June 2024 No.

310

•Entryway mirror

•Make a solar kiln

•Small parts safety

•Drilling angled holes

Te a c h • I n s p i r e • C o n n e c t •Shopmade plywood

English-inspired dining table, p. 28

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 Te a c h • I n s p i r e • C o n n e c t

MAY/JUNE 2024 ■ ISSUE 310

ENTRYWAY
MIRROR 50
SMALL
PARTS 38

TRESTLE
TABLE 28
features
28 English-Inspired Trestle Table 44 Easy Angled Holes on a Drill Press
COVER
STORY Elegance and structural economy combine in a Drilling angled sockets for stool and chair seats
commodious dining table is simplified using this versatile jig
BY THOMAS THROOP BY BETH IRELAND

38 Working Safely with Small Parts 50 Entryway Mirror

Get more efficiency and better results Style meets function and smart building techniques
at the same time BY JOSHUA STERNS
BY ASA CHRISTIANA

60 Build Yourself a Solar Kiln

A small shed with a clear roof and a pair of fans
Tablet editions free to subscribers dries green wood in weeks
Magazine content, plus searchability and interactive BY BRENON PLOURDE
extras. Download the app at FineWoodworking.com/
apps. Access is free with your print subscription or
FineWoodworking.com online membership.

Cover photo: Jonathan Binzen

in every issue
6 On the Web

8 Contributors

10 Letters

12 Workshop Tips
■ Quick way to chamfer tenons for
round mortises
■ Unclog a hole saw easily
■ Raise your sanding table to use
more of the belt

18 Tools & Materials 69 GALLERY:

BLANKET CHEST
■ Festool cordless drills get even
better
■ Dovetail saw does its job very well
■ Excellent dowel jig from JessEm

24 Designer’s Notebook
Tambour doors now and then
68 Gallery
74 CUSTOM
PLYWOOD

74 Master Class
Create custom plywood

82 From the Bench

The perfect carving knife
16
TRIMMING
Back Cover TAPE
Where Words Fail, Wood Speaks

18
FESTOOL
CORDLESS
DRILL

TAMBOUR
DOORS 24
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go to finewoodworking.com/members.

Online extras Scan

for links
Visit finewoodworking.com/310
Quick and accurate
mortises
There are plenty of ways to cut
mortises, but Joshua Sterns (p. 50)
relies on Bob Van Dyke’s method
using a plunge router and router
box.

Snappy screw blocks

For Thomas Throop (p. 28), it’s the
details that help define a piece,
and the screw blocks that attach
his tabletop are a nice example.
It’s worth it for Tom even though
the blocks are unlikely to be seen
except by the most curious.

Here comes the sun

Now that you’ve built a solar
kiln (p. 60), it’s time load it up. VIDEO
Thankfully, Brenon Plourde shares
his step-by-step guide to drying
Kumiko, but
your own lumber. make it round
Johnny Tromboukis
VIDEO (p. 68) was tasked with
making a unique pendant
Larger than life light, so why not make a
Michael Gill’s Sydney Harbour beautiful kumiko panel
cocktail cabinet (p. 70) is a sight and saw a bunch of kerfs
to behold. His video gives you a into it? Thankfully, the
glimpse at the process of making gamble paid off with an
it and a better grasp of how elegant light.
immense this project was.

VIDEO WORKSHOP
Additional perks of Unlimited
FREE PLANS
Danish Modern desk As a member, you can
Tim Rousseau’s modern desk might look simple, but a search our entire digital
lot goes into making such an elegant piece. While Tim plan library to find just the
tackles this project with a pro’s perspective using tools project you’re looking for.
found in professional shops, he also draws parallels to
tools found in most hobbyist woodshops. You’ll learn
Tim’s techniques for: ONLINE ARCHIVES
Get on-demand access
● Creating accurate templates for pattern routing to the complete Fine
Woodworking magazine
● Working with curved parts archive. That’s more than
1,900 in-depth articles!
● Cutting accurate angled mortise-and-tenon joinery

6 FINE WOODWORKING
contributors
EDITOR AND Michael Pekovich
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Polish designer and master woodworker Tom DEPUTY EDITOR Jonathan Binzen
DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR John Tetreault
Bensari (Designer’s Notebook) is the founder and SENIOR EDITOR Anissa Kapsales
chief executive of the Bensari Ébénistes design EDITOR-AT-LARGE Asa Christiana
studio and the Bensari Workshop woodworking MANAGING EDITOR/ Elizabeth Knapp
PRODUCTION
studio, which provides carpentry education for
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Betsy Engel
enthusiasts of traditional carpentry techniques.
EDITOR, Ben Strano
A lawyer by education, he has been a CEO of FINEWOODWORKING.COM
some of the largest Polish companies. Carpentry ASSOCIATE EDITOR, Amanda Russell
is his passion and provides a getaway from FINEWOODWORKING.COM
the dehumanized world of corporations. He is
passionate about crafts, traditional techniques, CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Christian Becksvoort, Garrett Hack,
Roland Johnson, Steve Latta, Michael Fortune, Chris
tools, and carpentry materials. You can find more Gochnour, Bob Van Dyke
of Tom’s work at https://bensari.art.
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, Alex Robertson
ADVERTISING & MARKETING 203-304-3590
DIRECTOR [email protected]

Beth Ireland (“Easy Angled Holes on a Drill Press”) may be both

the most and the least practical, predictable woodturner alive.
For years she made her living as a production architectural turner,
and she has taught the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship’s
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT Rob Yagid
Turning Intensive course since its inception, leading founding DIRECTOR, SALES OPERATIONS Heather Glynn Gniazdowski
director Peter Korn to say, “I’ve never run across a better teacher
than Beth Ireland.” But she also makes stringed instruments
and sculpture, combines printmaking with turning, and recently
created a 6-ft.-tall functional pencil, which she offers passers-by to
CHAIRMAN & CEO Andrew W. Clurman
write with in her hometown of Saint Petersburg, Fla. CHAIRMAN EMERITUS Efrem Zimbalist III
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Brian Van Heuverswyn
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Adam Smith
Joshua Sterns (“Entryway Mirror”) lives in Fort Bragg, Calif., CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Gary DeSanctis
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Erica Moynihan
with his wife and son. He moved there to attend The Krenov VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Amanda Phillips
School and stayed for the North Coast and vibrant woodworking VICE PRESIDENT, CIRCULATION Paige Nordmeyer
VICE PRESIDENT, SALES OPERATIONS Christine Nilsen
community. In the summer he works at the school, assisting Jim VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Julie Zub
Budlong and Todd Sorenson in teaching hand-plane making and VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Ashley MacDonald
woodworking techniques. Josh is interested in building guitars, VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGY & RESEARCH Kristina Swindell
DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES Scott Roeder
but his time in the shop is mostly split between making furniture DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION Phil Graham
and repairing or destroying motors, electronics, and appliances DIRECTOR, RETAIL SALES Susan A. Rose
DIRECTOR, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Andrew Shattuck
with his 4-year-old son.
Fine Woodworking: (ISSN: 0361-3453) is published bimonthly,
with a special seventh issue in the winter, by the Home Group
of Active Interest Media HoldCo, Inc. Subscription rate: $39.95
per year. Single copy price: $12.99 U.S., $14.99 Canada. The
Brenon Plourde (“Build Yourself a Solar Kiln”), who retired known office of publication is located at 2143 Grand Ave., Des
Moines, IA 50312. Periodicals postage paid at Des Moines, IA,
recently after two decades as a Connecticut police detective, is a and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-
lifelong woodworker whose love for the craft was sparked in his POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to
grandfather’s tiny basement shop. Brenon now builds furniture Fine Woodworking, PO Box 1477, Lincolnshire, IL 60069-9829
Canada Post: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses
in his own basement shop in the house he built in West Granby, to Fine Woodworking, c/o Worldwide Mailers, Inc.,
2835 Kew Drive, Windsor, ON N8T 3B7.
Conn. His shop would not be described as tiny, nor would his
PRIVACY STATEMENT: Active Interest Media HoldCo, Inc.
collection of lumber—much of it the product of his solar kiln. is committed to protecting your privacy. For a full copy of
your privacy statement, go to aimmedia.com/privacy-policy.
COPYRIGHT: 2024 by Active Interest Media HoldCo, Inc., Des
Moines, IA. This publication may not be reproduced, either in
whole or part, in any form without written permission from the
publisher.

MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION:

We are a reader-written magazine. To learn how to propose www.FineWoodworking.com/CustomerService
an article, go to FineWoodworking.com/submissions. [email protected]
866-452-5141

8 FINE WOODWORKING
THE ALL NEW

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TO LEARN MORE

SCAN HERE LAGUNATOOLS.COM/DX3

letters The burnisher works fine as is
I have been the owner of Timberline
Tool LLC since 2018, when I took over
from my father, Jim Williams, who
started the company in 1992. I am
From the Editor writing regarding your Workshop Tip
in FWW #308 that features the jig for
turning burrs on card scrapers. Our
Looking for a way to kick-start product, the Timberline Tool SB-1
Scraper Burnisher, which was designed
your woodworking? Try starting small and developed by my father in the early
1990s, is the tool that Larry Matthews
Growing up, I saw my dad’s garage as a refuge, a place references in his workshop tip.
I could go and dig through scraps and build something. What he calls an improvement is
Today, my shop still plays that role. While I’ve been actually unnecessary, as the SB-1 Scraper
Burnisher already has the ability to draw
getting into the shop on a regular basis, a lot of that out the burr. The design of the SB-1
time has been spent preparing for classes or working on allows the angled fixed pin to both draw
articles. I enjoy that work, but it’s not the same as just out the burr (draw it “upward” as Mr.
going out there and making something. Matthews says) and to turn the hook,
thus sharpening the card scraper. The
Even when the urge to get out and build something is strong, the longer I spend be- instructions state to “keep the burnisher
tween projects, the more pressure I feel to make something big, something that makes level while gliding the bevel along the
a statement, something “important.” That type of expectation can become a stumbling edge of the bench. This positions the pin
at just the right angle to draw out a burr
block in itself. The desire to make something worthy of the time that I may be stealing smoothly and give it a mirror finish.”
from other, more responsible, tasks can keep me from starting anything at all. —T O M W I L L I A MS, G l e n w o o d S pr i n g s , Co l o .

Recently, however, my wife asked for a foot rest to

Editor’s reply: Always curious to try out
use at her sewing table. It was a small project, but alternatives to honing a scraper, I gave
it offered a good excuse to put other tasks aside the Timberline SB-1 Scraper Burnisher a
and pull out some lumber. I’ve learned there are go. It did indeed work as advertised. With
gems to be found in small projects. The key is to not the pin flat on the face of the scraper,
I was able to draw out the steel easily.
rush through it, not look past it to more “important” Inserting the scraper into the slot in the
projects on the horizon. So I took a little time to make handle, I was able to hone a hook quickly
some sketches and figure out the overall dimensions. Building went quickly and it was at a consistent angle, a task that can be a
nice to be back in the zone where things are going smoothly and you lose track of challenge for beginning woodworkers.

time, even for a little while.

In relocating my office to a more permanent spot in the house, I found myself
needing a desk gallery, something to elevate my laptop and monitor while providing
desperately needed storage beneath. It’s a project I’d wanted to build ever since
Two tasks with
reading an article by Christian Becksvoort way back in issue #119. one tool. The
Even more recently, my wife requested a basket of Timberline SB-1
did a good job of
sorts to hold her mending supplies. I dusted off an old drawing out the
tool tote design to serve the purpose. steel on the face
of a card scraper,
It still kind of feels like I haven’t made something as well as turning
“important,” but looking back on that trio of projects I a hook.

see time well spent. In addition, all three are finding

good use in the house, which, for me, is the best sign
of a successful project. —Michael Pekovich

10 FINE WOODWORKING Photos: Michael Pekovich

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workshop tips
Quick way to chamfer tenons for rounded mortises
Cradle jig, 11⁄2 in. thick 45° notch,
Like many home-shop by 31⁄4 in. wide 13⁄4 in. wide
woodworkers, I use a router jig
to cut mortises and a dado set
to form tenons. This creates the
classic “square peg into a round
hole” problem, leaving me either
to square the corners of the
mortise or round the corners of
the tenon, both of which require Chamfered tenons
Miter gauge
time-consuming handwork. Table saw fit into rounded
This simple jig works with mortises.
the same table-saw setup I use
to form the tenons, quickly
chamfering their corners so they
will fit into rounded mortises.
While this approach sacrifices
a tiny bit of glue surface, it’s far
from enough to compromise joint
strength. The jig is a 45° channel
in a straight, flat board, which
forms a cradle for the tenoned
workpieces. The channel is made
with two simple ripcuts, with the Make tenons with the workpiece supported by
blade set at 45°. Dado set the miter gauge, using the rip fence as a stop.
To use the jig, leave your
tenoning setup in place so the rip
fence provides the same length
of cut. This ensures that the dado Adjust blade
set will simply brush the tenon height as needed.
shoulders, leaving clean corners
there. You’ll need to adjust the
height of the dado blades for the
chamfer cuts, but that step is fast
and easy, even if the tenons are
off-center.
— BILL JAN ZEN , Cha p el Hill, N.C .

Keep the same miter-gauge setup,

adding the cradle jig to chamfer
the corners of the tenons.

Best Tip A Reward for the Best Tip

Send your original tips to
Growing up on a farm, Bill Janzen learned a fair amount [email protected]. We pay
of carpentry. In college he took a summer job at a North $100 for a published tip with
illustration; $50 for one
Carolina furniture factory, and entered the woodworking without. The prize for this
world in earnest. Later on, when he and his wife needed issue’s best tip was
furniture but couldn’t afford it, he began making his own. a Bessey K Body
REVO Jr. 6-piece
Janzen has continued woodworking as a hobby for the past parallel clamp set.
40 years, making furniture, boxes, and cutting boards for
family and friends.

