Thin Air Press vacuum system

P.O. Box Coin Bank
Antique door
recalls bygone era
Queen Anne Table
Elegant head-turner
at a smaller size
David Marks
. 
Vol.1 / No.1
.
 -
“Wood Works” host
is a teacher at heart
81429
 

,   




ICON ILLUSTRATIONS: NICK FERRUSO
Projects

P.O. Box Coin Bank

Queen Anne Table
An antique post office box door is the
centerpiece for this easy weekend project.
 .. 
With the classic look of its full-sized
cousins and its elegant curved details, this small
table will turn heads.
  

Drill Press Cabinet

Call of the Chickadee
This storage cabinet fits neatly under a
drill press, but also does double duty as an outfeed
support and roller stand.
  
ON THE COVER
Long abandoned
by the Postal
Service, old P.O.
box doors enjoy
new life in our
kickoff project.
Diminutive but full of character, the
chickadee is a natural subject for this wildlife carving.
  
01.05 | WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE
3

People

Thomas Skaggs –
Champaign, Ill.
During the day, Tom Skaggs is an architect with
the University of Illinois, but nights and weekends
you’ll find him in his new state-of-the-art shop
crafting self-designed furniture.
  


David Marks –
Santa Rosa, Calif.

As host of the popular “Wood Works” program
on the DIY Network, David Marks is well-known
for his fine furniture. But he also keeps his schedule full by teaching classes at his studio, making
regular appearances at woodworking shows and
searching for the “perfect patina.”
  
Products


Dado Duel New dado sets from

Amana, DeWalt and Forrest
The Woodcraft Toolbox
A roundup of the new and noteworthy


 Tite-Mark
marking
 Tite-Mark
marking
gaugegauge


Glen-Drake
Toolworks
from from
Glen-Drake
Toolworks

Benchmarks
Woodworking news and notes


Ask the Experts
Show Off
A gallery of outstanding work
Back to School
Antique Tool Market
Dana Martin Batory looks at three classics
from woodworking’s Golden Age: the Delta
No. 860 table saw, Crescent 4" jointer and
Walker-Turner BN725 bandsaw
Cutting In
Welcome to Woodcraft Magazine!
The Practical Shop
Box-maker William McDowell presents a
how-to on designing jewelry box interiors
Departments

Tips & Tricks
Configurable bench hook; perfect 90degree drilling; loose nails are in the bag
 Air
ThinPress
Air Press
vacuum
system
 Thin
vacuum
system
 Miller
joinery
system
 Miller
DowelDowel
joinery
system
 Triton
18-volt
cordless
plunge
 Triton
18-volt
cordless
plunge
drill drill





Woodworkers’ Library
Calendar
Coming Up
Offcuts
A Connecticut man discovers something
worse than tool envy
01.05 | WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE
5
{ me e t Dav id Marks }


  
You probably know him as the host of DIY Network’s “Wood Works.”
But to those who have become his students and friends,
David Marks is so much more – philosopher, artist and mentor.
JAMIE TANAKA PHOTOGRAPHY
P
rofessional woodworker David
Marks finds one-on-one teaching
rewarding, but was especially moved
by a recent experience with one of his
students. He spent the day with an
American soldier who was on two-week
leave, after which the serviceman was
scheduled to return to his station in
Baghdad. This soldier’s wife had wanted
to give her spouse a very special gift, so
she booked a whole day with Marks,
during which the two woodworkers
explored hand-cut dovetails together
and built a Shaker-style box.
That day, the soldier shared photographs of furniture from one of
Saddam Hussein’s palaces, which he
had visited during the first part of his
tour. He had been on the front lines
for a year, and faced a similar stint
upon return. Yet he was willing – no,
“thrilled” is the right word – to spend
one of his 14 precious days of leave in a
one-on-one class with Marks.
What inspires a man to spend even
an hour away from his family during the course of such a short leave?
While far from home, this young man
had seen Marks perform miracles in
the workshop on his television show
“Wood Works,” which airs on the DIY
Network. In the midst of mayhem, a
half-hour of woodworking was always a
welcome reprieve.
While there was no question that
Marks regarded the soldier as a hero, he
01.05 | WOODCRAFTMAGAZINE
59
5
6
7
8
the pipe clamps and ending with the
bar clamps on the upper cleats. Don’t
be afraid to over-tighten. Unless you’re
built like the governor of California,
you can’t. I turned the screws as far as
I could without popping any tendons.
After the glue has cured, remove
the clamps and lay the panel on your
bench, securing it in place with a
bench dog or clamp. There are always
discontinuities where the boards in a
glued-up panel come together. Like
many woodworkers, I ground away
at these with a belt sander, which I
believe is the most noxious creator
of dirt and noise in any shop. The
results achieved by a belt sander are
rarely satisfactory, because if there is
any shifting of your hands during the
operation of the machine, the edges of
the belt will dig furrows in the panel
you’re smoothing. Which means more
sanding. Which produces more furrows. Which means still more sanding.
If you’ve ever experienced this, let
me introduce you to the Stanley #80;
a Christmas gift from my dad several years ago, it’s become one of my
favorite tools in part because it has
largely replaced the tool I dislike the
most, the portable belt sander. It’s easy
to set up and almost idiot-proof in
operation.
With this tool, I can quietly and
cleanly whisk away surface irregularities much faster than with a belt sander. Although I didn’t time myself, I’m
sure I spent no more than a minute
or two creating the pile of shavings
you see in Fig. 2. Imagine how long
it would take to remove that much
material in the form of sanding dust,
not to mention the amount of airborne dirt and noise.
With the top now smooth, transfer
the pattern profile and cut it out on
the bandsaw (Fig. 3). Clean up any
bandsaw marks, then mark the bevels
on the edges of the table top. This
requires a total of four lines drawn all
the way around the table top: two on
the edge surface and one each on the
top and bottom surfaces. You can see
three of the four lines clearly in Fig. 4.
I draw these lines freehand, a
process some woodworkers find disconcerting, but freehand work is an
important element in the creation of
the cabriole legs, so this might be a
good opportunity for woodworkers
who are unaccustomed to working “by
eye” to strengthen this part of their
woodworking game.
If you find this approach unnatural, you’re not alone. Modern reliance
on machinery has created a mindset
01.05 | WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE
25
 

