Australian Wood Review December 2019

Putting your work out there The idea of gaining feedback, the focus of Adam Markowitz’s article, can be a two-edged sword. We might want to know what others think of our work, but are we prepared to hear the truth? Your friends and family will generally love what you do regardless, that’s what they’re hopefully there for. Honest feedback can help but also cause ructions. Who do you blame? The giver or the receiver? Insensitivity versus oversensitivity? Ego versus ego? Mutual respect and objectivity should be key to making it work. David Upfill-Brown was quoted in AWR#82 in a profile written by Richard Raffan: ‘My first solo exhibition in 1976…was a real eye-opener. I didn’t mind the few encouraging reviews, but I definitely did not enjoy some harsh critical observations. The lesson I…

Most furniture designer makers are suckers for tools, devices and machinery – sometimes even for quaint or exotic fare that we seldom need or use. The range of things I need to make the furniture I offer my clientele is broad, however three tools that I regard as ‘must haves’ and that together cost under $100 are my 2mm clutch pencil, a dedicated Swiss-made Geddes sharpener, and a JIS 150mm steel rule with stop. My Caran d’Ache pencil, designed in 1929, bears the name of its inventor. Accuracy is a universal requirement in a fine furniture practice, and this trio gives me all I need to transfer a number in my head directly onto wood in the form of a fine point, or a small line – with an accuracy I’m…

We are constantly inundated with ads for new tools and gizmos that manufacturers claim we can’t live without. It can be hard to wade through the hype and know if a tool will be truly useful. The following items have proven themselves time and time again and have become go-to tools in my studio. I use them on almost every project. And best of all, they are inexpensive! Shinto Saw Rasp I love my Shinto rasp! Most of my furniture components are highly shaped. Once I remove as much of the waste wood as possible with power tools, the first hand tool I turn to as I start refining the parts is my Shinto. It looks quite barbaric with all of its teeth bared, but it removes material quite quickly. And, unlike a…

This is quite a robust machine weighing in overall at a hefty 182kg. It comes assembled, bar attaching the fence and some knobs and levers. With its full metal box construction and heavily ribbed planing tables it runs vibration free and relatively quietly. Best of all, it has a quality 44 tooth carbide-tipped spiral cutterhead. Combined with the 5 metre/minute thicknesser speed, this cutterhead gave a superb finish on cranky blackwood and myrtle, both of which are difficult timbers to plane smoothly. At 1100mm long the planer tables are sufficient for a machine of this size. The cast iron thicknesser table is large and supported on a large centre column. Capacity is a full 250mm in planing width and 190mm in thicknessing height. The fence is aluminium and appeared flat and straight, it’s…

All drill presses come with a metal work table and mostly this is sufficient for the majority of your drilling work. I say mostly because for large workpieces or repetitive drilling you may need to bolt on a larger work table made from ply or MDF and possibly rig up a shopmade fence system. But if you want something better than this with greater accuracy then consider one of these aftermarket drill tables. The base is a large 600 x 400mm section of melamine-faced MDF giving ample support for pretty well all drilling jobs. The melamine is hard wearing, but a hard laminate would improve the work surface. The base is pre-machined to accept the supplied T-track fittings and the kit comes complete with two T-track clamps, metric scales, sacrificial inserts and…

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