Woodworking Made Simple for Woodworkers

By Richard Maguire on August 31, 2016 in General Dear Helen, I know I’m difficult to work with, and my idea of business is not that of the rest of the world. But if you could listen I’d be most grateful. This evening I watched a car park pretty much on top of a restaurant, so they didn’t have to walk far. A lady got out first, a little plump with sunglasses on. She got out elegantly, despite doing it one-handed, staring at her phone. Two kids crawled out straight after, staring at their phones, and Dad a few moments later. He’d had to drive. Judging by where he’d parked, I don’t imagine he’d driven far. But still, he could have missed something important, so before getting out he made sure that something, probably Facebook, was loaded so he could stare at it whilst walking the five yards to the restaurant door. Overall Helen, it would have been a grotty night out, because none of them would have gotten off ...

It used to be that placing a TV in your home meant having a large, sturdy piece of furniture to put it on. While today’s TVs are lighter and more versatile, the number of components attached to them has increased. Many gadgets are converting to wireless technology, but most entertainment systems still have a mess of cords and wires. These accompanying accessories make placing a TV difficult. We at Marvelous Woodworking have seen many beautiful homes that have an odd piece of furniture in the middle of a room with a TV sitting on top of it, cords cascading down the side. The homeowners’ request is always “fix this”. We have found several solutions to this issue. Hang Your TV Above a Fireplace Mantel The space above a fireplace mantel can be a useful place to mount or place a TV, turning your hearth room into a warm TV room as well. We have seen among homeowners a 50-50 split between those who love and those who hate this look. However, there is a compromise. By...

When I buy an extremely niche product, I don’t typically make a video about it. But this one did such a good job of solving a problem for me and someone recently requested that I talk about it, so I figured I would make a quick video. My new Colorado shop is smaller than I’m used to, and that means more of my tools need to be mobile. One of the heaviest and most difficult to move tools is my Powermatic 3520B Lathe. I’ve hurt my back several times pushing that thing around. I did a few quick web searches and quickly found a solution: the Lift Lock N’ Roll Lathe Mobility System. Unfortunately, it seems they only make this add-on for a few Powermatic models and the Jet 1642. The system is easy to install and doesn’t require you to life the lathe at all. As long as the feet are extended, the system slides right under the legs and bolts in place. While the sales video of the product gave me the impression that I could easily engage the wheels with my feet, the r...

Posted on Aug 30, 2016 Hardwood flooring has become extremely popular over the last few years. If you are looking for a new kind of flooring for your home, hardwood floors are some of the most durable and cost effective floor coverings available. Depending on your personal preferences and decisiveness, you can either have a quick and informative shopping process or experience a time-consuming hassle, that can take weeks to find the ideal floor for you. Some people know exactly what they want the moment they see it, and others are less decisive. Hardwood flooring can be expensive but soon pays for itself over time with its extremely durable properties. Below you will find some great information on the best hardwood floors to buy. Solid wood floor or engineered wood floor? This is your first choice when you set out to find the best hardwood floors to buy. You have two main choices, Solid wood or Engineered wood. Both types can come in a wide range of colors and wood effect...

The most sought-after pine finish is a one-day, three-step process. Finding a sample to copy (such as this antique firkin) is a good strategy. We experimented to find the perfect recipe for this most-requested finish for pine – and it’s as easy as pie. by Glen D. Huey from the Autumn 2007 issue of Woodworking Magazine P umpkin pine is a developed patina that glows a warm orangy color similar to – you guessed it – a pumpkin. Ask woodworkers what finish they want to replicate when using white pine as their primary wood in a project, and you’re likely to hear two words: pumpkin pine. A real pumpkin pine finish has many years of age. Begin with heartwood from Eastern white pine then allow a century of wax, grime and exposure to daylight, and you’ll start to see a patina that displays a golden-orange hue. Old Growth v. New Growth Back in the day, Eastern white pine or yellow pine was sought after by woodworkers. It was easy to work, available i...

