Australian Wood Review December 2022

The journey, not the destination I have a confession to make. I’m the sort of person who enjoys the practice more than the performance, the process better than the result. For me, it’s more about the journey. This very much applies to our annual Maker of the Year Awards, this year presented by Carbatec. Seeing each entry come in is a delightful thing – I like to see the good points of everything. As soon as we start on the judgment trail it becomes a matter of balance. Weighing up the relative worth of the good points is not so enjoyable, for me at least, because we’re not talking ‘science’ here – there are human beings attached and people put a lot of thought, time and love into the things they make. And…

Having recently committed to pursuing a life as a furniture maker, I quickly realised that I would miss many opportunities if I wasn’t able to take on larger work. When quoting on some larger commissions, including a 3.4m long dining table, I knew my smaller machine was not going to cut it – literally – and so three months ago, I upgraded to a SCM Minimax FS41E. You need to spend money to make money, or so the saying goes. I just need to work on the second part. I chose this machine because it was heavy (420kg), robust, made in Italy and importantly, had long jointer beds. I also wanted a single-phase machine as I don’t have three-phase in my shop and this was about the largest in that category.…

The potential and versatility of this product is evident right out of the box. Designed for increasing safety and cut quality by applying consistent pressure to keep the workpiece solidly registered against the fence, this device does just that. A hybrid concept between a traditional featherboard and contemporary roller guides, the engineers at Harvey have gone above and beyond to make this an extremely effective and versatile accessory. It has been designed for use on router tables, bandsaws and tablesaws. There are two versions available – the RG-1 has one pajr of wheels and is suitable for stock thicknesses between 1.6mm and 50.8mm, while the RG-2 has a second stacked pair of wheels and a thicker body, and will accommodate stock from 1.6mm to 101.6mm. Made from first class materials such as…

Increasingly I’m leaving white and yellow glues behind (along with short open-times and associated glue-up stress) and reaching for two-part epoxy and polyurethane glue. Let me tell you how I use them. Epoxy Unlike white and yellow glues, epoxy does not grab on contact, and its longer open-time (approx. 20–30 mins) makes for more peaceful glue-ups. It exhibits outstanding waterproofing and gap-filling characteristics. I use it for all kinds of joinery, from chairs to tabletops, drawers, box making, and so forth. I particularly appreciate being able to control the viscosity of epoxy by using fillers designed to enhance gap-filling and strength. These fillers usually consist of microfibres mixed into the epoxy before use. Perhaps the most pertinent downside is the perception that a two-part glue is ‘trouble’. Mixing is not as ‘easy’ as grabbing…

This is an interesting tool. It appears to use basic geometry to simplify finding the centre of stock. Microjig’s FitFiinder is made of plastic components with a body and two sliding fences that reference from and slide past each other at 45°. Place the wood under the main sliding fence and tighten the thumb screws, and the second fence points to exactly half the thickness. It works with stock up to 72mm thick. You can find half thickness instantly without a ruler. For example, if you want to make a half lap joint, you could set a marking gauge at half the thickness, then transfer your marks to the stock, then set a tablesaw blade to the desired halfway height. This is a time consuming process. With the FitFinder in action, you…

Sanding is often called the woodworkers bane, although I have heard of some fringe makers who enjoy the activity. Either way, one of the main issues is the dust that it creates, particularly with power sanding. However nowadays we are blessed with the latest innovations and these new sanding discs from 3M are a great help. Made with an open mesh of ceramic abrasive, 3M Xtract Cubitron discs are available in common diameters and sanding grits from 80 to 320. The open mesh is hook and loop and allows far better dust extraction than paper discs with punched holes on random orbit sanders. Expect to pay around $1.10 per disc putting them on a par with paper-backed discs. A recent review of sanding discs by Jonathan Katz-Moses apparently had these score…