got a bit that’s as sharp as day one.

The company says this is a significant savings for the typical woodworker and think the bits should last up to four times as long as standard brazed carbide tips. The In-Tech bits begin at $16.88 with a matching replacement knife selling at $3.08. The In-tech 1/4"-roundover bit is priced at $31.09 and the matching carbide inserts are priced at $14.92 per pair. You’ll have to make the comparison to your favorite router bits. I have a couple of these coming into the Popular Woodworking shop. I want to get a closer look and see how the bits stack up.

— Glen D. Huey