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 Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wish I Lived Near Rochester, N.Y.
 For those of you who made it to the Cincinnati Lie-Nielsen Travelin' Hand Tool event, you know how great it was to get your hands on a huge range of Lie-Nielsen tools, meet the folks behind the name, and listen to Chris Schwarz wax prolific about hammers...and what they do to planes. (If you missed the show, become a fan of the Popular Woodworking Facebook page and you can see pictures).
Well, Lie-Nielsen is taking the show to Rochester, N.Y. on July 10 and 11, at the Rochester Woodworker's Society (noon-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday). In addition to hands-on training from Lie-Nielsen folk, the Rochester Woodworkers Guild will be giving demonstrations. (And by the by, every penny Chris Schwarz makes off his DVD sales is donated to a woodworking charity.) Admission is free. Visit the events page at lie-nielsen.com for more information.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
Read other entries by Megan Fitzpatrick
Thursday, July 09, 2009 4:17:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Being In The Right Place
Being in the right place at the right time has its rewards. I’ve worked at woodworking for two decades and I’ve never used anything with the name Yates or Colladay on it – until this week.
I walked up to the Acanthus Workshop’s Colladay 16" jointer (a genuine piece of “Old Arn”) and flipped to the on switch. The machine began to purr. The cut made as I passed the board over the three-knife head was dead-flat and as true as can be. The board slid over the machine like the puck on an air hockey table. Nice.
Acanthus Workshop owner, Chuck Bender, was also in the right place at the right time when he purchased the Philadelphia-made jointer. He had spread the word amongst fellow woodworkers that he was interested in a upgrading his jointer; extra width works best for Bender because he often uses wide boards in the reproduction pieces he builds. He received a phone call from another woodworker who said he needed to part with his Colladay jointer; he needed to get it out of his dining room – that’s right, his dining room. (I can’t believe it, but I’m having fun trying to imagine.)
The jointer was in great working condition and immediately found a new home. It has been part of Acanthus ever since. This machine is great to use, but what really put a smile on my face was the three minutes and forty seconds of run-down time after the jointer is shut off. That’s long enough to joint another short board.
 A second piece of “arn” at Acanthus is a Yates 156, 30"-wide thickness planer. Bender has had this machine for almost 10 years and as with the jointer, nothing had to be done to the machine to bring it into working condition. Think about this: Four knives at 30" each is a total of 120" of knives to sharpen. Around these parts, that will set you back about $100.
 How’s the class doing? Wednesday was field trip day. We drove to Philip H. Bradley Company Antiques in Downingtown, Pa., to take in some original tea tables and other great pieces. Inside the door there is a stunning secretary and the front room is full of pieces that any woodworker would admire. Then it was off to Ball & Ball to study reproduction hardware. Some of the students picked up knobs for the candle slides of their tables.
 Construction is going great. Wednesday morning everyone wrapped up the legs and Thursday morning the bases of the tables go together. By the end of the day Thursday, we should have the tops fit. Also, Thursday is ice cream day. On a challenge, I had 12 pints of Graeter’s ice cream sent out from Cincinnati. If you’re in the area, grab a spoon and stop by.
— Glen D. Huey, senior editor
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Thursday, July 09, 2009 10:03:10 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
SketchUp at Woodworking in America
How You Can Help
The Woodworking in America: Furniture Design and Construction conference is just a few weeks away. We're all looking forward to the conference and the opportunity to spend time with the presenters and our readers. In addition to the experts in many different furniture styles, we're focusing our attention on SketchUp, an incredible tool for designing and understanding projects. I will be giving a presentation on using the program and we will have walk-in clinics where you can bring in your laptop (or use one of the computers we will have available) and receive one-on-one advice. There are a couple of ways you, the reader, can help us make a good thing even better.
I've been working with SketchUp and how to teach it to woodworkers for a few years now. My book, Drafting & Design for Woodworkers covers the program and I recently taught a class on SketchUp at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. I want to make sure that we're prepared to address the issues that you have. Leave a comment below, telling us what you've struggled with in learning the program. Do you find yourself lost in space? Do things distort when you try to move them? Would you like to get rid of that annoying guy in the corner and work in inches? If you let us know, we can be sure that the volunteers manning our walk-in clinic are prepared to help.
If you are adept at using SketchUp, there is also a way you can help, and possibly get free admission to the conference. We have a couple volunteer slots to fill for the walk-in SketchUp clinics. If you can work a couple of sessions showing attendees how to use the program, you can attend the conference events on us. We don't have the budget for travel or other expenses, but we think it's a good return for your time.
