In honor of Get Woodworking Week, I decided to take a moment to cover a very basic concept: installing a drawer knob.

I made two Shaker Tables a couple years ago and unfortunately I never got around to making the knob for the cherry version. My mom lost patience with me and purchased a commercial knob. The very least I could do was install it for her.

So here’s a quick review of how I like to install drawer knobs in finished drawers. The key is to use our old shop favorite blue tape, a brad point bit, and a backer block. You’ll end up with nice clean holes and a perfect installation!

Update
Well that’ll teach me! I was in the middle of filming the Roubo workbench build when my mom came in and said, “put this knob on the drawer please!”. So I figured I may as well film it as a Mini. Not having my brain fully in the moment, I forgot about the old trick of simply running a straight edge from corner to corner to find the center point. I was really too focused on the concept of getting a clean hole. I also misspoke when I stated one of the measurements. My apologies for the errors.

Did you know you can join the Guild and get immediate access to over 5 hours of video content and detailed plans for this Shaker Table?
Or you can always buy the DVD in the Wood Whisperer Store.

Mother Nature can be quite harsh on wood even under the best conditions. This is why it is essential to protect your outdoor projects with a good quality finish and if possible, use a cover to protect them from the elements. This video shows you a few boards that were left out in the Arizona weather for over two years with no protection at all. While intended mostly as fun, we might be able to glean some useful information by seeing which species are still usable after this torture test.

Thanks to Dan Johns on Facebook for inspiring the title of this episode.

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A Desert Outdoor Finish (Video)
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A Better Way to Apply Spar Urethane

If you’re not using marking gauges or some sort of blade to lay out your joinery, you are really missing out! I remember a conversation I had with William Ng at the William Ng School when he told me, “If you want to make good joinery, use a pencil. But if you want to make great joinery, using a knife!”

Marking gauges come in several forms but they are all fundamentally similar. They consist of a post, a moveable fence, and a blade or scratch pin. My personal preference is for blades and you can see a fairly standard traditional marking gauge to the left. So why should you use one? Keep reading.

Accuracy

When you cut with a knife, the resulting line is maybe a couple thousandths of an inch wide. Compared to a big chunky pencil line, its much easier to know when you’re exactly where you need to be in reference to that line. Additionally, marking gauges have fences which allow us to be consistent when marking multiple sides of a single workpiece for dovetails and tenons.

Tearout

No doubt you are very familiar with the concept of tearout. When you cut wood across the grain, you’ll inevitably notice small bits of wood tearing out at the end of the board where the fibers are unsupported. So if you actually cut that grain ahead of time with a blade and then cut right up to the line with your saw, you end up with a nice clean crisp shoulder with absolutely no tearout.

Tool Guides

If you use scribe lines, you’ll have a perfect place to lay the tip of your chisel or saw blade with absolute accuracy and consistency. If you try to line up the tool with a pencil line, you will almost always end up on one side of the line or the other. There’s just too much variability there. But if you have a little trough from a marking gauge or knife, you’ll have a no-brainer aid for locating the tool in the proper place.

Our live holiday extravaganza was a blast as usual. Of course, my new system for picking winners turned out to be a flop but we managed to get the job done. Little Mateo makes his first internet appearance and Nicole even takes a moment to say hi. Of course I can’t forget to mention all the awesome giveaways we had. Over 20 in fact!
The video was originally over an hour and it was recorded from a crappy live feed. I did my best to clean it up and edit it down into a digestible chunk.

Special thanks to:

MicroJig
The Hand Tool School
Lost Art Press
Southdale Supply
Infinity Tools
Tumblewood Creations
Acanthus Workshop

The second and final part of the series focuses on the calendar frame details. We start by creating the front loading slots, then move on to creating the curve in the top rail, and finally we create the small pencil groove in the bottom rail. The frame is then glued up, the back panel is cut and installed and the roundover profile is routed on the perimeter.

The finish for the maple frame is Sherwin Williams CAB Acrylic Lacquer (we’ll discuss the role of flatteners) and the finish for the white oak frame is Watco Teak Oil.

The calendar frame is made to fit calendars that are roughly 13 1/2″ x 24″ when opened.

Want To Build Along?

Download the SketchUp file
Download the PDF

Materials Used

Lumber supplied by Muterspaw Lumber
Rubber Sanding Pads
Lee Valley Drawing Bows
Up-Cut Spiral Bit
Round Nose Bit
Extra Thin Wall Mount

The calendar frame is a project that highlights the joys of simple joinery. The frame pieces are held together with half-lap joints which are as strong as they are basic. The frame is designed to allow calendar loading from the front unlike traditional frames that need to be removed from the wall every month.