14 FINE WOODWORKING Drawings: Dan Thornton

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workshop tips continued

Hole saw Unclog a hole saw without stopping it

Retract the hole saw
and unclog it by holding
a stiff brush against
Drill to depth Hole saws work well in a variety of woods, but they tend to
of teeth. clog quickly, stop cutting, and start heating up. Instead of
the side that’s spinning
away from you. forcing them downward through the cut, drill down to the
depth of the teeth and retract the saw. Then, without shutting
off the drill press, you can unclog the teeth by pressing a wire
or stiff nylon brush against the side of the saw that’s spinning
away from you. Now drill a little deeper and repeat the process,
until you have drilled through the workpiece. Drilling will go
faster this way, without burning, and the plug will be easier to
remove as well.
—DA N MARTIN , G a l e n a , O h i o

Repeat until you have

drilled through the
workpiece.

Use a marking gauge to trim tape Painter’s tape

I use a lot of painter’s tape in my woodworking, and I Run gauge

around the
often need strips thinner than my roll. To trim tape to width roll to pre-cut
cleanly and quickly, use a wheel-tip marking gauge on tape to desired Wheel-type
width. marking gauge
the roll itself. You can cut as deep or shallow as you like,
depending on how much tape you require.
— J US T IN M A S ONE, Was hingto n , D. C .
Wheel gauge can cut
many layers at once.

Create a thick auxiliary table

by screwing together layers
Auxiliary table raises
the work so upper
Raise your sander table
of MDF or plywood. half of belt is used. to use more of the belt
Stationary belt sanders work
very well. However, even
though the belts oscillate up
and down on most machines,
you end up wearing out the
lower section of the belt
Cleats surround long before the upper half
machine table
and rest in is touched. That’s because
its miter slot the work always sits at table
to stabilize height, and the belt can’t be
auxiliary table.
reversed. To use the fresh
abrasive on the upper section
of the belt, I raise workpieces
with a simple auxiliary table.
Make the table as thick as
you like, and add cleats to
the bottom to stabilize it on
the machine.
—JE F F C O L LA, G l e n w o o d, Mi n n .

16 FINE WOODWORKING
 
# % . 4 % 2
ˆ ‘ ”




& 5 2 . ) 4 5 2 %
# 2 ! & 4 3 - ! . 3 ( ) 0
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Whether you’re a beginner or master

2OCKPORT
-AINE       WWWWOODSCHOOLORG
in your woodworking journey,
Fine Woodworking can help you
achieve whatever you set your
mind—and hands—to creating.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AT
subscribe.finewoodworking.com
© The Taunton Press

www.f inewoodworking.com
tools & materials
■POWER TOOLS

Festool cordless drills get even better

FESTOOL IMPROVED ITS HIGHLY RATED There is one slight drawback. Standard
cordless drills in 2023, so we decided to North American hex-shank bits are
give its most popular model a try. With just a tiny bit too large to lock into Festool TXS 18
power equal to past 18-volt models, Festool’s quick-release chuck, so you’ll JessEm.com
according to Festool, the TXS 18 is both probably wind up buying a set of $500 for full kit;
$250 for bare tool
lighter weight and more compact, and Festool’s hex-shank
adds a work light and a belt clip (which bits. However,
mounts on either side of the tool). you’ll find that
The compact design is almost 2 in. standard hex-
shorter than my 18-volt Milwaukee, shank bits do
and a pound lighter. Despite its smaller fit into the
stature, however, the TXS 18 was able magnetic bit
to drive a huge box of 365 21⁄2-in.-long holder, so you
screws into pine, with enough battery can use that in
power left to back out 205 of them, a pinch.
while the Milwaukee battery cut out after The full TXS 18
driving 313 screws. kit comes with two batteries
Festool’s clever three-chuck system and all three chucks. For half Compact, versatile, and powerful. The
also makes the TXS 18 more versatile the price you can buy the bare TXS 18 is lighter and more compact than
than standard cordless drills. There’s a tool (TXS 18-Basic), which its predecessor, with the same power and
standard chuck that accepts round bits, includes the standard chuck the same innovative chuck system.
a quick-release chuck for hex-shank bits, and no batteries.
and a right-angle chuck that fits into —Austin Heitzman is a professional
tight spaces. All three attach quickly and furniture maker in Portland, Ore.
positively to the drill.

Exceptional driver. The 18-volt Festool drill-driver easily outdrove Heitzman’s Unmatched versatility. Three chucks—standard, quick-change,
18-volt Milwaukee model, while weighing a pound less. and right-angle—pop on and off to handle any situation.

18 FINE WOODWORKING Photos: Asa Christiana

■HAND TOOLS

Dovetail saw does

its job very well
MY FAVORITE THING about the new Blue Spruce dovetail
saw is that it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s
simply a very good dovetail saw, which is difficult
enough to achieve.
The fit and finish of the saw is excellent. A 16-ppi,
11-in.-long blade, made from Swedish steel, is mounted
to a slotted steel spine, which is then attached to a
resin-infused maple or walnut handle. The saw cut
beautifully on a range of hard and soft woods.
For me the real test for any handsaw lies
in cutting white oak, which can pose a Blue Spruce Dovetail Saw
challenge to even the best. The blade BlueSpruceToolworks.com
grabbed a little during initial cuts, but $295
after 20 to 25 strokes in the harder wood,
Top-notch handsaw. The Blue Spruce Dovetail Saw makes beautiful cuts
it broke in enough to cut smoothly.
in a wide range of woods.
The Blue Spruce Dovetail Saw is a nice
addition to the lineup of high-quality handsaws on
the market, and I’m looking forward to putting it to use.
—Mike Pekovich is FWW’s editor and creative director.

■MEASURING JessEm Tool Setting Gauge

JessEm.com
Height gauge is versatile $60 (large imperial gauge)

and accurate
THIS UNIQUE HEIGHT GAUGE beats others I’ve used, in
a number of important ways. For one, it’s versatile.
The blade is exactly 1⁄8 in. thick, with corresponding
lines on the measuring scale 1⁄8 in. apart. This lets you
Simple, accurate, and effective. This heavy-duty, stainless-steel gauge has a
use the top or bottom of the blade to line up a cut. toothed rack that locks at 1⁄16-in. increments.
And the blade is long and accurate, meaning you can
use any part of it as a reference. Better yet, the gauge
flips squarely onto its side, letting you use it to set the
distance between a fence and a bit, for example.
The gauge is also very accurate, thanks to its heavy-
duty construction, wide base, excellent machining,
and toothed measuring rack, which locks at 1⁄16-in.
increments. While some height gauges measure in much
smaller increments, I find that sixteenths are great for
the vast majority of situations that call for a setup gauge
like this one.
The JessEm Tool-Setting Gauge is made with
stainless steel, in two sizes, with metric and imperial
measurements available for each. Personally, I would
choose the larger model. Priced at just $60, with a 5-in.-
long base and 31⁄4 in. of vertical travel, I think it’s a steal.
The smaller model is $40, with 2 in. of travel. Very versatile. The gauge also lies squarely on its side, with measuring lines for
—Asa Christiana is FWW’s editor-at-large. both edges of its blade, letting it register on either side of a bit or blade.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 19
tools & materials continued

Master kit. The full kit

■JIGS includes dowel plates,
drills, and indexing
Excellent dowel jig pins for 1⁄4-in., 3⁄8-in.,
and 1⁄2-in. dowels.
from JessEm
I’VE USED DOWELING JIGS A LOT over the
years, and JessEm’s new system is the
best I’ve tried. Like others, it includes
a base that clamps to your work, with
JessEm Doweling Jig
evenly spaced steel bushings that guide a
JessEm.com
drill bit. And there are bushing plates for $238 for master kit;
1⁄4-in., 3⁄8-in., and 1⁄2-in. dowels. But this $143 for 3⁄8-in. kit
jig goes a lot further than that.
First, the jig and its accessories are
beautifully machined, and the drill
bits—a weak point with most doweling
jigs—are top-class, cutting without
tearing, and ejecting chips smoothly.
The perfect machining makes fence
alignment very precise, with detents at
popular offsets, letting you place dowels
at various distances from the edge, or
use more than one row of dowels in
thicker stock.
Side-to-side alignment is just as good, Base plate is accurate and versatile. There are lots of ways to align the jig. A center mark lines
with four valuable ways to do it. There’s up with a pencil mark (left); a notch on top lets you align one row of dowels with another (right);
and indexing pins let you drill an endless row of perfectly spaced holes.
a centerline mark that aligns with a
pencil mark. There are also precise index
pins that will align the jig with the last
hole you drilled, allowing you to drill a
row of evenly spaced holes. And there
is a center notch that aligns the jig with
another dowel, for panel glue-ups. Of
course, you also can align the square end
of the jig with the end of a workpiece, or
offset it with a combo square.
I made a variety of joints with this jig,
and each one came out as precise as
the last, with the workpieces lining up Accurate alignment from the edge as Clamp it in a vise. The jig and a workpiece
well. The plate has precise detents at 1⁄8-in. can also be clamped in a vise, and the drill bits
perfectly. JessEm also sells dowels that fit
increments. work beautifully.
the holes exactly.
While the fence plate is easy to clamp
to most workpieces, the jig is even
more versatile when combined with
JessEm’s joinery workstation. At just
$150, the Baltic-birch platform makes
clamping faster and easier for all sorts
of applications, including angled joints.
It also accommodates JessEm’s new
slip-tenon system, which I reviewed
favorably in FWW #306.
—A.C.
Perfect results. Each joint Christiana JessEm workstation is a no-brainer. For
produced was accurate, with JessEm’s dowels faster, more versatile setups, add JessEm’s
sliding in perfectly. handy workstation.

20 FINE WOODWORKING
WORKSHOP

Classes in woodworking
and furniture design in
the very studio where
the artist worked for
over 50 years

OPENING
SPRING
2024 wendellcastle.org
tools & materials continued

■NEW TO MARKET

Three innovative products

to look out for
Wall-mounted cyclone
great for small shops
Rockler’s newest cyclone packs two-stage efficiency
and state-of-the art filtration into a space-saving
wall unit (Dust Right Wall-Mount HEPA Cyclone Dust
Collector, $1,700). The 11⁄2-hp motor plugs into a
110-volt outlet, but generates 1250 cfm of suction,
meaning it can pull dust and chips from the other side
of the shop. The two-stage cyclone system will capture
the vast majority of that material in an easy-to-empty
drum—before it has a chance to clog the very fine,
HEPA-rated filter. Buy it at rockler.com.

Magnetic system makes it easy

to move a dust hose
Many of us have to switch dust hoses from one tool to another.
The usual solution is a press-fit connection at floor level, which
requires some force and fussing to wiggle on and off. Woodcraft
has addressed this problem with an innovative, magnet-based
attachment system called Magfitt. You place a permanent
coupling on each dust port, and a magnetic connector on the end
of the hose, and—click!—they attach securely and detach easily.
Better yet, the system has fittings for 4-in. and 21⁄2-in. hoses and
ports. Go to woodcraft.com to learn more.

Woodmizer makes bandsaw

mills more affordable
A bandsaw mill is the best tool for hobbyists and
small-shop pros looking to produce their own lumber—
at a fraction of the retail price. Woodmizer, a longtime
leader in the field, recently debuted two new models
at unprecedented prices. The LX50START (suggested
retail: $3,000) and LX50SUPER ($4,000) can saw
logs up to 26 in. dia. with a 231⁄2-in. maximum
cutting width. Both come with Kohler gas engines,
high-performance blade guides, automatic blade
lubrication, easy log handling, and modular bed
extensions. The Super model adds a stronger frame
and other premium features. Go to woodmizer.com for
more information.
—A.C.

22 FINE WOODWORKING Photos courtesy of the manufacturers

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designer’s notebook
Tambour doors
now and then
FROM THE ROYAL COURT TO OFFICES EVERYWHERE
B Y T O M B E N S A R I

T
he history of tambour-door to closets and architectural applications. Art Deco inspiration. Designed by
furniture dates back to France Then the tambour-door cylinder desk architect Erich Mendelsohn and completed
in the 18th century and gained popularity in the United States, in 1928, the Kameleon department store
begins at the court of Louis where it was widely adopted as office was one of the first buildings in Wrocław to
have a steel frame. At that time Wroclaw
XV, where a royal ébénist furniture because of the safety of storing
was not within the borders of Poland but
was given the task of creating documents in it. It is to the American was in Germany. The design of the building
a bureau du roi—a desk for the king at market that we owe the terms rolltop inspired Bensari’s Chameleon collection.
which he could work freely and store desk or American desk.
documents, books, and writing utensils.
From the beginning, the function of the particularly popular, as their arrange-
The tambour moves to private spaces
tambour doors was purely practical: to ment introduced rhythm and dynamism
The decorative character and
easily and conveniently conceal the ruler’s into interiors. Tambour doors tempted
functionality of tambour doors were
workspace. designers with huge pos-
also recognized by representatives of
This revolutionary enclosure quickly sibilities for modifica-
European modernism in the 1920s.
moved from writing desks to chests and tion—in the width of
Tambour doors used to obscure the
other types of storage furniture as well as the slats, the profile,
interiors of cabinets or alcoves were
and the species of
perfectly in line with the “spatial
wood used.
austerity” (German: raumersparnis)
they postulated. The architect and
designer Le Corbusier appreciated the Trademark
functional and aesthetic qualities of tambours
movable wooden obscurants, presenting Wooden tambour
a piece of furniture with tambour doors doors with
at the 1925 World
Exhibition in
Paris.
With the de-
velopment of
modernism in
design and archi-
A kingly desk. In 1760, Jean-François tecture, tambour
Oeben began work on an innovative doors ceased to
design for a desk with a movable be clearly associ-
cover—a tambour door, made of wide ated with office
wooden slats glued over solid canvas, furniture and
moving in grooved slides hidden in the entered more
body of the furniture. After Oeben’s
and more boldly
death, work on the desk was continued
by his student and successor as royal into public and
ébénist, Jean Henri Riesener. In 1769, private spaces.
the king received a monumental piece Tambour doors with OAK AND AMERICAN WALNUT,
of furniture with a tambour door. vertical slats became 17.7 DEEP BY 78.7 WIDE BY 27.5 HIGH

24 FINE WOODWORKING
 OAK, AMERICAN WALNUT, JAPANESE TAMO, AND GUAIAC, OAK, AMERICAN WALNUT, JAPANESE TAMO, AND GUAIAC
13.7 DEEP BY 68.8 WIDE BY 95.2 HIGH 13.7 DEEP BY 68.8 WIDE BY 95.2 HIGH

The Chameleon Collection

This collection of furniture, designed by Roland
Grabkowski and Tom Bensari and built by the author, Tom
Bensari, was inspired by an architectural masterpiece
in Bensari’s hometown of Wroclaw, Poland. The building
blended streamlined elements of Art Deco with the
dynamic functionalism that would come to define
European modernism. Drawing on those elements, the
furniture recalls the sleek refinement and glamorous
warmth of the Jazz Age.

