WOOD Magazine September 2019

Thank goodness every smartphone has a calendar in it, because I can hardly tell what time of year it is any more. Valentine’s candy appears on shelves on New Year’s Day, back-to-school sales begin July 4, and retailers deck the halls with Christmas decorations and merchandise starting in October. (Sorry, Thanksgiving!) Our business does its share of time shifting, too. Most subscribers received this September issue in June. That out-of-whack sense of seasonality is amplified when you produce a how-to magazine like WOOD® because it takes literally months to design, build, photograph, illustrate, write, and edit the projects and articles between the covers. The playhouse project on page 42, first sketched out by Senior Design Editor Kevin Boyle nearly a year ago, is a great example. Kevin and Design Editor John Olson…

A Bevy of Dovetails Trying your hand at dovetails? Oh yeah? Which species? We’ve tamed a whole variety of them and show you how as well. Hand-cut dovetails woodmagazine.com/handcutdovetails Dovetails with a jig woodmagazine.com/jiggeddovetails Jig-free dovetails woodmagazine.com/jigfreedovetails Dovetails in wide panels woodmagazine.com/widepaneldovetails Half-blind dovetails woodmagazine.com/halfblinddovetails Double dovetails woodmagazine.com/doubledovetails Fast dovetails woodmagazine.com/fastdovetails Curse-word Prevention Shop mishaps happen. Instead of reaching for your extensive curse-word collection, try these fixes, instead. (Or, at least, after.) Fix a d!%#&d edge. woodmagazine.com/dingededge Fix a g#$!@d miter. woodmagazine.com/gappedmiter Fix s#@&!y tenons. woodmagazine.com/sloppytenons Fix finish f#@&s. woodmagazine.com/finishflaws Fix s&%$#!@g drawers. woodmagazine.com/stickingdrawers When Good Wood Goes Bad Sometimes wood turns on you like a B-movie bad guy. But you can prevail like an award-winning A-lister with these tips. Bullet-riddled lumber woodmagazine.com/bulletriddled Naughty, knotty boards woodmagazine.com/naughtyknotty Tricky, sticky sap woodmagazine.com/trickysticky Criminally crooked wood woodmagazine.com/criminallycrooked Invasion of the buggy kind woodmagazine.com/buggyinvasion Acid-infused species woodmagazine.com/acidinfused…

T. Rex on the Deck As I was walking through a thrift store in Houston a few years ago, I stumbled across a 3D dinosaur puzzle. I turned to my wife and said, “I’m going to figure out a way to make this bigger.” And I did. This all-wood Tyrannosaurus rex measures 26’ long and took me two months to build using only a jigsaw. My next project: a 42’-long version. —John Gordy Houston Cross Story Sticks With Readers I was pleasantly surprised to read Dave Campbell’s “Story Sticks” in issue 259 (March 2019) because a year ago I was asked by my minister to provide a reasonably priced unity symbol for weddings at our church, so I came up with the one shown, at right. I use walnut or cherry for the frame, with…

Q What to do when warped plywood throws you a curve I have a number of plywood sheets in my shop—some partial, some whole—that have warped, making them difficult to work with. How can I flatten them? —Leroy Zahm, Laramie, Wyo. A You’ll find it suggested far and wide, Leroy, that you can flatten plywood by restoring the moisture equilibrium between the top and bottom plies. That entails adding moisture to the concave side, removing it from the convex side, or both. One popular notion suggests doing both by laying the sheet on your lawn on a sunny day. We’ve tried those ideas and have found the results unpredictable, at best. Rarely does the sheet return to a flattened state. Our advice: Avoid warped plywood altogether by buying high-quality material, using the material…

Cut Spot-on Tenons and Half-laps Using Your Tablesaw Sled Most tablesaw tenoning jigs ride along the saw’s fence, but you’ll get smoother, more-accurate results using this jig in conjunction with a crosscut sled. The jig consists of just three pieces, with threaded knobs, washers, and bolts in slots to allow for cut adjustability and jig removal. When building yours, be sure to glue the 2×6 exactly 90° to the sled base and plywood backer. Use a fine-point pencil to mark cutlines. Get a precise fit for project parts by gradually adjusting the jig. —Bill Wells, Olympia, Wash. Bonus tip: Learn to make and install adjustable-fit miter-slot runners. woodmagazine.com/all-weatherrunners Well-rounded Solution for Glue Squeeze-out I build a lot of jewelry boxes and other items featuring ¼"-thick inlays. After becoming frustrated with cleaning glue that oozed out from…

Get more work and better results from your bandsaw with this easy-to-build table extension and adjustable fence. Set the fence parallel with the saw’s blade, or lock it securely at a slightly skewed angle to counter blade drift. Reference lines marked 1" apart [Photo] help you quickly set the fence’s position. Insert the locking knobs in the holes farther from the fence for resawing and narrow cuts, or move them to the other holes for wide rips. When you don’t need the fence, enjoy the added surface area provided by the fixed base [Exploded View]. Reader Jim Whetstone of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, designed the fence system to fit his Delta 14" saw. You can change the dimensions of the system’s various components to fit any bandsaw. To resaw pieces wider than 6",…