The first part of this series covers the wood selection, milling, cutting half-laps, layout and cutting various rabbets. For the sake of simplicity, all of the joinery is made at the router table with a single router bit.

The calendar frame is made to fit calendars that are roughly 13 1/2″ x 24″ when opened.

Want To Build Along?

Download the SketchUp file
Download the PDF

Materials Used

Lumber supplied by Muterspaw Lumber
Rubber Sanding Pads
Lee Valley Drawing Bows
Up-Cut Spiral Bit
Round Nose Bit

Its our annual Thanksgiving sale!! Everything in the store is on sale all weekend long. Here’s the breakdown:

Thanksgiving Day (11/24) – 25% OFF
Friday (11/25) – 20% OFF
Saturday & Sunday (11/26-11/27) – 15% OFF

So head on over to the new Wood Whisperer Store and pickup some of the awesome DVDs, templates, and TWW gear we have for sale!

*Guild members: your regular Guild discount will NOT apply during this sale.

Sanding is one of those tasks that nobody enjoys. So in order to get the best results with the least amount of effort, we need to consider the things that have the most dramatic effect on our sanding efficiency.

Know Your Terminology

If you understand sandpaper lingo, you’ll find it much easier to choose the right material for your work. That means you’ll get the job done faster, you won’t waste as much paper, and the results will be better. First let’s talk about the grit types:

Aluminum Oxide: This is the most common material used for woodworking. Its very durable and lasts a long time because it is friable. That means as you use it, the grit breaks apart and leaves more sharp edges. So the paper sands consistently and lasts longer. You can use this stuff on more than just wood and you’ll see it used for sanding finishes, plastics, metal and paint.

Garnet: Garnet is a natural abrasive and it is generally only used to sand wood. The reason is because it is NOT friable. Instead, the grit wears down as you use it and ultimately leaves the wood with a smoother surface than aluminum oxide sandpaper. But I get such good results with my standard aluminum oxide papers, I don’t really bother much with garnet.

Ceramic: I don’t even have any of this stuff in the shop. Its very hard and durable and generally used for aggressive stock or paint removal. Common to see these in more aggressive tools like belt sanders.

Silicon Carbide: Easy to spot because of the color (Gray or black). As woodworkers, these are great for sanding and polishing finishes. They have super high grits and can be used wet or dry, so when we talk about we-sanding, this is the stuff we’re using.

Stearated: You’ll very frequently hear the term “stearated” being used in reference to sand paper. Basically, this is a chemical treatment that prevents the paper from clogging. Think of it like a coating of soap that stops wood and finish from adhering to the grit. So stearated papers are great for sanding finishes, because the finish dust tends to ball up and stick to the paper.

Closed vs Open Coat: This property refers to the amount of space between the grit particles on the paper. Open coat means the grit is further apart and is less prone to clogging. It also means the paper tends to last a little longer. Closed coat means the grit particles are closer together and the paper can become clogged more easily.

Armed with this terminology, you should be able look at any package of sandpaper and determine how you might be able to use it and whether it is appropriate for your project.

Don’t Skip Grits

Sanding is nothing more than scratching a surface with grit, right? And its pretty obvious that 80 grit scratches are much deeper than 220 grit scratches. So if you jump from 80 to 220, you’re asking a lot of that 220 grit. In fact, you’ll work harder and go through a lot more paper if you try to remove 80 grit scratches with 220 grit. So it is much more efficient to jump from 80 to 120, and then to 220. Not only will you save time, but you won’t go through quite as much paper in the process. Additionally, you’ll have a much smoother/consistent surface in the end.

Use The Right Pad

This is something we don’t talk about much because most sanders only have one pad available. But did you know that the pad itself can have an impact on your sanding results? For most large or perfectly flat surfaces, you can reach your desired surface finish pretty effectively using a soft pad.
For more delicate pieces, curves or contours, you’re going to want to use a super-soft pad.
For the most delicate of surfaces, or sensitive of curves, you can even employ a cushioned interface pad that eliminates any pressure so you lightly abrade the surface while maintaining a precise shape or profile.
For jobs where a crisp edges are essential, a hard pad would be idea. For instance, when you’re sanding a fairly narrow edge, a soft pad will round over the edges very quickly. But a hard pad keeps the the edge square and doesn’t conform to the edge.