OAK, AMERICAN
WALNUT, JAPANESE
TAMO, AND POPLAR,
14.9 DEEP BY 39.3
WIDE BY 63.7 HIGH

Photos: courtesy of the author M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 25

designer’s notebook continued

MANHATTAN SIDEBOARD
OAK, AMERICAN WALNUT, AND POPLAR, 16 3⁄ 4 DEEP BY 98 1⁄ 2 WIDE BY 35 1⁄ 2 HIGH
The Manhattan
Collection
The Manhattan Collection tells the
perfectly preserved wood grain have aspects of their manufacture. You need story of New York, Like the city itself,
become my trademark. The inspiration to decide if you want tambour doors the Manhattan collection is the
for my first collection of furniture with with clear divisions; should the slats glorious place where the glamour
tambour doors, “Chameleon,” was the be made of solid wood or veneered; of the past and the prospect of the
modernist facade of the Kameleon should they ride on wooden or metal future meet. Inspired by a panoramic
view of a city defined by possibility
department store in Wroclaw, Poland. rails, or perhaps slide in a groove,
and change, the collection pays
I worked with artist and designer as was the case in the 18th and 19th
tribute to the rhythm of urban life,
Roland Grabkowski, who interpreted centuries. its ever-shifting facades and its lust
the building’s characteristic horizontal Another question to address is how for life. Each piece in the collection
divisions and rounded bay windows with to ensure the visual continuity of balances contemporary design with
sculptural sensitivity to translate them veneered tambour doors. In the case the charming warmth of fine wood.
into beautiful and functional pieces of of tambour doors veneered with linear
furniture. Wooden tambour doors with grain direction, this is not a problem,
vertical slats perfectly
complemented the
design, giving it
visual lightness while
serving their practical
purpose of covering
the bar and drawers
for small items.

Visual continuity is
important but it worsens if you want to use a more
When making tambours, decorative veneer such as crotch or burl.
there is a cluster of When cutting veneer for tambours, a
considerations to take kerf greater than 0.4 mm will cause the MANHATTAN DESK
into account before wood grain to show an unpleasant, not OAK, AMERICAN WALNUT, AND POPLAR,
deciding on the technical continuous effect. This effect will be 29.5 DEEP BY 79.1 WIDE BY 31.8 HIGH

26 FINE WOODWORKING
greater the more slanted the grain on goods may not be strong enough
the veneer and the thicker the kerf left for this application. If you choose to
by the tool. Increasing the distance be- veneer on plywood, you should use a
tween individual slats can soften the ef- counter veneer on the back. This will
fect a bit, but it still will be more or less eliminate stress and provide balance to
visible. In my work, I use either a knife the roller blind.
or a hand saw, giving me an almost in-
visible kerf and a perfect visual effect. Sturdy fabric is important
The fabric for lining the tambour
The technical side of the tambour doors should not be stretchy. I use
If you are building tambour doors from natural linen, which provides durability
solid wood, you must begin with an and maintains the integrity of the roller
analysis of wood’s behavior. In the case of blind. When choosing the fabric for
longer tambour doors, the expansion and the roller blind, it is worth checking
contraction of the wood will affect the the direction of the threads. Plan the
fabric to which the slats are glued. In the tambour doors so that the line of the
past, hide glue was used with the addition fabric runs crosswise to the slats. I use
of glycerin, making the glue more flexible. natural linen with a weight of at least
Today the spectrum of possibilities is 240 g/square meter. To glue the fabric,
larger, and I use Titebond Ultimate 3. I use Titebond Original; it is a little
more flexible. ☐
Consider the substrate
It is worth considering plywood as a Tom Bensari builds furniture and teaches
veneer substrate, as MDF or other sheet traditional carpentry in Wroclaw, Poland.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 27
T he original version of this table
was designed for a family room in
a converted post-and-beam barn.
The vast room featured a cathedral ceil-
ing with exposed beams and rafters. Con-
cerned that the wrong design could get
lost in such a space, I drew on one of my
earliest influences, the English Arts and
Crafts movement. The visual language
of expressed

joinery, stout elements, and repeating de-

tails fit perfectly in this environment. The
use of corbels and chamfers on this trestle
form further served to invoke the nature
of the building as well as the style of the
English Arts and Crafts. I did add a con-
temporary twist by tapering the posts and
then accenting the tapers by incorporating
long, tapered chamfers. This adds some
upward visual movement and lightness
while still maintaining a strong grounded
feeling. Smaller details such as the coved
edges of the top and gentle curves on the
feet and brace were intended to soften
the overall form just enough to make it
approachable and friendly.
The trestle format is a favorite of mine:
It’s economical of material, structurally
sound, and elegantly elemental. And with
no aprons or legs at the corners, it has
great leg room. This one is composed of
just eight primary pieces: feet, posts, brac-
es, a stretcher, and the top. Eight corbels
and two small tabs for the top attachment
round out the parts list.

Tending to the tenons

After machining the major parts, I began
the table by cutting the mortise-and-tenon
joints while the parts were still square.
Given the scale of the post, I chose to use
double tenons for added strength and glue
surface. Before cutting the tenons, I cut
the twin mortises for them in the feet and
the braces at the hollow-chisel mortiser; I
referenced both sides of each part against
the fence to ensure the post would be cen-
tered. I started the double tenons at the
table saw, followed up at the bandsaw, and
fine-tuned them with a shoulder plane. The
shoulders were pared to fit with a chisel.
Next, I cut a through-mortise in each
post for the stretcher’s through-tenon. I

28 FINE WOODWORKING Photos: Jonathan Binzen

English-Inspired
Trestle Table
Elegance and structural economy
combine in a commodious dining table
B Y T H O M A S T H R O O P

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 29
ENGLISH ARTS AND CRAFTS TRESTLE TABLE Top has 1⁄8-in. radius
coves along top and
bottom edges.

Top, 11⁄8 in. thick by 34 in.

wide by 84 in. long

Screw block, 11⁄8 in.

thick by 11⁄2 in. wide by
21⁄4 in. long, glued to
brace and screwed to
underside of top
Slip tenon for top
corbel, 3⁄8 in. thick Brace, 113⁄16 in. thick
by 11⁄2 in. wide by by 35⁄16 in. wide by
11⁄8 in. long 26 in. long

Stopped chamfers,
1 in. wide by Through-tenon,
241⁄16 in. long, begin 15
⁄16 in. thick by
7
1
Top corbel, 1 ⁄8 in. ⁄8 in. from post 23⁄8 in. wide by
thick by 33⁄8 in. wide 215⁄16 in. long,
by 25⁄8 in. long extends 7⁄16 in.
proud of post
and is shaped
to a pyramid

Slip tenon, 3⁄8 in.

thick by 2 in. wide
by 11⁄8 in. long
Chamfer tapers from
7
⁄8 in. wide at brace
to zero at foot.

Stretcher, 13⁄8 in.

thick by 33⁄8 in. wide
by 593⁄16 in. long
Twin tenons, 7⁄16 in. thick by
25⁄8 in. wide by 13⁄8 in. long,
spaced 5⁄8 in. apart, link Bottom corbel,
post to foot and brace 15⁄16 in. thick by
43⁄4 in. wide by
41⁄4 in. long

Post, 21⁄2 in. thick Grain runs vertically

by 47⁄16 in. wide by in corbels, which are
265⁄8 in. long edge-glued to post. Foot, 25⁄8 in. thick by 31⁄2 in.
wide by 241⁄2 in. long

34 in. 84 in.

Post tapers out Digital plans for

from 33⁄8 in. wide this table are
at brace to 43⁄8 in. 297⁄16 in. free for Unlimited
wide at foot. members, or can
be purchased at
FineWoodworking
.com/PlanStore.

241⁄2 in. 595⁄16 in.

SIDE VIEW FRONT VIEW

30 FINE WOODWORKING Drawings: Christopher Mills

used the slot mortiser for these, though TRESTLES GET
a router could also be used. I plunged in
from both sides of the post to avoid exit DOUBLE TENONS
tearout, and I squared up the rounded cor-
ners of the mortises with a chisel.
I cut shouldered tenons on the stretcher
with multiple passes of a dado blade on
the table saw. As these are long through-
tenons and I wanted a very clean joint,
I took the extra step of fly-cutting the
cheeks of the tenon with a router, skim-
ming off just a whisper to make the cheeks
perfectly smooth.

Taper and shaping

TRESTLES
With all the primary joinery cut and fitted,
the next step was to taper the posts using
a shopmade tapering jig on the table saw.
Once the posts were tapered I added ta-
pered chamfers using the same simple jig Begin with the mortises. At his hollow-chisel mortiser, Throop cuts parallel mortises in the foot to
fit the post’s twin tenons.

Outer faces first. At the table saw using a dado blade and miter gauge, with the fence as a stop, Bandsaw between. To turn one big tenon
Throop starts the post tenons by making shoulder cuts on all four faces. He cuts the rest of the into a pair of thinner ones, Throop makes two
cheek waste with multiple passes. stopped cuts at the bandsaw.

A little off the end. To cut the tenons to width, Out with the waste. A couple of diagonal cuts followed by some nibbling removes the waste
Throop first made a bandsawn crosscut close between the two tenons. Throop will later use a shoulder plane and chisels to refine the tenons’
to the tablesawn shoulder, and here he trims shoulders and cheeks.
off the waste with a stopped ripcut.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 31
STRETCHER TENONS on the table saw. Afterward, the tapered
faces and the chamfers all were cleaned up
with a few strokes of a block plane.
The posts done, I shaped the feet and
braces. To make for clean transitions, I
began by cutting a series of cross-grain
coves using a fluting bit in a router. I then
removed the waste at the bandsaw and
finished up by fairing the curves with rasp,
scraper, and sandpaper.
Routing the stopped chamfers on the
stretcher was the next step in the shap-

S C
Roughing the cheeks. The cheeks and shoulders of the stretcher tenons are shaped first at the
table saw. As he did with the post tenons, Throop here makes multiple passes with a dado blade
and miter gauge, using the fence as a stop to locate the shoulder cut.
ing process. I could have run the cham-
fers from end to end, which would have
produced a more horizontal emphasis. But
I wanted a resting place for the eye in
the center of the stretcher, something to

On the fly.
Because these
will be through-
tenons, and visible,
Throop wants a
very clean joint,
so he smooths the
cheeks with a skim
cut. An oversize
Plexiglas base for
the router and a
scrap of stretcher
stock for support
make the router
stable and the bit
easy to see.

Fit the stretcher. After trimming the tenon to

width, Throop does the final fitting with hand
planes and chisels. With the tenon fully fitted, he
marks its exit point with pencil lines (left). Then,
guided by the pencil lines, he cuts wide chamfers
on the end of the through-tenon with a block
plane to create a pyramid detail.
balance out the visual focus on the legs. POST TAPERS
So I made stopped chamfers that termi-
nate in lamb’s tongues. I cut them with
a large chamfer cutter on the router, and
the lamb’s tongues were created by the
radius of the cutter. They’re not true lamb’s
tongues in the traditional sense, which are
made with hand tools and have a dou-
ble curve, but the shape created by the
stopped cutter seemed to serve the overall
design quite well.
To detail the ends of the through-tenons
I used a truncated pyramid shape, echoing
the taper of the posts. I cut these using the
sliding table saw and a tilted blade and
cleaned them up with a block plane.
POST
Table sawn taper. Having cut all the joinery with the posts still square, Throop turns to tapering
using a simple shopmade taper jig.

Double duty. After

the posts have
been tapered, the
same jig is used
to cut the tapered
chamfers on the
corners of the post.
Here Throop sets
the jig wide for a
cut with the top of
the post leading.
Two of the corners
can be cut this way.

Corbel time
To find the exact angle at which to cut the
inside corner of each corbel blank, I dry-
assembled the post, foot, and brace. Then
I measured with a bevel gauge and made
the angled cuts on the table saw. The cor-
bels get edge-glued to the post and joined
with a slip-tenon to the foot or brace. I
cut the slip-tenon mortises with a plunge
router; the mortise on the corbel was cut
into the end grain. Then I bandsawed the
curve of the corbel blanks; I cleaned up
the curves using a pattern bit in a router
and a template fashioned out of MDF fas-
tened to the blank with double-sided tape.
It was now time to start thinking about
the top and how it attaches to the base. My
preferred method is to use screws through
elongated slots in the braces so the solid
top can expand and contract unhindered.
I like to anchor the top in the center Jig reset. The jig is adjusted to a narrow setting for the cuts like this one for which the wider,
with a screw in a regular hole, effectively bottom end of the post leads the cut.

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 33
SHAPING FEET AND BRACES cutting the amount of top movement in
half. Because the post is centered I can’t
screw through the brace there, so I added
a small screw block on the inside face of
the brace. The block is shaped with some
curves to mirror the corbels and the hole
is counterbored so the screw can’t be seen.

Assembly
At this point, with all the parts shaped and
sanded, it’s time for assembly. The glue-
ups are straightforward and done in stages.
The feet and braces are glued to the post
while lying flat and supported on wind-
ing sticks. This allows for clamp placement
and also ensures there is no twist between

FEET
the brace and the foot.
Once both trestle assemblies have dried,
the corbels can be added. I apply glue to
the long grain edge of the corbel and to
Crosscut coves. When shaping the feet and braces, Throop starts by routing cross-grain cove cuts. the slip tenon and its mortises, and then
They give each curve a clean starting point. One router fence setting works for coves at both ends.

