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If there is one thing that really sets apart a beautiful set of cabinets or a fine piece of furniture from work that’s just plain Jane — it’s the panels. We’ve all seen the inexpensive cabinets at the big box stores. Yuck! The door panels usually have one board with wild grain going every which way right next to a board with grain straight as an arrow! It just doesn’t look right.

That’s why Craig Ruegsegger has gone to a lot of trouble to show us how to make eye-catching panels during this week’s Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar podcast. His seminar takes into account arranging boards for grain pattern, preparing the boards so they’re flat, straight and square, plus glue-up and clamping techniques.

A 15-page seminar guide, just like the one used during the seminar podcast is available for immediate download at PlansNow. It’s priced at $4.95 and includes several great acticles on making panels.

Seminar Guide: Secrets to Making Perfect Panels

 

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During this week’s Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar podcast — Router Inlays: Adding Decorative Details — Dennis Perkins, an assistant editor for Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines, will show us how to use a router inlay kit. During the seminar, he uses a router fitted with a simple kit that includes a bushing, a removable sleeve, and a down-cut spiral bit (click thumbnail at left). He also used his own home-made template. With the kit, he can rout out both the inlay and the matching recess using only one template.

Note: The router inlay kits (Rockler #83642) are available from The Woodsmith Store. Call 800-835-5084 to order. Mention this online coupon code: Seminars to receive free freight.

Another way to add inlay to a project is to use color-tinted epoxy. During the seminar, Dennis demonstrates an easy way to do it. Woodsmith magazine also used the process to add a decorative detail to an end table project that was featured in the magazine.

During the seminars, the presenters often mention a seminar guide or handout. The guide is now available for download in .pdf form from PlansNow.com. If you’d like to follow along during this week’s seminar, you can purchase the guide for only $4.95. The 12-page guide includes a two-page article from Woodsmith No. 166: “Using a Router Inlay Kit.” There’s also the six-page project plan: “Curved-Leg End Table.” It’s a Designer Series article from Woodsmith No. 168 (mentioned above). In addition to the project plan, there’s also a two-page technique article: “Adding An Epoxy Inlay,” and a one-page article on how to build a router trammel: “Router Trammel Jig.”

 

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When I think about it, probably 80% of my routing is done on a router table. A router table makes my work more accurate. It handles multiple (or repeat) cuts easily. And it’s definitely best for routing small parts safely, not to mention, large bits that would be unsafe (or impossible) to use in a hand-held router. And with the right accessories, like the Feather-Loc featherboards shown in the photo above, it becomes even safer.

Phil Huber took the usual tips, tricks and techniques seminar and went a step further. During his seminar, which is the subject of this weeks Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar podcast, he shows us some practical uses for a router table like routing joinery for drawers using a 1/4″ straight bit. Plus, he gives us some great pointers for perfect rails and stiles with just one router bit — a slot-cutting bit. You’ll be surprised at just how easy it is to rout stub tenon and groove joints with this bit.

If you’d like to follow along in the seminar guide, it’s available from PlansNow for only $4.95. It has a lot of great information and is 18 pages long! Guides from previous (and upcoming) seminars are also available here.

 

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Doug Hicks is a power tool guy. His table saw is right in the middle of his shop where he can get at it easily. He uses it to make quick rip cuts, for rough cutting a board to length, and to cut accurate joinery for a project.

One of the reason’s his table saw is so versatile though is because of all the simple “shop-built” jigs and accessories that he’s accumulated over the years. These accessories allow him to do more with the table saw and do it faster, better, safer, and with a lot less effort.

You’ll learn all about 10 of his “Favorite Shop-Built Table Saw Jigs” when you download and watch this week’s Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar podcast. He’ll even show you how to build a few of them. If you want to know how to build all of them, make sure to visit PlansNow and order a copy of the seminar guide for download. It costs only $5.95 and includes an outline of the seminar (you can follow along as you watch the podcasts!) and detailed plans for his ten favorite table saw jigs and accessories.

 

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Bringing home and setting up a new tool, especially one that gets used as often as the table saw, provides the average woodworker with several opportunities to CYOM.

Don’t know what CYOM means? Well, let’s just say that we’ve all done it at one time or another. Since few stationary power tools are shipped completely set up and ready to use right out of the crate, the first thing you’re likely to do is CYOM — “Consult Your Owner’s Manual.”

The owner’s manual will help you with several things, like removing backlash from the raising and tilt mechanisms and adjusting the trunnion. But there are lots of tune up tips that are left to the imagination (or aren’t required until after you’ve used the saw for several weeks). That’s where Craig Ruegsegger can help. Read the rest of this article »

 

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Whether you’re setting up shop for the first time or looking for more space in an existing shop, you’ll get some valuable tips from this seminar. Jim Downing doesn’t just show you how to arrange your tools. That’s going to be different for every person and every space. He also explains the strategies for getting the most efficient use of whatever space you have. Learn about things like maintaining zones for handling materials, leaving room for assembly work and how to double up equipment to save space.

Toward the end of the seminar, Jim uses some resources on the Workbench magazine web site, including an interactive shop planner. Using this, you can set up a space the same size as your shop, then move tools around to customize your shop’s layout. You can also watch a video of Workbench’s space-saving shop and download the accompanying article.

The guide for this seminar is now available for download. It’s a 10-page pdf and the cost to you is $2.95. You can download it by clicking here.

 

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There are two basic methods for making a cabinet. Face-frame construction creates a more traditional look. What’s often called “European-style” (or frameless) construction offers a sleeker and more contemporary look. In this seminar, Doug Hicks and Joel Hess compare and contrast these two styles of construction. They also address the different types of materials and hardware used.

 

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Woodsmith magazine has been around since 1979 and ShopNotes since the early 90′s. When you factor in Workbench (which is celebrating its 50th year in 2007), that means there are literally hundreds of tips to choose from for this seminar. We left it up to Craig Ruegsegger, senior editor and videographer for all three publications, to whittle down the thousands of tips available to come up with his “Ten All-Time Favorite Woodworking Tips!”

What he came up with is a mix of timely tips for most of the major operations in a typical home shop. You’ll find tips for cutting panels down to size on the table saw, to simple ideas to make installing drawer slides easier. As an added bonus, he’ll offer some ideas for protecting your investment by documenting your shop with video and photos.

 

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We have two more seminars on tape from the Fall 2006 Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar series at the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines, IA. Our Winter sessions start again on Thursday, January 18th and so we’re taking a couple of weeks off during the Christmas Holidays. See you again in a couple of week’s with more Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar video podcasts. -Joel

 

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Brian Simmons, the Woodsmith Store’s most famous assistant manager, has a national reputation as a woodturing educator. A member of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW), Brian came to the Woodsmith Store in a roundabout way. Originally from Georgia, Brian and his family moved to Iowa after his wife took a job here in Des Moines.

Brian worked for Paxton’s Hardwoods before they closed the store. He’d heard about the seminars at the old Woodsmith Store and stopped in one day to offer his services to teach woodturning if the store ever decided to have a turning seminar. Store manager, Dave Larson, offered Brian a job on the spot and the rest is history.

In this week’s Woodsmith seminar: Bowl Turning — From Log to Bowl in Under an Hour, Brian takes a short section of poplar log and turns out a beautiful bowl, all while offering some really great insight in how to turn green wood.

 

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