Australian Wood Review Issue #92

North, south, east and west, the stories featured this issue traverse the continent. Laura McCusker, the furniture designer/maker who appears on our cover is based in Tasmania. When she moved away from Sydney she expected her business to shrink, but instead it grew. Bern Chandley, who appeared on the cover of Wood Review a couple of issues ago, recently visited Laura and tells us her story on p.28. Also in that state, we look at the development of the Tasmanian Wood Design Collection as Design Tasmania celebrates 40 years since its founding. Funnily enough the story on West Australian sawmiller Derek Doak started in Kyneton, Victoria last March when I met him ‘by accident’, as we stood behind a rope barrier at the Lost Trades Fair. The following month I visited…

Rikon (pronounced Reekon) has hit the floor at Beyond Tools and I was able to get a first look at the recent AWISA show held in July. A number of machines were on display from the large range available and I looked at three to get a feel for the build and features of this relatively new brand. They sell well in America and reports have been very good; in fact better than popular brands such as Laguna and Grizzly. The three machines were the 25-210H 12" planer thicknesser; the 23-400H 16" thicknesser and the 10-375 20" bandsaw. Chinese-built machines have come of age and the Rikon is no exception. They are extremely well-built, rugged in construction but with a finish more expensive equipment would be proud of. While I was…

We all know the Kreg jigs – they have been around for years. Whilst not a replacement for traditional woodwork joints, the Kreg can be used to construct small tables, bookcases and to make some repairs. It does offer a quick and easy way to put something together using very few tools and skills. Kreg keep updating their various models and the K5 is a newish addition. The main body housing has an adjustable drilling guide that suits various thicknesses of wood and is easy and quick to set up. A small jig is placed on the housing to set screw length. With three drilling holes there is plenty of choice in positioning the screw holes. The drilling guide can also be removed and used on its own as a portable…

The Moxon vice has been in use in woodwork shops for at least 400 years. Two long pieces of wood sandwich your workpiece and are tightened with threaded wood handles. Later developments use iron wheels that spin on metal threads. Apparently Joseph Moxon, who shows this style of vice in his Mechanick Exercises, printed in 1694, did not invent it, however the name has stuck. Review vice from www.lakeerietoolworks.com Lake Erie Toolworks, USA was founded by Nick Dombrowski in 2008 and specialise in wood vice making. While attending college Nick worked at Organ Supply Industries as a machinist, then built keyboards and components. The antique workbench he used had wood vices and was the inspiration for LETW. Sales were initially slow and in the meanwhile he completed a graduate degree in mechanical engineering.…

Festool recently released a new dust extractor based on the systainer system format. It is compact, lightweight at 6.9kg, and with T-Loc compatibility with other systainers, extremely portable. This extractor system comes with a 3m x 27mm diameter anti-static hose, 5m insulated mains cable, has an onboard outlet for auto-starting the tool and has a reported volume flow of 3000 litres/ minute. It is rated for dust category L. With a container/filter bag capacity of 4.5/3.5 litres, this is not a high-volume extractor and is therefore better suited for lighter trimming and clean-up operations. The rated maximum rated wattage of connected tools is 1200W, so this extractor will easily handle sanders, smaller routers, jigsaws etc. I ran the test unit on the preparation and installation of a large shopfront countertop fitout continuously with no…

Mesh Better Mirka’s Abranet mesh type abrasives are getting attention for affording better dust extraction due to their less-likelyto- clog factor. With less friction generating less heat the manufacturers claim abrasive grit stays sharper. Belts like the one shown here are now available from Best Abrasives in two sizes. Being bi-directional 20% longer life is estimated after turning the belt around. Information from 0412 011 160. www.bestabrasives.com.au Two-In-One Artisan’s Duosand 46 combines a 6" diameter sanding disc with a 4" wide belt to give a complete sanding station in one machine. Designed to be bench mounted, the unit features a tilting working table on the disc sander along with a mitre gauge. The belt can be used vertically or horizontally with the belt end suitable for internal radii. www.iwoodlike.com.au Vicmarc Pen Chuck Vicmarc’s unique new pen chuck…