Festool has pads for all of these situations, including a special long life pad that is resistant to high temperatures. Excessive heat can actually destroy the plastic hook and loop material so in a heavy-use or industrial setting, a long life pad can really save you some headache.

Use Dust Collection

Most of you should know that the dust created by sanding is incredibly bad for you. I try to hammer this home every year during safety week. The best way to avoid breathing the stuff is to prevent it from getting into the air in the first place. So the way we do that is by effectively collecting the dust at the source. When you buy a sander, you should absolutely keep an eye out for a dust collection port and instead of just using the collection bag, connect it to a dust extractor.

Aside from heath, there are other potential problems from dust getting in the air. Airborne dust tends to say airborne for a long time. It gets into your tools and eventually, settles into your finish. So if you sand in the morning, you can bet there is still airborne dust floating around when you apply your coats of finish. The end result is more work sanding dust nibs out of your finish.

Now here’s another factor that isn’t discussed very much. You know how when you sharpen your planes and chisels, you have to clean off your chisel after each grit, to prevent contaminating your higher grit stones? The same thing can happen when you’re sanding. Imagine sanding with 80 grit and no dust extraction. The 80 grit dust particles just sit on the surface and can set you back when you begin sanding with the next grit, say 120 grit. The sander is now pushing that 80 grit dust around on the surface and it becomes more difficult to sand efficiently. So if you remove all that 80 grit dust ahead of time, the 120 grit paper is free to do its job.

Parting Tips

• Don’t buy cheap paper. Cheap paper actually costs you more in the long run. Cheap paper and cheap bonding agent means you’ll go through it faster. You want to save $, buy bulk.
• Use a pencil to gauge your progress.
• Sand slowly 1″ per second.
• Don’t tilt the sander.

Looking For More “Down to Earth” Finishing Advice?

Check out my book! Finishing: it ain’t over till it’s over. We even have an ebook version available! Written in an entertaining style with a touch of humor, “Finishing – it ain’t over till it’s over” is designed to provide newcomers as well as seasoned woodworkers with the practical information necessary for a relatively trouble-free finishing experience.

With Halloween fast approaching, I decided to re-post this quick and easy router project. If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so on the original posting of this video.

When most of us think of a wooden bowl, we think of the lathe. But you can also make bowls using the router! All you need is a template for the desired shape and a pattern bit to remove the stock. And fortunately Eagle America has holiday-themed kits for making some incredibly cool bowls. These make great gifts and they are super easy to make.

The video shows you not only how to make a router bowl, but also how to deal with really wide stock. You’ve heard me discuss my “hybrid” approach to woodworking (using both and and power tools)? Well this is an excellent example. Frequently, when I have stock that is too wide for my jointer, I use a hand plane to mostly-flatten one side. Once the piece sits stable on a flat surface, I can let my power planer do the rest of the work. Its a great technique and doesn’t require excessive time and effort with the hand tools.

Topics Covered:

• Milling wide boards using the “hybrid” method.
• The templates available from EagleAmerica.com.
• Using a forstner bit to hog out the bulk of the material.
• Using a special pattern bit to finalize the inside shape of the bowl.
• Bandsawing to the outside shape of the bowl.
• Techniques for sanding the bowl and easing the edges.
• Finishing the bowl with a water-based varnish.

Purchasing the following products will help support the show:

Contoured Profile Sanding Grips Sand curves, corners, uneven surfaces and hard-to-reach spots. Now you can reach into concave curves that once would have eluded you. Contoured Profile Sanding Grips

Halloween Bowl & Tray Templates The candy, chips and cheeses won’t look any better than this. Impress family and friends at your upcoming gatherings with hand made serving bowls and trays that you made with your router. Halloween Bowl & Tray Templates

Glue Roller Spread glue the fast and easy way using this inexpensive roller. 4″ Glue Roller

Years ago, I borrowed some inspiration from Norm and built a simple plywood work table and used it as my tablesaw outfeed table. That original table is long gone but I recently built another one. I did include some changes and that’s what this video is about. I think this design is a little better, but it was all based on the original concept. You can watch the original video here.

All you need to make a table like this is a couple sheets of plywood and some hardwood (or in my case MDF) for trim.

Products Mentioned:

Heavy-Duty Flip Top Roller Stand

HTC Roller Table

Q&A Topics:

Finish for the outfeed table
Split-Top Roubo
New Fangled Workbench
Boutique tools

The OLD Outfeed Table

I have had a few requests for more details on my old folding outfeed table. While I don’t have exact measurements for you, these pictures should help you figure it out.