Abbot and Costello. Peanut butter and jelly. Rum and Coke.

Some things just go together beautifully. One complements the other so perfectly, it is like they were made for each other.

And, when tools complement each other, that makes things a whole lot more enjoyable.

Case in point, the Bora wide-track router plate. My friends over at Bora sent me a copy to evaluate, and this thing is going to become a regular player in my shop.  It is basically a thin plate of clear plastic that you custom mount your router to. The key to the system, though, is how they ride on the Bora Clamp Edge cutting guides.  The cutting guides have this track on the edge that I have often wondered about, and it seems as if the clamp was just waiting for the right interlocking tool to make it complete.

The guide slides smoothly across the track back and forth. Now, imagine, you are building a bookshelf that needs dadoes and rabbets to hold shelves and a top.  Simply clamp the two sides together, and clamp the wide edge clamp across both pieces. Simply plunge the router down and get accurate cuts across both pieces – without having to worry if you are drifting away from the cutting edge. Which is much easier to do than you might imagine, given the rotational cutting of the router bit.   And, if you are looking to stop your rabbet – it’s easy to do with a plunge router.

If you can dedicate a fixed base on a multi-based router to this jig, imagine how quickly you can change your router to work with this plate – and you can also use the plate for times when you need a wider base to ensure the router doesn’t drop into an opening you may have cut on a jig.

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Make a pole lathe

It’s one of the oldest woodworking ‘machines’ ever invented. It can be made quite simply, and yet turn round stock or other spindles out of square blanks.

It’s a pole or treadle lathe, and in the UK, the Association of Polelathe Turners and Greenwood Woodworkers has a great plan on how to build one of your own. The plan goes into great detail about how to build the stand, the stocks and centers and how to select wood for the pole.

Building your own pole lathe may be just as impressive as the projects you turn on it.

So, as you know, I’m friends with a guy named Bob. Not only is Bob a great public information officer, he also loves wine.

Yeah, you can say that Bob is a wine kinda guy. So, when he asked me to build a wine glass holder for his family’s collection of stemware, you knew I was all over it.  Working with some rough dimensions, I decided that I was going to build the piece with some gorgeous soft maple I had gotten from my friends over at Bell Forest Products. This stuff is beautiful, but I ran into a problem. At 8/4, there was no way I was going to rip this stuff on my contractor’s saw. I would push the board a few inches, and I could stop the blade.

So, I had to do a little work around.. I turned to my Laguna band saw to do the ripping. Now, I’m not going to say that I have that saw tuned to the nth degree, but it was more than capable of ripping the boards with minimal drift. A few passes with a hand plane and a few runs through the thickness planer, and I had the pieces cut and ready to go.

For the frame, I decided to go with a half-lap joint at the corners. 

I figured this would be a tight joint that – if properly fitted and arranged – could provide a lot of strength. It was an easy one to cut on the table saw with some stops. Yes, the table saw could handle this shorter crosscut…  Once I had it cut to size and ensured the joints were snug, I glued them up and tapped them into place with my mallet. A few clamps while the pieces set was all that was needed…

Once I got the frame done, I had to start thinking about how the wine glasses were going to stay in the rack. I puzzled with the idea for a while, until I hit on something… What if I created a rib with a t-shaped profile that could be attached to the frame, but would give a lot of support to the glass base?  So, I hit on this idea…

The top of the rib is a piece of 3/4″ maple plywood ripped to 3/4″ . It is glued down and bradded to the top of a 2 inch wide maple slat. Properly spaced, these would allow enough room for the glasses to be raised into place and slid forward onto two adjacent slats.  This is what the top looks like:

Those ribs are pocket screwed fore and aft into the long rails of the frame, and a stabilizing bar of maple is glued and screwed into each of the ribs to ensure they wouldn’t rotate in use, and to help spread the load of the weight of the glasses. While this isn’t the pretty side to look at, the underneath looks pretty streamlined:

Remember when I said that the wood looked good when I jointed it? After some sanding and a quick wipe with some mineral spirits, well, it looks AWESOME.  Tiger throughout…

I realize all of this talk about up and down can be confusing with this piece on the bench.  What exactly will you be seeing from the ground? Well, I decided to hold it up in the right orientation to give you a better look at it.

