Table of contents for December 2020 in Popular Woodworking

This year hasn’t been easy. There have been times I’ve really identified with Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog’s Day, doing the same things over and over again, with no real end in sight. Wake up. Check the news. Make coffee. Sit at my computer. Eat dinner. Sleep. Repeat. Hope for change. As the year draws to a close and I’m still not leaving the house, except for a walk or bike ride, or a trip to the grocery store or home center, I wonder how long this will last. I do feel lucky that I snuck in under the wire buying my first home only a couple years ago. Instead of being confined to a 800 sqft. apartment without much outdoor or garage space, we have about twice that much…

With the right techniques and tooling your CNC router can mill brass and aluminum with dependability, accuracy and consistency. Milling these materials on a home shop CNC router isn’t difficult, but milling metal requires a different and a disciplined approach. Here is a basic formula to get you started: 1. Stick with easily machinable alloys.2. Choose the bit that is correct for brass or aluminum.3. Mill at an RPM and feed rate that is right for your machine.4. Use a light depth of cut.5. Lubricate the bit.6. Clear the chips. The Alloys We want to choose an alloy that machines easily, is commonly available and is affordable. Aluminum alloy 6061 is a great choice to work with. Manganese and silicon are the major alloying elements. Alloy 6061 is strong, corrosion…

It’s often said that a shop layout is never truly complete. While that may be true, I have discovered a valuable asset in my shop that can move and adapt to changing layouts. I’ve been testing a mobile shop cart over the last several years to make sure it holds up to the rigors of woodworking. The key is middle dividers that act like the webbing of an “I-Beam.” With this tested construction technique, the entire cart forms a rigid base to support the top. The work surface is a double-layer of thick MDF, forming a flat top that can handle daily use and abuse in a shop environment. Special features include pass-through doors, slide-proof adjustable shelves, and a built in clamp rack for even greater utility. Construct the Base…

Shallow Cut Eliminates Tearout When I crosscut hardwood plywood, I use an old technique to minimize tearout on the bottom face. I simply make two passes with my general-purpose blade. After setting the rip fence, I cut a shallow groove, no more than 1/32 in. deep. Then I raise the blade and cut all the way through. Cutting plywood this way takes longer, but I’m not in a hurry and the tear-out-free results are worth the extra effort.—Eric Swanson Hook Your Cordless Drills While building this little station to organize my cordless drill paraphernalia, I discovered that bicycle hooks make great drill holders. Mounting the station on the wall saves valuable bench-top space. Now I never have to hunt for my drills, chargers and bits.—Hans Wendt Jointing with a Planer…

As a craftsman, I've always enjoyed building stuff. But the pivotal point that led me into woodworking happened long before I stood at a table saw or picked up a hand plane. And that point is clearly ingrained in my memory. I was 12 years old and my grandpa and I harvested a pecan tree from his yard. Instead of cutting the trunk into firewood, grandpa hired a sawmill to come out and turn it into lumber. It was at that point that I, at 12 years old, had an earth-shattering realization that wood literally grew from trees. I know, I was a 12-year old genius. It was that day that triggered my fascination with the material we use for our woodworking. And I've noticed in the past few of…

In 2015, acclaimed hand plane maker Karl Holtey announced his impending retirement and was working on the 984 panel plane: what he intended to be his final production run of hand planes and the last word in a career that resulted in a reputation for an unwavering focus on perfection and the development of several technical innovations that had an impact far outside the boutique world of high-end hand planes. Karl and I spent several days that autumn in his workshop in rural Scotland talking about plane making and his journey to becoming widely recognized as one of the greatest plane makers in the world, an interview that can be found in the April 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking. Now it is 2020, much of the world is several months…

Premium Impact Driver and Drill Like all power tool companies, Festool is continuing to improve its battery technology and how it pairs with the tools these batteries are powering. You can see (and feel) the fruits of this innovation in their new TID 18 impact driver and T18+3-E drill/driver, both powered by redesigned brushless EC TEC motors and 4AH batteries. The TID 18 impact driver includes three speeds plus a special mode designed for driving self-tapping screws into wood-backed metal (think flashing a house). This mode starts with a high speed to penetrate the metal, then switches to a lower speed automatically (sensing the change in material) so you don’t strip out the screw. The T18+3-E drill/driver has two speeds and an electronically-controlled clutch. The standard chuck is also user-swappable…