Woodcraft Magazine August - September 2016

Despite the predominance of power tools in the shop where he began his woodworking career, Yann Giguere fell in love with Japanese hand tool techniques (see p. 44). Today he teaches woodworking and takes on special projects at his workshop in Brooklyn, NY. For an end-of-summer adventure in Japanese woodworking, visit Yann’s website (mokuchiwoodworking.com) for details on the annual Kez celebration (Aug. 26 & 27). Attendees can try out Japanese woodworking techniques and enjoy a competition among fanatics to see who can take the finest shaving from a hand plane. Larry Hamel-Lambert, is an associate professor in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University in Athens, OH, where he teaches several courses in commercial photography. Before teaching, Hamel-Lambert worked for 25 years as a staff photojournalist and picture editor at…

The content that goes into your magazine takes a long journey before it lands on the page. Along the way, every feature gets touched by many hands—a veritable village of magazine contributors. We start with article ideas from sources spread all over the country: readers, friends, fellow woodworkers, and folks who work at different Woodcraft stores. We also get some regional variety from our own editorial team. Joe Hurst resides in Alabama; Paul Anthony lives on the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania, and I’m based in Newtown, Connecticut. Many article proposals don’t survive the first part of the journey; they get nixed by the editorial team for a variety of reasons. The winning ideas still have a long way to go. We can’t just drop them into an issue schedule because…

It comes as no surprise that magazine readers are also book lovers, but it is shocking how many calls and emails we continue to get about Ken Burton’s “Little Free Library” (Issue #64, April/May 2015). In addition to photos showing libraries our readers have built, donated, and installed, we’ve also received helpful feedback about the project itself. We want to share these corrections and refinements, to aid in the construction of future LFL projects. To keep the LFL movement going strong, the new and improved version is available for free on our website. To read the story, go to woodcraftmagazine.com, and then click on Articles, then Projects. You can download a PDF of the LFL article and make a gift for your community that keeps on giving. If you build a…

I enjoyed the “Skateboard!” story in Issue #71, June/July 2016 and would like to make one for my granddaughter. The problem is that when I attempted to print the full-sized pattern, the image on my screen didn’t match the printout. Can somebody help an old woodworker out? —John Gindlesburger, via email Art director Chad McClung replies:Printing full-sized patterns is easier than you think. The instructions below are for Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download on our website), but the basics are the same for just about any program. 1. Open the PDF. (First, download and save the PDF to your desktop and print from this saved file instead of printing from your browser.) 2. ChooseFile>Print. 3. UnderPage Scaling(orPage Sizing & Handling), chooseTile All Pages(orPoster). NOTE: The preview image will show how the document will look…

I really enjoyed last issue’s “Adventure Travel for Woodworkers,” but having visited the Homestead Heritage Village, I need to point out a misplaced pin. The village is in Waco, Texas, not Oklahoma. The community is a great place to take the whole family, especially during Thanksgiving when they have their festival where everything is homemade. Love the magazine and woodworking. Thanks for all the tips you give us readers. —David M. Smith Weatherford, Texas The pin for the Foxfire Museum should be shifted across state lines from Tennessee to Georgia. The correct location is actually closer to my home. I’m grateful for the suggestion, and I’m looking forward to making a day trip with my wife. Many thanks for the fine magazine! So many projects…so little time. —John Torchick Cleveland, Tennessee Chief editor Tim Snyder responds:Thanks for…

These days, I think that a tool-triggered (TT) vacuum is a must-have item in any well-equipped workshop. Whether it’s hooked up to a router table, a random-orbit sander, or a track saw, this mobile vac dramatically cuts cleanup time while also significantly reducing the amount of airborne sawdust that will otherwise coat every stationary surface in your workshop. In the U.S., Karcher may not have the name recognition of other tool-triggered vac manufacturers, but this German company has been making cleaning equipment (including pressure washers, sweepers, and steam cleaners) since 1935. I’ve been using the Karcher WD5 for over a month, and I’ve come to appreciate the features that distinguish it from other TT vacs. The first major difference is the price—$100-200 less than the competition. Of course, the WD/5 isn’t configured…