Lay out the curves. The crosscut coves also help by locating the Relief beneath the foot. Throop bandsaws from cove to cove, using the
template as Throop traces the foot’s curves. fence to control depth of cut, to create the relieved area under the foot.

Cutting the curves. After making a series of relief cuts, Throop saws Slots for slip tenons. A plunge router with a straight bit cuts mortises
along the curved line he traced from the template. He’ll clean up the in the foot to receive the corbel’s slip tenons.
curve’s surface with plane, spokeshave, scraper, and sandpaper.

34 FINE WOODWORKING
CRAFTING THE CORBELS

CORBELS Setting the corbel angle. After dry-fitting the trestle, Throop measures the
angle between the foot and the tapered post. He transfers that angle to the
miter fence to cut a corbel blank.

More mortising. Using a plunge router with

an upcut bit, Throop mortises a corbel blank
Making the mortises. With the corbel blanks placed on the foot, Throop makes tick marks on
for the slip tenon. A wide scrap clamped to the
them to designate the ends of the slip-tenon mortises.
blank provides extra stability for the router.

The fun part. Once

the mortises are
cut, the corbels
get bandsawn to
shape. Afterward, to
clean up the curve,
Throop attached
a template with
double-stick tape
and routed to it
with a pattern bit.

35
TRESTLE GLUE-UP

TRESTLE
Elevated assembly. The foot and brace get glued on together while supported on winding sticks.
These ensure that the brace and foot are in alignment and also provide easier clamping access.
Measure the diagonals to be certain the foot and brace are parallel.
Double-clamped corbels. Light-duty cam
clamps provide pressure to the post and the
foot as Throop glues up one of the bottom
corbels.

exert pressure with light clamps toward

both the post and the foot or brace. Finally,
once the corbels are cured, the two trestles
can be joined by the stretcher. To avoid
squeeze-out, I apply glue only to the faces
of the stretcher tenon.
The top is the final element. The boards
are cut overlength, sized to thickness and
width, and joined for gluing to full width.
After cleanup, scraping and sanding, and
cutting to final length, the edges are sand-
ed and then routed top and bottom with
a small-radius coving bit in a trim router.
This little detail serves subtly to frame the
top and define the edge, tying it to the
shape of the corbels and helping to unify
the entire design. With the top completed,
I place it upside down on the bench and
secure the base to the top with
screws.
A corbel above. The home stretch is in sight
With the bottom
with any final sanding to be
corbels glued up,
Throop turns to the done at this point and then the
top ones. A screw finish applied. For this sort of
block that will form, I tend to use a satin sheen
pin the top at the finish such as Osmo Polyx-Oil,
center, shaped to which stands up well in use and
reflect the curves ages quite nicely. ☐
elsewhere in the
table, is visible on
the inside face of Tom Throop designs and builds
the brace. custom furniture in New Canaan,
Conn.
Stretcher assembly. With the trestles inverted and the One clamp glue-up. Thick cauls by each of the proud through-tenons allow Throop to
stretcher supported in the middle by a spacer box and bring both stretcher joints all the way home with a single clamp. He’ll check the diagonals
block, Throop knocks the through-tenon together. and make any necessary adjustments.

On with the
oil. The table
assembled and
finish-sanded,
Throop applies a
few coats of Osmo
Polyx-Oil.

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 37
Working Safely with Small
T he tips in this article sprang from a comment sent in to
Fine Woodworking’s Shop Talk Live podcast. “Yesterday
I was cutting some shims on my bandsaw,” the listener
wrote. “The piece I was cutting them from was pretty small, but
I thought to myself, ‘I can get another one out of this.’ When my
finger was about an inch from the blade, the shim and the offcut
got dragged into the throat. There was a loud bang, and I jerked
back. It hurt a lot. After a moment to collect myself, I opened

Close the blade opening

Woodworking machines come with overly large openings around their
blades. These allow small parts to dive dangerously into the throat of
the machine. Keep some 1⁄4-in. MDF on hand to create zero-clearance
surfaces on machines and sleds.

TABLE-SAW SLED

Start with your table-saw sled. Set the blade to the miter angle you
want, and use double-stick tape to attach a large piece of 1⁄4-in. MDF. Do
the same to the fence if needed. Then cut through the MDF (right) to create
zero-clearance support around the blade.

MITER SAW

Do the same to your miter saw. With the saw set to the angle you Clean, easy wedges. Starting with an end-grain section cut from a wide
need, use double-stick tape to attach sacrificial panels of 1⁄4-in. MDF to board, you can make perfect wedges on the miter saw. Start by angling
the base and fence. This will let you cut small parts safely. the blade slightly, and then flip the workpiece front to back between cuts.

38 FINE WOODWORKING Photos, except where noted: Asa Christiana

Parts Get more efficiency and better results
at the same time
B Y A S A C H R I S T I A N A

BANDSAW

Zero clearance at the bandsaw. Cut partway into a piece of 1⁄4-in. MDF,
then clamp it in place to create support around the blade.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 39
Zero-clearance throat plates
For everything you cut on the table saw, including small parts, a zero-clearance
throat plate will make cuts cleaner and safer. You can make your own from
plywood or MDF, but good commercial options are available too.

Sacrificial throat plates. Blank throat plates are available for most table saws.
Bosch sells these inexpensive plates for its job-site saws.

Aftermarket model with a sacrificial strip. This throat plate has a solid metal Make thin rips with no worries. With zero clearance around
body with inexpensive MDF inserts. It’s available at InfinityTools.com for SawStop the blade, the thinnest ripcuts can be made safely and cleanly.
and DeWalt table saws, and a number of miter saws as well. Note how a fresh push stick carries both parts past the blade.

my fist to find my finger intact. The pain came from the wood The first solution: Close the throat
exploding and hitting it. I fell asleep last night thanking God for The first pitfall in cutting small parts is the one our podcast lis-
the amazing blessing of my hands.” tener fell into—an opening around the blade that allows a small
From handles and pulls to feet, wedges, wheels, drawer stops, workpiece or offcut to be pulled into it, damaging it and possibly
and table-attachment tabs, woodworkers manufacture a fair pulling your fingers with it. Table saws, miter saws, and bandsaws
amount of small parts. A lot can go wrong when we do. come with large blade slots that accommodate blades of various
While these little parts can be tricky to handle with both hand thicknesses, set at various angles. Many woodworkers find a way
tools and power tools, hand tools are usually safer, so always to address this problem on their table saws, knowing that a zero-
consider those as an alternative to power. That said, it’s easier clearance throat plate will prevent chipping on the bottom edge
to achieve speed and precision with machines. And that’s where of all sorts of cuts. But we tend not to address the issue on miter
small workpieces are their most dangerous. saws and bandsaws, partly because zero-clearance is harder to
The good news is that the solutions are simple and straightfor- maintain on those machines, and because it isn’t always necessary.
ward. And, as is so often the case in woodworking, safe tech- On all three machines, a panel or two of 1⁄4-in.-thick MDF is all
niques also yield better results, so best practices are a win-win. you need to create zero clearance around the bit or blade. These

40 FINE WOODWORKING
Check the order of operations
Doing as much machining and shaping as possible to small parts while
they’re still attached to a larger blank makes them much easier to control.

Long parts are

safer than short
ones. In his Master
Class on furniture
pulls (FWW #245),
Ross Day cut
dadoes and slots in
a long workpiece,
which became a
series of small
posts (above and
left).

Add a carrier. To
cut 60° angles
on the ends of
Festool Domino
tenons, so they
could form a three-
way joint, FWW
contributor Phil
Same principle as the normal milling process. Milling short parts
Gruppuso inserted
on a jointer or planer can range from difficult to unsafe. That’s why
the tenons in a
woodworkers mill parts to thickness and width (top) before cutting them
long scrap (below).
to length (above).
Small workpieces
can also be glued
to larger scraps
for safe cutting or
tight blade gaps will not only ensure clean cuts and keep small shaping, then cut
pieces from diving dangerously into a gap, but they will also show off afterward.
you exactly where the blade will cut, so you can align a layout line
with the slot, or hook a tape measure on it when setting up a stop.

Wait to turn a long piece into a small one

The second solution is one of the universal principles of safe,
effective woodworking. Consider the standard milling process.
The reason we joint, plane, and rip parts to thickness and width
first—before cutting them to length—is that longer pieces are
safer and easier to handle on the jointer, planer, and table saw.
The same goes for small workpieces. The idea here is to do
everything you can to a small part (or parts)—including milling,
shaping, drilling, etc.—while it is still part of a larger piece. This
will make a world of difference when it comes to safety and con-
trol, and it’s usually a more efficient way to work.
You’ll be surprised at all the things you can do to a small work-
piece before cutting it free from a larger one.

Photos, top right and center right: Jonathan Binzen

Control trapped cutoffs
If you don’t hold them down, cutoffs that are trapped between a blade
and a stop can jam violently and become dangerous projectiles. Here’s
how to control them safely, or avoid trapping them altogether.

Toggle clamps are indispensable. They

come in a number of handy sizes and
configurations, and can be attached
to all sorts of jigs and sleds.

Try this handy

hold-down. This
clever helper
from FWW
contributing
editor Michael
Fortune controls
small parts safely.
Unlike toggle clamps,
it requires no setup.
Cutting, shaping, and drilling small workpieces safely
For very small workpieces, like little mitered moldings,
small pins, miter keys, and so on, my favorite cutoff
PIVOTING HOLD-DOWN tool is a Japanese handsaw. But when I need even
This is the general shape of the hold-down. Christiana more precision, or a bunch of parts cut to the same
angles the tip to come down flat on 3⁄4-in. workpieces, exact length, I turn to the table saw or miter saw,
but it will hold down thicker and thinner stock too. adding a stop of some sort. It’s imperative to control
the piece that’s trapped between the blade and the stop.
Plywood, 3⁄4 in. thick by roughly There are a variety of effective ways to control small cut-
3 in. tall by 10 in. long
offs, as shown in the photos.
Although there’s a lot of drilling and shaping you can do to small
3
parts before cutting them off a longer piece, there will be times
⁄4 in.
you’ll have to wait until the part is small and unwieldy. Sometimes
it’s easiest to hold a small part in a bench vise, allowing you to
work on it with a hand tool or sanding block.
More often than not, however, to finish shaping small parts, I
Tip lies flat on 3⁄4-in. stock.
turn to my benchtop sanding unit, which has a belt and a drum.
It’s a good option for small parts because the most likely accident
is a skin abrasion, which is pretty easy to avoid. When sanding
TIP A pencil works
in a pinch. In
his article on
small parts on a disk, belt, or drum, keep the piece on the table
if you can. Use a firm grip and a light touch.
pendant pulls Drilling small parts is less dangerous than shaping them in most
(FWW #271), cases. I usually do this on the drill press. All you’ll need in most
Philip Morley cases is a fence and a stop, with your fingers holding the part in
controlled a
place. But if the drill bit is large, or the part wants to pull upward
small cutoff with
the eraser-end of in a strong way, I secure it in the jaws of a large hand-screw clamp.
a pencil. There are lots of ways to work small parts safely. These are some
of the easiest and best I know. ☐

Asa Christiana is FWW’s editor-at-large.

42 FINE WOODWORKING Photo, bottom left: Matt Kenney

Tabletop tabs teach lots of lessons
These tongued
blocks screw onto the
underside of tabletops,
fitting into slots in the
table aprons to attach
the top firmly while
allowing it to shrink
and expand. The
techniques covered
here will help you
make them safely and
efficiently.
Rabbet both ends of a block. Make the block long enough Cut the rabbeted block into strips. Make sure the saw
to control safely with a miter gauge. Then rabbet both of has a zero-clearance throat plate, and use a full-length push
its ends using a dado set buried in a sacrificial rip fence stick to control the workpiece safely. A wider block will
(clamped to the normal rip fence). produce even more strips (and tabs).

Chop off the tabs. To do this safely, use a table-saw sled, with zero-
clearance panels added to its base and fence, and an L-shaped stop.
Bump the stop against a clamped block to position the workpiece
(above) Then hold the workpiece there, slide away the stop, and make the
cut (right). This lets the cutoff move away from the blade without danger.

TIP

Use a fence and a stop on the drill press. When in doubt, use a hand screw. When Shape the tips on a stationary sander. A
To drill the countersunk screw holes, clamp a using larger bits, hold the workpiece with a benchtop sander is great for shaping small
fresh piece of 1⁄4-in. MDF on the table, along hand screw. The large wood jaws on these workpieces. When sanding end grain, flip the
with a simple fence and stop, and you’ll be able clamps can hold all sorts of parts safely. workpiece to avoid sanding against the grain,
to control these parts safely with your fingers. which can cause the piece to catch.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 43
 Easy Angled Holes
44
on a Drill Press
FINE WOODWORKING Photos, except where noted: Jonathan Binzen
ANGLE-DRILLING JIG FOR THE DRILL PRESS
Top plate, 3⁄4 in. thick by
16 in. wide by 18 in. long Ramp plate, 3⁄4 in.
thick by 16 in. wide
I have been making stools
with turned legs for years.
When drilling the angled
holes for them, I always made
a platform set to the desired
by 18 in. long,
hinged to base angle of the legs, and I wound
Sacrificial top up with multiple platforms
plate is face-
screwed to
with different angles. When
ramp plate. I moved my shop to a much
Support spacers, smaller space, I decided to
3
⁄4 in. thick by 16 in.
long, cut to different create one jig that would re-
widths to yield place all those platforms—a jig
various drilling angles that would allow me to easily
change angles, would be ap-
plicable to almost all stool and
chair seat shapes, and would
take up very little space when
not in use.

How it works
The heart of the jig I designed
is the U-shaped cutout cen-
tered at the back of the base
that gives the jig its controlled
pivoting action. The base is
hinged at the front edge to
the ramped work surface, and
spacers of different widths are
slid into a channel at the back
to adjust the drilling angle
while supporting the ramp.
Base, 3⁄4 in. thick The thing is so simple I can’t
by 16 in. wide by believe I did not see it sooner.
21 in. long

Guide strips, 3⁄4 in.

thick by 3⁄4 in. wide by
16 in. long, stapled
to base, create a Notch affords
channel to accept clearance for drill-
support spacer. press table’s height Cutout sized to diameter of
adjustment crank. drill-press post allows jig to
pivot for easy alignment.

