WOOD Magazine March 2020

Last summer we moved our daughter, Katie, into her first apartment, which, thankfully, followed her getting her first full-time job. It was the first time she would live in a place where she had to provide everything for herself, from linens to kitchen utensils to furniture. About the only things she had of her own were clothes and a flat-screen TV. In the couple of weeks between signing the lease and move-in day, she managed to acquire a small dining room table with three chairs from one family friend, a decent sofa from another, and a third-hand bedroom set from our house. Throw in a box of hand-me-down pots, pans, and leftover dishes, a collection of mismatched plastic drinkware, and she was pretty well set. The TV was a bit of a…

PUT SOME SHIP-SHAPE INTO YOUR SHOP TUNE Master Craftsman Jim Heavey couldn’t carry a tune if he added handcrafted handles. But he can sure tune a tool. Tune in to his tune-up videos. Tune up your mitersaw. woodmagazine.com/mitersawtuneup Tune up your bandsaw. woodmagazine.com/bstuneup Tune up your tablesaw. woodmagazine.com/tstuneup Tune up your router. woodmagazine.com/routertuneup CLEAN Spring will soon… spring. And as the world thaws, it’s time to shape up your shop for woodworking season. Let’s start with a deep-clean. Clean your blades and bits. woodmagazine.com/cleanblades Clean your tablesaw. woodmagazine.com/cleantablesaw Clean your spray gun. woodmagazine.com/cleanspraygun Clean away rust. woodmagazine.com/cleanrust SHARPEN Before you start, your blades and bits should be as sharp as you are. A high bar, we know, but we’ll show you how. Sharpen your chisels. woodmagazine.com/sharpenchisels Sharpen your Japanese pull saw. woodmagazine.com/sharpenpullsaw Sharpen your mortising chisels. woodmagazine.com/sharpenmortise Flatten your sharpening stones. woodmagazine.com/flattenstones…

Double Table Trouble? I‘m a hobbyist woodworker who makes several serious projects every year. The majority of my work is furniture-quality, using hand-cut joinery and rarely fasteners. But I’m having trouble understanding the logic behind the Table for Two router table in issue 264 (November 2019). First, unless you set the thing up once for a particular application and never change it after that, it takes the same amount of time to set up two routers as it would to set up one router for successive operations. Second, to use the third router, you have to break down the fence setup for the other two routers. Finally, this thing takes up valuable floor space that most of us don’t have. I’ll say to you what I say to the young engineers that I…

Q the Best Food-safe Finish I make a lot of cutting boards and typically apply an edible oil, such as pure tung oil or food-grade mineral oil, to enhance the appearance of the wood and protect it. Are there other oils, waxes, or film-forming finishes that would offer more protection and still be food-safe? —Chuck Wagner, Raleigh, N.C. A As you’ve discovered, Chuck, any natural oil that won’t go rancid works fine, including walnut, linseed (not the “boiled” variety), or extra virgin olive oil. Although mineral oil is derived from petroleum, the food-grade version proves popular because it’s colorless, odorless, flavorless, and inexpensive. Such oils beautify the wood and offer some resistance to liquid penetration but need to be reapplied regularly. A film-forming finish, such as polyurethane, provides maximum protection and proves safe for…

“Selector” Blast Gate Controls Air From Multiple Machines Because my shop has several dust-producing machines close to each other, space for, and access to, individual dust-collection blast gates proved problematic. So I came up with a selector-type box that controls airflow from these machines. Its sliding gate has a single hole that lines up with a port leading to each machine, as well as a solid portion of the box’s bottom (the “off” or closed position). Clear acrylic ends hold the slide in place and provide a peek inside. To choose the machine that will receive dust collection, simply move the slide until the arrow on its end aligns with the machine’s mark on the wall. A simple detent, made from a strip of PVC plastic with a carriage bolt in its…

Build this rock-solid bench in a weekend, then go to page 50 and add a double-screw end vise, a leg vise, or both and turn it into an all-around work center. Tip! When cutting the wide uprights (A), saw four 3"-long spacers to use when making the workbench top. Build the Base 1 Cut the uprights (A, B) and rails (C, D) [Materials List, Exploded View]. Cut biscuit slots in the rail ends and upright edges. Then glue and biscuit the end rails (C) between the narrow uprights (B), and the side rails (D) between the wide uprights (A). 2 Cut the lower panels (E) to size. Cut biscuit slots in the panel ends and end rail (C). Join the panels to the end assemblies (B/C) [Photo A]. 3 Cut biscuit slots in the lower…