9
10
11
12
among woodworkers that suggests
craftsmanship can be measured by the
ability to mimic the brutal regularity
of machinery. I’d like to suggest a different way to view craftsmanship.
The 18th- and 19th-century craftsmen many of us try to emulate often
created shapes freehand, relying on
an educated eye to bring those shapes
into a harmonious whole. If you have
the opportunity, run your hands
across the top of an 18th-century
cabinet. You’ll almost certainly feel
the subtle undulations which are the
signatures of the hand tools that produced these surfaces. In every original,
you will find somewhere the presence
of the craftsman’s eye-guided hand.
The bevels can be made by creating
planes which connect a line from the
top surface and a line from the edge
26
WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE | 01.05
surface. These planes can be crowned
or – as I choose – they can be flat. You
can make the planes with a file as in
Fig. 4, or with a paring chisel as in
Fig. 5, although sometimes grain
direction will preclude the latter
approach.
Legs
I used the bandsaw to rip out my leg
blanks. Ideally, I’ll cut these a week
or two ahead of time to allow some
time for any stresses in the material
to manifest themselves before trueing
them up on the jointer and thickness
planer (Fig. 6).
Draw a pair of baselines with a try
square near one end of the leg blank.
These are the lines directly below the
spoon foot. Then, using the baselines,
trace the leg pattern on two adjacent
surfaces of each leg blank (Fig. 7).
Notice the extra material at the top
of the post (the vertical section of the
leg into which mortises will be cut). I
leave an extra inch of material on the
ends to mount the leg into the lathe.
That extra inch will be removed later.
Note, too, the locations of the mortises – marked by squiggly lines – that
will later receive the apron tenons.
These mortises are much easier to cut
now, before sawing out the leg profile.
I have a 3/8" mortising attachment
for my drill press, but I’ve never had
much luck getting the mortising chisel
to retract smoothly, so I crumbed out
most of the waste with a 5/16" drill bit
(Fig. 8), then cleaned up the mortise
sidewalls with a 1/2" paring chisel for
the sidewalls and a 1/4" mortising chisel
for the ends (Fig. 9). Finally, I used a
THE TOOLBOX
THE THIN A SS KIT from Roarockit can easily handle small veneering and
bent lamination tasks. The kit includes all components shown here.
The Thin Air Press Kit from Roarockit
Have you ever wanted to try a
veneer laminating project or maybe
make a bent laminated form, but
were reluctant to buy an electric
vacuum pump and bag system
costing a few hundred dollars? The
Roarockit Skateboard Company
(yes, you read it right – a skateboard
company) has come up with an
inexpensive and ingenious way to
vacuum-veneer wood. They call it
the Thin Air Press Kit.
This well-thought-out kit is
designed for woodworkers and the
technology is simple – basically a
hand pump and vacuum bag com-
84
WOODCRAFTMAGAZINE | 01.05
bined with a one-way valve attached
to the bag, sealing tape, breather
netting (for even air evacuation)
and illustrated instructions. The
Thin Air Press can be used to laminate veneers onto solid wood, or for
veneer bending using many layers of
veneers over a mold.
Roarockit’s expertise in the
skateboard industry has been in
creating deck-laminating kits. The
process was invented by Ted and
Norah Hunter while teaching classes
of kids how to build skateboards
in Hawaii. They now supply deckbuilding kits to schools and groups
APPLY 3,000 LBS OF PRESSURE to
the typical small project that fits in the
heavy-gauge vinyl vacuum bag.
all over the world. Ted originally
developed the Thin Air Press Kit to
make it easy for kids of all ages to
vacuum-laminate a skateboard deck
using precut veneers and a onesided foam mold.
I found the Thin Air Press Kit
easy to use right out of the box. The
vacuum bag, measuring 14" x 47", is
made from heavy-gauge vinyl with
electronically sealed seams that do
not leak. It takes less than a minute
of pumping to pull all the air out
of the bag as your project takes on
