Woodworker's Journal April 2021

Ultimate Router Table Downloadable Plan Want to bump your routing up to production levels? Ever get tired of constantly changing bits and depth settings on a router table with just one router? This amply sized, fully appointed router table could be a dream come true. It sports twin routers, dust-collecting fences with micro-adjusters and a horizontal routing attachment. All that’s missing from this hot rod is a hood ornament. Item #WJ050 Horizontal Routing System Downloadable Plan Turn your spare router into a versatile, horizontal milling machine featuring accurate depth of cut, super easy fence adjustment and above-the-table bit changes. It’s a platform that will produce more than a dozen different joints (and counting!) safely and accurately. Item #WJ039 Ultimate Fluting Jig Downloadable Plan Make multiple parallel flute cuts spaced any way you like using this jig. Our…

NORDY ROCKLER 2/2/1922 - 12/28/2020 Some lights burn brightly for a short time and their brilliance, while brief, is soon forgotten. Other lights continue to endure year after year as a steady guiding beacon to steer by with confidence. Norton (Nordy) Rockler was that sort of steady enduring light, a man who guided many, myself included. On December 28th of last year, Nordy passed away at 98. I met Nordy more than 22 years ago when I joined the company he founded, Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. Nordy was a gentle soul, a man of integrity who had a kind word for those who crossed his path — even for me, an associate editor fresh on the job. He and I soon hit it off and could talk woodworking, politics, North Minneapolis and…

English Garden Bench: Fun Build Becomes Heirloom Hopeful As a Christmas gift for our youngest son and daughter-in-law last year, I built the English Garden Bench featured in the June 2020 issue. As to the project, I thought it was FANTASTIC — challenging but a great deal of fun to build. The plans are well laid out, and I consider the Rockler template set (see inset) a must for building the project. The magazine article combined with your “More on the Web” full-build video provided excellent guidance mixed with carefully placed “don’t do that just yet” warnings. Would I make it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. As part of this bench gift, I also gave my son an orbital sander, a few 120-grit discs and a fresh container of teak oil.…

Wood carving is one of the oldest forms of woodworking there is. We wondered if our readers did wood carving and what they thought about it. 1. Do you consider yourself a wood carver? a. Yes 10.85 b. No 89.2% 2. Have you ever attempted wood carving to enhance a specific project? a. Yes 33.89% b. No 66.11% 3. If you do not currently do wood carving, would you be interested in learning the basics of wood carving? a. Yes 43.14% b. No 56.86% 4. Do you own any carving tools? a. Yes 51.27% b. No 48.73% There’s more online at woodworkersjournal.com Check online for more content covering the articles below: Woodturning (page 22): Author reviews, sharpens several bowl grind variations (video) Segmented Bowl (page 40): bLearn the step-by-step process for turning a simple segmented bowl (video) DIY Wall Shelf (page 44):Follow along as we make this useful…

December Hammer’s Uses Nailed Slate, Slag or Stones All Discussed. According to most of the responses we received about Jim Bowman’s Belden hammer in the December issue, his two guesses for what the tool is for match your hunches. It’s some form of mining/geological hammer … or it’s a slate roofing hammer. But which one of these is it? First, let’s review some of the other speculations you have about it. “It appears to be a countersink peen hammer used by ship builders to countersink nails and bolts,” offers Dale Watkins of Stonelick, Ohio. Charles D. Persons thinks it might be a saddler’s hammer, and Greg Starbuck guesses it’s an ice climber’s tool. “This is a tack hammer, and I used one to install carpet in the 1960s,” says Dennis Beadles of Mount…

Dovetail Parts: Which Board Goes Where? Many new woodworkers get confused about which board is the pinboard and which one is the tailboard. A rule of thumb that might help you keep (dovetail) pins and tails straight is to think of them in the context of a drawer and simply memorize the fact that tailboards are always drawer sides. If a tailboard was used for a drawer front, the joint could theoretically come apart from pulling on the drawer. The dovetail joint should be assembled in an orientation that resists the forces applied to it. So for a drawer, that means the pinboards go in the front and back and the tailboards go on the sides. Marc Spagnuolo Hybrid Woodworking Popular Woodworking Books; ISBN: 1440329609…