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Design is an area of woodworking that some people find intimidating. With all the woodworking info and plans available, it’s tempting to simply follow a well-designed plan and get a good looking project or copy an existing “masterpiece”. It’s not really that hard to do a good job of creating original woodwork. A good starting point is reading and studying a number of books and magazine articles that have been published. They contain good advice on dealing with issues of style, proportion, symmetry, and construction. Most importantly, as with all things, practice and a solid foundation of knowledge make the job easier.

However, having been a designer/builder previously and now a full-time designer for ShopNotes and Woodsmith for many years I would like to add a few rules I follow based upon my experience:

1) Start with many approaches. Consider a project from as many aesthetic and construction angles as you can to start with, and then narrow the field. I usually try to start with 3-5 concepts. Explore each and then eliminate.

2) No self-indulgent design! Woodwork needs to carry out its function well and have a wide and lasting appeal. As a designer, always be thinking about how people will interact with your work. And, will your design still be a interesting and attractive 20 years from now? If you build a cabinet purely to please your own likes and dislikes you may well end up with a finely built and very unique cabinet that just stores old cans of paint in the garage.

3) Avoid unnecessary complexity. I struggle with this one the most. I like complicated mechanisms with lots of parts because it fits my mad-inventor psyche. But, unnecessary complexity can make a project very difficult to build or give it a cluttered and unbalanced look. Good design seeks an efficiency and purposefulness in both construction and aesthetics.

4) Build prototypes. There’s no substitute for looking at and building a fully scaled mockup of a project to help you work out issues of aesthetics and construction. Prototypes-even just prototypes of parts or individual assemblies can be invaluable. You will teach yourself about the building process as well as the design. Think of it as taking a few warm up swings with a golf club before hitting the ball.

5) Get feedback. Discuss your design ideas with and seek the honest comments of others-even non woodworkers. It will improve your work and often lead to new ideas that are better than your original. Every project I have designed for ShopNotes and Woodsmith has come out better for having gone through the gauntlet at staff meetings. (And I have learned, over time, not to get angry with the commentary, mostly).

6) Get all your hardware as soon as you can. Absolutely have all of the needed hardware before you build. Nothing is as it seems on a catalog page. Vendors change and parts are discontinued all the time.

7) Be patient. Sometimes the answers take time. Don’t give up. I have had ideas that have taken well over a year before becoming a viable project.

It’s true, design can be a bit overwhelming with all the complexity and choices, but keep at it. It’s a wonderful skill to hone or develop as a woodworker. To paraphrase an old saying: The more I design, the less I know, but the easier it gets.

Furniture designer and builder Sam Maloof passed away recently at the age of 93. I had the pleasure to meet him in the mid-1990s. I was an assistant editor at Woodsmith Magazine in Des Moines, Iowa. Maloof, along with several other woodworking luminaries, was in Des Moines to make a guest appearance at a woodworking show. Woodsmith publisher and editor Don Peschke invited them to a party in the garden at Woodsmith headquarters. It was a beautiful evening.

Sitting at one of the tables under a big awning, a couple of assistant editors and myself found a rare moment when Maloof was alone. We had recently watched a documentary in which Maloof was carving a piece of walnut on a band saw with the blade guard removed and about 8″ to 10″ of blade exposed. So we asked him if he had ever been injured in the shop. He said yes, but only once. He said he’d been napping in the shop, and for some unknown reason awoke quickly and started back at the band saw where he had left off. That was when he buried the blade in his thumb. He showed us the scar.

But what I saw were the hands. His hands were big and strong and impressive. They were the hands of someone who worked with his hands every day. He was a designer/artisan. He was what we wanted to be on some level, if only we’d had the creativity and the skill to pull it off.
He was also very nice. We asked a few other dumb questions which he answered with candor and humor. Quite a guy.

I looked through several photos of Maloof for this post and chose the one above. You can see his hands.

You can read about his life and work in this LA Times obituary with lots of photos.

