Woodsmith December/January 2022

My shop notebook sits close by me all the time. It’s been my woodworking companion for nearly 20 years. It’s mostly filled with sketches and notes for projects (or potential projects). Those I’ve built have the date they were finished. In the back I keep several lists: Annual Lists of completed projects, Project Lists by name or room of the house, as well as a Shop Project List for tools, jigs, and storage items to enhance my shop. Flipping through it from time to time offers a great daydreaming activity and reminds me of how far my woodworking education has come. I’m curious to know how other woodworkers record their shop time. Let me know at phuber@aimmedia.com VIC TESOLIN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Vic Tesolin founded and co-owns Vic Tesolin Woodworks, focused on woodworking…

Magnetic Dust Collection In my shop, I found swapping dust-collection hoses from machine-to-machine to be a pain — until I simplified the procedure. This is done with plywood connector plates held in place by rare-earth magnets recessed into each side. I found that if I put magnets on both of the connectors, it was a bit much. Instead, I used the magnets on the flange side and magnet washers on the machine side. The magnets held the plates together well, but they didn’t have good shear strength, and I often found them sliding down. To prevent this, I cut dadoes in the top of each plate and screwed a small hardboard tab to the top of the flange side to hold the plates at the same level. Dan Mays Walcott, Iowa SUBMIT A…

Improved Grip. John Finger of Chesterfield, VA had always gotten great use out of wood-handled F-clamps, but he found it became harder to get a good grip on them as the years went by. By adding bicycle handle bar grips to his clamps, he now had a stronger, more comfortable grip. Easy Pattern Removal. Dan Martin of Galena, OH was putting patterns on his workpieces, but he wanted an easy way to get the leftovers off once he was done. He masked the surface with painters tape first, then used spray adhesive to attach the pattern, making for an easy removal. Plumb Hand Drilling. Charles Mak of Calgary, Alberta came up with this handy trick. By attaching a bubble level to his hand drills with a bit of CA glue, he was…

New and improved! Version 2.0! Enhanced Features! These are just a few of the marketing slogans we’ve heard. Sometimes it’s hot air — all wind up and no pitch. Other times it’s a solid claim and a good, new thing. That’s what we’re trying here, some new things for the Great Gear department. The goal is to highlight more tools in each issue with shorter, honest, and light-hearted appraisals of the merits and capabilities of the tools we’re impressed with — new and old. CARTER MAGNAFENCE Fences for band saws often have to be able to adjust to the drift of the blade. I’ve got an old shop-made fence that tackles the drift problem just fine. But after playing with the fence you see above, my old fence might mysteriously break. Carter’s Magfence II…

There are many metal hand planes available today, but they tend to fall into two categories: high-end and expensive or poorly made and cheap. This can be a deterrent for people looking to get into woodworking. Companies like Lie-Nielsen and Veritas make outstanding products, but the price is reflective of the quality and North American manufacturing. On the other end, we have what I call ‘planelike’ objects that certainly appear to be hand planes until you try to adjust and use them. The vintage market can be a good source for decent quality tools, but you have to know how to tune them up as they almost certainly require fussing and repair to get them up to a usable state. Thankfully there is an affordable and quality option that many…

Making your own planes is not limited to bench planes. Wooden routers, grooving planes, and other specialty planes are extremely handy in the shop. It allows you to make custom tools that are designed to work the way you do. For example, for installing bottoms in drawers I often find myself needing a 6mm groove that is 6mm deep and offset 6mm from the edge of a board. So instead of playing around with an adjustable plow plane (when working with hand tools), I made a fixed grooving plane to cut the groove to the dimensions that I wanted (photo to the right.) Wooden planes and tools can be extremely useful in the shop. You can design them to suit the tasks you do and can save you a bit of…