This article, “Pro Tips for Turning Duplicates,” is from the pages of American Woodturner and is brought to you by the America Association of Woodturners (AAW) in partnership with Woodworker’s Journal. Do you break out in a sweat if you have to make two or more turnings the same? Have you turned down project requests because you don’t know how to turn duplicates or copy a broken spindle? If so, I will take the mystery out of the process by introducing you to story sticks, the measuring and layout tools used, and the “point-to-point” turning process. With the right knowledge, you can ..read more

About eight years ago, I built a dovetailed blanket chest project for the magazine. I had the good fortune of acquiring some really beautiful curly cherry lumber to build it. The grain is swirly and interlocked. It would have been a blotchy nightmare to stain, but under a clear finish, it has aged to a remarkably beautiful, dark red patina. I was admiring the wood in the sunlight the other day, and it occurred to me how wonderful cherry lumber can be. Sure, sometimes you’ll get boards that have a greenish tone to them or are so filled with creamy sapwood that they’re just too distracting to p ..read more

Drilling holes in a board is one option for storing router bits by their shanks. But if the board shrinks across the grain, it can lock the bits in their holes, making them very difficult to remove. If it absorbs moisture, the shanks can rust. And it can’t be mounted vertically to save space without running the risk of the bits falling out. That’s why Rockler’s Router Bit Storage Inserts are so helpful. They’re made of a durable, non-absorbent molded polyethylene that remains flexible, yet holds the shanks securely enough for either horizontal or vertical storage. The interior of these insert ..read more

Between uses, the spouts of my glue bottles dry and clog up, so I have to spend time cleaning them before I can even get started on a project. But I finally found a solution: I saved the spout from an empty glue bottle and soaked it in water for a few minutes to clean it. When I finished my next glueup, I replaced the “dirty” spout on that bottle with the clean one I had saved and immediately soaked the dirty one. Cycling the spouts this way, my glue bottle always has a clean spout to start with and a clean replacement waiting in reserve when I finish. – Dusty Williams Redlands, California The ..read more

Life is full of distractions, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s so difficult not to carry those preoccupations into the shop when we’re woodworking, but lapses of focus are when mistakes and accidents happen. If I’m having trouble concentrating, my enjoyment of the process diminishes, too. I’ll bet the same is true for you. In his book The Why & How of Woodworking, the fantastically talented woodworker and writer Michael Pekovich has this to say about focus: “Everything we do to transform a tree into a piece of furniture involves expending energy. From jointing and planing and milling to cutting j ..read more

While the majority of what you probably need to cut on a band saw is wood or sheet goods, wouldn’t it be handy to be able to slice through metal as well? Unfortunately, woodcutting band saws spin the blade too fast for that task. But with the DAKE/Laguna 14|CX Bandsaw, ferrous metals such as steel, iron, stainless steel and more are fair game because this machine’s blade speed can be set to as low as 60 surface feet per minute (SFPM). Most consumer band saws are limited to wood cutting due to a fixed blade speed. But sophisticated variable speed on Laguna’s innovative 14|CX Bandsaw makes both ..read more

When nailing wood face trim to a plywood edge, such as to hide the core material on the front of a cabinet or shelf, I sometimes find that the trim will “walk” on me either to the inside or outside of the piece I’m nailing to. My solution is to clamp a small piece of scrap wood on each side of the plywood to make a channel for the trim to fit snugly inside. Then, driving nails through it has no eff ect on shifting its position relative to the edge of the plywood. Problem solved! – James McKinnis Sheldon, Iowa The post Scrap Channel Makes Edging Easier to Install appeared first on Woodworking ..read more

This past weekend, I pulled a batch of rough-turned bowls out of their drying chamber (a trash can filled with wood shavings), and I was reminded of one of the many reasons why wood is such a remarkable material. If you’re unfamiliar with drying “green” bowls, the process involves turning the wood while it’s still soaking wet and then letting the bowl dry in its wet shavings for several months. This process prevents rapid moisture loss which can lead to cracking. As the bowl slowly releases moisture into the shavings, it distorts. But here’s what’s remarkable: even though the bowl typically w ..read more

The jaws on my lathe’s scroll chuck are dangerous when they’re open wide and spinning, and they can take off a lot of skin quickly. To reduce that risk, I wrap a wrist sweatband around the jaws and secure it with a rubber band cut from a bicycle inner tube. It’s much easier to see the sweatband than the bare spinning jaws, and if I get too close, my hands are warned by the soft cloth before I get hurt. – Randy Wolfe Hoover, Alabama The post Safety First on Spinning Scroll Chucks appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To ..read more

Projects: Porch Swing, Mission Coffee Table, Bookmatched Bar Stool Tools: Track Saws, Slab Flattening Jigs The post Woodworker’s Journal – July/August 2024 appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To ..read more