Woodworker's Journal August 2017

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 useful to you…

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 when needed. To prevent…

THIS ISSUE’S EXPERTS Rob Johnstone is the publisher of Woodworker’s Journal. Ernie Conover is the Woodworker’s Journal woodturning columnist. He is the author of The Lathe Book and The Frugal Woodturner. Eric Gee is Director of Lumber Products at the Southern Forest Products Association. Contact us by writing to “Q&A,” Woodworker’s Journal, 4365 Willow Drive, Medina, MN 55340, by faxing us at (763) 478-8396 or by emailing us at: QandA@woodworkersjournal.com Please include your home address, phone number and email address (if you have one) with your question QI am in the process of rebuilding my teardrop trailer. My original build was a 4x8 teardrop on a Harbor Freight trailer frame. Due to my inexperience and haste to get it done, I made some bad decisions in the construction. These included applying spar varnish, by brush, in temperatures…

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 industries I…

World Wood Day (WWD) is an annual event that appreciates, celebrates and embraces all things wood. I was lucky enough to be a participant in the Collaborative Project portion of the 2017 event, held at the Long Beach [California] Convention Center. Other aspects of this year’s World Wood Day included music, carving, turning, designing, building, a massive wooden instrument display, folk art demonstrations, theatrical displays, a lacrosse game, a tree planting ceremony and probably anything else you can imagine that has a correlation with wood. World Wood Day abounded with wonderful woodworkers and wood enthusiasts from over 85 countries! Even though the actual World Wood Day event lasted only six days, my Collaborative Project group (20 artists from 16 different countries) started working at Cerritos College’s woodshop 10 days before moving…

MORE_ON_THE_WEB www.woodworkersjournal.com For a video of the author demonstrating turning a measuring spoon in two axes, using faceplate and spindle turning, please visit woodworkersjournal.com and click on “More on the Web” under the Magazine tab. Up until the early 20th century, woodturning shops made bowls, plates and storage containers; there was no Tupperware®. Other useful treenware was rolling pins, spatulas and spoons An interesting version of the last item was measuring spoons turned in two axes: the bowl was precisely sized to measure exact amounts in the traditional English measure system, which the Colonies also adhered to. What we call the avoirdupois pound today was divided into ounces (1/16th of a pound), drams (1/16th of an ounce) and grains (1/7,000th of a pound). A few things are still measured in this system — shot…