Fine Woodworking’s Reader’s Gallery

Looking for inspiration for your next project?  Every month, Fine Woodworking magazine features a selection of the outstanding projects built by their readers.

Some are classic pieces – authentic reproductions of Shaker, Hepplewhite or other historic woodworking styles.  Others are quite modern – artistic visions realized in wood.

Regardless of the style, this showcase of projects is one of the most valuable features published every month in Fine Woodworking.  Besides being the ultimate brag book for the featured woodworkers, these completed projects can serve as a jumping off point for woodworkers looking to design and build their own projects.

This page features the works published in the 2000 – 2006 editions.  They are definitely worth a look.

Southern Pine Council

Mention the word pine to some folks, and they will think of the soft, creamy white wood harvested in the northern reaches of North America and Europe.  However, here in Florida and other southern locations in the United States, tall southern pine trees dominate, and their wood is really something special.

Southern yellow pine is the hardest softwood, has incredible strength and, where plentiful, is a very inexpensive wood to work with.  In fact, Chris Schwarz of Popular Woodworking is a huge advocate of southern yellow pine as a workbench material – even going as far as to build his classic Roubo reproduction workbenches out of the stuff.

If you just can’t mosey down to the local home improvement center to find boards, the Southern Pine Council will help you locate the material you need to build your next project.

The Chicago School of Violin Making

When it comes to specialized woodworking, I’d be hard pressed to find a more exacting field that instrument making.  Not only do the woods have to look beautiful and the instruments strong enough for vigorous handling, the dimensions have to be extremely precise, otherwise the instrument simply won’t sound right.

I saw a show about the Chicago School of Violin Making on the DIY channel, and I was stunned at the quality of the craftsmanship being demonstrated.

Using mostly hand tools and hide glue, absolutely gorgeous pieces of tiger maple and spruce were being turned from simple blanks into the sinuous curves of a quality instrument.

I was especially amazed by just how precise the instructors were while shaping the top and bottom sound boards with just a simple fishtail gouge. Much of the work is done totally by eye, with calipers used to ensure the final dimensions have been reached.

Students learn the same violin building techniques used since well before masters such as Antonio Stradivari created his masterpieces.

Router Basics

The router is probably the most versatile tool in the shop.  It can surface wood, cut joinery, route interesting profiles… the list goes on and on.

This site hosted by Reader’s Digest takes readers through the basic familiarization and operation of this handy tool.

First, you’ll learn all about the tool and what its parts do.  Then, it’s on to bits where you can see what some of the more common ones will cut.

Helpful tips accompany the technique sections on this page, helping to make your routing easier and leaving you with better results.

Sure, it’s not an advanced class in sophisticated router techniques.  But, if you are just starting with this tool or you only break it out to route decorative edges on boards, it’s worth a look to see just how you can make the most of this essential tool.

Atlanta man creates furniture from tornado-felled trees

This is one of those stories that can’t help but warm your heart.

Last March 14, a powerful tornado ripped through the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  News about the damage to large buildings dominated headlines as this close encounter with a heavily-developed metropolitan area threatened thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars of property.  The tornado – with winds in excess of 150 miles per hour – claimed three lives.  However, the death toll could have been much higher but for a  Southeast Conference championship basketball game that went to overtime, keeping the sizable crowd indoors as the storm passed.

While the major damage caught the attention of the public, the storm also tore through other, more quiet areas of the city, notably the historic Oakland Cemetery.  Caretakers at the historic site observed that more than 60 mature trees were toppled, and hundreds of grave markers were damaged or destroyed in the violent winds.

Rather than watch the historic trees be ground into mulch, Atlanta-area woodworker Stephen Evans decided he would so something about it.  Shortly after the damage, he arranged to have the downed trees sawn into usable lumber.  He is drying the wood right now for what will become a very interesting project.

What Evans has planned is to build a piece of furniture from the historic trees that will be sent to auction.  All proceeds from the sale of the piece will help pay for repairs to the cemetery.  The piece he has in mind is a white oak bench.

Since he came up with the idea, other woodworkers and artists have stepped forward to build other pieces – including platters, jewlery and sculpture – to auction off to further help the effort.

Building Chess Pieces and Checkers

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to Popular Woodworking’s Classic Chess Board plan.  Since then, a few readers have asked if I could find any plans to build chess pieces for the board.

After some searching, I found this link by ShopSmith which shows how you can build a full set of chess pieces as well as a set of checkers for those who prefer that game.

While the plans refer back to using the attachments of a ShopSmith, you can build these pieces with any band saw by using a compound cut method.  In fact, all of the pieces, with the exception of the bishops, require just two cutting setups.  The bishops are just a little more complicated due to the saw kerf cut that gives them their unique appearance.

Full -scale diagrams are available for you to print out and use to cut the pieces.  This is a great way to make chess pieces, especially if you don’t have a lathe.

Woodworking sale pages

Hey, we’re now deep into the holiday season.  That means it’s not only time to deck the halls, donate to food pantries and make connections with friends and family – it’s time to think about gift giving and recieving!

And, if you have a special someone in your life who might be buying you a present AND they might be wondering what to get for you, you might want to consider checking out some of these pages.  I’ve gone through some of the big woodworking supply companies and found their gift – or, even better – sale pages so you can find those items you really want.  Also, many of these places also offer online wish lists where you can identify the tools that you really want!

• Lee Valley Tools:
  • Wish List
  • Sales and Discount Offers
  • Gift Guide for Woodworkers
    
• Rockler Tools:
  • Wish List
  • Discount Outlet
    
  • Holiday Gift Guide
• Woodcraft
  • Wish List
  • Clearance Closeout
  • Gift Guide
    
• Eagle America
  • Clearance
  • Gift Page
• McFeeley’s Square Drive Screws
• Grizzly Industrial
  • Gift Cabana
    
• Amazon
  • Wish List
• Tools for Working Wood
• The Japan Woodworker
  • Gift Ideas
  • Clearance
• Lowe’s Home Improvement
• Home Depot