Drilling angled sockets for stool

and chair seats is simplified
using this versatile jig
B Y B E T H I R E L A N D

Drawings: Derek Lavoie; photo, bottom right: Beth Ireland M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 45

MAKE THE JIG
The post is pivotal. A semi- Striking the
circular cutout at the back of semi-circle. After
Ireland’s jig straddles the drill- measuring the
press post and orients the jig. calipers’ span
Ireland measures the post with with a metal rule,
calipers. Ireland sets a
compass to half
that distance and
lays out the semi-
To get the jig ready for use, circular cutout. She
you place it on the drill-press cuts to the line with
table, slide it back so the cut- a jigsaw.
out straddles the post, pivot
the jig until its centerline is
directly beneath the quill, and
clamp it to the factory table.
Then you raise the ramp and
slide the appropriate support
spacer into place beneath it.
To get the workpiece ready, A notch for the
you draw lines across it rep- crank. Ireland
bandsaws a
resenting the approach angles
rectangular notch
of the holes to be drilled. Then at the back corner
you align both ends of one of of the base to
the pencil lines on the work- accommodate the
piece with the centerline on drill-press table’s
the jig. Adjust the workpiece height crank.
up or down the incline until
the bit is centered over the hole
you’ll drill. Some drill presses
have laser lines for centering,
but you can also simply put a
small-diameter twist bit in the
chuck and use that as a center-
point finder. Then clamp down
the workpiece, switch the twist
bit to a Forstner bit, and drill.

46 FINE WOODWORKING
Building the jig
The jig consists of three pieces
of 3⁄4-in. plywood, one for the
base and two, face screwed,
for the hinged ramp. I made
the ramp double thick to stiff-
en it up and provide a sacrifi-
cial surface to drill into.
The plywood pieces must all
be the same width. What width
exactly is not important, just be
sure to choose a size that will
be convenient when it comes
to clamping the base to your
drill-press table. The front-to-
back measurement of the jig is
flexible too. The ramp on my
jig is 18 in. from front to back,
and that has worked for any
stool or chair that I or any of SET THE ANGLE
my students have built.
Strike a front-to-back line at Attach the ramp.
the exact center of each of the Clamp the ramp
pieces of plywood and bring plate and the base
the lines down over the front together with their
side and front
and back edges. Make sure the
edges perfectly
centers are aligned when you flush, then mount
install the hinges and when the hinges. Ireland
you screw the sacrificial piece uses double-sided
on top. tape to locate the
Before installing the hinges, hinges precisely
however, make the cutout and and then drills pilot
holes and drives
the notch in the base. For the
the screws.
cutout, find the radius of the
post on your drill press. Then
use a compass to draw a half
circle that will match your post.

Back channel business. To make a snug channel for the height- Double up the top. To make the ramp rigid, Ireland screws on a second
adjustment spacers, Ireland first staples one strip across the base, sheet of 3⁄4-in. plywood. The top sheet also serves as a sacrificial surface
making sure it is square to the sides. To set the gap for the second strip, for drilling.
she uses a scrap of the plywood she’ll use to make the support spacers.

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 47
SET THE ANGLE
Begin with a bevel gauge. To make a slide-in spacer for a particular drilling angle, first set a bevel gauge
to that angle, then lift the ramp until the blade of the gauge is parallel to the drill-press quill. Wedge a scrap
beneath the ramp to hold that angle, then measure the distance from the base to the underside of the ramp. Cut it out with a jigsaw. If you
have a toothed winding strip
on the post, you might have to
cut a little off of the right side
of the curve, so the base has
room to pivot without hitting
the teeth. You may also have to
cut a notch at the back corner
of the base to allow the crank
handle to move easily. With the
cuts in the base made, install
the hinges.
Next, create a channel at the
back of the base to accept the
support spacer. I make the
spacers out of 3⁄4-in. plywood,
Size the spacer. With the bevel gauge at the same angle, set the table so I used a scrap of that as a
saw’s blade angle, then rip the spacer to width. temporary spacer while I glued
and stapled the strips that
Insert the spacer. make the channel. Last, face-
Press the spacer screw the sacrificial top board
into its channel, onto the ramp.
and you’re nearly
ready to drill.
Mark the drilling
Adjusting the ramp angle
angle on the To determine the width of the
spacer for future spacer you’ll need, first set a
reference, and bevel gauge to your drilling
make additional angle. Set the gauge on the
spacers for any jig and lift the ramp until the
other angles you bevel’s blade is parallel to the
commonly drill.
quill of the drill press. Insert
a scrap below the ramp as a
shim to hold the ramp at that
angle. Then measure from the
bottom of the spacer channel

48 FINE WOODWORKING
to the underside of the ramp,
Orient the jig.
and cut a spacer to fit. The
With the jig’s base
spacer can be angled to match straddling the post,
the ramp (as I show in the Ireland pivots the
photos), but it doesn’t have to jig until a small-
be. It just needs an edge to be diameter bit is
the proper height to hold the directly above the
ramp at the desired angle. centerline on the
ramp’s top plate.
Once your spacer is in place,
push the jig tight to the curve
of the drill-press post, pivot it
until it is centered, and clamp
the jig to the table. Adjust the
drill-press table to the proper
height for drilling and you’re
ready to drill. ☐

Beth Ireland works wood in Saint

Petersburg, Fla., and teaches
across the country. USING THE JIG

Layout pattern.
This flat pattern
for a three-legged
stool’s seat
illustrates Ireland’s
method of deriving
orientation lines
for leg mortises.
The orientation
lines radiate from
a single point on a
centerline drawn
from the front edge
of the stool seat
to the back, and
pass through the Lines on the workpiece. Draw a line at the approach angle for each
centerpoint of each hole you’ll drill. Carry those lines down the edges of the workpiece so you
leg mortise. can accurately match them with the centerline on the jig.

Start small. After aligning a layout line on the workpiece with the Mortise time. Replace the small centering bit with a full-size Forstner
centerline on the jig, slide the workpiece up or down the ramp until bit and drill the leg holes. Repeat the centering and drilling process for
the bit is directly over the centerpoint of the hole. Alternately, align the each hole in the seat.
workpiece by lowering the stopped bit onto the hole’s centerpoint and
pivoting the work until the layout line matches the centerline on the jig.

Photo, center left: Beth Ireland M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 49

 Entryway Mirror
Style meets function and
I t’s common for an entry-
way mirror to be accom-
panied by a small table
beneath it to collect keys, wal-
lets, and phones. This piece
smart building techniques
a blank canvas to fill after com-
pleting the straightforward tra-
ditional joinery of the project.

Start with the box

combines the two to take up Mark out a pleasing dovetail
B Y J O S H U A S T E R N S
less space and keep the floor pattern, and cut the tails in the
clear. Hang the mirror low and sides. Transfer that layout to
add a chair and it becomes a the top and bottom, and cut
compact bedroom vanity. The the pins. At the router table,
utility of the design veils the rout grooves in the top and
original motivation for building bottom for the sliding doors.
it, as an opportunity to experi- Remember to make the bottom
ment with geometrically inter- groove shallower than the top
esting door panels. The small groove. Rout a rabbet in the
panels can be made from cut- back of the box to accept the
offs. They can be solid wood frame-and-panel back.
or veneer, pierced with holes You’re almost ready to glue
or carvings. Think of them as up the box, but first sand and

50 FINE WOODWORKING Photos: Anissa Kapsales; drawings: Dan Thornton

 Back panel, 1⁄8 in. thick
ENTRYWAY MIRROR by 141⁄16 in. tall by
271⁄2 in. wide French cleat, 5⁄16 in.
5
Top rail, 1 in. thick by 1 ⁄8 in. thick by 31⁄2 in. wide
wide by 297⁄8 in. long by 28 in. long

Mirror, 1⁄4 in. thick,

1
⁄16 in. to 1⁄8 in.
Tenon, 5⁄16 in.
smaller than opening
thick by 17⁄16 in.
wide by 15⁄8 in.
Top corbel, 3⁄16 in. long
thick by 21⁄4 in. wide
by 113⁄8 in. long

Grooves for corbels,

1
⁄8 in. deep
French cleat, 5⁄16 in.
Carcase top, 9⁄16 in. thick by 3 in. wide by
thick by 55⁄16 in. wide 26 in. long
by 30 in. long

Stops,
1
⁄4 in. square

Rabbet for mirror,

5
⁄8 in. wide by 1⁄4 in.
deep
Tenon, 5⁄16 in. thick
by 17⁄16 in. wide by
Bottom, 9⁄16 in. 1 in. long
thick by 55⁄16 in.
wide by 30 in.
long
Rabbet, 1⁄4 in. wide Back panel side
3 by 3⁄16 in. deep frame, 3⁄8 in. thick
Lower rail, ⁄4 in. by 9⁄16 in. wide by
thick by 19⁄16 in. Panel, 33⁄4 in. long
5
wide by 29 in. long ⁄16 in. thick
Back panel top frame,
3
⁄8 in. thick by 9⁄16 in.
wide by 291⁄2 in. long

Back panel bottom frame, Side, 9⁄16 in. thick

3
⁄8 in. thick by 11⁄16 in. wide by 51⁄4 in. wide by Stile, 7⁄8 in. thick
shellac the interior surfaces. 41⁄4 in. long Bottom corbel, 3⁄16 in.
by 291⁄2 in. long thick by 21⁄4 in. wide by 17⁄16 in. wide by
Glue the box together, and by 4 in. long 251⁄4 in. long
when it’s dry, use a chisel to
square up the back panel rab- 297⁄8 in.
bet. Square and clean up the
exterior surfaces with a hand
plane. 3
⁄8 in.

Back frame and panel Digital plans for

Measure the rabbeted opening this entryway
mirror are free for
in the back of the completed Unlimited members, 161⁄2 in.
box and mill the back panel or can be purchased
at FineWoodworking
rails and stiles to size. At the .com/PlanStore. 111⁄4 in.
table saw, cut the bridle joints 251⁄4 in.
in the frame parts and rout a
groove to accept the panel.
The panel material and
graphics are up to you, but 41⁄4 in.
be sure to follow the rules of
wood movement. The panel
can match the carcase mate- 41⁄2 in.
rial, which helps it fade into
the background, or it could
complement the door panels. FRONT VIEW SIDE VIEW

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 51
 This long, narrow dovetailed box attaches to the front of the mirror frame. Sliding doors on the front offer
A simple box a blank slate for decorative panels and conceal the cell phones, keys, wallets, and pens stored within. The
top and bottom of the box are wider than the sides, creating a shadow line for visual interest.

Cut tails and pins. Sterns cuts the tails on the short side pieces first. Then he transfers the layout
to the pin boards using the backs as reference to ensure the overhang is at the front. He uses a
chopping block as a chisel guide on the shoulder line.

3
⁄16 in.

9 1
⁄32 in. ⁄4 in.
TOP GROOVE
3
⁄8 in.

1
⁄2 in. 1
⁄8 in.

SLIDING
DOOR

9 3
⁄16 in. ⁄32 in.
A rabbet for the back panel. Again at the
router table, cut the stopped rabbet to hold the
frame-and-panel back. Sterns uses blue tape to
1
⁄8 in.
1
⁄8 in. mark the starting and stopping points on the
router fence.
3
⁄8 in.
1
Sliding door infrastructure. At the router table, cut grooves for ⁄4 in.
1
⁄16 in. the sliding doors. The depth of the top groove is slightly greater
than the height of the top tongue. The bottom groove equals the
bottom door tongue minus the bottom door reveal. Aim for less RABBET FOR
BOTTOM GROOVE than a 1⁄16-in. reveal between the door and the case. BACK PANEL

52 FINE WOODWORKING
Glue up the carcase. After pre-finishing the
interior, glue the sides to the top and bottom.
A caul with a thin copy of the tail layout applied
to it allows you to exert pressure on the
dovetails without interfering with their fit. Wax
the caul to avoid gluing it to the case.

Square up the
corners. Use a
chisel to square up
the corners of the
rabbet at the back
of the case. It’s
easier to do after
the case has been
glued since you can
see exactly where
to stop chiseling.

Fit the back

panel. Size the
At the router table, raise the stile, the bridle mortise in it back panel by
panel. Then dry-fit the frame is offset. To cut the bridles in shooting it with
and panel. When assembled, it the top rail, first mark out the a hand plane a
should be about 1⁄32 in. longer bridle tenons on the stiles and little at a time
and wider than the rabbeted transfer those marks to the rail. until it fits snugly
opening. Pre-finish the back Be sure to reference off the without having to
be forced into the
panel and the interiors of the back of all pieces. With bridle
rabbet. Start by
frame members and glue it joints, cutting test pieces is im- fitting two adjacent
up. Then clean up the joinery, perative. Once you’ve dialed in sides, then fit the
sand, and finish the frame. Fit the test fit, cutting the joints is remaining long
the back to its opening with simple. side and finally the
a hand plane and glue it in Next cut the mortises in remaining short
place. Plane the back panel the stiles for the bottom rail side.
flush with the back of the box. tenons. I use a router and a
Chamfer the edges of the box, mortising box, a method I bor-
sand to 320 grit, and finish the rowed from “Quick and Ac-
exterior with shellac. curate Mortises” by Bob Van
Dyke (FWW #303). Then, at
Mirror frame has two types the table saw, cut the tenons
of joinery on the bottom rail. Chamfer the
Tackle the frame’s bridle joints edges, sand, and pre-finish the
first. The bridle tenons are cen- interior surfaces.
tered in the stiles, but because Once you’ve prepared all the
the top rail is thicker than the parts, glue up the mirror frame.

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 53
 The mirror frame’s top rail is joined to the stiles with bridle joints, but

Frame begins with bridles the bottom rail is tenoned into the stiles. The top rail is thicker than the
stiles and the bottom rail is thinner, adding visual interest and a feeling
of depth to the frame along with a slight wrinkle to the joinery.

