Australian Wood Review Issue 96

Made to last Walk into an antique store – if the one near you still exists – and it’s possible you’ll find what you, as a woodworker, will recognise as possibly hundreds of hours of painstaking hand detailing. Mouldings, flutings, carved ornaments, veneered and shaped surfaces – the work of the unknown craftsperson took skill and a lot of time to make, but not a lot of people want furniture like this any more. Brown furniture, as it is unappetisingly called, can often be picked up for a song. The lone maker can’t compete with big businesses on price, so to sell there needs to be a point of handmade difference – detailing, a ‘story’ or customisation – and you might need a look that’s ‘in fashion’ and yet feels true to…

This machine, to my eye, mirrors the design of many high-end European planer/thicknessers. The operating modes, placement of handles and switch gear reminded me instantly of, say, the Hammer brand. However this machine comes from a Chinese factory and that is not a bad thing. Pitched to the part-time woodworker market it will get you planing and thicknessing for half the price of European machines with similar specs. The trade-off is less refinement in some components and a lower resale value, but not lower performance. The main tables are 250mm wide x 1050mm long and are made from machined cast iron. Maximum thicknessing depth is 180mm, enough for most workshop jobs. Set-up is straightforward and operation is easy. The cutterguard is a bit light duty although it worked well and while the…

Re-engineered and upgraded to benefit from innovative research and modern materials, the evolutionary links of the Veritas combination plane to the Stanley 45 are clearly evident. This version has however a smaller more compact feel with the designers also choosing to eliminate the inclusion of a front knob. Combination planes have polarised woodworkers for more than a century. Their supporters typically enjoy the versatility these planes offer whilst their detractors despise the fussiness and complexity that invariably results when a single tool is designed to perform a multitude of tasks. The plane is shipped with a single 1/4" ploughing blade and can be used to perform a number of joinery and moulding tasks such as beading, reeding, tongue and groove, fluting and rebating via a range of optional cutters. The standard plough and…

Adding to their growing range of 18V cordless tools, last year Festool released the HKC55 circular saw. This is an extremely versatile saw, able to be used in the traditional freehand mode, with the proprietary Festool guide rail, or with the new specific FSK crosscut guide rail system. This rail system enables accurate and repeatable long mitre cuts that are beyond the capacity of a mitre saw, however I didn’t have access to one of these rails for the purpose of this review. Either the 4.2 or 5.2Ah battery from the Festool system powers the 18V EC-TEC brushless motor. There is a good range of job and material-specific 160mm tooling available and changes are fast, simple and tool-less with the FastFix system. The electric brake system brings the tool to a…

Made in Taiwan this is a fairly rugged machine that comes equipped with a steel stand. This is a generic design based on the original Powermatic sander, and to me all drum sanders in this style are the same, albeit with different capacities, materials, and levels of refinement and build quality. As for all drum sanders of this type, winding and securing the abrasive on the drum is a skill you will develop, and once learnt it is a quick process. The large drum is supported by a 6mm thick aluminium frame, and rise and fall is via a top mounted winder. There is some adjustment of the drum to the table, a critical point as this distance needs to be constant over the width so it will sand evenly. With…

Yet another innovative woodcarving attachment from Australian toolmakers Arbortech. The Ball Gouge is a clever round-headed cutter that is designed to carve mostly concave surfaces. Beautifully made, it has a 30mm diameter head with a reversible ring tungsten cutter that carves small and medium sized areas quite quickly. It will fit pretty well all angle grinders, screwing straight onto the shaft, although you may need the included adaptor depending on the shaft diameter your grinder has. As it is a rather long tool there is quite a bit of leverage generated so a good quality grinder is essential. The manufacturers claim it is self sharpening however I was unable to verify this. The cutting ring can be easily loosened and moved to a new sharp edge as needed and with two faces…