If you think you're qualified (and available Aug 14-16, and can get to St. Charles. Ill.) send me an e-mail. Attach a SketchUp model you've made, and tell me a bit about your experience and we'll see what develops.
--Robert W. Lang
Click Here for Woodworking in America Conference Information
Click Here to visit the Popular Woodworking SketchUp page
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 1:56:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Guess the Avatar
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner: Congrats to Craig Parker. Answers are at the bottom.
We're in the midst of a cover test for the October issue of Popular Woodworking (you can cast your vote here), and as always, the editorial staff has placed friendly bets on which will be the winner. We've each placed our "avatar" atop our favorite cover (or the one we think will garner the most votes).
What does this have to do with you? If you can correctly guess which avatar represents which staff member you can win a DVD. The first respondent to correctly match all the avatars to their staff member will win a FREE copy of our latest DVD: "Turning Basics for Furniture Makers with Steve Shanesy."
Entries must be e-mailed to Megan.Fitzpatrick@fwmedia.com. And to make it a bit more challenging, I'll tell you that Senior Editor Glen D. Huey and Publisher Steve Shanesy are out of the office – which leaves the remaining five staff members...and I'm not giving their names. (OK, four...as you have to e-mail me – but my avatar is a gimme, anyway.) The answers:
Luke Skywalker: Drew DePenning; Dwight Schrute: Chris Schwarz; Bullwinkle: Bob Lang; Phone Wire Man: Linda Watts (she made this sculpture!); Shakespeare: Megan Fitzpatrick.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
Read other entries by Megan Fitzpatrick
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 11:24:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Bicycles, Routers and Lathes
Once again, I said yes to a friend (it seems I say yes to lots of my friends) who wanted me to duplicate some woodworking in a house he is rehabing. This time it was something I’ve never done. But, of course, I said “No problem”. (Whenever I say that, I always hear this other voice telling me this WILL be a problem, but I always ingnore it.)
This little project involved making two balusters — with spirals. I own a lathe and can turn well enough, but I wasn’t sure how to cut the spirals. I asked a few folks and they all said, “Oh, you have to carve them by hand”. Yeah, right. I like hand using hand tools as much as the next woodworker but this seemed like a nightmare coming to life. How would I keep the grooves consistant and parallel to each other? How long would this take? I would need to practice on other woods before I broke out the mahagony (the wood used in the rest of the staircase). Seemed like this would be a problem.
So, I began a quest for the perfect way to make these balusters using power tools (the ones with cords). I began searching the internet for tools, clues and techniques that would make this task “easy”. I found a couple of tools that would do what I wanted, but one of them was extinct and the other cost a lot of money. I started reading some threads of conversations about such a tool. One chap from England said, “There’s a book out there titled ‘Router Magic’ and it has plans for a rather sturdy looking tool called a router lathe.”
I got all excited because we have a copy of Router Magic, written by Bill Hylton, here at Popular Woodworking. I grabbed the book and there it was — the router lathe. All I had to do was build it. I just needed some plywood, a router and, what? — bicycle parts? Yup, I read it correctly. Well, I have 6 bicycles, so “Frankesteining” one of them would be okay.
Bill Hylton was still working at Reader’s Digest, writing about woodworking. He and his buddy, Fred Matlack, came up with this very clever tool and it looked like something I could make. I stripped my bicycle, found some plywood, bought some hardware and started the build. I had no idea it would be this much fun! The photo shows where I’m at now. It’s almost finished and I can’t wait to start turning balusters with my router.
I’ll show the final results in a couple of weeks and let you know if it works. Oh, and don’t forget to order Bill Hylton’s new book, “The Drawer Book”.
Jim Stack
Senior Editor, Popular Woodworking books
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 9:03:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 06, 2009
Old School How To
We all know that there has been a tremendous revival in hand tools. I learned to work with wood in the early 1970s, and the old geezers I worked with would sometimes head for the joiner, and sometimes pick up a plane. They had a sense of which tool was better for any given task. They all used tools they had purchased when they were young, and when I went looking for tools of my own I couldn't find many new ones that were worth buying. I ended up spending a lot of money ($35.00) at the time for an English shoulder plane, and I borrowed the Stanley No. 4 from my dad, who had borrowed it about 20 years before from his dad. We're much better off today, but I've been wondering lately about why we needed a revival. Why were hand tools all but abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s?
I have some theories, and in search for evidence beyond my own thoughts I decided to take a look at how-to magazines from fifty years ago. The image above is from the February 1951 issue of Popular Mechanics. Google Books has issues available online going back to 1905. I haven't come to any conclusions yet, but I did come across some interesting ads.