Posted on Oct 27, 2016 If you’re looking to improve the look and functioning of your bathroom, you should consider building a really nice and eye-catching bathroom vanity cabinet. While these cabinets may be expensive to buy off the shelf, surprisingly, you won’t find them difficult to create. Here are a few bathroom vanity plans that you can download and start with the project. 1. Woodworking About’s 32″ Tall Vanity Cabinet Plan: In this set of free woodworking plans, follow step-by-step through the process of building a 36″ wide, 24″ deep and 32″ tall bathroom vanity cabinet. The plan of this vanity contains a lot of information about cabinet building, so if you’re new to this craft, you can learn a lot here. The vanity cabinet shown here is much larger than usual. It has a large open section with two doors and a large drawer. This cabinet can be further modified to fit any sized countertop of a bathroom vanity. The vanit...

Making wooden spoons is similar to making cutting boards: they both seem to be projects that every woodworker will eventually attempt. Typically, spoons are hollowed out and shaped using carving knives and chisels, but I used my power tools instead. I also opted for non-traditional spoon shapes, making and acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. The wood is mahogany. These are not the most practical utensils but intended as decorative pieces for hanging on the wall. I had a lot of interesting considerations when making these spoons. They have both concave and convex surfaces as well as tight curves and various thicknesses. I decided I would do most of the shaping with sanders (using every sander in my shop), cut out the shapes with my scroll saw, and carve out the bowls with a rotary tool. Tools I used: I began by drawing out a couple of guitar shapes and pasting the templates to a board. ( Click here to download my cutting templates. ) I cut out...

A good peg, is a lot more than a roughly ragged out bit of round wood. When you’re draw-boring, or just reinforcing a joint, you need a peg that’s strong. A good wooden peg should be straight grained, slightly tapered and preferably made up of a series of flats. I’m going to show you the two most common methods that I use. There’s two because it varies depending upon the material we start out with. In this part we’ll look at my favourite method, the ‘Split & Whittle’. This is all about timber selection, as we need a peg that’s straight grained and with the grain running parallel in both planes. You should also use a good stiff hardwood like oak, and be sure it’s nice and dry. I normally use riven wood for this, that’s wood which has been split from the log rather than sawn, as this way you’re almost guaranteed to get that straight and more importantly, parallel grain. You could also rummage about for a perfe...

Old & new. While there are many types of mortise gauges (I have more than a few), my favorite is this two-beam wedged version. I liked it so much I copied it. Make your own copy of this precision vintage tool. by Peter Follansbee from the December 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking E ven after two years of working alone, I can still hear the visitors to my museum shop where I worked for 20 years: “My grandpa was a carpenter….” It’s a line I heard a lot. I used to wish for a secret button I could step on to cue, at tremendous volume, John Prine’s song: “Grandpa was a carpenter/he built houses, stores and banks/chainsmoked Camel cigarettes and hammered nails in planks.” I had no such button; I resisted the urge to sing and the talk would meander one way or another. In many cases, it included the visitor pointing to a marking gauge and saying, “I have one of those tools – what is it?” By far, it’s the most com...

Posted on Sep 1, 2016 Many people are searching for uba tuba granite reviews and here’s what we have to say. The fact that the Uba Tuba granite is available in a wide variety of colours forces most people to ask, “What colour is uba tuba granite?” This Brazilian strain of granite is originally excavated from an igneous rock, composed largely of mica and quartz. It has large colour variations, and it’s common to see this granite in green, black and brown. However, primarily it is dark green and has lighter flecks in green, brown, white, turquoise blue, gold and black. Part of the uniqueness of this kind of granite is that its colour varies from one slab to another and within slabs too. Depending on the section of the quarry it is extracted from, it can have a lighter strain, or darker and perhaps more or less of other colours in its basic pattern. Its grain pattern is tightly packed and its surface has very few veins, since most of its pattern compr...

How confident do you feel trusting glue for edge joints? In traditional woodworking most of the glue bonds we do will have some mechanical strength, and a well cut joint will hold together without any glue at all – it’s just there as a bonus. But when we’re edge jointing long boards, such as when we glue up a wide panel or top, it can be an exception. For these joints we’ll often look to the glue alone to hold the two pieces of wood together. Glue is one of those miracles, like sending an email, that does its job without leaving any hint of how it happens. For my simple woodworking mind, that disturbs me. For small glue ups, like on our side table’s top, I’m happy to appreciate this miracle. But as the joint gets longer and thicker, I start to lose trust. For these joints, I always like to add reinforcement for peace of mind. There’s several ways to do this, and on a table I’m building this week I’ve opted for loose tenons, draw...