WOOD Magazine November 2021

As I approach my 60th birthday in a few months, I’ve come to terms with an undeniable truth: I’m not going to live forever. But thanks to the gifts I’ve built, I have no intention of being forgotten after the shop lights go out for the last time. Over the years, you’ve heard me harp on how handmade gifts truly come from the heart. I’ve preached about building projects with provenance, using wood with a back story. And, I’ve serially suggested “signing” your work in a discreet way so that, generations from now, your descendants will know it came from your hands, not those of some anonymous factory worker. Frankly, that’s the nut of why we make furniture and gifts, isn’t it? It’s certainly faster—and often cheaper—to slap down a credit card…

SOLITUBE For most, woodworking is a happily solitary pursuit. But recent months have seen enough solitude for mental cracks to form in even the most reclusive of woodworkers. Our descent toward insanity is clearly documented on our YouTube® channel at youtube.com/user/wood as the WOOD® magazine staff began to produce woodworking content while isolated in our home shops. Watch if you dare. Send help if you can. November 2020: Senior Design Editor Kevin Boyle begins mumbling to himself as he builds the Arts & Crafts Settee from issue 272 (Dec/Jan 2020/2021). It’s possible he’s always done it; this is just the first time he’s turned on the camera ahead of time. woodmagazine.com/unsetteed March 2021: The relentless ticking of the clock begins to seep into the unraveling brain of Digital Product Manager Lucas Peters, driving…

Two New Spins on the Patio Planter While building the Vertical Garden from issue 274 (May 2021), I made a few tweaks to your plans. First, I added a lazy-Susan bearing to the bottom so I could spin the whole thing, which required modifying the base structure. By my calculations, the planter weighs about 160 lbs when loaded with potting soil, so I used an aluminum bearing rated at 300 lbs to give me plenty of headroom. I also saved some weight by using fabric pots. I found the 5-gallon square “pots” fit perfectly in the three-tier boxes as-is, and the two-tier ones by folding their tops down a bit. Finally, to make the bottom boxes more easily accessible for planting and harvesting, I left them loose so they could be raised…

Q Can I evict this noisy tenant? I own a cyclone-type dust collector and I’d like to move it outside my shop in order to cut down on the noise. Are there any precautions I need to take? —David Caceres, Chicago, Ill. A Isolating your dust collector from the rest of your shop—whether by building a closet-like enclosure for it, or moving it to the attic, an adjacent room, or an outdoor enclosure—will definitely cut down on the noise, David. Keep these things in mind as you decide on the best option and plan your layout. Purchase a kit to add a dust port through a wall [Sources]. First, you’ll need to cut a hole through a wall or the ceiling to connect ductwork to the collector. And if you heat or cool your shop,…

Crafty Calipers Reach Around the Lips I like carving wooden spoons, but determining the thickness of the bowl has always required guesswork. Traditional calipers don’t do the job because they can’t reach around the lip of the bowl, so I raided the scrap bin and craft-supplies box to make my own, as shown. Make the long arms using cutoffs from the scrap pile, ripped into thin strips. Cut the arms to whatever length you need: Mine are approximately 6" long. From crafts sticks, cut four identical jaws about 1¼" long and a short spacer to fit between the arms at the pivot point. Glue the spacer to one of the arms. Stack the arms and drill a ¼" hole through the center of the stack. Assemble the arms with a ¼"-20 machine…

Just because you lack the dedicated room for a home office doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice on workspace. Separate the two halves of this nested desk to instantly expand your working area. When you need the floor space for other activities, park the desk around the credenza and no one will be the wiser. Learn three ways to create mortises. woodmagazine.com/mandt3ways Work From the Outside In We built the desk first and sized the storage credenza to fit beneath it. 1 Cut the legs (A) to size [Materials List, Drawing 1]. With the best faces out, label the top of each leg to keep track of its orientation, then form the mortises [Drawings 1, 1a]. 2 Cut the side and front rails (B, C) to size [Exploded View, Drawing 1]. Cut tenons on the…