Manage different
thicknesses. The bridle
tenon is centered in the
stile (drawing below).
But because the top
rail is thicker than the
stile, the bridle slot in
it is offset. Referencing
off the back of the
pieces, first lay out the
tenon on the stile, then
transfer that layout to
the rail. Sterns uses
a tenoning jig at the
table saw and multiple
passes to cut the bridle
slot (near right).

1 in.
9
⁄32 in.
5
⁄16 in.

7
⁄8 in.
Chamfer, 1⁄16 in.

Four-step bridle tenons. After cutting the cheeks at the table saw (top
right), take the stiles to the bandsaw and saw off the waste, cutting close
to the shoulder line (left). Head back to the table saw and cut all the
shoulders (above). Finally, back at the bandsaw, trim the tenons to width,
being careful not to overcut into the shoulders (right).

54 FINE WOODWORKING
When the glue is dry, rout a Next, use a router and fence
rabbet deep enough to match to cut grooves down the center
the thickness of the mirror, of the stiles to house the cor-
the backing plywood, and the bels. Fit the box into the dado
French cleat. It should leave at in the exact position where it
least a 1⁄8-in. lip on the front will be glued, and transfer the
of the frame. Chisel the cor- corbel grooves to the top and
ners of the rabbet square. Next, bottom of the box with a knife.
rout away material for the ends Adjust your router fence and
and the top edge of the French cut the corresponding grooves.
cleat, which extend beyond Shape, sand, and finish the
the mirror to allow space for corbels. They must fit gap-free
screws. Rout this second rabbet in the grooves and fit to the
deep enough so that after the frame and box grooves at the
mirror is installed the cleat will same time. It will probably Assemble the mirror frame. Gluing both rails to the stiles at once,
lie flat on the plywood backer. take several tries at dry-fitting Sterns applies pressure across the assembly with bar clamps. But he
Leave the top corners of the each one before they fit nicely. also squeezes the bridle joints tight with F-clamps.
French cleat rabbet round, to The box and corbels are at-
avoid removing too much of tached to the mirror frame in
the bridle joints. Clean up the a single glue-up. Glue in the
joints and chamfer the top and corbels first, then slide in the
ends of the top rail. box and tap it home. Once
the assembly is complete and
Dadoes and grooves everything is cleaned up, the
There’s more to be done on mirror can be installed.
the mirror frame: Rout dadoes
to accept the box and grooves Sliding doors
to accept the corbels. I cut the The doors lift in and out of the
dadoes by setting up fences on grooves in the box, and they
each side and riding the router must slide easily without rat-
against the fences. To ensure the tling around. I make the doors
router is fully supported, I cut run on the bottom of the
Rabbets for the mirror and French cleat. Once the glue is dry, rout
half the dado and then move groove, rather than having the
the rabbets for the mirror, plywood backing, and French cleat in the back
the fence and cut the other half. shoulder at the bottom of the of the mirror frame. With a chisel, square off all the rounded corners
except the top ones for the French cleat, which are left round.

Put the box in its place. Set

the box on the mirror frame
and mark its location. Using a
flush cutting bit (or rub collar)
and two fences clamped to
the frame, rout the dadoes for
the box in the stiles and the
bottom 1⁄4 in. of the lower rail.
 Functional as well as decorative, the corbels lock the box into the mirror

Corbels tie it all together frame and support it from underneath.

Groove it. To run

a groove for the
corbels on the
mirror frame, use a
trim router with its
fence riding on the
outside of the stile.
Then set the box in
place on the frame
and transfer the
groove locations to
the box. Remove
the box, adjust the
fence, and rout
corbel grooves on
the box (far right).

Putting the pieces

together. Glue the
corbels into the
frame and slide the
box onto the corbels
and into the frame,
and then clamp it
all together. Sterns
uses grooved cauls to
apply pressure to the
corbels. The grooves
fit over the corbels,
allowing the clamps
to apply pressure on
the narrow, curved
surface.

door run on the surface of the inside edges of the door parts.
box. This allows you to match Now lay out and cut the in-
the gaps on the bottom and dividual panel pieces. For the
top of the doors, and avoid the long horizontal panels I played
door cutting a visible groove with the idea of separated ver-
into the box over the years. tical pieces that go from nar-
Mill the door frame members rower to wider and back again.
to final size. I set the width so At the table saw, cut slots in the
that when the doors are closed edges of the pieces to accept
the stiles in the center over- splines. Glue the pieces togeth-
lap by the width of the stile. er to create solid panels. Raise
When determining the height the panels by routing a tongue
of the doors, take the top and to fit grooves cut in the frame
bottom tongues into consider- members. To avoid chipping
ation. Cut the bridle joints on out wood that isn’t backed up
the table saw, and then rout a (where pieces are connected by
groove on the inside edge of splines), use a marking gauge or
all door members to accept the knife to cut the wood fibers in
panel. Sand and pre-finish the these areas. Sand and pre-finish

56 FINE WOODWORKING
 The sliding door panels were the jumping off point for this project. Design wise,

Panel-design freedom anything goes. Sterns decided on a panel design of ascending and descending
sized pieces of vertical grain Douglas fir separated by cherry splines.

Help from a clamping jig. To simplify assembling the many small Clamp one end. As you apply glue, assemble all the panel parts and
panel parts and splines into one wide panel, do the glue-up on a piece of splines on the jig with the two opposing wedges against the stop block
plywood long enough to accommodate all the pieces plus a stop block, two (but not yet tightened). Set a caul across the width of the pieces, and
opposing wedges, and a little extra space for the wedges to do their magic. apply clamp pressure at the end of the caul farthest from the stop block.

1411⁄16 in.
1
Total panel dimensions with ⁄8-in.-thick Raised portion
3
⁄16-in. tongue on all sides, splines sit in of each panel
5 1
⁄16 in. thick by 137⁄8 in. wide ⁄8-in.-deep component is 1
⁄2 in.
by 27⁄16 in. tall grooves. 2 in. tall.

31⁄4 in. 9
⁄16 in.

9 1 3 5 3 5 9
⁄16 in. ⁄16 in. ⁄32 in. ⁄32 in. ⁄16 in. ⁄16 in. ⁄16 in.

SLIDING DOOR 31⁄4 in. 3 in. 21⁄2 in. 2 in. 13⁄16 in. 3
⁄4 in.

Engage the wedges. Tap the wedges toward Assemble the door. Once
each other (top), filling up the extra space the panels are dry, raise
between them and the panel pieces. This them at the router table,
pushes all the pressure toward the clamped fit them to the door frame,
end. Once the pieces are all tight to each other, sand and pre-finish the
clamp the other end of the caul to keep the panel and frame interiors,
pieces flat while they are drying (above). and glue up the doors.

www.f inewoodworking.com
 With the piece assembled and finished, install the

Install the mirror and hang it up mirror, plywood backing, French cleats, and stops.

The layered look. the panels, and then glue up the

Gently set the frame-and-panel doors.
mirror in its place
Once the glue is dry, clean
in the rabbet of the
frame. Then set the
up the joinery and cut tongues
plywood on top of on the tops and bottoms of the
the mirror. Sterns doors to fit the box groove.
orders his mirror The pulls are indentations
after he assembles routed into the door stiles. I
the frame so he use a round-nose router bit to
can be sure of
cut a groove at the router table,
the size, and gets
it about 1⁄16 in. to
then blend it with sandpaper.
1
⁄8 in. smaller than
the opening. Install the mirror and
French cleat
For anything other than a very
small mirror, use 1⁄4-in.-thick
glass. Too thin, 1⁄ 8-in. glass
flexes and distorts, and while
3 ⁄ 16 -in. glass is sometimes

available, it tends to be harder

to find and more expensive.
The mirror is backed by 1⁄8-in.
plywood and held in place by
stops and the French cleat.
When installed, the French
cleat should be flush with the
back of the frame, so its ex-
act thickness is determined
by the rabbet that has been
routed for it. I use hard maple
for French cleats as it’s read-
ily available and strong, but
many other hardwoods, such
Add stops and French cleat. Once the mirror and plywood are in place, install the stops and the French cleat.
The cleat acts as a stop at the top of the mirror, so stops are only needed on the sides and bottom. Drill pilot as oak, would also work.
holes and countersinks for all screws, making sure the drilling angle is steep enough that the screws won’t To make the interlocking
contact the mirror. Secure the stops to the sides and bottom, and attach the cleat to the top. two-part French cleat, mill a
piece of wood to exact thick-
Put the doors in ness but twice its final width.
their place. To Then rip it in half on the table
install a sliding saw with the blade tilted to 45°.
door, first insert the
Install the cleat with screws.
top of the door into
its groove, pivot
Mill the stop strips at the
the door, then fit same time as the French cleat
the bottom into the as they will be the same thick-
bottom groove. ness. Rip them to a square pro-
file, then chamfer one edge to
accept screws. Nails are more
traditional for attaching stops,
but I like screws for the ease of
removal if necessary. Cut stops
to length and install. ☐

Joshua Sterns designs and makes

furniture in Fort Bragg, Calif.

58 FINE WOODWORKING
 Install and hang the
cabinet. Level and
secure the French cleat to
the wall. Make sure to use
wall anchors if you aren’t
hitting studs. Finally, hang
the mirror on the cleat.

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 59
Build Yourself a Solar Kiln
A small shed with a clear roof and a pair of fans
dries green wood in weeks
B Y B R E N O N P L O U R D E

Wood of one’s own.

Hiring a local sawyer
with a portable mill,
woodworker Brenon
Plourde has trees
custom sawn to his
specs. To keep costs
down, he and his
family help. He dries
the planks in his solar
kiln, which can dry
a 450-bd.-ft. load of
green hardwood to 8%
moisture content in as
few as five weeks.

60 FINE WOODWORKING Photos, except where noted: Jonathan Binzen

W hen people come to my shop,
they always get a tour of the
solar kiln. I tell them it took a
couple of weeks part-time to build, and
the total materials cost was about $2,500.
Inevitably, I’m asked, “Was it worth it to
build?” And my answer is always, “Yes—I
only wish I had built it sooner.”
I had spent a couple of years toying with
the idea, doing research that could be
confusing and too scientific. It all felt too
complicated to get started. But after finally
taking the leap, I found that building and
using a solar kiln isn’t complicated at all.
The kiln is simply a well-insulated shed
facing south with a passive solar-collecting
roof, a black interior to absorb solar energy
and heat the air, and fans to circulate it.
It operates like a big, off-the-grid convec-
tion oven sending heated air through your
lumber stack, with vents to let evaporated
moisture out. That’s it.
A solar kiln dries lumber in much gentler
cycles than a commercial kiln. When the
sun is out, the heated air circulates, ab-
sorbing moisture from the wood. At night
the lumber cools way down, the fans are
off, and some of that expelled moisture in
the air reabsorbs into the wood. This pat-
tern makes for more relaxed (and some-
what slower) drying compared with the
constant stress in a commercial kiln con-
tinually pulling out moisture.
The solar kiln dries wood far faster than
air drying alone, and it gets the lumber
to a much lower moisture content. My
solar kiln takes four to five warm, sunny
summer weeks to dry a load of 5/4 green
wood to 8% MC. I have dried cherry, wal-
nut, ash, red maple, birch, and oak. It
always amazes me the quality of lumber
that comes out. The wood has good color,
machines well, and works beautifully with
hand tools. In my experience, it behaves
much better than commercially dried ma-
terial; when ripped, it moves very little if
at all.
With a solar kiln, whether you buy green
planks from a sawmill or have trees sawn
on a portable mill, as I do, your cost per
board foot will be far lower than buying
kiln-dried lumber. In addition, some beau-
tiful species of trees just aren’t commer-
cially available kiln-dried. And, perhaps
best of all, having your own solar kiln al-
lows you to turn a fallen family tree into
furniture. Every project I build now comes
with a story.

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 61
STRUCTURE OF A SOLAR KILN Clear corrugated Tuftex, a
greenhouse-rated roofing panel,
1
Overall dimensions: 60 in. wide by 132 in. long by 105 ⁄2 in. tall acts as the kiln’s solar collector.

Ordinary 2x shed Roof angle, 45°, roughly

framing is doubled equates to latitude of
up in places to the kiln’s site.
make the structure
rigid in case it
ever needs to be
moved. Solar panel
powers one
of two fans
that keep air
T-111 siding, circulating in
installed over the kiln.
a vapor barrier,
covers the kiln’s
exterior.

Doors have a
softwood interior
frame filled
with 2-in. rigid Interior walls
insulation board are paneled
and skinned with 1⁄2-in.
with T-111 CDX plywood.
paneling outside
and 1⁄2-in. CDX
plywood inside.

Wall cavities
are filled with
R-13 kraft-
faced fiberglass
insulation.

Floor, 1⁄2-in. CDX plywood, is

painted, like the walls and
Each door doors, with a rubberized back
has one vent. coating to absorb heat and
moisture-proof the framing.
Building the structure on
skids, which rest on a 6 in. Deck frame, made with 2x6s on 12-in.
bed of 1⁄2-in. stone, makes the centers, its bays filled with 4 in. of
kiln moveable if necessary. insulation board, is attached to 4x4 skids.

Site and size Figur- slightly better results in the winter.

Locating your solar kiln is the first ing out To keep my kiln modest in size, I chose
important step. You need a spot that the roof angle to make the high back wall 8 ft. tall. I
has maximal sun exposure, a flat area comes next. It is planned the interior width at 101⁄2 ft., so
to build on, and easy access for loading recommended the it would fit the 8-ft.-plus planks I typically
and unloading. If you don’t have the ideal angle of the solar collec- cut with room to spare. Figuring in a knee
spot, the kiln will still work. Less sun slows tor be the same as the latitude of the loca- wall 3 ft. high, those dimensions allow
down drying, uneven ground is harder to tion of the kiln. I’m in West Granby, Conn., me to dry a maximum load of roughly
build on, and poor access makes loading at latitude 41.9561°. I decided to pitch my 450 bd. ft. That works for me. Size your
and unloading more difficult. But none of kiln’s roof at 45° to make construction eas- kiln to suit the loads you want to dry,
those need be a deal-breaker. ier. Adding those few degrees also gives keeping in mind the ratio of solar collector

62 FINE WOODWORKING Drawings: John Hartman

 Build the kiln

A firm and dry foundation. The kiln’s deck is

framed with 2x6s on 12-in. centers. It rests on
4x4 skids running lengthwise and a 6-in. bed of
1
⁄2-in. stone for drainage.

