Art Liestman produces incredible wood turning designs:
"My interest in woodworking began during my graduate student years. As an avid music listener and musician, I was inspired to try my hand at making some percussion instruments both copies of real instruments, and some that were experimental.
To read the full article on Art Liestman and see images of his project, click "read more" below for the full article
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Any ROUTER with a ROUND OVER BIT is probably one of the most used combinations in woodworking. Virtually every woodworker has at least one router and one of the first and most useful bits they will ever purchase is the round over bit. If you are like me, you problably have a few different sizes of these too.
Round over bits are great ... MOST of the time, but sometimes with the direction the grain runs on some wood that round over bit you love so much will actually tear out or rip the grain of that wood you are trying to round over. Very often the tear-out is hard to see, but run your hand over it and sure enough, it's rough. There is nothing left to do except hopefully sand the rough part down, and hope it doesn't have to be sanded down so far that it starts to become an obvious flaw in the piece.
Does this sound familiar to you ... you bet it does, has happened to all of us. But no worries, Feud to the rescue with their introduction of Quadra Cut bits. The difference with these bits is they now have 4 cutter heads in stead of 2 like most other router bits. So why 4 cutters instead of 2, well the answer is a few reasons.
For those of you ... who like me, don't always like working with plywood because of it's sizing issues, there now it hope.
To refresh your memory, as you know none of the plywood you purchase is dimensionally the the thickness size you purchase. For example 3/4 inch plywood is almost never 3/4 inch thick. The reason for this is the standards adhered to by the plywood manufacturers industry states, in essence, that a 3/4 inch thick plywood can NEVER exceed 3/4 inch thickness. Since all plywood is manufactured green (i.e. it still contains a lot or water and will shrink as it dries) this means that the dimensional thickness will be less that the generic name it is given. That is that 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" 3/4" will all be somewhat LESS thick that what they are called.
This means, working with plywood can be a challenge, despite all the other benefits that plywood has, like strength, flexibility lamination of hardwoods such as Oak, Rosewood, Maple, Cherry etc. all have a thin veneer of that hardwood laminated to an otherwise softwood plywood base.
So ... if you are wanting to make a nice Oak Book Case, and Oak Plywood is on special at your local lumber store, you run on out, pick up a few sheets and get ready to start making some cuts. Then you realize that none of the 3/4" Oak Plywood sheets are actually 3/4" thick, but are somewhat less ... now what ...
OK, Now that you know how to cut picture frame material and make the angle cuts, now you need to put it all together. Glueing up smaller picture frames can be done with somehting a simple as black electical tape wrapped around the picture frame afer glue-up. The pressure of the tape will keep the corners together long enough to allow the frame to become ridgid. Larger picture frames are another story ... the black electrical tape trick doesn't work so well.
In this case it is better to have some sort of a picture framing glue-up jig. The one shown in the video can be made quite easily, the plans are easy to find on the Internet and it doesn't take long to put it together. As usual ... there are some tricks. I decided to offset the centre block so it makes it easier to use, AND I added wingnuts to the ready bar so that the whole jig can be tighted up around the frame quickly and easily ... you don't want to fussing around too much glues like Titebond lll, it will start harding up on you (especially in warm weather) in minutes.
Now that you know how to make picture frames, wouldn't it be nice to be able to make your own picture frame material ... simply and easily ... on your own table saw? The process of making picture frame material, also called molding can be as complex as you want to make it ... or you can make it simple. The molding I like to make are simple and when viewed in a cross section look like and "L" shape. They are easy to put together and look great.
I also ad splines in all for corners to add strength and an extra detail to the frames. I try to choose a contrasting wood so that the splines stand out somewhat from the frame molding.
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It's important to remember that the face sides of your picture frame metial will need to be almost finished before you peform your final cuts. There is no easy way to run "L" shaped material through a planer and even funning it through a jointer will be tricky. All that should need to be done after the final cuts is to sand the face sides and begin the final 45 degree cuts as shown in the assembly video.
Have you ever been asked to make a picture frame? I'll be you replied, "Oh sure" and went promptly into your shop to create this mastepiece ... then discovered it's not as easy as it sounds to make perfect picture frames.
Now you can make your own picture frames, simply and with unbelievable accuracy with a few simple tools, and save yourself hundreds of dollars in custom framing costs.
The problems with making picture frames comes with four - fourty five degree corners. If each one is off by only one degree, then in total that will be off by four degrees. The other problem comes when you try to correct the final angle and re-cut it. When you do this you are actually making that frame side slighly smaller ... which creates another problem. Now you have one frame side that is slightly shorter than the other and it will never come together nicely now.
Well we have solved your picture frame making problems with a simple, new and innovative way of making your own picture frames in your home work shop
Have you ever stopped to think about woodworking clamps? Do you have any idea how many different kinds there are, not to mention their uses? ... We were absolutely blown away when we started to investigate the different types of clamps, uses and brands. Long gone are the days when some a few simple clamps would do the trick for you. Now we need to have all sorts of different types, different sizes and in some cases specialty clamps are needed.
But it's ALL GOOD!! ... because clamps make our lives much easier. They speed up project times and ease and contribute to making complex woodworking project easier to do. Take a moment and see what we discovered about clamps ....
If you are under the impression the Festool Circular saws were just another run-of-the-mill circular saw ... Boy! are you wrong. These two circular saws are revolutionary ... Finally someone has made a circular saw for woodworkers, not just for carpenters. These saws will deliver precision cuts, which is what woodworkers are looking for. If you are in construction or building houses, these circular saws will work fine for, as will many others, but if you are a "woodworker" you need to look at these saws ... they may change what you thing about your tool collection - in fact, you may be thinking of selling some tools to acquire one of these little gems ...
"The only reason I hate sharpening chisels or plane blades is because I don't know how to do it, and I never know what sharpening equipment to select to do the right job. The whole sharpening thing to me is complicated, confusing and frustrating. For these reasons I was very excited to try out one of the sharpening tools for myself to see what kind of a job it can do.
If you are like most woodworkers, or at least like me your plane blades and chisels are probably not in the best shape, probably not that sharp and as a consequence, not used as much as they should be because they are dull and hard to use. Click "read more" to see what we found.
Since the table saw is considered the most valuable tool in the workshop, it is safe to assume that the cross cutting wood would be a main function. Even if you own some sort of a mitre saw, you will still be doing cross cutting on your table saw. Getting accurate cuts, at a true right angle can be a challenge ... but help is one the way Click Below for details on how you can finally get some satisfaction from cross cutting on your table saw ...
"My interest in woodworking began during my graduate student years. As an avid music listener and musician, I was inspired to try my hand at making some percussion instruments both copies of real instruments, and some that were experimental.
Any ROUTER with a ROUND OVER BIT is probably one of the most used combinations in woodworking. Virtually every woodworker has at least one router and one of the first and most useful bits they will ever purchase is the round over bit. If you are like me, you problably have a few different sizes of these too.
For those of you ... who like me, don't always like working with plywood because of it's sizing issues, there now it hope.
Since the table saw is considered the most valuable tool in the workshop, it is safe to assume that the cross cutting wood would be a main function. Even if you own some sort of a mitre saw, you will still be doing cross cutting on your table saw. Getting accurate cuts, at a true right angle can be a challenge ... but help is one the way Click Below for details on how you can finally get some satisfaction from cross cutting on your table saw ...