Popular Woodworking Editors' Blog

There’s not much better than to give something with little value only to receive something useful in return. You have to admit that old, worn-out and non-working drills hanging around the shop are of little value – except maybe as paperweights. But if you stop in to your local Home Depot, you can turn those deadbeats into a nice little discount on a new Lithium-ion drill.

The "Home Depot Power Drill Trade In, Trade Up" event began on October 25th and runs through Sunday, November 8th. The event offers customers the chance to bring in their used or broken power drills and get 15 percent off a new Lithium-ion powered drill.

So gather up those old nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal-hydride powered drills, regardless of make or manufacturer, and get a discount off a new drill. You’ll be cleaning your shop and greening up the environment by doing something that’s eco-friendly.

And if you’re so lucky as to not having any deadbeat drills ripe for the recycle bins, give me a call. I’ll bet we can rustle up a trade-in or two.

— Glen D. Huey

Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:06:42 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2] 

Every year we name the best new tools we've encountered and feature them in our December issue of Popular Woodworking magazine. The process we use is entirely unscientific, and we like it that way.

Here's a snapshot of how it works: We make a list of every tool we've encountered during the year, whether it's just a tool we bought, one we reviewed in the magazine or even saw at a show. Then all the staff members hash it out during meetings, in the shop and via e-mail. We persuade, cajole and threaten one another to get our way.

And in the end, we all agree on the tools (usually we cap it at 12) on the list.

This year's list is in the December 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking, which is on its way to subscribers and newsstands now. In the meantime, we thought we'd share the list of tools that were finalists but didn't quite make the cut. These are all great tools, and if we had room in the magazine, I bet they would have also been on our list of "The Best New Tools of 2009."

Delta 46-460 Midi Lathe
This lathe is in the shop right now – we plan to review it in the Tool Test column of the February 2010 issue. The cool thing about this lathe is that it has a reversing switch – a feature you don't typically find on small-scale lathes. With the extension bed, you can turn up to a 42"-long piece between centers – that makes it a good lathe for the furniture maker who doesn't have a lot of space and needs a lathe on occasion. Senior Editor Glen D. Huey stood up for this small machine after seeing at a show this summer.

Lie-Nielsen Thin-plate Tenon Saw
This was one of my favorites that I just couldn't get enough support for. The great thing about this saw is that it has a very thin sawplate for a tenon saw – it's .02" thick instead of a more typical .032". The thinner sawplate makes the saw easier to push through the work and more balanced overall. It's a big sucker – the blade is 16" long with 11 points per inch – but it handles like a much smaller saw. If you need a tenon saw, this is one for the top of your list.

Bad Axe Backsaws
Daddy has a saw problem. We purchased these Bad Axe saws earlier this year and I've been using the heck out of them all summer and fall. I've written a lot about these saws on my blog (here's one entry). The craftsmanship on these saws is simply incredible. When I take them to shows, people can't help but pick them up. Plus, they have a different design aesthetic than other premium saws: These tools have a decidedly American look to them with steel backs and cherry handles.

Rockler Bench Cookies
I'm sure you've heard about Rockler's new Bench Cookies. Bloggers have been spilling a lot of pixels on them. We've been testing them out in our shop to see if they live up to the hype. We're actually pretty impressed. We dumped them into the dust collector to see if they remain grippy when saturated by dust. They do. Our ad director, Don Schroder, has been using them quite a bit to hold his workpieces while routing them. I want to test them a bit more because I want to make sure they don't lost their grip. But so far, so good.

Bridge City's DSS-6 Double Saddle Square
This 6" square is a drop-dead gorgeous and well-made tool. I personally think it should be on the list of "Best New Tools," but we just couldn't get the numbers to work. It's stainless steel, which is cool, and it has a built-in saddle square. And did I mention it's a real looker? We bought one for the shop, and Huey bought one for himself. And that says something.

Chris Vesper's Bevel Gauges
Being the editor of this magazine doesn't mean I always get my way. Case in point: Chris Vesper Tools' bevel gauge. I bought a 4" one from Vesper when he was touring around the United States. And I just ordered a larger one from him earlier this month. These tools have the best locking mechanism I've ever used. It really takes some effort to move the blade, and that's what really counts in the middle of a project.

Bridge City KerfMaker KM1
John Economaki of Bridge City Tools showed us a prototype of this tool in May. Senior Editor Robert W. Lang and I were particularly impressed. The tool is a super-tricky way to set your machine fences so they make dead-perfect grooves and dados. It's hard to explain with words, but the video on the Bridge City web site will open your eyes. This is a very clever tool that – to my knowledge – has never been made before.

And if you think these tools look good, wait until you see the list of the winners.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Here's a link to the 2008 winners if you need something else to do while your boss isn't looking.

Monday, October 26, 2009 12:46:18 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2] 

When I last wrote about this discovery of mahogany (read it here), I wrote that the price was not going to be $10 per board foot. I now have that information, sort of. But let me tell you about what has developed during the drying process.

The material was in a large conventional steam kiln for just over three weeks and the moisture content continued to be in the 30 percent+ range. The threat of surface checks on the material was so great that after one week in the kiln, with only unheated air being blown through the stacks, checks could be seen. The kiln was too large for the small charge of lumber and the ability to keep the ambient humidity just below the material’s surface humidity was impossible.
 