No, the unshaven woodworker will not be holding the rack in its final position. It will be held up with some type of cable or chain attached to the ceiling. But, as you can see with the one wine glass in the holder, it seems to be working as advertised.  Now, just a little more sanding and a coat of finish, and I hope to deliver this to Bob this coming weekend. Look for some complete pictures soon…

After we toast to the wine glass rack!

I have a friend named Sjoerd who works for Valfor Tools. He sent over one of their tools recently, and he asked for my feedback on it.

It’s a pretty simple looking device, but when it comes to working with router bits, it sure does come in handy.  It’s called the BitVise, and it provides a very valuable third hand when it comes to router bit maintenance.  Think about it – a rabbeting bit set may have multiple bearings to adjust the depth of cut. A reversible frame and panel door bit. A slot cutting set. How do you get a good grip on the shank to work with the bit while doing the delicate work of holding on to the bit, the screw and the washers that come with the set while you make the changes?

This tool just might be the answer.

It’s a substantial piece of milled stainless steel with a slit milled into it with a pair of holes in that slit. One is for 1/2″ inch shank router bits, the other for 12 mm shanks. The slit in the block is opened and closed by a bolt, which allows the bit to be inserted and then tightened down on a shank.   If you also work with 1/4 or 8 mm shank bits, you will need to use a reducer in those holes to get a grip on the shank.

The top has three holes for you to mount the vise on a bench, eliminating the possibility you may dump the entire setup onto the floor.  There are also two milled channels on the top, where you can rest those small bits of hardware until you need them.

With a bit set firmly into place – like this mega rabbet kit I got from Infinity Tools, it’s now a simple task to break out the allen wrench to change the bearings. Since I don’t have to worry about the bit slipping out of a regular vise or hardware dropping into the cooling vents of the router, I can work with more confidence on the bit set up.

Now, imagine doing other tasks like cleaning pitch off the cutters, or passing a diamond hone over the carbide edges a few times to ensure they are sharp and ready to go for the next use.  Sure, it may be a one-trick pony, but the one trick it does is pretty handy.

Woodworking is many things to many people.

For some, it’s a fun and easy way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  For others, it’s the continuation of a family legacy, carrying on the work of a parent or grandparent.  Some may even consider it a form of therapy, getting them out of their daily routine.

While it may seem clear cut to some, for others, it’s a debate.  Is woodworking an art, or is it a craft?

Sure, this is typically discussed among the high-minded folks at some fancy gallery opening, but it’s an interesting question. Since most woodworking projects have a function, they are considered craft.  But, come on.  A George Nakashima table, with its use of live edges of boards and tastefully placed butterfly keys certainly isn’t the same as a plain old coffee table.

So, this week’s poll is trying to get to the heart of the matter – do you believe woodworking is art, craft or something else?

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eHow’s science projects for testing the strength of glue

So, the kids are about done with school, but they still need to be kept occupied and their curious minds engaged during the summer break. Why not conduct a little experiment?

EHow has a great page to help you and the young scholar in your life to conduct a simple strength test on glues. This process will teach your students about the scientific method, how to prepare samples and how to record results. While you may get a few grumbles at first, projects like this can be a lot of fun, and it will also help you get an idea of just how strong your glues really are.

The page also links to other glue experiments that can be done. Just in case you want to continue the fun!

So, now that Andy Gibson has sharpened the blade of my old Disston rip saw, the next thing he wanted to do was to build a new handle for it. I mean, come on, he’s an artist. So, once he got to that, here’s how he made things happen:

Just about everyone has a saw hanging around that could use a new handle. If you are a flat worker the idea of carving a handle can be scary, to say the least. Don’t be scared to make a new handle for that old saw. After all, what do you have to loose?

The tools I used to make this handle include a band saw, scroll saw, a few common drill bits, a few rasps and files, and sand paper. Yes, there is no escaping the sanding.

The first thing to do is select your piece of wood. I chose a piece of cherry, but many other hardwoods will do. It was an off cut that has been hanging around the shop for a while. Start with a piece at least 1 full inch thick for most saws. The piece I had was 8/4 thick, and I ripped then planed it to get started. The old handle was 7/8” thick, and I like to start a little thick. It’s easier to bring the thickness down after the initial shaping than to try to add thickness. I would say it is best to work with a piece of Quarter sawn stock, but this is not a hard and fast rule… In fact the piece I used ranges from rift at the top and flat sawn at the bottom of the handle. Just position your handle so that it has as much long grain running through the thin parts of the handle as possible.

