Table of contents for August 2017 in Woodworker's Journal

Is it Time for Holiday Projects? SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVING IS ... GIFT-Y I know, it’s July for crying out loud. And in an era where Christmas is in the air sometime around, say, Halloween, mentions of the gift-giving season can be more than a little cloying, if not downright annoying. But please, stay with me for just a moment. Every year we get a lot of inquiries about gift ideas for the Christmas/holiday season. Which is great. The downside is we usually start getting those questions around the middle of November. Because of the curious timing of magazines, by then we are actually working on the March/April spring edition of the magazine. So, I thought if we started the conversation a bit earlier (like now), it might be more…

Andy Omdal of Mount Vernon, Washington, found this thingamajig in his great-uncle’s toolbox. “We have no idea what it is,” he says. Do you know what it is? Send your answer to stumpers@woodworkersjournal.com or write to “Stumpers,” Woodworker’s Journal, 4365 Willow Drive, Medina, MN 55340 for a chance to win a prize! Woodworker’s Journal editor Joanna Werch Takes compiles each issue’s Stumpers responses — and reads every one. When it comes to the mystery tool belonging to Wesley Swartout of Spearfish, South Dakota, featured in our April issue, David Jones of Bristow, Virginia, informs us, “I believe that this device is a thickness gauge.” David’s next guess, however, reveals a bit lessthan- careful reading (Wesley lives in South Dakota, not Minnesota, for example): “Just a guess at the industry…The only…

MORE_ON_THE_WEB www.woodworkersjournal.com For a video of the author building her Mini Tabletop Workbench, please visit woodworkersjournal.com and click on “More on the Web” under the Magazine tab. The idea to build a Mini Tabletop Workbench came to me for several reasons First, while I do have a big workbench that is very strong, I also use it for cutting sheets to size and to paint and oil things. Naturally, the top is covered with dried paint, and when I work with more expensive woods, these paint stains rub off on the nice wood, which makes my finishing process a lot more difficult. The top of my larger workbench is also not very even, because it serves as a sacrificial surface for my tracksaw Another reason is workbench height. I have…

ONLINE VIDEO! Rockler’s Miter Fold Dado Set instructions recommend a dedicated zero-clearance throat plate for use with the blade in your table saw. Make it by tracing your saw’s original throat plate onto a blank piece of MDF, other sheet goods or stable hardwood (bottom left photo). Cut out the throat plate shape slightly larger than your traced outline. Then, mount the blank to your metal or plastic throat plate with double-sided tape, and template-rout the blank to match the “master” using a flush-trim bit with an end-mounted bearing (top right photo). Separate the two, and see if the new throat plate fits the saw table’s opening. If it doesn’t, sand its edges as needed, and drill a finger hole through the new throat plate to make it easier to…

Coffee Grounds Wood Filler If you need a wood filler for darker woods like walnut, give your morning coffee grounds a try. First, dry them thoroughly. Then pack them into the crack, knothole or nail hole you want to fill. Soak the coffee with thin-formula cyanoacrylate glue, and spritz it with accelerator to lock it in place. Keep packing in more coffee and glue until the defect is overfilled, and sand it flush. The coffee blends in beautifully with the surrounding wood (as it did for the pinhole knot shown here). Others will never know it isn’t real wood. Dale R. Miller Modesto, California Easier Sanding Sleeve Changes Sanding sleeves tend to stick to the rubber drum after they’ve been used for a while, making the sandpaper harder to remove…

While they may not have the panache or instant recognition of dovetails, there’s no denying that box joints exhibit their own curb appeal on furniture, drawers and boxes. Their interlocking pattern of straight pins and slots provides a geometry that will make non-woodworking observers wonder how you did it, and the light-to-dark interplay of face and end grain catches the eye every time. But aside from eye candy, these joints are as much substance as show. All of those contact surfaces between pins and slots offer a huge amount of glue surface area. Once a well-made box joint is glued up, you’ll be hard-pressed to break it. Now, I can already hear the critics say, “There are umpteen box joint jig plans on the Internet and YouTube. You can build…

ONLINE VIDEO! While you could leave these three drawer interiors open, dividing up their spaces can make it easier to store and organize smaller quantities or even several types of contents. Rockler offers 23⁄4"-wide, clear plastic drawer divider holders with 1/4" slots (item 14754) thchange the divider configuration, another option would be to install fixed dividers instead, without holders (bottom photo). Make them from thicker material, and drive a couple of 18-gauge brad nails through the drawer sides and bottom to attach them.…

One of the byproducts of woodworking is, well, “byproducts.” We end up with an extra hinge here, a couple of coat hooks, T-bolts or jig knobs there. Maybe it’s the remainder of a 100-pack of pocket screws when you only used a dozen. Those bits and pieces have to go somewhere retrievable until needed, and this little storage cabinet can help. It has three sturdy tote drawers for keeping small quantities of “this or that” accessible. We used 1/2" Baltic birch plywood and Rockler’s new Miter Fold Dado Set to build it. It’s a stacked dado with a “specialty” blade that cuts a unique hinged miter joint in solid wood or plywood that won’t slip out of position when you glue and clamp it together. But, by modifying the part…

Contact Information Festool 888-337-8600 Gladiator GarageWorks 866-342-4089 Hitachi 800-706-7337 Imaginlay 585-738-2288 Makita 800-462-5482 Milwaukee 800-729-3878 MicroJig 855-747-7233 Rockler 800-279-4441 The Rockler Material Mate allows one person to move sheet goods up to 4'x8' in size from vehicle to shop. Designed to pass through 30" service doors, the Material Mate has a rigid steel frame with a 22" x 36" top that extends to 301⁄4" x 36" to hold 4x8 shee. The Material Mate (item 56889) will be available in June at a price of $249.99. Hitachi’s C10RJ Jobsite Table Saw with Fold & Roll Stand has a working table size that measures 283⁄4" x 22" with an outfeed support of 283⁄4" x 2". With the saw’s telescoping table extension set up on the right, it can support a max of 35"…