Here's a fifty-year old image of the ideal power tool shop of the day, complete with knotty-pine paneling and linoleum tile floor. The tools are small in scale, but aren't too out of line. Other ads however, seem a bit silly. One of the hot items of the day was the portable electric drill, and it seems there was a race to make the drill a universal power source for all manner of tasks.
I've never seen an Arco-Saw, but my dad did have an attachment that turned his electric drill into a jig saw. Or so it claimed on the box. I tried to get it to work a time or two as a teenager, but never had much success. Safety was also a concern back then, and here is another item I've never seen:
The idea is that the blade has only eight teeth, and they protrude only .020" from the plate. It features a "wedge cutting action" that eliminates kick back. I'm surprised that no one carried the idea to the next level; a blade with no teeth would eliminate kickback and sawdust as well.
Ads for power tools were far more numerous than those for hand tools, but there were hand tool ads in print, along with numerous gizmos for sharpening and setting hand saws, and golden opportunities to be found in the saw sharpening business.
And there were a few non-woodworking ads that caught my eye.
My older brother had a chemistry set, but I don't believe that his came equipped with "Safe Atomic Energy". That's just as well, since most of his experiments involved pyrotechnics. What really made me want a time machine was this:
$3.75 was a considerable sum in 1951, but I think a jet propelled bicycle would be well worth it.
I didn't get much closer to answering the question I had, but I did get an interesting look at the culture of the time. If you have any favorite oddball tools from the era, or theories about why hand tools fell out of fashion before making a comeback, tell us about them by leaving a comment below.
--Robert W. Lang
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Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Monday, July 06, 2009 3:37:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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New Addition to Woodworking in America Lineup
 We are pleased to announce George Walker as an addition to the Woodworking in America: Furniture Construction and Design Conference (Aug. 14-16 in St. Charles, Ill.). George's session, "Unlocking the Secrets of Traditional Design," will be at 6 p.m. on Friday. (That's also the title of his excellent new DVD from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks; you can read a review of it here.)
At this session, you'll discover how period woodworkers easily sized door frames, table aprons, crown mouldings and more, with proportions based on architecture, and how these time-tested principles still apply to both modern and traditional work. You'll learn the fundamentals of proportions, forms and the classic orders. You'll pick up practical skills to help you unravel the design behind a great piece of furniture. Mastering proportions will unlock your creativity and increase your design confidence.
Plus, George will be set up for at least a couple hours every day of the conference to demonstrate his methods, answer questions and more.
Check out all the speakers and sessions – and register now at WoodworkinginAmerica.com. (And if you've already registered, you don't need to sign up for this new session – just show up!)
Read other entries by Megan Fitzpatrick
Monday, July 06, 2009 2:53:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Well, it is Called 'Compass Inlay'
I’m near Philadelphia this week teaching at Acanthus Workshops. This is Chuck Bender’s woodworking school. (You know Chuck, he wrote the “Carving Spanish Feet” article in our April 2009 issue.)
Chuck and I go way back to the days when he and I traveled around the country to sell furniture. He still does a show now and then, but has focused his attention on teaching and writing about woodworking.
The thing that keeps Chuck and me connected (besides our passion for building reproduction furniture) is that we both have a basic approach to woodworking. Neither of us looks to complicate what we do – we prefer to keep things straightforward and simple. So when I arrived at his shop, I did what most woodworkers do when they enter new woodworking territory. I scouted around to see his tools, then we discussed woodworking. (I’ll share information about his woodworking machines later in the week – you simply have to see the old iron in his shop.)
During our talk, we got onto the topic of inlay (Chuck will have plenty to say about inlay at our Hand Tools & Techniques Conference in October). I asked how he cuts the grooves for inlay on his spice boxes and his basic, simple approach was immediately evident. He handed me a compass and said, “They call it compass inlay, you know!”
 Look closely at the compass shown in the photo. Chuck has one end ground to the exact size he needs for stringing. All that’s left is to use the customized tool to scratch in the groove. That’s a new one on me. And you better believe that I’ll try that on my next Chester County inlaid spice box.
Stay tuned. I’m not sure how many other ideas I’ll get while I’m here, but I’ll pass along anything worthwhile (please don’t tell Chuck I'm stealing his tricks!).
— Glen Huey, senior editor
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Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Monday, July 06, 2009 9:12:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Small Scraps and Simple Pleasures
Last Friday afternoon I was paid a surprise visit by my girlfriend. She had the day off, so it was nice to have her see a day in the life of an Associate Editor for the Web.
Unfortunately, watching me edit the BookShop News newsletter isn't as exciting as she thought, and pretty soon thumb twiddling ensued.