The remedy for this was to remove the charge, load about a 3/4 charge of wet oak and put the Belize lumber back in front of that. This seems to have done the trick and is now keeping the material "happy." The only issue is that the amount of time necessary to dry the lumber is lengthy.
 
It was decided that the right kiln to use for drying submerged timber is a vacuum kiln, and that would kick the costs upward. After a number of phone calls, a kiln was found Muscatine, Iowa. River City Hardwoods (read about the company here) has three Vacutherm, Inc. kilns, of which one has a capacity of 4,000 board feet. The owner has experience with drying materials such as this. According to him, the mahogany will take around 10 to 14 days to dry down to 8 percent, and a couple days to stabilize.

About pricing: The company responsible for this endeavor – Greener Lumber, LLC (click here for additional information) – expects to have about 1,400 board feet available from this first load. Prices are expected to range from $25/bf for 4/4 common-grained lumber, to $45/bf for highly figured stock. Given the lumber, the path the lumber takes to get to the States and the drying process involved, those figures seem reasonable.

In my next entry on this lumber cache, I should have photos of the dried lumber and a brief description of how the lumber works – Popular Woodworking has the honor of being the first shop to examine and work with this material. Additionally, I’ll let you know why these early container loads might be the most inexpensive board footage of this old-growth material coming to market. You’ll be amazed why!

Monday, October 26, 2009 12:38:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

If you’re a "dado-holic", or if you occasionally set up and cut dados while woodworking, Infinity Cutting Tools has just made your life easier with its Dado Measuring Gauge. This gauge is an 8" round, saw-blade-like piece of high-quality steel (what else would a saw-blade maker use for a gauge?) that has notches cut out around the circumference that range from 1/4" to 29/32".

Match your piece to the notch then you’ll know exactly what size to set up your dado stack. Yes, you could use a good set of fractional dial calipers to determine the thickness, but this gauge does more. Right next to each notch is the size of the dado as well as the formula needed to accurately set up your stack.

In the photo, my workpiece is 7/16" thick. And the symbols on the gauge read, “LHS + C1 + C3+ RHS.” Using the chart printed right on the gauge, I need to use the left blade of my dado stack (that’s a good place to start), one 1/16" chipper, one 1/8" chipper and the right blade of my stack. Sure you could figure that in your head or use the handy-dandy cardboard sheet that came with your dado stack (if you still have it), but with this gauge, everything is right there. And being steel, a couple rare earth magnets could hold the gauge right to your saw’s cabinet.

And while Infinity would like you to use this gauge with its award-winning stack (The Dadonator), the company is a bit more forward thinking than that. The formulas provided on the gauge work with any dado stacks that use two outside blades.

You can pick a Dado Measuring Gauge at Infinity’s web site (infinitytools.com) for $29.90. On the site, there are a couple reviews and a video that explains how to use the gauge.

– Glen D. Huey

Friday, October 23, 2009 3:15:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1] 

I helped Megan Fitzpatrick install the crown moulding on the case-on-case bookshelf that's featured in the December issue of Popular Woodworking. Here's how I do it:

When I have a large enough flat surface available, the first thing I do is turn the carcase over so that I have two flat surfaces against to reference – the carcase and the workbench top (or floor) .

Now, begin with the front run of moulding. With it inverted at your miter saw, cut one end. Take a piece of the cutoff and reverse the just-cut angle to create a mating piece. Position your front moulding at the case and align the two mitered ends to form your corner. Use a couple spring clamps to hold the front in place, tight to the carcase.

Slide down to the opposite end and mark the cutline flush with your case side (also mark the cut angle so you don’t get confused at the miter saw).

Swing the saw to the correct 45º angle and cut at the line. It’s best to sneak up on the line if you can. Your front moulding should be ready to install.

Back at the piece, position the front piece with the scrap to again set the corner, add spring clamps, then check the fit of the second corner – a  second scrap needs to be cut to make the fit. If everything checks out, use brads to attach your front piece. Nail into both the case and the top.

Cut two pieces for the return moulding (on for each side) and cut opposing 45º angles on each piece. Fit those to the front piece and mark the cutline at the back of the case. These cuts are at 90º. With the return moulding fit and sized, add a small amount of glue to the 45º cuts and install the pieces to complete your mouldings.

— Glen D. Huey

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:41:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1] 

In the year and a half since I built my bench I've been very happy with it, my only real regret is that I didn't make it earlier. It's solid, suits my needs and easily holds anything I want. I've heard from a lot of readers who have made there own version, and met one reader at Woodworking in America who shared his progress with me as his bench took shape. Earlier this summer I saw a feature on a bench made by Jameel Abraham that I wanted to incorporate, a tool rack combined with a planing stop in the center of the bench.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:50:45 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1] 

Norm Abram sat down with Publisher Steve Shanesy at the July 2007 AWFS show in Las Vegas

We've just received a press release stating that, after 21 seasons, The New Yankee Workshop is ceasing production. Host Norm Abram will, however, remain on PBS on the This Old House series.

"We've had a great run, built challenging projects, met wonderful woodworkers, and received loyal support from millions of viewers," stated Norm Abram, in the release.

The New Yankee Workshop web site will remain available online.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

Friday, October 16, 2009 3:05:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [10]