THE TOOLBOX
its new shape. The pump and valve
will create and hold a vacuum of
26hg – on a typical project, that’s
about 3,000 lbs of pressure. The
one-way valve allows you move the
bag out of your way while waiting
for the glueup to cure.
After the glue has dried, your
project can be removed by releasing
the seal on the vacuum bag. All kit
components can be reused to make
THE FINAL RESULT of this bent lami-
nation project is the intriguing skateboard sculpture shown here.
many, many projects.
The breather netting can be a
little frustrating to slide over veneer
without snagging (I found cutting
the netting so I could drape it over
bent forms was easier and just as
effective).
The plastic pump must be
pushed down firmly on the valve,
which in turn must be set on the
breather netting to get good evacuation of the bag.
But for only $54.99, whether you
are a professional woodworker or a
hobbyist, the Thin Air Press Kit is
an easy way to expand your projects
into vacuum veneering or form
bending.
For more information contact
Roarockit at (416) 938-4588, or
visit www.roarockit.com.
− Tim Rinehart
Miller Dowel
Dowel joints have probably been around
since the dawn of woodworking. Although not
a perfect joinery technique, there are nonetheless
dozens of woodworking applications where dowel
joinery is the right choice. It’s hard to imagine refining or improving something as basic as hammering a
cylindrical piece of wood into hole, but the folks at Miller
Dowel Co. of Winnetka, Ill., have done just that.
The Miller Dowel is a stepped dowel that fits snugly into a hole drilled by a
special drill bit, which is stepped in the same profile as the dowel. Each dowel
has four distinct diameters along its length (the smallest Miller dowels have
three), offering a larger gluing surface for added strength.
The stepped design also eliminates two of the main drawbacks to traditional
dowel joinery.
Hammering a traditional dowel into a glue-filled hole is difficult because of
the pistonlike effect. The moment a regular dowel is inserted, the hole is sealed.
Trapped air and glue ahead of the dowel increase pressure, making the dowel
harder to seat with each hammer blow. In some cases the dowel sets up before
being properly seated.
That same buildup of glue and pressure ahead of the dowel can also cause a
“blow-out” in thin-walled stock, with a sudden geyser of glue bursting through
the surface as the dowel seats. (I experienced just such an occurrence when
building the P.O. box bank project that appears on page 16.) Because the Miller
dowel is stepped, however, you can
insert it most of its length into a
hole before the sides make contact,
sealing the hole. This minimizes the
piston effect and allows the dowel
to seat more effectively. The ribbed
surface of each stepped portion of
the dowel further helps to avoid
blow-out, while at the same time
adding surface area to increase the
THE MILLER DOWEL SYSTEM consists of
stepped dowels with matching stepped bits. strength of the glue joint.
The design of the stepped profile
on each dowel adds another benefit. Because the steps aren’t equally spaced, the
shoulder of the full-diameter dowel head seats first, and acts similarly to the
head of a nail or screw to pull the joint together as it fully seats.
The dowels come in three sizes for standard woodworking tasks, with each
requiring its own drill bit: 2X for material ranging from 3/4" to 13/4", 1X for 3/4"
material, and Mini X for use with stock 1/2" or thinner. The company has recently
introduced a fourth dowel, the 1XSR, specifically for pre-assembly of automated
flat-panel processing that can be used in line- and edge-boring systems.
All dowels are currently available in birch, cherry, walnut and red oak, but
the company plans to introduce additional domestic and tropical species in the
near future. Dowels and drill bits are sold both separately and as bundled kits.
For more information contact Miller Dowel at (866) 966-3734, or visit
www.millerdowel.com.
− A.J. Hamler
01.05 | WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE
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