Fathers Day Must Have Woodworking Gifts

Find out what woodworking gifts our staff of editors and dads hope to receive this Fathers Day.

Photo: Woodcraft

Fathers Day is fast-approaching and the Fine Woodworking editorial departments crew of dads are eagerly anticipating (or at least hoping) for a small workshop-related token of gratitude from sons, daughters, and moms. So we figured wed take a quick poll of the dads out there to find out what tools (maximum value of $100) were on their wish-lists. If your plum out of ideas regarding what to get dad, here are a few possible choices to get you started.

Whats on Your Wish List?
We want to know - especially because some of us are still considering other options!

Asa Christiana
Editor

I bought a cheap but complete set of those no-name Taiwanese brad-point drills way back when. Some worked well, but the sharpening was inconsistent on others. And all of them dulled pretty quickly. Its next-to-impossible to resharpen brad-points properly in a home shop, so my set is riddled with gaps now. And ever since FWW did a review of brad-points in 2005, Ive wanted a set of the Lee Valley high-speed steel bits, which bored smooth accurate holes in the toughest woods in our test, with zero tearout at the rim. A set of 12 is only $43 at LeeValley.com.

Lee Valley High-Speed Steel Brad Point Bits - $43

Lee Valleys high-speed steel (HSS) set cuts clean, accurate, flat-bottomed holes similar to those produced by a Forstner bit.

Michael Pekovich
Art Director

Ill let you off cheap this year. One of the greatest additions to my new shop is a hand-crank pencil sharpener and a big stash of Ticonderoga no. 2 pencils. I sharpened up a dozen pencils and put them in the top drawer of my bench. They soon migrated to every corner of my shop so that now, no matter where I turn, I can find a sharp pencil.

Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils and Sharpener - $25 

Remember pencil and paper? It may seem like a boring gift, but a woodworker can never have enough marking implements. Ditto for a good old-fashioned sharpener!

Mark Schofield
Managing Editor

Always need more clamps; clamps work best in pairs; I have two sons therefore Id like two Jorgenson 24in. heavy duty bar clamps. The 1200 lb limit should pull most of my joints together.

Jorgensen 24-in. Steel Bar Clamps - $49.99 each  

 Need more information on clamps? Check out Fine Woodworkings complete Tool Guide listings.

Matt Kenney
Senior Editor

Although I believe I am getting an iPod speaker dock for my shop, it is over $100. So, Id say for under $100 I would like a 3 in. thick by 12 in. wide by 18 in. long granite surfacing plate from Grizzly. The plate itself costs $34.95, but because it weighs 79 lb. the shipping is $44! Thats a grand total of $78.95. 

 Grizzly Granite Surface Plate - $34.95 + $34 (shipping) 

According to Matt, it beats having to stick sandpaper to his tablesaw table--his usual method for regrinding plane irons and chisel bevels.

Tom McKenna
Senior Editor

Im in dire need of Forstner bits (to be used after I get a drill press, of course). The last time I found myself at Woodcraft, I was eyeing up this 7-piece set. Hint, hint, hint.

Woodcraft 7-Piece Forstner Bit Set - $82.25 

Be sure to catch the complete review on Woodcrafts forstner bits in our online Tool Guide.

Ed Pirnik
Web Producer

I currently own two squares - a 4-in. and a traditional 12-in. combo square. Ive always found the 4-in. to be really easy to work with; it hides in my shop apron and is always at-the-ready. In fact, I think I actually use my 4-in. more than my 12-in. That larger square is just a bit more bulky and Ive always wanted the perfect in-between size. A 6-in. combination model will satisfy nearly all my needs and is small enough to remain hidden in my shop apron, right beside its trusty, smaller cousin.

Starrett 6-in. Combination Square - $92

Find out what sets a $75 tool apart from a $6 tool in our article on combination squares from FWW #159.

Click Here and Start WoodWorking

Read More..

A Tribute To Our Military

As a thank you to the men and women of our military, we are offering a special 40% discount on Guild memberships today (Sunday) and tomorrow. This applies to new memberships and renewals. So if you are active military, contact me and tell me your story. I’ll then set you up with a coupon code for 40% off your membership or renewal! Its our way of saying thank you for your service!

View the original article here

Read More..

Finally I have a motorized plane

This is a hand plane? Not exactly. Its a Super Surfacer, which surfaces wood with a fixed blade, but on a much larger scale. And a motor drives a belt to feed wood through the blade rather than you feeding the blade over the wood.
Photo: Matt Kenney
When it comes to preparing a surface for finishing, nothing beats a hand plane. Its way faster than sanding and can leave a perfect, glass smooth surface. (And dont forget that hand planing is far more pleasant that sanding--no dust, no noise.) Thats why Ive heard over and over that theres no power tool thats the equal of a plane for surface prep. In a way thats true. There is no commonly available power tool thats up to the job, at least not here in the States. But in Japan, there is one. Its an odd machine thats looks to be the offspring of a drum sander and giant hand plane. Theyre commonly called super surfacers. How do they work? Well, there is a gigantic and extremely sharp fixed blade. A belt feeds a piece of wood past the blade and the blade takes a whispy full-width and full-length shaving. Thats right a full-width and full-length shaving off any board that fits into the machine! And like a plane it leaves a great surface.
Id seen one on video before, but had never seen one in person until last week. One of the editors at Fine Homebuilding is retiring and moving back to California. He was lightening his tool load and offered up a Hitachi FA-700 Super Surfacer to whoever would get it out of his garage. I jumped at the chance and now its in my garage. As you can see from the photos, it needs some cleaning and tuning, but it runs and I cant wait to see the first shaving come flying out the top. The blade is about 10 in. wide! Once I get it working properly, Ill shoot some video and post it. (Ill be the guy jumping around excited as a 5 year old.)
In the meantime, check out this YouTube video of a Super Surfacer at work.

