#264-Nov/Dec 2017

Articles

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  Designer's Notebook: John Reed Fox - Design, slowed down

  A kitchen tansu seen in Japan inspired Fox to combine sliding doors and drawers in his tall dresser. The design process starts with a sketch, then evolves to a full-scale mockup and eventually the dresser itself.
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  Round Bistro Table

  Instead of bent lamination for the curved aprons, try the centuries-old method of making a brick-laid, circular core and veneering it.
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  Choosing a Dovetail Saw

  Chris Gochnour picks seven of the best dovetail saws and explains what sets them apart, from ease of start to tracking, ergonomics, and speed.
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  Four Handmade Gift Ideas

  Four ideas for handmade gifts that will please your friends and family and use up the scraps lying around your shop: a versatile flatware carrier, a two-piece desk set with tray and pencil holder, a tea light holder, and a hanging mirror.
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  Easy Technique for Gluing Thin Panels

  Low-profile clamps and blue tape combine to eliminate buckling during the glue-up.
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  Elegant Bookcase, Top to Bottom

  A profiled top and splayed base add style to this piece, and the aprons and feet pack a lot of curves into a small space.
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  How to Build a Perfect Picture Frame

  The key to success is mastering the splined miter.
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  Iridescent String Inlay

  ZipFlex, a laminated shell material brings sparkle to your work
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  How to make a small chisel for delicate detail work

  Even the smallest chisel you can buy is sometimes too big for inlay and stringing, so make your own, using jeweler’s files for the blades.
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  How to Add Glass and Art to a Picture Frame

  What you need—and need to know—once you’ve built the picture frame.
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  Australian Windsor

  After serving a four-year apprenticeship in carpentry and joinery in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, Bern Chandley went on to build sets and all sorts of furniture for movie studios…

Workshop Tips

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  Two simple jigs add up to perfect dovetail cuts

  I have been using these two jigs for hand-cut dovetails. Because it’s so easy to saw past the baseline when cutting tails and pins, I made a simple stop from…
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  Lamp arm positions vacuum hose perfectly

  I enjoy wood turning, and have always cleaned up the piles of chips with my trusty shop vacuum. But sanding on the lathe is troublesome, as a large volume of…
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  Use a PVC cutting mat for better glue-ups

  While gluing up mortise-and-tenoned legs and rails for a side table, I realized my self-healing cutting mat had an accurate grid printed on it, which I could use for alignment.…
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  Jet-Black Filler Looks Like a Natural Pitch Pocket

  Powdered charcoal mixed with epoxy makes a fine filler for knot holes and other voids.

Tools & Materials

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  Veritas combination plane

  Tool review: The combination plane done right
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  Compressor by California Air Tools

  Compressor whispers rather than roars
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  Box-joint jig by Woodhaven

  A jig for big box joints

Online Extras

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  First Look: Veritas Combination Plane

  Slated for a August 2017 release, the Veritas combination plane is their take on the Stanley 45. We just got one in the office for testing, so we thought we'd show it off and have some fun.
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  Taming Tough Grain with a Bevel-Up Plane

  See how Bob Van Dyke uses a 45º blade in his low-angle bevel-up planes to tame highly figured wood and to break hard edges without worrying about grain direction.
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  Chris Becksvoort, the dovetail master at work

  Just another dovetail video? Not really, when you can watch Christian Becksvoort dovetail a drawer packed into a 7-minute edit