When you design for ShopNotes Magazine you can’t help but develop an appreciation, even an obsession, for hardware. Not just flashy hinges and knobs, but mundane bearings, springs, brass rod, plastic sheets, cranks, pipes, motors – even threaded rod. There are more bits, parts, and stuff out there than you can believe. (Just sit down with all 3,602 pages of the McMaster-Carr industrial supply catalog. You’ll be amazed. And you’ll be inspired.)

A few years back in ShopNotes, we did a version of an English carving vise that appeared in Issue No. 71. (Editor’s Note: This issue is available as part of ShopNotes Annual Volume 12, a hard-bound collection of Issues 67 — 72.) I have an early prototype in my home shop that I use often. At the time we designed this project, the only reasonably priced and available option for the screw mechanism was to use standard threaded rod. The size I used was 3/4″-10 NC threaded rod. It works well, but you know how it can be if you need to go a distance on regular threads, spin, spin, spin, yawn, spin, spin some more. Standard V- thread is more for sealing and fastening applications rather than quick movement. What I really wanted to use was ACME threaded rod.

So what’s so great about ACME thread? This stuff has the guts you want for strong clamping and it won’t put you to sleep spinning the handle. What sets it apart are the shape of the threads. The threads are large, broad, and square, which provides great strength. And, because there are fewer threads per inch, it offers rapid lateral movement. ACME threaded rod and fittings are available in two grades: general-purpose grade or precision grade.

General-purpose ACME thread has one start, or one continuous thread, the same as standard thread on bolts and screws. Precision acme thread can have up to five starts delivering much more lateral movement per revolution.

General-purpose ACME threaded rod has a looser fit, better for dusty shop environments. Precision ACME threads are made to much higher standards as it’s often used for lead screws in lathes, milling machines, and industrial equipment requiring great precision and durability. This precision and durability can cost 3-4 times as much as general-purpose ACME rod.

General purpose ACME rod is the type we’re interested in. It’s now available through two of my favorite suppliers (McMaster-Carr and ENCO) and priced reasonably enough for projects in the home shop.

Of course, there needs to be something for the threaded rod to engage. Square, hex, and cylinder nuts are available for general-purpose use. Brass and bronze nuts are also available. They’ll travel move lightly than steel, but I find that plain steel hex nuts are the best option as they are versatile and also inexpensive. So, I don’t have to cry over a nut buried in epoxy that didn’t work out.

A few simple design rules. First, when I build any mechanism out of wood, I don’t strive to build with perfect precision. Instead, my aim is to build the structure around the mechanism, altering and adjusting to it to accommodate the movement that I want.

What I mean is rely on accuracy rather than precision. (Precision means building to a tight standard. Plus or minus 1/8″ might be precise for a house. Plus or minus .0001″ might be precise for a wristwatch.) Accuracy is building toward what’s right or true. In the case of a shop made vise or clamp, this means it should work smoothly and effectively.

The second rule is to design mechanical projects from the beginning with a bit of float in them. If it rattles a bit more than you like in winter be satisfied by knowing it will still work fine in the summer.

Finally, just like a powered machine, moving parts benefit from lubrication. In a dusty shop environment greases and oils collect dust, dirt, and other shop grime. So, the best choice is a dry lubricant. There are convenient spray dry lubricants available, but I prefer the old-fashioned paste wax I use on my woodworking projects. Is it the best choice? No, but I always have some around and it’s easy to apply.

“Working tools” such as vises, hold downs, and clamps are great projects for your shop. Not only will you get the satisfaction of using a tool that you’ve made, but, the tool can be built specifically to suit your requirements and style of work. Additionally, there will be a whole new range of things to learn including the strength of individual materials, the strength of assemblies, and principles of simple mechanics. Designing and building tools can be a fun challenge to your ingenuity.

If you decide to build one of these working tools take some time to consider all your hardware options. Even a small upgrade like using ACME threaded rod will make a huge difference in how your project will turn out. Your project will look and work like a “real” tool.

Spoiler Alert: I’m in the early stages of designing a benchtop vise that will possibly appear later this year in ShopNotes Magazine. I’d like to hear what you’d include in the way of design, materials, and features.