On a side note, this machine and another one made by Makita were tested and reviewed in Fine Woodworking #38 by one of our former editors, Paul Bertorelli.

Click Here and Start WoodWorking

Read More..

Fine 50 – Bowl Turning Tools Techniques w David Marks

Subscription Options
On a recent visit with my friend and mentor, David Marks, we decided to make a little video together. Initially the idea was to simply show David my video production process. But as things started to progress, I knew we had the makings of a great video and this was something I wanted to share with the woodworking community.
The goal was simple: let’s turn a bowl! But as easy as that sounds, properly filming a bowl turning from start to finish can be quite tricky with just a few hours to play with. I had to catch a plane that evening and this was something of a last-minute idea. But we managed to pull it off, amazingly.
Anyone who has worked with David knows that the man is a perfectionist by definition. He regularly achieves a level of quality that I can only hope to some day match. So with David Marks, even a “quick and dirty” bowl deserves a perfect spherical profile, an absolutely tearout-free finish, and a crisp decorative band. And forcing him to produce a David Marks creation under those conditions proved to be a challenge and an important learning experience for me. When David works, there is really only one way to do things: to the best of his abilities. So there’s really no such thing as “good enough”. Its either done properly or its not. This is something I really admire.
David shows you a number of tools and techniques in this video. You’ll see some of the more standard options like the bowl gouge, the parting tool, and the pyramid point tool, as well as some interesting offerings from Easy Wood Tools. In this video, David shows the Easy Rougher and The Easy Finisher. You can purchase the Easy Wood Tools, including the David J. Marks Pro Series featuring beautiful Bubinga handles at David’s website. The advantage of buying the David J. Marks Pro Series in addition to getting a signed bubinga handle, is that the handles are longer than the standard Easy Wood Tools which gives them better leverage.
I hope you enjoy this special episode. Maybe this will help fill in the gap left by my severe lack of turning content! And for those of you who miss the good old days of Woodworks, this is going to be a real treat!



Click Here and Start WoodWorking

Read More..

What does Woodworking Beer and Wine have in common

What does Woodworking Beer & Wine have in Common?
Well its our Woodworking Plans...

Beer: Beer Bottle Adirondack Chair & Footrest Woodworking Plans
http://www.gcwoodworks.com/Beer%20Bottle%20Adirondack%20Chair%20&%20Footrest.htm



Wine: Wine Barrel Adirondack Furniture Woodworking Plans
http://www.gcwoodworks.com/wine-barrel-furniture.htm



For more Award Winning Woodworking Plans go to:   http://www.gcwoodworks.com/

Read More..

Fine Woodwork Plans Learn How To Choose

Learn How To Choose Fine Woodwork Plans
Fine Woodwork Plans For Beginners - How To Choose The Right One
Learn To Select The Right Fine Woodwork Plans For Your Needs

All rookies need to find fine woordwork plans that matches their skills. The best thing to do is to start with an easy project that you will be able to finish. Finishing a project will most likely make you feel very satisfied and it will probably be the first of many woodworking projects for you.

In the beginning you dont have to come up with your own woodwork plans. It can be a bit tricky to create woodwork plans and you can use already existing ones in the beginning. You will be able to find plenty of them on the net but also in magazines and books. You dont even have to buy all the books unless you want to, you can visit the library and borrow a few suitable books with woodwork plans.

Its important to remember that every woodworking project needs to be planned. You will be able to avoid making unecessary mistakes if youre using woodwork plans for all your projects and it will help you save a lot of time as well. There are many reasons why you should spend enough time on the planning part of your work before you go ahead with the constructing part. The chance that you will succeed and achieve the result you would like to get is much larger if youre using one of the good woodwork plans that can be found in books and magazines. You can also use something that you find on the net but its important to remember that you have to check the accuracy before you follow one of these since the net is full of unverified information.

As soon as you get more experienced you might want to come up with your own special woodworking plans. It will make all your furniture more exclusive and special since they wont look exactly like the furniture that other woodworkers create. Its certainly a lot more fun to create your own items without copying someone elses plans and this is necessary if you would like to have the woodworking craft as your profession in the future. Its actually possible to make quite much money from woodworking if youre skillful, patient and careful.

Its not always easy to choose woodwork plans for rookies but you should try to use books and magazines instead of the Internet as often as possible since you will get more accurate results by doing that. You should also start to create your own woodwork plans as soon as possible since that will make woodworking even more fun.

Read More..