Not wanting to bore her to tears I finished up my work, looked up and said "Wanna go make something?"
Her eyes lit up, and I saw the wheels churning as she thought about the endless possibilities.
"What could we make?" she asked.
Being the good boyfriend, I replied "Let's go make some jewelry."
I ushered her into the shop and we headed straight to the scrap bin. "Ooh, this is pretty – what's this?" she inquired.
"That's cherry," I said, "and this is oak, and this is walnut." I held up a nice size off-cut from a Bible box project to be featured in the October issue.
"I like that one!" she said. Apparently that wasn't the only scrap she liked – her arms were already full of strips of cherry and oak.
What she doesn't know is at this time I was furiously thinking about what in the world we could make with this piece of walnut that she could be proud of making and I wouldn't have to lose fingers. Remembering a conversation she and I had the other day I suggested we make a ring.
Bob Lang was in the shop with us so I asked him what he thought. Apparently, because rings are circular, grain direction wouldn't matter too much (it would be weak at least on two points). Knowing my girlfriend's jewelry preference, I knew she'd design something huge and chunky – so grain strength was no longer a worry.
With that reassurance in mind, my girlfriend busted out her art school skills and drafted a design on the block using Bob's compass. Then it was off to the drill press. At first excited about our speed of progress, I soon found myself dumbfounded with the realization that I have no clue how to size this ring. Staring into the box of Forstner bits I began pondering about ring size conversion charts when my girlfriend broke my trance – she took off her silver ring, grabbed a few bits and handed me the one that fit inside.
"Here," she said, "use this one."
She's a keeper.
I quickly drilled the hole and then headed to the band saw to cut out the shape. That was my favorite part. With my work done, I could now teach my girlfriend about how to use a rasp. In no time we were back in my cubicle, with her joyfully shaping her ring. She even wrote a song about it:
"Oh tiny rasp, why are you so tiny? Because I help you get into small spaces."
With her work nearly completed, we went back into the shop for some final sanding. In no time she had a beautiful ring entirely of her own design, entirely homemade.
Although this was a very simple project compared to a dovetailed Bible box, it was nice to share with my girlfriend how you can make something yourself that you'll love and cherish.
I need to get into the shop more often.
– Drew DePenning
Read other Entries by Drew DePenning
Thursday, July 02, 2009 3:13:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Some Assembly Required
You’d think I’d know better. But being in desperate need of one place where I could store and easily access all my music CDs, I was seduced by the clearance price and vintage look of a CD cabinet in an on-line catalog. I grabbed my credit card, punched the keys and my order was quickly on its way. It was after I placed my order that I saw the phrase “some assembly required” in the product description.
A week later, a soft, flat cardboard box arrived with both ends barely held together with packing tape. Apparently there was going to be more than “some” assembly necessary for this cabinet. But I pushed the dining room table and chairs to the wall and in a storm of Styrofoam, pulled out all the pieces. Both doors were damaged. The instructions said that the company would be happy to send replacements, so a week later I received another set of doors — in oak. My cabinet was cherry (well, cherry-colored). So one more week later another set of doors arrived, and I excitedly began assembly. With the cabinet standing, and only the doors laid out on the dining room rug, I was mentally envisioning my CDs standing smartly on shelves behind glass-paneled doors in a matter of minutes. And my dining room would once more become a place to enjoy dinner. I carefully placed the glass panes behind the lattice on the doors. They were too long by an eighth of an inch.
OK, I thought. A lunch-hour trip to the hardware store to have the glass cut down will take care of this. But the glass cutter was unsure if it was tempered glass, and he wasn’t willing to do the job. I had to find someone who was familiar with working with tempered glass. Another lunch-hour trip the next day led me to Andrew at Oakley Paint & Glass, who miraculously made my glass panels the right size in short order.
That evening, it all came together at last. I gathered all my CDs and organized them neatly on the shelves (by category and alphabetically, of course). I sighed happily as I closed the doors — and they wouldn’t quite close all the way. Arrrrrgggggghhhh! What could be wrong now? A couple of the little plastic thingies that held the glass in the door were positioned in just the right place for the screws to dig into the shelf behind them.
Those two thingies are now gone, the doors are completely closed and my CD collection is together once more. The cabinet serves its purpose and fits nicely into my almost 80-year-old home. But I’ve learned my lesson. Note to self: Read product description carefully before hitting the “send” button, and don’t believe everything you read. They weren’t exactly untruthful. The lattice was already stapled into the doors.
Maybe I need to take a lesson from Megan and get serious about learning the craft of woodworking.
— Linda Watts, art director
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:49:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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