Australian Woodsmith

Wow! What a world we live in. COVID-19 really has changed the way we live our lives. Bunnings has been doing a roaring trade (social distancing has produced queues at my local store). It looks like a lot of folks are renovating while in isolation. No

I found a new use for my card scraper sharpener guide. I realised that the 45° fence on the guide was the perfect tool to chamfer the edges of thin parts. The file leaves a smooth surface and the fence on the guide creates a consistent chamfer. Jared

This little marvel from Makita has to be the most compact workshop vacuum on the market. It is designed with the tradesman in mind. If you are a Makita fan and have a range of 18v tools in your kit, then this vacuum is for you (or if you are in the m

Steve Somerfield has been teaching woodwork in high schools for nearly 30 years. One tool that Steve has come to respect in the workshop is a router. Used well it can speed up just about any construction process. However, all it takes is a split seco

Every afternoon I walk the dog through the local golf course, the dog likes the exercise and I enjoy finding golf balls. Mostly I leave a pile of balls on the last tee, however occasionally I pocket a couple of the more colourful ones for use in the

One of the first challenges I had when it came to woodworking was choosing clamps. Every woodworking catalogue or retail outlet offers dozens of possibilities. Plus, even if you only buy a few of each type of clamp, you’re talking about a hefty inves

In many workshops, the router table is an indispensible tool for its ability to create custom profiles. Most router tables have a surface large enough to accommodate a substantial-sized workpiece. However, one place where many router tables encounter

One of the best parts of woodworking is that there are several approaches to accomplish nearly any task. So you can tailor techniques to the tools you have, your workshop space and even personal preferences. It also eliminates the notion that there’s

At the heart of many workshops is the table saw. There’s a good reason for this. When it comes to multitasking, no other tool has the street cred that the table saw does. From ripping full sheets of plywood to creating a fine set of box joints, there

For centuries, locks have been used to secure the contents of all sorts of furniture. A perfect example is the sugar chest on page 44. The upper compartment of the chest is secured with a traditional half-mortise lock. The body of the lock is hidden

As I said, there’s a little more to do on the columns. This starts with creating a basin for the plants, followed by cutting two grooves in the bottom to fit over the pedestal. To finish each column, you’ll chamfer the top and bottom edges. So dig ou

These days a lot of us are living lives without a garden to tend. The migration to tower blocks and townhouses has reduced our access to yards to plant gardens. Green plants really do relax the soul and cheer the mind. Patients in hospital beds with

One of the constant complaints I hear from woodworkers is about workshop space — the lack of it, that is. The lament is mostly along the lines of how space is gobbled up during the various phases of building a project. Solving that problem is where t

It’s easy to hit the ground running on this project, starting with the bottom and sides. These parts are made of two layers of plywood sandwiched together with glue, trimmed to size and finished off with a little shaping and joinery at the table saw.

With the base assembly off in the corner, it’s time to focus on the top assembly. The top is unique in that you can use each side for different tasks in the workshop. This works because the whole assembly rotates on a pair of bolts that are fastened

With the first layer of the top installed on the 193mm square grid, I turned my attention to the remaining steps that complete this side of the worksurface. If you glance at the main drawing above, you’ll see it begins with another layer of plywood,

I’m not going to sugar-coat it, working with tapers can be a real challenge. But all the work you put into the legs will pay off as you start making the side panels and their supporting parts — the edging and rails. As the drawing above reveals, the

You’re pretty much out of the forest of tapers, bevels and angles. There’s only a handful of tasks left that aren’t square cuts. What you’re facing now are some large drawers that reside in the lower portion of the chest. You’ve earned the change in

Now that you’ve got past the hurdle of the tapered legs and side panels, finishing the case parts for the chest should be a breeze. The parts here are longer than the previous ones, but the same methods are used to make them. The biggest of the parts

The subtle flow that separates this chest from its boxy predecessors starts with the curved, tapered legs. Looking closely at the drawing above and the details of the face profiles, you’ll get an idea of what’s involved in making these legs. Laying o

At this point, all that’s left to do is top off the sugar chest with a lid. And I think you’ll agree that it’s a fine-looking lid at that. As the drawing above reveals, the lid is a 25mm-thick solid wood panel that’s glued up from narrow boards. It’s

I had never heard of a sugar chest until I teamed up with our creative director, Chris Fitch, to work on this project. The function of a sugar chest was to protect and parse out the high value commodity that sugar was in the nineteenth century. The e

The succulent plant stands that are built on page 32 have a recess routed in the top of each column. These round recesses are the basins that hold plants. The top of the column is too small to support a router base. So I made the jig you see in the p

Years back a group of leading UK turners attended a seminar at which Philip Streeting aroused some interest and prompted much discussion by showing in the ‘instant gallery’ a controversial ‘bowl’ made by taking a handful of wood shavings and shaping

Often, the best way to rout a small part is to rout a larger blank and cut the piece free. But, there are many times when this isn’t possible. On page 24, we talk about routing small parts safely and efficiently at the router table. A good way to rou

We restricted access to the Australian Woodsmith workshop during the first months of the COVID-19 lockdown. That gave me plenty of time to upgrade my garage and turn it into my own personal creative zone (with space for the car when a brooding purple

When our technical editor, Mark Jones, dropped in for a chat, I took him on a tour of my Iso Reno workshop/garage. He was intrigued by the CBN grinding wheels and asked me why I switched from old fashioned aluminium oxide to a wheel four times more e

* Simply subscribe or renew your subscription to go into the draw to win a Triton Router. Designed by woodworkers for woodworkers! Key features include a powerful 2400w / 3.2hp soft start electronically controlled motor that automatically maintains s

Carbatec is the place to go to purchase the hardware kits mentioned on page 18. McJing is the place to go for metric threaded inserts and cast-iron wheels. Toggle clamps suitable for the small parts router sled are available from Carbatec, Timbecon a

If you have made an Australian Woodsmith project, we'd like to see it. Email a quality image to us at julie@australianwoodsmith.com.au Make sure the photo's resolution is high, the light is good and the project is free of clutter. Also, tell us what