Woodworker's Journal April 2022

In this issue you’ll find the second article of a new six-part series for 2022: Power Tool Fundamentals. Our goal is to provide great basic information about the most commonly used power tools in woodworking shops. This time, it’s band saws! Power tools hold a fascination with most woodworkers (myself included) and are key to getting projects done quickly and easily. But they are a moving target when it comes to updated models and new gadgets. For example, I own several handheld routers, but my newest router is at least 10 years old. What has changed between then and now in router technology? Let’s find out! Each of our articles will also list the most important and newest accessories for the power tool at hand. So if you are new…

Sharing Our Legacy in Wood AN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF WOODWORKING LORE “It is never a mistake unless you can’t fix it.” This important piece of woodworking advice was shared with me by Warren Nelson, the foreman in the woodworking shop owned by my dad and uncle. Warren offered these tidbits of wisdom from his 40 years of working wood. I went into the shop knowing next to nothing about woodworking, and when I left it 10 years later, I was well-versed in the craft and competent. My next big influence was Larry Frye, my lutherie instructor. Larry would demonstrate techniques while keeping up a constant narration of what he was doing. He left the school not long after I was there to start his own stringed instrument repair business. (I wonder if…

Perhaps our December issue’s tool specimen — a double-hooked wire gizmo with a spring-loaded clip on the bottom — truly has you stumped, because only a few have weighed in on its purpose. Or it could be that our usual posse of diligent guessers were making merry over the holidays instead of scratching their noggins about Wayne Vaughn’s mystery tool. Fair enough! But a couple of you are willing to take your best shots at its intended purpose, and two others know the answer. “It looks like a weed puller,” offers Chip Arm-strong. “Step on it to push it into the ground, then pull up on the wire and the clip flips sideways as it goes back out of the ground and snatches the root of the weed.” The function of Wayne…

Tip from a Clever Nine-year-old: Clamp Makes Dispensing Glue Easier While helping me with a big glue-up task, my nine-year-old grandson Caleb — an avid woodworker — suggested we put a clamp onto the glue bottle to help squeeze out the glue when his little hands got tired. Turns out, his idea worked great! I only wish he had thought of this nifty trick when the two of us glued up 200 lineal feet of stock for a butcher block countertop last year… That was a lot of glue! Bruce RidgwayTupelo, Mississippi Rabbeting Fence Stays Put I keep a sacrificial fence permanently attached to the right side of my table saw’s rip fence for cutting rabbets with a dado blade. It just makes sense; there’s a lot more room on the right-hand side of…

When I walked into the workspace of the Urban Boat-builders (UBB) Saint Paul, Minnesota, headquarters, I felt instantly at home. Urban Boatbuilders began in 1995 with a goal of introducing youths to working with their hands as a path to employment. The early group had a contingent of woodworkers in their midst, so they decided to teach kids how to build boats from scratch. The journey had begun. UBB in the 21st Century Over the decades since, the goal of the program has grown while keeping true to its roots. Recognizing that youths in general and especially low-income youths lack both the academic opportunities and work-force training to succeed, UBB developed a program to address those roadblocks. They now offer an apprenticeship program where they hire people 16 to 21 years old to work…

Dale built four student workbenches for the Barnard Wood-working School’s shop in southern Indiana after another school that had hired him as an instructor went defunct. “I found out through teaching that I really have a lot to teach,” he said. As both an instructor and a professional woodworker, his niche is Arts & Crafts-style furniture and built-ins, particularly Greene and Greene. “My view is that you can’t improve on perfection,” he says of their style. He offers an advanced kitchen cabinets class in the Greene and Greene style, as well as project classes on a Greene and Greene clock, blanket chest and barstool. A course on a Maloofstyle rocking chair inspired a separate class on making jigs — students who took the project home realized they couldn’t build more without the…