ShopNotes Magazine Issue 141

For the longest time, I struggled with the dream shop vision in my head and my real-life workshop. Following the advice of some books and other woodworkers led me to believe there was a perfect layout and set of tools that I “must have.” During the course of building several Christmas projects, I noticed that the shop space was changing. The workbench shifted to the wall, under a window. The table saw moved out and a better band saw moved in. Power tools went on that end, bench and storage gravitated to this end. By the new year, my shop looked more like the projects I made and reflected how I worked. I still have a list of upgrades. However, I’ve found contentment and a delight in the space. Here’s…

When people find out that I’m a woodworker — and that I enjoy using hand tools, I end up getting a variety of lost tools looking for a forever home. The generosity is appreciated. Hand tools do offer a fun way to enjoy the craft of woodworking. Since many old hand planes are made of wood, restoring one requires a bit of woodworking as well. The plane I’m working on is a dado plane. This kind of plane has a little more going on than a bench plane, like a smoother or jack. TWO BLADES. As the name implies, a dado plane is made to cut a specific size dado, ⅞" in this case. While a ¾" or even ⅝" plane might be more practical, I do have a thickness…

A mallet is a humble tool. While mallets are rarely costly, they are invaluable in the shop. Whether they were bought, made, or inherited, most woodworkers likely have several mallets lying around, but they often go overlooked until they’re needed. MALLET OR HAMMER? To many people, a mallet and a hammer are interchangable. Like a lot of tools, most mallets and hammers (and the varieties of them) were made for a specific task before they became popular enough to be named and categorized. Still, there is a simple way to differentiate the two when it comes to woodworking. A hammer will concentrate the impact into one point — to drive in a nail for instance — where as a mallet will soften or disperse the blow to minimize the damage to…

There’s a persistent idea in wood-working that bigger is better. We need the most powerful saw motor, the largest slabs, the widest jointer. Now normally I don’t exactly follow that notion, but I’ve learned in some situations bigger actually is better. It’s how you go about that size that makes the real difference. This table saw sled is a good example of that philosophy. It’s not the largest in every dimension, but it’s bigger where it counts — that is to say, fully supporting all size of workpieces on your table saw. There’s more to a good sled than just size though. Which is why this one features a pivoting fence, adjustable stop blocks, a T-track for accessories, and a zero-clearance auxiliary table, just to name a few. The base…

For most of us, shop space is at a premium. But that doesn’t mean that some luxury fixtures in the shop are out of reach. Take an assembly table for example. Having a large, flat surface where you have the room to lay out clamps, apply glue, and assemble parts is a great way to ensure a glueup goes smoothly. With this stowable assembly table, you’ll finally be done with the challenge of a glueup on your workbench. The features on this assembly table are many. First, the top is large —a full-sized sheet of Baltic birch plywood makes up the worksurface. That means no more juggling a project where the legs just barely fit on your workbench as you’re putting it together. Speaking of the top, the torsion-style construction…

If you’re new to the craft of CNC woodworking, a good project to try out would be making the parts for the signs you see here. And if you’re a CNC master, crafting a sign for your shop is a fine way to gussy up the look of the place that you love to hang out. As with all of the CNC projects we do, you can find DXF files at ShopNotes.com/141. ART VS SCIENCE. But, as you can see in the two fine examples shown here, there’s a lot more fun to be had than just cutting out parts. First, unless your name is Steve Johnson or Marc Hopkins you’ll have some creative challenges to tackle when you’re arranging the letters for your sign. Also, while we provide…