(the clear, corrugated, greenhouse roofing

material) to board footage to be dried. If
the wood is dried too fast, there will be
more defects. The Virginia Tech Coop-
erative Extension article “Design and Op-
eration of a Solar-Heated Dry Kiln” is an
excellent overall resource and particularly
helpful here. According to the article, you
want 1 sq. ft. of solar collector for every
10 bd. ft. of 4/4 red oak in the kiln. There
are industry standards for safe drying rates
for different species. Soft maple can be
safely dried much faster than oak. The di-
mensions I settled on gave me 70 sq. ft. of
solar collector. This was closer to 11⁄2 sq. ft. Simple structure. Though framed with 2x lumber much like a standard shed, the kiln has some
of collector per 10 bd. ft., and here in New members doubled up for rigidity.

Different paint jobs outside and in. The exterior surfaces, all T-111
paneling, are painted with ordinary house paint. But inside, the floor,
walls, and doors, all paneled with 1⁄2-in. CDX plywood, get a rubberized
black coating that acts as both a moisture barrier to protect the framing
and a passive solar heat sink.

Photos, this page: Brenon Plourde M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 63

Load the kiln

Bunked. Before loading the kiln, Plourde spaces 2x4 bunks—each

FUNCTION OF A SOLAR KILN with a sticker attached on top—along a pair of 2x4s laid flat. The bunks
elevate the lumber stack and help distribute its weight.
Clear roofing
Vents can be
opened to
release heat
and moisture.

Fans create
circular
airflow,
driving warm
air around
and through
lumber stack
to facilitate
even drying.

Baffle closes
off open areas,
helping create
circular airflow.

Black-painted
plywood on
top of lumber
stack shields
the planks from
direct sun but
acts as a solar
collector.

Airflow
Keep the airways open. When laying the first board in a load of lumber,
Lumber is carefully stacked and stickered Plourde makes sure to space it 12 in. from the knee wall so the circular
to permit air to flow between boards. airflow around the stack, critical to even drying, is unimpeded.

64 FINE WOODWORKING
England that ratio has worked fine. There in place, I pre-cut them and applied the wall panels and sealed all the seams with
are several ways you can adjust your kiln’s coating with the pieces on sawhorses, so black caulk rated for high temperatures.
daily drying rate. For information on those I could pour out the coating; I spread it Next I attached the pre-painted rafters.
and a full explanation of operating a solar with disposable brushes. I coated the floor Because the plastic roofing material is
kiln, see FineWoodworking.com/310. before installing the wall panels so I could much thinner than a standard roof, I added
paint right into the corners and up onto horizontal bracing between the rafters.
The build the bottom plate of the wall. A 5-gal. pail For the solar collector I chose a clear
I built my kiln using standard 2x construc- was just enough for me to do the walls and Tuftex polycarbonate greenhouse-rated
tion like you would see on a garden shed. floor. For economy’s sake, I used exterior- roof panel available at big-box stores.
I overbuilt the floor deck and the framing grade flat black paint on the rafters. There are several options for greenhouse-
in anticipation of the heavy loads the floor After insulating the walls with R-13 kraft- rated panels that would work as a passive
would support and the possibility that I faced fiberglass insulation, I attached the solar collector.
might want to move the kiln some day.
I began the build by flattening the
ground. Then I built a rectangular frame
of pressure-treated 2x6s on edge and filled
it with 1⁄2-in. stone. Next, I placed three
pressure-treated 4x4 beams lengthwise on
the stone and leveled them. I thought hav-
ing the kiln on skids would be best in case
I ever do want to move it.
I built the deck frame on top of the skids,
spacing the joists 12 in. on center and dou-
bling up 2x6s around the perimeter. Once
the deck frame was built, I fine-tuned its
position so the solar collector would face
precisely south. Then I attached the deck
frame to the skids below. Between the
joists I used doubled-up 2-in. rigid insula-
tion board and expandable foam that had
a total insulative value of R-20. For the
floor, I used 1⁄2-in. CDX plywood.
Stacked and
Next I framed the walls. I wrapped the stickered,
structure with a vapor barrier and nailed blacked and
pre-primed T-111 engineered siding to blocked. Plourde
the exterior. Once the siding was up, I uses 3⁄4-in. thick
moved into my shop to make the doors. dried hardwood
Concerned about the weight of such large stickers beneath
each plank, setting
doors, I milled down 2x4s to make stock
them directly above
11⁄4 in. thick by 2 in. wide to frame the the stickers below.
perimeter and the vent openings. When the stack
is complete, he
Rubber and roofing protects the lumber
The kiln gets very humid inside during the from direct sun by
first several days of drying green material: covering the top
of the stack with
Water droplets form on the roof and walls
a layer of black-
and even puddle on the floor. To contend painted plywood,
with this, the interior of the kiln gets a weighting it with
black rubberized coating that protects the black-painted
wood and plywood from moisture. The concrete blocks.
coating also serves as a solar collector,
absorbing heat from the sun. There are
other options for a black vapor barrier,
but I used Black Jack Rubr-Coat 57. It is
very difficult to mix and also very thick
and difficult to apply. I mixed it with a
mixing attachment on a drill, and instead
of painting the CDX plywood interior walls
 Drying

Critical fans. Two inexpensive car-radiator fans, each powered by a solar Totally baffled. Once the lumber is stacked and the fans are hung,
panel, circulate the air in the kiln. Mounted on plywood that hangs by Plourde staples up baffling material to close off the openings around the
French cleats, the fans are easily removable for loading and unloading. stack. This ensures that the air heated by the sun and driven by the fans
Quick-connect couplings to the solar panels speed the process. will be drawn through the stack of lumber, drying it quickly and evenly.

The two fans that circulate air through 100-watt monocrystalline panels that were
the lumber stack are critical to the kiln’s easy to install and wire directly to the fans.
operation. Fans made to tolerate high tem- In many solar-kiln designs the fans are
peratures can get pricey, but I opted for a attached permanently. But that makes it
cheap and simple pair of plastic automo- awkward to load and unload the kiln. I
tive radiator fans. They are 12-volt fans hung the fans on 1⁄4-in. plywood supported
rated at 875 cfm each. They provide plenty by a French cleat. When it’s time to load or
of airflow for my size kiln and have no unload, I simply unplug and remove the
trouble tolerating fluctuations in power. fans (tool free) and set them aside.
After four years they are running flawlessly. If you build a solar kiln, I hope you en-
I don’t have power available to the kiln, joy the process of building—and of drying
so I power my fans with two solar panels. your own wood. Let the drying begin! ☐
When the sun is out, the fans spin. Simple
as that. They even spin on cloudy days, Brenon Plourde dries and works wood
just not as fast. The solar panels are each in West Granby, Conn.
Meter man. Plourde uses a pin-style
meter to document the lumber’s
moisture content before and during the
drying cycle. This load went in at 17%
MC and emerged five weeks later at 8%.

Manual controls.
To adjust the
drying rate,
Plourde can open
or close the four Online Extra
vents at the back For a step-by-step guide to using a solar
of the kiln. kiln, go to FineWoodworking.com/310.
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gallery
Inspiration for our readers, from our readers

■ DAN N Y K A M ER AT H
■ Llano, Texas
The sculpture, called the Black Eyed Pea, came first. It was power-carved over the
course of 21⁄2 years from a mesquite root burl that came from Danny’s property.
The cabinet, called Joey, was made for the sculpture to sit on. Because a sculpture
is meant to be viewed from all sides, the grid cabinet is as well. It’s got a cabinet
door enclosing adjustable shelves on one side and four drawers on the other.
MESQUITE, WHITE OAK, 22D X 22W X 59H

■ PA U L D. S C H U M AC H E R
■ Maitland, Fla.
Paul, who built this tea ark as a Christmas gift for his
daughter, credits Matt Cremona for the original idea and
inspiration. It is designed to accommodate air-tight tins
that hold loose tea. The bottom drawer holds the
tea service. The bottom of the case is beveled
to give the appearance that the ark is
floating.
WALNUT AND MAPLE,
11D X 11W X 11H

■ JE R E M Y T RO M B O U K IS
■ Stratford, N.Y.
Jeremy had been making kumiko projects for several years when he
realized he had not seen anyone make a curved or round kumiko.
He knew he had to give it a try. It took a few tests to figure out the
best method, and then he scaled it up to make this full-size round
kumiko pendant light. Go to FineWoodworking.com/310 to watch a
video on making the lamp.
BASSWOOD AND BIRCH PLYWOOD, 25 DIA. X 11H
Photo: Erin Fortin

68 FINE WOODWORKING
 ■BEN KO T I S
■ Boston, Mass.
Ben was inspired by the blanket chests of 17th century Dedham
and Medfield, Mass., but he wanted to use digital fabrication and
CNC milling to produce the piece. This was his third semester
project at North Bennet Street School. The panels were milled
using the Shaper Origin and then stippled by hand. The side
panels are derived from the front panel design—with the lacing of
the hearts framed by a rectangle. The purpleheart hearts are to
contrast the front panel hearts.
WHITE OAK, PURPLEHEART VENEER, 18D X 43 7⁄ 8W X 26 1⁄ 2H
Photo: Lance Patterson

■STEPHEN TUTTLE
■ Warriors Mark, Pa.
Needing a small table to go at the end of a couch, Stephen
found inspiration in a graphic he had designed years before.
He had hoped to someday replicate it in marquetry; however,
the graphic for this table ended up as inlay in a veneered
panel rather than marquetry. Titled “Planet Rising,” it was his
first effort at veneering.
BOCOTE VENEER, SPALTED MAPLE AND PADAUK INLAY,
EBONIZED WALNUT, 16D X 30W X 25H

■ANJALI LOHIA
■ Ghitorni, New Delhi, India
This cabinet was Inspired by Japanese
architecture and aesthetics, which emphasize
the use of shadows. Designing the cabinet
around a similar concept, Anjali created the
overhanging top, various shadow lines, and
a play of light and shadow, which inspired a
small window at the back. The window grid
was inspired by pinjrakari, the Indian craft
of making intricate patterns of interwoven
wooden laths, often used in windows, doors,
partitions, and screens.
EUCALYPTUS, CYPRESS, MAPLE, JARRAH,
7 1⁄ 4D X 11 1⁄ 2W X 12 1⁄ 2H
Photo: Todd Sorenson

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 69
gallery continued

■ MIC H AE L GILL
■ Reidsdale, Australia
Michael wanted to create a major
piece of Australian art furniture, and
at the same time pay homage to
the Art Deco design of the Sydney
Harbour Bridge, built in the 1920s and
’30s. The Sydney Harbour Cocktail
Cabinet is a showcase of the skills
and techniques he taught himself over
50 years as an artist and craftsman,
including cabinetmaking, carving,
inlay, marquetry, leadlighting, and
mosaic work. For a link to Michael’s
video on making the cabinet, go to
FineWoodworking.com/310.
QUEENSLAND MAPLE, WALNUT, SILKY
OAK, AND OVER A DOZEN EXOTIC
WOODS IN SMALL CAMEO ROLES,
5FT-6IN D X 14FT W X 8FT-6IN H
Photo: John Lee

■ PA M E L A GOLDMAN
■ Los Angeles, Calif.
Pamela was given a piece of spalted
holly and saved it for something special.
The dimensions of this cabinet, designed
to hold a whiskey decanter and glasses,
were determined by the size of the holly.
The rest of the wood pieces were left
over from other projects, hence the title
Whiskey, Whine, and Frankenstein.
HOLLY, SAPELE, AND MAPLE,
6 1⁄ 4D X 14W X 31 3⁄ 4H

■RAUL DA R R I B A
■ Tampa, Fla.
To challenge his abilities, Raul turned to the designs of Garrett Hack,
whose work he had always admired. The bent-lamination sides
in this table are veneered in a parquetry pattern with walnut burl
divided by aspen, continuing the pattern in the curved stretcher. The
front see-through doors repeat the same parquetry design.
MAHOGANY, WALNUT BURL, AND ASPEN, 21D X 21W X 35H

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gallery continued

■ CH U Y I C AI
■ Fort Bragg, Calif.
Chuyi made this convex cabinet with curved doors while a student at The Krenov
School. On making the cabinet, Chuyi said, “I was pleasantly surprised by the
beautiful grain of the curly maple and madrone. Around 3 p.m., the sunlight would
come across the window and shine on the cabinet. The wood grain of the curly
maple was just like a golden river, and every moment of my hard work flowed on
this river, which moved me.”
CURLY MAPLE AND MADRONE,
6D X 13W X 17H

■ RO B E R T M . L A P L AC A
■ Charlotte, N.C.
This is a reproduction of a tall case clock built by John Townsend in 1789. The original is in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Robert used SketchUp to model the clock, using
photos available from the Met and photos he took of the original clock while visiting the museum.
His goal was to re-create the original clock case details as accurately as possible.
SOUTH AMERICAN MAHOGANY AND POPLAR, 11 1⁄ 8 D X 22W X 98 1⁄ 4H

■ N IC K S AW YE R
■ Portland, Ore.
It’s not surprising that this
table was a commission for
a retired chemistry professor.
The title is Valence, after
valence electrons, the
exchange of which is required
for any chemical reaction. On
Nick’s table, electrons sit atop
each leg with bent laminations
and canted legs nodding
toward the reactive state.
CHERRY, WHITE OAK, MAPLE,
AND WALNUT,
15D X 60W X 30H

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72 FINE WOODWORKING
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master class
Create custom plywood
LUMBERCORE, THE ORIGINAL VENEER SUBSTRATE, IS
DEPENDABLY FLAT AND STABLE AND QUICK TO MAKE
B Y T I M O T H Y C O L E M A N

I
often veneer my cabinets and Lumbercore is a sandwich with veneers
tables, shop-sawing the veneer top and bottom and solid-wood sticks, or
so it matches solid wood parts of staves, laid side-by-side in between. Its
a piece. And for several decades crossband veneers limit the movement
now I’ve been making lumbercore of the staves, which, instead of being
plywood as my substrate, because edge-glued, are placed together dry
I find modern sheet goods frustrating. and separated by very small gaps that
Even high-quality veneer-core plywood allow them to expand and contract
often comes with a bow to it, and I independently. The result is a panel in a
shy away from MDF since the heft of relaxed and stable state, and history has
it can make a small cabinet weigh a shown that it stays that way.
hundred pounds! Lumbercore plywood, I was first exposed to lumbercore
I discovered, solves both these problems when I built several tables
and is quite straightforward to to match originals in a
make. Frank Lloyd Wright tabletops were veneered over a
home in Buffalo, lumbercore substrate with a mitered
N.Y. The solid-wood frame. You’d think movement
original across the width of the table would blow
the miters apart. But evidence from a
table in the museum showed the miters
as tight as the day they were assembled.
In addition to the proven stability
of the product, the advantages of
using lumbercore are threefold:
You can choose the exact
thickness of the panel, it
is lightweight, and it
stays dead flat!

