How to Make a Lectern
Michael T Collins makes an easily adjustable lectern. Dale Carnegie once said ‘there are always…
Submissions now open for the Mark Baker Woodturner of the Year Competition. Enter HERE for a chance to win prizes
Michael T Collins makes an easily adjustable lectern. Dale Carnegie once said ‘there are always…
In honour of our much missed and respected former Editor Mark Baker, we have launched…
Dave Western creates from scrapwood a killer whale that is based heavily on a dramatic form…
Ian Woodford shares some ideas for designing and making a nutcracker. Since the early days,…
John Lloyd looks at a 15th-century technique that revolutionised furniture making. No, this has nothing…
Michael T Collins makes a beautiful rustic-looking coffee table. I have long been a proponent of…
Paul Purnell makes a lye-shaped thumbstick. Following on from last month’s article on joining a…
Louise Biggs shows us you can have your cake and eat it too. This cake stand is made of quartersawn London plane (Platanus hybrid) also known as ‘lacewood’. My customer had made the cake stand at sixth-form college, with all the parts being produced between his woodwork and metalwork classes. Some decades later the frame sections had warped and twisted. Eager to keep it complete we embarked on a journey to try straightening them. I felt there was little we could do with the twist even if we succeeded in straightening them. Assessment Tool list For the turning Stages of Restoration Attempting to straighten the uprights Further reading
Chris Grace improves the effectiveness and ease of use of his extraction system. Having a chip/dust extractor is great, but they are only of real benefit if they are easy to use and can efficiently remove the waste from where it is generated. My old extractor was okay, but it used a bag-type filter which I felt was blowing fine dust back out into my workshop. The extent of this was realised when I moved the extractor and found the area behind covered in a build up of very fine dust. Also, it was tucked away in the corner of my workshop, so I sometimes had to rearrange things to get to it and turn it on. We just never have a big enough workshop, do we? So, it was time for an upgrade, and I happened to come across a vortex-type extractor with a fine cartridge filter. It looked
Jason Townsend talks us through making a useful sanding bow. Sanding is a job that no one really likes, and yet everyone likes smooth and nicely-finished wood. This sanding bow helps with the sanding down of large curved surfaces and can be used with a variety of abrasives, from coarse to fine. The length of the bow means that you can apply a lot of abrasion with each stroke. When you have finished sanding your item with one grade of abrasive, you can undo the screws and fit a finer grade of abrasive. Tools Materials Sanding bow plan Cutting out the pieces Once your timber is selected, glue the template to the wood using a glue stick or trace it onto the wood using carbon paper for example. Glue up The image in step 6 might look odd, but it is an alternate method to clamping awkwardly-shaped pieces of
There is confusion around the world over what a tortoise is. In the UK, we call the land-dwelling shelled creature a tortoise, and his sea-dwelling cousin a turtle, but in the USA, they use only the term ‘turtle’. Whatever its name, there are nearly 30 species of tortoise, and its appearance is relatively unchanged in 150 million years of existence. They can also live to a great age. I am always amazed that tortoises have survived for so long as they seem so slow and vulnerable, but somehow they survive in many environments around the world, and they vary in size from quite small, to the huge Galapagos tortoise. Many years ago, my sons were asked by our neighbours to look after their tortoise while they were away on holiday. Much to everyone’s dismay, it disappeared… only to reappear two years later! So, my first tortoise was carved in honour
Thin bowls have never really done much for me. The thinnest bowl I’ve made was a small maple (Acer saccharum) bowl with a black band, 135mm in diameter and 60mm high, as a bit of a challenge some years ago, out of kiln dried timber to an even 3mm wall thickness. They are a great test of skill but are pretty useless, which is why I have never really gone for them. Following on from the editor’s challenge from last month, we decided it could be interesting to see how thin I could go with green timber. The editor suggested I use a light to gauge the wall thickness – something I have seen done with some success, but have never tried and, for no real reason, have always thought rather sceptically about. The theory At some stage we’ve all turned a bowl rather too thin and experienced light passing through
As a woodturner, we are often in pursuit of swift gratification. We like to create details with pin-point accuracy. A good finish can give impressive definition to both worked detail and that of the wood grain. To achieve that beautiful end piece, using the right finish is a must. Why cyanoacrylate? In the search for fast and durable finishes, I’ve only been satisfied with two. One is spray lacquer. Not the fastest, but reasonably quick, good looking and durable. The fastest, most durable finish I know of is a cyanoacrylate finish. Cyanoacrylate adhesive makes a wonderful finish for wood. There are many methods for application as a finish. Some methods I like – others I don’t. For the most part, cyanoacrylate finishes have been relegated to small items such as pens. With a good technique, it can be used on much larger items. The method explained here will allow you
Although I have called this a book stand, it could be multifunctional. It could be used to hold books, magazines, a tablet, drawings – all the possibilities are there. Even the size isn’t critical. It took me only a few hours to make and the result is pleasing to look at as well as functional. Now read on… Hinges You end up with a nice neat book stand that looks like this… …or folded up, like this. You can carry it with you or pop it on the bookshelf, it’s always ready as a reading aid! Further reading
We’re going to go back to southeastern Germany and the Erzgebirge Mountain area, famed for the craftsmen and toy making. This project focuses on a personal favourite – the German smoker or incense burner. Otherwise known as Rauchermen, these wonderful little characters send out plumes of Christmassy smelling incense. Incense has been used for centuries in religious ceremonies. It is seen as a way to cleanse the air of evil spirits. In Germany, the 12th night of Christmas is a celebration of the gifts of the three wise men, and people light incense to mark the end of the Christmas season. I think the smoking men were likely given as a good luck charm to keep away the nasty spirits. Unlike the nutcrackers that portray figures of authority like kings, queens and soldiers, our smokers are the opposite. They represent the working man, like builders, carpenters, and in my case,