I used the original handle for the saw as a template for the new. I simply laid the old handle on top of the blank and carefully traced the shape. Take your time, because all the curves make this a little tricky. You may need to trace it a few times to get it just right. The horns on the original were long since gone, so I got my French curves out and drew them back in going by eye and also looking at a picture of the original I found on line. I used a brad point bit to mark the location of the bolt holes. This is possibly the most difficult part if the task, as you want these holes to be right on so they match up to the holes in the saw plate.

Now it’s time to cut the handle. I use my band saw with a ¼” blade to cut out the handle. In the past I have used a bow saw to do this, and you could use a scroll saw or even a coping saw to do this job. Now you have to remove the part inside the handle. For this, I used a scroll saw. Take your time  cutting out the handle; the smoother your cuts, the easier it will be to remove the saw marks.

The next step is to make the slot for the saw plate to slide into. I did this with a large back saw and a rip panel saw. I marked the center of the handle with my marking gauge, and marked the base of the cut. Take your time cutting the slot. You could use a smaller, finer toothed saw such as a dovetail saw to score the cut around the handle, then finish with the larger saw. Try to use a saw that will cut a kerf the same width as the saw plate you are making the handle for. For me, this was my rip panel saw. Be careful not to force the saw plate into too narrow a kerf, as it will split and crack your new handle.

Drilling for the hardware is the part of handle making I least like. You need bits to fit your hardware, but the closest I had was a 1” and 5/8” forstner bit and brad points to drill out for the shaft of the blots. With the centers of the holes marked, start with the largest bits and move to smaller. First I drill the counter sinks for the heads of the bolts, then I drilled a small hole through the handle and used it as my center point to drill the countersink on the other side of the saw.  Then I drilled the hole for the threaded shaft of the bolt, and finally used a step drill to drill the larger hole for the nut side of the saw bolts. Now we can check the fit. Hopefully the holes all line up.

Now is the time to fine tune the thickness of the handle. I left mine a bit thick for the bolts so I used a Stanley #4 hand plane and planed it down to the thickness on each side I needed… this ended up being right around 7/8” and finally I deepened the countersink for the bolt heads with the fostner bit.

Now it’s time to shape that handle. This is the easiest part in my opinion, but the part that most likely scares the first time shaper. There is one tool I would recommend you think about getting – a saw handle makers rasp from tools for working wood. I use this rasp for a lot of shaping, not just saw handles. Along with this rasp I use an old Nicholson #50 that belonged to my grandfather.

Where to start? Take a pencil in your hand, use your finger as a fence and draw a line around all the faces to be shaped about 3/8” in on both sides of the handle. Grab your coarse rasp and start cutting at a 45* angle until your get to your pencil line. You may need to switch to the saw handle makers rasp, because it is curved and gives more room when shaping the inside of the handle. It is also safe on the back so you don’t chew into the other side of the handle. Once you are down to the line you can start rounding everything. Your hand and eye will tell you when you have it right. It’s that simple. A word of warning; be careful when clamping the handle in your vise, if you only clamp where you cut the kerf for the saw plate you can crack the cheeks or even break them clean off. Try to clamp over areas of solid wood. It’s a pain in the butt, but much better then starting over.

Now it’s time to sand, sand and sand some more. I started with 120 grit,  but 80 is a good point also. If you have a half round and rat tail file, you may want to use them before sanding to get rid of the rasp marks. Files are also great for working the flat areas on the outside of the handle to remove the saw marks. Now just sand till you are happy with the finish of the wood… I sanded to 220 then I polished the handle with 0000 steel wool.

The last step is to fit the top edge of the handle to the top edge of the saw plate. I leave this edge about 1/16” tall so I can sand the top edge till it perfectly follows the top of the saw plate. I used my stationary belt sander for this, but a block plane and a sanding block will do the same job.

I used a finish on this handle called Odie’s Oil. It is rapidly becoming one of my favorite finishes. It is all natural with no chemicals and smells good to boot. It is an oil and wax based finish originally developed for floors, and is super easy to apply. Simply rub on a thin coat, it goes a long way, wait a half hour or so and buff it all off. Wait a few hours and apply another coat in the same manner. I did 3 coats on this handle.

That’s it! Tom, I hope you enjoy your new saw handle.

Thanks, Andy, I think I will.  Now, I need to build a low saw bench so I can start using this baby on a regular basis!