Homemade plywood.
Lumbercore has
solid staves pressed
between layers of
veneer. The staves,
glued to the veneer
but not to each other,
expand and contract
independently.

74 FINE WOODWORKING Photos: Dean Powell (top);

Michael Pekovich (bottom)
 WITH
ORKING
WOODW

ROJECT S
UES & P
TECHNIQ
TOOLS,

© The Taunton Press

master class continued

MAKE AND SIZE THE PANEL’S CORE Staves

My lumbercore plywood has narrow staves of solid
Sawing the basswood sandwiched between pieces of 1⁄16-in.
staves. Coleman poplar veneer. This crossband veneer is laid so its
bandsaws light and grain runs perpendicular to the staves. Then the face
stable basswood
veneer is applied with its grain perpendicular to the
into the staves at
the heart of his crossband veneer, so parallel with the staves.
lumbercore panels. I use basswood for the staves because it is readily
The staves will available, lightweight, and has little movement for a
not be edge-glued, hardwood. Poplar would be another good choice.
and they need To determine the thickness of the staves, start with
room to move, so the final thickness of the panel and subtract the
unjointed edges are
thickness of the face and crossband veneers.
preferable.
I stack the four pieces of veneer and use calipers
to gauge their total thickness. In the case of the
panel I’m making here, they total 1⁄4 in. To end up
with a 7⁄8-in. finished panel, I subtract the 1⁄4-in.

No H2O. After pushing the staves together dry, Coleman rolls a thin layer The essential sandwich. The staves are glued between top and bottom
of polyurethane glue on top. Because it contains no water, polyurethane sheets of 1⁄16-in.-thick crossband veneer. Tape keeps the parts from
glue doesn’t pose the threat of introducing stress to the assembly that shifting.
other glues could.

Special wrapping. After taping the package up tight, Coleman wraps it Out of the bag. After a couple of hours under vacuum pressure, the core
in newspaper to keep from getting Gorilla glue on his vacuum bag. is cured enough to come out.

76 FINE WOODWORKING Photos, except where noted: Jonathan Binzen

veneer thickness and arrive at a stave that’s 5⁄8 in.
thick. If you are using commercial face veneer,
gauge accordingly; the thinner veneer will require
thicker staves to achieve a given panel thickness.
Once the stave stock is milled to thickness, I rip it
into 3⁄4-in.-wide staves at the bandsaw. I don’t joint the
blank between cuts, since the staves won’t be edge-
glued and their rough-sawn edges will help create the
small expansion gaps between them. I crosscut the
staves 1 in. longer than the finished panel.

Crossband veneer
I used to bandsaw my own poplar veneer for the
crossband layer, but since I use lumbercore so often,
I now purchase wide sheets of 1⁄16-in. poplar from a Offering equal airtime. After removing the newspaper wrapping, Coleman uses a
veneer supplier (certainlywood.com) to always have clamp to stand the panel on edge overnight. By exposing both sides equally to air, this
allows the panel to dry fully and evenly. If a recently glued panel were left with one
it available.
face covered and the other exposed it could warp.

Sizing the substrate. Use a hand plane to trim the veneers flush to the stave on one
side of the panel. Then, with the trimmed edge against the table-saw fence, rip the
panel to width. Finally, use a crosscut sled to cut it to length.

Size the crossband veneer so its width matches the Dutchman for
a door panel.
length of the staves, and so its length matches the
Because this panel
width of all the staves when they are lightly pushed will become a
together. cabinet door and
the basswood
staves won’t hold
Gluing up the core
hinge screws well
I use polyurethane glue to adhere the crossband (especially in
veneer to the staves, because it does not introduce their end grain),
any moisture to the assembly. I want my lumbercore Coleman cuts a
to be stress-free, and a water-based glue could mortise into the
create an imbalance if I inadvertently applied more staves and glues in
glue to one side than the other. a maple patch.
With the staves pressed together, I squeeze the
polyurethane onto the surface and spread it with
a low-nap roller cover made for adhesives. I use a
roller as opposed to a card because I can spread a
more uniform coating. All that is needed for a good
bond is a thin glaze of adhesive on the staves. Avoid
using too much.
Polyurethane can be messy, and I do not want it
sticking to the inside of my vacuum bag. To keep

M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 77
master class continued

EDG E WORK

Begin banding the core. Before applying the face veneers, Coleman Careful trim. Coleman uses a block plane to trim the ends of the edging
glues banding around the perimeter of the panel, using tape to clamp it. flush. A clamp helps secure the edging, which is not yet fully cured.

Edging on the
ends. The edge
banding on the
ends of the panel
meets long-grain
glue surface only
on the edges of
the veneers, so to
add a little extra
security Coleman
adds clamps to the
tape (far right).

Flush plane. With

the glue cured, use
a block plane to
flush the edging
to the crossband
veneer.

the glue contained, I surround the perimeter with

wide blue tape and wrap the taped-up panels with
newspaper.
Panels stay in the vacuum press for two hours.
When they emerge, I stand them upright for several
more hours so that air circulates on both sides. At
the end of the workday, I stack the panels on top
of each other and cover the stack with a piece of
plywood. If panels were left to sit on the bench with
one side exposed as they cured, the exposed side
would respond to the ambient humidity and could
begin to warp.
Once cured, the panels are trimmed to size and
made ready for face veneers.
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master class continued

FACE VENEER

Fix the face veneer. With the edging trimmed flush, Preparing the last package. Again using blue tape—Scotch 2093, which he likes for
Coleman prepares to lay the face veneer by rolling on its stretchiness—Coleman wraps the corners of the panel to keep the face veneers
Unibond One veneer adhesive. He can use a water-based from shifting.
glue now that the solid wood staves are contained.
More vacuum
pressure. To glue
Captured edge banding the face veneers,
Many of my designs call for captured edge-banding. the panel gets
This is solid edging that goes on after the crossband another two hours
veneers but before the face veneers, which cover in the vacuum bag.
the edging top and bottom.
I glue the edging to the substrate, tape it in place,
and flush it to the surface when dry. On the sides
where the edging is glued to the end grain of the
staves, the crossband veneers provide just a thin
layer of long-grain glue surface, but once the face The final trim.
veneers are applied, the edging is locked in place. After trimming
I mill the edge stock 3⁄8 in. thick. For captured the face veneer
flush on one long
edge-banding I want a final thickness of 1⁄4 in., since
edge with a hand
anything much thicker than that has the potential plane, Coleman
to telegraph through the face veneer. But I make it cuts the completed
1⁄8 in. thicker initially to allow for trimming the panel
lumbercore panel
to final size. to final width and
An alternative treatment is applied edge-banding, length at the table
which goes on after the face veneers. Here the saw.
banding can be thicker because it is not covered by
face veneers so there’s no worry about telegraphing.
However, applied banding glued to the ends of a
lumbercore panel has scant long grain to adhere
to—only the edge of the crossband veneers. To
improve the bond, I mill a 1⁄4-in. tongue on these
bandings and cut a corresponding groove in the
substrate.
For door panels, I take additional measures for
hinge screws. The basswood staves at the heart of
lumbercore do not hold screws well, particularly
when they are driven into end grain. To provide
additional screw purchase, I cut a mortise into
the core where there will be screws and insert a
maple plug, which is then covered by the edge-
banding. ☐

Timothy Coleman builds furniture and teaches woodworking

in Shelburne Falls, Mass.

80 FINE WOODWORKING
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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
ADVERTISER WEB ADDRESS PAGE ADVERTISER WEB ADDRESS PAGE
Bailey Wood Products baileywp.com 73 Keller Dovetail Systems fastdovetails.com 81
Bessey Tools besseytools.com 15 Laguna Tools lagunatools.com/dx3 9
Blue Spruce Toolworks bluesprucetoolworks.com 21 Learn to Design Like a
Books for Woodworkers tauntonstore.com 75 Pro E-Learning finewoodworking.com/furnituredesigncourse 79
Center for Furniture Craftsmanship woodschool.org 17 Lignomat Moisture Meters lignomat.com 15
Connecticut Valley Melbourne Tool Company melbournetool.com 73
School of Woodworking schoolofwoodworking.com 71 Micro Fence microfence.com 81
DR Power Equipment drpower.com 71 Oneida Air Systems oneida-air.com 7
FAMAG-Werkzeugfabrik
PantoRouter pantorouter.com 15
GmbH & Co. KG famag.com 67
PrettyGoodHouse Tauntonstore.com 73
Felder Group USA feldergroupusa.com 17
Red Rose Reproductions redrosereproductions.com 23
Fine Woodworking Archive tauntonstore.com 73
SCM Group scmwood.com 23
Fine Woodworking Subscribe subscribe.finewoodworking.com 17
Fine Woodworking Unlimited finewoodworking.com/unlimited 81 Shaper Tools shapertools.com/origin 5
Grex Power Tools grextools.com 21 Shop Talk Live Podcast shoptalklive.com 71
Grizzly Industrial grizzly.com 2 Titebond titebond.com 11
Groff & Groff Lumber groffslumber.com 15 Wendell Castle Workshop wendellcastle.org 21
Hearne Hardwoods hearnehardwoods.com 23 Woodcraft woodcraft.com 71
Highland Woodworking highlandwoodworking.com 23 Woodpeckers woodpeck.com 12, 13
Infinity Cutting Tools infinitytools.com 67 Woodpeckers woodpeck.com 67
JessEm Tools jessem.com 75 Woodpeckers woodpeck.com 83

www.f inewoodworking.com M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 81
from the bench

The perfect carving knife

B Y A M Y U M B E L

W
hen people ask me to recommend tools, I but I was convinced that if I got a more expensive brand
usually disappoint them. I was asked recently to everything would somehow miraculously become better.
write about sloyd knives for Fine Woodworking After waiting for months to get my Excalibur, I opened the
and I immediately replied, “I don’t care about box eagerly. But when I put it to use, I was disappointed that
sloyd knives. I think people spend too much the handle was uncomfortable. And it had cost so much that I
time fussing over finding the perfect knife and was afraid to sharpen it.
not enough time actually carving.” I sold it years later, barely used.
Then, as usual, I backtracked partway and said, “I mean, it’s That excellent carver who started with a utility knife upgraded,
nice to have something that works well and is reliable. But I of course—because if you start with a utility knife you learn
know fantastic carvers who started with utility knives.” quickly what works and what doesn’t and, more importantly,
It’s not the knife that makes the carver. why it works or doesn’t. Going through the process of learning
As a kid I carved with a small Remington pocketknife that is invaluable. It’s the whole point of doing anything. You can
came in a big package of .22 ammunition. I carved a lot with skip steps, but if you do, you’re not doing yourself any favors.
that knife and it worked very well—in spite of my questionable When it comes to tools, I say start with what you have. You
sharpening prowess as a 10-year-old. I learned about wood don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a knife to make
grain with that knife, and about how to sharpen. It was exactly good work. Fancy tools won’t improve your skill. Time, effort,
what I needed. As my skill grew, so did my knowledge of what and commitment are what make a good craftsperson. So when
was required in my tool arsenal. the question inevitably arises, I answer, “Don’t worry about the
When I started carving professionally, I did succumb to the perfect knife. Love for your work and for the process is the best
idea that to get better I needed more expensive tools. At the tool you could ever possess.”
time, I was fascinated by carving bowls; I still love that form.
My first purchase was a Pfeil gouge (7/30, if anyone is curious) Amy Umbel is a carver, writer, and podcaster who travels the world to teach
and I used it for everything including spoons. It worked well, and learn about craft.

82 FINE WOODWORKING Photo: Amy Umbel

Y
uri Kobayashi’s chair and table in bleached says. But technical challenge is oxygen for Kobayashi.
ash are a technical tour de force. The chair’s “Sometimes problem-solving becomes my focus point,”
seat and back, and the table’s legs—which she says. “It’s a great fuel for making objects.” But it’s
become its top—are each composed of narrow tapered not the only fuel. Kobayashi, who trained and worked
slats that she steam-bent and coopered and then edge- as a furniture maker in Japan before moving to the
glued. The chair’s spindles widen at the top to create U.S., struggled at first to express herself in English.
the coopered crest rail, and down below they pass When she did, she says, “It was a great discovery for
right through the seat before tenoning into the rear me to use wood to communicate.” Asked what she was
stretcher. To make the table’s legs appear to pierce a conveying with these two pieces, she says she wanted
solid hoop, Kobayashi made three thin hoops—one “to project my ideal nature onto them—the person I
for inside, one for outside, and a third that she cut want to be … it’s hard to explain in English.” The chair
into short sections to fit between the legs—then glued and table express it beautifully.
them all together. “That was ridiculously tedious,” she —Jonathan Binzen

Where Words Fail,

Wood Speaks

Photo: Mark Juliana